Matrix Algebras in Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics

In principle, non-Hermitian quantum equations of motion can be formulated using as a starting point either the Heisenberg's or the Schrödinger's picture of quantum dynamics. Here it is shown in both cases how to map the algebra of commutators, defining the time evolution in terms of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, onto a non-Hamiltonian algebra with a Hermitian Hamiltonian. The logic behind such a derivation is reversible, so that any Hermitian Hamiltonian can be used in the formulation of non-Hermitian dynamics through a suitable algebra of generalized (non-Hamiltonian) commutators.
These results provide a general structure (a template) for non-Hermitian equations of motion to be used in the computer simulation of open quantum systems dynamics.     

Quantum Speed Limit and Divisibility of the Dynamical Map

The quantum speed limit (QSL) is the theoretical lower limit of the time for a quantum system to evolve from a given state to another one. Interestingly, it has been shown that non-Markovianity can be used to speed-up the dynamics and to lower the QSL time, although this behaviour is not universal. In this paper, we further carry on the investigation on the connection between QSL and non-Markovianity by looking at the effects of P- and CP-divisibility of the dynamical map to the quantum speed limit. We show that the speed-up can also be observed under P- and CP-divisible dynamics, and that the speed-up is not necessarily tied to the transition from P-divisible to non-P-divisible dynamics.     

Quantum speed limit for the maximum coherent state under the squeezed environment

The quantum speed limit time for quantum system under squeezed environment is studied. We consider two typical models, the damped Jaynes–Cummings model and the dephasing model. For the damped Jaynes–Cummings model under squeezed environment, we find that the quantum speed limit time becomes larger with the squeezed parameter r increasing and indicates symmetry about the phase parameter value θ = π. Meanwhile, the quantum speed limit time can also be influenced by the coupling strength between the system and environment. However, the quantum speed limit time for the dephasing model is determined by the dephasing rate and the boundary of acceleration region that interacting with vacuum reservoir can be broken when the squeezed environment parameters are appropriately chosen.     

Characterizing entanglement in non-Hermitian chaotic systems via out-of-time ordered correlators

We investigate the quantum entanglement in a non-Hermitian kicking system. In the Hermitian case, the out-of-time ordered correlators (OTOCs) exhibit the unbounded power-law increase with time. Correspondingly, the linear entropy, which is a common measurement of entanglement, rapidly increases from zero to almost unity, indicating the formation of quantum entanglement. For strong enough non-Hermitian driving, both the OTOCs and linear entropy rapidly saturate as time evolves. Interestingly, with the increase of non-Hermitian kicking strength, the long-time averaged value of both OTOCs and linear entropy has the same transition point where they exhibit the sharp decrease from a plateau, demonstrating the disentanglment. We reveal the mechanism of disentanglement with the extension of Floquet theory to non-Hermitian systems.     

Shannon Entropy and Diffusion Coefficient in Parity-Time Symmetric Quantum Walks

Non-Hermitian topological edge states have many intriguing properties, however, to date, they have mainly been discussed in terms of bulk–boundary correspondence. Here, we propose using a bulk property of diffusion coefficients for probing the topological states and exploring their dynamics. The diffusion coefficient was found to show unique features with the topological phase transitions driven by parity–time (PT)-symmetric non-Hermitian discrete-time quantum walks as well as by Hermitian ones, despite the fact that artificial boundaries are not constructed by an inhomogeneous quantum walk. For a Hermitian system, a turning point and abrupt change appears in the diffusion coefficient when the system is approaching the topological phase transition, while it remains stable in the trivial topological state. For a non-Hermitian system, except for the feature associated with the topological transition, the diffusion coefficient in the PT-symmetric-broken phase demonstrates an abrupt change with a peak structure. In addition, the Shannon entropy of the quantum walk is found to exhibit a direct correlation with the diffusion coefficient. The numerical results presented herein may open up a new avenue for studying the topological state in non-Hermitian quantum walk systems.     

Application of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian model in open quantum optical systems

Non-Hermitian systems have observed numerous novel phenomena and might lead to various applications. Unlike standard quantum physics, the conservation of energy guaranteed by the closed system is broken in the non-Hermitian system, and the energy can be exchanged between the system and the environment. Here we present a scheme for simulating the dissipative phase transition with an open quantum optical system. The competition between the coherent interaction and dissipation leads to the second-order phase transition. Furthermore, the quantum correlation in terms of squeezing is studied around the critical point. Our work may provide a new route to explore the non-Hermitian quantum physics with feasible techniques in experiments.     

Quantum Correlations and Speed Limit of Central Spin Systems

In this article, single, and two-qubit central spin systems interacting with spin baths are considered and their dynamical properties are discussed. The cases of interacting and non-interacting spin baths are considered and the quantum speed limit (QSL) time of evolution is investigated. The impact of the size of the spin bath on the quantum speed limit for a single qubit central spin model is analyzed. The quantum correlations for (non-)interacting two central spin qubits are estimated and their dynamical behavior with that of QSL time under various conditions are compared. How QSL time could be availed to analyze the dynamics of quantum correlations is shown.     

Quantum speed limits for Bell-diagonal states

The lower bounds of the evolution time between two distinguishable states of a system, defined as quantum speed limit time, can characterize the maximal speed of quantum computers and communication channels. We study the quantum speed limit time between the composite quantum states and their target states in the presence of nondissipative decoherence.For the initial states with maximally mixed marginals, we obtain the exact expressions of the quantum speed limit time which mainly depend on the parameters of the initial states and the decoherence channels. Furthermore, by calculating the quantum speed limit time for the time-dependent states started from a class of initial states, we discover that the quantum speed limit time gradually decreases in time, and the decay rate of the quantum speed limit time would show a sudden change at a certain critical time. Interestingly, at the same critical time, the composite system dynamics would exhibit a sudden transition from classical decoherence to quantum decoherence.     

初态对线型分子体系量子速度极限度量的影响

量子速度极限(QSL)的实用性研究关系到更高效量子技术的实现,研究不同分子体系中QSL问题可为基于分子体系的量子信息技术提供理论支持.采用代数方法讨论了不同的初始态对QSL度量方式的影响,研究发现初始态和分子参数均会影响QSL的度量方式,对分子体系无论Fock态还是相干态,量子Fisher信息度量方式优于Wigner-Yanase信息度量方式.广义几何QSL度量更适合描述强相干态下的分子动力学演化.     

Quantum speed limit for a three-qubit system in spin-chain environment with multisite interaction

We study the relationship between the quantum speed limit (QSL) time of a three-qubit system, and the quantum phase transitions (QPTs) of a spin-chain environment with the three-spin interaction. We find that the three-spin interaction can effectively manipulate the critical value of the QSL time. It makes the QSL time mark more clearly the quantum phase transition of the one-dimensional spin-chain models, especially the XX model. The dynamical evolution of the QSL time presents a periodic behavior in quantum-critical environment, whereas the three-spin interaction and external magnetic field can destroy this periodicity.     

量子C-NOT门的加快

是基于真空中2个可分辨的相互作用的阶梯型三能级原子构成的量子C-NOT门,研究外磁场对量子门处理速度的影响。结果表明:外磁场可以调节量子C-NOT门的处理速度,使它处理量子态所需的时间变为原先的1/10数量级,也可以利用它来解决量子计算机中的门和门之间处理速度不一致而产生的噪声问题。     

Phase Covariant Channel: Quantum Speed Limit of Evolution

The quantum speed of evolution for the phase covariant map is investigated. This involves absorption, emission, and dephasing processes. The maps under various combinations of the above processes are considered to investigate the effect of phase covariant maps on quantum speed limit time. For absorption-free phase covariant maps, combinations of dissipative and CP-(in)divisible (non)-Markovian dephasing noises are considered. The role of coherence-mixedness balance on the speed limit time is checked in the presence of both vacuum and finite temperature effects. The rate at which Holevo's information changes and the action quantum speed of evolution for specific cases of the phase covariant map are also investigated.     

Biorthogonal quantum criticality in non-Hermitian many-body systems

We develop the perturbation theory of the fidelity susceptibility in biorthogonal bases for arbitrary interacting non-Hermitian many-body systems with real eigenvalues. The quantum criticality in the non-Hermitian transverse field Ising chain is investigated by the second derivative of the ground-state energy and the ground-state fidelity susceptibility. We show that the system undergoes a second-order phase transition with the Ising universal class by numerically computing the critical points and the critical exponents from the finite-size scaling theory. Interestingly, our results indicate that the biorthogonal quantum phase transitions are described by the biorthogonal fidelity susceptibility instead of the conventional fidelity susceptibility.     

Witnessing Quantum Speedup through Mutual Information

Achieving dynamical speedup of evolution in an open quantum system plays a key role in many technological applications. However, how to detect quantum speedup is unclear. In this work, a method to witness quantum speedup through the measure of the mutual information is presented. It is shown that the speed of evolution of a quantum system, can be witnessed by calculating the mutual information variation, whose increase is a clear signature of dynamical speedup. The result is explained by considering the time evolution of two qubits under a one‐sided noisy channel, finding out that the mechanism for the quantum speedup is closely associated with the total exchange of information between the system and its environment, which can be expressed by the variation of mutual information. Quantitatively, the average speed of evolution is shown proportional to the average variation of the mutual information in an interval of time. The conclusion can not only explain why the quantum entanglement (or quantum coherence) and the classical correlation are neither necessary nor sufficient to speed up the quantum evolution, but also give a vital way of detecting quantum speedup in realistic environments.     

Quantum speed limit of the double quantum dot in pure dephasing environment under measurement

The quantum speed limit (QSL) of the double quantum dot (DQD) system has been theoretically investigated by adopting the detection of the quantum point contact (QPC) in the pure dephasing environment. The Mandelstam-Tamm (MT) type of the QSL bound which is based on the trace distance has been extended to the DQD system for calculating the shortest evolving time. The increase of decoherence rate can weaken the capacity for potential speedup (CPS) and delay the evolving process due to the frequently measurement localizing the electron in the DQD system. The system needs longer time to evolve to the target state as the enhancement of dephasing rate, because the strong interaction between pure dephasing environment and the DQD system could vary the oscillation of the electron. Increasing the dephasing rate can sharp the QSL bound, but the decoherence rate would weaken the former effect and vice versa. Moreover, the CPS would be raised by increasing the energy displacement, while the enhancement of the coupling strength between two quantum dots can diminish it. It is interesting that there has an inflection point, when the coupling strength is less than the value of the point, the increasing effect of the CPS from the energy displacement is dominant, otherwise the decreasing tendency of the CPS is determined by the coupling strength and suppress the action of the energy displacement if the coupling strength is greater than the point. Our results provide theoretical reference for studying the QSL time in a semiconductor device affected by numerous factors.     

Quantum speed limits of a qubit system interacting with a nonequilibrium environment

The speed of evolution of a qubit undergoing a nonequilibrium environment with spectral density of general ohmic form is investigated. First we reveal non-Markovianity of the model, and find that the non-Markovianity quantified by information backflow of Breuer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 210401(2009)] displays a nonmonotonic behavior for different values of the ohmicity parameter s in fixed other parameters and the maximal non-Markovianity can be achieved at a specified value s. We also find that the non-Markovianity displays a nonmonotonic behavior with the change of a phase control parameter. Then we further discuss the relationship between quantum speed limit(QSL) time and non-Markovianity of the open-qubit system for any initial states including pure and mixed states. By investigation, we find that the QSL time of a qubit with any initial states can be expressed by a simple factorization law: the QSL time of a qubit with any qubitinitial states are equal to the product of the coherence of the initial state and the QSL time of maximally coherent states,where the QSL time of the maximally coherent states are jointly determined by the non-Markovianity, decoherence factor and a given driving time. Moreover, we also find that the speed of quantum evolution can be obviously accelerated in the wide range of the ohmicity parameter, i.e., from sub-Ohmic to Ohmic and super-Ohmic cases, which is different from the thermal equilibrium environment case.     

Quantum Dynamics in Noisy Backgrounds: from Sampling to Dissipation and Fluctuations

We investigate the dynamics of a quantum system coupled linearly to Gaussian white noise using functional methods. By performing the integration over the noisy field in the evolution operator, we get an equivalent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, which evolves the quantum state with a dissipative dynamics. We also show that if the integration over the noisy field is done for the time evolution of the density matrix, a gain contribution from the fluctuations can be accessed in addition to the loss one from the non-hermitian Hamiltonian dynamics. We illustrate our study by computing analytically the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, which we found to be the complex frequency harmonic oscillator, with a known evolution operator. It leads to space and time localisation, a common feature of noisy quantum systems in general applications.     

Arrow of time, parity violation, and gravity in generalized quantum and classical dynamics

The quantum mechanics with a stationary non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and a complex evolution parameter, as well as its classical limit with nontrivial correlations have been studied. The corresponding dynamics is shown to be irreversible for the isothermal and adiabatic regimes of quantum and classical evolution. The possibility of a universal relationship between irreversibility and dynamical parity violation in the system has been established. The mechanism of gravity generation by the distribution of correlations in a free theory is demonstrated.