Tracking the kinematics of fast-moving objects is an important diagnostic tool for science and engineering. Existing optical methods include high-speed CCD/CMOS imaging, streak cameras, lidar, serial time-encoded imaging and sequentially timed all-optical mapping. Here, we demonstrate an entirely new approach to positional and directional sensing based on the concept of classical entanglement in vector beams of light. The measurement principle relies on the intrinsic correlations existing in such beams between transverse spatial modes and polarization. The latter can be determined from intensity measurements with only a few fast photodiodes, greatly outperforming the bandwidth of current CCD/CMOS devices. In this way, our setup enables two-dimensional real-time sensing with temporal resolution in the GHz range. We expect the concept to open up new directions in photonics-based metrology and sensing.
We discuss the problem of when a set of measurements made on an entangled source can be simulated with a classically correlated source. This is discussed in general and some examples are given. The question of which aspects of quantum imaging can be simulated by classically correlated sources is examined.
Given the multitude of applications of vector vortex beams there is a need for robust tools to measure them. Here we exploit the non-separability of such beams, akin to entanglement of quantum states, to apply tools traditionally associated with quantum measurements to these classical fields. We apply three measures of non-separability: a Bell inequality, a concurrence, and an entanglement entropy to define the "vectorness" of such beams. In addition to providing novel tools for the analysis of vector beams, we also introduce the concept of classical entanglement to explain why these tools are…
Vectorially structured light has emerged as an enabling tool in many diverse applications, from communication to imaging, exploiting quantum-like correlations courtesy of a non-separable spatially varying polarization structure. Creating these states at the source remains challenging and is presently limited to two-dimensional vectorial states by customized lasers. Here we invoke ray-wave duality in a simple laser cavity to produce polarization marked multi-path modes that are non-separable in three degrees of freedom and in eight dimensions. As a topical example, we use our laser to produce t…
An experiment is proposed to show that after initial frequency and polarization selection, classical thermal light from two independent sources can be made path-polarization entangled. Such light will show new intensity-intensity correlations involving both path and polarization phases, formally similar to those for four-particle GHZ states. For fixed polarization phases, the correlations reduce to the Hanbury Brown-Twiss phase correlations. It is also shown that these classical correlations violate noncontextuality.
Simulation tasks are insightful tools to compare information-theoretic resources. Considering a generalization of usual Bell scenarios where external quantum inputs are provided to the parties, we show that any entangled quantum state exhibits correlations that cannot be simulated using only shared randomness and classical communication, even when the amount and rounds of classical communication involved are unrestricted. We indeed construct explicit Bell-like inequalities that are necessarily satisfied by such classical resources but nevertheless violated by correlations obtainable from entan…
Entanglement constitutes a main feature that distinguishes quantum from classical physics and is a key resource of quantum technologies. Here we show, however, that entanglement may also serve as the essential ingredient for the emergence of classical behavior in a composite nonlinear radiating system. We consider the radiation from a macroscopic spin emitter, such as the collective radiation from an atomic ensemble. We introduce a new class of macroscopic spin states, the coherently radiating spin states (CRSS), defined as the asymptotic eigenstates of the SU(2) lowering operator. We find tha…
In this review we discuss intriguing properties of apparently classical optical fields, that go beyond purely classical context and allow us to speak about quantum characteristics of such fields and about their applications in quantum technologies. We briefly define the genuinely quantum concepts of entanglement and steering. We then move to the boarder line between classical and quantum world introducing quantum discord, a more general concept of quantum coherence, and finally a controversial notion of classical entanglement. To unveil the quantum aspects of often classically perceived system…
The quantum interference of entangled photons forms a key phenomenon underlying various quantum-optical technologies. It is known that the quantum interference patterns of entangled photon pairs can be reconstructed classically by the time-reversal method; however, the time-reversal method has been applied only to time-frequency-entangled two-photon systems in previous experiments. Here, for the first time, we apply the time-reversal method to the position-wavevector-entangled two-photon systems: the two-photon Young interferometer and the two-photon beam focusing system. We experimentally dem…
The negative solution to the famous problem of $36$ officers of Euler implies that there are no two orthogonal Latin squares of order six. We show that the problem has a solution, provided the officers are entangled, and construct orthogonal quantum Latin squares of this size. As a consequence, we find an example of the long-elusive Absolutely Maximally Entangled state AME$(4,6)$ of four subsystems with six levels each, equivalently a $2$-unitary matrix of size $36$, which maximizes the entangling power among all bipartite unitary gates of this dimension, or a perfect tensor with four indices,…
We study single-photon emission of a classically pumped three-level $Λ$-type emitter in a high-$Q$ cavity. In particular, generation of single-photon time-bin double-peak wave packets is shown.
Quantum teleportation, the process by which Alice can transfer an unknown quantum state to Bob by using pre-shared entanglement and classical communication, is one of the cornerstones of quantum information. The standard benchmark for certifying quantum teleportation consists in surpassing the maximum average fidelity between the teleported and the target states that can be achieved classically. According to this figure of merit, not all entangled states are useful for teleportation. Here we propose a new benchmark that uses the full information available in a teleportation experiment and prov…
Quantum technologies able to manipulating single quantum systems, are presently developing. Among the dowries of the quantum realm, entanglement is one of the basic resources for the novel quantum revolution. Within this context, one is faced with the problem of protecting the entanglement when a system state is manipulated. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the classical driving field on the generation entanglement between two qubits interacting with a bosonic environment. We discuss the effect of the classical field on the generation of entanglement between two (different) qubits a…
We consider the kinematics of bi-partite quantum states as determined by observable quantities, in particular the Bloch vectors of the subsystems. In examining the simplest case of a pair of two-level systems, there is a remarkable connection between the presence of non-classical correlations and the chirality of the two bases generated by the singular value decomposition of the correlation matrix of the Bloch vectors. We investigate the limits imposed by quantum mechanics of this effect and it relationship with other methods on quantifying the system's non-classical behaviour.
The regions of independent quantum states, maximally classically correlated states, and purely quantum entangled (supercorrelated) states described in a recent formulation of quantum information theory by Cerf and Adami are explored here numerically in the parameter space of the well-known exactly soluable Jaynes-Cummings model for equilibrium and nonequilibrium time-dependent ensembles.
Quantum imaging has been demonstrated since 1995 by using entangled photon pairs. The physics community named these experiments "ghost image", "quantum crypto-FAX", "ghost interference", etc. Recently, Bennink et al. simulated the "ghost" imaging experiment by two co-rotating k-vector correlated lasers. Did the classical simulation simulate the quantum aspect of the "ghost" image? We wish to provide an answer. In fact, the simulation is very similar to a historical model of local realism. The goal of this article is to clarify the different physics behind the two types of experiments and addre…
High dimensional Hilbert spaces used for quantum communication channels offer the possibility of large data transmission capabilities. We propose a method of characterizing the channel capacity of an entangled photonic state in high dimensional position and momentum bases. We use this method to measure the channel capacity of a parametric downconversion state, achieving a channel capacity over 7 bits/photon in either the position or momentum basis, by measuring in up to 576 dimensions per detector. The channel violated an entropic separability bound, suggesting the performance cannot be replic…
Multi-parameter estimation is necessary for force sensing due to simultaneous and nontrivial small changes of position and momentum. Designing quantum probes that allow simultaneous estimation of all parameters is therefore an important task. The optimal methods for estimation of the conjugate changes of position and momentum of quantum harmonic oscillator employ probes in entangled or quantum non-Gaussian states. We show that the same results can be obtained in a significantly more feasible fashion by employing independent sets of differently squeezed Gaussian states classically correlated to…
Quantum lithography achieves phase super-resolution using fragile, experimentally challenging entangled states of light. We propose a scalable scheme for creating features narrower than classically achievable, with reduced use of quantum resources and consequently enhanced resistance to loss. The scheme is an implementation of interferometric lithography using a mixture of an SPDC entangled state with intense classical coherent light. We measure coincidences of up to four photons mimicking multiphoton absorption. The results show a narrowing of the interference fringes of up to 30% with respec…
Experiments in spintronics and magnonics operate with macroscopically large number of localized spins within ferromagnetic (F) or antiferromagnetic (AF) materials, so that their nonequilibrium dynamics is standardly described by the Landau-Lifshitz (LL) equation treating localized spins as classical vectors of fixed length. However, spin is a genuine quantum degree of freedom, and even though quantum effects become progressively less important for spin value $S>1$, they exist for all $S < \infty$. While this has motivated exploration of limitations/breakdown of the LL equation, by using exampl…
We develop a concept of metasurface-assisted ghost imaging for non-local discrimination between a set of polarization objects. The specially designed metasurfaces are incorporated in the imaging system to perform parallel state transformations in general elliptical bases of quantum-entangled or classically-correlated photons. Then, only four or fewer correlation measurements between multiple metasurface outputs and a simple polarization-insensitive bucket detector after the object can allow for the identification of fully or partially transparent polarization elements and their arbitrary orien…
It has been claimed that ``the use of entangled photons in an imaging system can exhibit effects that cannot be mimicked by any other two-photon source, whatever strength of the correlations between the two photons'' [A. F. Abouraddy, B. E. A. Saleh, A. V. Sergienko, and M. C. Teich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 123602 (2001)]. While we believe that the cited statement is true, we show that the method proposed in that paper, with ``bucket detection'' of one of the photons, will give identical results for entangled states as for appropriately prepared classically correlated states.
Quantum states of light, such as squeezed states or entangled states, can be used to make measurements (metrology), produce images, and sense objects with a precision that far exceeds what is possible classically, and also exceeds what was once thought to be possible quantum mechanically. The primary idea is to exploit quantum effects to beat the shot-noise limit in metrology and the Rayleigh diffraction limit in imaging and sensing. Quantum optical metrology has received a boost in recent years with an influx of ideas from the rapidly evolving field of optical quantum information processing. …
We analytically show that it is possible to perform coherent imaging by using the classical correlation of two beams obtained by splitting incoherent thermal radiation. The case of such two classically correlated beams is treated in parallel with the configuration based on two entangled beams produced by parametric down-conversion, and a basic analogy is pointed out. The results are compared in a specific numerical example.
We present the experimental realization of a theoretical effect discovered by Olivares and Paris, in which a pair of entangled optical beams undergoing independent losses can see nonlocal correlations restored by the use of a nonlocal resource correlating the losses. Twin optical beams created in an entangled Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state by an optical parametric oscillator above threshold were subjected to 50% loss from beamsplitters in their paths. The resulting severe degradation of the signature quantum correlations observed between the two beams was then suppressed when another, ind…
We analytically show that it is possible to perform coherent imaging by using the classical correlation of two beams obtained by splitting incoherent thermal radiation. A formal analogy is demonstrated between two such classically correlated beams and two entangled beams produced by parametric down-conversion. Because of this analogy, the classical beams can mimic qualitatively all the imaging properties of the entangled beams, even in ways which up to now were not believed possible. A key feature is that these classical beams are spatially correlated both in the near-field and in the far-fiel…
Physics of photons and electrons carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an exciting field of research in quantum optics and electron microscopy. Usually, one considers propagation of these vortex beams in a medium or external fields and their absorption or scattering on fixed targets. Here we consider instead a beam-beam collision. We show that elastic scattering of a Bessel vortex beam with a counterpropagating plane wave naturally leads to two vortex-entangled outgoing beams. The vortex entanglement implies that the two final particles are entangled not only in their orbital helicities b…
Quantum computing is a disruptive paradigm widely believed to be capable of solving classically intractable problems. However, the route toward full-scale quantum computers is obstructed by immense challenges associated with the scalability of the platform, the connectivity of qubits, and the required fidelity of various components. One-way quantum computing is an appealing approach that shifts the burden from high-fidelity quantum gates and quantum memories to the generation of high-quality entangled resource states and high fidelity measurements. Cluster states are an important ingredient fo…
As an application of the classically decayable correlation in a quantum chaos system maintained over an extremely long time-scale (Matsui et al, Europhys.Lett. 113(2016),40008), we propose a minimal model of quantum damper composed of a quantum harmonic oscillator (HO) weakly interacting with a bounded quantum chaos system. Although the whole system obeys unitary evolution dynamics of only three quantum degrees of freedom, the mechanical work applied to the HO is stationary converted into the "internal energy" characterized by an effective temperature in an irreversible way over a sufficiently…
Classical electromagnetic fields and quantum mechanics -- both obey the principle of superposition alike. This opens up many avenues for simulation of a large variety of phenomena and algorithms, which have hitherto been considered quantum mechanical. In this paper, we propose two such applications. In the first, we introduce a new class of beams, called equivalent optical beams, in parallel with equivalent states introduced in [Bharath & Ravishankar, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.062110]. These beams have the same information content for all practical purposes. Employing them, we show h…
