Given a permutation , the permutation matrix that is associated with is the matrix , where , whose entries are given by
An doubly stochastic matrix is a square matrix whose elements are real and whose rows and columns sum to unity. Given such a matrix, there exist nonnegative weights such that
and .
The set of such matrices of order is said to form the convex hull of permutation matrices of the same order where the latter are the vertices (extreme points) of the former.
In the quantum context, doubly stochastic matrices become doubly stochastic channels, i.e. completely positive maps preserving both the trace and the identity. Quantum mechanically we understand the permutations to be the unitarily implemented channels. That is, we expect doubly stochastic quantum channels to be convex combinations of unitary channels (that is channels that can be represented by some combination of unitary transformations). Unfortunately it is well-known that some quantum channels be written that way.
However, large tensor powers of a channel may be easier to represent in this way, because one need not use only product unitaries in the decomposition. Thus one proposed solution to the problem is to denote, for any doubly stochastic channel , by the Birkhoff defect, defined as the cb-norm distance from to the convex hull of the unitarily implemented channels. Then the key is to determine whether goes to zero as .
Last revised on August 30, 2024 at 09:27:52. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.