Composite Quantum Systems Research Articles

Some Characterizations of EPR Steering

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen(EPR) steering is one of important quantum correlations of a composite quantum system, which was observed firstly by Schrodinger in the context of the famous EPR paradox and has been discussed recently. In this paper, we give some characterizations of EPR steerability of bipartite states by proving some necessary and sufficient conditions for a state to be unsteerable with a measurement assemblage of Alice. Based on one of the obtained characterizations, we derive an EPR steering inequality, which serves to check EPR steerability of the maximally entangled states.

On Clifford groups in quantum computing

The term Clifford group was introduced in 1998 by D. Gottesmann in his investigation of quantum error-correcting codes. The simplest Clifford group in multiqubit quantum computation is generated by a restricted set of unitary Clifford gates - the Hadamard, π/4-phase and controlled-X gates. Because of this restriction the Clifford model of quantum computation can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer (the Gottesmann-Knill theorem). However, this fact does not diminish the importance of the Clifford model, since it may serve as a suitable starting point for a full-fledged quantum computation.In the general case of a single or composite quantum system with finite-dimensional Hilbert space the finite Weyl-Heisenberg group of unitary operators defines the quantum kinematics and the states of the quantum register. Then the corresponding Clifford group is defined as the group of unitary operators leaving the Weyl-Heisenberg group invariant. The aim of this contribution is to show that our comprehensive results on symmetries of the Pauli gradings of quantum operator algebras - covering any single as well as composite finite quantum systems - directly correspond to Clifford groups defined as quotients with respect to U(1).

A No-Go Theorem for Observer-Independent Facts.

In his famous thought experiment, Wigner assigns an entangled state to the composite quantum system made up of Wigner’s friend and her observed system. While the two of them have different accounts of the process, each Wigner and his friend can in principle verify his/her respective state assignments by performing an appropriate measurement. As manifested through a click in a detector or a specific position of the pointer, the outcomes of these measurements can be regarded as reflecting directly observable “facts”. Reviewing arXiv:1507.05255, I will derive a no-go theorem for observer-independent facts, which would be common both for Wigner and the friend. I will then analyze this result in the context of a newly-derived theorem arXiv:1604.07422, where Frauchiger and Renner prove that “single-world interpretations of quantum theory cannot be self-consistent”. It is argued that “self-consistency” has the same implications as the assumption that observational statements of different observers can be compared in a single (and hence an observer-independent) theoretical framework. The latter, however, may not be possible, if the statements are to be understood as relational in the sense that their determinacy is relative to an observer.

Experimental tests of coherence and entanglement conservation under unitary evolutions

We experimentally demonstrate the migration of coherence between composite quantum systems and their subsystems. The quantum systems are implemented using polarization states of photons in two experimental setups. The first setup is based on linear optical controlled-phase quantum gate and the second scheme is utilizing effects of nonlinear optics. Our experiment allows to verify the relation between correlations of the subsystems and the coherence of the composite system, which was given in terms of a conservation law for maximal accessible coherence by Svozil\'ik \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 115}, 220501 (2015)]. We observe that the maximal accessible coherence is conserved for the implemented class of global evolutions of the composite system.

Thermodynamics and structural transition of binary atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in box or harmonic potentials: A path-integral study

Experimental realizations of a variety of atomic binary Bose-Fermi mixtures have brought opportunities for studying composite quantum systems with different spin-statistics. The binary atomic mixtures can exhibit a structural transition from a mixture into phase separation as the boson-fermion interaction increases. By using a path-integral formalism to evaluate the grand partition function and thermodynamic grand potential, we obtain the effective potential of binary Bose-Fermi mixtures. Thermodynamic quantities in a broad range of temperatures and interactions are also derived. The structural transition can be identified as a loop of the effective potential curve, and the volume fraction of phase separation can be determined by the lever rule. For $^6$Li-$^7$Li and $^6$Li-$^{41}$K mixtures, we present the phase diagrams of the mixtures in a box potential at zero and finite temperatures. Due to the flexible densities of atomic gases, the construction of phase separation is more complicated when compared to conventional liquid or solid mixtures where the individual densities are fixed. For harmonically trapped mixtures, we use the local density approximation to map out the finite-temperature density profiles and present typical trap structures, including the mixture, partially separated phases, and fully separated phases.

Λ-Nonlocality of Multipartite States and the Related Nonlocality Inequalities

Correlations between subsystems of a composite quantum system include Bell nonlocality, steerability, entanglement and quantum discord. Bell nonlocality of a bipartite state is one of important quantum correlations demonstrated by some local quantum measurements. In this paper, we discuss nonlocality of a multipartite quantum system. The Λ-locality and Λ-nonlocality of multipartite states are firstly introduced, some related properties are discussed. Some related nonlocality inequalities are established for {1,2;3}-local, {1;2,3}-local, and Λ-local states, respectively. The violation of one of these inequalities gives a sufficient condition for Λ-nonlocal states. As application, genuinely nonlocality of a tripartite state is checked. Finally, a class of 2-separable nonlocal states are given, which shows that a 2-separable tripartite state is not necessarily local.

On the Generation of Random Ensembles of Qubits and Qutrits Computing Separability Probabilities for Fixed Rank States

The generation of random mixed states is discussed, aiming for the computation of probabilistic characteristics of composite finite dimensional quantum systems. In particular, we consider the generation of random Hilbert-Schmidt and Bures ensembles of qubit and qutrit pairs and compute the corresponding probabilities to find a separable state among the states of a fixed rank.

Holographic control of information and dynamical topology change for composite open quantum systems

We investigate how the compositeness of a quantum system influences the characteristic time of equilibration. We study the dynamics of open composite quantum systems strongly coupled to the environment after a quantum perturbation accompanied by non-equilibrium heating. We use a holographic description of the evolution of entanglement entropy. The non-smooth character of the evolution with holographic entanglement is a general feature of composite systems, which demonstrate a dynamical change of topology in the bulk space and a jump-like velocity change of entanglement entropy propagation. Moreover, the number of jumps depends on the system configuration and especially on the number of composite parts. The evolution of the mutual information of two composite systems inherits these jumps. We present a detailed study of the mutual information for two subsystems with one of them being bipartite. We have found 5 qualitatively different types of behavior of the mutual information dynamics and indicated the corresponding ranges of system parameters.

Spectral representations of normal operators in quaternionic Hilbert spaces via intertwining quaternionic PVMs

The possibility of formulating quantum mechanics over quaternionic Hilbert spaces can be traced back to von Neumann’s foundational works in the thirties. The absence of a suitable quaternionic version of spectrum prevented the full development of the theory. The first rigorous quaternionic formulation has started only in 2007 with the definition of the spherical spectrum of a quaternionic operator based on a quadratic version of resolvent operator. The relevance of this notion is proved by the existence of a quaternionic continuous functional calculus and a theory of quaternionic semigroups relying upon it. A problem of the quaternionic formulation is the description of composite quantum systems in the absence of a natural tensor product due to non-commutativity of quaternions. A promising tool towards a solution is a quaternionic projection-valued measure (PVM), making possible a tensor product of quaternionic operators with physical relevance. A notion with this property, called intertwining quaternionic PVM, is presented here. This foundational paper aims to investigate the interplay of this new mathematical object and the spherical spectral features of quaternionic generally unbounded normal operators. We discover, in particular, the existence of other spectral notions equivalent to the spherical ones, but based on a standard non-quadratic notion of resolvent operator.

Demonstration of entanglement assisted invariance on IBM's quantum experience

Quantum entanglement is among the most fundamental, yet from classical intuition also most surprising properties of the fully quantum nature of physical reality. We report several experiments performed on IBM's Quantum Experience demonstrating envariance – entanglement assisted invariance. Envariance is a recently discovered symmetry of composite quantum systems, which is at the foundational origin of physics and a quantum phenomenon of pure states. These very easily reproducible and freely accessible experiments on Quantum Experience provide simple tools to study the properties of envariance, and we illustrate this for several cases with “quantum universes” consisting of up to five qubits.

Entanglement of photons in their dual wave-particle nature

Wave-particle duality is the most fundamental description of the nature of a quantum object, which behaves like a classical particle or wave depending on the measurement apparatus. On the other hand, entanglement represents nonclassical correlations of composite quantum systems, being also a key resource in quantum information. Despite the very recent observations of wave-particle superposition and entanglement, whether these two fundamental traits of quantum mechanics can emerge simultaneously remains an open issue. Here we introduce and experimentally realize a scheme that deterministically generates entanglement between the wave and particle states of two photons. The elementary tool allowing this achievement is a scalable single-photon setup which can be in principle extended to generate multiphoton wave-particle entanglement. Our study reveals that photons can be entangled in their dual wave-particle behavior and opens the way to potential applications in quantum information protocols exploiting the wave-particle degrees of freedom to encode qubits.

Towards generic adiabatic elimination for bipartite open quantum systems

We consider a composite open quantum system consisting of a fast subsystem coupled to a slow one. Using the time scale separation, we develop an adiabatic elimination technique to derive at any order the reduced model describing the slow subsystem. The method, based on an asymptotic expansion and geometric singular perturbation theory, ensures the physical interpretation of the reduced second-order model by giving the reduced dynamics in a Lindblad form and the state reduction in Kraus map form. We give explicit second-order formulas for Hamiltonian or cascade coupling between the two subsystems. These formulas can be used to engineer, via a careful choice of the fast subsystem, the Hamiltonian and Lindbald operators governing the dissipative dynamics of the slow subsystem.

Invariance of separability probability over reduced states in 4 × 4 bipartite systems

The geometric separability probability of composite quantum systems has been extensively studied in the recent decades. One of the simplest but strikingly difficult problem is to compute the separability probability of qubit–qubit and rebit–rebit quantum states with respect to the Hilbert–Schmidt measure. A lot of numerical simulations confirm the and conjectured probabilities. We provide a rigorous proof for the separability probability in the real case and we give explicit integral formulas for the complex and quaternionic case. Milz and Strunz studied the separability probability with respect to given subsystems. They conjectured that the separability probability of qubit–qubit (and qubit-qutrit) states of the form of depends on (on single qubit subsystems), moreover it depends only on the Bloch radii (r) of D and it is constant in r. Using the Peres–Horodecki criterion for separability we give a mathematical proof for the probability and we present an integral formula for the complex case which hopefully will help to prove the probability, too. We prove Milz and Strunz’s conjecture for rebit–rebit and qubit–qubit states. The case, when the state space is endowed with the volume form generated by the operator monotone function is also studied in detail. We show that even in this setting Milz and Strunz’s conjecture holds true and we give an integral formula for separability probability according to this measure.

Local probe of single phonon dynamics in warm ion crystals

The detailed characterization of non-trivial coherence properties of composite quantum systems of increasing size is an indispensable prerequisite for scalable quantum computation, as well as for understanding non-equilibrium many-body physics. Here, we show how autocorrelation functions in an interacting system of phonons as well as the quantum discord between distinct degrees of freedoms can be extracted from a small controllable part of the system. As a benchmark, we show this in chains of up to 42 trapped ions, by tracing a single phonon excitation through interferometric measurements of only a single ion in the chain. We observe the spreading and partial refocusing of the excitation in the chain, even on a background of thermal excitations. We further show how this local observable reflects the dynamical evolution of quantum discord between the electronic state and the vibrational degrees of freedom of the probe ion.

Toward engineering design of quantum circuits

SummaryA new engineering discipline called ‘quantum technology’ is emerging. Nanotechnology and cryotechnology enable engineers to develop devices and integrated circuits in which quantum phenomena have dominant sway. Macroscopic finite‐state ‘artificial atoms’ are realized exploiting superconductive Josephson effect, and these ‘atoms’ exchange microwave photons in superconductive microwave circuits. The achievements of cavity quantum electrodynamics in quantum optics are mimicked in the microwave frequency range. The new technology is dubbed circuit quantum electrodynamics. This paper tries to call the attention of engineers majoring in circuit theory and design on the challenges they face in designing quantum circuits. Modeling and simulation of quantum circuit components are reviewed. Approximate closed quantum system models as well as more accurate open system models are introduced in the case of single quantum devices and composite quantum systems. The effects of amplitude damping and phase damping are illustrated by simulation. The role of classical resistors in quantum circuits is investigated. Special attention is given to the almost standardized technology developed for superconductive microwave quantum circuits. Open problems are identified that circuit designers face in developing computer‐aided‐design tools for quantum circuits. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bell Correlations in Spin-Squeezed States of 500 000 Atoms.

Bell correlations, indicating nonlocality in composite quantum systems, were until recently only seen in small systems. Here, we demonstrate Bell correlations in squeezed states of 5×10^{5} ^{87}Rb atoms. The correlations are inferred using collective measurements as witnesses and are statistically significant to 124 standard deviations. The states are both generated and characterized using optical-cavity aided measurements.

Using thermodynamics to identify quantum subsystems

There are many ways to decompose the Hilbert space of a composite quantum system into tensor product subspaces. Different subsystem decompositions generally imply different interaction Hamiltonians V, and therefore different expectation values for subsystem observables. This means that the uniqueness of physical predictions is not guaranteed, despite the uniqueness of the total Hamiltonian H and the total Hilbert space . Here we use Clausius’ version of the second law of thermodynamics (CSL) and standard identifications of thermodynamic quantities to identify possible subsystem decompositions. It is shown that agreement with the CSL is obtained, whenever the total Hamiltonian and the subsystem-dependent interaction Hamiltonian commute (i.e. ). Not imposing this constraint can result in the transfer of heat from a cooler to a hotter subsystem, in conflict with thermodynamics. We also investigate the status of the CSL with respect to non-standard definitions of thermodynamic quantities and quantum subsystems.

Statistical Dynamics of Coherent Quantum Systems Operating in the Presence of Quantum Noise

A statistical characterization of the quantum state of polarization for a coherent quantum system disturbed by quantum noise is presented. The composite quantum system consists of an integer number N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</sub> of mutually polarized photons disturbed by quantum noise which consists of an average number N of thermal radiation quanta plus the zero-point energy fluctuations. The interacting and coupled dynamics of the quantum system polarization is modeled by mutually coupled energy balanced stochastic differential equations mimicking the motion of Huygens mutually coupled pendulum clocks. The Markovian nature of the quantum noise allows one to use the Fokker-Planck (FP) apparatus to develop a coherency distribution which lives on a Clifford horn torus. Using this distribution, distributions for the Quantum State-of-Polarization, the Quantum Degree-of-Polarization, the circular moments, and the azimuthal and longitudinal polarization state jitters are derived. It is shown that the stable polarization states of quantum system equilibrium define a Bravais lattice in phase space. From this perspective, it is shown that quantum polarization interruptions are at the heart of certain quantum decoherence effects, e.g., polarization slips and flips, while pendula-like clock synchronization is at the heart of maintaining and sustaining coherency among the parts (photons) of coherent quantum systems. A classical world to quantum world “transition boundary” is identified as a function of quantum system parameters. This function is used to partition the electromagnetic spectrum into three disjoint regions of operation: a classical, a transition, and a quantum communications region. The results presented will find applications to the problem of evaluating single and multiphoton quantum communication system performance and in the system engineering design of quantum communication systems and a quantum internet connecting quantum computers.

The dynamic behaviors of complementary correlations under decoherence channels

Complementary correlations can reveal the genuine quantum correlations present in a composite quantum system. Here, we explore an effective method to identify the entangled Bell diagonal states by means of Pearson correlation, one of the complementary correlations. Then, we extend this method to expose the dynamic behavior of complementary correlations under various kinds of decoherence channels. The sudden death and revival of entanglement can be explained by the idea of Pearson correlation. The threshold that is used to identify entanglement is proposed. Furthermore, we put forward a new method to expound the underlying physical mechanisms for which classical and quantum correlations suffer a sudden change in the decoherence process.

Difficulty of distinguishing product states locally

Non-locality without entanglement is a rather counter-intuitive phenomenon in which information may be encoded entirely in product (unentangled) states of composite quantum systems in such a way that local measurement of the subsystems is not enough for optimal decoding. For simple examples of pure product states, the gap in performance is known to be rather small when arbitrary local strategies are allowed. Here we restrict to local strategies readily achievable with current technology; those requiring neither a quantum memory nor joint operations. We show that, even for measurements on pure product states there can be a large gap between such strategies and theoretically optimal performance. Thus even in the absence of entanglement physically realizable local strategies can be far from optimal for extracting quantum information.