Quantum experiments usually assume the existence of perfect, classical, reference frames, which allow for the specification of measurement settings (e.g. orientation of the Stern Gerlach magnet in spin measurements) with arbitrary precision. If the reference frames are "bounded" (i.e. quantum systems themselves, having a finite number of degrees of freedom), only limited precision can be attained. Using spin coherent states as bounded reference frames we have found their minimal size needed to violate local realism for entangled spin systems. For composite systems of spin-1/2 particles reference frames of very small size are sufficient for the violation; however, to see this violation for macroscopic entangled spins, the size of the reference frame must be at least quadratically larger than that of the spins. Unavailability of such reference frames gives a possible explanation for the non-observance of violation of local realism in everyday experience.
We discuss how continous-variable quantum states such as coherent states and two-mode squeezed states can be encoded in phase-reference independent ways.
Quantum correlations in the state of four-level atom are investigated by using generic unitary transforms of the classical (diagonal) density matrix. Partial cases of pure state, $X$-state, Werner state are studied in details. The geometrical meaning of unitary Hilbert reference-frame rotations generating entanglement in the initially separable state is discussed. Characteristics of the entanglement in terms of concurrence, entropy and negativity are obtained as functions of the unitary matrix rotating the reference frame.
We have recently introduced a measure of the bipartite entanglement of identical particles, E_P, based on the principle that entanglement should be accessible for use as a resource in quantum information processing. We show here that particle entanglement is limited by the lack of a reference phase shared by the two parties, and that the entanglement is constrained to reference-phase invariant subspaces. The super-additivity of E_P results from the fact that this constraint is weaker for combined systems. A shared reference phase can only be established by transferring particles between the pa…
Multipartite entanglement constitutes one of the key resources in quantum information processing. We exploit correlation tensor norms to develop a framework for its experimental detection without the need for shared frames of reference. By bounding these norms for partially separable states and states of limited dimension we achieve an extensive characterization of entanglement in multipartite systems in an experimentally feasible way. Furthermore we show that both bi- and multipartite dimensionality of entanglement can be revealed by our methods.
Alice wants to convey the value of a parameter to Bob with whom she does not share a reference frame. What physical object can she use for this task? Shall she encode this value into the angle between two physical vectors such as the angle between two spins? Can she benefit from using entanglement? We approach these questions here and show that an entangled state of two qubits has three parameters that are invariant under changes of the reference frame. We also calculate the average information gain, when each one of these parameters is used for communication. We compare our result with the sp…
Superselection rules (SSRs) limit the mechanical and quantum processing resources represented by quantum states. However SSRs can be violated using reference systems to break the underlying symmetry. We show that there is a duality between the ability of a system to do mechanical work and to act as a reference system. Further, for a bipartite system in a globally symmetric pure state, we find a triality between the system's ability to do local mechanical work, its ability to do ``logical work'' due to its accessible entanglement, and its ability to act as a shared reference system.
Global conservation laws imply superselection rules (SSR) which restrict the operations that are possible on any given state. Imposing the additional constraint of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) forbids the transfer of quantum systems between spatially separated sites. In the case of particle conservation this imposes a SSR for local particle number. That is, the coherences between subspaces of fixed particle number at each site are not accessible and any state is therefore equivalent to its projection onto these subspaces. The accessible entanglement under the SSR is less…
We show that the expectation value of squared correlations measured along random local directions is an identifier of quantum entanglement in pure states which can be directly experimentally assessed if two copies of the state were available. Entanglement can therefore be detected by parties who do not share a common reference frame and whose local reference frames, such as polarisers or Stern-Gerlach magnets, remain unknown. Furthermore, we also show that in every experimental run access to only one qubit from the macroscopic reference is sufficient to identify entanglement, violate a Bell in…
We present a procedure inspired by dense coding, which enables a highly efficient transmission of information of a continuous nature. The procedure requires the sender and the recipient to share a maximally entangled state. We deal with the concrete problem of aligning reference frames or trihedra by means of a quantum system. We find the optimal covariant measurement and compute the corresponding average error, which has a remarkably simple close form. The connection of this procedure with that of estimating unitary transformations on qubits is briefly discussed.
Simply and reliably detecting and quantifying entanglement outside laboratory conditions will be essential for future quantum information technologies. Here we address this issue by proposing a method for generating expressions which can perform this task between two parties who do not share a common reference frame. These reference frame independent expressions only require simple local measurements, which allows us to experimentally test them using an off-the-shelf entangled photon source. We show that the values of these expressions provide bounds on the concurrence of the state, and demons…
We experimentally demonstrate a proposal [Phys. Rev. A 87, 052325 (2013)] of a scheme for robust distribution of polarization entangled photon pairs over collective noisy channels having the reciprocity. Although the scheme employs the robustness of two qubit decoherence-free subspace, by utilizing the forward propagation of one half of the entangled photons and the backward propagation of a classical reference light, it achieves an entanglement-sharing rate proportional to the transmittance of the quantum channel for the signal photon. We experimentally observed the efficient sharing rate whi…
We study a quantum theory based on two assumptions: In the intrinsic frame of reference of an isolated, macroscopic system, (i) the system has no global motion and is not entangled with any other system, (ii) time evolution of statevectors of systems outside the system satisfy Schrödinger equation. A process of collision-type interaction between a microscopic system and a macroscopic system is studied in an auxiliary frame of reference. In transforming the statevector of the two systems obtained in the auxiliary frame of reference to the intrinsic frame of reference of the macroscopic system, …
The quantization of the electromagnetic field has successfully paved the way for the development of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and has established the basis for quantum technologies. Gravity, however, continues to hold out against physicists' efforts of including it into the framework of quantum theory. Experimental techniques in quantum optics have only recently reached the precision and maturity required for the investigation of quantum systems under the influence of gravitational fields. Here, we report on experiments in which a genuine quantum state of an entangled photon pair …
This paper concentrates on a particular example of a constraint imposed by superselection rules (SSRs): that which applies when the parties (Alice and Bob) cannot distinguish among certain quantum objects they have. This arises naturally in the context of ensemble quantum information processing such as in liquid NMR. We discuss how a SSR for the symmetric group can be applied, and show how the extractable entanglement can be calculated analytically in certain cases, with a maximum bipartite entanglement in an ensemble of N Bell-state pairs scaling as log(N) as N goes to infinity . We discuss t…
Multipartite nonlocality is of great fundamental interest and constitutes a useful resource for many quantum information protocols. However, demonstrating it in practice, by violating a Bell inequality, can be difficult. In particular, standard experimental setups require the alignment of distant parties' reference frames, which can be challenging or impossible in practice. In this work we study the violation of certain Bell inequalities, namely the Mermin, Mermin-Klyshko and Svetlichny inequalities, without shared reference frames, when parties share a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state.…
A phase reference has been a standard requirement in continuous-variable quantum sensing and communication protocols. However, maintaining a phase reference is challenging due to environmental fluctuations, preventing quantum phenomena such as entanglement and coherence from being utilized in many scenarios. We show that quantum communication and entanglement-assisted communication without a phase reference are possible, when a short-time memory effect is present. The degradation in the communication rate of classical or quantum information transmission decreases inversely with the correlation…
We discuss the physical interpretation of the gravity mediated entanglement effect. We show how to read it in terms of quantum reference systems. We pinpoint the single gravitational degree of freedom mediating the entanglement. We clarify why the distinction between longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom is irrelevant for the interpretation of the results. We discuss the relation between the LOCC theorem and the interpretation of the effect, its different relevance for, respectively, the quantum gravity and quantum information communities, and the reason for the excitement raised by t…
The genuine concurrence is a standard quantifier of multipartite entanglement, detection and quantification of which still remains a difficult problem from both theoretical and experimental point of view. Although many efforts have been devoted toward the detection of multipartite entanglement (e.g., using entanglement witnesses), measuring the degree of multipartite entanglement, in general, requires some knowledge about an exact shape of a density matrix of the quantum state. An experimental reconstruction of such density matrix can be done by full state tomography which amounts to having th…
Restrictions on quantum operations give rise to resource theories. Total lack of a shared reference frame for transformations associated with a group G between two parties is equivalent to having, in effect, an invariant channel between the parties and a corresponding superselection rule. The resource associated with the absence of the reference frame is known as "frameness" or "asymmetry." We show that any entanglement monotone for pure bipartite states can be adapted as a pure-state frameness monotone for phase-invariant channels [equivalently U(1) superselection rules] and extended to the c…
The experimental detection of multipartite entanglement usually requires a number of appropriately chosen local quantum measurements which are aligned with respect to a previously shared common reference frame. The latter, however, can be a challenging prerequisite e.g. for satellite-based photonic quantum communication, making the development of alternative detection strategies desirable. One possibility for avoiding the distribution of classical reference frames is to perform a number of local measurements with settings distributed uniformly at random. In this work we follow such a treatment…
Recently relativistic quantum information has received considerable attention due to its theoretical importance and practical application. Especially, quantum entanglement in non-inertial reference frames has been studied for scalar and Dirac fields. As a further step along this line, we here shall investigate quantum entanglement of electromagnetic fields in non-inertial reference frames. In particular, the entanglement of photon helicity entangled state is extensively analyzed. Interestingly, the resultant logarithmic negativity and mutual information remain the same as those for inertial re…
We consider the smallest possible directional reference frames allowed and determine the best one can ever do in preserving quantum information in various scenarios. We find that for the preservation of a single spin state, two orthogonal spins are optimal primitive reference frames, and in a product state do approximately 22% as well as an infinite-sized classical frame. By adding a small amount of entanglement to the reference frame this can be raised to 2(2/3)^5 = 26%. Under the different criterion of entanglement-preservation a very similar optimal reference frame is found, however this ti…
Subsystem entanglement and separability in quantum reference frames
KTH Royal Institute of Technology（皇家理工学院）；Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院）；Basic Research Community for Physics e.V.（基础物理研究社区协会）
Demonstrations of quantum entanglement which confirm the violation of Bell's inequality indicate that under certain conditions action at a distance is possible. This consequence seems to contradict the relativistic principle of causality, which asserts that an effect never precedes its cause, in any reference frame. By analyzing a numerical example of Bell's experiment with entangled pairs of photons, we show how observers in two inertial reference frames can disagree about the causality relation between two events. One observer claims that event 1 is the cause of event 2, while the other clai…
Standard semi-classical models of decoherence do not take explicit account of the classical information required to specify the system - environment boundary. I show that this information can be represented as a finite set of reference eigenvalues that must be encoded by any observer, including any apparatus, able to distinguish the system from its environment. When the information required for system identification is accounted for in this way, decoherence can be described as a sequence of entanglement swaps between reference and pointer components of the system and their respective environme…
Nonclassicality and entanglement are notions fundamental to quantum information processes involving continuous variable systems. That these two notions are intimately related has been intuitively appreciated for quite some time. An aspect of considerable interest is the behaviour of these attributes of a state under the action of a noisy channel. Inspired by the notion of entanglement-breaking channels, we define the concept of nonclassicality-breaking channels in a natural manner. We show that the notion of nonclassicality-breaking is essentially equivalent---in a clearly defined sense of the…
We propose an alignment-free two-party polarization-entanglement transmission scheme for entangled photons by using only linear-optical elements, requiring neither ancillary photons nor calibrated reference frames. The scheme is robust against both the random channel noise and the instability of reference frames, and it is subsequently extended to multi-party Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state transmission. Furthermore, the success probabilities for two- and multi-party entanglement transmission are, in principle, improved to unity when active polarization controllers are used. The distinct cha…
Electron correlation effects are essential for an accurate ab initio description of molecules. A quantitative a priori knowledge of the single- or multi-reference nature of electronic structures as well as of the dominant contributions to the correlation energy can facilitate the decision regarding the optimum quantum chemical method of choice. We propose concepts from quantum information theory as orbital entanglement measures that allow us to evaluate the single- and multi-reference character of any molecular structure in a given orbital basis set. By studying these measures we can detect po…
We argue that the claim given in quant-ph/9801014 remains untenable in the revised version. The fallacy in the proof is a misinterpretation of the no-cloning and teleportation theorems, which do not involve time and reference frames.
Entanglement transference and non-inertial quantum reference frames
University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学量子计算研究所）；Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学天体物理中心）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（基础物理研究所）
From an operational perspective, quantumness characterizes the exotic behavior in a physical process which cannot be explained with Newtonian physics. There are several widely used measures of quantumness, including coherence, discord, and entanglement, each proven to be essential resources in particular situations. There exists evidence of fundamental connections amongst the three measures. However, those quantumnesses are still regarded differently and such connections are yet to be elucidated. Here, we introduce a general framework of defining a unified quantumness with an operational motiv…
In the quantization of gauge theories and quantum gravity, it is crucial to treat reference frames such as rods or clocks not as idealized external classical relata, but as internal quantum subsystems. In the Page-Wootters formalism, for example, evolution of a quantum system S is described by a stationary joint state of S and a quantum clock, where time-dependence of S arises from conditioning on the value of the clock. Here, we consider (possibly imperfect) internal quantum reference frames R for arbitrary compact symmetry groups, and show that there is an exact quantitative correspondence b…
In the absence of a reference frame for transformations associated with a group G, any quantum state that is non-invariant under the action of G may serve as a token of the missing reference frame. We here introduce a novel measure of the quality of such a token: the relative entropy of frameness. This is defined as the relative entropy distance between the state of interest and the nearest G-invariant state. Unlike the relative entropy of entanglement, this quantity is straightforward to calculate and we find it to be precisely equal to the G-asymmetry, a measure of frameness introduced by Va…
To fully utilize the energy-time degree of freedom of photons for optical quantum information processes, it is necessary to control and characterize the quantum states of the photons at extremely short time scales. For measurements beyond the time resolution of available detectors, two-photon interference with a photon in a short time reference pulse may be a viable alternative. In this paper, we derive the temporal measurement operators for the bunching statistics of a single photon input state with a reference photon. It is shown that the effects of the pulse shape of the reference pulse can…
While single boson entanglement is known to be equivalent to standard non-identical particle entanglement, the use of fermionic entanglement is constrained by a parity superselection rule. Nevertheless we show that within the framework of second quantization, where local modes play the role of qubits, the analogy with ordinary entanglement holds: two entangled spinless fermion modes can be used to teleport a single local fermion mode and to perform standard dense coding. Entanglement concentration and dilution are possible for fermions. We clarify the meaning of our results by discussing the c…
We present in detail a statistical approach for the reference-frame-independent detection and characterization of multipartite entanglement based on moments of randomly measured correlation functions. We start by discussing how the corresponding moments can be evaluated with designs, linking methods from group and entanglement theory. Then, we illustrate the strengths of the presented framework with a focus on the multipartite scenario. We discuss a condition for characterizing genuine multipartite entanglement for three qubits, and we prove criteria that allow for a discrimination of $W$-type…
We present a model of discrete quantum evolution based on quantum correlations between the evolving system and a reference quantum clock system. A quantum circuit for the model is provided, which in the case of a constant Hamiltonian is able to represent the evolution over $2^n$ time steps in terms of just $n$ time qubits and $n$ control gates. We then introduce the concept of system-time entanglement as a measure of distinguishable quantum evolution, based on the entanglement between the system and the reference clock. This quantity vanishes for stationary states and is maximum for systems ju…
We propose a covariant protocol for transmitting reference frames encoded on $N$ spins, achieving sensitivity $N^{-2}$ without the need of a pre-established reference frame and without using entanglement between sender and receiver. The protocol exploits the use of equivalent representations, which were overlooked in the previous literature.
Experimental procedures are presented for the rapid detection of entanglement of unknown arbitrary quantum states. The methods are based on the entanglement criterion using accessible correlations and the principle of correlation complementarity. Our first scheme essentially establishes the Schmidt decomposition for pure states, with few measurements only and without the need for shared reference frames. The second scheme employs a decision tree to speed up entanglement detection. We analyze the performance of the methods using numerical simulations and verify them experimentally for various s…
Recently, some attention has been given to the so-called Page-Wootters mechanism of quantum clocks. Among the various proposals to explore the mechanism using more modern techniques, some have chosen to use a quantum information perspective, defining and using informational measures to quantify how well a quantum system can stand as a reference frame for other quantum system. In this work, we explore the proposal based on resource theory of asymmetry, known as mutual or shared asymmetry, which actually is equivalent to the approach from coherence theory in the case of interest here: quantum re…
We study the properties of quantum information and quantum entanglement in moving frames. We show that the entanglement between the spins and the momenta of two particles can be interchanged under a Lorentz transformation, so that a pair of particles that is entangled in spin but not momentum in one reference frame, may, in another frame, be entangled in momentum at the expense of spin-entanglement. Similarly, entanglement between momenta may be transferred to spin under a Lorentz transformation. While spin and momentum entanglement each is not Lorentz invariant, the joint entanglement of the …
It has been accepted that the polarization of the photon in vector beams is entangled with its momentum. Here a quantum description is advanced for the polarization that shows entanglement with the momentum. This is done by showing that the Jones vector at each value of the momentum plays the role of the polarization wavefunction in the sense that the Pauli matrices represent the Cartesian components of the polarization in the local reference system with respect to which the Jones vector is defined. The unit vector that the constraint of transversality condition requires to specify the local r…
We introduce an experimental procedure for the detection of quantum entanglement of an unknown quantum state with as few measurements as possible. The method requires neither a priori knowledge of the state nor a shared reference frame between the observers. The scheme starts with local measurements, possibly supplemented with suitable filtering, that can be regarded as calibration. Consecutive correlation measurements enable detection of the entanglement of the state. We utilize the fact that the calibration stage essentially establishes the Schmidt decomposition for pure states. Alternativel…
We show that the generation of entanglement of two heavily macroscopic mirrors with masses of up to several kilograms are feasible with state of the art techniques of high-precision laser interferometry. The basis of such a demonstration would be a Michelson interferometer with suspended mirrors and simultaneous homodyne detections at both interferometer output ports. We present the connection between the generation of entanglement and the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) for a free mass. The SQL is a well-known reference limit in operating interferometers for gravitational-wave detection and prov…
Quantum entanglement is one of the core features of quantum theory. While it is typically revealed by measurements along carefully chosen directions, here we review different methods based on so-called random or randomized measurements. Although this approach might seem inefficient at first, sampling correlations in various random directions is a powerful tool to study properties which are invariant under local-unitary transformations. Based on random measurements, entanglement can be detected and characterized without a shared reference frame between the observers or even if local reference f…
Coherent feedback control (CFC) of multipartite optical entangled states produced by a non-degenerate optical parametric amplifier is theoretically studied. The features of the quantum correlations of amplitude and phase quadratures among more than two entangled optical modes can be controlled by tuning the transmissivity of the optical beam splitter in CFC loop. The physical conditions to enhance continuous variable multipartite entanglement of optical fields utilizing CFC loop are obtained. The numeric calculations based on feasible physical parameters of realistic systems provide direct ref…
Quantum entanglement is usually revealed via a well aligned, carefully chosen set of measurements. Yet, under a number of experimental conditions, for example in communication within multiparty quantum networks, noise along the channels or fluctuating orientations of reference frames may ruin the quality of the distributed states. Here we show that even for strong fluctuations one can still gain detailed information about the state and its entanglement using random measurements. Correlations between all or subsets of the measurement outcomes and especially their distributions provide informati…
Estimation of unknown qubit elementary gates and alignment of reference frames are formally the same problem. Using quantum states made out of $N$ qubits, we show that the theoretical precision limit for both problems, which behaves as $1/N^{2}$, can be asymptotically attained with a covariant protocol that exploits the quantum correlation of internal degrees of freedom instead of the more fragile entanglement between distant parties. This cuts by half the number of qubits needed to achieve the precision of the dense covariant coding protocol.
A still widely debated question in the field of relativistic quantum information is whether entanglement and the degree of violation of Bell's inequalities for massive relativistic particles are frame independent or not. At the core of this question is the effect that spin gets entangled with the momentum degree of freedom at relativistic velocities. Here, we show that Bell's inequalities for a pair of particles can be maximally violated in a special-relativistic regime, even without any post-selection of the momentum of the particles. To this end, we use the methodology of quantum reference f…
