Temporal Quantum Correlations Research Articles

Quantum space-time marginal problem: global causal structure from local causal information

Spatial and temporal quantum correlations can be unified in the framework of the pseudo-density operators (PDOs), and quantum causality between the involved events in an experiment is encoded in the corresponding PDO. We study the relationship between local causal information and global causal structure. A space-time marginal problem is proposed to infer global causal structures from given marginal causal structures where causal structures are represented by the reduced PDOs; we show that there almost always exists a solution in this case. By imposing the corresponding constraints on this solution set, we could obtain the required solutions for special classes of marginal problems, like a positive semidefinite marginal problem, separable marginal problem, etc. We introduce a space-time entropy and propose a method to determine the global causal structure based on the maximum entropy principle. The notion of quantum pseudo-channel (QPC) is also introduced and we demonstrate that the QPC marginal problem can be solved by transforming it into a PDO marginal problem via the channel-state duality.

Time evolution of quantum correlations induced by atomic state superpositions

In this article, we study the time evolution of Gaussian quantum correlations induced by the superposition of atomic states. Photon-based quantum information and communication are powerful and suitable because the relevant physical mechanisms, the high combination rate of photons, and the sources of coherence can be understood and easily modeled. To this end, coupled photon pairs produced by coherent superposition of atomic states in an atomic laser and influences of spontaneous atomic decay due to vacuum field fluctuations have been considered. The dynamics of the quantum system leads to temporal quantum correlations such as quantum discord, quantum entanglement, and quantum steering, which are treated by the density operator approach. It was found that the generated photon pairs are completely in a separable state in the initial phase of the dynamical processes. The quantum coherences must be given sufficient time to generate quantum correlations that saturate after very short time scales. The strength of these quantum correlations has been improved by increasing the number of superposed atoms per unit of time. In particular, two-way quantum steering, which is a guarantee for the existence of quantum discord and quantum entanglement, can be achieved by increasing the atom injection rate from 10 kHz to 100 kHz when the probability of finding atoms in the excited state is 45%.

Information encoding in the spatial correlations of entangled twin beams.

The ability to use the temporal and spatial degrees of freedom of quantum states of light to encode and transmit information is crucial for a robust and efficient quantum network. In particular, the potential offered by the large dimensionality of the spatial degree of freedom remains unfulfilled, as the necessary level of control required to encode information remains elusive. We encode information in the distribution of the spatial correlations of entangled twin beams by taking advantage of their dependence on the angular spectrum of the pump needed for four-wave mixing. We show that the encoded information can only be extracted through joint spatial measurements of the twin beams and not through individual beam measurements and that the temporal quantum correlations are not modified. The ability to engineer the spatial properties of twin beams will enable high-capacity quantum networks and quantum-enhanced spatially resolved sensing and imaging.

Quantum Langevin theory for two coupled phase-conjugated electromagnetic waves

While loss-gain-induced Langevin noises have been intensively studied in quantum optics, the effect of a complex-valued nonlinear coupling coefficient on the noises of two coupled phase-conjugated optical fields has never been questioned before. Here, we provide a general macroscopic phenomenological formula of quantum Langevin equations for two coupled phase-conjugated fields with linear loss (gain) and complex nonlinear coupling coefficient. The macroscopic phenomenological formula is obtained from the coupling matrix to preserve the field commutation relations and correlations, which does not require knowing the microscopic details of light-matter interaction and internal atomic structures. To validate this phenomenological formula, we take spontaneous four-wave mixing in a double-$\Lambda$ four-level atomic system as an example to numerically confirm that our macroscopic phenomenological result is consistent with that obtained from the microscopic Heisenberg-Langevin theory. Finally, we apply the quantum Langevin equations to study the effects of linear gain and loss, complex phase mismatching, as well as complex nonlinear coupling coefficient in entangled photon pair (biphoton) generation, particularly to their temporal quantum correlations.

Leggett-Garg macrorealism and temporal correlations

In this Perspective, the authors review the state of the art of Leggett-Garg macrorealism and its experimental falsification and connect them with the broader framework of temporal quantum correlations. The latter, inherently related to the notion of memory of a system, is reviewed from the perspective of practical quantum information-theoretic tasks.

Quantifying Quantumness of Channels Without Entanglement

Quantum channels breaking entanglement, incompatibility, or nonlocality are defined as such because they are not useful for entanglement-based, one-sided device-independent, or device-independent quantum information processing, respectively. Here, we show that such breaking channels are related to complementary tests of macrorealism i.e., temporal separability, channel unsteerability, temporal unsteerability, and the temporal Bell inequality. To demonstrate this we first define a steerability-breaking channel, which is conceptually similar to entanglement and nonlocality-breaking channels and prove that it is identical to an incompatibility-breaking channel. A hierarchy of quantum non-breaking channels is derived, akin to the existing hierarchy relations for temporal and spatial quantum correlations. We then introduce the concept of channels that break temporal correlations, explain how they are related to the standard breaking channels, and prove the following results: (1) A robustness-based measure for non-entanglement-breaking channels can be probed by temporal nonseparability. (2) A non-steerability-breaking channel can be quantified by channel steering. (3) Temporal steerability and non-macrorealism can be used for, respectively, distinguishing unital steerability-breaking channels and nonlocality-breaking channels for a maximally entangled state. Finally, a two-dimensional depolarizing channel is experimentally implemented as a proof-of-principle example to demonstrate the hierarchy relation of non-breaking channels using temporal quantum correlations

Quantum steering as a witness of quantum scrambling

Quantum information scrambling describes the delocalization of local information to global information in the form of entanglement throughout all possible degrees of freedom. A natural measure of scrambling is the tripartite mutual information (TMI), which quantifies the amount of delocalized information for a given quantum channel with its state representation, i.e., the Choi state. In this work, we show that quantum information scrambling can also be witnessed by temporal quantum steering for qubit systems. We can do so because there is a fundamental equivalence between the Choi state and the pseudo-density matrix formalism used in temporal quantum correlations. In particular, we propose a quantity as a scrambling witness, based on a measure of temporal steering called temporal steerable weight. We justify the scrambling witness for unitary qubit channels by proving that the quantity vanishes whenever the channel is non-scrambling.

Quantum direct cause across the Cherenkov threshold in circuit QED

We investigate the Cherenkov radiation triggered by qubit acceleration simulated by superconducting circuit. By analyzing the radiation probability, we confirm the existence of Cherenkov speed threshold, implying that simulating superluminal qubit motion is possible for such a scenario. A question immediately arises: Is such motion compatible with the causality principle? To address the question, we perform a causality test on the simulating system based on the recently developed notion of temporal quantum correlations, pseudo-density matrix and temporal quantum steering. The results suggest that single-mode approximation breaks down even when the system is restricted in weak coupling regime.

Ancilla-assisted probing of temporal quantum correlations of large spins

When measuring quantum spins at two or more different times, the later measurements are affected by measurement backaction occurring due to the earlier measurements. This makes the measurement of temporal quantum correlation functions challenging. In this paper, I propose a measurement protocol that mitigates the effect of measurement backaction by exploiting spin selection rules. I show that, under suitable conditions, the effect of measurement backaction on two-time quantum correlations becomes negligible when probing a system consisting of spins with large spin quantum numbers $l\gg s$ by coupling it to a spin-$s$ ancilla degree of freedom. A potential application of such a measurement protocol is the probing of an array of Bose-Einstein condensates by light.

Causal Limit on Quantum Communication.

The capacity of a channel is known to be equivalent to the highest rate at which it can generate entanglement. Analogous to entanglement, the notion of a causality measure characterizes the temporal aspect of quantum correlations. Despite holding an equally fundamental role in physics, temporal quantum correlations have yet to find their operational significance in quantum communication. Here we uncover a connection between quantum causality and channel capacity. We show the amount of temporal correlations between two ends of the noisy quantum channel, as quantified by a causality measure, implies a general upper bound on its channel capacity. The expression of this new bound is simpler to evaluate than most previously known bounds. We demonstrate the utility of this bound by applying it to a class of shifted depolarizing channels, which results in improvement over previously known bounds for this class of channels.

Hierarchy of temporal quantum correlations using a correlated spontaneous emission laser.

As an active quantum system, the correlated spontaneous emission laser has many valuable applications in quantum information processing. Here, we report on temporal evolution of the quantum correlations such as quantum discord, entanglement, steering, and Bell non-locality for the field retrieved in the form of two-mode Gaussian state using a system of correlated spontaneous emission laser. We consider the initial modes of the cavity field as two independent arbitrary single-mode Gaussian states inside the cavity. The density matrix for the resulting cavity field is evaluated both analytically and numerically with respect to the time evolution of the laser system. The influences of the non-classicality and purity of the initial cavity modes, the Rabi frequency of the classical coupling field, and the cavity damping rates are studied thoroughly. We show explicitly that the boundaries for the four kinds of the temporal quantum correlations of the cavity field retrieved satisfy a strict hierarchy.

Geometry of quantum correlations in space-time

The traditional formalism of non-relativistic quantum theory allows the state of a quantum system to extend across space, but only restricts it to a single instant in time, leading to distinction between theoretical treatments of spatial and temporal quantum correlations. Here we unify the geometrical description of two-point quantum correlations in space-time. Our study presents the geometry of correlations between two sequential Pauli measurements on a single qubit undergoing an arbitrary quantum channel evolution together with two-qubit spatial correlations under a common framework. We establish a symmetric structure between quantum correlations in space and time. This symmetry is broken in the presence of non-unital channels, which further reveals a set of temporal correlations that are indistinguishable from correlations found in bipartite entangled states.

Structure of temporal correlations of a qubit

In quantum mechanics, spatial correlations arising from measurements at separated particles are well studied. This is not the case, however, for the temporal correlations arising from a single quantum system subjected to a sequence of generalized measurements. We first characterize the polytope of temporal quantum correlations coming from the most general measurements. We then show that if the dimension of the quantum system is bounded, only a subset of the most general correlations can be realized and identify the correlations in the simplest scenario that can not be reached by two-dimensional systems. This leads to a temporal inequality for a dimension test, and we discuss a possible implementation using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.

Canonical Leggett-Garg inequality: Nonclassicality of temporal quantum correlations under energy constraint

Nonclassicality of temporal correlations pertaining to noncommutative sequential measurements is defined through the violation of macrorealistic inequalities, known as Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGI). We investigate the energy cost of the process associated with the Leggett-Garg test in the context of noiseless and Markovian noise for arbitrary initial states. We prove that in noiseless and in certain noisy scenarios, the maximal violations of LGI under the energy constraint occurs when the average energy of the process is equal to the negative of the energy of the initial state. Such a dependence of LGI on the choice of the initial state is not seen in the unconstrained case. Moreover, we find that in the presence of a moderate amount of Markovian noise, the amount of violation of LGI remains almost unaltered with a suitable choice of the evolution and dephasing operators in the neighborhood of the maximal violation line, thereby showing the robustness of temporal correlations under environmental effects.

Hierarchy in temporal quantum correlations

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is an intermediate quantum correlation that lies in between entanglement and Bell non-locality. Its temporal analogue, temporal steering, has recently been shown to have applications in quantum information and open quantum systems. Here, we show that there exists a hierarchy among the three temporal quantum correlations: temporal inseparability, temporal steering, and macrorealism. Given that the temporal inseparability can be used to define a measure of quantum causality, similarly the quantification of temporal steering can be viewed as a weaker measure of direct cause and can be used to distinguish between direct cause and common cause in a quantum network.

Unifying framework for spatial and temporal quantum correlations

Measurements on a single quantum system at different times reveal rich non-classical correlations similar to those observed in spatially separated multi-partite systems. Here we introduce a theory framework that unifies the description of temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal resources for quantum correlations. We identify, and experimentally demonstrate simple cases where an exact mapping between the domains is possible. We then identify correlation resources in arbitrary situations, where not all spatial quantum states correspond to a process and not all temporal measurements have a spatial analogue. These results provide a starting point for the systematic exploration of multi-point temporal correlations as a powerful resource for quantum information processing.

Study of temporal quantum correlations in decoheringBandKmeson systems

In this work we study temporal quantum correlations, quantified by Leggett-Garg (LG) and LG-type inequalities, in the $B$ and $K$ meson systems. We use the tools of open quantum systems to incorporate the effect of decoherence which is quantified by a single phenomenological parameter. The effect of $CP$ violation is also included in our analysis. We find that the LG inequality is violated for both $B$ and $K$ meson systems, the violation being most prominent in the case of $K$ mesons and least for $B_s$ system. Since the systems with no coherence do not violate LGI, incorporating \textit{decoherence} is expected to decrease the extent of violation of LGI and is clearly brought out in our results. We show that the expression for the LG functions depends upon an additional term, apart from the experimentally measurable meson transition probabilities. This term vanishes in the limit of zero decoherence. On the other hand, the LG-type parameter can be directly expressed in terms of transition probabilities, making it a more appropriate observable for studying temporal quantum correlations in neutral meson systems.

Temporal Quantum Correlations in Inelastic Light Scattering from Water

Water is one of the most prevalent chemicals on our planet, an integral part of both our environment and our existence as a species. Yet it is also rich in anomalous behaviors. Here we reveal that water is a novel-yet ubiquitous-source for quantum correlated photon pairs at ambient conditions. The photon pairs are produced through Raman scattering, and the correlations arise from the shared quantum of a vibrational mode between the Stokes and anti-Stokes scattering events. We confirm the nonclassical nature of the produced photon pairs by showing that the cross-correlation and autocorrelations of the signals violate a Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by over 5 orders of magnitude. The unprecedented degree of violating the inequality in pure water, as well as the well-defined polarization properties of the photon pairs, points to its usefulness in quantum information.

Temporal steering and security of quantum key distribution with mutually unbiased bases against individual attacks

Temporal steering, which is a temporal analogue of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering, refers to temporal quantum correlations between the initial and final state of a quantum system. Our analysis of temporal steering inequalities in relation to the average quantum bit error rates reveals the interplay between temporal steering and quantum cloning, which guarantees the security of quantum key-distribution based on mutually-unbiased bases against individual attacks. The key distributions analyzed here include the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol (BB84) and the six-state 1998 protocol by Bruss (B98). Moreover, we define a temporal steerable weight, which enables us to identify a kind of monogamy of temporal correlations that is essential to quantum cryptography and useful for analyzing various scenarios of quantum causality.

Temporal quantum correlations and Leggett-Garg inequalities in multilevel systems.

We show that the quantum bound for temporal correlations in a Leggett-Garg test, analogous to the Tsirelson bound for spatial correlations in a Bell test, strongly depends on the number of levels N that can be accessed by the measurement apparatus via projective measurements. We provide exact bounds for small N that exceed the known bound for the Leggett-Garg inequality, and we show that in the limit N→∞ the Leggett-Garg inequality can be violated up to its algebraic maximum.