We quantify correlations (quantum and/or classical) between two continuous variable modes in terms of how many correlated bits can be extracted by measuring the sign of two local quadratures. On Gaussian states, such `bit quadrature correlations' majorize entanglement, reducing to an entanglement monotone for pure states. For non-Gaussian states, such as photonic Bell states, ideal and real de-Gaussified photon-subtracted states, and mixtures of pure Gaussian states, the bit correlations are shown to be a {\em monotonic} function of the negativity. This yields a feasible, operational way to quantitatively measure non-Gaussian entanglement in current experiments by means of direct homodyne detection, without a full tomographical reconstruction of the Wigner function.
We formalize and extend an operational multipartite entanglement measure introduced by T. R. Oliveira, G. Rigolin, and M. C. de Oliveira, Phys. Rev. A 73, 010305(R) (2006), through the generalization of global entanglement (GE) [D. A. Meyer and N. R. Wallach, J. Math. Phys. 43, 4273 (2002)]. Contrarily to GE the main feature of this measure lies in the fact that we study the mean linear entropy of all possible partitions of a multipartite system. This allows the construction of an operational multipartite entanglement measure which is able to distinguish among different multipartite entangled …
To quantify single mode nonclassicality, we start from an operational approach. A positive semi-definite observable is introduced to describe a measurement setup. The quantification is based on the negativity of the normally ordered version of this observable. Perfect operational quantumness corresponds to the quantum-noise-free measurement of the chosen observable. Surprisingly, even moderately squeezed states may exhibit perfect quantumness for a properly designed measurement. The quantification is also considered from an axiomatic viewpoint, based on the algebraic structure of the quantum s…
The diverse range of resources which underlie the utility of quantum states in practical tasks motivates the development of universally applicable methods to measure and compare resources of different types. However, many of such approaches were hitherto limited to the finite-dimensional setting or were not connected with operational tasks. We overcome this by introducing a general method of quantifying resources for continuous-variable quantum systems based on the robustness measure, applicable to a plethora of physically relevant resources such as optical nonclassicality, entanglement, genui…
We develop theoretical and numerical tools for the quantification of entanglement in systems with continuous degrees of freedom. Continuous variable entanglement swapping is introduced and based on this idea we develop methods of entanglement purification for continuous variable systems. The success of these entanglement purification methods is then assessed using these tools.
Here we propose an experimental set-up in which it is possible to measure the entanglement of a two-mode Gaussian state, be it pure or mixed, using only simple linear optical devices. After a proper unitary manipulation of the two-mode Gaussian state only number and purity measurements of just one of the modes suffice to give us a complete and exact knowledge of the state's entanglement.
The general class of Gaussian Schmidt-number witness operators for bipartite systems is studied. It is shown that any member of this class is reducible to a convex combination of two types of Gaussian operators using local operations and classical communications. This gives rise to a simple operational method, which is solely based on measurable covariance matrices of quantum states. Our method bridges the gap between theory and experiment of entanglement quantification. In particular, we certify lower bounds of the Schmidt number of squeezed thermal and phase-randomized squeezed vacuum states…
We generalize the operational quasiprobability involving sequential measurements proposed by Ryu {\em et al.} [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 88}, 052123] to a continuous-variable system. The quasiprobabilities in quantum optics are incommensurate, i.e., they represent a given physical observation in different mathematical forms from their classical counterparts, making it difficult to operationally interpret their negative values. Our operational quasiprobability is {\em commensurate}, enabling one to compare quantum and classical statistics on the same footing. We show that the operational quasiprobabili…
In the last few years, several criteria to identify Eistein-Podolski-Rosen steering have been proposed and experimentally implemented. On the operational side, however, the evaluation of the steerability degree of a given state has shown to be a difficult task and only a few results are known. In this work, we propose a measure of steering that is based on the maximal violation of well established steering inequalities. Applying this approach to two-qubit states, we managed to derive simple closed formulas for steering in the two- and three-measurement scenarios. Among the options investigated…
Due to the importance of entanglement for quantum information purposes, a framework has been developed for its characterization and quantification as a resource based on the following operational principle: entanglement among $N$ parties cannot be created by local operations and classical communication, even when $N-1$ parties collaborate. More recently, nonlocality has been identified as another resource, alternative to entanglement and necessary for device-independent quantum information protocols. We introduce an operational framework for nonlocality based on a similar principle: nonlocalit…
A fundamental approach for the characterization and quantification of all kinds of resources is to study the conversion between different resource objects under certain constraints. Here we analyze, from a resource-non-specific standpoint, the optimal efficiency of resource formation and distillation tasks with only a single copy of the given quantum state, thereby establishing a unified framework of one-shot quantum resource manipulation. We find general bounds on the optimal rates characterized by resource measures based on the smooth max/min-relative entropies and hypothesis testing relativ…
Along with the vast progress in experimental quantum technologies there is an increasing demand for the quantification of entanglement between three or more quantum systems. Theory still does not provide adequate tools for this purpose. The objective is, besides the quest for exact results, to develop operational methods that allow for efficient entanglement quantification. Here we put forward an analytical approach that serves both these goals. We provide a simple procedure to quantify Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger--type multipartite entanglement in arbitrary three-qubit states. For two qubits …
Entanglement, one of the most intriguing aspects of quantum mechanics, marks itself into different features of quantum states. For this reason different criteria can be used for verifying entanglement. In this paper we review some of the entanglement criteria casted for continuous variable states and link them to peculiar aspects of the original debate on the famous EPR paradox. Moreover, we give a handy expression for valuating Bell-type non-locality on Gaussian states. We also present the experimental measurement of a particular realization of the Bell operator over continuous variable entan…
Continuous-variable quantum cryptographic systems, including random number generation and key distribution, are often based on coherent detection. The essence of the security analysis lies in the randomness quantification. Previous analyses employ a semi-quantum picture, where the strong local oscillator limit is assumed. Here, we investigate the randomness of homodyne detection in a full quantum scenario by accounting for the shot noise in the local oscillator, which requires us to develop randomness measures in the infinite-dimensional scenario. Similar to the finite-dimensional case, our in…
We quantify multiparticle quantum entanglement in a system of N two-level atoms interacting with a squeezed vacuum state of the electromagnetic field. We calculate the amount of quantum entanglement present among one hundred such two-level atoms and also show the variation of that entanglement with the radiation field parameter. We show the continuous variation of the amount of quantum entanglement as we continuously increase the number of atoms from N=2 to N=100. We also discuss that the multiparticle correlations among the N two-level atoms are made up of all possible bipartite correlations …
Genuinely quantum states of a harmonic oscillator may be distinguished from their classical counterparts by the Glauber-Sudarshan P-representation -- a state lacking a positive P-function is said to be nonclassical. In this paper, we propose a general operational framework for studying nonclassicality as a resource in networks of passive linear elements and measurements with feed-forward. Within this setting, we define new measures of nonclassicality based on the quantum fluctuations of quadratures, as well as the quantum Fisher information of quadrature displacements. These lead to fundamenta…
We present a theoretical method to determine the multipartite entanglement between different partitions of multimode, fully or partially symmetric Gaussian states of continuous variable systems. For such states, we determine the exact expression of the logarithmic negativity and show that it coincides with that of equivalent two--mode Gaussian states. Exploiting this reduction, we demonstrate the scaling of the multipartite entanglement with the number of modes and its reliable experimental estimate by direct measurements of the global and local purities.
We introduce an approach which allows a detailed structural and quantitative analysis of multipartite entanglement. The sets of states with different structures are convex and nested. Hence, they can be distinguished from each other using appropriate measurable witnesses. We derive equations for the construction of optimal witnesses and discuss general properties arising from our approach. As an example, we formulate witnesses for a 4-cluster state and perform a full quantitative analysis of the entanglement structure in the presence of noise and losses. The strength of the method in multimode…
We investigate and compare three distinguished geometric measures of bipartite quantum correlations that have been recently introduced in the literature: the geometric discord, the measurement-induced geometric discord, and the discord of response, each one defined according to three contractive distances on the set of quantum states, namely the trace, Bures, and Hellinger distances. We establish a set of exact algebraic relations and inequalities between the different measures. In particular, we show that the geometric discord and the discord of response based on the Hellinger distance are ea…
We show that the Fisher information associated with entanglement-assisted coding has a monotonic relationship with the logarithmic negativity, an important entanglement measure, for certain classes of continuous variable (CV) quantum states of practical significance. These are the two-mode squeezed states and the non-Gaussian states obtained from them by photon subtraction. This monotonic correspondence can be expressed analytically in the case of pure states. Numerical analysis shows that this relationship holds to a very good approximation even in the mixed state case of the photon-subtracte…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering incarnates a useful nonclassical correlation which sits between entanglement and Bell nonlocality. While a number of qualitative steering criteria exist, very little has been achieved for what concerns quantifying steerability. We introduce a computable measure of steering for arbitrary bipartite Gaussian states of continuous variable systems. For two-mode Gaussian states, the measure reduces to a form of coherent information, which is proven never to exceed entanglement, and to reduce to it on pure states. We provide an operational connection between our measu…
We study a continuous variable (CV) dense-coding protocol, originally proposed to employ a two-mode squeezed state, using a general two-mode Gaussian state as a quantum channel. We particularly obtain conditions to manifest quantum advantage by beating two well-known single-mode schemes, namely, the squeezed-state scheme (best Gaussian scheme) and the number-state scheme (optimal scheme achieving the Holevo bound). We then extend our study to a multipartite Gaussian state and investigate the monogamy of operational entanglement measured by the communication capacity under the dense-coding prot…
Concurrence, introduced by Hill and Wootters [Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 5022 (1997)], provides an important measure of entanglement for a general pair of qubits that is faithful: strictly positive for entangled states and vanishing for all separable states. Such a measure captures the entire content of entanglement, providing necessary and sufficient conditions for separability. We present an extension of concurrence to multiparticle pure states in arbitrary dimensions by a new framework using the Lagrange's identity and wedge product representation of separability conditions, which coincides with …
As one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is a useful resource for secure quantum networks. Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state plays important role in quantum communication network. By reconstructing the covariance matrix of a continuous variable tripartite GHZ state, we fully quantify the amount of bipartite steering under Gaussian measurements. We demonstrate that the (1+1)-mode steerability is not exist in the tripartite GHZ state, only the collectively steerability exist between the (1+2)-mode and (2+1)-mode partitions. These p…
We consider the unitary time evolution of continuous quantum mechanical systems confined to a cavity in contact with a finite bath of variable size. Measures for Markovianity for such finite system-bath configurations are developed in terms of Hilbert-Schmidt distances of time evolving wave packets. The relevant time scales are identified, which characterize pseudo-Markovian transient behavior, boundary scattering induced non-Markovian oscillations at intermediate times, and non-Markovian rephasing events at long time scales. It is shown how these time scales can be controlled by tunable param…
Although quantum channels underlie the dynamics of quantum states, maps which are not physical channels -- that is, not completely positive -- can often be encountered in settings such as entanglement detection, non-Markovian quantum dynamics, or error mitigation. We introduce an operational approach to the quantitative study of the non-physicality of linear maps based on different ways to approximate a given linear map with quantum channels. Our first measure directly quantifies the cost of simulating a given map using physically implementable quantum channels, shifting the difficulty in simu…
We present a complete analysis of multipartite entanglement of three-mode Gaussian states of continuous variable systems. We derive standard forms which characterize the covariance matrix of pure and mixed three-mode Gaussian states up to local unitary operations, showing that the local entropies of pure Gaussian states are bound to fulfill a relationship which is stricter than the general Araki-Lieb inequality. Quantum correlations will be quantified by a proper convex roof extension of the squared logarithmic negativity (the contangle), satisfying a monogamy relation for multimode Gaussian s…
We explore the dual problem of the convex roof construction by identifying it as a linear semi-infinite programming (LSIP) problem. Using the LSIP theory, we show the absence of a duality gap between primal and dual problems, even if the entanglement quantifier is not continuous, and prove that the set of optimal solutions is non-empty and bounded. In addition, we implement a central cutting-plane algorithm for LSIP to quantify entanglement between three qubits. The algorithm has global convergence property and gives lower bounds on the entanglement measure for non-optimal feasible points. As …
