Quantum Markov chain
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In mathematics, the quantum Markov chain is a reformulation of the ideas of a classical Markov chain, replacing the classical definitions of probability with quantum probability. Very roughly, the theory of a quantum Markov chain resembles that of a measure-many automaton, with some important substitutions: the initial state is to be replaced by a density matrix, and the projection operators are to be replaced by positive operator valued measures.
More precisely, a quantum Markov chain is a pair (E,ρ) with ρ a density matrix and E a quantum channel such that
is a completely positive trace-preserving map, and 
a C*-algebra of bounded operators. The pair must obey the quantum Markov condition, that
for all 
.
