The sensitivity of laser interferometers used for the detection of gravitational waves (GWs) is limited by quantum noise of light. An improvement is given by light with squeezed quantum uncertainties, as employed in the GW detector GEO600 since 2010. To achieve simultaneous noise reduction at all signal frequencies, however, the spectrum of squeezed states needs to be processed by 100m-scale low-loss optical filter cavities in vacuum. Here, we report on the proof-of-principle of an interferometer setup that achieves the required processed squeezed spectrum by employing Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entangled states. Applied to GW detectors, the cost-intensive cavities would become obsolete, while the price to pay is a 3dB quantum penalty.
We report the first experimental observation of bright EPR beams produced by a type-II optical parametric oscillator operating above threshold at frequency degeneracy. The degenerate operation is obtained by introducing a birefringent plate inside the cavity resulting in phase locking. After filtering the pump noise, which plays a critical role, continuous-variable EPR correlations between the orthogonally polarized signal and idler beams are demonstrated.
The EPR (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) argument and the Schrodinger cat paradox are revisited in relation with modern quantum optics and atomic physics and with the concept of decoherence. It is shown that the questions raised fifty years ago are still at the heart of our understanding of quantum physics today.
We demonstrate the applicability of the EPR entanglement squeezing scheme for enhancing the shot-noise-limited sensitivity of a detuned dual-recycled Michelson interferometers. In particular, this scheme is applied to the GEO\,600 interferometer. The effect of losses throughout the interferometer, arm length asymmetries, and imperfect separation of the signal and idler beams are considered.
A generalization of the 1935 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) argument for measurements with continuous variable outcomes is presented to establish criteria for the demonstration of the EPR paradox, for situations where the correlation between spatially separated subsystems is not perfect. Two types of criteria for EPR correlations are determined. The first type are based on measurements of the variances of conditional probability distributions and are necessary to reflect directly the situation of the original EPR paradox. The second weaker set of EPR criteria are based on the proven failure of …
It is shown that a criterion used to demonstrate realization of the 1935 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) gedanken experiment is sufficient to demonstrate quantum entanglement. A further set of measurable criteria sufficient to demonstrate EPR gedanken experiment is proposed, these being the set of criteria sufficient to demonstrate entanglement, by way of a measured violation of a necessary condition of separability. In this way, provided the spatial separation of systems is sufficient to ensure EPR's locality hypothesis, it is shown how a measured demonstration of entanglement will, at least, b…
Broadband quantum noise reduction can be achieved in gravitational wave detectors by injecting frequency dependent squeezed light into the the dark port of the interferometer. This frequency dependent squeezing can be generated by combining squeezed light with external filter cavities. However, in future long baseline interferometers (LBIs), the filter cavity required to achieve the broadband squeezing has a low bandwidth -- necessitating a very long cavity to mitigate the issue from optical loss. It has been shown recently that by taking advantage of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement…
We demonstrate the violation of an EPR steering inequality developed for single photon path entanglement with displacement-based detection. We use a high-rate source of heralded single-photon path-entangled states, combined with high-efficiency superconducting-based detectors, in a scheme that is free of any post-selection and thus immune to the detection loophole. This result conclusively demonstrates single-photon entanglement in a one-sided device-independent scenario, and opens the way towards implementations of device-independent quantum technologies within the paradigm of path entangleme…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering describes the ability of one party to remotely affect another's state through local measurements. One of the most distinguishable properties of EPR steering is its asymmetric aspect. Steering can work in one direction but fail in the opposite direction. This type of one-way steering, which is different from the symmetry concepts of entanglement and Bell nonlocality, has garnered much interest. However, an experimental demonstration of genuine EPR steering in the simplest scenario, i.e., one that employs two-qubit systems, is still lacking. In this work, w…
We propose a new implementation of a quantum speed meter QND measurement scheme. It employs two independent optical readouts of the interferometer test masses, featuring strongly different values of the bandwidths $γ_{1,2}$ and of the optical circulating power $I_{1,2}$, with the special relationship of $I_1/I_2=γ_1/γ_2$. The outputs of these two position meters have to be combined by an additional beamsplitter. In this scheme, signals at the common and the differential outputs of the interferometer setup are proportional to the position and the velocity of the test masses, respectively. The i…
We show how one can prepare and detect entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering between two distinguishable groups (modes) of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) atom interferometer. Our paper extends previous work that developed criteria for two-mode entanglement and EPR steering based on the reduced variances of two spins defined in a plane. Observation of planar spin squeezing will imply entanglement, and sufficient planar spin squeezing implies EPR steering, between the two groups of atoms. By using a two-mode dynamical model to describe BEC interferometry experiments,…
The Einstein Podolsky Rosen (EPR) entangled quantum state is of special importance not only for fundamental research in quantum mechanics, but also for information processing in the field of quantum information. Previous EPR entangled state demonstrations were constructed with photons of equal phase wave fronts. More complex scenarios with structured wave fronts have not been investigated. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of EPR entanglement for photon pairs carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) information, resulting in an OAM embedded EPR entangled state. We measured th…
It is argued that the strong coupling version of recent experiment [Denkmayr et al., PRL 118, 010402 (2017)] while correctly estimating the pre-selected states of the neutrons does not perform strong measurements of weak values as claimed.
We present a unified approach, based on the use of quantum uncertainty relations, for arriving at criteria for the demonstration of the EPR paradox and macroscopic superpositions. We suggest to view each criterion as a means to demonstrate an EPR-type paradox, where there is an inconsistency between the assumptions of a form of realism, either macroscopic realism (MR) or local realism (LR), and the completeness of quantum mechanics.
We investigate the complexity cost of demonstrating the key types of nonclassical correlations --- Bell inequality violation, EPR-steering, and entanglement --- with independent agents, theoretically and in a photonic experiment. We show that the complexity cost exhibits a hierarchy among these three tasks, mirroring the recently-discovered hierarchy for how robust they are to noise. For Bell inequality violations, the simplest test is the well-known CHSH test, but for EPR-steering and entanglement the tests that involve the fewest number of detection patterns require non-projective measuremen…
Understanding how quantum resources can be quantified and distributed over many parties has profound applications in quantum communication. As one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is a useful resource for secure quantum networks. By reconstructing the covariance matrix of a continuous variable four-mode square Gaussian cluster state subject to asymmetric loss, we quantify the amount of bipartite steering with a variable number of modes per party, and verify recently introduced monogamy relations for Gaussian steerability, which establ…
We propose a novel scheme for nondistortion quantum interrogation (NQI), defined as an interaction-free measurement which preserves the internal state of the object being detected. In our scheme, two EPR entangled photons are used as the probe and polarization sensitive measurements are performed at the four ports of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In comparison with the previous single photon scheme, it is shown that the two photon approach has a higher probability of initial state preserving interrogation of an atom prepared in a quantum superposition. In the case that the presence of the a…
We report on the experimental demonstration of strong quadrature EPR entanglement and squeezing at very low noise sideband frequencies produced by a single type-II, self-phase-locked, frequency degenerate optical parametric oscillator below threshold. The generated two-mode squeezed vacuum state is preserved for noise frequencies as low as 50 kHz. Designing simple setups able to generate non-classical states of light in the kHz regime is a key challenge for high sensitivity detection of ultra-weak physical effects such as gravitational wave or small beam displacement.
We report on the experimental combination of three advanced interferometer techniques for gravitational wave detection, namely power-recycling, detuned signal-recycling and squeezed field injection. For the first time we experimentally prove the compatibility of especially the latter two. To achieve a broadband non-classical sensitivity improvement we applied a filter cavity for compensation of quadrature rotation. Signal to noise ratio was improved by up to 2.8 dB beyond the coherent state's shot noise. The complete set-up was stably locked for arbitrary times and characterized by injected si…
When independent Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), described quantum mechanically by Fock (number) states, are sent into interferometers, the measurement of the output port at which the particles are detected provides a binary measurement, with two possible results $\pm1$. With two interferometers and two BEC's, the parity (product of all results obtained at each interferometer) has all the features of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen quantity, with perfect correlations predicted by quantum mechanics when the settings (phase shifts of the interferometers) are the same. When they are different, signif…
A prerequisite for universal quantum computation and other large-scale quantum information processors is the careful preparation of quantum states in massive numbers or of massive dimension. For continuous variable approaches to quantum information processing (QIP), squeezed states are the natural quantum resources, but most demonstrations have been based on a limited number of squeezed states due to the experimental complexity in up-scaling. The number of physical resources can however be significantly reduced by employing the technique of temporal multiplexing. Here, we demonstrate an applic…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering, a generalization of the original concept of "steering" proposed by Schrödinger, describes the ability of one system to nonlocally affect another system's states through local measurements. Some experimental efforts to test EPR steering in terms of inequalities have been made, which usually require many measurement settings. Analogy to the "All-Versus-Nothing" (AVN) proof of Bell's theorem without inequalities, testing steerability without inequalities would be more strong and require less resource. Moreover, the practical meaning of steering implies that…
Besides quantum entanglement and steering, quantum coherence has also been identified as a useful quantum resource in quantum information. It is important to investigate the evolution of quantum coherence in practical quantum channels. In this paper, we experimentally quantify the quantum coherence of a squeezed state and a Gaussian Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entangled state transmitted in Gaussian thermal noise channel, respectively. By reconstructing the covariance matrix of the transmitted states, quantum coherence of these Gaussian states is quantified by calculating the relative entrop…
We have experimentally realized the scheme initially proposed as quantum dense coding with continuous variables [Ban, J. Opt. B \textbf{1}, L9 (1999), and Braunstein and Kimble, \pra\textbf{61}, 042302 (2000)]. In our experiment, a pair of EPR (Einstein-Podolski-Rosen) beams is generated from two independent squeezed vacua. After adding two-quadrature signal to one of the EPR beams, two squeezed beams that contain the signal were recovered. Although our squeezing level is not sufficient to demonstrate the channel capacity gain over the Holevo limit of a single-mode channel without entanglement…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement introduced in 1935 deals with two particles that are entangled in their positions and momenta. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of EPR position-momentum entanglement of narrowband photon pairs generated from cold atoms. By using two-photon quantum ghost imaging and ghost interference, we demonstrate explicitly that the narrowband photon pairs violate the separability criterion, confirming EPR entanglement. We further demonstrate continuous variable EPR steering for positions and momenta of the two photons. Our new source of EPR-enta…
Recently, the design of a white-light-cavity has been proposed using negative dispersion in an intra-cavity medium to make the cavity resonate over a large range of frequencies and still maintain a high cavity build-up. This paper presents the demonstration of this effect in a free-space cavity. The negative dispersion of the intra-cavity medium is caused by bi-frequency Raman gain in an atomic vapor cell. A significantly broad cavity response over a bandwidth greater than 20 MHz has been observed. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical model, taking into account effects of r…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering describes a quantum nonlocal phenomenon in which one party can nonlocally affect the other's state through local measurements. It reveals an additional concept of quantum nonlocality, which stands between quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality. Recently, a quantum information task named as subchannel discrimination (SD) provides a necessary and sufficient characterization of EPR steering. The success probability of SD using steerable states is higher than using any unsteerable states, even when they are entangled. However, the detailed construction of …
A novel method was recently proposed and experimentally realized for characterizing a quantum state by directly measuring its complex probability amplitudes in a particular basis using so-called weak values. Recently Vallone and Dequal showed theoretically that weak measurements are not a necessary condition to determine the weak value [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 040502 (2016)]. Here we report a measurement scheme used in a matter-wave interferometric experiment in which the neutron path system's quantum state was characterized via direct measurements using both strong and weak interactions. Experi…
The failure of Einstein's co-authored "EPR" attempt to show the incompleteness of quantum theory is demonstrated directly for spatial degrees of freedom using only elementary notions. A GHZ construction is realized in the position properties of three particles whose quantum waves are distributed over three two-chambered boxes. The same system is modeled more realistically using three spatially separated, singly ionized hydrogen molecules.
The Standard Quantum Limit in continuous monitoring of a system is given by the trade-off of shot noise and back-action noise. In gravitational-wave detectors, such as Advanced LIGO, both contributions can simultaneously be squeezed in a broad frequency band by injecting a spectrum of squeezed vacuum states with a frequency-dependent squeeze angle. This approach requires setting up an additional long base-line, low-loss filter cavity in a vacuum system at the detector's site. Here, we show that the need for such a filter cavity can be eliminated, by exploiting EPR-entangled signal and idler be…
Schrödinger held that a local quantum system has some objectively real quantum state and no other (hidden) properties. He therefore took the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) phenomenon, which he generalized and called `steering', to require nonlocal wavefunction collapse. Because this would entail faster-than-light (FTL) information transmission, he doubted that it would be seen experimentally. Here we report a demonstration of EPR steering with entangled photon pairs that puts--in Schrödinger's interpretation--a non-zero lower bound on the amount of FTL information transmission. We develop a fam…
In 1935, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) questioned the completeness of quantum mechanics by devising a quantum state of two massive particles with maximally correlated space and momentum coordinates. The EPR criterion qualifies such continuous-variable entangled states, where a measurement of one subsystem seemingly allows for a prediction of the second subsystem beyond the Heisenberg uncertainty relation. Up to now, continuous-variable EPR correlations have only been created with photons, while the demonstration of such strongly correlated states with massive particles is still outstandin…
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering, a category of quantum nonlocal correlations describing the ability of one observer to influence another party's state via local measurements, is different from both entanglement and Bell nonlocality by possessing an asymmetric property. For multipartite EPR steering, the monogamous situation, where two observers cannot simultaneously steer the state of the third party, has been investigated rigorously both in theory and experiment. In contrast to the monogamous situation, the shareability of EPR steering in reduced subsystems allows the state of one part…
We demonstrate an atomic interferometer in which the atom passes through a single-zone optical beam, consisting of a pair of bichromatic counter-propagating fields. During the passage, the atomic wave packets in two distinct internal states trace out split trajectories, guided by the optical beams, with the amplitude and spread of each wave-packet varying continuously, producing fringes that can reach a visibility close to unity. We show that the rotation sensitivity of this continuous interferometer (CI) can be comparable to that of the Borde-Chu Interferometer (BCI). The relative simplicity …
We report on the generation of a continuous variable Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement using an optical fibre interferometer. The Kerr nonlinearity in the fibre is exploited for the generation of two independent squeezed beams. These interfere at a beam splitter and EPR entanglement is obtained between the output beams. The correlation of the amplitude (phase) quadratures are measured to be 4.0+-0.2 (4.0+-0.4) dB below the quantum noise limit. The sum criterion for these squeezing variances 0.80+-0.03 < 2 verifies the nonseparability of the state. The product of the inferred uncertain…
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is an intermediate quantum nonlocality between entanglement and Bell nonlocality, which plays an important role in quantum information processing tasks. In the past few years, the investigations concerning EPR steering have been demonstrated in a series of experiments. However, these studies rely on the relevant steering inequalities and the choices of measurement settings. Here, we experimentally verify the EPR steering via entanglement detection without using any steering inequality and measurement setting. By constructing two new states from a two-…
Energy and time entangled photons at a wavelength of 1310 nm are produced by parametric downconversion in a KNbO3 crystal and are sent into all-fiber interferometers using a telecom fiber network. The two interferometers of this Franson-type test of the Bell-inequality are located 10.9 km apart from one another. Two-photon fringe visibilities of up to 81.6 % are obtained. These strong nonlocal correlations support the nonlocal predictions of quantum mechanics and provide evidence that entanglement between photons can be maintained over long distances.
In a previous paper certain measurable criteria have been derived, that are sufficient to demonstrate the existence of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlations for measurements with continuous variable outcomes. Here it is shown how such EPR criteria, which do not demand perfect EPR correlations, can be used to prove the extent of security for continuous variable quantum cryptographic schemes (in analogy to that proposed by Ekert) where Alice and Bob hope to construct a secure sequence of values from measurements performed on continuous-variable EPR-correlated fields sent from a distant sour…
Multi-photon interference is at the heart of the recently proposed linear optical quantum computing scheme and plays an essential role in many protocols in quantum information. Indistinguishability is what leads to the effect of quantum interference. Optical interferometers such as Michaelson interferometer provide a measure for second-order coherence at one-photon level and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer was widely employed to describe two-photon entanglement and indistinguishability. However, there is not an effective way for a system of more than two photons. Recently, a new interferometric …
We show that the quantum angle measurement for x-polarized photon number states results in an angle which will never correspond to the y-axis for an odd number of photons; yet for an even number of photons it always can. The analogy of this surprising effect for other particles or ions (qubits in their spin up state) is presented and we show why such an effect cannot be observed in a standard SU(2) interferometer. The quantum phase representation of such an interferometer provides clues as to how its apparatus might be modified in order to demonstrate these phenomena. The same representation i…
Interferometric gravitational wave detectors are expected to be limited by shot noise at some frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate that a power recycled Michelson with squeezed light injected into the dark port can overcome this limit. An improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of 2.3dB is measured and locked stably for long periods of time. The configuration, control and signal readout of our experiment are compatible with current gravitational wave detector designs. We consider the application of our system to long baseline interferometer designs such as LIGO.
We demonstrate two approaches for unbalanced interferometers as time-bin qubit analyzers for quantum communication, robust against mode distortions and polarization effects as expected from free-space quantum communication systems including wavefront deformations, path fluctuations, pointing errors, and optical elements. Despite strong spatial and temporal distortions of the optical mode of a time-bin qubit, entangled with a separate polarization qubit, we verify entanglement using the Negative Partial Transpose, with the measured visibility of up to 0.85$\pm$0.01. The robustness of the analyz…
The demonstration of quantum teleportation of a photonic qubit from Alice to Bob usually relies on data conditioned on detection at Bob's location. I show that Bohm's Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox can be used to verify that the quantum benchmark for qubit teleportation has been reached, without postselection. This is possible for scenarios insensitive to losses at the generation station, and with efficiencies of $η_{B}>1/3$ for the teleportation process. The benchmark is obtained, if it is shown that Bob can {}"steer" Alice's record of the qubit as stored by Charlie. EPR steering inequ…
In 1935, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) considered two particles in an entangled state of motion to illustrate why they questioned the completeness of quantum theory. In the past decades, microscopic systems with entanglement in various degrees of freedom have successfully been generated, representing compelling evidence to support the completeness of quantum theory. Today, the generation of an EPR-entangled state of motion of two massive objects of up to the kilogram-scale seems feasible with state-of-the-art technology. Recently, the generation and verification of EPR-entangled mirror mo…
We present the first demonstration of an inertially sensitive atomic interferometer based on a continuous, rather than pulsed, atomic beam at sub-Doppler temperatures in three dimensions. We demonstrate 30\% fringe contrast in continuous, inertially sensitive interference fringes at interrogation time $T=6.7~\mathrm{ms}$ and a short-term phase measurement noise of $530~\mathrm{μrad /\sqrt{Hz}}$ as inferred from interference measurements. Atoms are delivered to the interferometer by a cold-rubidium source that produces a high flux of atoms at temperature $\leq15~\mathrmμ K$ in three dimensions …
In 1935 Schrödinger introduced the terms entanglement and steering in the context of the famous gedanken experiment discussed by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR). Here, we report on a sixfold increase of the observed EPR-steering effect as quantified by the Reid-criterion. We achieved an unprecedented low conditional variance product of about 0.04 < 1, where 1 is the upper bound below which steering is present. The steering effect was observed on an unconditional two-mode-squeezed entangled state that contained a total vacuum state contribution of less than 8%, including detection imperfect…
We present the first full demonstration of unambiguous state discrimination between non-orthogonal quantum states. Using a novel free space interferometer we have realised the optimum quantum measurement scheme for two non-orthogonal states of light, known as the Ivanovic-Dieks-Peres (IDP) measurement. We have for the first time gained access to all three possible outcomes of this measurement. All aspects of this generalised measurement scheme, including its superiority over a standard von Neumann measurement, have been demonstrated within 1.5% of the IDP predictions.
We experimentally demonstrate a shaken lattice interferometer. Atoms are trapped in the ground Bloch state of a red-detuned optical lattice. Using a closed-loop optimization protocol based on the dCRAB algorithm, we phase-modulate (shake) the lattice to transform the atom momentum state. In this way, we implement an atom beamsplitter and build five interferometers of varying interrogation times $T_I$. The sensitivity of shaken lattice interferometry is shown to scale as $T_I^2$, consistent with simulation [1]. Finally, we show that we can measure the sign of an applied signal and optimize the …
An experimental demonstration of quantum correlations is presented. Energy and time entangled photons at wavelengths of 704 and 1310 nm are produced by parametric downconversion in KNbO3 and are sent through optical fibers into a bulk-optical (704 nm) and an all-fiber Michelson-interferometer (1310 nm), respectively. The two interferometers are located 35 meters aside from one another. Using Faraday-mirrors in the fiber-interferometer, all birefringence effects in the fibers are automatically compensated. We obtained two-photon fringe visibilities of up to 95 % from which one can project a vio…
Counterfactual quantum key distribution provides natural advantage against the eavesdropping on the actual signal particles. It can prevent the photon-number-splitting attack when a weak coherent light source is used for the practical implementation. We realized the counterfactual quantum key distribution in an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer of 12.5-km-long quantum channel with a high-fringe visibility of 96:4%. As a result, we obtained secure keys against the noise-induced attack (eg. the vacuum attack) and passive photon-number-splitting attack.
We present the first demonstration of a three grating Talbot-Lau interferometer for electrons. As a proof of principle, the interferometer is used to measure magnetic fields. The device is similar to the classical Moire deflectometer. The possibility to extend this work to build a scaled-up charged particle deflectometer or interferometer for sensitive magnetic field sensing is indicated.
We formally link the concept of steering (a concept created by Schrodinger but only recently formalised by Wiseman, Jones and Doherty [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 140402 (2007)] and the criteria for demonstrations of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox introduced by Reid [Phys. Rev. A, 40, 913 (1989)]. We develop a general theory of experimental EPR-steering criteria, derive a number of criteria applicable to discrete as well as continuous-variables observables, and study their efficacy in detecting that form of nonlocality in some classes of quantum states. We show that previous versions of EPR-ty…
We experimentally demonstrate the nonlocal reversal of a partial-collapse quantum measurement on two-photon entangled state. Both the partial measurement and the reversal operation are implemented in linear optics with two displaced Sagnac interferometers, which are characterized by single qubit quantum process tomography. The recovered state is measured by quantum state tomography and its nonlocality is characterized by testing the Bell inequality. Our result will be helpful in quantum communication and quantum error correction.
The quantum entanglement of amplitude and phase quadratures between two intense optical beams with the total intensity of 22mW and the frequency difference of 1nm, which are produced from an optical parametric oscillator operating above threshold, is experimentally demonstrated with two sets of unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The measured quantum correlations of intensity and phase are in reasonable agreement with the results calculated based on a semi-classical analysis of the noise characteristics given by C. Fabre et al.
We show how an experimentally realized set of operations on a single trapped ion is sufficient to simulate a wide class of Hamiltonians of a spin-1/2 particle in an external potential. This system is also able to simulate other physical dynamics. As a demonstration, we simulate the action of an $n$-th order nonlinear optical beamsplitter. Two of these beamsplitters can be used to construct an interferometer sensitive to phase shifts in one of the interferometer beam paths. The sensitivity in determining these phase shifts increases linearly with $n$, and the simulation demonstrates that the us…
