Majorana Stars Research Articles

Multipoles from Majorana constellations

Majorana stars, the 2S spin coherent states that are orthogonal to a spin-S state, offer an elegant method to visualize quantum states, disclosing their intrinsic symmetries. These states are naturally described by the corresponding multipoles. These quantities can be experimentally determined and allow for an SU(2)-invariant analysis. We investigate the relationship between Majorana constellations and state multipoles, thus providing insights into the underlying symmetries of the system. We illustrate our approach with some relevant and informative examples. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Majorana's stellar representation of single-particle reduced density matrix for completely symmetric states

The completely symmetric states play an essential role in quantum physics. In this paper, we calculate the reduced density matrix (RDM) for a single particle of the completely symmetric system coupled by $N$ spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles, because it helps to investigate the evolution of expectation value for the observable and to calculate the entanglement between the subsystems. Furthermore, we use Majorana's stellar representation (MSR) to represent the results because it provides an intuitive geometric perspective to comprehend the quantum states in the high-dimensional Hilbert space with distributions and trajectories of the Majorana stars on a Bloch sphere. With the operation properties of the generalized many-body anticommutator, we get the general MSR form of a single-qubit RDM. As the application and verification, we calculate the single-qubit RDM for the Dicke states with the results. Similarly, we further solve the RDM of the spin-$\frac{N}{2}$ state in a uniform magnetic field and study the systems with symmetric structures on the Bloch sphere. The results exhibit the relations between the composite systems and the subsystems, and provide a new idea for the numerical solution of multiqubit systems.

Majorana’s stellar representation for the quantum geometric tensor of symmetric states

Majorana’s stellar representation provides an intuitive picture in which quantum states in high-dimensional Hilbert space can be observed using the trajectory of Majorana stars. We consider the Majorana’s stellar representation of the quantum geometric tensor for a spin state up to spin-3/2. The real and imaginary parts of the quantum geometric tensor, corresponding to the quantum metric tensor and Berry curvature, are therefore obtained in terms of the Majorana stars. Moreover, we work out the expressions of quantum geometric tensor for arbitrary spin in some important cases. Our results will benefit the comprehension of the quantum geometric tensor and provide interesting relations between the quantum geometric tensor and Majorana’s stars.

Illuminating the bulk-boundary correspondence of a non-Hermitian stub lattice with Majorana stars

Topological characterization of non-Hermitian band structures demands more than a straightforward generalization of the Hermitian cases. Even for one-dimensional tight-binding models with nonreciprocal hopping, the appearance of point gaps and the skin effect leads to the breakdown of the usual bulk-boundary correspondence. Luckily, the correspondence can be resurrected by introducing a winding number for the generalized Brillouin zone for systems with even number of bands and chiral symmetry. Here, we analyze the topological phases of a nonreciprocal hopping model on the stub lattice, where one of the three bands remains flat. Due to the lack of chiral symmetry, the biorthogonal Zak phase is no longer quantized, invalidating the winding number as a topological index. Instead, we show that a $Z_2$ invariant can be defined from Majorana's stellar representation of the eigenstates on the Bloch sphere. The parity of the total azimuthal winding of the entire Majorana constellation correctly predicts the appearance of edge states between the bulk gaps. We further show that the system is not a square-root topological insulator, despite the fact that its parent Hamiltonian can be block diagonalized and related to a sawtooth lattice model. The analysis presented here may be generalized to understand other non-Hermitian systems with multiple bands.

Symmetric multiqudit states: Stars, entanglement, and rotosensors

A constellation of $N=d-1$ Majorana stars represents an arbitrary pure quantum state of dimension $d$ or a permutation-symmetric state of a system consisting of $n$ qubits. We generalize the latter construction to represent in a similar way an arbitrary symmetric pure state of $k$ subsystems with $d$ levels each. For $d\geq 3$, such states are equivalent, as far as rotations are concerned, to a collection of various spin states, with definite relative complex weights. Following Majorana's lead, we introduce a multiconstellation, consisting of the Majorana constellations of the above spin states, augmented by an auxiliary, "spectator" constellation, encoding the complex weights. Examples of stellar representations of symmetric states of four qutrits, and two spin-$3/2$ systems, are presented. We revisit the Hermite and Murnaghan isomorphisms, which relate multipartite states of various spins, number of parties, and even symmetries. We show how the tools introduced can be used to analyze multipartite entanglement and to identify optimal quantum rotosensors, i.e., pure states which are maximally sensitive to rotations around a specified axis, or averaged over all axes.

Berry phases of higher spins due to internal geometry of Majorana constellation and relation to quantum entanglement

Majorana stars, the antipodal directions associated with the coherent states that are orthogonal to a spin state, provide a visualization and a geometric understanding of the structures of general quantum states. For example, the Berry phase of a spin-1/2 is given by half the solid angle enclosed by the close path of its Majorana star. It is conceivable that the Berry phase of higher spins may also be related to the geometry of the Majorana constellation. We find that for a spin-1 state, besides the expected contributions from the solid angles enclosed by the close paths of the two Majorana stars, the Berry phase includes a term related to the twist of the relative position vector around the barycenter vector of the two Majorana stars, i.e., the self-rotation of the constellation. Interestingly, if the spin-1 state is taken as a symmetrized two-qubit state, the extra contribution to the Berry phase is given by the self-rotation of the Majorana constellation weighted by the quantum entanglement of the two qubits. This discovery alludes to the relevance of the Majorana stellar geometry in representing the deep structures of quantum states and of quantum entanglement.

Majorana decomposition for two-qubit pure states

The Majorana representation (MR), which represents a quantum state and its evolution with the Majorana stars (MSs) on the Bloch sphere, provides us an intuitive way to study symmetric multiqubit pure states physical system with SU(2) symmetry. In this work, we propose a method to extend the MR for generic two-qubit pure states. By adding an additional reference star (RS), which represents the symmetry of the qubits, on the symmetric two qubit state with two base stars, we give a more general MR for both symmetric, anti-symmetric and generic two-qubit states. Using this method, we study the entanglement, Berry phase and their relation by this Majorana decomposition. Furthermore, the symmetries for different type of two-qubit states are also discussed via the RSs and correlation between the two MSs.

Majorana stellar representation for mixed-spin (s, 1/2) systems* *Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2017YFA0304202 and 2017YFA0205700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11875231), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 2018FZA3005).

By describing the evolution of a quantum state with the trajectories of the Majorana stars on a Bloch sphere, Majorana’s stellar representation provides an intuitive geometric perspective to comprehend the quantum system with high-dimensional Hilbert space. However, the representation of a two-spin coupling system on a Bloch sphere has not been solved satisfactorily yet. Here, a practical method is presented to resolve the problem for the mixed-spin (s, 1/2) system and describe the entanglement of the system. The system can be decomposed into two spins: spin-(s + 1/2) and spin-(s – 1/2) at the coupling bases, which can be regarded as independent spins. Besides, any pure state may be written as a superposition of two orthonormal states with one spin-(s + 1/2) state and the other spin-(s – 1/2) state. Thus, the whole initial state can be regarded as a state of a pseudo spin-1/2. In this way, the mixed spin decomposes into three spins. Therefore, the state can be represented by (2s + 1) + (2s – 1) + 1 = 4s + 1 sets of stars on a Bloch sphere. Finally, some examples are given to show symmetric patterns on the Bloch sphere and unveil the properties of the high-spin system by analyzing the trajectories of the Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere.

Majorana representation of adiabatic and superadiabatic processes in three-level systems

We show that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) and its superadiabatic version (saSTIRAP) have a natural geometric two-star representation on the Majorana sphere. In the case of STIRAP, we find that the evolution is confined to a vertical plane. A faster evolution can be achieved in the saSTIRAP protocol, which employs a counterdiabatic Hamiltonian to nullify the non-adiabatic excitations. We derive this Hamiltonian in the Majorana picture, and we observe how, under realistic experimental parameters, the counterdiabatic term corrects the trajectory of the Majorana stars toward the dark state. We also introduce a spin-1 average vector and present its evolution during the two processes, demonstrating that it provides a measure of nonadiabaticity. We show that the Majorana representation can be used as a sensitive tool for the detection of process errors due to ac Stark shifts and non-adiabatic transitions. Finally, we provide an extension of these results to mixed states and processes with decoherence.

The non-Hermitian geometrical property of 1D Lieb lattice under Majorana’s stellar representation

The topological properties of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is a hot topic, and the theoretical studies along this research line are usually based on the two-level non-Hermitian Hamiltonian (or, equivalently, a spin-1/2 non-Hermitian Hamiltonian). We are motivated to study the geometrical phases of a three-level Lieb lattice model (or, equivalently, a spin-1 non-Hermitian Hamiltonian) with the flat band in the context of a polariton condensate. The topological invariants are calculated by both winding numbers in the Brillouin zone and the geometrical phase of Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere. Besides, we provide an intuitive way to study the topological phase transformation with the higher spin, and the flat band offers a platform to define the topological phase transition on the Bloch sphere. According to the trajectories of the Majorana stars, we calculate the geometrical phases of the Majorana stars. We study the Lieb lattice with a complex hopping and find their phases have a jump when the parameters change from the trivial phase to the topological phase. The correlation phase of Majorana stars will rise along with the increase of the imaginary parts of the hopping energy. Besides, we also study the Lieb lattice with different intracell hopping and calculate the geometrical phases of the model using non-Bloch factor under the Majorana’s stellar representation. In this case, the correlation phases will always be zero because of the normalized coefficient is always a purely real number and the phase transition is vividly shown with the geometrical phases of the Majorana stars calculated by the mean values of the total phases of both right and the joint left eigenstates.

Topological characterization of non-Hermitian multiband systems using Majorana's stellar representation

For topological characterization of non-Hermitian multiband systems, Majorana's stellar representation (MSR) is applied to 1D multiband models consisting of asymmetric nearest-neighbor hopping and imaginary on-site potentials. The number of edge states isolated from the continuous bulk bands in the complex energy plane is successfully linked with a topological invariant constructed from MSR. Specifically, the number of isolated edge states can be obtained from a winding number defined for the Majorana stars, which also allows for a geometric visualization of the topology related to the isolated edge modes. A remarkable success of our approach is that our winding number characterization remains valid even in the presence of exceptional points of the continuous bulk bands, where the Hamiltonian becomes non-diagonalizable and hence conventional topological invariants such as the Zak phase and the Chern number cannot be properly defined. Furthermore, cases with the so-called non-Hermitian skin effect are also studied, showing that the bulk-boundary correspondence between our defined winding numbers and isolated edge states can be restored. Of particular interest is a four-band example with an odd number of isolated edge states, where the Zak phase approach necessarily fails upon removing the skin effect, but our MSR-based characterization works equally well. For these reasons, our study is expected to be widely useful in topological studies of non-Hermitian multiband systems, regardless of the skin effect or the presence of the exceptional points in non-Hermitian systems.

Three-tangle of a general three-qubit state in the representation of Majorana stars

Majorana stars, the $2j$ spin coherent states that are orthogonal to a spin-$j$ state, offer a visualization of general quantum states and may disclose deep structures in quantum states and their evolutions. In particular, the genuine tripartite entanglement - the three-tangle of a symmetric three-qubit state, which can be mapped to a spin-3/2 state, is measured by the normalized product of the distance between the Majorana stars. However, the Majorana representation cannot applied to general non-symmetric $n$-qubit states. We show that after a series of SL$(2,\mathbb{C})$ transformations, non-symmetric three-qubit states can be transformed to symmetric three-qubit states, while at the same time the three-tangle is unchanged. Thus the genuine tripartite entanglement of general three-qubit states has the geometric representation of the associated Majorana stars. The symmetrization and hence the Majorana star representation of certain genuine high-order entanglement for more qubits are possible for some special states. In general cases, however, the constraints on the symmetrization may prevent the Majorana star representation of the genuine entanglement.

Generalized Weyl-Heisenberg Algebra, Qudit Systems and Entanglement Measure of Symmetric States via Spin Coherent States.

A relation is established in the present paper between Dicke states in a d-dimensional space and vectors in the representation space of a generalized Weyl–Heisenberg algebra of finite dimension d. This provides a natural way to deal with the separable and entangled states of a system of symmetric qubit states. Using the decomposition property of Dicke states, it is shown that the separable states coincide with the Perelomov coherent states associated with the generalized Weyl–Heisenberg algebra considered in this paper. In the so-called Majorana scheme, the qudit (d-level) states are represented by N points on the Bloch sphere; roughly speaking, it can be said that a qudit (in a d-dimensional space) is describable by a N-qubit vector (in a N-dimensional space). In such a scheme, the permanent of the matrix describing the overlap between the N qubits makes it possible to measure the entanglement between the N qubits forming the qudit. This is confirmed by a Fubini–Study metric analysis. A new parameter, proportional to the permanent and called perma-concurrence, is introduced for characterizing the entanglement of a symmetric qudit arising from N qubits. For (), this parameter constitutes an alternative to the concurrence for two qubits. Other examples are given for and 5. A connection between Majorana stars and zeros of a Bargmmann function for qudits closes this article.

The Exact Curve Equation for Majorana Stars

Majorana stars are visual representation for a quantum pure state. For some states, the corresponding majorana stars are located on one curve on the Block sphere. However, it is lack of exact curve equations for them. To find the exact equations, we consider a superposition of two bosonic coherent states with an arbitrary relative phase. We analytically give the curve equation and find that the curve always goes through the North pole on the Block sphere. Furthermore, for the superpositions of SU(1,1) coherent states, we find the same curve equation.

Coherent-State Approach for Majorana Representation**Supported by the National Fundamental Research Program of China under Grant No. 2013CBA01502, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11575027, 11475146, and 11405008, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. 2017FZA3005, and the Plan for Scientific and Technological Development of Jilin Province under Grant No. 20160520173JH

By representing a quantum state and its evolution with the Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere, the Majorana representation provides us an intuitive way to study a physical system with SU(2) symmetry. In this work, based on coherent states, we propose a method to establish the generalization of Majorana representation for a general symmetry. By choosing a generalized coherent state as a reference state, we give a more general Majorana representation for both finite and infinite systems and the corresponding star equations are given. Using this method, we study the squeezed vacuum states for three different symmetries, Heisenberg–Weyl, SU(2) and SU(1,1), and express the effect of squeezing parameter on the distribution of stars. Furthermore, we also study the dynamical evolution of stars for an initial coherent state driven by a nonlinear Hamiltonian, and find that at a special time point, the stars are distributed on two orthogonal large circles.

Majorana representation for the nonlinear two-mode boson system

By presenting the quantum evolution with the trajectories of points on the Bloch sphere, the Majorana representation provides an intuitive way to study a high dimensional quantum evolution. In this work, we study the dynamical evolution of the nonlinear two-mode boson system both in the mean-field model by one point on the Bloch sphere and the second-quantized model by the Majorana points, respectively. It is shown that the evolution of the state in the mean-field model and the self-trapping effect can be perfectly characterized by the motion of the point, while the quantum evolution in the second-quantized model can be expressed by an elegant formula of the Majorana points. We find that the motions of states in the two models are the same in linear case. In the nonlinear case, the contribution of the boson interactions to the formula of Majorana points in the second quantized model can be decomposed into two parts:one is the single point part which equals to the nonlinear part of the equation in mean-field model under lager boson number limit; the other one is related to the correlations between the Majorana points which cannot be found in the equation of the point in mean-field model. This means that, the quantum fluctuation which is neglected in the mean-field model can be represented by these correlations. To illustrate our results and shed more light on these two different models, we discussed the quantum state evolution and corresponding self-trapping phenomenon with different boson numbers and boson interacting strength by using the fidelity between the states of the two models and the correlation between the Majoranapoints and the single points in the mean-field model. The result show that the dynamics evolution of the two models are quite different with small boson numbers, since the correlation between the Majorana stars cannot be neglected. However, the second-quantized evolution and the mean-field evolution still vary in both the fidelity population difference between the two boson modes and the fidelity of the states in the two models. The difference between the continuous changes of the second quantized evolution with the boson interacting strength and the critical behavior of the mean-field evolution which related to the self-trapping effect is also discussed. These results can help us to investigate how to include the quantum fluctuation into the mean-field model and find a method beyond the mean field approach.

Berry phase and quantum entanglement in Majorana's stellar representation

By presenting the evolution of a quantum state with the trajectories of the Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere, the Majorana's stellar provides an intuitive geometric picture to study a quantum system with high-dimensional Hilbert space. We study the Berry phase and quantum entanglement by distributions and motions of these stars on the Bloch sphere. It is shown that both of these unique characters of quantum state can be perfectly represented by the Majorana stars. The former is expressed by the solid angles of Majorana star loops and the distance between stars. For the latter, the distances between stars are also found to be a tool for measuring and classifying the multiparticle entanglement of a symmetric multiqubit pure state. To demonstrate our theory, we study a typical spin model which is equivalent to an interacting boson model or an interacting multiqubit system. The self-trapping phenomenon within is also discussed via the Majorana stars.

Nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling in Majorana’s stellar representation

By representing the evolution of a quantum state with the trajectories of the stars on a Bloch sphere, the Majorana’s stellar representation provides an intuitive way to understand quantum motion in a high dimensional projective Hilbert space. In this work we show that the Majorana’s representation offers a very interesting and intuitive way to understand the nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling. In particular, the breakdown of adiabaticity in this tunneling phenomenon can be understood as some of the stars never reaching the south pole. We also establish a connection between the Majorana stars in the second quantized model and the single star in the mean field model by using the reduced density matrix.

Characterization of symmetry-protected topological phases in polymerized models by trajectories of Majorana stars

By using Majorana's stellar representation, we give a clear geometrical interpretation of the topological phases of inversion-symmetric polymerized models by mapping the Bloch states of multi-band systems to Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere. While trajectories of Majorana stars of a filled Bloch band exhibit quite different geometrical structures for topologically trivial and nontrivial phases, we further demonstrate that these structures are uniquely determined by distributions of Majorana stars of two high-symmetrical momentum states, which have different parities for topologically different states.

Representation of Berry phase by the trajectories of Majorana stars.

The Majorana's stellar representation, which represents the evolution of a quantum state with the trajectories of the Majorana stars on a Bloch sphere, provides an intuitive way to study a physical system with a high dimensional projective Hilbert space. In this Letter, we study the Berry phase by these stars and their loops on the Bloch sphere. It is shown that the Berry phase of a general spin state can be expressed by an elegant formula with the solid angles of Majorana star loops. Furthermore, these results can be used to a general state with arbitrary dimensions. To demonstrate our theory, we study a two mode interacting boson system. Finally, the relation between stars' correlations and quantum entanglement is discussed.