We consider the problem of certification of arbitrary ensembles of pure states and projective measurements solely from the experimental statistics in the prepare-and-measure scenario assuming the upper bound on the dimension of the Hilbert space. To this aim, we propose a universal and intuitive scheme based on establishing perfect correlations between target states and suitably-chosen projective measurements. The method works in all finite dimensions and allows for robust certification of the overlaps between arbitrary preparation states and between the corresponding measurement operators. Finally, we prove that for qubits, our technique can be used to robustly self-test arbitrary configurations of pure quantum states and projective measurements. These results pave the way towards the practical application of the prepare-and-measure paradigm to certification of quantum devices.
The goal of self-testing is to characterize an a priori unknown quantum system based solely on measurement statistics, i.e. using an uncharacterized measurement device. Here we develop self-testing methods for quantum prepare-and-measure experiments, thus not necessarily relying on entanglement and/or violation of a Bell inequality. We present noise-robust techniques for self-testing sets of quantum states and measurements, assuming an upper bound on the Hilbert space dimension. We discuss in detail the case of a $2 \rightarrow 1$ random access code with qubits, for which we provide analytical…
Self-testing represents the strongest form of certification of a quantum system. Here we investigate theoretically and experimentally the question of self-testing non-projective quantum measurements. That is, how can one certify, from observed data only, that an uncharacterised measurement device implements a desired non-projective positive-operator-valued-measure (POVM). We consider a prepare-and-measure scenario with a bound on the Hilbert space dimension, which we argue is natural for this problem since any measurement can be made projective by artificially increasing the Hilbert space dime…
Quantum Random Access Codes (QRACs) are key tools for a variety of protocols in quantum information theory. These are commonly studied in prepare-and-measure scenarios in which a sender prepares states and a receiver measures them. Here, we consider a three-party prepare-transform-measure scenario in which the simplest QRAC is implemented twice in sequence based on the same physical system. We derive optimal trade-off relations between the two QRACs. We apply our results to construct semi-device independent self-tests of quantum instruments, i.e. measurement channels with both a classical and …
Mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) constitute the canonical example of incompatible quantum measurements. One standard application of MUBs is the task known as quantum random access code (QRAC), in which classical information is encoded in a quantum system, and later part of it is recovered by performing a quantum measurement. We analyse a specific class of QRACs, known as the $2^{d} \to 1$ QRAC, in which two classical dits are encoded in a $d$-dimensional quantum system. It is known that among rank-1 projective measurements MUBs give the best performance. We show (for every $d$) that this cannot …
We consider the problem of testing the dimension of uncharacterised classical and quantum systems in a prepare-and-measure setup. Here we assume the preparation and measurement devices to be independent, thereby making the problem non-convex. We present a simple method for generating nonlinear dimension witnesses for systems of arbitrary dimension. The simplest of our witnesses is highly robust to technical imperfections, and can certify the use of qubits in the presence of arbitrary noise and arbitrarily low detection efficiency. Finally, we show that this witness can be used to certify the p…
What resources are universal for quantum computation? In the standard model, a quantum computer consists of a sequence of unitary gates acting coherently on the qubits making up the computer. This paper shows that a very different model involving only projective measurements, quantum memory, and the ability to prepare the |0> state is also universal for quantum computation. In particular, no coherent unitary dynamics are involved in the computation.
We address the problem of estimating the expectation value <O> of an arbitrary operator O via a universal measuring apparatus that is independent of O, and for which the expectation values for different operators are obtained by changing only the data-processing. The ``universal detector'' performs a joint measurement on the system and on a suitably prepared ancilla. We characterize such universal detectors, and show how they can be obtained either via Bell measurements or via local measurements and classical communication between system and ancilla.
How to generate genuine quantum randomness from untrusted devices is an important problem in quantum information processing. Inspired by previous work on a self-testing quantum random number generator [T. Lunghi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 150501 (2015)], we present a method to generate quantum randomness from a prepare-and-measure scenario with independent devices. In existing protocols, the quantum randomness depends only on a witness value (e.g., Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt value), which is calculated with the observed probabilities. Differently, here all the observed probabilities are dir…
Graph states -- one of the most representative families of multipartite entangled states, are important resources for multiparty quantum communication, quantum error correction, and quantum computation. Device-independent certification of highly entangled graph states plays a prominent role in the quantum information processing tasks. Here we have experimentally demonstrated device-independent certification for multipartite graph states, by adopting the robust self-testing scheme based on scalable Bell inequalities. Specifically, the prepared multi-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state…
Characterization of quantum devices received from unknown providers is a significant primary task for any quantum information processing protocol. Self-testing protocols are designed for this purpose of certifying quantum components from the observed statistics under a set of minimal assumptions. Here we propose a self-testing protocol for certifying binary Pauli measurements employing the violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality. The scenario based on temporal correlations does not require entanglement, a costly and fragile resource. Moreover, unlike previously proposed self-testing protocols i…
We experimentally demonstrate that the nonlocal nature of time-bin entangled photonic qubits persists when one or two qubits of the pair are converted to polarization qubits. This is possible by implementing a novel Universal Time-Bin Qubit Analyzer (UTBA), which, for the first time, allows analyzing time-bin qubits in any basis. We reveal the nonlocal nature of the emitted light by violating the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality with measurement bases exploring all the dimensions of the Bloch sphere. Moreover, we conducted experiments where one qubit is transmitted over a 12.4 km undergro…
We present a scheme that transform 1 qubit to M identical copies with optimal fidedelity via free dynamical evolution of spin star networks. We show that the Heisenberg XXZ coupling can fulfill the challenge. The initial state of the copying machine and the parameters of the spin Hamiltonian are discussed in detail. Furthermore we have proposed a feasible method to prepare the initial state of the copying machine.
We present a scheme for a self-testing quantum random number generator. Compared to the fully device-independent model, our scheme requires an extra natural assumption, namely that the mean energy per signal is bounded. The scheme is self-testing, as it allows the user to verify in real-time the correct functioning of the setup, hence guaranteeing the continuous generation of certified random bits. Based on a prepare-and-measure setup, our scheme is practical, and we implement it using only off-the-shelf optical components. The randomness generation rate is 1.25 Mbits/s, comparable to commerci…
Quantum self-testing is a device-independent way to certify quantum states and measurements using only the input-output statistics, with minimal assumptions about the quantum devices. Because of the high demand on tolerable noise, however, experimental self-testing was limited to two-photon systems. Here, we demonstrate the first robust self-testing for multi-photon genuinely entangled quantum states. We prepare two examples of four-photon graph states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states with a fidelity of 0.957(2) and the linear cluster states with a fidelity of 0.945(2). Based on t…
We analyze a binary classification problem by using a support vector machine based on variational quantum-circuit model. We propose to solve a linear equation of the support vector machine by using a $Γ$ matrix expansion. In addition, it is shown that an arbitrary quantum state is prepared by optimizing a universal quantum circuit representing an arbitrary $U(2^N)$ based on the steepest descent method. It may be a quantum generalization of Field-Programmable-Gate Array (FPGA).
Quantum nonlocality and contextuality are two phenomena stemming from nonclassical correlations. Whereas the former requires entanglement that is consumed in the measurement process the latter can occur for any state if one chooses a proper set of measurements. Despite this stark differences experimental tests of both phenomena were similar so far. For each run of the experiment one had to use a different copy of a physical system prepared according to the same procedure, or the system had to be brought to its initial state. Here we show that this is not necessary and that the state-independen…
Within the framework of generalized noncontextuality, we introduce a general technique for systematically deriving noncontextuality inequalities for any experiment involving finitely many preparations and finitely many measurements, each of which has a finite number of outcomes. Given any fixed sets of operational equivalences among the preparations and among the measurements as input, the algorithm returns a set of noncontextuality inequalities whose satisfaction is necessary and sufficient for a set of operational data to admit of a noncontextual model. Additionally, we show that the space o…
Unsharp quantum measurements provide a resource in scenarios where one faces the trade-off between information gain and disturbance. In this work we introduce a prepare-transform-measure scenario in which two-outcome unsharp measurements outperform their sharp counterparts, as well as any stochastic strategy involving dichotomic projective measurements. Based on that, we propose a scheme for semi-device-independent self-testing of unsharp measurements and show that all two-outcome qubit measurements can be characterized in a robust way. Along with the main result, in this work we introduce a m…
Self-testing refers to a method with which a classical user can certify the state and measurements of quantum systems in a device-independent way. Especially, the self-testing of entangled states is of great importance in quantum information process. A comprehensible example is that violating the CHSH inequality maximally necessarily implies the bipartite shares a singlet. One essential question in self-testing is that, when one observes a non-maximum violation, how close is the tested state to the target state (which maximally violates certain Bell inequality)? The answer to this question des…
Recent experiments to test Bell's inequality using entangled photons and ions aimed at tests of basic quantum mechanical principles. Interesting results have been obtained and many loopholes could be closed. In this paper we want to point out that tests of Bell's inequality also play an important role in verifying atom entanglement schemes. We describe as an example a scheme to prepare arbitrary entangled states of N two-level atoms using a leaky optical cavity and a scheme to entangle atoms inside a photonic crystal. During the state preparation no photons are emitted and observing a violatio…
Universal quantum computation encoded over continuous variables can be achieved via Gaussian measurements acting on entangled non-Gaussian states. However, due to the weakness of available nonlinearities, generally these states can only be prepared conditionally, potentially with low probability. Here we show how universal quantum computation could be implemented unconditionally using an integrated platform able to sustain both linear and quadratic optomechanical-like interactions. Specifically, considering cavity opto- and electro-mechanical systems, we propose a realisation of a driven-dissi…
Experimental construction of a symmetric three-qubit entangled state and its utility in testing the violation of a Bell inequality on an NMR quantum simulator
We construct a device that can unambiguously discriminate between two unknown quantum states. The unknown states are provided as inputs, or programs, for the program registers and a third system, which is guaranteed to be prepared in one of the states stored in the program registers, is fed into the data register of the device. The device will then, with some probability of success, tell us whether the unknown state in the data register matches the state stored in the first or the second program register. We show that the optimal device, i. e. the one that maximizes the probability of success,…
The expectation value <O> of an arbitrary operator O can be obtained via a universal measuring apparatus that is independent of O, by changing only the data-processing of the outcomes. Such a ``universal detector'' performs a joint measurement on the system and on a suitable ancilla prepared in a fixed state, and is equivalent to a positive operator valued measure (POVM) for the system that is ``informationally complete''. The data processing functions generally are not unique, and we pose the problem of their optimization, providing some examples for covariant POVM's, in particular for SU(d) …
Superdense coding is a paradigmatic protocol in quantum information science, employing a quantum communication channel to send classical information more efficiently. As we show here, it can be understood as a particular case of a prepare and measure experiment, a scenario that has attracted growing attention for its fundamental and practical applications. Formulating superdense coding as a prepare and measure scenario allows us to provide a semi-device-independent witness of entanglement that significantly improves over previous tests. Furthermore, we also show how to adapt our results into s…
We propose to experimentally test non-deterministic time evolution in quantum mechanics by consecutive measurements of non-commuting observables on the same prepared state. While in the standard theory the measurement outcomes are uncorrelated, in a super-deterministic hidden variables theory the measurements would be correlated. We estimate that for macroscopic experiments the correlation time is too short to have been noticed yet, but that it may be possible with a suitably designed microscopic experiment to reach a parameter range where one would expect a super-deterministic modification of…
Tight Bounds for Purity and Product Testing from Partial Transposition
Central High School（中央高中）；Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校数学系）；IQUIST, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校 IQUIST）；Department of Physics, University of Rhode Island（罗德岛大学物理系）
Self-testing is a method to characterise an arbitrary quantum system based only on its classical input-output correlations, and plays an important role in device-independent quantum information processing as well as quantum complexity theory. Prior works on self-testing require the assumption that the system's state is shared among multiple parties that only perform local measurements and cannot communicate. Here, we replace the setting of multiple non-communicating parties, which is difficult to enforce in practice, by a single computationally bounded party. Specifically, we construct a proto…
We consider the design of self-testers for quantum gates. A self-tester for the gates F_1,...,F_m is a classical procedure that, given any gates G_1,...,G_m, decides with high probability if each G_i is close to F_i. This decision has to rely only on measuring in the computational basis the effect of iterating the gates on the classical states. It turns out that instead of individual gates, we can only design procedures for families of gates. To achieve our goal we borrow some elegant ideas of the theory of program testing: we characterize the gate families by specific properties, we develop a…
We show that when N>>1 the geometric entanglement measure of general N-qubit W states, except maximally entangled W states, is a one-variable function and depends only on the Bloch vector with the minimal z component. Hence one can prepare a W state with the required maximal product overlap by altering the Bloch vector of a single qubit. Next we compute analytically the geometric measure of large-scale W states by describing these systems in terms of very few parameters. The final formula relates two quantities, namely the maximal product overlap and the Bloch vector, that can be easily estima…
We demonstrate how simultaneously-operated $^{39}$K -- $^{87}$Rb interferometers exhibiting a high level of correlation can be used to make competitive tests of the university of free fall. This work provides an overview of our experimental apparatus and data analysis procedure, including a detailed study of systematic effects. With a total interrogation time of $2T = 40$ ms in a compact apparatus, we reach a statistical uncertainty on the measurement of the Eötvös parameter of $7.8 \times 10^{-8}$ after $2.4 \times 10^4$ s of integration. The main limitations to our measurement arise from a c…
Previous results indicate that while chaos can lead to substantial entropy production, thereby maximizing dynamical entanglement, this still falls short of maximality. Random Matrix Theory (RMT) modeling of composite quantum systems, investigated recently, entails an universal distribution of the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices. We demonstrate that these distributions are realized in quantized chaotic systems by using a model of two coupled and kicked tops. We derive an explicit statistical universal bound on entanglement, that is also valid for the case of unequal dimensionality o…
