When quantum information is spread over a system through nonclassical correlation, it makes retrieving information by local measurements difficult---making global measurement necessary for optimal parameter estimation. In this paper, we consider temperature estimation of a system in a Gibbs state and quantify the separation between the estimation performance of the global optimal measurement scheme and a greedy local measurement scheme by diagonal quantum discord. In a greedy local scheme, instead of global measurements, one performs sequential local measurement on subsystems, which is potentially enhanced by feed-forward communication. We show that, for finite-dimensional systems, diagonal discord quantifies the difference in the quantum Fisher information quantifying the precision limits for temperature estimation of these two schemes, and we analytically obtain the relation in the high-temperature limit. We further verify this result by employing the examples of spins with Heisenberg's interaction.
We propose a scheme to evaluate the amount of quantum discord and entanglement of formation for mixed states, and reveal their ordering relation via an intrinsic relationship between the two quantities distributed in different partners of the associated purification. This approach enables us to achieve analytical expressions of the two measures for a sort of quantum states, such as an arbitrary two-qubit density matrix reduced from pure three-qubit states and a class of rank-2 mixed states of 4\times 2 systems. Moreover, we apply the scheme to characterize fully the dynamical behavior of quant…
Nonclassical correlations beyond entanglement might provide a resource in quantum information tasks, such as quantum computation or quantum metrology. Quantum discord is a measure of nonclassical correlations, to which entanglement belongs as a subset. Exploring the operational meaning of quantum discord as a resource in quantum information processing tasks, such as quantum metrology, is of essential importance to our understanding of nonclassical correlations. In our recent work [Phys. Rev. A, 98, 012115 (2018)], we considered a protocol---which we call the greedy local thermometry protocol--…
Using the Gaussian Rényi-2 entropy, we analyse the behaviour of two different aspects of quantum correlations (entanglement and quantum discord) in two optomechanical subsystems (optical and mechanical). We work in the resolved sideband and weak coupling regimes. In experimentally accessible parameters, we show that it is possible to create entanglement and quantum discord in the considered subsystems by quantum fluctuations transfer from either light to light or light to matter. We find that both mechanical and optical entanglement are strongly sensitive to thermal noises. In particular, we f…
We propose a measure of non-classical correlations in bipartite quantum states based on local unitary operations. We prove the measure is non-zero if and only if the quantum discord is non-zero; this is achieved via a new characterization of zero discord states in terms of the state's correlation matrix. Moreover, our scheme can be extended to ensure the same relationship holds even with a generalized version of quantum discord in which higher-rank projective measurements are allowed. We next derive a closed form expression for our scheme in the cases of Werner states and (2 x N)-dimensional s…
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…
Quantum discord is the quantitative difference between two alternative expressions for bipartite mutual information, given respectively in terms of two distinct definitions for the conditional entropy. By constructing a stochastic model of shared states, classical discord can be similarly defined, quantifying the presence of some stochasticity in the measurement process. Therefore, discord can generally be understood as a quantification of the system's state disturbance due to local measurements, be it quantum or classical. We establish an operational meaning of classical discord in the contex…
In this work we analyze a non-commutativity measure of quantum correlations recently proposed by Y. Guo [Sci. Rep. 6, 25241 (2016)]. By recourse to a systematic survey of a two-qubit system, we detected an undesirable behavior of such a measure related to its representation-dependence. In the case of pure states, this dependence manifests as a non-satisfactory entanglement measure whenever a representation other than the Schmidt's is used. In order to avoid this dependence on the basis, we argue that a minimization procedure over the set of all possible representations of the quantum state is …
We introduce an operational discord-type measure for quantifying nonclassical correlations in bipartite Gaussian states based on using Gaussian measurements. We refer to this measure as operational Gaussian discord (OGD). It is defined as the difference between the entropies of two conditional probability distributions associated to one subsystem, which are obtained by performing optimal local and joint Gaussian measurements. We demonstrate the operational significance of this measure in terms of a Gaussian quantum protocol for extracting maximal information about an encoded classical signal. …
As quantum technologies move from the issues of principle to those of practice, it is important to understand the limitations on attaining tangible quantum advantages. In the realm of quantum communication, quantum discord captures the damaging effects of a decoherent environment. This is a consequence of quantum discord quantifying the advantage of quantum coherence in quantum communication. This establishes quantum discord as a resource for quantum communication processes. We discuss this progress, which derives a quantitative relation between the yield of the fully quantum Slepian-Wolf prot…
Quantum discord provides a measure for quantifying quantum correlations beyond entanglement and is very hard to compute even for two-qubit states because of the minimization over all possible measurements. Recently a simple algorithm to evaluate the quantum discord for two-qubit X-states is proposed by Ali, Rau and Alber [Phys. Rev. A 81, 042105 (2010)] with minimization taken over only a few cases. Here we shall at first identify a class of X-states, whose quantum discord can be evaluated analytically without any minimization, for which their algorithm is valid, and also identify a family of …
We present a method to quantify quantum correlations in arbitrary systems of indistinguishable fermions using witness operators. The method associates the problem of finding the optimal entan- glement witness of a state with a class of problems known as semidefinite programs (SDPs), which can be solved efficiently with arbitrary accuracy. Based on these optimal witnesses, we introduce a measure of quantum correlations which has an interpretation analogous to the Generalized Robust- ness of entanglement. We also extend the notion of quantum discord to the case of indistinguishable fermions, and…
Based on the relative entropy, we give a unified characterization of quantum correlations for nonlocality, steerability, discord and entanglement for any bipartite quantum states. For two-qubit states we show that the quantities obtained from quantifying nonlocality, steerability, entanglement and discord have strictly monotonic relationship. As for examples, the Bell diagonal states are studied in detail.
We propose "super one-way deficit" by weak measurement as the generalization of one-way deficit defined for standard projective measurement. The super one-way deficit for Werner state is obtained analytically. We find that super one-way deficit is smaller than the standard one-way deficit, which contrasts with a straightforward expectation based on the known fact that super-quantum discord by weak measurement is always larger than the quantum discord defined by projective measurement. On the other hand, by tuning the weak measurement continuously to the projective measurement, both super one-w…
Nonlocality is one of the most important resources for quantum information protocols. The observation of nonlocal correlations in a Bell experiment is the result of appropriately chosen measurements and quantum states. We quantify the minimal purity to achieve a certain Bell value for any Bell operator. Since purity is the most fundamental resource of a quantum state, this enables us also to quantify the necessary coherence, discord, and entanglement for a given violation of two-qubit correlation inequalities. Our results shine new light on the CHSH inequality by showing that for a fixed Bell …
One of the best signatures of nonclassicality in a quantum system is the existence of correlations that have no classical counterpart. Different methods for quantifying the quantum and classical parts of correlations are amongst the more actively-studied topics of quantum information theory over the past decade. Entanglement is the most prominent of these correlations, but in many cases unentangled states exhibit nonclassical behavior too. Thus distinguishing quantum correlations other than entanglement provides a better division between the quantum and classical worlds, especially when consid…
Criteria of measure quantifying quantum coherence, a unique property of quantum system, are proposed recently. In this paper, we first give an uncertainty-like expression relating the coherence and the entropy of quantum system. This finding allows us to discuss the relations between the entanglement and the coherence. Further, we discuss in detail the relations among the coherence, the discord and the deficit in the bipartite quantum system. We show that, the one-way quantum deficit is equal to the sum between quantum discord and the relative entropy of coherence of measured subsystem.
Quantum correlation beyond entanglement: Holographic discord and multipartite generalizations
Rikkyo University（立教大学）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理前沿研究所）；Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理研究所）
We propose a modified metric based on the Hilbert-Schmidt norm and adopt it to define a rescaled version of the geometric measure of quantum discord. Such a measure is found not to suffer from the pathological dependence on state purity. Although the employed metric is still noncontractive under quantum operations, we show that the resulting indicator of quantum correlations is in agreement with other bona fide discord measures in a number of physical examples. We present a critical assessment of the requirements of reliability versus computability when approaching the task of quantifying, or …
Deep insight can be gained into the nature of nonclassical correlations by studying the quantum operations that create them. Motivated by this we propose a measure of nonclassicality of a quantum operation utilizing the relative entropy to quantify its commutativity with the completely dephasing operation. We show that our measure of nonclassicality is a sum of two independent contributions, the generating power -- its ability to produce nonclassical states out of classical ones, and the distinguishing power -- its usefulness to a classical observer for distinguishing between classical and non…
We show that only those composite quantum systems possessing nonvanishing quantum correlations have the property that any nontrivial local unitary evolution changes their global state. We derive the exact relation between the global state change induced by local unitary evolutions and the amount of quantum correlations. We prove that the minimal change coincides with the geometric measure of discord (defined via the Hilbert- Schmidt norm), thus providing the latter with an operational interpretation in terms of the capability of a local unitary dynamics to modify a global state. We establish t…
A bipartite quantum system in a mixed state can exhibit nonclassical correlations, which can go beyond quantum entanglement. While quantum discord is the standard measure of quantifying such general quantum correlations, the nonclassicality can be determined by simpler means via the measurement of witness operators. We experimentally construct a positive map to witness nonclassicality of two qubits in an NMR system. The map can be decomposed so that a single run of an experiment on an ensemble of spins suffices to detect the nonclassicality in the state, if present. We let the state evolve in …
The significance of photon addition in engineering the single- and two-mode (bipartite correlations) nonclassical properties of a quantum state is investigated. Specifically, we analyzed the behavior of the Wigner function of two quasi-Werner states theoretically constructed by superposing two normalized bipartite $m$-photon added coherent states. This allowed us to quantify the amount of nonclassicality present in the quantum states using Wigner logarithmic negativity (WLN), while quantum correlations are measured in terms of concurrence, entanglement of formation, and quantum discord. The WL…
Solid-state spin arrays are being engineered in varied systems, including gated coupled quantum dots and interacting dopants in semiconductor structures. Beyond quantum computation, these arrays are useful integrated analog simulators for many-body models. As entanglement between individual spins is extremely short ranged in these models, one has to measure the entanglement entropy of a block in order to truly verify their many-body entangled nature. Remarkably, the characteristic scaling of entanglement entropy, predicted by conformal field theory, has never been measured. Here we show that w…
We define two ways of quantifying the quantum correlations based on quantum Fisher information (QFI) in order to study the quantum correlations as a resource in quantum metrology. By investigating the hierarchy of measurement-induced Fisher information introduced in Lu et al. [X. M. Lu, S. Luo, and C. H. Oh, Phys Rev. A 86, 022342 (2012)], we show that the presence of quantum correlation can be confirmed by the difference of the Fisher information induced by the measurements of two hierarchies. In particular, the quantitative quantum correlations based on QFI coincide with the geometric discor…
Quantum discord (QD) measures the fraction of the pairwise mutual information that is locally inaccessible, in a multipartite system. Fundamental aspects related to two important measures in quantum information theory the Entanglement of Formation (EOF) and the conditional entropy, can be understood in terms of the distribution of this form of Local Inaccessible Information (LII). As such, the EOF for an arbitrarily mixed bipartite system AB can be related to the gain or loss of LII due to the extra knowledge that a purifying ancillary system E has on the pair AB. Similarly, a clear meaning of…
Quantum coherence is a fundamental common trait of quantum phenomena, from the interference of matter waves to quantum degeneracy of identical particles. Despite its importance, estimating and measuring quantum coherence in generic, mixed many-body quantum states remains a formidable challenge, with fundamental implications in areas as broad as quantum condensed matter, quantum information, quantum metrology and quantum biology. Here we provide a quantitative definition of the variance of quantum coherent fluctuations (the quantum variance) of any observable on generic quantum states. The quan…
