QUANTUM CHANNELS WITH MEMORY

Quantum memory channels represent a very general, yet simple and comprehensible model for causal processes. As such they have attracted considerable research interest, mostly aimed on their transfer capabilities and structure properties. Most notably it was shown that memory channels can be implemented via physically naturally motivated collision models. We also define the concept of repeatable channels and show that only unital channels can be implemented repeatably with pure memory channels. In the special case of qubit channels we also show that every unital qubit channel has a repeatable implementation. We also briefly explore the possibilities of stroboscopical simulation of channels and show that all random unitary channels can be stroboscopically simulated. Particularly in qubit case, all indivisible qubit channels are also random unitary, hence for qubit all indivisible channels can be stroboscopically simulated. Memory channels also naturally capture the framework of correlated experiments. We develop methods to gather and interpret data obtained in such setting and in detail examine the two qubit case. We also show that for control unitary interactions the measured data will never contradict a simple unitary evolution. Thus no memory effects can be spotted then. DOI: 10.2478/v10155-012-0004-3