Purdue–UMich Quantum Algorithms Seminar
September 18, 2026
From nonlinear stochastic differential equations to quantum channels: the Kolmogorov-Lindblad mapping
Hsuan-Cheng Wu (Penn State University)
4:10PM–5:10PM EST · Online
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Nonlinear stochastic differential equations describe dynamics under uncertainty, but their nonlinear coefficients and noise averaging complicate quantum representations. In the talk, we will discuss the Kolmogorov-Lindblad mapping developed by us that encodes their probability laws as the position diagonals of trace-one quantum density operators. For each Brownian realisation, a stochastic flow transports the initial ensemble; the square-root Jacobian makes its action on half-densities unitary. Averaging the resulting pure-state projectors gives a Lindblad equation with Hermitian jump operators. Its diagonal reproduces the Fokker-Planck density, while forward and backward intertwining identities recover bounded observables and time correlations independently of the initial coherences. A Galerkin approximation obtained by projecting the Stratonovich generators preserves the Lindblad structure. We give a residual-based error estimate and conditional quantum costs that display the dimension dependence of approximation constants, operator normalisations, state preparation and readout. Numerical experiments for double-well Langevin dynamics and noisy Lorenz-63 show rapid convergence of selected statistics at fixed dimension. The construction provides an exact bridge from flow-regular nonlinear diffusions to quantum channels; any computational advantage additionally requires controlled approximationand coherent access for the chosen problem family.