Entangled Markov chains (Q2505600)

Motivated by the problem of finding a satisfactory quantum generalization of the classical random walk, the authors construct a new class of quantum Markov chains which are at the same time purely generated and uniquely determined by a corresponding classical Markov chain. This construction yields as a corollary a solution to the problem of constructing quantum analogues of classical random walks which are ``entangled''\ in a sense specified in the paper. The formula giving the joint correlation of these quantum chains is obtained from the corresponding classical formula by replacing the usual matrix multiplication by Schur multiplication. The connection between Schur multiplication and entanglement is clarified by showing that these quantum chains are the limits of vector states whose amplitudes, in a given basis, are complex square roots of the joint probabilities of the corresponding classical chains. In view of possible applications to quantum statistical mechanics the authors prove that the ergodic type of an entangled Markov chain with finite state space is completely determined by the corresponding ergodic type of the underlying classical chain.