Characterizing the geometry of the Kirkwood-Dirac positive states

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Langrenez, Christopher, Arvidsson-Shukur, David R. M., De Bièvre, Stephan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Langrenez, Christopher
Arvidsson-Shukur, David R. M.
De Bièvre, Stephan
author_facet Langrenez, Christopher
Arvidsson-Shukur, David R. M.
De Bièvre, Stephan
contents The Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) quasiprobability distribution can describe any quantum state with respect to the eigenbases of two observables $A$ and $B$. KD distributions behave similarly to classical joint probability distributions but can assume negative and nonreal values. In recent years, KD distributions have proven instrumental in mapping out nonclassical phenomena and quantum advantages. These quantum features have been connected to nonpositive entries of KD distributions. Consequently, it is important to understand the geometry of the KD-positive and -nonpositive states. Until now, there has been no thorough analysis of the KD positivity of mixed states. Here, we characterize how the full convex set of states with positive KD distributions depends on the eigenbases of $A$ and $B$. In particular, we identify three regimes where convex combinations of the eigenprojectors of $A$ and $B$ constitute the only KD-positive states: $(i)$ any system in dimension $2$; $(ii)$ an open and dense set of bases in dimension $3$; and $(iii)$ the discrete-Fourier-transform bases in prime dimension. Finally, we investigate if there can exist mixed KD-positive states that cannot be written as convex combinations of pure KD-positive states. We show that for some choices of observables $A$ and $B$ this phenomenon does indeed occur. We explicitly construct such states for a spin-$1$ system.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_00086
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterizing the geometry of the Kirkwood-Dirac positive states
Langrenez, Christopher
Arvidsson-Shukur, David R. M.
De Bièvre, Stephan
Quantum Physics
Mathematical Physics
The Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) quasiprobability distribution can describe any quantum state with respect to the eigenbases of two observables $A$ and $B$. KD distributions behave similarly to classical joint probability distributions but can assume negative and nonreal values. In recent years, KD distributions have proven instrumental in mapping out nonclassical phenomena and quantum advantages. These quantum features have been connected to nonpositive entries of KD distributions. Consequently, it is important to understand the geometry of the KD-positive and -nonpositive states. Until now, there has been no thorough analysis of the KD positivity of mixed states. Here, we characterize how the full convex set of states with positive KD distributions depends on the eigenbases of $A$ and $B$. In particular, we identify three regimes where convex combinations of the eigenprojectors of $A$ and $B$ constitute the only KD-positive states: $(i)$ any system in dimension $2$; $(ii)$ an open and dense set of bases in dimension $3$; and $(iii)$ the discrete-Fourier-transform bases in prime dimension. Finally, we investigate if there can exist mixed KD-positive states that cannot be written as convex combinations of pure KD-positive states. We show that for some choices of observables $A$ and $B$ this phenomenon does indeed occur. We explicitly construct such states for a spin-$1$ system.
title Characterizing the geometry of the Kirkwood-Dirac positive states
topic Quantum Physics
Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00086