No Arabic abstract
Quantifying how distinguishable two stochastic processes are lies at the heart of many fields, such as machine learning and quantitative finance. While several measures have been proposed for this task, none have universal applicability and ease of use. In this Letter, we suggest a set of requirements for a well-behaved measure of process distinguishability. Moreover, we propose a family of measures, called divergence rates, that satisfy all of these requirements. Focussing on a particular member of this family -- the co-emission divergence rate -- we show that it can be computed efficiently, behaves qualitatively similar to other commonly-used measures in their regimes of applicability, and remains well-behaved in scenarios where other measures break down.
In recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett {bf 121}, 070601 (2018), arXiv:1802.06554], the speed limit for classical stochastic Markov processes is considered, and a trade-off inequality between the speed of the state transformation and the entropy production is given. In this comment, a more accurate inequality will be presented.
A quantum ensemble ${(p_x, rho_x)}$ is a set of quantum states each occurring randomly with a given probability. Quantum ensembles are necessary to describe situations with incomplete a priori information, such as the output of a stochastic quantum channel (generalized measurement), and play a central role in quantum communication. In this paper, we propose measures of distance and fidelity between two quantum ensembles. We consider two approaches: the first one is based on the ability to mimic one ensemble given the other one as a resource and is closely related to the Monge-Kantorovich optimal transportation problem, while the second one uses the idea of extended-Hilbert-space (EHS) representations which introduce auxiliary pointer (or flag) states. Both types of measures enjoy a number of desirable properties. The Kantorovich measures, albeit monotonic under deterministic quantum operations, are not monotonic under generalized measurements. In contrast, the EHS measures are. We present operational interpretations for both types of measures. We also show that the EHS fidelity between ensembles provides a novel interpretation of the fidelity between mixed states--the latter is equal to the maximum of the fidelity between all pure-state ensembles whose averages are equal to the mixed states being compared. We finally use the new measures to define distance and fidelity for stochastic quantum channels and positive operator-valued measures (POVMs). These quantities may be useful in the context of tomography of stochastic quantum channels and quantum detectors.
Estimating the expected value of an observable appearing in a non-equilibrium stochastic process usually involves sampling. If the observables variance is high, many samples are required. In contrast, we show that performing the same task without sampling, using tensor network compression, efficiently captures high variances in systems of various geometries and dimensions. We provide examples for which matching the accuracy of our efficient method would require a sample size scaling exponentially with system size. In particular, the high variance observable $mathrm{e}^{-beta W}$, motivated by Jarzynskis equality, with $W$ the work done quenching from equilibrium at inverse temperature $beta$, is exactly and efficiently captured by tensor networks.
We investigate the standard deviation $delta v(tsamp)$ of the variance $v[xbf]$ of time series $xbf$ measured over a finite sampling time $tsamp$ focusing on non-ergodic systems where independent configurations $c$ get trapped in meta-basins of a generalized phase space. It is thus relevant in which order averages over the configurations $c$ and over time series $k$ of a configuration $c$ are performed. Three variances of $v[xbf_{ck}]$ must be distinguished: the total variance $dvtot = dvint + dvext$ and its contributions $dvint$, the typical internal variance within the meta-basins, and $dvext$, characterizing the dispersion between the different basins. We discuss simplifications for physical systems where the stochastic variable $x(t)$ is due to a density field averaged over a large system volume $V$. The relations are illustrated for the shear-stress fluctuations in quenched elastic networks and low-temperature glasses formed by polydisperse particles and free-standing polymer films. The different statistics of $svint$ and $svext$ are manifested by their different system-size dependence
We extend the work of Tanase-Nicola and Kurchan on the structure of diffusion processes and the associated supersymmetry algebra by examining the responses of a simple statistical system to external disturbances of various kinds. We consider both the stochastic differential equations (SDEs) for the process and the associated diffusion equation. The influence of the disturbances can be understood by augmenting the original SDE with an equation for {it slave variables}. The evolution of the slave variables describes the behaviour of line elements carried along in the stochastic flow. These line elements together with the associated surface and volume elements constructed from them provide the basis of the supersymmetry properties of the theory. For ease of visualisation, and in order to emphasise a helpful electromagnetic analogy, we work in three dimensions. The results are all generalisable to higher dimensions and can be specialised to one and two dimensions. The electromagnetic analogy is a useful starting point for calculating asymptotic results at low temperature that can be compared with direct numerical evaluations. We also examine the problems that arise in a direct numerical simulation of the stochastic equation together with the slave equations. We pay special attention to the dependence of the slave variable statistics on temperature. We identify in specific models the critical temperature below which the slave variable distribution ceases to have a variance and consider the effect on estimates of susceptibilities.