The aim of this work is to investigate projection operator method of deriva- tion of equations of motion for reduced density matrix and apply it to a model open quantum system. We gradually pass from quantum mechanical model of a molecule with one vibrational degree of freedom to an example of open quantum system relevant in the theory of nonlinear spectroscopy. In the thesis we present results of numerical simulations of the time evolution of the open quantum system performed with a program written for this purpose. We are specially concerned with simulations of the solution of the time-convolutionless generalized master equation up to the a second order of the perturbation expan- sion, and we show that under certain conditions it provides an exact solution of the problem. The text also contains derivation of the recurrence relations for the Franck-Condon factors for the most general case of two quantum harmonic oscillators in one space dimension, i. e. transformation matrix between two bases of the L2 (R) space determined by the solutions of the time-independent Schrödinger equation appropriate for these oscillators. 1

Transmitting quantum information across quantum channels is an important task. However quantum information is delicate, and is easily corrupted. We address the task of protecting quantum information from an information theoretic perspective -- we encode some message qudits into a quantum code, send the encoded quantum information across the noisy quantum channel, then recover the message qudits by decoding. In this dissertation, we discuss the coding problem from several perspectives.} The noisy quantum channel is one of the central aspects of the quantum coding problem, and hence quantifying the noisy quantum channel from the physical model is an important problem. We work with an explicit physical model -- a pair of initially decoupled quantum harmonic oscillators interacting with a spring-like coupling, where the bath oscillator is initially in a thermal-like state. In particular, we treat the completely positive and trace preserving map on the system as a quantum channel, and study the truncation of the channel by truncating its Kraus set. We thereby derive the matrix elements of the Choi-Jamiolkowski operator of the corresponding truncated channel, which are truncated transition amplitudes. Finally, we give a computable approximation for these truncated transition amplitudes with explicit error bounds, and perform a case study of the oscillators in the off-resonant and weakly-coupled regime numerically. In the context of truncated noisy channels, we revisit the notion of approximate error correction of finite dimension codes. We derive a computationally simple lower bound on the worst case entanglement fidelity of a quantum code, when the truncated recovery map of Leung et. al. is rescaled. As an application, we apply our bound to construct a family of multi-error correcting amplitude damping codes that are permutation-invariant. This demonstrates an explicit example where the specific structure of the noisy channel allows code design out of the stabilizer formalism via purely algebraic means. We study lower bounds on the quantum capacity of adversarial channels, where we restrict the selection of quantum codes to the set of concatenated quantum codes. The adversarial channel is a quantum channel where an adversary corrupts a fixed fraction of qudits sent across a quantum channel in the most malicious way possible. The best known rates of communicating over adversarial channels are given by the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound, that is known to be attainable with random quantum codes. We generalize the classical result of Thommesen to the quantum case, thereby demonstrating the existence of concatenated quantum codes that can asymptotically attain the quantum GV bound. The outer codes are quantum generalized Reed-Solomon codes, and the inner codes are random independently chosen stabilizer codes, where the rates of the inner and outer codes lie in a specified feasible region. We next study upper bounds on the quantum capacity of some low dimension quantum channels. The quantum capacity of a quantum channel is the maximum rate at which quantum information can be transmitted reliably across it, given arbitrarily many uses of it. While it is known that random quantum codes can be used to attain the quantum capacity, the quantum capacity of many classes of channels is undetermined, even for channels of low input and output dimension. For example, depolarizing channels are important quantum channels, but do not have tight numerical bounds. We obtain upper bounds on the quantum capacity of some unital and non-unital channels -- two-qubit Pauli channels, two-qubit depolarizing channels, two-qubit locally symmetric channels, shifted qubit depolarizing channels, and shifted two-qubit Pauli channels -- using the coherent information of some degradable channels. We use the notion of twirling quantum channels, and Smith and Smolin's method of constructing degradable extensions of quantum channels extensively. The degradable channels we introduce, study and use are two-qubit amplitude damping channels. Exploiting the notion of covariant quantum channels, we give sufficient conditions for the quantum capacity of a degradable channel to be the optimal value of a concave program with linear constraints, and show that our two-qubit degradable amplitude damping channels have this property.

Transmitting quantum information across quantum channels is an important task. However quantum information is delicate, and is easily corrupted. We address the task of protecting quantum information from an information theoretic perspective -- we encode some message qudits into a quantum code, send the encoded quantum information across the noisy quantum channel, then recover the message qudits by decoding. In this dissertation, we discuss the coding problem from several perspectives.} The noisy quantum channel is one of the central aspects of the quantum coding problem, and hence quantifying the noisy quantum channel from the physical model is an important problem. We work with an explicit physical model -- a pair of initially decoupled quantum harmonic oscillators interacting with a spring-like coupling, where the bath oscillator is initially in a thermal-like state. In particular, we treat the completely positive and trace preserving map on the system as a quantum channel, and study the truncation of the channel by truncating its Kraus set. We thereby derive the matrix elements of the Choi-Jamiolkowski operator of the corresponding truncated channel, which are truncated transition amplitudes. Finally, we give a computable approximation for these truncated transition amplitudes with explicit error bounds, and perform a case study of the oscillators in the off-resonant and weakly-coupled regime numerically. In the context of truncated noisy channels, we revisit the notion of approximate error correction of finite dimension codes. We derive a computationally simple lower bound on the worst case entanglement fidelity of a quantum code, when the truncated recovery map of Leung et. al. is rescaled. As an application, we apply our bound to construct a family of multi-error correcting amplitude damping codes that are permutation-invariant. This demonstrates an explicit example where the specific structure of the noisy channel allows code design out of the stabilizer formalism via purely algebraic means. We study lower bounds on the quantum capacity of adversarial channels, where we restrict the selection of quantum codes to the set of concatenated quantum codes. The adversarial channel is a quantum channel where an adversary corrupts a fixed fraction of qudits sent across a quantum channel in the most malicious way possible. The best known rates of communicating over adversarial channels are given by the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound, that is known to be attainable with random quantum codes. We generalize the classical result of Thommesen to the quantum case, thereby demonstrating the existence of concatenated quantum codes that can asymptotically attain the quantum GV bound. The outer codes are quantum generalized Reed-Solomon codes, and the inner codes are random independently chosen stabilizer codes, where the rates of the inner and outer codes lie in a specified feasible region. We next study upper bounds on the quantum capacity of some low dimension quantum channels. The quantum capacity of a quantum channel is the maximum rate at which quantum information can be transmitted reliably across it, given arbitrarily many uses of it. While it is known that random quantum codes can be used to attain the quantum capacity, the quantum capacity of many classes of channels is undetermined, even for channels of low input and output dimension. For example, depolarizing channels are important quantum channels, but do not have tight numerical bounds. We obtain upper bounds on the quantum capacity of some unital and non-unital channels -- two-qubit Pauli channels, two-qubit depolarizing channels, two-qubit locally symmetric channels, shifted qubit depolarizing channels, and shifted two-qubit Pauli channels -- using the coherent information of some degradable channels. We use the notion of twirling quantum channels, and Smith and Smolin's method of constructing degradable extensions of quantum channels extensively. The degradable channels we introduce, study and use are two-qubit amplitude damping channels. Exploiting the notion of covariant quantum channels, we give sufficient conditions for the quantum capacity of a degradable channel to be the optimal value of a concave program with linear constraints, and show that our two-qubit degradable amplitude damping channels have this property.

[pt] A Mecânica Quântica é uma das teorias mais bem sucedidas de todos os tempos. Não apenas tem um grande poder preditivo, como também mudou completamente a maneira como entendemos a física. No entanto, a Mecânica Quântica não prevê o próprio alcance, e, em princípio, a descrição probabilística deveria ser válida em nosso mundo macroscópico. Mas isso não acontece. Um ponto central do porquê a descrição quântica é substituída pela Mecânica Clássica, é a descoerência. A interação dos muitos graus de liberdade de um ambiente macroscópico faz com que seja extremamente difícil medirmos as propriadades quânticas de um sistema. Nesse contexto, exploramos como ainda podemos detectar efeitos não-clássicos de osciladores harmônicos em um regime intermediário, através da optomecânica. Neste trabalho apresentamos fundamentos do formalismo da optomecânica, tanto a dinâmica unitária, quanto para sistemas quânticos abertos. Depois, discutimos dois sistemas optomecânicos distintos, ressaltando como podemos investigar a presença de características quânticas. Além disso, discutiremos outras abordagens para identifcar características quânticas de osciladores harmônicos em situações cada vez mais próximas ao regime macroscópico. / [en] Quantum Mechanics is one of the most successful theories of all time. It not only has a great predictive power, but also has completely changed the way physics is understood. However, Quantum Mechanics does not predict its own range of validity, and, in principle, the probabilistic description should be valid in our macroscopic world. But it does not happen. In the core of the explanation of why the description from Quantum Mechanics is substituted by Classical Mechanics lies decoherence. The interaction of the many unseen degrees of freedom from a macroscopic environment with a quantum system makes it extremely hard to measure its quantum properties. In this context, we explore how one can still detect non-classicality of oscillators in a intermediate regime, whether in a mesoscopic scale or a oscillator with a macroscopic number of excitations, via an optomechanical description. In this work, we present the basics of the formalism of optomechanics, both in the unitary dynamics and in an open quantum system approach. We then discuss two different optomechanical systems, highlighting how we can perceive its quantum features. At last, we discuss other possible schemes to identify the quantum nature of harmonic oscillators in situations of increasing macroscopic nature.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est de démontrer certaines propriétés géométriques des fonctions propres de l'oscillateur harmonique quantique. Nous étudierons les domaines nodaux, c'est-à-dire les composantes connexes du complément de l'ensemble nodal. Supposons que les valeurs propres ont été ordonnées en ordre croissant. Selon un théorème fondamental dû à Courant, une fonction propre associée à la $n$-ième valeur propre ne peut avoir plus de $n$ domaines nodaux. Ce résultat a été prouvé initialement pour le laplacien de Dirichlet sur un domaine borné mais il est aussi vrai pour l'oscillateur harmonique quantique isotrope. Le théorème a été amélioré par Pleijel en 1956 pour le laplacien de Dirichlet. En effet, on peut donner un résultat asymptotique plus fort pour le nombre de domaines nodaux lorsque les valeurs propres tendent vers l'infini. Dans ce mémoire, nous prouvons un résultat du même type pour l'oscillateur harmonique quantique isotrope. Pour ce faire, nous utiliserons une combinaison d'outils classiques de la géométrie spectrale (dont certains ont été utilisés dans la preuve originale de Pleijel) et de plusieurs nouvelles idées, notamment l'application de certaines techniques tirées de la géométrie algébrique et l'étude des domaines nodaux non-bornés. / The aim of this thesis is to explore the geometric properties of eigenfunctions of the isotropic quantum harmonic oscillator. We focus on studying the nodal domains, which are the connected components of the complement of the nodal (i.e. zero) set of an eigenfunction. Assume that the eigenvalues are listed in an increasing order. According to a fundamental theorem due to Courant, an eigenfunction corresponding to the $n$-th eigenvalue has at most $n$ nodal domains. This result has been originally proved for the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem on a bounded Euclidean domain, but it also holds for the eigenfunctions of a quantum harmonic oscillator. Courant's theorem was refined by Pleijel in 1956, who proved a more precise result on the asymptotic behaviour of the number of nodal domains of the Dirichlet eigenfunctions on bounded domains as the eigenvalues tend to infinity. In the thesis we prove a similar result in the case of the isotropic quantum harmonic oscillator. To do so, we use a combination of classical tools from spectral geometry (some of which were used in Pleijel’s original argument) with a number of new ideas, which include applications of techniques from algebraic geometry and the study of unbounded nodal domains.

In this thesis, we present some new results in distribution theory for both discrete and continuous random variables, together with their motivating applications. We start with some results about the Multivariate Gaussian Distribution and its characterization as a maximizer of the Strichartz Estimates. Then, we present some characterizations of discrete and continuous distributions through ideas coming from optimal transportation. After this, we pass to the Simpson's Paradox and see that it is ubiquitous and it appears in Quantum Mechanics as well. We conclude with a group of results about discrete and continuous distributions invariant under symmetries, in particular invariant under the groups $A_1$, an elliptical version of $O(n)$ and $\mathbb{T}^n$. As mentioned, all the results proved in this thesis are motivated by their applications in different research areas. The applications will be thoroughly discussed. We have tried to keep each chapter self-contained and recalled results from other chapters when needed. The following is a more precise summary of the results discussed in each chapter. In chapter \ref{chapter 2}, we discuss a variational characterization of the Multivariate Normal distribution (MVN) as a maximizer of the Strichartz Estimates. Strichartz Estimates appear as a fundamental tool in the proof of wellposedness results for dispersive PDEs. With respect to the characterization of the MVN distribution as a maximizer of the entropy functional, the characterization as a maximizer of the Strichartz Estimate does not require the constraint of fixed variance. In this chapter, we compute the precise optimal constant for the whole range of Strichartz admissible exponents, discuss the connection of this problem to Restriction Theorems in Fourier analysis and give some statistical properties of the family of Gaussian Distributions which maximize the Strichartz estimates, such as Fisher Information, Index of Dispersion and Stochastic Ordering. We conclude this chapter presenting an optimization algorithm to compute numerically the maximizers. Chapter \ref{chapter 3} is devoted to the characterization of distributions by means of techniques from Optimal Transportation and the Monge-Amp\`{e}re equation. We give emphasis to methods to do statistical inference for distributions that do not possess good regularity, decay or integrability properties. For example, distributions which do not admit a finite expected value, such as the Cauchy distribution. The main tool used here is a modified version of the characteristic function (a particular case of the Fourier Transform). An important motivation to develop these tools come from Big Data analysis and in particular the Consensus Monte Carlo Algorithm. In chapter \ref{chapter 4}, we study the \emph{Simpson's Paradox}. The \emph{Simpson's Paradox} is the phenomenon that appears in some datasets, where subgroups with a common trend (say, all negative trend) show the reverse trend when they are aggregated (say, positive trend). Even if this issue has an elementary mathematical explanation, the statistical implications are deep. Basic examples appear in arithmetic, geometry, linear algebra, statistics, game theory, sociology (e.g. gender bias in the graduate school admission process) and so on and so forth. In our new results, we prove the occurrence of the \emph{Simpson's Paradox} in Quantum Mechanics. In particular, we prove that the \emph{Simpson's Paradox} occurs for solutions of the \emph{Quantum Harmonic Oscillator} both in the stationary case and in the non-stationary case. We prove that the phenomenon is not isolated and that it appears (asymptotically) in the context of the \emph{Nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger Equation} as well. The likelihood of the \emph{Simpson's Paradox} in Quantum Mechanics and the physical implications are also discussed. Chapter \ref{chapter 5} contains some new results about distributions with symmetries. We first discuss a result on symmetric order statistics. We prove that the symmetry of any of the order statistics is equivalent to the symmetry of the underlying distribution. Then, we characterize elliptical distributions through group invariance and give some properties. Finally, we study geometric probability distributions on the torus with applications to molecular biology. In particular, we introduce a new family of distributions generated through stereographic projection, give several properties of them and compare them with the Von-Mises distribution and its multivariate extensions. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)