It has recently been shown that it is possible to represent the complete quantum state of any system as a phase-space quasi-probability distribution (Wigner function) [Phys Rev Lett 117, 180401]. Such functions take the form of expectation values of an observable that has a direct analogy to displaced parity operators. In this work we give a procedure for the measurement of the Wigner function that should be applicable to any quantum system. We have applied our procedure to IBM's Quantum Experience five-qubit quantum processor to demonstrate that we can measure and generate the Wigner functions of two different Bell states as well as the five-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state. As Wigner functions for spin systems are not unique, we define, compare, and contrast two distinct examples. We show how using these Wigner functions leads to an optimal method for quantum state analysis especially in the situation where specific characteristic features are of particular interest (such as for spin Schrödinger cat states). Furthermore we show that this analysis leads to straightforward, and potentially very efficient, entanglement test and state characterisation methods.
We present an easy implementable algorithm for approximating the geometric measure of entanglement from above. The algorithm can be applied to any multipartite mixed state. It involves only the solution of an eigenproblem and finding a singular value decomposition, no further numerical techniques are needed. To provide examples, the algorithm was applied to the isotropic states of 3 qubits and the 3-qubit XX model with external magnetic field.
I raise some doubts concerning a protocol recently applied in an experiment (Walborn et al, Nature) to measure entanglement. The protocol is much simpler than other known entanglement-verification methods, but, I argue, needs assumptions (namely that the state generated is known and pure) that are too strong to be allowed and that are not justified in most experiments. An extension of the protocol suggested in quant-ph/0605250 is much harder to implement and still relies on assumptions not justified in entanglement-verification protocols, as demonstrated by an explicit example.
We investigate the possibility of characterizing two-party entanglement by measuring correlations of Stokes operators in polarized bright light beams. We adapt a general separability criterion to such operators. We then show that entanglement purification can only be singled out for a particular protocol.
Here I present a method how intersections of a certain density matrix of rank two with the zero-polytope can be calculated exactly. This is a purely geometrical procedure which thereby is applicable to obtaining the zeros of SL- and SU-invariant entanglement measures of arbitrary polynomial degree. I explain this method in detail for a recently unsolved problem. In particular, I show how a three-dimensional view, namely in terms of the Boch-sphere analogy, solves this problem immediately. To this end, I determine the zero-polytope of the three-tangle, which is an exact result up to computer ac…
The singular nature of a non-integer spiral phase plate allows easy manipulation of spatial degrees of freedom of photon states. Using two such devices, we have observed very high dimensional (D > 3700) spatial entanglement of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.
Exact analytical diagonalization is used to study the bipartite entanglement of the antiferromagnetic mixed spin-(1/2,$S$) Heisenberg dimer (MSHD) with the help of negativity. Under the assumption of uniaxial single-ion anisotropy affecting higher spin-$S$ ($S\!>\!1/2$) entities only, the ground-state degeneracy $2S$ is partially lifted and the ground state is two-fold degenerate with the total magnetization per dimer $\pm(S\!-\!1/2)$. It is shown that the largest quantum entanglement is reached for the antiferromagnetic ground state of MSHD with arbitrary half-odd-integer spins $S$, regardles…
We consider one-round games between a classical verifier and two provers who share entanglement. We show that when the constraints enforced by the verifier are `unique' constraints (i.e., permutations), the value of the game can be well approximated by a semidefinite program. Essentially the only algorithm known previously was for the special case of binary answers, as follows from the work of Tsirelson in 1980. Among other things, our result implies that the variant of the unique games conjecture where we allow the provers to share entanglement is false. Our proof is based on a novel `quantum…
We derive spin squeezing inequalities that generalize the concept of the spin squeezing parameter and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for genuine 2-, or 3- qubit entanglement for symmetric states, and sufficient condition for general states of $N$ qubits. Our inequalities have a clear physical interpretation as entanglement witnesses, can be relatively easy measured, and are given by complex, but {\it elementary} expressions.
In this paper we give the new sufficient conditions of entanglement for multipartite qubit density matrixes. We discuss in detail the case for tripartite qubit density matrixes. As a criterion in concrete application, its steps are quite simple and easy to operate. Some examples and discussions are given. PACC numbers: 03.67.Mn, 03.65.Ud, 03.67.Hk.
We observe polarization-entanglement between four photons produced from a single down-conversion source. The non-classical correlations between the measurement results violate a generalized Bell inequality for four qubits. The characteristic properties and its easy generation with high interferometric contrast make the observed four-photon state well-suited for implementing advanced quantum communication schemes such as multi-party quantum key distribution, secret sharing and telecloning.
The set of all qubit states that can be steered to by measurements on a correlated qubit is predicted to form an ellipsoid---called the quantum steering ellipsoid---in the Bloch ball. This ellipsoid provides a simple visual characterisation of the initial 2-qubit state, and various aspects of entanglement are reflected in its geometric properties. We experimentally verify these properties via measurements on many different polarisation-entangled photonic qubit states. Moreover, for pure 3-qubit states, the volumes of the two quantum steering ellipsoids generated by measurements on the first qu…
Quantifying entanglement in composite systems is a fundamental challenge, yet exact results are only available in few special cases. This is because hard optimization problems are routinely involved, such as finding the convex decomposition of a mixed state with the minimal average pure-state entanglement, the so-called convex roof. We show that under certain conditions such a problem becomes trivial. Precisely, we prove by a geometric argument that polynomial entanglement measures of degree 2 are independent of the choice of pure-state decomposition of a mixed state, when the latter has only …
There have recently been interests in transferring entanglement between two quantum systems in different Hilbert spaces. In particular, the study of entanglement transfer from a continuous-variable to a qubit system has a primary importance due to practical implications. A continuous-variable system easily propagates entanglement while a qubit system is easy to manipulate. We investigate conditions to entangle two two-level atoms for a broad-band two-mode squeezed field driving the cavities where the atoms are.
The fidelity and entropy in an easy-axis antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin-1 chain are studied numerically. By using the method of density-matrix renormalization group, the effects of anisotropy on fidelity and entanglement entropy are investigated. Their relations with quantum phase transition are analyzed. It is found that the quantum phase transition from the Haldane spin liquid to Néel spin solid can be well characterized by the fidelity. The phase transition can be hardly detected by the entropy but it can be successfully detected by the first deviation of the entropy.
We present a general description of separable states in Quantum Mechanics. In particular, our result gives an easy proof that inseparabitity (or entanglement) is a pure quantum (noncommutative) notion. This implies that distinction between separability and inseparabitity has sense only for composite systems consisting of pure quantum subsystems. Moreover, we provide the unified characterization of pure-state entanglement and mixed-state entanglement.
The robust estimation of entanglement is key to the validation of implementations of quantum systems. On the one hand, the evaluation of standard entanglement measures, either using quantum tomography or using quantitative entanglement witnesses requires perfect implementation of measurements. On the other hand, measurement-device-independent entanglement witnesses (MDIEWs) can certify entanglement of all entangled states using untrusted measurement devices. We show that MDIEWs can be used as well to quantify entanglement according to standard entanglement measures, and present a practical met…
Any bipartite entanglement witness $W$ can be written as $W=c_σI-σ$, where $σ$ is a quantum state, $I$ is the identity matrix, and $c_σ$ is a non-negative number. We present a general method to extend the given entanglement witness to multipartite cases via purification, partial purification, and direct tensor of the quantum state $σ$. Our methods extend $σ$ but leave the parameter $c_σ$ untouched. This is very valuable since the parameter is generally not easy to compute.
It is shown that local distinguishability of orthogonal mixed states can be completely characterized by local distinguishability of their supports irrespective of entanglement and mixedness of the states. This leads to two kinds of upper bounds on the number of perfect LOCC distinguishable orthogonal mixed states. The first one depends only on pure-state entanglement within the supports of the states, and therefore may be easy to compute in many instances. The second bound is optimal in the sense that it optimizes the bounding quantities, not necessarily function of entanglement alone, over al…
The general expression with the physical significance and positive definite condition of the eigenvalues of $4\times 4$ Hermitian and trace-one matrix are obtained. This implies that the eigenvalue problem of the $4\times 4$ density matrix is generally solved. The obvious expression of Peres' separability condition for an arbitrary state of two qubits is then given out and it is very easy to use. Furthermore, we discuss some applications to the calculation of the entanglement, the upper bound of the entanglement, and a model of the transfer of entanglement in a qubit chain through a noisy chan…
Quantifying entanglement for multipartite quantum state is a crucial task in many aspects of quantum information theory. Among all the entanglement measures, relative entropy of entanglement $E_{R}$ is an outstanding quantity due to its clear geometric meaning, easy compatibility with different system sizes, and various applications in many other related quantity calculations. Lower bounds of $E_R$ were previously found based on distance to the set of positive partial transpose states. We propose a method to calculate upper bounds of $E_R$ based on active learning, a subfield in machine learni…
Quantum metrology overcomes standard precision limits and plays a central role in science and technology. Practically it is vulnerable to imperfections such as decoherence. Here, we demonstrate quantum metrology for noisy channels such that entanglement with ancillary qubits enhances the quantum Fisher information for phase estimation but not otherwise. Our photonic experiment covers a range of noise for various types of channels, including for two randomly alternating channels such that assisted entanglement fails for each noisy channel individually. We have simulated noisy channels by implem…
This article uses data from two experimental studies of two-person Prisoner's Dilemma games [1, 2] and compares the data with the theoretic predictions calculated with the use of a quantum game theoretical method. The experimental findings of the cooperation percentage Cp indicate a strong connectivity with the properties of a novel function (N), which depends on the payoff parameters of the game and the entanglement parameter . A classification scheme depending on four quantum cooperation indicators is developed to describe cooperation in real two-person games. The quantum indicators lead to …
Quantum computational resources and validation protocols for a three-mode non-Gaussian trilinear Hamiltonian
Quantum Technology Lab, Dipartimento di Fisica Aldo Pontremoli, Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学阿尔多·蓬特莫利物理系量子技术实验室）；Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学微技术与纳米科学系）
We present a new technique to reduce the expected number of measurements to declare an unknown quantum state as entangled. Our method is based on the geometric criterion and so requires only local Pauli measurements. Using concentration of measure, we provide a heuristic which allows us to reinterpret a previous decision tree algorithm due to Laskowski et al and that forms the basis for our new algorithm. Numerical simulations show that for three to six qubits we use fewer measurements than either the trivial algorithm or the decision tree algorithm. In addition, our method is easy to construc…
Entangled quantum states play an important role in quantum information science and also in quantum mechanics fundamental investigations. Implementation and characterization of techniques allowing for easy preparation of entangled states are important steps in such fields. Here we generated entangled quantum states encoded in photons transversal paths, obtained by pumping a non-linear crystal with multiple transversal Gaussian beams. Such approach allows us to generate entangled states of two qubits and two qutrits encoded in Gaussian transversal path of twin photons. We make a theoretical anal…
It is easy to show coincidence of the entanglement-assisted classical capacity and the Holevo capacity for any c-q channel between finite dimensional quantum systems. In this paper we prove the converse assertion: coincidence of the above-mentioned capacities of a quantum channel implies that the $χ$-essential part of this channel is a c-q channel (the $χ$-essential part is a restriction of a channel obtained by discarding all input states useless for transmission of classical information). The above observations are generalized to infinite dimensional quantum channels with linear constraints …
The state of a two-particle system is called entangled when its quantum mechanical wave function cannot be factorized in two single-particle wave functions. Entanglement leads to the strongest counter-intuitive feature of quantum mechanics, namely nonlocality. Experimental realization of quantum entanglement is relatively easy for the case of photons; a pump photon can spontaneously split into a pair of entangled photons inside a nonlinear crystal. In this paper we combine quantum entanglement with nanostructured metal optics in the form of optically thick metal films perforated with a periodi…
Learning Entanglement Quasiprobability from Noisy and Incomplete Data
MIIT Key Laboratory of Complex-field Intelligent Sensing, School of Optics and Photonics, Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学光电与光子学学院复杂场智能感知工信部重点实验室）；Yangtze Delta Region Academy of Beijing Institute of Technology (Jiaxing)（北京理工大学长三角研究院（嘉兴））；Center for Photonic Quantum Precision Measurement, Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学前沿交叉科学研究院光子量子精密测量中心）
The key realisation which lead to the emergence of the new field of quantum information processing is that quantum mechanics, the theory that describes microscopic particles, allows the processing of information in fundamentally new ways. But just as in classical information processing, errors occur in quantum information processing, and these have to be corrected. A fundamental breakthrough was the realisation that quantum error correction is in fact possible. However most work so far has not been concerned with technological feasibility, but rather with proving that quantum error correction …
Designing and implementing algorithms for medium and large scale quantum computers is not easy. In previous work we have suggested, and developed, the idea of using machine learning techniques to train a quantum system such that the desired process is "learned," thus obviating the algorithm design difficulty. This works quite well for small systems. But the goal is macroscopic physical computation. Here, we implement our learned pairwise entanglement witness on Microsoft's Q#, one of the commercially available gate model quantum computer simulators; we perform statistical analysis to determine…
Linear-optical systems can implement photonic quantum walks that simulate systems with nontrivial topological properties. Here, such photonic walks are used to jointly entangle polarization and winding number. This joint entanglement allows information processing tasks to be performed with interactive access to a wide variety of topological features. Topological considerations are used to suppress errors, with polarization allowing easy measurement and manipulation of qubits. We provide three examples of this approach: production of two-photon systems with entangled winding number (including t…
We present methods for evaluating the rate of change in quantities during quantum evolution due to coupling to the environment (dissipation hereafter). The protocol is based on repeating a given quantum circuit (or quantum operation) twice, thrice, and so on, and measuring an expectation value after each number of repetitions. We start by applying this method for measuring the rate of purity changes in quantum circuits. This provides direct information on the quality of the circuit. Furthermore, the presented scheme enables to distill the dissipative contribution in the changes of quantities s…
We investigate the generation of entanglement through a quantum dot molecule under the influence of vibrational phonon modes in a bias voltage junction. The molecular quantum dot system is realized by coupled quantum dots inside a suspended carbon nanotube. We consider the dynamical entanglement as a function of bias voltage and temperature by taking into account the electron-phonon interaction. In order to generate the robust entanglement between quantum dots and preserve it to reach the maximal achievable amount steadily, we introduce an asymmetric coupling protocol and apply the easy tunabl…
We study the quantum phase transitions of spin-1 Heisenberg chains with an easy-axis anisotropy $Δ$ and a uniaxial single-ion anisotropy $D$ using a multipartite entanglement approach. The genuine tripartite entanglement between the spin blocks, measured by the tripartite qutrit hyperdeterminant, is calculated within the quantum renormalization group method. Using this approach, the phase boundaries between the topological Haldane, large-D and anti-ferromagnetic Néel phases are determined in the half $Δ-D$ plane with $Δ>0$. When the size of the spin blocks increases, the genuine tripartite ent…
Quantum metrology exploits quantum resources and strategies to improve measurement precision of unknown parameters. One crucial issue is how to prepare a quantum entangled state suitable for high-precision measurement beyond the standard quantum limit. Here, we propose a scheme to find optimal pulse sequence to accelerate the one-axis twisting dynamics for entanglement generation with the aid of deep reinforcement learning (DRL). We consider the pulse train as a sequence of $π/2$ pulses along one axis or two orthogonal axes, and the operation is determined by maximizing the quantum Fisher info…
The construction of large-scale quantum computers will require modular architectures that allow physical resources to be localized in easy-to-manage packages. In this work, we examine the impact of different graph structures on the preparation of entangled states. We begin by explaining a formal framework, the hierarchical product, in which modular graphs can be easily constructed. This framework naturally leads us to suggest a class of graphs, which we dub hierarchies. We argue that such graphs have favorable properties for quantum information processing, such as a small diameter and small to…
The interaction with the environment is one of the main obstacles to be circumvented in practical implementations of quantum information tasks. The use of local unitaries, while not changing the initial entanglement present in a given state, can enormously change its dynamics through a noisy channel, and consequently its ability to be used as a resource. This way, local unitaries provide an easy and accessible way to enhance quantum correlations in a variety of different experimental platforms. Given an initial entangled state and a certain noisy channel, what are the local unitaries providing…
Analytic correspondence between multipartite entanglement and quantum phase transitions
University of Information Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam（胡志明市信息技术大学）；Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam（越南国家大学胡志明市分校）；Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan（日本东北大学前沿交叉科学研究院）；Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan（日本东北大学大学院工学研究科应用物理系）
Quantum entanglement occurs not just in discrete systems such as spins, but also in the spatial wave functions of systems with more than one degree of freedom. It is easy to introduce students to entangled wave functions at an early stage, in any course that discusses wave functions. Doing so not only prepares students to learn about Bell's theorem and quantum information science, but can also provide a deeper understanding of the principles of quantum mechanics and help fight against some common misconceptions. Here I introduce several pictorial examples of entangled wave functions that depen…
Quantum coherence plays a central role in various research areas. The $l_1$-norm of coherence is one of the most important coherence measures that are easily computable, but it is not easy to find a simple interpretation. We show that the $l_1$-norm of coherence is uniquely characterized by a few simple axioms, which demonstrates in a precise sense that it is the analog of negativity in entanglement theory and sum negativity in the resource theory of magic-state quantum computation. We also provide an operational interpretation of the $l_1$-norm of coherence as the maximum entanglement, measur…
We investigate the influence of vibrational phonon modes on the entanglement through a quantum dot molecule under the bias voltage-driven field. The molecular quantum dot system can be realized by coupled quantum dots in the middle of the suspended carbon nanotube. This system would be described by the Anderson-Holstein model and also can be analyzed by the polaron master equation in Markovian regime. In the presence of electron-phonon interaction, we study the entanglement as a function of bias voltage and temperature. Despite entanglement degradation because of phonon decoherence, we employ …
"Schrodinger's cat" is a gedankenexperiment intended to highlight conceptual difficulties in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. The generation of 'cat-like' states is central to numerous quantum information protocols. In particular, much attention has been drawn by states containing N photons in a superposition of all being in one of two designated modes. These maximally path entangled states, known as 'NOON' states, exhibit enhanced phase sensitivity and allow reaching the fundamental quantum limit of precision measurement. Such states could also be used for obtaining 'super-resolution'…
The standard definition of genuine multipartite entanglement stems from the need to assess the quantum control over an ever-growing number of quantum systems. We argue that this notion is easy to hack: in fact, a source capable of distributing bipartite entanglement can, by itself, generate genuine $k$-partite entangled states for any $k$. We propose an alternative definition for genuine multipartite entanglement, whereby a quantum state is genuinely network $k$-entangled if it cannot be produced by applying local trace-preserving maps over several $k$-partite states distributed among the part…
The entanglement can be localized between two noncomplementary parts of a many-body system by performing measurements on the rest of the system. This localized entanglement (LE) depends on the chosen basis set of measurement (BSM). We derive here a generic optimality condition for the LE, which, besides being helpful in studying tripartite systems in pure states, can also be of use in studying mixed states of general bipartite systems. We further discuss a canonical way of localizing entanglement, where the BSM is not chosen arbitrarily, but is fully determined by the properties of the system.…
