Quantum signal processing

Abstract

In this article we present a signal processing framework that we refer to as quantum signal processing (QSP) (Eldar 2001) that is aimed at developing new or modifying existing signal processing algorithms by borrowing from the principles of quantum mechanics and some of its interesting axioms and constraints. However, in contrast to such fields as quantum computing and quantum information theory, it does not inherently depend on the physics associated with quantum mechanics. Consequently, in developing the QSP framework we are free to impose quantum mechanical constraints that we find useful and to avoid those that are not. This framework provides a unifying conceptual structure for a variety of traditional processing techniques and a precise mathematical setting for developing generalizations and extensions of algorithms, leading to a potentially useful paradigm for signal processing with applications in areas including frame theory, quantization and sampling methods, detection, parameter estimation, covariance shaping, and multiuser wireless communication systems. We present a general overview of the key elements in quantum physics that provide the basis for the QSP framework and an indication of the key results that have so far been developed within this framework. In the remainder of the article, we elaborate on the various elements in this figure.