Let ${\cal H}_1,$ ${\cal H}_2$ be finite dimensional complex Hilbert spaces describing the states of two finite level quantum systems. Suppose $ρ_i$ is a state in ${\cal H}_i, i=1,2.$ Let ${\cal C} (ρ_1, ρ_2)$ be the convex set of all states $ρ$ in ${\cal H} = {\cal H}_1 \otimes {\cal H}_2$ whose marginal states in ${\cal H}_1$ and ${\cal H}_2$ are $ρ_1$ and $ρ_2$ respectively. Here we present a necessary and sufficient criterion for a $ρ$ in ${\cal C} (ρ_1, ρ_2)$ to be an extreme point. Such a condition implies, in particular, that for a state $ρ$ to be an extreme point of ${\cal C} (ρ_1, ρ_2)$ it is necessary that the rank of $ρ$ does not exceed $(d_1^2 + d_2^2 - 1)^{1/2},$ where $d_i = \dim {\cal H}_i, i=1,2.$ When ${\cal H}_1$ and ${\cal H}_2$ coincide with the 1-qubit Hilbert space $\mathbb{C}^2$ with its standard orthonormal basis $\{|0 >, |1> \}$ and $ρ_1 = ρ_2 = {1/2} I$ it turns out that a state $ρ\in {\cal C} ({1/2}I, {1/2}I)$ is extremal if and only if $ρ$ is of the form $|Ω>< Ω|$ where $| Ω> = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} (|0> | ψ_0 > + |1 > | ψ_1 >),$ $\{| ψ_0 >, | ψ_1> \}$ being an arbitrary orthonormal basis of $\mathbb{C}^2.$ In particular, the extremal states are the maximally entangled states.
In the study of quantum nonlocality, one obstacle is that the analytical criterion for identifying the boundaries between quantum and postquantum correlations has not yet been given, even in the simplest Bell scenario. We propose a plausible, analytical, necessary and sufficient condition ensuring that a nonlocal quantum correlation in the simplest scenario is an extremal boundary point. Our extremality condition amounts to certifying an information-theoretical quantity; the probability of guessing a measurement outcome of a distant party optimized using any quantum instrument. We show that th…
The striking differences between quantum and classical systems predicate disruptive quantum technologies. We peruse quantumness from a variety of viewpoints, concentrating on phase-space formulations because they can be applied beyond particular symmetry groups. The symmetry-transcending properties of the Husimi $Q$ function make it our basic tool. In terms of the latter, we examine quantities such as the Wehrl entropy, inverse participation ratio, cumulative multipolar distribution, and metrological power, which are linked to intrinsic properties of any quantum state. We use these quantities …
Using the convex structure of positive operator value measurements and of several quantities used in quantum metrology, such as quantum Fisher information or the quantum Van Trees information, we present an efficient numerical method to find the best strategy allowed by quantum mechanics to estimate a parameter. This method explores extremal measurements thus providing a significant advantage over previously used methods. We exemplify the method for different cost functions in a qubit and in a harmonic oscillator and find a strong numerical advantage when the desired target error is sufficient…
We describe a particular class of pairs of quantum observables which are extremal in the convex set of all pairs of compatible quantum observables. The pairs in this class are constructed as uniformly noisy versions of two mutually unbiased bases (MUB) with possibly different noise intensities affecting each basis. We show that not all pairs of MUB can be used in this construction, and we provide a criterion for determiniing those MUB that actually do yield extremal compatible observables. We apply our criterion to all pairs of Fourier conjugate MUB, and we prove that in this case extremality …
Non-local correlations between a fully characterised quantum system and an untrusted black box device are described by an assemblage of conditional quantum states. These assemblages form a convex set, whose extremal points are relevant in many operational contexts. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for an assemblage to be extremal using linear independence conditions, and an algorithm to decompose a generic assemblage into extremal points. A Matlab implementation of this algorithm is provided in the supplementary material.
Quantum statistics can be considered from the perspective of postquantum no-signaling theories in which either none or only a certain number of quantum systems are trusted. In these scenarios, the role of states is played by the so-called no-signaling boxes or no-signaling assemblages respectively. It has been shown so far that in the usual Bell non-locality scenario with a single measurement run, quantum statistics can never reproduce an extremal non-local point within the set of no-signaling boxes. We provide here a general no-go rule showing that the latter stays true even if arbitrary sequ…
The characterization of quantum polarization of light requires knowledge of all the moments of the Stokes variables, which are appropriately encoded in the multipole expansion of the density matrix. We look into the cumulative distribution of those multipoles and work out the corresponding extremal pure states. We find that SU(2) coherent states are maximal to any order whereas the converse case of minimal states (which can be seen as the most quantum ones) is investigated for a diverse range of the number of photons. Taking advantage of the Majorana representation, we recast the problem as th…
We investigate the $Λ$-polytopes, a convex-linear structure recently defined and applied to the classical simulation of quantum computation with magic states by sampling. There is one such polytope, $Λ_n$, for every number $n$ of qubits. We establish two properties of the family $\{Λ_n, n\in \mathbb{N}\}$, namely (i) Any extremal point (vertex) $A_α\in Λ_m$ can be used to construct vertices in $Λ_n$, for all $n>m$. (ii) For vertices obtained through this mapping, the classical simulation of quantum computation with magic states can be efficiently reduced to the classical simulation based on th…
Quantum metrology allows for a tremendous boost in the accuracy of measurement of diverse physical parameters. The estimation of a rotation constitutes a remarkable example of this quantum-enhanced precision. The recently introduced Kings of Quantumness are especially germane for this task when the rotation axis is unknown, as they have a sensitivity independent of that axis and they achieve a Heisenberg-limit scaling. Here, we report the experimental realization of these states by generating up to 21-dimensional orbital angular momentum states of single photons, and confirm their high metrolo…
Pure states are very important in any theory since they represent states of maximal information about the system within the theory. Here, we show that no non-trivial (not local realistic) extremal states (boxes) of general no-signaling theories can be realized within quantum theory. We then explore three interesting consequences of this fact. Firstly, since the pure states are uncorrelated from the environment, the statement forms a no-go result against the most straightforward device-independent protocol for randomness or secure key generation against general no-signaling adversaries. It also…
We propose defect extremal surface as the holographic counterpart of boundary quantum extremal surface. The defect extremal surface is defined by minimizing the Ryu-Takayanagi surface corrected by the defect theory. This is particularly interesting when the RT surface crosses or terminates on the defect. In a simple set up of AdS/BCFT, we find that the defect extremal surface formula gives precisely the same results of the boundary quantum extremal surface. We provide a decomposition procedure of an AdS bulk with a defect brane to see clearly how Island formula emerges from a brane world syste…
Quantum state verification (QSV) and quantum data hiding (QDH) have so far been studied separately. QSV decides whether a given quantum state is close to the ideal one, with significantly lower sample complexity compared with direct application of quantum tomography. On the other hand, QDH is a cryptographic protocol that encodes secret classical information in multipartite quantum states, providing stronger security guarantees than conventional classical secret-sharing schemes. Here, we consider two fundamental quantities of a pure quantum state, determining the sample complexity needed for Q…
We argue that novel (highly nonclassical) quantum extremal surfaces play a crucial role in reconstructing the black hole interior even for isolated, single-sided, non-evaporating black holes (i.e. with no auxiliary reservoir). Specifically, any code subspace where interior outgoing modes can be excited will have a quantum extremal surface in its maximally mixed state. We argue that as a result, reconstruction of interior outgoing modes is always exponentially complex. Our construction provides evidence in favor of a strong Python's lunch proposal: that nonminimal quantum extremal surfaces are …
In maximally chaotic quantum systems, a class of out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) saturate the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford (MSS) bound on chaos. Recently, it has been shown that the same OTOCs must also obey an infinite set of (subleading) constraints in any thermal quantum system with a large number of degrees of freedom. In this paper, we find a unique analytic extension of the maximally chaotic OTOC that saturates all the subleading chaos bounds which allow saturation. This extremally chaotic OTOC has the feature that information of the initial perturbation is recovered at very late tim…
