Classical Noises Emerging from Quantum Environments

Abstract

In the framework of quantum open systems, that is, simple quantum systems coupled to quantum baths, our aim is to characterize those actions of the quantum environment which give rise to dynamics dictated by classical noises. First, we consider the discrete time scheme, through the model of repeated quantum interactions. We explore those unitary interactions which make the environment acting as if it were a classical noise, that is, dynamics which ought to be random walks on the unitary group of the small system. We show that this characterization is intimately related to the notion of complex obtuse random variables. These particular random variables have an associated 3-tensor whose symmetries make it diagonalizable in some orthonormal basis. We show how this diagonalisation entirely describes the behavior of the random walk associated to the action of the environment. In particular this 3-tensor and its diagonalization characterize the behavior of the continuous-time limits; they characterize the directions along which the limit process is of diffusive or of Poisson nature.