Phase-space approach to Berry's phases

We propose a new formula for the adiabatic Berry phase which is based on phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics. This approach sheds a new light into the correspondence between classical and quantum adiabatic phases -- both phases are related with the averaging procedure: Hannay's angle with averaging over the classical torus and Berry's phase with averaging over the entire classical phase space with respect to the corresponding Wigner function. Generalizations to the non-abelian Wilczek--Zee case and mixed states are also included.Comment: 5 page

Non-Markovian quantum dynamics: local versus non-local

We analyze non-Markovian evolution of open quantum systems. It is shown that any dynamical map representing evolution of such a system may be described either by non-local master equation with memory kernel or equivalently by equation which is local in time. These two descriptions are complementary: if one is simple the other is quite involved, or even singular, and vice versa. The price one pays for the local approach is that the corresponding generator keeps the memory about the starting point `t_0'. This is the very essence of non-Markovianity. Interestingly, this generator might be highly singular, nevertheless, the corresponding dynamics is perfectly regular. Remarkably, singularities of generator may lead to interesting physical phenomena like revival of coherence or sudden death and revival of entanglement.Comment: 4.5 pages; new examples are adde

Generation of a dipole moment by external field in Born-Infeld non-linear electrodynamics

The mechanism for the generation of a dipole moment due to an external field is presented for the Born-Infeld charged particle. The 'polarizability coefficient' is calculated: it is proportional to the third power of the characteristic length in the Born-Infeld theory. Some physical implications are briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, LATE

On the structure of entanglement witnesses and new class of positive indecomposable maps

We construct a new class of positive indecomposable maps in the algebra of 'd x d' complex matrices. Each map is uniquely characterized by a cyclic bistochastic matrix. This class generalizes a Choi map for d=3. It provides a new reach family of indecomposable entanglement witnesses which define important tool for investigating quantum entanglement.Comment: 18 page

General form of quantum evolution

We propose a complete treatment of a local in time dynamics of open quantum systems. In this approach Markovian evolution turns out to be a special case of a general non-Markovian one. We provide a general representation of the local generator which generalizes well known Lindblad representation for the Markovian dynamics. It shows that the structure of non-Markovian generators is highly intricate and the problem of their classification is still open. Simple examples illustrate our approach.Comment: 4 page

From Markovian semigroup to non-Markovian quantum evolution

We provided a class of legitimate memory kernels leading to completely positive trace preserving dynamical maps. Our construction is based on a simple normalization procedure. Interestingly, when applied to the celebrated Wigner-Weisskopf theory it gives the standard Markovian evolution governed by the local master equation.Comment: 8 page

Symmetry witnesses

A symmetry witness is a suitable subset of the space of selfadjoint trace class operators that allows one to determine whether a linear map is a symmetry transformation, in the sense of Wigner. More precisely, such a set is invariant with respect to an injective densely defined linear operator in the Banach space of selfadjoint trace class operators (if and) only if this operator is a symmetry transformation. According to a linear version of Wigner's theorem, the set of pure states, the rank-one projections, is a symmetry witness. We show that an analogous result holds for the set of projections with a fixed rank (with some mild constraint on this rank, in the finite-dimensional case). It turns out that this result provides a complete classification of the set of projections with a fixed rank that are symmetry witnesses. These particular symmetry witnesses are projectable; i.e., reasoning in terms of quantum states, the sets of uniform density operators of corresponding fixed rank are symmetry witnesses too.Comment: 15 page

Memory in a nonlocally damped oscillator

We analyze the new equation of motion for the damped oscillator. It differs from the standard one by a damping term which is nonlocal in time and hence it gives rise to a system with memory. Both classical and quantum analysis is performed. The characteristic feature of this nonlocal system is that it breaks local composition low for the classical Hamiltonian dynamics and the corresponding quantum propagator.Comment: minor corrections added; title change