Matrix N-dilations of quantum channels

Abstract

We study unital quantum channels which are obtained via partial trace of a $*$-automorphism of a finite unital matrix $*$-algebra. We prove that any such channel, $q$, on a unital matrix $*$-algebra, $\mathcal{A}$, admits a finite matrix $N-$dilation, $\alpha _N$, for any natural number N. Namely, $\alpha _N$ is a $*$-automorphism of a larger bi-partite matrix algebra $\mathcal{A} \otimes \mathcal{B}$ so that partial trace of $M$-fold self-compositions of $\alpha _N$ yield the $M$-fold self-compositions of the original quantum channel, for any $1\leq M \leq N$. This demonstrates that repeated applications of the channel can be viewed as $*$-automorphic time evolution of a larger finite quantum system.