Trajectories of Critical Unstable Qubits in and on the Bloch Sphere

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Hauptverfasser: Panghal, Snehit, Pilaftsis, Apostolos
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Panghal, Snehit
Pilaftsis, Apostolos
author_facet Panghal, Snehit
Pilaftsis, Apostolos
contents We extend previous studies on a novel class of unstable two-level systems which were called Critical Unstable Qubits (CUQs). In an appropriately defined co-decaying frame, the CUQs exhibit striking phenomena of indefinite anharmonic oscillations between two states and coherence-decoherence oscillations of mixed states. These features are distinct from the usual Rabi oscillations observed in the Hermitian counterpart of two-level systems, which are harmonic and preserve the coherence of the quantum state. We employ the density matrix formalism to study these phenomena for mixed states and delve into the nature of the trajectory traversed by these states in the Bloch sphere by studying the time evolution of the Bloch vector that describes the quantum state of the unstable qubit. In particular, we provide for the first time explicit geometric constructions to obtain trajectories of both pure and mixed CUQs in and on the Bloch sphere. This enables us to identify the stationary points of CUQs, at which the states do not evolve in time in the co-decaying frame. The potential implications of our findings for particle cosmology and quantum simulations of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians are discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_01405
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Trajectories of Critical Unstable Qubits in and on the Bloch Sphere
Panghal, Snehit
Pilaftsis, Apostolos
Quantum Physics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
We extend previous studies on a novel class of unstable two-level systems which were called Critical Unstable Qubits (CUQs). In an appropriately defined co-decaying frame, the CUQs exhibit striking phenomena of indefinite anharmonic oscillations between two states and coherence-decoherence oscillations of mixed states. These features are distinct from the usual Rabi oscillations observed in the Hermitian counterpart of two-level systems, which are harmonic and preserve the coherence of the quantum state. We employ the density matrix formalism to study these phenomena for mixed states and delve into the nature of the trajectory traversed by these states in the Bloch sphere by studying the time evolution of the Bloch vector that describes the quantum state of the unstable qubit. In particular, we provide for the first time explicit geometric constructions to obtain trajectories of both pure and mixed CUQs in and on the Bloch sphere. This enables us to identify the stationary points of CUQs, at which the states do not evolve in time in the co-decaying frame. The potential implications of our findings for particle cosmology and quantum simulations of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians are discussed.
title Trajectories of Critical Unstable Qubits in and on the Bloch Sphere
topic Quantum Physics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01405