Consider two bosonic modes which are prepared in one of two possible Gaussian states with the same local energy: either a tensor-product thermal state (with zero correlations) or a separable Gaussian state with maximal correlations (with both classical and quantum correlations, the latter being quantified by quantum discord). For the discrimination of these states, we compare the optimal joint coherent measurement with the best local measurement based on single-mode Gaussian detections. We show how the coherent measurement always strictly outperforms the local detection strategy for both single- and multi-copy discrimination. This means that using local Gaussian measurements (assisted by classical communication) is strictly suboptimal in detecting discord. A better performance may only be achieved by either using non Gaussian measurements (non linear optics) or coherent non-local measurements.
We have investigated the dynamics of quantum discord and entanglement for two qubits subject to independent global transverse and/or longitudinal memoryless noisy classical fields. Global transverse and/or longitudinal random fields are found to drive the system to maximally discordant mixed separable steady states for suitable initial conditions. Moreover, two independent noises in the system are found to enhance both the steady state randomness and quantum discord in the absence of entanglement for some initial states.
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 …
In a recent article S. Gharibian [\href{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.042106}{Phys. Rev. A {\bf 86}, 042106 (2012)}] has conjectured that no two qubit separable state of rank greater than two could be maximally non classical (defined to be those which have normalized geometric discord $1/4$) and asked for an analytic proof. In this work we prove analytically that among the subclass of $X$ states, there is a unique (up to local unitary equivalence) maximal separable state of rank two. Partial progress has been made towards the general problem and some necessary conditions have been deri…
Li and Luo [Phys. Rev. A 78 (2008), 024303] discovered a remarkable relation between discord and entanglement. It establishes that all separable states can be obtained via reduction of a classicaly-correlated state "living" in a space of larger dimension. Starting from this result, we discuss here an optimal classical extension of separable states and explore this notion for low-dimensional systems. We find that the larger the dimension of the classical extension, the larger the discord in the original separable state. Further, we analyze separable states of maximum discord of two qubits, and …
Discord and entanglement characterize two kinds of quantum correlations, and discord captures more correlation than entanglement in the sense that even separable states may have nonzero discord. In this paper, we propose a new kind of quantum correlation we call it oblique discord. A zero-discord state corresponds to an orthonormal basis, while a zero-oblique-discord state corresponds to a basis which is not necessarily orthogonal. Under this definition, the set of zero-discord states is properly contained inside the set of zero-oblique-discord states, and the set of zero-oblique-discord state…
Absolute separable states is a kind of separable state that remain separable under the action of any global unitary transformation. These states may or may not have quantum correlation and these correlations can be measured by quantum discord. We find that the absolute separable states are useful in quantum computation even if it contains infinitesimal quantum correlation in it. Thus to search for the class of two-qubit absolute separable states with zero discord, we have derived an upper bound for $Tr(\varrho^{2})$, where $\varrho$ denoting all zero discord states. In general, the upper bound…
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…
In recent years, exploring the possible use of separable states as resource for achieving quantum information processing(QIP) tasks has been gaining increasing significance. In this context, a particularly important demonstration has been that non-vanishing discord is the necessary condition for the separable states to be used as resource for remotely preparing any arbitrary pure target state [Nature Physics $8$, $666$ $(2012)$]. The present work stems from our observation that not only resource states with same discord can imply different efficiencies (in terms of average fidelity) of the rem…
We study the procedure for sequential unambiguous state discrimination. A qubit is prepared in one of two possible states, and measured by two observers Bob and Charlie sequentially. A necessary condition for the state to be unambiguously discriminated by Charlie is the absence of entanglement between the principal qubit, prepared by Alice, and Bob's auxiliary system. In general, the procedure for both Bob and Charlie to recognize between two nonorthogonal states conclusively relies on the availability of quantum discord which is precisely the quantum dissonance when the entanglement is absent…
In the framework of the theory of open systems, we give a description of quantum entanglement and quantum discord for two non-interacting modes embedded in a thermal environment. We describe the evolution of entanglement in terms of the covariance matrix for Gaussian input states. For all values of the temperature of the thermal reservoir, an initial separable squeezed thermal state remains separable for all times. In the case of an entangled initial squeezed thermal state, entanglement suppression (entanglement sudden death) takes place, for non-zero temperatures of the environment. The Gauss…
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…
In this study, using the concept of relative entropy as a distance measure of cor- relations we investigate the important issue of evaluating quantum correlations such as entanglement, dissonance and classical correlations for 2n-dimensional Bell-diagonal states. We provide an analytical technique, which describes how we find the closest classical states(CCS) and the closest separable states(CSS) for these states. Then analytical results are obtained for quantum discord of 2n-dimensional Bell-diagonal states. As illustration, some special cases are examined. Finally, we investigate the additiv…
We find that when a qubit initialized in a pure state experiences pure dephasing due to interaction with an environment, separable qubit-environment states generated during the evolution also have zero quantum discord with respect to the environment. What follows is that the set of separable states which can be reached during the evolution has zero volume and hence, such effects as sudden death of qubit-environment entanglement are very unlikely. In case of the discord with respect to the qubit, a vast majority of separable states qubit-environment is discordant, but in specific situations zer…
Quantum systems unfold diversified correlations which have no classical counterparts. These quantum correlations have various different facets. Quantum entanglement, as the most well known measure of quantum correlations, plays essential roles in quantum information processing. However, it has recently been pointed out that quantum entanglement cannot describe all the nonclassicality in the correlations. Thus the study of quantum correlations in separable states attracts widely attentions. Herein, we experimentally investigate the quantum correlations of separable thermal states in terms of qu…
Gaussian quantum discord is a measure of quantum correlations in Gaussian systems. Using Gaussian discord we quantify the quantum correlations of a bipartite entangled state and a separable two-mode mixture of coherent states. We experimentally analyze the effect of noise addition and dissipation on Gaussian discord and show that the former noise degrades the discord while the latter noise for some states leads to an increase of the discord. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate the near-death of discord by noisy evolution and its revival through dissipation.
The sequential unambiguous state discrimination (SSD) of two states prepared in arbitrary prior probabilities is studied, and compared with three strategies that allow classical communication. The deviation from equal probabilities contributes to the success in all the tasks considered. When one considers at least one of the parties succeeds, the protocol with probabilistic cloning is superior to others, which is not observed in the special case with equal prior probabilities. We also investigate the roles of quantum correlations in SSD, and show that the procedure requires discords but reject…
We address perfect discrimination of two separable states. When available states are restricted to separable states, we can theoretically consider a larger class of measurements than the class of measurements allowed in quantum theory. The framework composed of the class of separable states and the above extended class of measurements is a typical example of general probabilistic theories. In this framework, we give a necessary and sufficient condition to discriminate two separable pure states perfectly. In particular, we derive measurements explicitly to discriminate two separable pure states…
We extend the quantum discord to continuous variable systems and evaluate Gaussian quantum discord C(ρ) for bipartite Gaussian states. In particular, for squeezed thermal states (STS), we explicitly maximize the extractable information over Gaussian measurements: C(ρ) is minimized by a generalized measurement rather than a projective one. Almost all STS have nonzero Gaussian discord: they may be either separable or entangled if the discord is below the threshold C(ρ)=1, whereas they are all entangled above the threshold. We elucidate the general role of state parameters in determining the disc…
We quantize prisoners dilemma and chicken game by our generalized quantization scheme to explore the role of quantum discord in quantum games. In order to establish this connection we use Werner-like state as an initial state of the game. In this quantization scheme measurement can be performed in entangled as well as in product basis. For the measurement in entangled basis the dilemma in both the games can be resolved by separable states with non-zero quantum discord. Similarly for product basis measurement the payoffs are quantum mechanical only for nonzero values of quantum discord.
We investigated the super quantum discord based on weak measurements. The super quantum discord is an extension of the standard quantum discord defined by projective measurements and also describes the quantumness of correlations. We provide some equivalent conditions for zero super quantum discord by using quantum discord, classical correlation and mutual information. In particular, we find that the super quantum discord is zero only for product states, which have zero mutual information. This result suggests that non-zero correlations can always be detected using the quantum correlation with…
In an initially uncorrelated mixed separable bi-partite system, quantum correlations can emerge under the action of a local measurement or local noise [A. Streltsov, H. Kampermann, and D. Bruß, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 170502 (2011)]. We analyze this counter-intuitive phenomenon using quantum discord as a quantifier. We then relate changes in quantum discord to system-environment correlations between the system in a mixed state and some purifying environmental mode using the Koashi-Winter inequality. On this basis, we suggest an interpretation of discord as a byproduct of transferring entanglemen…
We calculate the analytic expression for geometric measure of entanglement for arbitrary superposition of two $N$-qubit canonical orthonormal Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger ($GHZ$) states and the same for two $W$ states. In course of characterizing all kinds of nonclassical correlations, explicit formula for quantum discord (via relative entropy) for the former class of states has been presented. Contrary to the $GHZ$ state, the closest separable state to the $W$ state is not classical. Therefore, in this case the discord is different from the relative entropy of entanglement. We conjecture that …
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…
We study the relative strength of classical and quantum correlations, as measured by discord, for two-qubit states. Quantum correlations appear only in the presence of classical correlations, while the reverse is not always true. We identify the family of states that maximize the discord for a given value of the classical correlations and show that the largest attainable discord for mixed states is greater than for pure states. The difference between discord and entanglement is emphasized by the remarkable fact that these states do not maximize entanglement and are, in some cases, even separab…
In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we give a description of the continuous-variable quantum entanglement and quantum discord for a system consisting of two noninteracting modes embedded in a thermal environment. Entanglement and discord are used to quantify the quantum correlations of the system. For all values of the temperature of the thermal reservoir, an initial separable Gaussian state remains separable for all times. We study the time evolution of logarithmic negativity, which characterizes the degree of entanglement,…
Especially investigated in recent years, the Gaussian discord can be quantified by a distance between a given two-mode Gaussian state and the set of all the zero-discord two-mode Gaussian states. However, as this set consists only of product states, such a distance captures all the correlations (quantum and classical) between modes. Therefore it is merely un upper bound for the geometric discord, no matter which is the employed distance. In this work we choose for this purpose the Hellinger metric that is known to have many beneficial properties recommending it as a good measure of quantum beh…
In this paper the correlations dynamics of two atoms in the case of a micromaser-type system is investigated. Our results predict certain quasi-periodic collapse and revival phenomena for quantum discord and entanglement when the field is in Fock state and the two atoms are initially in maximally mixed state, which is a unique separable state. Our calculations also show that the oscillations of the time evolution of both quantum discord and entanglement are almost in phase and they both have similar evolution behavior in some time range. The fact reveals the consistency of quantum discord and …
Coherent interactions that generate negligible entanglement can still exhibit unique quantum behaviour. This observation has motivated a search beyond entanglement for a complete description of all quantum correlations. Quantum discord is a promising candidate. Here, we demonstrate that under certain measurement constraints, discord between bipartite systems can be consumed to encode information that can only be accessed by coherent quantum interactions. The inability to access this information by any other means allows us to use discord to directly quantify this `quantum advantage'. We experi…
The phenomenon of nonlocality without entanglement(NLWE) arises in discriminating multi-party quantum separable states. Recently, it has been found that the post-measurement information about the prepared subensemble can lock or unlock NLWE in minimum-error discrimination of non-orthogonal separable states. Thus, it is natural to ask whether the availability of the post-measurement information can influence on the occurrence of NLWE even in other state-discrimination strategies. Here, we show that the post-measurement information can be used to lock as well as unlock the occurrence of NLWE in …
We define a new measure of quantum correlations in bipartite quantum systems given by the Bures distance of the system state to the set of classical states with respect to one subsystem, that is, to the states with zero quantum discord. Our measure is a geometrical version of the quantum discord. As the latter it quantifies the degree of non-classicality in the system. For pure states it is identical to the geometric measure of entanglement. We show that for mixed states it coincides with the optimal success probability of an ambiguous quantum state discrimination task. Moreover, the closest z…
We employ the concepts of local quantum uncertainty and geometric quantum discord based on the trace norm to investigate the environmental effects on quantum correlations of two bipartite quantum systems. The first one concerns a two-qubit system coupled with two independent bosonic reservoirs. We show that the trace discord exhibits frozen phenomenon contrarily to local quantum uncertainty. The second scenario deals with a two-level system, initially prepared in a separable state, interacting with a quantized electromagnetic radiation. Our results show that there exists an exchange of quantum…
Nonlocality without entanglement(NLWE) is a nonlocal phenomenon that occurs in quantum state discrimination of multipartite separable states. In the discrimination of orthogonal separable states, the term NLWE is used when the quantum states cannot be discriminated perfectly by local operations and classical communication. In this case, the occurrence of NLWE is independent of nonzero prior probabilities of quantum states being prepared. Recently, it has been found that the occurrence of NLWE can depend on nonzero prior probabilities in minimum-error discrimination of nonorthogonal separable s…
We consider an infinite class of unambiguous quantum state discrimination problems on multipartite systems, described by Hilbert space $\cal{H}$, of any number of parties. Restricting consideration to measurements that act only on $\cal{H}$, we find the optimal global measurement for each element of this class, achieving the maximum possible success probability of $1/2$ in all cases. This measurement turns out to be both separable and unique, and by our recently discovered necessary condition for local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC), it is easily shown to be impossible b…
Quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation, is defined as the difference between quantum mutual information and classical correlation in a bipartite system. In general, this correlation is different from entanglement, and quantum discord may be nonzero even for certain separable states. Even in the simple case of bipartite quantum systems, this different kind of quantum correlation has interesting and significant applications in quantum information processing. So far, quantum discord has been calculated explicitly only for a rather limited set of two-qubit quantum states and expressions fo…
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…
In recent years the paradigm based on entanglement as the unique measure of quantum correlations has been challenged by the rise of new correlation concepts, such as quantum discord, able to reveal quantum correlations that are present in separable states. It is in general difficult to compute quantum discord, because it involves a minimization over all possible local measurements in a bipartition. In the realm of continuous variable (CV) systems, a Gaussian version of quantum discord has been put forward upon restricting to Gaussian measurements. It is natural to ask whether non-Gaussian meas…
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…
Non-classical correlations play a crucial role in the development of quantum information science. The recent discovery that non-classical correlations can be present even in separable (unentangled) states has broadened this scenario. This generalized quantum correlation has been increasing relevance in several fields, among them quantum communication, quantum computation, quantum phase transitions, and biological systems. We demonstrate here the occurrence of the sudden-change phenomenon and immunity against some sources of noise for the quantum discord and its classical counterpart, in a room…
We prove limitations on LOCC and separable measurements in bipartite state discrimination problems using techniques from convex optimization. Specific results that we prove include: an exact formula for the optimal probability of correctly discriminating any set of either three or four Bell states via LOCC or separable measurements when the parties are given an ancillary partially entangled pair of qubits; an easily checkable characterization of when an unextendable product set is perfectly discriminated by separable measurements, along with the first known example of an unextendable product s…
In this paper we develop an approach for detecting entanglement, which is based on measuring quantum correlations and constructing a correlation matrix. The correlation matrix is then used for defining a family of parameters, named Correlation Minor Norms, which allow one to detect entanglement. This approach generalizes the computable cross-norm or realignment (CCNR) criterion, and moreover requires measuring a state-independent set of operators. Furthermore, we illustrate a scheme which yields for each Correlation Minor Norm a separable state that maximizes it. The proposed entanglement dete…
IITiS PAN（波兰科学院理论与应用信息学研究所）；University of Cagliari（卡利亚里大学）
We provide a complete work-flow, based on the language of quantum information theory, suitable for processing data for the purpose of pattern recognition. The main advantage of the introduced scheme is that it can be easily implemented and applied to process real-world data using modest computation resources. At the same time it can be used to investigate the difference in the pattern recognition resulting from the utilization of the tensor product structure of the space of quantum states. We illustrate this difference by providing a simple example based on the classification of 2D data.
We have studied the dynamics of quantum correlations such as entanglement, Bell-nonlocality and quantum discord between identical as well as unidentical atoms interacting with a single-mode cavity field and subject to cavity decay. The effect of single atom detuning, cavity decay rate and initial preparation of the atoms on the corresponding correlation measures have been investigated. It is found that even under strong dissipation, time evolution can create high quantum discord while entanglement and Bell nonlocality stay zero for an initially separable state. Quantum discord increases while …
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…
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Wrocław University of Science and Technology（弗罗茨瓦夫理工大学理论物理研究所）；Institute of Physics (FZU), Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所）
In this work, we calculate the exact asymptotic quantum correlations between two interacting non-resonant harmonic oscillators in a common Ohmic bath. We derive \emph{analytical formulas} for the covariances, fully describing any Gaussian stationary state of the system, and use them to study discord and entanglement in the strong and weak dissipation regimes. We discuss the rich structure of the discord of the stationary separable states arising in the strong dissipation regime. Also under strong dissipation, when the modes are not mechanically coupled, these may entangle only through their in…
Entanglement can be considered as a special quantum correlation, but not the only kind. Even for a separable quantum system, it is allowed to exist non-classical correlations. Here we propose two dissipative schemes for generating a maximally correlated state of two qubits in the absence of quantum entanglement, which was raised by [F. Galve, G. L. Giorgi, and R. Zambrini, {\color{blue}Phys. Rev. A {\bf 83}, 012102 (2011)}]. These protocols take full advantages of the interaction between four-level atoms and strongly lossy optical cavities. In the first scenario, we alternatively change the ph…
Quantum entanglement and nonlocality are inequivalent notions: There exist entangled states that nevertheless admit local-realistic interpretations. This paper studies a special class of local-hidden-variable theories, in which the linear structure of quantum measurement operators is preserved. It has been proven that a quantum state has such linear hidden-variable representations if, and only if, it is not entangled. Separable states are known to admit nonclassical correlations as well, which are captured by quantum discord and related measures. In the unified framework presented in this pape…
Hidden-variables models are critically reassessed. It is first examined if the quantum discord is classically described by the hidden-variable model of Bell in the Hilbert space with $d=2$. The criterion of vanishing quantum discord is related to the notion of reduction and, surprisingly, the hidden-variable model in $d=2$, which has been believed to be consistent so far, is in fact inconsistent and excluded by the analysis of conditional measurement and reduction. The description of the full contents of quantum discord by the deterministic hidden-variables models is not possible. We also re-e…
A state discrimination problem in an operational probabilistic theory (OPT) is investigated in diagrammatic terms. It is well-known that, in the case of quantum theory, if a state set has a certain symmetry, then there exists a minimum-error measurement having the same type of symmetry. However, to our knowledge, it is not yet clear whether this property also holds in a more general OPT. We show that it also holds in OPTs, i.e., for a symmetric state set, there exists a minimum-error measurement that has the same type of symmetry. It is also shown that this result can be utilized to optimize o…
The separability detecting problem of mixed states is one of the fundamental problems in quantum information theory. In the last 20 years, almost all methods are based on the sufficient or necessary conditions for entanglement. However, in this paper, we only need one algorithm to solve the problem. We propose a tensor optimization method to check whether an $m$-partite quantum mixed state is separable or not and give a decomposition for it if it is. We first convert the separability discrimination problem of mixed states to the positive Hermitian decomposition problem of Hermitian tensors. Th…
In this paper, we consider the problem of discriminating quantum states by local operations and classical communication (LOCC) when an arbitrarily small amount of error is permitted. This paradigm is known as asymptotic state discrimination, and we derive necessary conditions for when two multipartite states of any size can be discriminated perfectly by asymptotic LOCC. We use this new criterion to prove a gap in the LOCC and separable distinguishability norms. We then turn to the operational advantage of using two-way classical communication over one-way communication in LOCC processing. With…
Ensembles of composite quantum states can exhibit nonlocal behaviour in the sense that their optimal discrimination may require global operations. Such an ensemble containing N pairwise orthogonal pure states, however, can always be perfectly distinguished under adaptive local scheme if (N-1) copies of the state are available. In this letter, we provide examples of orthonormal bases in two-qubit Hilbert space whose adaptive discrimination require 3 copies of the state. For this composite system we analyze multi-copy adaptive local distinguishability of orthogonal ensembles in full generality w…
