English

States and channels in quantum mechanics without complex numbers

Computational Physics 2017-12-21 v1 Mathematical Software Quantum Physics

Abstract

In the presented note we aim at exploring the possibility of abandoning complex numbers in the representation of quantum states and operations. We demonstrate a simplified version of quantum mechanics in which the states are represented using real numbers only. The main advantage of this approach is that the simulation of the nn-dimensional quantum system requires n2n^2 real numbers, in contrast to the standard case where n4n^4 real numbers are required. The main disadvantage is the lack of hermicity in the representation of quantum states. Using Mathematica computer algebra system we develop a set of functions for manipulating real-only quantum states. With the help of this tool we study the properties of the introduced representation and the induced representation of quantum channels.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.04787,
  title  = {States and channels in quantum mechanics without complex numbers},
  author = {J. A. Miszczak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.04787},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

10 pages, 2 figures, presented at ACA2015, July 20-23, 2015, Kalamata, Greece

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:11:35.970Z