In the last few years one realized that if the state of a bipartite system can be written as $\sum_{i,j}p_{ij}|a_{i}>< a_{i}|\otimes |b_{j}> < b_{j}|$, where $\{|a_{i}> \}$ and $\{|b_{j}> \}$ form orthonormal basis for the subsystems and $\{p_{ij}\}$ is a probability distribution, then it possesses at most classical correlations. In this article we introduce a nonlinear witness providing a sufficient condition for classicality of correlations (absence of quantum discord) in a broad class of two-qubit systems. Such witness turns out to be necessary and sufficient condition in the case of Bell-diagonal states. We show that the witness introduced here can be readily experimentally implemented in nuclear magnetic resonance setups.
Recently, Vedral and one of us proposed an entanglement-based witness of non-classicality in systems that need not obey quantum theory, based on constructor-information-theoretic ideas, which offers a robust foundation for recently proposed table-top tests of non-classicality in gravity. The witness asserts that if a mediator can entangle locally two quantum systems, then it has to be non-classical. Hall and Reginatto claimed that there are classical systems that can entangle two quantum systems, thus violating our proposed witness. Here we refute that claim, explaining that the counterexample…
We show that the operational definition of non-classicality of a quantum state depends on the motion of the observer. We use the relativistic Unruh-DeWitt detector model to witness nonclassicality of the probed field state. It turns out that the witness based on the properties of the P-representation of the quantum state depends on the trajectory of the detector. Inertial and noninertial motion of the device have qualitatively different impact on the performance of the witness.
We propose a new witness operation for the non-classical character of a harmonic oscillator state. The method does not require state reconstruction. For all harmonic oscillator states that are classical, a bound is established for the evolution of a qubit which is coupled to the oscillator. Any violation of the bound can be rigorously attributed to the non-classical character of the initial oscillator state.
In a recent paper, we vindicated a general entanglement-based witness of non-classicality in hybrid quantum systems. Our vindication refutes a counterexample to the witness, proposed by Hall and Reginatto. These authors recently commented further, claiming to expose "a huge number of errors and misconceptions" in it. However, their comment contains no refutation of our arguments, nor does it expose any error or misconception in them. But it does include a number of misconceptions about the witness of non-classicality. Here we respond to those.
Collapse-based models for gravity do not violate the entanglement-based witness of non-classicality
QICI Quantum Information and Computation Initiative, School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong（香港大学计算与数据科学学院量子信息与计算倡议）；Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford（牛津大学克拉伦登实验室）
Non-classical correlations in quantum optics as resources for quantum computation are important in the quest for highly-specialized quantum devices. The standard way to investigate such effects relies on either the characterization of the inherent features of sources and circuits or the study of the output radiation of a given optical setup. The latter approach demands an extensive description of the output fields, but often overlooks the dynamics of the sources. Conversely, the former discards most of the information about the single trajectories, which are observed in experimental measuremen…
Models of quantum-classical interactions fall into two classes: those which allow the generation of quantum entanglement via a classical mediator (such as gravity), and those which do not. Marconato and Marletto have recently sought to distinguish between these classes by claiming that known members of the first class (based on the configuration-ensemble formalism introduced by us) fail to model the mediator as a 'classical' system, and are nonlocal. We explicitly show that this claim is incorrect, and expose a large number of errors and misconceptions in their reasoning. We also point to a ve…
There is current interest in investigating which variables play an important role in the physical processes with an open composite quan- tum system that ranges from the foundational issues to the tasks of diverse applications in quantum physics and technology. In this paper we contrast the local versus the collective classical-like behavior of a pair of interacting qubits immersed in the mutually independent thermal baths. The qubits can be locally subjected to any of the standard, microscopically modelled, generalized amplitude damping and phase damping channel, as well as to the recently int…
We study entanglement dynamics in dispersive optomechanical systems consisting of two optical modes and a mechanical oscillator inside an optical cavity. The two optical modes interact with the mechanical oscillator, but not directly with each other. The appearance of optical entanglement witnesses non-classicality of the oscillator. We study the dependence of the entanglement dynamics with the optomechanical coupling, the mean photon number in the cavity and the oscillator temperature. An experimental realization with ultracold atomic ensembles is proposed.
We investigate the implications of quantum Darwinism in a composite quantum system with interacting constituents exhibiting a decoherence-free subspace. We consider a two-qubit system coupled to an $N$-qubit environment via a dephasing interaction. For excitation preserving interactions between the system qubits, an analytical expression for the dynamics is obtained. It demonstrates that part of the system Hilbert space redundantly proliferates its information to the environment, while the remaining subspace is decoupled and preserves clear non-classical signatures. For measurements performed …
The use of the so-called entropic inequalities is revisited in the light of new quantum correlation measures, specially nonlocality. We introduce the concept of {\it classicality} as the non-violation of these classical inequalities by quantum states of several multiqubit systems and compare it with the non-violation of Bell inequalities, that is, {\it locality}. We explore --numerically and analytically-- the relationship between several other quantum measures and discover the deep connection existing between them. The results are surprising due to the fact that these measures are very differ…
The ultimate goal of the classicality programme is to quantify the amount of quantumness of certain processes. Here, classicality is studied for a restricted type of process: quantum information processing (QIP). Under special conditions, one can force some qubits of a quantum computer into a classical state without affecting the outcome of the computation. The minimal set of conditions is described and its structure is studied. Some implications of this formalism are the increase of noise robustness, a proof of the quantumness of mixed state quantum computing and a step forward in understandi…
Any two-qubit state can be represented geometrically by a steering ellipsoid inside the Bloch sphere. We extend this approach to represent any block positive two-qubit operator $B$. We derive a novel classification scheme based on the positivity of $\det B$ and $\det B^\mathrm{T_B}$; this shows that any ellipsoid inside the Bloch sphere must represent either a two-qubit state or a two-qubit entanglement witness. We focus on such witnesses and their corresponding ellipsoids, finding that properties such as witness optimality are naturally manifest in this geometric representation.
The entanglement witness is an important and experimentally applicable tool for entanglement detection. In this paper, we provide a nonlinear improvement of any entanglement witness for $2\otimes d$ quantum systems. Compared with any existing entanglement witness, the improved separability criterion only needs two more measurements on local observables. Detailed examples are employed to illustrate the efficiency of the nonlinear improvement for general, optimal and non-decomposable entanglement witnesses.
Entanglement witness is a Hermitian operator that is useful for detecting the genuine multipartite entanglement of mixed states. Nonlinear entanglement witnesses have the advantage of a wider detection range in the entangled region. We construct genuine entanglement witnesses for four qubits density matrices in the mutually unbiased basis. First, we find the convex feasible region with positive partial transpose states. Then, to reveal the entangled regions, we present some appropriate linear entanglement witnesses and, we find the envelope of this family of linear witnesses as a nonlinear wit…
We present general numerical methods to construct witness operators for entanglement detection and estimation of the fidelity. Our methods are applied to detecting entanglement in the vicinity of a six-qubit Dicke state with three excitations and also to further entangled symmetric states. All our witnesses are designed to keep the measurement effort small. We present also general results on the efficient local decomposition of permutationally invariant operators, which makes it possible to measure projectors to symmetric states efficiently
We propose a theoretical scheme to witness quantum entanglement via the geometric phase in an impurity-doped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which is a micro-macro quantum system consisting of two Rydberg impurity qubits and the BEC. We calculate the geometric phase of the impurity qubits in the presence of the initial micro-micro and micro-macro entanglement, respectively. It is demonstrated that the geometric phase of the impurity qubits can witness not only inter-qubit micro-micro entanglement, but also qubit-BEC micro-macro entanglement. Our work provide a new insight to witness micro-micr…
We demonstrate that non-linear entanglement witnesses can be made particularly useful for entanglement detection in hyper-entangled or multilevel states. We test this idea experimentally on the platform of linear optics using a hyper-entangled state of two photons. Instead of several simultaneous copies of two-photon entangled states, one can directly measure the witness on single copy of a hyper-entangled state. Our results indicate that hyper-entanglement can be used for quick entanglement detection and it provides a practical testbed for experiments with non-linear entanglement witnesses.
We propose a method to witness entanglement between two continuous-variable systems in a Gaussian state. Its key ingredient is a local lossy state transfer from the original spatially separated systems onto two spatially separated qubits. The qubits are initially in a pure product state, therefore by detecting entanglement between the qubits we witness entanglement between the two original systems. This method greatly simplifies entanglement witnessing in complex systems.
Whether entanglement in a state can be detected, distilled, and quantified without full state reconstruction is a fundamental open problem. We demonstrate a new scheme encompassing these three tasks for arbitrary two-qubit entanglement, by constructing the optimal entanglement witness for polarization-entangled mixed-state photon pairs without full state reconstruction. With better efficiency than quantum state tomography, the entanglement is maximally distilled by newly developed tunable polarization filters, and quantified by the expectation value of the witness, which equals the concurrence…
We evaluate the quantum witness based on the no-signaling-in-time condition of a damped two-level system for nonselective generalized measurements of varying strength. We explicitly compute its dependence on the measurement strength for a generic example. We find a vanishing derivative for weak measurements and an infinite derivative in the limit of projective measurements. The quantum witness is hence mostly insensitive to the strength of the measurement in the weak measurement regime and displays a singular, extremely sensitive dependence for strong measurements. We finally relate this behav…
Resource-efficient entanglement detection in high-dimensional states via two-qubit witnesses
Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic（捷克科学院物理研究所）；Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Science（奥洛穆茨帕拉茨基大学理学院）；University of Wroclaw（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）
Teleportation witnesses are hermitian operators which can identify useful entanglement for quantum teleportation. Here we provide a systematic method to construct teleportation witnesses from entanglement witnesses corresponding to general qudit systems. The witnesses so constructed are shown to be optimal for qubit and qutrit systems, and therefore detect the largest set of states useful for teleportation within a given class. We demonstrate the action of the witness pertaining to different classes of states in qubits and qutrits. Decomposition of the witness in terms of spin operators facili…
We propose a scheme to characterize the non-Markovian dynamics and quantify the non-Markovianity via the non-classicality measured by the negativity of quantumness. By considering a qubit in contact with a critical Ising spin bath and introducing an ancilla, we show that revivals of negativity of quantumness indicate the non-Markovian dynamics. Furthermore, a normalized measure of non-Markovianity based on the negativity of quantumness is introduced and the influences of bath criticality, bath temperature and bath size on the non-Markovianity are discussed. It is shown that, at the critical po…
Deterministic quantum computation with one qubit (DQC1) is iconic in highlighting that exponential quantum speedup may be achieved with negligible entanglement. Its discovery catalyzed heated study of general quantum resources, and various conjectures regarding their role in DQC1's performance advantage. Coherence and discord are prominent candidates, respectively characterizing non-classicality within localized and correlated systems. Here we realize DQC1 within a superconducting system, engineered such that the dynamics of coherence and discord can be tracked throughout its execution. We exp…
The results of space-like separated measurements are independent of distant measurement settings, a property one might call two-way no-signalling. In contrast, time-like separated measurements are only one-way no-signalling since the past is independent of the future but not vice-versa. For this reason temporal correlations that are formally identical to non-classical spatial correlations can still be modelled classically. We define non-classical temporal correlations as the ones which cannot be simulated by propagating in time a classical information content of a quantum system. We first show…
We transform the way of finding entanglement criterion into two steps: to obtain necessary criterion of separability by maximizing an algebra function for a set of characteristic variables of the witness operator and the given number of partitions, then to obtain the sufficient criterion by minimizing an algebra function with respect to the characteristic variables for a given quantum state. Our method avoids the semi-definite program calculation in the witness operator entanglement detection. The necessary and sufficient criterion of separability for the three qubit X shaped state is given to…
We describe an entanglement witness for $N$-qubit mixed states based on the properties of $N$-point correlation functions. Depending on the degree of violation, this witness can guarantee that no more than $M$ qubits are separable from the rest of the state for any $M\leq N$, or that there is some genuine $M$-party or greater multipartite entanglement present. We illustrate the use our criterion by investigating the existence of entanglement in thermal stabilizer states, where we demonstrate that the witness is capable of witnessing bound-entangled states. Intriguingly, this entanglement can b…
We develop a numerical approach for quantifying entanglement in mixed quantum states by convex-roof entanglement measures, based on the optimal entanglement witness operator and the minimax optimization method. Our approach is applicable to general entanglement measures and states and is an efficient alternative to the conventional approach based on the optimal pure-state decomposition. Compared with the conventional one, it has two important merits: (i) that the global optimality of the solution is quantitatively verifiable, and (ii) that the optimization is considerably simplified by exploit…
In order to engineer an open quantum system and its evolution, it is essential to identify and control the memory effects. These are formally attributed to the non-Markovianity of dynamics that manifests itself by the evolution being indivisible in time, a property which can be witnessed by a non-monotonic behavior of contractive functions or correlation measures. We show that by monitoring directly the entanglement behavior of a system in a tripartite setting it is possible to witness all invertible non-Markovian dynamics, as well as all (also non-invertible) qubit evolutions. This is achieve…
Users of quantum computers must be able to confirm they are indeed functioning as intended, even when the devices are remotely accessed. In particular, if the Hilbert space dimension of the components are not as advertised -- for instance if the qubits suffer leakage -- errors can ensue and protocols may be rendered insecure. We refine the method of delayed vectors, adapted from classical chaos theory to quantum systems, and apply it remotely on the IBMQ platform -- a quantum computer composed of transmon qubits. The method witnesses, in a model-independent fashion, dynamical signatures of hig…
A conceptually simple and experimentally prevalent class of entanglement witnesses, known as fidelity witnesses, detect entanglement via a state's fidelity with a pure reference state. While existence proofs guarantee that a suitable witness can be constructed for every entangled state, such assurances do not apply to fidelity witnesses. Recent results have found that entangled states that cannot be detected by a fidelity witness, known as unfaithful states, are exceedingly common among bipartite states. In this paper, we show that even among two-qubit states, the simplest of all entangled sta…
Using the tool of concatenated stabilizer coding, we prove that the complexity class QMA remains unchanged even if every witness qubit is disturbed by constant noise. This result may not only be relevant for physical implementations of verifying protocols but also attacking the relationship between the complexity classes QMA, QCMA and BQP, which can be reformulated in this unified framework of a verifying protocol receiving a disturbed witness. While QCMA and BQP are described by fully dephasing and depolarizing channels on the witness qubits, respectively, our result proves QMA to be robust a…
By using the quantum Fisher information (QFI), we address the process of \textit{single}-parameter estimation in the presence of bosonic as well as fermionic environments and protection of information against the noise. In particular, the quantum interferometric power (IP) of the evolved state of the system is uncovered as an important lower bound for the QFIs of initially encoded parameters. Moreover, we unveil new witnesses of non-Markovianity, that can be used to detect efficiently the memory effects and backflow of information from the environment to the system. On the other hand, we also …
We describe a direct method for experimental determination of the negativity of an arbitrary two-qubit state with 11 measurements performed on multiple copies of the two-qubit system. Our method is based on the experimentally accessible sequences of singlet projections performed on up to four qubit pairs. In particular, our method permits the application of the Peres-Horodecki separability criterion to an arbitrary two-qubit state. We explicitly demonstrate that measuring entanglement in terms of negativity requires three measurements more than detecting two-qubit entanglement. The reported mi…
We present an experimental method to detect lower bounds to the quantum capacity of two-qubit communication channels. We consider an implementation with polarisation degrees of freedom of two photons and report on the efficiency of such a method in the presence of correlated noise for varying values of the correlation strength. The procedure is based on the generation of separable states of two qubits and local measurements at the output. We also compare the performance of the correlated two-qubit channel with the single-qubit channels corresponding to the partial trace on each of the subsyste…
Experimental validation and control of quantum traits for an open quantum system are important for any quantum information purpose. We consider a traveling atom qubit as a quantum memory with adjustable velocity inside a leaky cavity, adopting a quantum witness as a figure of merit for quantumness assessment. We show that this model constitutes an inherent physical instance where the quantum witness does not work properly if not suitably optimized. We then supply the optimal intermediate blind measurements which make the quantum witness a faithful tester of quantum coherence. We thus find that…
We develop an approach of quantifying entanglement in mixed quantum states by the optimal entanglement witness operator. We identify the convex set of mixed states for which a single witness provides the exact value of an entanglement measure, and show that the convexity, properties, and symmetries of entanglement or of a target state considerably fix the form of the optimal witness. This greatly reduces difficulty in computing and experimentally determining entanglement measures. As an example, we show how to experimentally quantify bound entanglement in four-qubit noisy Smolin states and thr…
Complete product-state contact set and optimality of the canonical three-qubit Shifts witness
School of Physics and Electronic Technology, Liaoning Normal University（辽宁师范大学物理与电子科技学院）；Center for Theoretical and Experimental High Energy Physics, Liaoning Normal University（辽宁师范大学理论与实验高能物理中心）
We investigate the nonclassicality of a two-level system driven by an external time-dependent field in the presence of dephasing. We consider two criteria for nonclassicality, one based on the quantum witness built upon the no-signaling in time condition and one based on the temporal steering inequality, for a linearly driven qubit. We show that both strongly depend on the amplitude of the driving field. As a result, we demonstrate that the quantumness of the two-level system can be successfully controlled by properly tuning the driving strength. We establish in particular that maximal violati…
We describe a direct method to determine the negativity of an arbitrary two-qubit state in experiments. The method is derived by analyzing the relation between the purity, negativity, and a universal entanglement witness for two-qubit entanglement. We show how the negativity of a two-qubit state can be calculated from just three experimentally accessible moments of the partially transposed density matrix of a two-photon state. Moreover, we show that the negativity can be given as a function of only six invariants, which are linear combinations of nine invariants from the complete set of 21 fun…
Generation and read-out of many-body Bell correlations with a probe qubit
Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech（奇力马扎罗量子技术）；ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（ICFO-光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学物理学院）
Entanglement is a central concept in quantum information and a key resource for many quantum protocols. In this work we propose and analyze a class of entanglement witnesses that detect the presence of entanglement in subsystems of experimental multi-qubit stabilizer states. The witnesses we propose can be decomposed into sums of Pauli operators and can be efficiently evaluated by either two measurement settings only or at most a number of measurements that only depends on the size of the subsystem of interest. We provide two constructive methods to design the local witness operators, the firs…
We present a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating measurement of the collectibility, a nonlinear entanglement witness proposed by Rudnicki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 150502 (2011)]. This entanglement witness works for both mixed and pure two-qubit states. In the later case it can be used to measure entanglement in terms of the negativity. We measured the collectibility for three distinct classes of photonic polarization-encoded two-qubit states, i.e., maximally entangled, separable and maximally mixed states. We demonstrate that the measurement procedure is feasible and robust agains…
We study a system of qubits that are coupled to each other via only one degree of freedom represented, e.g., by $σ_z$-operators. We prove that, if by changing the Hamiltonian parameters, a non-degenerate ground state of the system is continuously transformed in such a way that the expectation values of $σ_z$ operators of at least two coupled qubits change, this ground state is entangled. Using this proof, we discuss connection between energy level anticrossings and ground state entanglement. Following the same line of thought, we introduce entanglement witnesses, based on cross-susceptibilitie…
We present entanglement witnesses for detecting genuine multi-qubit entanglement. Our constructions are robust against noise and require only two local measurement settings, independent of the number of qubits. Thus they allow to verify entanglement of many qubits in experiments while requiring only a small effort. In contrast, usual methods need an effort which increases exponentially with the number of qubits. The witnesses detect states close to GHZ states and cluster states.
