Locality for quantum systems on graphs depends on the number field

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/46/29/295301zbMATH Open1272.81083arXiv1204.3681OpenAlexW3102617547MaRDI QIDQ2843751FDOQ2843751

Publication date: 26 August 2013

Published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Adapting a definition of Aaronson and Ambainis [Theory Comput. 1 (2005), 47--79], we call a quantum dynamics on a digraph "saturated Z-local" if the nonzero transition amplitudes specifying the unitary evolution are in exact correspondence with the directed edges (including loops) of the digraph. This idea appears recurrently in a variety of contexts including angular momentum, quantum chaos, and combinatorial matrix theory. Complete characterization of the digraph properties that allow such a process to exist is a long-standing open question that can also be formulated in terms of minimum rank problems. We prove that saturated Z-local dynamics involving complex amplitudes occur on a proper superset of the digraphs that allow restriction to the real numbers or, even further, the rationals. Consequently, among these fields, complex numbers guarantee the largest possible choice of topologies supporting a discrete quantum evolution. A similar construction separates complex numbers from the skew field of quaternions. The result proposes a concrete ground for distinguishing between complex and quaternionic quantum mechanics.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.3681

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quaternion and other division algebras: arithmetic, zeta functions (11R52) Quantum mechanics on special spaces: manifolds, fractals, graphs, lattices (81Q35) Quantum chaos (81Q50)

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