Odinger Cat States Research Articles

Optimal circular states

Abstract In quantum optics, superpositions of coherent states, such as the Schrödinger cat states and compass states, and more generally, circular states, have attracted widespread attention due to their nice properties and significant applications. Concerning circular states, a natural question arises as what are the optimal parameters in these states for maximally achieving certain specified quantum features such as average photon number and nonclassicality. It turns out that this issue is highly nontrivial and subtle. In this work, we investigate optimal circular states for average photon number, and determine the optimal parameters by a combination of analytical and numerical methods. In particular, we establish several analytical results and also some rather detailed numerical results. We tabulate some numerical results, which may be useful in both theoretical and experimental studies of superpositions of coherent states.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in nonsteady modes of open quantum many-body systems

In a quantum many-body system coupled to the environment, its steady state can exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking when a control parameter exceeds a critical value. In this study, we consider spontaneous symmetry breaking in non-steady modes of an open quantum many-body system. Assuming that the time evolution of the density matrix of the system is described by a Markovian master equation, the dynamics of the system is fully characterized by the eigenmodes and spectrum of the corresponding time evolution superoperator. Among the non-steady eigenmodes with finite lifetimes, we focus on the eigenmodes with the highest frequency, which we call the most coherent mode. For a dissipative spin model, it is shown that the most coherent mode exhibits a transition from a disordered phase to a symmetry-broken ordered phase, even if the steady state does not show singular behavior. We further argue that the phase transition of the most coherent mode induces a qualitative change in the decoherence dynamics of highly entangled states, i.e., the Schr\"odinger's cat states.

Protecting the Quantum Interference of Cat States by Phase-Space Compression

Compressing the spectral content of quantum interference features in Schr\"odinger cat states to lower frequencies protects them against photon loss and preserves the most valuable characteristics that enable many quantum technologies.

Generalized echo squeezing protocol with near-Heisenberg-limit sensitivity and strong robustness against detection noise and variation in squeezing parameter

We present a generalized echo squeezing protocol (GESP) as a generalization of the Schr\"odinger cat state protocol (SCSP) with the value of the squeezing parameter being an arbitrary number rather than pi/2. We show analytically that over a broad range of the squeezing parameter the sensitivity reaches the Heisenberg limit (HL) within a factor of root-2. For a large number of particles, N, this plateau interval is almost the whole range from zero to pi/2, and the sensitivity is independent of the parity of N. Therefore, it is possible to operate a sensor over a wide interval of the squeezing parameter without changing the sensitivity. This is to be contrasted with the conventional echo squeezing protocol (CESP) which only works for a very small interval. In contrast to the CESP, the sensitivity of the GESP is close to the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound over the whole range of the squeezing parameter. The enhancement in sensitivity for the GESP is due to a combination of two parameters: the phase magnification factor (PMF) and the noise amplification factor (NAF). As the value of the squeezing parameter increases, both PMF and NAF increase, keeping the ratio of PMF/NAF constant, yielding an enhancement of sensitivity at the HL within a factor of root-2. Thus, the robustness of the GESP against excess noise easily exceeds that of the CESP for a broad range of values of the squeezing parameter. As such, in the context of an experimental study, it should be possible to achieve a net enhancement in sensitivity higher than that for the CESP, under typical conditions where the excess noise exceeds the unsqueezed quantum projection noise. Finally, we consider the fragility of the GESP against collisions with background particles, and show how a balance between the fragility and the robustness against excess noise would in practice determine the optimal choice of parameters for the GESP.

Mass-independent scheme for enhancing spatial quantum superpositions

Placing a large mass in a large spatial superposition, such as a Schr\"odinger Cat state is a significant and important challenge. In particular, the large spatial superposition (${\cal O}(10-100)$ $\mu$m) of mesoscopic masses ($m\sim {\cal O}(10^{-14} -10^{-15})$ kg) makes it possible to test the quantum nature of gravity via entanglement in the laboratory. To date, the proposed methods of achieving this spatial delocalization are to use wavepacket expansions or quantum ancilla (for example spin) dependent forces, all of whose efficacy reduces with mass. Thus increasing the spatial splitting independent of the mass is an important open challenge. In this paper, we present a method of achieving a mass-independent enhancement of superposition via diamagnetic repulsion from current-carrying wires. We analyse an example system which uses the Stern-Gerlach effect to creating a small initial splitting, and then apply the diamagnetic repulsion method to enhance the superposition size ${\cal O}(400-600)$ $\mu$m from an initial modest split of the wavefunction. We provide an analytic and numeric analysis of our scheme.

Teleportation protocols with non-Gaussian operations: Conditional photon subtraction versus cubic phase gate

In our paper, we compare three teleportation protocols: The original protocol, the photon subtraction protocol, and the protocol with a cubic phase gate. We evaluate the fidelity of each protocol using the example of teleportation of the squeezed state and the Schr\"odinger cat state. We show that, under equal conditions, the teleportation scheme with a cubic phase gate achieves significantly higher fidelity than the other protocols considered.

Generation of a Schrödinger cat state in a hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system

The hybrid system between the transmon and the magnon plays an important role in quantum information science. Additionally, the cat states of the magnon are a valuable quantum resource and represent macroscopic quantum superpositions of large numbers of spins. In this paper, we propose an approach to generate magnonic Schr\"odinger cat states (SCSs) in a hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system. Moreover, high-fidelity magnonic SCSs can be generated when the dissipation of the system is considered. The coherent amplitude and the fidelities of the cat states can be adjusted by controlling the parameters of the system.

Homodyne measurement with a Schrödinger cat state as a local oscillator

Homodyne measurements are a widely used quantum measurement. Using a coherent state of large amplitude as the local oscillator, it can be shown that the quantum homodyne measurement limits to a field quadrature measurement. In this work, we give an example of a general idea: injecting nonclassical states as a local oscillator can lead to nonclassical measurements. Specifically, we consider injecting a superposition of coherent states, a Schr\"odinger cat state, as a local oscillator. We derive the Kraus operators and the positive operator-valued measure in this situation.

All-optical generation of deterministic squeezed Schrödinger-cat states

Quantum states are important resources and their preparations are essential prerequisites to all quantum technologies. However, they are extremely fragile due to the inevitable dissipations. Here the all-optical generation of a deterministic squeezed Schr\"odinger-cat state based on dissipation is proposed. Our system is based on the Fredkin-type interaction between three optical modes, one of which is subject to coherent two-photon driving and the others are coherent driving. We show that an effective degenerate three-wave-mixing process can be engineered in our system, which can cause the simultaneous loss of two photons, resulting in the generation of a deterministic squeezed Schr\"odinger-cat state. More importantly, by controlling the driving fields in our system, the two-photon loss can be adjustable, which can accelerate the generation of squeezed Schr\"odinger-cat states. In addition, we exploit the squeezed Schr\"odinger-cat states to estimate the phase in the optical interferometer and show that the quantum Fisher information about the phase can reach the Heisenberg limit in the limit of a large photon number. Meanwhile, it can have an order of magnitude factor improvement over the Heisenberg limit in the low-photon-number regime, which is very valuable for fragile systems that cannot withstand large photon fluxes. This work proposes an all-optical scheme to deterministically prepare the squeezed Schr\"odinger-cat state with high speed and can also be generalized to other physical platforms.

Chaos-assisted many-body tunnelling.

We study the interplay of chaos and tunneling between two weakly coupled Bose-Josephson junctions. The classical phase space of the composite system has a mixed structure including quasi-integrable self-trapping islands for particles and excitations, separated by a chaotic sea. We show that the many-body dynamical tunneling gap between macroscopic Schrödinger cat states supported by these islands is chaos-enhanced. The many-body tunneling rate fluctuates over several orders of magnitude with small variations of the system parameters or the particle number.

Multipartite Entangled States in Dipolar Quantum Simulators.

The scalable production of multipartite entangled states in ensembles of qubits is a crucial function of quantum devices, as such states are an essential resource both for fundamental studies on entanglement, as well as for applied tasks. Here we focus on the U(1) symmetric Hamiltonians for qubits with dipolar interactions-a model realized in several state-of-the-art quantum simulation platforms for lattice spin models, including Rydberg-atom arrays with resonant interactions. Making use of exact and variational simulations, we theoretically show that the nonequilibrium dynamics generated by this Hamiltonian shares fundamental features with that of the one-axis-twisting model, namely, the simplest interacting collective-spin model with U(1) symmetry. The evolution governed by the dipolar Hamiltonian generates a cascade of multipartite entangled states-spin-squeezed states, Schrödinger's cat states, and multicomponent superpositions of coherent spin states. Investigating systems with up to N=144 qubits, we observe full scalability of the entanglement features of these states directly related to metrology, namely, scalable spin squeezing at an evolution time O(N^{1/3}) and Heisenberg scaling of sensitivity of the spin parity to global rotations for cat states reached at times O(N). Our results suggest that the native Hamiltonian dynamics of state-of-the-art quantum simulation platforms, such as Rydberg-atom arrays, can act as a robust source of multipartite entanglement.

Spin-squeezing-induced enhancement of the sensitivity of an atomic clock using coherent population trapping

The coherent population trapping (CPT) effect is used for making compact atomic clocks. There are two types of CPT clocks: the one in which the Raman beams are applied continuously and the one in which two CPT pulses separated by a dark period are applied (Ramsey scheme). It is obvious that the technique of spin squeezing can only be applied to the Ramsey CPT clock to enhance the sensitivity. However, it is not apparent how to adapt to the CPT clock the protocols for the microwave clock using one-axis-twist squeezing (OATS), since the Ramsey CPT clock is not trivially equivalent to the Ramsey microwave clock. In this paper, we show explicitly how to adapt two protocols using OATS, namely, the Schr\"odinger cat state protocol (SCSP) and the generalization thereof, and the echo squeezing protocol (ESP), to the CPT clock. The ESP magnifies the phase shift by a factor of $\sqrt{N/e}$, while the SCSP magnifies the phase shift by a factor of $N/2$, making it able to achieve a higher sensitivity in the presence of excess noise.

Phase-space dynamics of a single-atom laser: Nonclassicality and bistability

We investigate the dynamics of a single-qubit single-mode laser with continuous incoherent pumping of a qubit, the field mode being initially prepared in a coherent state. Analysis of partial differential equations for quasiprobability distributions helps us distinguish two stages of evolution (coherent and incoherent ones) with their characteristic features. The system can exhibit bistabilitylike behavior, similar to that reported for a single-atom laser with continuous coherent pumping, and is capable of generating Schr\"odinger cat states. Quantitative analysis of the field state nonclassicality shows that its maximum is reached at intermediate stages of evolution.

Generalized Bell-like inequality and maximum violation for multiparticle entangled Schrödinger cat states of spin s

This paper proposes a generalized Bell-like inequality (GBI) for multiparticle entangled Schr\"odinger cat states of arbitrary spin $s$. Based on quantum probability statistics, the GBI and violation are formulated in a unified manner with the help of a state density operator, which can be separated into local and nonlocal parts. The local part gives rise to the inequality, while the nonlocal part is responsible for the violation. The GBI is not violated at all by the quantum average, except the spin-$1/2$ entangled states. If the measuring outcomes are restricted in the subspace of the spin coherent state (SCS), namely, only the maximum spin values $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}s$, the GBI is still meaningful for the incomplete measurement. With the help of SCS quantum probability statistics, it is proved that the violation of GBI can occur only for half-integer spins and not integer spins. Moreover, the maximum violation bound depends on the number parity of the entangled particles, which is $1/2$ for the odd particle numbers and 1 for the even numbers.

Energy cat states induced by a parity-breaking excited-state quantum phase transition

We show that excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in a system in which the parity symmetry is broken can be used to engineer an energy-cat state -- a Schr\"odinger cat state involving a quantum superposition of both different positions and energies. By means of a generalization of the Rabi model, we show that adding a parity-breaking term annihilates the ground-state quantum phase transition between normal and superradiant phases, and induces the formation of three excited-state phases, all of them identified by means of an observable with two eigenvalues. In one of these phases, level crossings are observed in the thermodynamic limit. These allow us to separate a wavefunction in two parts: one, with lower energy, trapped within one region of the spectrum, and a second one, with higher energy, trapped within another. Finally, we show that a generalized microcanonical ensemble, including two different average energies, is required to properly describe equilibrium states in this situation. Our results illustrate yet another physical consequence of ESQPTs.

Amplification of optical Schrödinger cat states with an implementation protocol based on a frequency comb

We proposed and analyzed a scheme to generate large-size Schr\"odinger cat states based on linear operations of Fock states, squeezed vacuum states, and conditional measurements. By conducting conditional measurements via photon number detectors, two unbalanced small-amplitude Schr\"odinger kitten states combined by a beam splitter can be amplified to a large-size cat state with the same parity. According to simulation results, two Schr\"odinger odd kitten states with amplitudes of $|\ensuremath{\beta}|=1.06$ and $|\ensuremath{\beta}|=1.11$ generated from one-photon-subtracted 3 dB squeezed vacuum states, are amplified to an odd cat state of $|\ensuremath{\beta}|=1.73$ with a fidelity of $F=99%$. A large-size Schr\"odinger odd cat state with $|\ensuremath{\beta}|=2.51$ and $F=97.30%$ is predicted when 5.91 dB squeezed vacuum states are employed. According to the analysis on the impacts of experimental imperfections in practice, Schr\"odinger odd cat states of $|\ensuremath{\beta}|>2$ are available. A feasible configuration based on a quantum frequency comb is developed to realize the large-size cat state generation scheme we proposed.

Asymptotic optimality of twist-untwist protocols for Heisenberg scaling in atom-based sensing

Twist-untwist protocols for quantum metrology consist of a serial application of (1) unitary nonlinear dynamics (e.g., spin squeezing or Kerr nonlinearity), (2) parameterized dynamics $U(\ensuremath{\phi})$ (e.g., a collective rotation or phase space displacement), and (3) time reversed application of step 1. Such protocols are known to produce states that allow Heisenberg scaling for experimentally accessible estimators of $\ensuremath{\phi}$ even when the nonlinearities are applied for times much shorter than required to produce Schr\"odinger cat states. In this work, we prove that, asymptotically in the number of particles, twist-untwist protocols provide the lowest estimation error among quantum metrology protocols that utilize two calls to a weakly nonlinear evolution and a readout involving only first and second moments of a total spin operator $\stackrel{P\vec}{n}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\stackrel{P\vec}{J}$. We consider the following physical settings: all-to-all interactions generated by one-axis twisting ${J}_{z}^{2}$ (e.g., interacting Bose gases), constant finite range spin-spin interactions of distinguishable or bosonic atoms (e.g., trapped ions or Rydberg atoms, or lattice bosons). In these settings, we further show that the optimal twist-untwist protocols asymptotically achieve 85% and 92% of the respective quantum Cram\'er-Rao bounds. We show that the error of a twist-untwist protocol can be decreased by a factor of $L$ without an increase in the noise of the spin measurement if the twist-untwist protocol can be noiselessly iterated as an $L$ layer quantum alternating operator ansatz.

Nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation with cat-state qubits via invariant-based reverse engineering

We propose a protocol to realize nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation of small-amplitude Schr\"odinger cat qubits via invariant-based reverse engineering. We consider a system with a two-photon driven Kerr nonlinearity, which provides a pair of dressed even and odd coherent states, i.e., Schr\"odinger cat states for fault-tolerant quantum computations. An additional coherent field is applied to linearly drive a cavity mode, to induce oscillations between dressed cat states. By designing this linear drive with invariant-based reverse engineering, nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation with cat qubits can be implemented. The performance of the protocol is estimated by taking into account the influence of systematic errors, additive white Gaussian noise, and decoherence including photon loss and dephasing. Numerical results demonstrate that our protocol is robust against these negative factors. Therefore, this protocol may provide a feasible method for nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation in bosonic systems.

High-fidelity synchronization and transfer of quantum states in optomechanical hybrid systems

In a hybrid scheme, consisting of a three-level atom-cavity-oscillator system, we show that synchronization [J. Czartowski, R. M\"uller, K. \ifmmode \dot{Z}\else \.{Z}\fi{}yczkowski, and D. Braun, Phys. Rev. A 104, 012410 (2021)] and transfer of nonclassical states between the mechanical oscillator and the cavity field is possible. In this framework, we show that an initially thermalized mechanical oscillator, when connected to a squeezed bath, evolves to a squeezed state which in steady state is synchronized with the cavity mode. On the other hand, if the mechanical oscillator is initially prepared in a nonclassical state, e.g., squeezed and Schr\"odinger's cat states, while the cavity is in a thermal state, then a periodic transfer between the mechanical oscillator and cavity mode occurs for given interaction times. As qualitative results, we prove that the synchronization and transfer of the quantum states are feasible with high fidelity.

Amplitude-squared squeezing of Schrödinger cat states via postselected von Neumann measurement

We know that the original Schr\"odinger cat states has no amplitude-squared squeezing. In this paper, we investigate the amplitude-squared squeezing of Schr\"odinger cat states using postselected von Neumann measurement. The results show that after postselected von Neumann measurement, the amplitude-squared squeezing of Schr\"odinger cat states change dramatically and this can be considered a result of weak value amplification. The squeezing effect also investigated by studying the Wigner function of Schr\"odinger cat states after postselected measurement.