Speed Of Quantum Evolution Research Articles

Balancing the Quantum Speed Limit and Instantaneous Energy Cost in Adiabatic Quantum Evolution

Adiabatic time-optimal quantum controls are extensively used in quantum technologies to break the constraints imposed by short coherence times. However, practically it is crucial to consider the trade-off between the quantum evolution speed and instantaneous energy cost of process because of the constraints in the available control Hamiltonian. Here, we experimentally show that using a transmon qubit that, even in the presence of vanishing energy gaps, it is possible to reach a highly time-optimal adiabatic quantum driving at low energy cost in the whole evolution process. This validates the recently derived general solution of the quantum Zermelo navigation problem, paving the way for energy-efficient quantum control which is usually overlooked in conventional speed-up schemes, including the well-known counter-diabatic driving. By designing the control Hamiltonian based on the quantum speed limit bound quantified by the changing rate of phase in the interaction picture, we reveal the relationship between the quantum speed limit and instantaneous energy cost. Consequently, we demonstrate fast and high-fidelity quantum adiabatic processes by employing energy-efficient driving strengths, indicating a promising strategy for expanding the applications of time-optimal quantum controls in superconducting quantum circuits.

Quantum evolution speed and its limit in the driven double‐well system

AbstractWe investigate quantum evolution speed in the driven double‐well system using the entangled trajectory molecular dynamics method. We emphasize not only the evolution speed of the quantum state but also its limit according to different definitions. The Wasserstein 1‐distance is used to quantify the distance between distinguishable quantum states in the phase space, the quantum speed limit based on the geometry has been shown to be the strictest one. The single trajectory's contribution to the quantum speed limit is discussed, which is related to both the time evolution of the trajectory and its position in the total Wigner function. The resonance and chaos strongly enhance the evolution speed and its limit in the driven double‐well system. The resonance effect makes a large proportion of representative points pass through the well as a whole, nevertheless, the chaos makes the Wigner function disperse in the phase space.

Quantum evolution speed induced by Hamiltonian

In the issue of quantum evolution, quantum evolution speed is usually quantified by the time rate of change of state distance between the initial sate and its time evolution. In this paper, the path distance of quantum evolution is introduced to study the evolution of a quantum system, through the approach combined with basic theory of quantum evolution and the linear algebra. In a quantum unitary system, the quantum evolution operator contains the path information of the quantum evolution, where the path distance is determined by the principal argument of the eigenvalues of the unitary operator. Accordingly, the instantaneous quantum evolution speed is proportional to the distance between the maximum and minimum eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian. As one of the applications, the path distance and the instantaneous quantum evolution speed could be used to form a new lower bound of the real evolution time, which depends on the evolution operator and Hamiltonian, and is independent of the initial state. It is found that the lower bound presented here is exactly equal to the real evolution time in the range <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ \left[ {0, {\pi }/({{2{\omega _{\rm{H}}}}}}) \right]$\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="22-20231009_M2.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="22-20231009_M2.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>. The tool of path distance and instantaneous quantum evolution speed introduced here provides new method for the related researches.

The study of quantum speed limit time in a quantum critical environment

Quantum theory sets a bound on the speed of quantum evolution. The shortest time needed for a quantm system to evolve from an initial state to the target state is known as the quantum speed limit time. The study of this time in open and closed quantum systems has been the subject of much work in quantum information theory. Quantum speed limit time is inversely related to the evolution rate of a quantum process. This relation is such that the speed of evolution decreases with increasing quantum speed limit time and vice versa. In this work we study the QSL time for the case in which a qubit interacts with a quantum critical environment. We choose the environment to be an Ising spin chain in a transverse field. It is observed that for the quantum speed limit time has a direct relation with quantum coherence of the initial state of the system. We will also study the effect of perturbation coupling on quantum speed limit time. It is observed that the quantum speed limit time decreases with increasing the coupling parameter. It is also observed that the quantum speed limit time decreases with increasing the number of spin in spin chain.

Orthogonality catastrophe and the speed of quantum evolution in a qubit-spin-bath system

The orthogonality catastrophe (OC) of quantum many-body systems is an important phenomenon in condensed matter physics. Recently, an interesting relationship between the OC and the quantum speed limit (QSL) was shown (Fogarty 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 110601). Inspired by the remarkable feature, we provide a quantitative version of the quantum average speed as another different method to investigate the measure of how it is close to the OC dynamics. We analyze the properties of an impurity qubit embedded into an isotropic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick spin model, and show that the OC dynamics can also be characterized by the average speed of the evolution state. Furthermore, a similar behavior of the actual speed of quantum evolution and the theoretical maximal rate is shown which can provide an alternative speed-up protocol allowing us to understand some universal properties characterized by the QSL.

The effect of quantum memory on quantum speed limit time for CP-(in)divisible channels

Quantum speed limit time defines the limit on the minimum time required for a quantum system to evolve between two states. Investigation of bounds on speed limit time of quantum system under non-unitary evolution is of fundamental interest, as it reveals interesting connections to quantum (non-)Markovianity. Here, we discuss the characteristics of quantum speed limit time as a function of quantum memory, quantified as the deviation from temporal self-similarity of quantum dynamical maps for CP-divisible as well as indivisible maps, and show that the presence of quantum memory can speed up quantum evolution. This demonstrates the enhancement of the speed of quantum evolution in the presence of quantum memory for a wider class of channels than indicated by the CP-indivisibility criterion.

Speed of Quantum Evolution for Correlated Quantum Noise

Speed of Quantum Evolution for Correlated Quantum Noise

Quantum speed limit for thermal states

Quantum speed limits are rigorous estimates on how fast a state of a quantum system can depart from the initial state in the course of quantum evolution. Most known quantum speed limits, including the celebrated Mandelstam-Tamm and Margolus-Levitin ones, are general bounds applicable to arbitrary initial states. However, when applied to mixed states of many-body systems, they, as a rule, dramatically overestimate the speed of quantum evolution and fail to provide meaningful bounds in the thermodynamic limit. Here we derive a quantum speed limit for a closed system initially prepared in a thermal state and evolving under a time-dependent Hamiltonian. This quantum speed limit exploits the structure of the thermal state and, in particular, explicitly depends on the temperature. In a broad class of many-body setups it proves to be drastically stronger than general quantum speed limits.

Coherent-driving-assisted quantum speedup in Markovian channels* *Project supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. ZR2020MA086) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61675115 and 11974209).

As is well known, the quantum evolution speed of quantum state can never be accelerated in the Markovian regime without any operators on the system. The Hamiltonian corrections induced by the action of coherent driving forces are often used to fight dissipative and decoherence mechanisms in experiments. For this reason, considering three noisy channels (the phase-flip channel, the amplitude damping channel and the depolarizing channel), we propose a scheme of speedup evolution of an open system by controlling an external unitary coherent driving operator on the system. It is shown that, in the presence of the coherent driving, no-speedup evolution can be transformed into quantum speedup evolution in the Markovian dynamics process. Additionally, under the fixed coherent driving strength in the above three noisy channels, the best way to achieve the most degree of quantum speedup for the system has been acquired by rotating the system with appropriate driving direction angles, respectively. Finally, we conclude that the reason for this acceleration is not the non-Markovian dynamical behavior of the system but due to the oscillation of geometric distance between the initial state and the target final state.

The Effect of Homodyne-Based Feedback Control on Quantum Speed Limit Time

The minimal time a system requires to transform from an initial state to target state is defined as the quantum speed limit time. quantum speed limit time can be applied to quantify the maximum speed of the evolution of a quantum system. Quantum speed limit time is inversely related to the speed of evolution of a quantum system. That is, shorter quantum speed limit time means higher speed of quantum evolution. In this work, we study the quantum speed limit time of a two-level atom under Homodyne-based feedback control. The results show that the quantum speed limit time is decreased by increasing feedback coefficient. So, Homodyne-based feedback control can induce speedup the evolution of quantum system.

Quantum evolution speed in a double-layer environment

We investigate the dynamics of a two-level system in the presence of an overall environment composed of two layers. The first layer is just one single-mode cavity that decays to a memoryless reservoir while the second layer is two coupled single-mode cavities that decay to memoryless or memory-keeping reservoirs. We show that, in the weak-coupling regime between the qubit and the first-layer environment, the speed of evolution for the system can be controlled to a speeded-up or speeded-down process by manipulating the coupling strength in a double-layer environment. In particular, we find that multiple dynamics transitions from a not-speeded-up evolution to speeded-up evolution can be realized for the system by increasing the coupling strength in the second-layer environment. These results hold independently of the nature of the reservoirs in the second-layer environment.

There is no general connection between the quantum speed limit and non-Markovianity

The quantum speed limit (QSL) sets a bound on the minimum time required for a quantum system to evolve between two states. For open quantum systems this quantity depends on the dynamical map describing the time evolution in presence of the environment, on the evolution time τ, and on the initial state of the system. We consider a general single qubit open dynamics and show that there is no simple relationship between memory effects and the tightness of the QSL bound. We prove that only for specific classes of dynamical evolutions and initial states, there exists a link between non-Markovianity and the QSL. Our results shed light on the connection between information back-flow between system and environment and the speed of quantum evolution.

Quantum speedup, non-Markovianity and formation of bound state

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the quantum speedup, non-Markovianity and formation of a system-environment bound state. Previous results show a monotonic relation between these three such that providing bound states with more negative energy can lead to a higher degree of non-Markovianity, and hence to a greater speed of quantum evolution. By studying dynamics of a dissipative two-level system or a V-type three-level system, when similar and additional systems are present, we reveal that the quantum speedup is exclusively related to the formation of the system-environment bound state, while the non-Markovian effect of the system dynamics is neither necessary nor sufficient to speed up the quantum evolution. On the other hand, it is shown that only the formation of the system-environment bound state plays a decisive role in the acceleration of the quantum evolution.

Hybrid quantum-classical simulation of quantum speed limits in open quantum systems

The quantum speed limit (QSL) provides a fundamental upper bound on the speed of quantum evolution, but its evaluation in generic open quantum systems still presents a formidable computational challenge. Herein, we introduce a hybrid quantum-classical method for computing QSL times in multi-level open quantum systems. The method is based on a mixed Wigner–Heisenberg representation of the composite quantum dynamics, in which the open subsystem of interest is treated quantum mechanically and the bath is treated in a classical-like fashion. By solving a set of coupled first-order deterministic differential equations for the quantum and classical degrees of freedom, one can compute the QSL time. To demonstrate the utility of the method, we study the unbiased spin-boson model and provide a detailed analysis of the effect of the subsystem-bath coupling strength and bath temperature on the QSL time. In particular, we find a turnover of the QSL time in the strong coupling regime, which is indicative of a speed-up in the quantum evolution. We also apply the method to the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex model and identify a potential connection between the QSL time and the efficiency of the excitation energy transfer at different temperatures.

Controlling Speedup Induced by a Hierarchical Environment

Quantum speedup of an open quantum system can be induced by the non-Markovian effect of the environment. Although an environment with a higher degree of non-Markovianity may seem like it should cause a faster speed of quantum evolution, this seemingly intuitive thinking may not always be correct. To clarify this point, we give a mechanism for controlling speedup of a single qubit that is coupled to a hierarchical photonic-crystal (PC) environment, which contains a defect single-mode cavity and a semi-infinite one-dimensional (1D) waveguide. Via studying the dynamics of the qubit, we reveal that with a judicious choice of the qubit-cavity coupling strength and the memory time of the waveguide environment, a speed-up evolution can be achieved. In particular, we found that the quantum speedup is not entirely attributed to the non-Markovianity, but to the increase of the total amount of flow information. That is the intrinsic physical reason that the hierarchical environment may induce the speed-up process. Our results may open new perspectives for detecting quantum speedup in realistic environments.

Quantum evolution speed in the finite-temperature bosonic environment

We investigate the quantum evolution speed of a qubit in two kinds of finite-temperature environments. The first environment is a bosonic bath with Ohmic-like spectrum. It is found that the high temperature not only leads to the speed-up but also speed-down processes in the weak-coupling regime, which is different from the strong-coupling case where only exhibits speed-up process, and the effects of Ohmicity parameter of the bath on the quantum evolution speed are also different in the strong-coupling and weak-coupling regimes. Furthermore, we realize the controllable and stationary quantum evolution speed by applying the bang-bang pulse. For the second nonlinear bath, we study the quantum evolution speed of a qubit by resorting to the hierarchical equations of motion method beyond the Born-Markov approximation. It is shown that the performances of quantum evolution speed in weak-coupling and strong-coupling regimes are also different. In particular, the quantum evolution speed can be decelerated by the rise of temperature in the strong-coupling regime which is an anomalous phenomenon and contrary to the common recognition that quantum evolution speed always increases with the temperature.

Geometric quantum speed limits: a case for Wigner phase space

The quantum speed limit is a fundamental upper bound on the speed of quantum evolution. However, the actual mathematical expression of this fundamental limit depends on the choice of a measure of distinguishability of quantum states. We show that quantum speed limits are qualitatively governed by the Schatten-p-norm of the generator of quantum dynamics. Since computing Schatten-p-norms can be mathematically involved, we then develop an alternative approach in Wigner phase space. We find that the quantum speed limit in Wigner space is fully equivalent to expressions in density operator space, but that the new bound is significantly easier to compute. Our results are illustrated for the parametric harmonic oscillator and for quantum Brownian motion.

Role of non-Markovianity and backflow of information in the speed of quantum evolution

We consider a two-level open quantum system undergoing either pure dephasing, dissipative, or multiply decohering dynamics and show that, whenever the dynamics is non-Markovian, the initial speed of evolution is a monotonic function of the relevant physical parameter driving the transition between the Markovian and non-Markovian behaviour of the dynamics. In particular, within the considered models, a speed increase can only be observed in the presence of backflow of information from the environment to the system.

Control quantum evolution speed of a single dephasing qubit for arbitrary initial states via periodic dynamical decoupling pulses

We investigate the possibility to control quantum evolution speed of a single dephasing qubit for arbitrary initial states by the use of periodic dynamical decoupling (PDD) pulses. It is indicated that the quantum speed limit time (QSLT) is determined by initial and final quantum coherence of the qubit, as well as the non-Markovianity of the system under consideration during the evolution when the qubit is subjected to a zero-temperature Ohmic-like dephasing reservoir. It is shown that final quantum coherence of the qubit and the non-Markovianity of the system can be modulated by PDD pulses. Our results show that for arbitrary initial states of the dephasing qubit with non-vanishing quantum coherence, PDD pulses can be used to induce potential acceleration of the quantum evolution in the short-time regime, while PDD pulses can lead to potential speedup and slow down in the long-time regime. We demonstrate that the effect of PDD on the QSLT for the Ohmic or sub-Ohmic spectrum (Markovian reservoir) is much different from that for the super-Ohmic spectrum (non-Markovian reservoir).

Relationship between quantum speed limit time and memory time in a photonic-band-gap environment.

Non-Markovian effect is found to be able to decrease the quantum speed limit (QSL) time, and hence to enhance the intrinsic speed of quantum evolution. Although a reservoir with larger degree of non-Markovianity may seem like it should cause smaller QSL times, this seemingly intuitive thinking may not always be true. We illustrate this by investigating the QSL time of a qubit that is coupled to a two-band photonic-band-gap (PBG) environment. We show how the QSL time is influenced by the coherent property of the reservoir and the band-gap width. In particular, we find that the decrease of the QSL time is not attributed to the increasing non-Markovianity, while the memory time of the environment can be seen as an essential reflection to the QSL time. So, the QSL time provides a further insight and sharper identification of memory time in a PBG environment. We also discuss a feasible experimental realization of our prediction.