Frontiers of quantum physics

Abstract:

We calculate the Berry phase of a spin-1/2 particle in a magnetic field considering the quantum nature of the field. The phase reduces to the standard Berry phase in the semiclassical limit and the eigenstate of the particle acquires a phase in the vacuum. We also show how to generate a vacuum induced Berry phase considering two quantized modes of the field which has an interesting physical interpretation.

Abstract:

Quantum mechanics and information theory are among the most important scientific discoveries of the last century. Although these two areas initially developed separately, it has emerged that they are in fact intimately related. In this review the author shows how quantum information theory extends traditional information theory by exploring the limits imposed by quantum, rather than classical, mechanics on information storage and transmission. The derivation of many key results differentiates this review from the usual presentation in that they are shown to follow logically from one crucial property of relative entropy. Within the review, optimal bounds on the enhanced speed that quantum computers can achieve over their classical counterparts are outlined using information-theoretic arguments. In addition, important implications of quantum information theory for thermodynamics and quantum measurement are intermittently discussed. A number of simple examples and derivations, including quantum superdense coding, quantum teleportation, and Deutsch's and Grover's algorithms, are also included.

Abstract:

We apply the axiomatic approach to thermodynamics presented by Giles to derive a unique measure of entanglement for bipartite pure states. This implies that local manipulations of entanglement in quantum information theory and adiabatic transformations of states in thermodynamics have the same underlying mathematical structure. We discuss possible extensions of our results to mixed and multipartite states.

Abstract:

We propose an entanglement concentration scheme which uses only the effects of quantum statistics of indistinguishable particles. This establishes the fact that useful quantum information processing can be accomplished by quantum statistics alone. Because of the basis independence of statistical effects, our protocol requires less knowledge of the initial state than most entanglement concentration schemes. Moreover, no explicit controlled operation is required at any stage.