Koopman and transfer operator techniques from the perspective of quantum theory

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between classical dynamical systems and quantum theory through operator methods, highlighting recent data-driven approximation techniques and their potential for quantum algorithms.

Contribution

It surveys the Koopman-von Neumann framework and introduces advanced approximation methods using reproducing kernel Hilbert algebras and Fock spaces for classical-quantum operator representations.

Findings

Reproducing kernel Hilbert algebras facilitate quantum representations of classical objects.

Fock space-based schemes preserve positivity and multiplicativity.

Applications to quantum algorithms for systems with pure point spectra.

Abstract

The study of mathematical connections between operator-theoretic formulations of classical dynamics and quantum mechanics began at least as early as the 1930s in work of Koopman and von Neumann and was developed in later decades by many authors, often independently, into a framework now broadly known as Koopman-von Neumann representation of classical dynamics. This article surveys aspects of this framework for measure-preserving ergodic dynamical systems and connects it with recent approximation techniques for Koopman and transfer operators that are amenable to data-driven numerical implementation. In broad terms, these methods are based on representations of (i) classical observables as elements of an algebra of operators acting on a Hilbert space; and (ii) classical probability measures as elements of the state space of that algebra, with lifted versions of the Koopman and transfer operators inducing dynamical evolution of observables and states, respectively. A common theme underlying the techniques surveyed here is the use of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces with coalgebra structure (so-called "reproducing kernel Hilbert algebras'') that aids the quantum representation of classical objects, as well as the use of Fock spaces to build approximation schemes with high expressivity and structure preservation properties (notably, preservation of positivity and multiplicativity of composition operators). Applications to quantum algorithms for approximating the Koopman evolution of observables in systems with pure point spectra are also discussed.