Discrete dynamics in the set of quantum measurements

Abstract A quantum measurement, often referred to as positive operator-valued measurement (POVM), is a set of positive operators summing to identity. This can be seen as a generalization of a probability distribution of positive real numbers summing to unity, whose evolution is given by a stochastic matrix. Discrete transformations in the set of quantum measurements can be described by blockwise stochastic matrices , composed of positive blocks that sum columnwise to identity, and the notion of sequential product of matrices. We show that such transformations correspond to a sequence of quantum measurements. Imposing additionally the dual condition that the sum of blocks in each row is equal to identity we arrive at blockwise bistochastic matrices (also called quantum magic squares ) and study their properties. Analyzing the dynamics they induce we formulate a quantum analog of the Ostrowski description of the classical Birkhoff polytope and introduce the notion of majorization between quantum measurements. Our framework provides a dynamical characterization of the set of blockwise bistochastic matrices and establishes a resource theory in this set.