Statistical quantum operation
arXiv:0903.3875 · doi:10.1142/S0217984910024407
Abstract
A generic unital positive operator-valued measure (POVM), which transforms a given stationary pure state to an arbitrary statistical state with perfect decoherence, is presented. This allows one to operationally realize thermalization as a special case. The loss of information due to randomness generated by the operation is discussed by evaluating the entropy. Thermalization of the bipartite spin-1/2 system is discussed as an illustrative example.
10 pages, no figures