Photonic realization of quantum resetting

Abstract

Contrary to the usual assumption of at least partial control of quantum dynamics, a surprising recent result proved that an arbitrary quantum state can be probabilistically reset to a state in the past by having it interact with probing systems in a consistent but uncontrolled way. We present a photonic implementation to achieve this resetting process, experimentally verifying that a state can be probabilistically reset to its past with a fidelity of 0.870 ± 0.012 . We further demonstrate the preservation of an entangled state, which still violates a Bell inequality, after half of the entangled pair was reset. The ability to reset uncontrolled quantum states has implications in the foundations of quantum physics and applications in areas of quantum technology.