Quantum hydrodynamics from Nambu's unpublished fluid notes

Abstract

We develop a quantum hydrodynamic theory based on Nambu's unpublished note \emph{A New Look at Fluid Dynamics}. The kinetic action defines a metric on configuration space and a mechanical connection coupling an observable cyclic deformation to unobserved fluid modes. Tracing out these modes yields a quantum channel for the observed deformation. We establish a criterion for the exact preservation of coherence between opposite momenta and show how nonzero connection curvature prevents this coupling from being removed. The leading quadratic decay of quantum coherence is determined by the prepared quantum state. For two shear flows, we identify an exact noiseless sign subsystem. Introducing additional generating flows cancels the initial residual of the Euler equations while producing nonzero connection curvature, governed by the same kinetic integrals that determine the classical correction. At fixed mean energy, choosing amplitudes adapted to the dominant coupling flow substantially reduces the initial decoherence, even along the direction that cancels the Euler residual. This advantage gradually diminishes under conditional evolution, eventually leading to a crossing of the decoherence curves. Our example shows that a preparation with a smaller initial coherence-decay coefficient can have a larger maximum sampled loss over a finite readout interval.