There always exists an entanglement witness for every entangled quantum state. Negativity of the expectation value of an entanglement witness operator guarantees entanglement of the corresponding state, given that the measurement devices involved are perfect, i.e., the performed measurements actually constitute the witness operator for the state under consideration. In a realistic situation, there are two possible ways of measurements to drive the process away from the ideal one. Firstly, wrong measurements may be performed, and secondly, while the measurement operators are implemented correctly, the detection process is noisy. Entanglement witnesses are prone to both of these imperfections. The concept of measurement-device-independent entanglement witnesses was introduced to remove the first problem. We analyze the "detection loophole" in the context of measurement-device-independent entanglement witnesses, which deal with the second problem of imprecise measurements. We obtain an upper bound on the entanglement witness function in the measurement-device-independent entanglement witness scenario, below which entanglement is guaranteed for given non-ideal detector efficiencies, that can involve both lost events and dark counts.
We consider a possible detector-efficiency loophole in experiments that detect entanglement via the local measurement of witness operators. Here, only local properties of the detectors are known. We derive a general threshold for the detector efficiencies which guarantees that a negative expectation value of a witness is due to entanglement, rather than to erroneous detectors. This threshold depends on the local decomposition of the witness and its measured expectation value. For two-qubit witnesses we find the local operator decomposition that is optimal with respect to closing the loophole.
Detectors in the laboratory are often unlike their ideal theoretical cousins. They have non-ideal efficiencies, which may then lead to non-trivial implications. We show how it is possible to predict correct answers about whether a shared quantum state is entangled in spite of finite detector efficiencies, when the tool for entanglement detection is a nonlinear entanglement witness. We first consider the detection loophole for shared quantum states with nonpositive partial transpose. We subsequently find nonlinear witness operators for bound entangled states with positive partial transpose, and…
Entanglement witnesses form an effective method to locally detect entanglement in the laboratory without having the prior knowledge of the full density matrix. However, separable states can be erroneously indicated as entangled in such detections in the presence of wrong measurements or loss in detectors. Measurement-device-independent entanglement witnesses (MDI-EWs) never detect fake entanglement even under wrong measurements and for a particular kind of lossy detectors. A crucial assumption in the case of faithful detection of entanglement employing MDI-EWs is that the preparation devices p…
Entanglement is an invaluable resource for fundamental tests of physics and the implementation of quantum information protocols such as device-independent secure communications. In particular, time-bin entanglement is widely exploited to reach these purposes both in free-space and optical fiber propagation, due to the robustness and simplicity of its implementation. However, all existing realizations of time-bin entanglement suffer from an intrinsic postselection loophole, which undermines their usefulness. Here, we report the first experimental violation of Bell's inequality with "genuine" ti…
Two trapped ions that are kilometers apart can be entangled by the joint detection of two photons, each coming from one of the ions, in a basis of entangled states. Such a detection is possible with linear optical elements. The use of two-photon interference allows entanglement distribution without interferometric sensitivity to the path length of the photons. The present method of creating entangled ions also opens up the possibility of a loophole-free test of Bell's inequalities.
The question whether Quantum Mechanics describes all aspects of both the micro-world of elementary particles and living organisms adequately is still open. A Bell inequality test without locality and detection loopholes will deliver the answer when applied to macroscopic systems. Here we show that an experimentally feasible loophole-free Bell test is possible using only multi-photon polarization entanglement and linear optics. We apply a preselection protocol which produces genuine macroscopic superpositions and entanglement, thus eliminating postselection and dark counts. Such superpositions …
Entanglement, the essential resource in quantum information processing, should be witnessed in many tasks such as quantum computing and quantum communication. The conventional entanglement witness method, relying on an idealized implementation of measurements, could wrongly conclude a separable state to be entangled due to imperfect detections. Inspired by the idea of a time-shift attack, we construct an attack on the conventional entanglement witness process and demonstrate that a separable state can be falsely identified to be entangled. To close such detection loopholes, based on a recently…
We consider a Bell-like inequality performed using various instances of multi-photon entangled states to demonstrate that losses occurring after the unitary transformations used in the nonlocality test can be counteracted by enhancing the "size" of such entangled states. In turn, this feature can be used to overcome detection inefficiencies affecting the test itself: a slight increase in the size of such states, pushing them towards a more "macroscopic" form of entanglement, significantly improves the state robustness against detection inefficiency, thus easing the closing of the detection loo…
An obvious way to entangle two atoms located at remote locations is to produce a pair of entangled photons half-way between the two atoms, to sent one photon to each location and to subsequently map the photonic entanglement into the atoms. The efficiency of this process is, however, fundamentally limited due to overall transmission losses. We propose a method to herald the success of the mapping operation in free space without destroying nor revealing the stored quantum state. Interestingly for a Bell test, the heralding signal does not open the detection loophole provided the measurement cho…
In an entanglement swapping process two initially uncorrelated qubits become entangled, without any direct interaction. We present a model using local variables aiming at reproducing this remarkable process, under the realistic assumption of finite detection efficiencies. The model assumes that the local variables describing the two qubits are initially completely uncorrelated. Nevertheless, we show that once conditioned on the Bell measurement result, the local variables bear enough correlation to simulate quantum measurement results with correlation very close to the quantum prediction. When…
The establishment of nonlocal correlations, obtained through the violation of a Bell inequality, is not only important from a fundamental point of view, but constitutes the basis for device-independent quantum information technologies. Although several nonlocality tests have been performed so far, all of them suffered from either the locality or the detection loopholes. Recent studies have suggested that the use of atom-photon entanglement can lead to Bell inequality violations with moderate transmission and detection efficiencies. In this paper we propose an experimental setup realizing a sim…
The violation of Bell inequalities where both detection and locality loopholes are closed is crucial for device independent assessments of quantum information. While of technological nature, the simultaneous closing of both loopholes still remains a challenge. In Nat. Commun. 4:2104(2013), a realistic setup to produce an atom-photon entangled state that could reach a loophole free Bell inequality violation within current experimental technology was proposed. Here we improve the analysis of this proposal by giving an analytical treatment that shows that the state proposed in Nat. Commun. 4:2104…
We consider the entanglement between two internal states of a single atom and two photon number states describing either the vaccum or a single photon and thus containing, on average, less than one photon. We show that this intriguing entanglement can be characterized through substantial violations of a Bell inequality by performing homodyne detections on the optical mode. We present the experimental challenges that need to be overcome to pave the way towards a loophole-free Bell test in this setup.
Effects of the detection loophole on rival entanglement attestation techniques
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, A CI of Homi Bhabha National Institute（哈里什-昌德拉研究所，霍米·巴巴国立学院成员机构）；Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Complutense（康普卢滕塞大学理论物理系）
The experimental verification of quantum features, such as entanglement, at large scales is extremely challenging because of environment-induced decoherence. Indeed, measurement techniques for demonstrating the quantumness of multiparticle systems in the presence of losses are difficult to define and, if not sufficiently accurate, they provide wrong conclusions. We present a Bell test where one photon of an entangled pair is amplified and then detected by threshold detectors, whose signals undergo postselection. The amplification is performed by a classical machine, which produces a fully sepa…
Binarisation-loophole-free observation of high-dimensional quantum nonlocality
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；CAS Center For Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics（中国科学院量子信息与量子物理前沿卓越中心）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）；Lund University（隆德大学）
We provide a new extension of entanglement witnesses for $\mathbb{C}^{d_{1}}\otimes\mathbb{C}^{d_{2}}$ systems. Our construction preserves the properties of indecomposability and spanning property of entanglement witnesses. We show how our concept of extended entanglement witnesses is connected with the idea of measurement device independent entanglement witnesses.
An entanglement witness is an observable detecting entanglement for a subset of states. We present a framework that makes an entanglement witness twice as powerful due to the general existence of a second (lower) bound, in addition to the (upper) bound of the very definition. This second bound, if non-trivial, is violated by another subset of entangled states. Differently stated, we prove via the structural physical approximation that two witnesses can be compressed into a single one. Consequently, our framework shows that any entanglement witness can be upgraded to a witness $2.0$. The genera…
In this paper based on the notion of entanglement witness, a new measure of entanglement called floating entanglement witness measure is introduced which satisfies some of the usual properties of a good entanglement measure. By exploiting genetic algorithm, we introduce a classical algorithm that computes floating entanglement witness measure. This algorithm also provides a method for finding entanglement witness for a given entangled state.
Any practical realization of entanglement-based quantum communication must be intrinsically secure and able to span long distances avoiding the need of a straight line between the communicating parties. The violation of Bell's inequality offers a method for the certification of quantum links without knowing the inner workings of the devices. Energy-time entanglement quantum communication satisfies all these requirements. However, currently there is a fundamental obstacle with the standard configuration adopted: an intrinsic geometrical loophole that can be exploited to break the security of th…
Quantum entanglement lies at the heart of quantum mechanical and quantum information processing. Following the question who \emph{witnesses} entanglement witnesses, we show entangled states play as the role of super entanglement witnesses. We show separable states play the role of "super super entanglement witnesses" and "witness" other observables than entanglement witnesses. We show that there exists a hierarchy structure of witnesses and there exist "witnesses" everywhere. Furthermore, we show the properties and characterization of entangled states as super entanglement witnesses. By the ro…
Efficient and reliable measurements of photonic indistinguishability are crucial to solidify claims of a quantum advantage in photonics. Existing indistinguishability witnesses may be vulnerable to implementation loopholes, showing the need for a measurement which depends on as few assumptions as possible. Here, we introduce a semi-device-independent witness of photonic indistinguishability and measure it on an integrated photonic processor, certifying three-photon indistinguishability in a way that is insensitive to implementation errors in our processor.
We begin this thesis by expanding the technique of teleportation simulation, which adds noise to the entangled resource state to mimic channel effects. By introducing classical noise in the communication step, we show it is possible to simulate more than just Pauli channels using teleportation. This new class is characterised, and studied in detail for a particular resource state, leading to a family of simulable channels named "Pauli-Damping channels" whose properties are analysed. Also introduced are a new family of quantum states, "phase Werner" states, whose entanglement properties relate …
Experimental tests of Bell's inequality allow to distinguish quantum mechanics from local hidden variable theories. Such tests are performed by measuring correlations of two entangled particles (e.g. polarization of photons or spins of atoms). In order to constitute conclusive evidence, two conditions have to be satisfied. First, strict separation of the measurement events in the sense of special relativity is required ("locality loophole"). Second, almost all entangled pairs have to be detected (for particles in a maximally entangled state the required detector efficiency is 82.8%), which is …
The ultrafine entanglement witness, introduced in [F. Shahandeh, M. Ringbauer, J.C. Loredo, and T.C. Ralph, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{118}, 110502 (2017)], can seamlessly and easily improve any standard entanglement witness. In this paper, by combining the constraint and the test operators, we rotate the hyperplane determined by the test operator and improve further the original ultrafine entanglement witness. In particular, we present a series of new ultrafine entanglement witnesses, which not only can detect entangled states that the original ultrafine entanglement witnesses cannot detect, bu…
It is shown that entanglement witnesses constructed via the family of spectral conditions are decomposable, i.e. cannot be used to detect bound entanglement. It supports several observations that bound entanglement reveals highly non-spectral features.
Motivated by Buscemi's semi-quantum nonlocal game [PRL 108, 200401(2012)], We propose an entanglement witness game, a quantum game based on entanglement witness. Similar as the semi-quantum nonlocal game, the existence of entanglement shared by the players is necessary and sufficient for obtaining a positive average payoff in our entanglement witness game. Two explicit examples are constructed to demonstrate how to play our entanglement witness game and its relations with the CHSH nonlocal game.
We study entanglement witness and present a construction of entanglement witnesses in terms of the symmetric informationally complete measurements (SIC-POVM). The capability of our witness is shown by some examples and it can be found this witness detects more entanglement than previous separability method given also by SIC-POVM. What's more, comparing with the dimension dependence of SIC-POVM, we also give the entanglement witnesses can be always constructed from general symmetric informationally complete measurements (GSIC-POVM).
We study entanglement witness and present a construction of entanglement witnesses in terms of the mutually unbiased measurements (MUMs). These witnesses include the entanglement witnesses constructed from mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) as a special case. Comparing with the dimension dependence of MUBs, the witnesses can be always constructed from a complete set of $d+1$ MUMs for any dimension $d$. We show that our witness can detect entanglement better than previous separability criterion given also by MUMs. And the approach can be experimentally implemented.
The entanglement witness is an important and experimentally applicable tool for entanglement detection. In this paper, we provide a nonlinear improvement of any entanglement witness for $2\otimes d$ quantum systems. Compared with any existing entanglement witness, the improved separability criterion only needs two more measurements on local observables. Detailed examples are employed to illustrate the efficiency of the nonlinear improvement for general, optimal and non-decomposable entanglement witnesses.
We disprove the conjecture that structural physical approximations to optimal entanglement witnesses are separable states. The conjecture holds true for extremal decomposable entanglement witnesses.
Entanglement witness is a Hermitian operator that is useful for detecting the genuine multipartite entanglement of mixed states. Nonlinear entanglement witnesses have the advantage of a wider detection range in the entangled region. We construct genuine entanglement witnesses for four qubits density matrices in the mutually unbiased basis. First, we find the convex feasible region with positive partial transpose states. Then, to reveal the entangled regions, we present some appropriate linear entanglement witnesses and, we find the envelope of this family of linear witnesses as a nonlinear wit…
Quantum steering inequalities allow to demonstrate the presence of entanglement between two parties when one of the two measurement device is not trusted. In this paper we show that quantum steering can be demonstrated for arbitrary low detection efficiency by using two-qubit non-maximally entangled states. Our result can have important applications in one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution.
We derive an experimentally observable lower bound on concurrence of mixed quantum states in terms of an entanglement witness, relating measurements on single states with those on two copies.
We develop an approach of quantifying entanglement in mixed quantum states by the optimal entanglement witness operator. We identify the convex set of mixed states for which a single witness provides the exact value of an entanglement measure, and show that the convexity, properties, and symmetries of entanglement or of a target state considerably fix the form of the optimal witness. This greatly reduces difficulty in computing and experimentally determining entanglement measures. As an example, we show how to experimentally quantify bound entanglement in four-qubit noisy Smolin states and thr…
We study the optimal entanglement witness with respect to multiqubits W-states. We show such entanglement witnesses can be used to distinguish genuine entangled states, different biseparable states and fully separable states.
We introduce a feasible method of constructing the entanglement witness that detects the genuine entanglement of a given pure multiqubit state. We illustrate our method in the scenario of constructing the witnesses for the multiqubit states that are broadly theoretically and experimentally investigated. It is shown that our method can construct the effective witnesses for experiments. We also investigate the entanglement detection of symmetric states and mixed states.
The geometric measure of entanglement is an approach to quantifying entanglement that is based on the Hilbert-space distance (or, equivalently, angle) between pure states and their best unentangled approximants. An entanglement witness is an operator that reveals entanglement for a given entangled state. A connection is identified between entanglement witnesses and the geometric measure of entanglement. This offers a new interpretation of the geometric measure of entanglement of a state, and renders it experimentally verifiable, doing so most readily for states that are pure.
We study entanglement witnesses that can be constructed with regard to the geometrical structure of the Hilbert-Schmidt space, i.e. we present how to use these witnesses in the context of quantifying entanglement and the detection of bound entangled states. We give examples for a particular three-parameter family of states that are part of the \emph{magic simplex} of two-qutrit states.
Teleportation witnesses are hermitian operators which can identify useful entanglement for quantum teleportation. Here we provide a systematic method to construct teleportation witnesses from entanglement witnesses corresponding to general qudit systems. The witnesses so constructed are shown to be optimal for qubit and qutrit systems, and therefore detect the largest set of states useful for teleportation within a given class. We demonstrate the action of the witness pertaining to different classes of states in qubits and qutrits. Decomposition of the witness in terms of spin operators facili…
We show that each entanglement witness detecting given bipartite entangled state provides an estimation of its concurrence. We illustrate our result with several well known examples of entanglement witnesses and compare the corresponding estimation of concurrence with other estimations provided by the trace norm of partial transposition and realignment.
Optomechanical systems open new possibilities in fundamental research at the interface between quantum information and gravity. Recently, an ambitious experimental proposal was suggested by Bose et al. to measure the entanglement between two optomechanical systems generated by their gravitational interaction. The scheme relies on witnessing entanglement between the two systems. Here we develop a general framework to study the quality of bipartite entanglement witnesses using fidelity witnesses. We then apply this framework to the gravitational entanglement proposal, optimizing for the detectio…
The entanglement witness and the entropy uncertainty are investigated by using the pseudomode theory for the open two-atom system under the quantum Zeno effect. The results show that, only when the two spectrums satisfy strong coupling with the atom, the time of entanglement witness can be prolonged and the lower bound of the entropic uncertainty can be reduced, and the entanglement can be witnessed many times. We also gave the corresponding physical explanation by the non-Markovianity. The Zeno effect not only can very effectively prolong the time of entanglement witness and reduce the lower …
We establish a relation between concurrence and entanglement witnesses. In particular, we construct entanglement witnesses for three-qubit W and GHZ states in terms of concurrence and different set of operators that generate it. We also generalize our construction for multi-qubit states.
We propose a method to witness entanglement between two continuous-variable systems in a Gaussian state. Its key ingredient is a local lossy state transfer from the original spatially separated systems onto two spatially separated qubits. The qubits are initially in a pure product state, therefore by detecting entanglement between the qubits we witness entanglement between the two original systems. This method greatly simplifies entanglement witnessing in complex systems.
We present very simple method for constructing indecomposable entanglement witnesses out of a given pair -- an entanglement witness W and the corresponding state detected by W. This method may be used to produce new classes of atomic witnesses which are able to detect the `weakest' quantum entanglement. Actually, it works perfectly in the multipartite case, too. Moreover, this method provides a powerful tool for constructing new examples of bound entangled states.
Entanglement witnesses are observables which when measured, detect entanglement in a measured composed system. It is shown what kind of relations between eigenvectors of an observable should be fulfilled, to allow an observable to be an entanglement witness. Some restrictions on the signature of entaglement witnesses, based on an algebraic-geometrical theorem will be given. The set of entanglement witnesses is linearly isomorphic to the set of maps between matrix algebras which are positive, but not completely positive. A translation of the results to the language of positive maps is also give…
We provide a canonical form of mixed states in bipartite quantum systems in terms of a convex combination of a separable state and a, so-called, edge state. We construct entanglement witnesses for all edge states. We present a canonical form of nondecomposable entanglement witnesses and the corresponding positive maps. We provide constructive methods for their optimization in a finite number of steps. We present a characterization of separable states using a special class of entanglement witnesses. Finally, we present a nontrivial necessary condition for entanglement witnesses and positive map…
In this paper, we discuss extremal extensions of entanglement witnesses based on Choi's map. The constructions are based on a generalization of the Choi map due to Osaka, from which we construct entanglement witnesses. These extremal extensions are powerful in terms of their capacity to detect entanglement of positive under partial transpose (PPT) entangled states and lead to unearthing of entanglement of new PPT states. We also use the Cholesky-like decomposition to construct entangled states which are revealed by these extremal entanglement witnesses.
We derive a set of algebraic equations, the so-called multipartite separability eigenvalue equations. Based on their solutions, we introduce a universal method for the construction of multipartite entanglement witnesses. We witness multipartite entanglement of $10^3$ coupled quantum oscillators, by solving our basic equations analytically. This clearly demonstrates the feasibility of our method for studying ultra-high orders of multipartite entanglement in complex quantum systems.
Quantum mechanics predicts the existence of correlations between composite systems -- multipartite entanglement (ME) -- that, while puzzling our physical intuition, enable technologies not accessible in a classical world. Notwithstanding, there is still no efficient general method to theoretically quantify and experimentally detect ME. Here we propose a novel paradigm based on the measurement of the statistical response of a quantum systems to a collective parametric evolution. As a major difference with respect to current approaches based on the implementation of entanglement witness operator…
We show that the detection efficiencies required for closing the detection loophole in Bell tests can be significantly lowered using quantum systems of dimension larger than two. We introduce a series of asymmetric Bell tests for which an efficiency arbitrarily close to 1/N can be tolerated using N-dimensional systems, and a symmetric Bell test for which the efficiency can be lowered down to 61.8% using four-dimensional systems. Experimental perspectives for our schemes look promising considering recent progress in atom-photon entanglement and in photon hyperentanglement.
An entanglement witness approach to quantum coherent state key distribution and a system for its practical implementation are described. In this approach, eavesdropping can be detected by a change in sign of either of two witness functions, an entanglement witness S or an eavesdropping witness W. The effects of loss and eavesdropping on system operation are evaluated as a function of distance. Although the eavesdropping witness W does not directly witness entanglement for the system, its behavior remains related to that of the true entanglement witness S. Furthermore, W is easier to implement …
We describe an entanglement witness for $N$-qubit mixed states based on the properties of $N$-point correlation functions. Depending on the degree of violation, this witness can guarantee that no more than $M$ qubits are separable from the rest of the state for any $M\leq N$, or that there is some genuine $M$-party or greater multipartite entanglement present. We illustrate the use our criterion by investigating the existence of entanglement in thermal stabilizer states, where we demonstrate that the witness is capable of witnessing bound-entangled states. Intriguingly, this entanglement can b…
In this paper we introduce a criterion for the characterization of Entanglement Witness for multipartite quantum systems. Our approach is based on the characterization of the "tangent space" to the set of pure product states.
