Thermodynamic formalism for quantum channels: Entropy, pressure, Gibbs channels and generic properties

Abstract

Denote [Formula: see text] the set of complex [Formula: see text] by [Formula: see text] matrices. We will analyze here quantum channels [Formula: see text] of the following kind: given a measurable function [Formula: see text] and the measure [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text] we define the linear operator [Formula: see text], via the expression [Formula: see text]. A recent paper by T. Benoist, M. Fraas, Y. Pautrat, and C. Pellegrini is our starting point. They considered the case where [Formula: see text] was the identity. Under some mild assumptions on the quantum channel [Formula: see text] we analyze the eigenvalue property for [Formula: see text] and we define entropy for such channel. For a fixed [Formula: see text] (the a priori measure) and for a given a Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] we present a version of the Ruelle Theorem: a variational principle of pressure (associated to such [Formula: see text]) related to an eigenvalue problem for the Ruelle operator. We introduce the concept of Gibbs channel. We also show that for a fixed [Formula: see text] (with more than one point in the support) the set of [Formula: see text] such that it is [Formula: see text]-Erg (also irreducible) for [Formula: see text] is a generic set. We describe a related process [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], taking values on the projective space [Formula: see text] and analyze the question of the existence of invariant probabilities. We also consider an associated process [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], with values on [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] is the set of density operators). Via the barycenter, we associate the invariant probability mentioned above with the density operator fixed for [Formula: see text].