Quantum decoherence is the major obstacle in using the potential of engineered quantum dynamics to revolutionize high-precision measurements, sensitive detection, or information processing. Here we experimentally demonstrate that quantum state of a system can be recovered after the state is destroyed by uncontrollable natural decoherence. Physical system is a cluster of seven dipolar-coupled nuclear spins of single-labeled 13C-benzene in liquid crystal. 13C spin plays a role of a device for measuring protons' "cat" state, a superposition of states with six spins up (alive) and six spins down (dead). Information about the state, stored in the 13C spin, is used to bring the protons' subsystem into the alive state, while the excess entropy produced by decoherence is transferred to the "measuring device", the 13C spin.
Schrödinger cat states, consisting of superpositions of macroscopically distinct states, provide key resources for a large number of emerging quantum technologies in quantum information processing. Here we propose how to generate and manipulate mechanical and optical Schrödinger cat states with distinguishable superposition components by exploiting the unique properties of cavity optomechanical systems based on Bose-Einstein condensate. Specifically, we show that in comparison with its solid-state counterparts, almost a $3$ order of magnitude enhancement in the size of the mechanical Schröding…
Schrodinger's famous cat has long been misunderstood. According to quantum theory and experiments with entangled systems, an entangled state such as the Schrodinger's cat state is neither a superposition of states of either subsystem nor a superposition of compound states of the composite system, but rather a nonlocal superposition of correlations between pairs of states of the two subsystems. The entangled post-measurement state that results from an ideal measurement is not paradoxical, but is merely a coherent superposition of two statistical correlations at "zero phase angle," i.e. at 100% …
The marginal distribution of squeezed, rotated and shifted quadrature for two types of nonclassical states of a trapped ion - squeezed correlated states and squeezed even and odd coherent states (squeezed Schrodinger cat states) - is studied.
We discuss general properties of the equilibrium state of parametric down-conversion in superconducting quantum circuits with detunings and Kerr anharmonicities, in the strongly nonlinear regime. By comparing moments of the steady state and those of a Schrödinger cat, we show that true Schrödinger cats cannot survive in the steady state if there is any single-photon loss. A delta-function 'cat-like' steady-state distribution can be formed, but this only exists in the limit of an extremely large nonlinearity. The steady state is a mixed state, which is more complex than a mixture or linear comb…
Homodyne measurements are a widely used quantum measurement. Using a coherent state of large amplitude as the local oscillator, it can be shown that the quantum homodyne measurement limits to a field quadrature measurement. In this work, we give an example of a general idea: injecting non-classical states as a local oscillator can led to non-classical measurements. Specifically we consider injecting a superposition of coherent states, a Schrödinger cat state, as a local oscillator. We derive the Kraus operators and the positive operator-valued measure (POVM) in this situation.
Schrödinger's cat originates from the famous thought experiment querying the counterintuitive quantum superposition of macroscopic objects. As a natural extension, several "cats" (quasi-classical objects) can be prepared into coherent quantum superposition states, which is known as multipartite cat states demonstrating quantum entanglement among macroscopically distinct objects. Here we present a highly scalable approach to deterministically create flying multipartite Schrödinger cat states, by reflecting coherent state photons from a microwave cavity containing a superconducting qubit. We per…
Quantum superpositions of distinct coherent states in a single-mode harmonic oscillator, known as "cat states", have been an elegant demonstration of Schrodinger's famous cat paradox. Here, we realize a two-mode cat state of electromagnetic fields in two microwave cavities bridged by a superconducting artificial atom, which can also be viewed as an entangled pair of single-cavity cat states. We present full quantum state tomography of this complex cat state over a Hilbert space exceeding 100 dimensions via quantum non-demolition measurements of the joint photon number parity. The ability to ma…
In this paper, we are interested in detecting the presence of a nearby phase-sensitive object, where traveling light works out under a low-photon loss rate. Here we investigate the optimal quantum phase estimation with generalized multi-component Schrodinger cat states. In addition, we show the optimal conditions of the generalized multi-component cat states for the phase estimation in a lossless scenario. We then demonstrate that the generalized multi-component cat states can beat the performances of the NOON and two-mode squeezed vacuum states in the presence of small loss, while maintaining…
A measurement-induced continuous-variable logical gate is able to prepare Schrödinger cat states if the gate uses a non-Gaussian resource state, such as cubic phase state [I. V. Sokolov, Phys. Lett. A 384, 126762 (2020)]. Our scheme provides an alternative to hybrid circuits which use photon subtraction and (or) Fock resource states and photon number detectors. We reveal the conditions under which the gate conditionally prepares quantum superposition of two undistorted "copies" of an arbitrary input state that occupies a finite area in phase space. A detailed analysis of the fidelity between t…
In order to know if the Schrodinger's cat is alive or dead without opening the box, observers have to play a game with nature. The observers have to "guess" (with degrees of belief) the state of the cat due to incomplete information; in other words, the observers' decision has to be made under uncertainty. We propose a quantum expected value theory for decision-making under uncertainty. Value operator is proposed to guide observers to choose corresponding actions based on their subjective beliefs through objective quantum world by maximizing the value from the measured historical results. The …
The basic idea here is that observation (or one's experience) is fundamental and the `atomic world' is postulated as the source of such observation. Once this source has been inferred to exist one may attempt to explicitly derive its structure in such a way that the observation itself can be reproduced. And so here is a purely quantum mechanical model of observation coupled to its supposed source, and the observation itself is realised as a projection of this quantum system.
We propose a non-Gaussian continuous variable (CV) gate which is able to conditionally produce superposition of two "copies" of an arbitrary input state well separated in the coordinate and momentum plane - a Schrödinger cate state. The gate uses cubic phase state of an ancillary oscillator as a non-Gaussian resource, an entangling Gaussian gate, and homodyne measurement which provides nonunique information about the target system canonical variables, which is a key feature of the scheme. We show that this nonuniqueness manifests problems which may arise by extension of the Heisenberg picture …
Quantum Schrodinger cat states are of great interest in quantum communications and quantum optics. These states are used in various scientific fields such as quantum computing, quantum error correction and high-precision measurements. The analysis of the Schrodinger cat states coherence is an important task for their complete practical application. Our developed approach makes it possible to estimate the coherence of the quantum Schrodinger cat state of arbitrary dimension, as well as to find the interference visibility of the state - an important optical characteristic. The obtained simple qu…
Iterative $C_Z$-gate-based protocol for squeezed Schrödinger cat state engineering
ITMO University（ITMO大学）；SMARTS-Quanttelecom LLC（SMARTS-Quanttelecom有限责任公司）；Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Technology（圣彼得堡国立技术学院）；Research and Education Center of Photonics and Optical IT, ITMO University（ITMO大学光子学与光学信息技术研究与教育中心）
We give a mathematical procedure to obtain the adiabatic approximation for the generalized quantum Rabi Hamiltonian both without and with a quadratic interaction. We consider the Hamiltonian as the energy of a model describing the interaction system of a two-level artificial atom and a one-mode microwave photon in circuit QED. In the case without the quadratic interaction, we show in the adiabatic approximation that whether each bare eigenstate forms a Schrodinger-cat-like entangled state or not depends on whether the energy bias of the atom is zero or non-zero, and then, the effect of the tun…
The interference pattern in electron double-slit diffraction is a hallmark of quantum mechanics. A long standing question for stochastic electrodynamics (SED) is whether or not it is capable of reproducing such effects, as interference is a manifestation of quantum coherence. In this study, we use excited harmonic oscillators to directly test this quantum feature in SED. We use two counter-propagating dichromatic laser pulses to promote a ground-state harmonic oscillator to a squeezed Schrödinger cat state. Upon recombination of the two well-separated wavepackets, an interference pattern emerg…
Effects of a classical homogeneous gravitational field on the cavity-field entropy and generation of the Schrodinger-cat states in the Jaynes-Cummings model
Bosonic quantum codes redundantly encode quantum information in the states of a quantum harmonic oscillator, making it possible to detect and correct errors. Schrödinger cat codes -- based on the superposition of two coherent states with opposite displacements -- can correct phase-flip errors induced by dephasing, but they are vulnerable to bit-flip errors induced by particle loss. Here, we develop a bosonic quantum code relying on squeezed cat states, i.e. cat states made of a linear superposition of displaced-squeezed states. Squeezed cat states allow to partially correct errors caused by pa…
Experimental progress with meso- and macroscopic quantum states (i.e., general Schrodinger-cat states) was recently accompanied by theoretical proposals on how to measure the merit of these efforts. So far, experiment and theory were disconnected as theoretical analysis of actual experimental data was missing. Here, we consider a proposal for macroscopic quantum states that measures the extend of quantum coherence present in the system. For this, the quantum Fisher information is used. We calculate lower bounds from real experimental data. The results are expressed as an "effective size", that…
Circuit quantum electrodynamics ('circuit QED') describes the quantum mechanics and quantum field theory of superconducting electrical circuits operating in the microwave regime near absolute zero temperature. It is the analog of cavity QED in quantum optics with the role of the atoms being played by superconducting qubits. The present lecture notes focus primarily on novel quantum states that can be produced and measured using the strong coupling between an artificial atom and one or more cavities. Of particular importance are Schrodinger cat states of photons. Despite long being considered e…
