Nonclassical Quantum States Research Articles

Unveiling the nonclassicality within quasi-distribution representations through deep learning

Abstract To unequivocally distinguish genuine quantumness from classicality, a widely adopted approach focuses on the negative values of a quasi-distribution representation as compelling evidence of nonclassicality. Prominent examples include the dynamical process nonclassicality characterized by the canonical Hamiltonian ensemble representation (CHER) and the nonclassicality of quantum states
characterized by the Wigner function. However, to construct a multivariate joint quasi-distribution function with negative values from experimental data is typically highly cumbersome. Here we propose a computational approach utilizing a deep generative model, processing three marginals, to construct the bivariate joint quasi-distribution functions. We first apply our model to tackle the
challenging problem of the CHERs, which lacks universal solutions, rendering the problem ground-truth (GT) deficient. To overcome the GT deficiency of the CHER problem, we design optimal synthetic datasets to train our model. While trained with synthetic data, the physics-informed optimization enables our model to capture the detrimental effect of the thermal fluctuations on nonclassicality, which cannot be obtained from any analytical solutions. This underscores the reliability of our approach. This approach also allows us to predict the Wigner functions subject to thermal noises. Our model predicts the Wigner functions with a prominent accuracy by processing three marginals of probability distributions. Our approach also provides a significant reduction of the experimental efforts of
constructing the Wigner functions of quantum states, giving rise to an efficient alternative way to realize the quantum state tomography.

Steady-state magnon entanglement and backaction-evading of a weak magnetic signal via two-tone modulated cavity electromagnonics

Cavity electromagnonics explore the coupling between microwave cavity fields and magnons in micromagnets. This field has emerged as a promising platform for probing fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics and advancing quantum technologies. This paper investigates a scheme involving two-tone frequency modulation to engineer simultaneous magnon-photon two-mode squeezing and beam-splitter-like interactions. We demonstrate that this scheme enables the direct generation of macroscopic magnonic squeezed and entangled states. Moreover, it facilitates ultra-sensitive magnon-based magnetic field sensing through quantum non-demolition (QND) interactions between magnons and photons. The present scheme provides promising opportunities for generating macroscopic nonclassical quantum states in solid magnetic materials and developing spintronics-related quantum devices.

Quadrature Squeezing Enhances Wigner Negativity in a Mechanical Duffing Oscillator

Generating macroscopic nonclassical quantum states is a long-standing challenge in physics. Anharmonic dynamics is an essential ingredient to generate these states, but for large mechanical systems, the effect of the anharmonicity tends to become negligible compared with the effect of decoherence. As a possible solution to this challenge, we propose using a motional squeezed state as a resource to effectively increase the anharmonicity. We analyze the production of negativity in the Wigner distribution of a quantum anharmonic resonator initially in a squeezed state. We find that initial squeezing increases the rate at which negativity is generated. We also analyze the effect of two common sources of decoherence—namely, energy damping and dephasing—and find that the detrimental effects of energy damping are suppressed by strong squeezing. In the limit of large squeezing, which is needed for state-of-the-art systems, we find good approximations for the Wigner function. Our analysis is significant for current experiments attempting to prepare macroscopic mechanical systems in genuine quantum states. We provide an overview of several experimental platforms featuring nonlinear behaviors and low levels of decoherence. In particular, we discuss the feasibility of our proposal with carbon nanotubes and levitated nanoparticles. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Preparation and properties of a non-Gaussian state by quantum catalysis with thermal state input

We theoretically introduce a new kind of non-Gaussian state, namely, the mixture of multiphoton added thermal states, achieved through multiphoton measurements at one output port of the beam splitter (termed multiphoton catalysis) for thermal state input. We discuss the success probabilities of detection (the normalization factors). Furthermore, we investigate their nonclassical properties based on the nonclassical depth, photon number distribution, and photocount distribution. It is shown that the multiphoton catalysis presents a better nonclassical performance by controlling the thermal parameter, catalyzed photon number and the transmissivity of the beam splitter. In addition, the nonclassicality is further examined through the partial negativity of the Wigner function, which reveals that multiphoton catalysis operation can prepare highly nonclassical quantum states. These results indicate that the preparation of a non-Gaussian states may have potential applications in the realms of quantum information processing and quantum metrology.

Adaptive protocols for SU(1,1) interferometers to achieve ab initio phase estimation at the Heisenberg limit

The precision of phase estimation with interferometers can be greatly enhanced using non-classical quantum states, and the SU(1,1) interferometer is an elegant scheme, which generates two-mode squeezed state internally and also amplifies the signal. It has been shown in Anderson et al (2017 Phys. Rev. A 95 063843) that the photon-number measurement can achieve the Heisenberg limit, but only for estimating a small phase shift. We relax the constraint on the range of phase by considering two adaptive protocols: one also uses the photon-number measurement with a specially tuned sequence of feedback phase; the other implements the yet-to-be-realized optimal measurement but without fine tuning.

Strong single-photon to two-photon bundles emission in spin-1 Jaynes–Cummings model

High-quality special nonclassical states beyond the strong single atom-cavity coupling regime are fundamental elements in quantum information science. Here, we study strong single-photon blockade to two-photon bundles emission in a single spin-1 atom coupled to an optical cavity by constructing a spin-1 Jaynes–Cummings model (JCM). By tuning the quadratic Zeeman shift, the energy-spectrum anharmonicity can be significantly enhanced, leading to a remarkable increase in the dressed-state splitting of the well-resolved n-photon resonance. The mechanism, which benefits from the internal degrees of freedom in high-spin systems, compensates for the strong coupling condition required by the multi-photon blockade, thereby facilitating the experimental feasibility of engineering special nonclassical states beyond the strong-coupling limit. It is shown that the photon emission from the spin-1 JCM demonstrates high-quality single photon and two-photon bundles with large steady-state photon numbers in the cavity-driven and atom-pump cases, respectively. In particular, compared to the two-level two-photon JCM, the antibunching amplitude of the three-order correlation function for two-photon bundles in the spin-1 JCM is enhanced by 3 orders of magnitude. More interestingly, a multimode transducer, enabling a transition from strong single-photon blockade to two-photon bundles and super-Poissonian photon emission, is achieved and highly controllable by the light-cavity detuning in the presence of both atom and cavity driven fields. This study based on the high-spin JCM broadens the scope of engineering special nonclassical quantum states beyond the standard two-level JCM. Our proposal not only opens up a new avenue for generating high-quality n-photon sources but also provides versatile applications in quantum networks and metrology.

Quantum Control of a Single Magnon in a Macroscopic Spin System.

Nonclassical quantum states are the pivotal features of a quantum system that differs from its classical counterpart. However, the generation and coherent control of quantum states in a macroscopic spin system remain an outstanding challenge. Here we experimentally demonstrate the quantum control of a single magnon in a macroscopic spin system (i.e., 1mm-diameter yttrium-iron-garnet sphere) coupled to a superconducting qubit via a microwave cavity. By tuning the qubit frequency insitu via the Autler-Townes effect, we manipulate this single magnon to generate its nonclassical quantum states, including the single-magnon state and the superposition of single-magnon state and vacuum (zero magnon) state. Moreover, we confirm the deterministic generation of these nonclassical states by Wigner tomography. Our experiment offers the first reported deterministic generation of the nonclassical quantum states in a macroscopic spin system and paves a way to explore its promising applications in quantum engineering.

Quantum switching between nonclassical correlated single photons and two-photon bundles in a two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model.

We propose a scheme to realize a two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model for a single atom inside an optical cavity. It is shown that the interplay of a laser detuning and atom (cavity) pump (driven) field gives rise to the strong single photon blockade, two-photon bundles, and photon-induced tunneling. With the cavity driven field, strong photon blockade occurs in the weak coupling regime, and switching between single photon blockade and photon-induced tunneling at two-photon resonance are achievable via increasing the driven strength. By turning on the atom pump field, quantum switching between two-photon bundles and photon-induced tunneling at four-photon resonance are realized. More interestingly, the high-quality quantum switching between single photon blockade, two-photon bundles, and photon-induced tunneling at three-photon resonance is achieved with combining the atom pump and cavity driven fields simultaneously. In contrast to the standard two-level Jaynes-Cummings model, our scheme with generating a two-photon (multi-photon) Jaynes-Cummings model reveals a prominent strategy to engineer a series of special nonclassical quantum states, which may pave the way for investigating basic quantum devices to implement in quantum information processing and quantum networks.

Nonclassical correlated optical multistability at low photon level for cavity electromagnetically induced transparency

We study the nonequilibrium dynamic behaviors in a driven-dissipative single-atom cavity electromagnetically induced transparency. The optical bistability and multistability beyond a Kerr nonlinearity are observed utilizing the optical Stark shift induced strong nonlinearity. We show that the nonequilibrium dynamical phase transition between bistability and multistability is highly tunable by the system parameters in a large parameter region. The first-order dissipative optical bistability (multistability) always corresponds to the photon-bunching quantum statistics, which indicates that the quantum fluctuations and correlations play important roles in nonequilibrium dynamics. Interestingly, bistability and multistability with photon-bunching quantum statistics occurring at extremely low steady-state cavity photon number are observed, even under a very strong cavity driven field. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the unique cavity steady-state solution of the full quantum calculation is excellently consistent with the lowest solution based on the semiclassical mean-field approach in bistability and multistability regimes when the cavity photon number is much less than unity, albeit these nonclassical quantum states should possess strong quantum fluctuations in this parameter regime. Our results pave the way to exploring nonclassical correlated optical multistability in quantum regime, which may bring exciting opportunities for potential applications from quantum information processing to quantum metrology.

Transfer of non-classical features and quantum states of light in circularly coupled waveguide arrays

We investigate the applicability of the circular arrays of coupled single-mode optical waveguides in transferring the non-classical state of light for quantum information processing. We study the nonclassical states of light, such as a single-photon Fock state, a two-photon NOON state, a single-mode squeezed state and a two-mode squeezed state as inputs to the lattice, which are key resources for various applications in the field of quantum information science. In addition, for comparison, we also examine a coherent state. We investigate the transport of non-classical features and quantum states of light from one waveguide mode to another. For the single and two-mode squeezed states, we perform a detailed study of the evolution of the squeezing. Our work highlights the potential of the circular arrays of optical waveguides platform for the transport of non-classical features and quantum states of light. We expect our results should have applications in the physical implementation of photonic quantum technologies.

Transformation of coherent state in Hadamard gate via multi-photon catalysis

Based on two-mode continuous Hadamard gate (TCHG) and multi-photon catalysis, this paper presents a scheme to generate non-classical quantum states via coherent state. When considering the m-photon input and m-photon detection in a-mode, the output state is obtained for the input coherent in b-mode. An interesting finding is that as the amplitude of the output coherent state increases, both the detection efficiency and the fidelity of the output quantum state gradually approach zero. Thus, only certain low-intensity quantum light field states can pass through Hadamard gate. In addition, the quantum statistical distribution and squeezing properties of the output quantum states are also analyzed in detail. Our results show that TCHG is a powerful tool for generating non-classical quantum states under multi-photon catalysis.

Emulation of quantum measurements with mixtures of coherent states

We propose a methodology to emulate quantum phenomena arising from any nonclassical quantum state using only a finite set of mixtures of coherent states. This allows us to successfully reproduce well-known quantum effects using resources that can be much more feasibly generated in the laboratory. We present a simple procedure to experimentally carry out quantum-state emulation with coherent states, illustrate it emulating multiphoton NOON states with few phase-averaged coherent states, and demonstrate its capabilities in observing fundamental quantum mechanical effects, such as the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, violating Bell inequalities and witnessing quantum nonclassicality.

Statistical properties of non-Gaussian quantum states generated via thermal state truncation

Quantum scissors devices proposed by Pegg are beneficial to obtain highly nonclassical quantum states and indispensable for meeting the requirements of quantum information and computation. In this paper, via inputting and detecting single photon states, quantum scissor operation is equivalent to a mixed superposition of three pure state projection operators, which means that the output states are always truncated for any input state. We theoretically prepare a class of non-Gaussian quantum states via thermal state truncation and investigate their statistical properties using average photon number, gain intensity and signal to noise ratio. It is shown that the intensity gain and signal to noise ratio greater than one can be achieved by modulating the thermal parameter and the transmissivity, which realizes the signal amplification and enhancement. Besides, quantum scissor operation can generate the highly non-classical quantum state by investigating the negativity volume of Wigner function. These results indicate that the usage of the new non-Gaussian states may have potential applications in certain quantum information processing.

Dual form of the phase-space classical simulation problem in quantum optics

In quantum optics, nonclassicality of quantum states is commonly associated with negativities of phase-space quasiprobability distributions. We argue that the impossibility of any classical simulations with phase-space functions is a necessary and sufficient condition of nonclassicality. The problem of such phase-space classical simulations for particular measurement schemes is analysed in the framework of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bell’s principles of physical reality. The dual form of this problem results in an analogue of Bell inequalities. Their violations imply the impossibility of phase-space classical simulations and, as a consequence, nonclassicality of quantum states. We apply this technique to emblematic optical measurements such as photocounting, including the cases of realistic photon-number resolution and homodyne detection in unbalanced, balanced, and eight-port configurations.

A machine learning approach to Bayesian parameter estimation

Bayesian estimation is a powerful theoretical paradigm for the operation of the approach to parameter estimation. However, the Bayesian method for statistical inference generally suffers from demanding calibration requirements that have so far restricted its use to systems that can be explicitly modeled. In this theoretical study, we formulate parameter estimation as a classification task and use artificial neural networks to efficiently perform Bayesian estimation. We show that the network’s posterior distribution is centered at the true (unknown) value of the parameter within an uncertainty given by the inverse Fisher information, representing the ultimate sensitivity limit for the given apparatus. When only a limited number of calibration measurements are available, our machine-learning-based procedure outperforms standard calibration methods. Our machine-learning-based procedure is model independent, and is thus well suited to “black-box sensors”, which lack simple explicit fitting models. Thus, our work paves the way for Bayesian quantum sensors that can take advantage of complex nonclassical quantum states and/or adaptive protocols. These capabilities can significantly enhance the sensitivity of future devices.

Tunable photon blockade with a single atom in a cavity under electromagnetically induced transparency

We present an experimental proposal to achieve a strong photon blockade by employing electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with a single alkaline-earth-metal atom trapped in an optical cavity. In the presence of optical Stark shift, both the second-order correlation function and cavity transmission exhibit asymmetric structures between the red and blue sidebands of the cavity. For a weak control field, the photon quantum statistics for the coherent transparency window (i.e., atomic quasi-dark-state resonance) are insensitive to the Stark shift, which should also be immune to the spontaneous emission of the excited state by taking advantage of the intrinsic dark-state polariton of EIT. Interestingly, by exploiting the interplay between the Stark shift and control field, the strong photon blockade at atomic quasi-dark-state resonance has an optimal second-order correlation function g ( 2 ) ( 0 ) ∼ 10 − 4 and a high cavity transmission simultaneously. The underlying physical mechanism is ascribed to the Stark shift enhanced spectrum anharmonicity and the EIT hosted strong nonlinearity with loss-insensitive atomic quasi-dark-state resonance, which is essentially different from the conventional proposal with emerging Kerr nonlinearity in cavity-EIT. Our results reveal a new strategy to realize high-quality single photon sources, which could open up a new avenue for engineering nonclassical quantum states in cavity quantum electrodynamics.

Neural-Network Heuristics for Adaptive Bayesian Quantum Estimation

Quantum metrology promises unprecedented measurement precision but suffers in practice from the limited availability of resources such as the number of probes, their coherence time, or non-classical quantum states. The adaptive Bayesian approach to parameter estimation allows for an efficient use of resources thanks to adaptive experiment design. For its practical success fast numerical solutions for the Bayesian update and the adaptive experiment design are crucial. Here we show that neural networks can be trained to become fast and strong experiment-design heuristics using a combination of an evolutionary strategy and reinforcement learning. Neural-network heuristics are shown to outperform established heuristics for the technologically important example of frequency estimation of a qubit that suffers from dephasing. Our method of creating neural-network heuristics is very general and complements the well-studied sequential Monte-Carlo method for Bayesian updates to form a complete framework for adaptive Bayesian quantum estimation.

Quantum Metrology Based on Nonclassical Atomic States

Quantum measurements with atoms have been at the forefront of quantum technology and provide crucial information for a better understanding of quantum physics ever since their conception over a century ago. The universality of the quantized energy states of atoms makes the collective state of an atomic ensemble an outstanding platform for quantum-enhanced metrology. We introduce basic concepts regarding the metrological gain acquired from using nonclassical quantum states via multiparticle entanglement. Current challenges and future prospects for further enhancement of the measurement sensitivity through the use of nonclassical atomic states are discussed with reference to the shot noise and Heisenberg limits.

Generating new nonclassical state by repeatedly operating number operator on coherent state

In this paper, using the principle of quantum state superposition, we report a nonclassical quantum state which is constructed by repeatedly operating the number operator on the coherent state. Nonclassical effects of this state are discussed by photon-number distribution, sub-Poissonian statistics, anti-bunching and negativity of Wigner function and squeezing effect. Our work provides an important nonclassical resource, which may be used in quantum communication and quantum optics.

Enhancement of Non-Gaussianity and Nonclassicality of Photon Added Displaced Fock State: A Quantitative Approach

Non-Gaussian and nonclassical states and processes are already found to be important resources for performing various tasks related to quantum gravity and quantum information processing. The effect of non-Gaussianity inducing operators on the nonclassicality of quantum states has also been studied rigorously. Considering these facts, a quantitative analysis of the nonclassical and non-Gaussian features is performed here for photon added displaced Fock state, as a test case, using a set of measures like entanglement potential, Wigner Yanese skew information, Wigner logarithmic negativity and relative entropy of non-Gaussianity. It is observed that photon addition (Fock parameter) significantly increases the amount of nonclassicalty and non-Gaussianity for small (large) values of the displacement parameter, which decreases both the quantum features monotonically. In this respect, the role of Fock parameter is found to be more prominent and stronger compared to photon addition. Finally, the dynamics of Wigner function under the effect of photon loss channel is used to show that only highly efficient detectors are able to detect Wigner negativity.