We show that a local channel cannot create quantum discord (QD) for zero QD states of size $d\geq3$ if and only if either it is a completely decohering channel or it is a nontrivial isotropic channel. For the qubit case this propertiy is additionally characteristic to the completely decohering channel or the commutativity-preserving unital channel. In particular, the exact forms of the completely decohering channel and the commutativity-preserving unital qubit channel are proposed. Consequently, our results confirm and improve the conjecture proposed by X. Hu et al. for the case of $d\geq3$ and improve the result proposed by A. Streltsov et al. for the qubit case. Furthermore, it is shown that a local channel nullifies QD in any state if and only if it is a completely decohering channel. Based on our results, some protocols of quantum information processing issues associated with QD, especially for the qubit case, would be experimentally accessible.
In this article, we define a faithful quantifiers of bipartite quantum correlation, namely geometric version of quantum discord using affinity based metric. It is shown that the newly-minted measure resolves the local ancilla problem of Hilbert-Schmidt measures. Exploiting the notion of affinity-based discord, we derive Margolus-Levitin (ML) and Mandelstamm-Tamm (MT) bounds for the quantum speed limit time for the creation and decay of quantum correlation. The dynamical study suggests that the affinity measure is a better resource compared to entanglement. Finally, we study the role of quantum…
Quantum discord is usually referred to as a measure for quantum correlations. In the search of the fundamental resource to gain a quantum advantage in quantum information applications, quantum discord is considered a promising candidate. In this paper we present an alternative view on quantum correlations in terms of the rank of the correlation matrix as introduced by Dakic, Vedral, and Brukner [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 190502 (2010)]. According to our analysis, information about the quantum discord does not necessarily determine the amount of quantum correlations but rather the quantumness of th…
We have investigated the effect of counter-rotating terms on the dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord between two identical atoms interacting with a lossy single mode cavity field for a system initially in a vacuum state. The counter-rotating terms are found to lead to steady states in the long time limit which can have high quantum discord, but have no entanglement. The effect of cavity decay rate on this steady state quantum discord has been also investigated, surprisingly, the increase in cavity decay rate is found to both enhance and maximize the steady quantum discord for separabl…
Quantum discord characterizes "non-classicality" of correlations in quantum mechanics. It has been proposed as the key resource present in certain quantum communication tasks and quantum computational models without containing much entanglement. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of non-zero quantum discord for any dimensional bipartite states. This condition is easily experimentally implementable. Based on this, we propose a geometrical way of quantifying quantum discord. For two qubits this results in a closed form of expression for discord. We apply our results…
We investigate the freezing phenomenon of quantum discord occurring in phase damping noise processes. By relating the expression of the time variation of the discord to the convex function of relative entropy, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions of the phenomenon for standard Bell-diagonal states. These conditions are applicable also to the phenomenon occurring in a non-Markovian dephasing process. Moreover, we show that the same condition and phenomenon coincide in a new sort of Bell-diagonal states beyond the standard form.
We consider local time evolution given by spontaneous emission in the system of independent two-level atoms. It is shown that all classically correlated initial states are driven into the states with transient non-zero quantum discord. Thus local creation of genuine quantum correlations can be observed in a simple physical system of non-interacting atoms which are not completely isolated from the environment.
We discuss the creation of quantum discord between two two-level atoms trapped in an optical cavity in a noisy environment. It is shown that nonzero steady-state quantum discord between atoms can be obtained when the white-noise field is separately imposed on atoms or cavity mode, while the steady-state quantum discord reaches zero if both cavity mode and atoms are driven simultaneously by white-noise fields. In particular, we demonstrate that white-noise field in different cases can play a variously constructive role in the generation of quantum discord.
We revisit the upper bound of quantum discord given by the von Neumann entropy of the measured subsystem. Using the Koashi-Winter relation, we obtain a trade-off between the amount of classical correlation and quantum discord in the tripartite pure states. The difference between the quantum discord and its upper bound is interpreted as a measure on the classical correlative capacity. Further, we give the explicit characterization of the quantum states saturating the upper bound of quantum discord, through the equality condition for the Araki-Lieb inequality. We also demonstrate that the satura…
The common use in literature of orthogonal measurements in obtaining quantum discord for two-qubit states is discussed and compared with more general measurements. We prove the optimality of orthogonal measurements for rank 2 states. While for rank 3 and 4 mixed states they are not optimal, we present strong numerical evidence showing that they give the correct quantum discord up to minimal corrections. Based on the connection, through purification with an ancilla, between discord and entanglement of formation (EoF), we give a tight upper bound for the EoF of a $2\otimes N$ mixed state of rank…
Recent results in quantum information theory characterize quantum coherence in the context of resource theories. Here we study the relation between quantum coherence and quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation which appears even in non-entangled states. We prove that the creation of quantum discord with multipartite incoherent operations is bounded by the amount of quantum coherence consumed in its subsystems during the process. We show how the interplay between quantum coherence consumption and creation of quantum discord works in the preparation of multipartite quantum correlated stat…
We propose a technique that enables the creation of quantum discord between two distant nodes, each containing a cavity consist of the Bose-Einstein condensate, by applying a non-ideal Bell-like detection on the output modes of optical cavities. We find the covariance matrix of the system after the non-ideal Bell-like detection, showing explicitly that one enables manipulation of the quantum correlations, and particularly quantum discord, between remote Bose-Einstein condensates. We also find that the non-ideal Bell-like detection can create entanglement between distant Bose-Einstein condensat…
Quantum coherence is a prime resource in quantum computing and quantum communication. Quantum coherence of an arbitrary qubit state can be created at a remote location using maximally entangled state, local operation and classical communication. However, if there is a noisy channel acting on one side of the shared resource, then, it is not possible to create perfect quantum coherence remotely. Here, we present a method for the creation of quantum coherence at a remote location via the use of entangled state and indefinite causal order. We show this specifically for the superposition of two com…
We study analytically the dynamic behaviors of quantum correlation measured by quantum discord between two uncoupled qubits, which are immersed in a common Ohmic environment. We show that the quantum discord of the two noninteracting qubits can be greatly amplified or protected for certain initially prepared $X$-type states in the time evolution. Especially, it is found that there does exist the stable amplification of the quantum discord for the case of two identical qubits, and the quantum discord can be protected for the case of two different qubits with a large detuning. It is also indicat…
The problem of recognizing (non-)Markovianity of a quantum dynamics is revisited through analyzing quantum correlations. We argue that instantaneously-vanishing quantum discord provides a necessary and sufficient condition for Markovianity of a quantum map. This is used to introduce a measure of non-Markovianity. This measure, however, requires demanding knowledge about the system and the environment. By using a quantum correlation monogamy property and an ancillary system, we propose a simplified measure with less requirements. Non-Markovianity is thereby decided by quantum state tomography o…
Two long standing open problems in quantum theory are to characterize the class of initial system-bath states for which quantum dynamics is equivalent to (1) a map between the initial and final system states, and (2) a completely positive (CP) map. The CP map problem is especially important, due to the widespread use of such maps in quantum information processing and open quantum systems theory. Here we settle both these questions by showing that the answer to the first is "all", with the resulting map being Hermitian, and that the answer to the second is that CP maps arise exclusively from th…
Quantum discord plays a pragmatic role in analyzing nonclassical feature of quantum correlations beyond entanglement. It is used in several information processing protocols which lacks sufficient amount of entanglement to be used as a resource. We have provided with an analytical method of detecting quantum discord of an arbitrary two qubit state. We have formulated a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for any two qubit state to be a both-way non-zero quantum discord state. As quantum discord is asymmetric in nature, we have framed the set of if and only if conditions for a two qubit s…
Using Tsallis-q entropy, we introduce the generalized concept of global quantum discord, namely the q-global quantum discord, and provide its analytic evaluation for two classes of multi-qubit states. We also provide a sufficient condition, for which the pairwise quantum correlations in terms of q-global quantum discord is monogamous in multi-party quantum systems.
We analyze a class of 2-qudit circulant states. They define generalization of well known 2-qubit X-states. We formula the necessary and sufficient criteria for vanishing quantum discord. We illustrate our analysis by an important subclass of circulant states -- so called Bell diagonal states.
The positivity of quantum discord is shown to be equivalent to the strong subadditivity of von-Neumann entropy. This leads us to a necessary and sufficient condition characterizing the set of states with zero quantum discord. This also gives us a mathematical definition of pointer states, as they are the states with zero discord. Finally, we suggest that strong subadditivity of entropy might delineate the boundaries of the set of quantum correlations.
Like entanglement, quantum discord quantifies the quantum correlations. Unlike entanglement, whose detection is extremely difficult, the quantum discord of an arbitrary bipartite state allows itself to be detected perfectly by a single observable, the quantum discord witness. In particular, we report a single observable whose expectation value provides a necessary and sufficient condition for the vanishing quantum discord of an arbitrary bipartite unknown state with four copies. A quantum circuit is designed to measure the quantum discord witness by using only local qubit-measurements.
Quantum correlations have fundamental and technological interest, and hence many measures have been introduced to quantify them. Some hierarchical orderings of these measures have been established, e.g., discord is bigger than entanglement, and we present a class of bipartite states, called premeasurement states, for which several of these hierarchies collapse to a single value. Because premeasurement states are the kind of states produced when a system interacts with a measurement device, the hierarchy collapse implies that the uncertainty of an observable is quantitatively connected to the q…
Quantum discord refers to an important aspect of quantum correlations for bipartite quantum systems. In our earlier works we have shown that corresponding to every graph (combinatorial) there are quantum states whose properties are reflected in the structure of the corresponding graph. Here, we attempt to develop a graph theoretic study of quantum discord that corresponds to a necessary and sufficient condition of zero quantum discord states which says that the blocks of density matrix corresponding to a zero quantum discord state are normal and commute with each other. These blocks have a one…
For any bipartite state, how strongly can one subsystem be quantum correlated with another? Using the Koashi-Winter relation, we study the upper bound of purified quantum discord, which is given by the sum of the von Neumann entropy of the unmeasured subsystem and the entanglement of formation shared between the unmeasured subsystem with the environment. In particular, we find that the Luo et al.'s conjecture on the quantum correlations and the Lindblad conjecture are all ture, when the entanglement of formation vanishes. Let the difference between the left discord and the right discord be cap…
It is shown that the dissonance, a quantum correlation which is equal to quantum discord for separable state, is required for assisted optimal state discrimination. We find that only one side discord is required in the optimal process of assisted state discrimination, while another side discord and entanglement is not necessary. We confirm that the quantum discord, which is asymmetric depending on local measurements, is a resource for assisted state discrimination. With the absence of entanglement, we give the necessary and sufficient condition for vanishing one side discord in assisted state …
The role played by quantum discord in mixed-state computation is widely debated since, in spite of evidence of its importance in creating quantum advantages, even in the absence of entanglement, there are not direct proofs of its necessity in these computational tasks. Recently the presence of discord was shown to be necessary and sufficient for remote state preparation for a broad class of quantum channels [B. Dakić et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 666 (2012)]. Here, we show that this property is not universal. There are states whose discord cannot be considered as a quantum resource, since it has been …
We study the dynamics of geometric measure of quantum discord (GMQD) under the influences of two local phase damping noises. Consider the two qubits initially in arbitrary X-states, we find the necessary and sufficient conditions for which GMQD is unaffected for a finite period. It is further shown that such results also hold for the non-Markovian dephasing process.
In relation of observable and quantum state, the entity $I_C$ from previous work quantifies simultaneously coherence, incompatibility and quantumness. In this article its application to quantum correlations in bipartite states is studied. It is shown that Zurek's quantum discord can always be expressed as excess coherence information (global minus local). Strong and weak zero-discord cases are distinguished and investigated in terms of necessary and sufficient and sufficient conditions respectively. A unique string of relevant subsystem observables, each a function of the next, for "interrogat…
We propose a single observable to witness the nonzero quantum discord of an unknown quantum state provided that we have four copies of the state. The expectation value of this observable provides a necessary and sufficient condition for nonzero quantum discord in $2\times N$ systems and a necessary condition in higher finite-dimensional bipartite systems. Furthermore, a nontrivial lower bound of quantum discord can be obtained from this expectation value. The proposed observable can be experimentally measured in exactly the same easy manner as that of the entanglement witness, moreover a quant…
Quantum discord, and a number of related indicators, are currently raising a relentless interest as a novel paradigm of non-classical correlations beyond entanglement. Beside merely fundamental aspects, various works have shown that discord is a valuable -- so far largely unexplored -- resource in quantum information processing. Along this line, quite a striking scheme is {entanglement activation}. An initial amount of discord between two disentangled parties of a multipartite system affects the dynamics so as to establish entanglement across a bipartition, which would not arise otherwise. To …
We investigate the squeezing of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) in terms of quantum discord. We construct a classical state of PGWs without quantum discord and compare it with the Bunch-Davies vacuum. Then it is shown that the oscillatory behavior of the angular-power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations induced by PGWs can be the signature of the quantum discord of PGWs. In addition, we discuss the effect of quantum decoherence on the entanglement and the quantum discord of PGWs for super-horizon modes. For the state of PGWs with decoherence effect, we examine …
Quantum discord is a measure of the quantumness of correlations. After reviewing its different versions and properties, we apply it to the questions of quantum information processing. First we show that changes in discord in the processed unentangled states indicate the need for entanglement in the distributed implementation of quantum gates. On the other hand, it was shown that zero system-environment discord is a necessary and sufficient condition for applicability of the standard completely positive description of the system's evolution. We demonstrate that this result does not translate in…
We explore the quantum correlation distribution in multipartite quantum states based on the square of quantum discord (SQD). For tripartite quantum systems, we derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the SQD to satisfy the monogamy relation. Particularly, we prove that the SQD is monogamous for three-qubit pure states, based on which a genuine tripartite quantum correlation measure is introduced. In addition, we also address the quantum correlation distributions in four-qubit pure states. As an example, we investigate multipartite quantum correlations in the dynamical evolution of mu…
In the present work, we consider a scenario where an arbitrary two-qubit pure state is applied to generate a randomly distributed key via the generalized EPR protocol. Using the twirling procedure to convert the pure state into a Werner state, the error rate of the key can be reduced by a factor of $2/3$. This effect indicates that entanglement is not the sufficient resource of the generalized EPR protocol since it is not increased in the twirling procedure. Instead of entanglement, the geometric discord is suggested to be the general quantum resource for this task.
We derive Margolus-Levitin and Mandelstamm-Tamm type bound on the quantum speed limit time for the creation and decay of quantum correlations by an amount in a quantum system evolving under the influence of its ambient environment. The minimum distance of a non-classical state from an appropriate set of classical states is a legitimate measure of the quantumness of the state. We consider entanglement and quantum discord measures of quantum correlations, quantified using the Bures distance-based measure. To demonstrate the impact of quantum noise on this speed limit time for quantum correlation…
We examine environmental decoherence of cosmological perturbations in order to study the quantum-to-classical transition and the impact of noise on entanglement during inflation. Given an explicit interaction between the system and environment, we derive a quantum master equation for the reduced density matrix of perturbations, drawing parallels with quantum Brownian motion, where we see the emergence of fluctuation and dissipation terms. Although the master equation is not in Lindblad form, we see how typical solutions exhibit positivity on super-horizon scales, leading to a physically meanin…
In this study for particular states of bipartite quantum system in 2n?2m dimensional Hilbert space state, similar to m or n-qubit density matrices represented in Bloch sphere we call them generalized Bloch sphere states(GBSS), we give an efficient optimization procedure so that analytic evaluation of quantum discord can be performed. Using this optimization procedure, we find an exact analytical formula for the optimum positive operator valued measure (POVM) that maximize the measure of the classical correlation for these states. The presented optimization procedure also is used to show that f…
Geometric quantum discord is a well-defined measure of quantum correlation if Schatten 1-norm (trace norm) is adopted as a distance measure. Here, we analytically investigate the dynamical behavior of the 1-norm geometric quantum discord under the effect of decoherence. By starting from arbitrary Bell-diagonal mixed states under Markovian local noise, we provide the decays of the quantum correlation as a function of the decoherence parameters. In particular, we show that the 1-norm geometric discord exhibits the possibility of double sudden changes and freezing behavior during its evolution. F…
Modern quantum information theory provides new tools for investigating the decoherence-induced "classicality" of open quantum systems. Recent observation that almost all quantum states bear non-classical correlations [A. Ferraro {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 81}, 052318 (2010)] distinguishes the zero-discord classicality essentially as a pathology of the Markovian bipartite-systems realm. Nevertheless, we formally construct such a classical model and its variant that represents a matter-of-principle formal proof, i.e. a sufficient condition for the, otherwise not obvious, existence of the Mar…
We present a non-demolition quantum information processing task of probing the information of a class of quantum state. In this task, the information is extracted by some unitary evolution with the introduced probing qubit assisted, but the probed quantum state (density matrix) is undisturbed at any time and independent of the choice of the initial probing state. We give a sufficient and necessary condition on the Hamiltonian that can lead to the successful realization of such a task. We prove that, for any feasible scheme, the probed plus probing system will always stay at a disentangled stat…
Recent observation that almost all quantum states bear non-classical correlations [A. Ferraro et al, Phys. Rev. A 81, 052328 (2010)] may seem to imply that the Markovian bipartite systems are practically deprived of zero discord states. Nevertheless, complementary to the result of Ferraro et al, we construct a model of a Markovian bipartite system providing zero discord for arbitrary long time interval, that we term 'Markovian classicality'. Our model represents a matter-of-principle formal proof, i.e. a sufficient condition for the, otherwise not obvious, existence of Markovian classicality. …
Quantum discord, an information-theoretic quantum correlation measure, can satisfy as well as violate monogamy, for three-party quantum states. We quantify the feature using the concept of discord monogamy score. We find a necessary condition of a vanishing discord monogamy score for arbitrary three-party states. A necessary and sufficient condition is obtained for pure states. We prove that the class of states having a vanishing discord monogamy score cannot have arbitrarily high genuine multipartite entanglement, as quantified by generalized geometric measure. In the special case of three-qu…
Quantum correlations are expected to respect all the conditions required for them to be good measures of quantumness in the bipartite scenario. In a multipartite setting, sharing entanglement between several parties is restricted by the monogamy of entanglement. We take over the concept of monogamy to an information-theoretic quantum correlation measure, and find that it violates monogamy in general. Using the notion of interaction information, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the measure to obey monogamy, for arbitrary pure and mixed quantum states. We show that while three…
University of Hong Kong（香港大学）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Zhengzhou Information Science and Technology Institute（郑州信息科技工程研究所）
We present a scheme of quantum information transmission, which transmits the quantum information contained in a single qubit via the quantum correlation shared by two parties (a two-qubit channel), whose quantum discord is non-zero. We demonstrate that the quantum correlation, which may have no entanglement, is sufficient to transmit the information of a quantum state. When the correlation matrix of the two-qubit channel is of full rank (rank three), the information of the qubit in either a mixed state or a pure state can be transmitted. The quantum discord of a channel with rank larger than o…
We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the entropy rate of the system to be zero under any system-environment Hamiltonian interaction. We call the class of system-environment states that satisfy this condition lazy states. They are a generalization of classically correlated states defined by quantum discord, but based on projective measurements of any rank. The concept of lazy states permits the construction of a protocol for detecting global quantum correlations using only local dynamical information. We show how quantum correlations to the environment provide bounds to the entro…
The threshold between classical and nonclassical two-qubit states is drawn at the place when these states can no longer be described by classical correlations, i.e., quantum discord or entanglement appear. However, to check if the correlations are classical (in terms of quantum discord and entanglement) it is sufficient to witness the lack of quantum discord because its zero value implies the lack of entanglement. We explain how the indicator of quantum discord introduced by Girolami and Adesso [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 150403 (2012)] can be practically measured in linear-optical systems using st…
Quantum discord and quantum entanglement are resources in some quantum information processing (QIP) models. However, in recent years, the evidence that separable states or classically correlated states can also accomplish QIP is demonstrated. It provides a useful tool since such states are easier to prepare. Quantum coherence is a measure of non-classical correlation, containing entanglement and discord as a subset. Nowadays, it is of interest whether quantum coherence can act as a resource in QIP independently or not, without the help from quantum discord or entanglement. In this paper, we sh…
Entanglement distribution with separable states has recently attracted considerable attention. Recent results suggest that quantum discord - a measure for quantum correlations beyond entanglement - is responsible for this counterintuitive phenomenon. In this work we study this question from a different perspective, and find minimal requirements for a separable state to be useful for entanglement distribution. Surprisingly, we find that the presence of quantum discord is not sufficient to ensure entanglement distribution: there exist states with nonzero quantum discord which nevertheless cannot…
Quantum correlations in composite and separable quantum systems are characterized by non-vanishing quantum discord. We demonstrate the necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of hermitian witness operators for quantum discord, bypassing the problem of non-convexity of the set of all classical states. We propose an example of a linear witness which can detect quantum correlations in large classes of separable bipartite systems. Decomposition of the witness in terms of a small number of locally measurable operators as shown here, paves the way for experimental detection of quantum corr…
Reversible work extraction from identical quantum systems via collective operations was shown to be possible even without producing entanglement among the sub-parts. Here, we show that implementing such global operations necessarily imply the creation of quantum correlations, as measured by quantum discord. We also reanalyze the conditions under which global transformations outperform local gates as far as maximal work extraction is considered by deriving a necessary and sufficient condition that is based on classical correlations.
A system interacting with its environment will give rise to a quantum evolution. After tracing over the environment the net evolution of the system can be described by a linear Hermitian map. It has recently been shown that a necessary and sufficient condition for this evolution to be completely positive is for the initial state to have vanishing quantum discord. In this paper, we provide a sufficient condition for the map to be positive with respect to the initial system-environment correlation. This could lead to ways in which to identify positive but not completely positive maps. Illustrati…
Quantum correlation can be created by a local operation from some initially classical states. We prove that the necessary and sufficient condition for a local trace-preserving channel to create quantum correlation is that it is not a commutativity-preserving channel. This condition is valid for arbitrary finite dimension systems. We also derive the explicit form of commutativity-preserving channels. For a qubit, a commutativity-preserving channel is either a completely decohering channel or a mixing channel. For a three-dimensional system (qutrit), a commutativity-preserving channel is either …
A general state of an $m\otimes n$ system is a classical-quantum state if and only if its associated $A$-correlation matrix (a matrix constructed from the coherence vector of the party $A$, the correlation matrix of the state, and a function of the local coherence vector of the subsystem $B$), has rank no larger than $m-1$. Using the general Schatten $p$-norms, we quantify quantum correlation by measuring any violation of this condition. The required minimization can be carried out for the general $p$-norms and any function of the local coherence vector of the unmeasured subsystem, leading to …
