Fortran code for generating random probability vectors, unitaries, and quantum states

The usefulness of generating random configurations is recognized in many areas of knowledge. Fortran was born for scientific computing and has been one of the main programming languages in this area since then. And several ongoing projects targeting towards its betterment indicate that it will keep this status in the decades to come. In this article, we describe Fortran codes produced, or organized, for the generation of the following random objects: numbers, probability vectors, unitary matrices, and quantum state vectors and density matrices. Some matrix functions are also included and may be of independent interest.Comment: are most welcome. To obtain the code, download the Source in Others format

Random Sampling of Quantum States: A Survey of Methods

The numerical generation of random quantum states (RQS) is an important procedure for investigations in quantum information science. Here we review some methods that may be used for performing that task. We start by presenting a simple procedure for generating random state vectors, for which the main tool is the random sampling of unbiased discrete probability distributions (DPD). Afterwards the creation of random density matrices is addressed. In this context we first present the standard method, which consists in using the spectral decomposition of a quantum state for getting RQS from random DPDs and random unitary matrices. In the sequence the Bloch vector parametrization method is described. This approach, despite being useful in several instances, is not in general convenient for RQS generation. In the last part of the article we regard the overparametrized method (OPM) and the related Ginibre and Bures techniques. The OPM can be used to create random positive semidefinite matrices with unit trace from randomly produced general complex matrices in a simple way that is friendly for numerical implementations. We consider a physically relevant issue related to the possible domains that may be used for the real and imaginary parts of the elements of such general complex matrices. Subsequently a too fast concentration of measure in the quantum state space that appears in this parametrization is noticed.Comment: One reference adde

Generating pseudo-random discrete probability distributions

The generation of pseudo-random discrete probability distributions is of paramount importance for a wide range of stochastic simulations spanning from Monte Carlo methods to the random sampling of quantum states for investigations in quantum information science. In spite of its significance, a thorough exposition of such a procedure is lacking in the literature. In this article we present relevant details concerning the numerical implementation and applicability of what we call the iid, normalization, and trigonometric methods for generating an unbiased probability vector $\mathbf{p}=(p_{1},\cdots,p_{d})$. An immediate application of these results regarding the generation of pseudo-random pure quantum states is also described

Computing partial traces and reduced density matrices

Taking partial traces for computing reduced density matrices, or related functions, is a ubiquitous procedure in the quantum mechanics of composite systems. In this article, we present a thorough description of this function and analyze the number of elementary operations (ops) needed, under some possible alternative implementations, to compute it on a classical computer. As we notice, it is worthwhile doing some analytical developments in order to avoid making null multiplications and sums, what can considerably reduce the ops. For instance, for a bipartite system $\mathcal{H}_{a}\otimes\mathcal{H}_{b}$ with dimensions $d_{a}=\dim\mathcal{H}_{a}$ and $d_{b}=\dim\mathcal{H}_{b}$ and for $d_{a},d_{b}\gg1$, while a direct use of partial trace definition applied to $\mathcal{H}_{b}$ requires $\mathcal{O}(d_{a}^{6}d_{b}^{6})$ ops, its optimized implementation entails $\mathcal{O}(d_{a}^{2}d_{b})$ ops. In the sequence, we regard the computation of partial traces for general multipartite systems and describe Fortran code provided to implement it numerically. We also consider the calculation of reduced density matrices via Bloch's parametrization with generalized Gell Mann's matrices.Comment: The code can be accessed in https://github.com/jonasmaziero/LibFor

Non-monotonicity of trace distance under tensor products

The trace distance (TD) possesses several of the good properties required for a faithful distance measure in the quantum state space. Despite its importance and ubiquitous use in quantum information science, one of its questionable features, its possible non-monotonicity under taking tensor products of its arguments (NMuTP), has been hitherto unexplored. In this article we advance analytical and numerical investigations of this issue considering different classes of states living in a discrete and finite dimensional Hilbert space. Our results reveal that although this property of TD does not shows up for pure states and for some particular classes of mixed states, it is present in a non-negligible fraction of the regarded density operators. Hence, even though the percentage of quartets of states leading to the NMuTP drawback of TD and its strength decrease as the system's dimension grows, this property of TD must be taken into account before using it as a figure of merit for distinguishing mixed quantum states

The Maccone-Pati uncertainty relation

The existence of incompatible observables constitutes one of the most prominent characteristics of quantum mechanics (QM) and can be revealed and formalized through uncertainty relations. The Heisenberg-Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation (HRSUR) was proved at the dawn of quantum formalism and is ever-present in the teaching and research on QM. Notwithstanding, the HRSUR possess the so called triviality problem. That is to say, the HRSUR yields no information about the possible incompatibility between two observables if the system was prepared in a state which is an eigenvector of one of them. After about 85 years of existence of the HRSUR, this problem was solved recently by Lorenzo Maccone and Arun K. Pati. In this article, we start doing a brief discussion of general aspects of the uncertainty principle in QM and recapitulating the proof of HRSUR. Afterwards we present in simple terms the proof of the Maccone-Pati uncertainty relation, which can be obtained basically via the application of the parallelogram law and Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.Comment: Didactic text, English versio

Genuine multipartite system-environment correlations in decoherent dynamics

We propose relative entropy-based quantifiers for genuine multipartite total, quantum, and classical correlations. These correlation measures are applied to investigate the generation of genuine multiparticle correlations in decoherent dynamics induced by the interaction of two qubits with local- independent environments. We consider amplitude- and phase-damping channels and compare their capabilities to spread information through the creation of many-body correlations. We identify changes in behavior for the genuine four- and three-partite total correlations and show that, contrary to amplitude environments, phase-noise channels transform the bipartite correlation initially shared between the qubits into genuine multiparticle system-environment correlations.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, published version, one reference update

Preparing tunable Bell-diagonal states on a quantum computer

The class of two-qubit Bell-diagonal states has been the workhorse for developing understanding about the geometry, dynamics, and applications of quantum resources. In this article, we present a quantum circuit for preparing Bell-diagonal states on a quantum computer in a tunable way. We implement this quantum circuit using the IBM Q 5 Yorktown quantum computer and, as an application example, we measure the non-local, steering, entanglement, and discord quantum correlations and non-local quantum coherence of Werner states

Environment-induced quantum coherence spreading of a qubit

We make a thorough study of the spreading of quantum coherence (QC), as quantified by the $l_{1}$-norm QC, when a qubit (a two-level quantum system) is subjected to noise quantum channels commonly appearing in quantum information science. We notice that QC is generally not conserved and that even incoherent initial states can lead to transitory system-environment QC. We show that for the amplitude damping channel the evolved total QC can be written as the sum of local and non-local parts, with the last one being equal to entanglement. On the other hand, for the phase damping channel (PDC) entanglement does not account for all non-local QC, with the gap between them depending on time and also on the qubit's initial state. Besides these issues, the possibility and conditions for time invariance of QC are regarded in the case of bit, phase, and bit-phase flip channels. Here we reveal the qualitative dynamical inequivalence between these channels and the PDC and show that the creation of system-environment entanglement does not necessarily imply in the destruction of the qubit's QC. We also investigate the resources needed for non-local QC creation, showing that while the PDC requires initial coherence of the qubit, for some other channels non-zero population of the excited state (i.e., energy) is sufficient. Related to that, considering the depolarizing channel we notice the qubit's ability to act as a catalyst for the creation of joint QC and entanglement, without need for nonzero initial QC or excited state population

Understanding von Neumann's entropy

We review the postulates of quantum mechanics that are needed to discuss the von Neumann's entropy. We introduce it as a generalization of Shannon's entropy and propose a simple game that makes easier understanding its physical meaning.Comment: Didactic text, in Portugues