We analyze the set of two-qubit states from which a secret key can be extracted by single-copy measurements plus classical processing of the outcomes. We introduce a key distillation protocol and give the corresponding necessary and sufficient condition for positive key extraction. Our results imply that the critical error rate derived by Chau, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 66}, 060302 (2002), for a secure key distribution using the six-state scheme is tight. Remarkably, an optimal eavesdropping attack against this protocol does not require any coherent quantum operation.
The security of device-independent (DI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols relies on the violation of Bell inequalities. As such, their security can be established based on minimal assumptions about the devices, but their implementation necessarily requires the distribution of entangled states. In a setting with fully trusted devices, any entanglement-based protocol is essentially equivalent to a corresponding prepare-and-measure protocol. This correspondence, however, is not generally valid in the DI setting unless one makes extra assumptions about the devices. Here we prove that a know…
One of the last open problems concerning two qubits in a pure state is to find the exact local content of their correlation, in the sense of Elitzur, Popescu and Rohrlich (EPR2) [Phys. Lett. A 162, 25 (1992)]. We propose a new EPR2 decomposition that allows us to prove, for a wide range of states psi(theta)=cos(theta)|00>+sin(theta)|11>, that their local content is pL(theta)=cos(2theta). We also share reflections on how to possibly extend our result to all two-qubit pure states.
We investigate local contents in $N$-qubit generalized Greenberger, Horne, and Zeilinger (GHZ) states. We suggest a decomposition for correlations in the GHZ states into a nonlocal and fully local part, and find a lower and upper bound on the local content. Our lower bound reproduces the previous result for N=2 [Scarani, Phys. Rev. A. 77, 042112 (2008)] and decreases rapidly with $N$.
The (non-)local content in the sense of Elitzur, Popescu, and Rohrlich (EPR2) [Phys. Lett. A 162, 25 (1992)] is a natural measure for the (non-)locality of quantum states. Its computation is in general difficult, even in low dimensions, and is one of the few open questions about pure two-qubit states. We present a complete solution to this long-lasting problem.
The local and non-local contents of non-local probability distributions are studied using the approach of Elitzur, Popescu and Rohrlich [Phys. Lett. A \textbf{162}, 25 (1992)]. This work focuses on distributions that can be obtained by single-copy von Neumann measurements on bipartite quantum systems. For pure two-qubit states Psi(theta)=cos(theta)|00>+sin(theta)|11>, with cos(theta)>=sin(theta), the local content of the corresponding probability distribution is found to lie between 1-sin(2*theta) and cos(2*theta). For the family Psi(gamma)= (|00>+|11>+gamma*|22>)/sqrt(2+gamma^2) of two-qutrit…
Within entanglement theory there are criteria which certify that some quantum states cannot be distilled into pure entanglement. An example is the positive partial transposition criterion. Here we present, for the first time, the analogous thing for secret correlations. We introduce a computable criterion which certifies that a probability distribution between two honest parties and an eavesdropper cannot be (asymptotically) distilled into a secret key. The existence of non-distillable correlations with positive secrecy cost, also known as bound information, is an open question. This criterion…
In this paper, we propose a method of enciphering quantum states of two-state systems (qubits) for sending them in secrecy without entangled qubits shared by two legitimate users (Alice and Bob). This method has the following two properties. First, even if an eavesdropper (Eve) steals qubits, she can extract information from them with certain probability at most. Second, Alice and Bob can confirm that the qubits are transmitted between them correctly by measuring a signature. If Eve measures m qubits one by one from n enciphered qubits and sends alternative ones (the Intercept/Resend attack), …
Secret sharing of a quantum state, or quantum secret sharing, in which a dealer wants to share certain amount of quantum information with a few players, has wide applications in quantum information. The critical criterion in a threshold secret sharing scheme is confidentiality, with less than the designated number of players, no information can be recovered. Furthermore, in a quantum scenario, one additional critical criterion exists, the capability of sharing entangled and unknown quantum information. Here by employing a six-photon entangled state, we demonstrate a quantum threshold scheme, w…
This paper reviews recent attempts to describe the two- and three-qubit Hilbert space geometries with the help of Hopf fibrations. In both cases, it is shown that the associated Hopf map is strongly sensitive to states entanglement content. In the two-qubit case, a generalization of the one-qubit celebrated Bloch sphere representation is described.
Accelerating Surface Radiation Content to Investigate the Impact of Radon Progeny on Superconducting Qubits
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology（南达科他矿业与技术学院）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Northwestern University（西北大学）；University of Southern California（南加州大学）
Quantum Discord (QD) is a measure of the total quantum non-local correlations of a quantum system. The formalism of quantum discord has been applied to various two-qubit mixed states and it has been reported that there is a non-zero quantum discord even when the states are unentangled. To this end, we have calculated the Quantum Discord for higher than two qubit mixed state, that is, the generalized n-qubit Werner state with a bipartite split. We found that the QD saturates to a straight line with unit slope in the thermodynamic limit. Qualitative studies of entanglement between the two subsys…
In quantum mechanics, a state is an element of a Hilbert space whose dimension exponentially grows with the increase of the number of particles (or qubits, in quantum computing). The vague question "is this huge Hilbert space really there?" has been rigorously formalized inside the computational complexity theory; the research suggests a positive answer to the question. Along this line, I give a definition of the (classical) information content of a quantum state, taking inspiration from the Kolmogorov complexity. I show that, for some well-known quantum circuits (having a number of gates poly…
We present a model, motivated by the criterion of reality put forward by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen and supplemented by classical communication, which correctly reproduces the quantum-mechanical predictions for measurements of all products of Pauli operators on an n-qubit GHZ state (or ``cat state''). The n-2 bits employed by our model are shown to be optimal for the allowed set of measurements, demonstrating that the required communication overhead scales linearly with n. We formulate a connection between the generation of the local values utilized by our model and the stabilizer formalism…
The Ekert quantum key distribution protocol uses pairs of entangled qubits and performs checks based on a Bell inequality to detect eavesdropping. The 3DEB protocol uses instead pairs of entangled qutrits to achieve better noise resistance than the Ekert protocol. It performs checks based on a Bell inequality for qutrits named CHSH-3. In this paper, we present a new protocol, which also uses pairs of entangled qutrits, but achieves even better noise resistance than 3DEB. This gain of performance is obtained by using another inequality called here hCHSH-3. As the hCHSH3 inequality involve produ…
We study the dynamics of entanglement in a two-qubit system interacting with a squeezed thermal bath via a dissipative system-reservoir interaction with the system and reservoir assumed to be in a separable initial state. The resulting entanglement is studied by making use of a recently introduced measure of mixed state entanglement via a probability density function which gives a statistical and geometrical characterization of entanglement by exploring the entanglement content in the various subspaces spanning the two-qubit Hilbert space. We also make an application of the two-qubit dissipati…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two users to communicate with theoretically provable secrecy by encoding information on photonic qubits. Current encoders are complex, however, which reduces their appeal for practical use and introduces potential vulnerabilities to quantum attacks. Distributed-phase-reference (DPR) systems were introduced as a simpler alternative, but have not yet been proven practically secure against all classes of attack. Here we demonstrate the first DPR QKD system with information-theoretic security. Using a novel light source, where the coherence between pulses can …
We examine bipartite and multipartite correlations within the construct of unitary orbits. We show that the set of product states is a very small subset of set of all possible states, while all unitary orbits contain classically correlated states. Using this we give meaning to degeneration of quantum correlations due to a unitary interactions, which we call coherent correlations. The remaining classical correlations are called incoherent correlations and quantified in terms of the distance of the joint probability distributions to its marginals. Finally, we look at how entanglement looks in th…
The Ekert quantum key distribution protocol uses pairs of entangled qubits and performs checks based on a Bell inequality to detect eavesdropping. The N-DEB protocol uses instead pairs of entangled qudits to achieve better noise resistance than the Ekert protocol. It performs checks based on the Bell CGLMP inequality for qudits. In this paper, we present the generalization for qudits of our protocol h3DEB (for qutrits). This protocol also uses pairs of entangled qudits, but achieves even better noise resistance than N-DEB and is showed to be secure against the same family of cloning attacks th…
We consider two measures of entanglement, the logarithmic negativity and the entanglement entropy, between regions of space in excited states of many-body systems formed by a finite number of particle excitations. In parts I and II of the current series of papers, it has been shown in one-dimensional free-particle models that, in the limit of large system's and regions' sizes, the contribution from the particles is given by the entanglement of natural qubit states, representing the uniform distribution of particles in space. We show that the replica logarithmic negativity and Rényi entanglemen…
We present a solvable model of iterating cluster state protocols that lead to entanglement production, between contiguous blocks, of 1 ebit per iteration. This continues till the blocks are maximally entangled at which stage an unravelling begins at the same rate till the blocks are unentangled. The model is a variant of the transverse field Ising model and can be implemented with CNOT and single qubit gates. The inter qubit entanglement as measured by the concurrence is shown to be zero for periodic chain realizations while for open boundaries there are very specific instances at which these …
Disentanglement and loss of quantum correlations due to one global collective noise effect are described for two-qubit Schrödinger cat and Werner states of a four level trapped ion quantum system. Once the Jaynes-Cummings ionic interactions are mapped onto a Dirac spinor structure, the elementary tools for computing quantum correlations of two-qubit ionic states are provided. With two-qubit quantum numbers related to the total angular momentum and to its projection onto the direction of an external magnetic field (which lifts the degeneracy of the ion's internal levels), a complete analytical …
Unclonable Encryption, introduced by Gottesman in 2003, is a quantum protocol that guarantees the secrecy of a successfully transferred classical message even when all keys leak at a later time. We propose an Unclonable Encryption protocol with the additional property that the sender's key material is allowed to leak even in the case of an unsuccessful run. This extra feature makes it possible to achieve secure quantum encryption even when one of the parties is unable to protect its keys against after-protocol theft. Such an asymmetry occurs e.g. in case of server-client scenarios, where the c…
In this paper we study the increment of the entanglement entropy and of the (replica) logarithmic negativity in a zero-density excited state of a free massive bosonic theory, compared to the ground state. This extends the work of two previous publications by the same authors. We consider the case of two disconnected regions and find that the change in the entanglement entropy depends only on the combined size of the regions and is independent of their connectivity. We subsequently generalize this result to any number of disconnected regions. For the replica negativity we find that its incremen…
Quantum transition probabilities and quantum entanglement for two-qubit states of a four level trapped ion quantum system are computed for time-evolving ionic states driven by Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonians with interactions mapped onto a $\mbox{SU}(2)\otimes \mbox{SU}(2)$ group structure. Using the correspondence of the method of simulating a $3+1$ dimensional Dirac-like Hamiltonian for bi-spinor particles into a single trapped ion, one preliminarily obtains the analytical tools for describing ionic state transition probabilities as a typical quantum oscillation feature. For Dirac-like structur…
A photonic process named as "quantum state joining" has been recently experimentally demonstrated [C. Vitelli et al., Nature Photon. 7, 521 (2013)] that corresponds to the transfer of the internal two-dimensional quantum states of two input photons, i.e., two photonic qubits, into the four-dimensional quantum state of a single photon, i.e., a photonic ququart. A scheme for the inverse process, namely "quantum state splitting", has also been theoretically proposed. Both processes can be iterated in a cascaded layout, to obtain the joining and/or splitting of more than two qubits, thus leading t…
