Published November 2006 | Version v1
Journal article

Visualization of superposition of macroscopically distinct states

  • 1. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 8 Ichibancho, Tokyo 102-8471 (Japan)
  • 2. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama (Japan)
  • 3. Department of Basic Science, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Tokyo 153-8902 (Japan)

Description

We propose a method of visualizing superpositions of macroscopically distinct states in many-body pure states. We introduce a visualization function, which is a coarse-grained quasi joint probability density for two or more Hermitian additive operators. If a state contains superpositions of macroscopically distinct states, one can visualize them by plotting the visualization function for appropriately taken operators. We also explain how to efficiently find appropriate operators for a given state. As examples, we visualize four states containing superpositions of macroscopically distinct states: the ground state of the XY model, that of the Heisenberg antiferromagnet, a state in Shor's factoring algorithm, and a state in Grover's quantum search algorithm. Although the visualization function can take negative values, it becomes nonnegative (hence, becomes a coarse-grained joint probability density) if the characteristic width of the coarse-graining function used in the visualization function is sufficiently large

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. A
Journal Volume
74
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 052111-052111.11
ISSN
1050-2947
CODEN
PLRAAN

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
39004171
Subject category
S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS;
Descriptors DEI
ADDITIVES; ALGORITHMS; ANTIFERROMAGNETISM; DENSITY; FUNCTIONS; GROUND STATES; IMAGES; MANY-BODY PROBLEM; PROBABILITY; QUANTUM COMPUTERS
Descriptors DEC
COMPUTERS; ENERGY LEVELS; MAGNETISM; MATHEMATICAL LOGIC; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2006 The American Physical Society