Quantum Holonomies : Concepts and Applications to Quantum Computing and Interferometry

Sammanfattning: Quantum holonomies are investigated in different contexts.A geometric phase is proposed for decomposition dependent evolution, where each component of a given decomposition of a mixed state evolves independently. It is shown that this geometric phase only depends on the path traversed in the space of decompositions.A holonomy is associated to general paths of subspaces of a Hilbert space, both discrete and continuous. This opens up the possibility of constructing quantum holonomic gates in the open path setting. In the discrete case it is shown that it is possible to associate two distinct holonomies to a given path. Interferometric setups for measuring both holonomies areprovided. It is further shown that there are cases when the holonomy is only partially defined. This has no counterpart in the Abelian setting.An operational interpretation of amplitudes of density operators is provided. This allows for a direct interferometric realization of Uhlmann's parallelity condition, and the possibility of measuring the Uhlmann holonomy for sequences of density operators.Off-diagonal geometric phases are generalized to the non-Abelian case. These off-diagonal holonomies are undefined for cyclic evolution, but must contain members of non-zero rank if all standard holonomies are undefined. Experimental setups for measuring the off-diagonal holonomies are proposed.The concept of nodal free geometric phases is introduced. These are constructed from gauge invariant quantities, but do not share the nodal point structure of geometric phases and off-diagonal geometric phases. An interferometric setup for measuring nodal free geometric phases is provided, and it is shown that these phases could be useful in geometric quantum computation.A holonomy associated to a sequence of quantum maps is introduced. It is shown that this holonomy is related to the Uhlmann holonomy. Explicit examples are provided to illustrate the general idea.