Conditions for strictly purity-decreasing quantum Markovian dynamics

The purity, Tr(rho^2), measures how pure or mixed a quantum state rho is. It is well known that quantum dynamical semigroups that preserve the identity operator (which we refer to as unital) are strictly purity-decreasing transformations. Here we provide an almost complete characterization of the class of strictly purity-decreasing quantum dynamical semigroups. We show that in the case of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces a dynamical semigroup is strictly purity-decreasing if and only if it is unital, while in the infinite dimensional case, unitality is only sufficient.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. Contribution to the special issue "Real-time dynamics in complex quantum systems" of Chemical Physics in honor of Phil Pechukas. v2: Simplified proof of theorem 1 and validity conditions clarifie

Imperfect Information in Logic and Concurrent Games

Abstract. This paper builds on a recent definition of concurrent games as event structures and an application giving a concurrent-game model for predicate calculus. An extension to concurrent games with imperfect information, through the introduction of ‘access levels ’ to restrict the allowable strategies, leads to a concurrent-game semantics for a variant of Hintikka and Sandu’s Independence-Friendly (IF) logic

Xanthine oxidase inactivation attenuates postocclusion shock after descending thoracic aorta occlusion and reperfusion in rabbits

Abstract“Declamping shock” is observed after aortic crossclamping, with hypovolemia, hypotension, and metabolic acidemia invariably present. We hypothesized that oxidants derived from xanthine oxidase influence the resuscitative interventions required to maintain baseline hemodynamic and acid-base status after aortic occlusion and reperfusion in rabbits. We also hypothesized that inactivation of xanthine oxidase with sodium tungstate could reduce systemic injury as assessed by the release of lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase. To test these hypotheses, we established aortic occlusion in rabbits (n = 10, standard diet; n = 8, tungstate diet) for 40 minutes by inflation of a 4F Fogarty catheter in the descending thoracic aorta followed by 2 hours of reperfusion. Sham-operated rabbits (n = 10, standard diet; n = 9, tungstate diet) served as controls. Tungstate-pretreated rabbits required significantly less Ringer's solution (28%), phenylephrine (68%), and sodium bicarbonate (30%) during reperfusion (p < 0.005). Lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase release during reperfusion was significantly attenuated by tungstate pretreatment (p < 0.05). Tungstate pretreatment resulted in plasma xanthine oxidase activities significantly lower than those in the sham group administered a standard diet (p = 0.007). Resuscitation requirements and systemic injury were reduced by inactivation of xanthine oxidase in a rabbit model that simulates the situation of human thoracic aorta operations. (J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1995;110-22

Universal Quantum Computation using Exchange Interactions and Teleportation of Single-Qubit Operations

We show how to construct a universal set of quantum logic gates using control over exchange interactions and single- and two-spin measurements only. Single-spin unitary operations are teleported instead of being executed directly, thus eliminating a major difficulty in the construction of several of the most promising proposals for solid-state quantum computation, such as spin-coupled quantum dots, donor-atom nuclear spins in silicon, and electrons on helium. Contrary to previous proposals dealing with this difficulty, our scheme requires no encoding redundancy. We also discuss an application to superconducting phase qubits.Comment: 4.5 pages, including 2 figure

Structure of Abrikosov Vortices in SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory

We calculate the electric flux and magnetic monopole current distribution in the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair for SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the maximal Abelian gauge. The current distribution confines the flux in a dual Abrikosov vortex whose core size is comparable to the flux penetration depth. The observed structure is described by a dual Ginzburg-Landau model.Comment: 15 pages, latex file, three figure postscript files appended, Report No. LSUHEP No. 138-199

Entanglement in spin-1/2 dimerized Heisenberg systems

We study entanglement in dimerized Heisenberg systems. In particular, we give exact results of ground-state pairwise entanglement for the four-qubit model by identifying a Z_2 symmetry. Although the entanglements cannot identify the critical point of the system, the mean entanglement of nearest-neighbor qubits really does, namely, it reaches a maximum at the critical point.Comment: Four pages, three figures, accepted in Communications in Theoretical Physic

Partitioned trace distances

New quantum distance is introduced as a half-sum of several singular values of difference between two density operators. This is, up to factor, the metric induced by so-called Ky Fan norm. The partitioned trace distances enjoy similar properties to the standard trace distance, including the unitary invariance, the strong convexity and the close relations to the classical distances. The partitioned distances cannot increase under quantum operations of certain kind including bistochastic maps. All the basic properties are re-formulated as majorization relations. Possible applications to quantum information processing are briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. Significant changes are made. New section on majorization is added. Theorem 4.1 is extended. The bibliography is enlarged

An improved effective potential for electroweak phase transitions

It is shown that improved potentials and corrected mass terms can be introduced by using a quadratic source term in the path integral construction for the effective action. The advantage of doing things this way is that we avoid ever having to deal with complex propagators in the loop expansion. The resulting effective action for electroweak phase transitions is similar to the usual results.Comment: 16 pages, NCL93-TP16, (REVTEX

On the Exact Evaluation of Certain Instances of the Potts Partition Function by Quantum Computers

We present an efficient quantum algorithm for the exact evaluation of either the fully ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic q-state Potts partition function Z for a family of graphs related to irreducible cyclic codes. This problem is related to the evaluation of the Jones and Tutte polynomials. We consider the connection between the weight enumerator polynomial from coding theory and Z and exploit the fact that there exists a quantum algorithm for efficiently estimating Gauss sums in order to obtain the weight enumerator for a certain class of linear codes. In this way we demonstrate that for a certain class of sparse graphs, which we call Irreducible Cyclic Cocycle Code (ICCC_\epsilon) graphs, quantum computers provide a polynomial speed up in the difference between the number of edges and vertices of the graph, and an exponential speed up in q, over the best classical algorithms known to date

On Quantum Control via Encoded Dynamical Decoupling

I revisit the ideas underlying dynamical decoupling methods within the framework of quantum information processing, and examine their potential for direct implementations in terms of encoded rather than physical degrees of freedom. The usefulness of encoded decoupling schemes as a tool for engineering both closed- and open-system encoded evolutions is investigated based on simple examples.Comment: 12 pages, no figures; REVTeX style. This note collects various theoretical considerations complementing/motivated by the experimental demonstration of encoded control by Fortunato et a