187 research outputs found
The classical-quantum boundary for correlations: discord and related measures
One of the best signatures of nonclassicality in a quantum system is the
existence of correlations that have no classical counterpart. Different methods
for quantifying the quantum and classical parts of correlations are amongst the
more actively-studied topics of quantum information theory over the past
decade. Entanglement is the most prominent of these correlations, but in many
cases unentangled states exhibit nonclassical behavior too. Thus distinguishing
quantum correlations other than entanglement provides a better division between
the quantum and classical worlds, especially when considering mixed states.
Here we review different notions of classical and quantum correlations
quantified by quantum discord and other related measures. In the first half, we
review the mathematical properties of the measures of quantum correlations,
relate them to each other, and discuss the classical-quantum division that is
common among them. In the second half, we show that the measures identify and
quantify the deviation from classicality in various
quantum-information-processing tasks, quantum thermodynamics, open-system
dynamics, and many-body physics. We show that in many cases quantum
correlations indicate an advantage of quantum methods over classical ones.Comment: Close to the published versio
Quantum and classical correlations of multiply scattered light
Multiple scattering is a very common phenomenon since it occurs any time a wave meets a disordered medium. As almost any natural object has random structure in one form or another, the variety of the processes involving multiple scattering spans from electronic transport in solids to propagation of sound in a forest. In principle, multiple scattering is completely deterministic, and in the absence of absorption also reversible, which means that the information encoded into the incident wave can be perfectly recovered. However, in practice, due to its extreme complexity we often consider this process to be random, which leads to information loss. Within this approach correlations can be an important instrument of information recovery, because they directly quantify the amount of knowledge we get about the wave in a particular point from the measurement performed in a different point. In the first part of this thesis we study a novel type of mesoscopic correlations between the light intensities at the opposite sides of an opaque scattering slab. We study its dependence on the scattering medium properties and the incoming light beam parameters. In the last chapter of the first part we show how this correlation can be used to retrieve non-invasively the information about the shape of an object placed behind the scattering medium. In the second part we switch to the quantum aspects of the light propagation inside the scattering materials. We show that certain class of quantum correlations, quantum discord, can be present in the multimode output state of the scattered light even when the input light is in a thermal state, which is commonly considered classical. We propose a non-classicality measure based on the strength of this correlation, applying it to characterize the advantage due to the quantum measurement in discrimination of two coherent states in their mixture.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC
Quantum Illumination with a generic Gaussian source
With the aim to loosen the entanglement requirements of quantum illumination, we study the performance of a family of Gaussian states at the transmitter, combined with an optimal and joint quantum measurement at the receiver. We find that maximal entanglement is not strictly necessary to achieve quantum advantage over the classical benchmark of a coherent-state transmitter, in both settings of symmetric and asymmetric hypothesis testing. While performing this quantum-classical comparison, we also investigate a suitable regime of parameters for potential short-range radar (or scanner) applications
Gaussian Discriminating Strength
We present a quantifier of non-classical correlations for bipartite,
multi-mode Gaussian states. It is derived from the Discriminating Strength
measure, introduced for finite dimensional systems in A. Farace et al., New. J.
Phys. 16, 073010 (2014). As the latter the new measure exploits the Quantum
Chernoff Bound to gauge the susceptibility of the composite system with respect
to local perturbations induced by unitary gates extracted from a suitable set
of allowed transformations (the latter being identified by posing some general
requirements). Closed expressions are provided for the case of two-mode
Gaussian states obtained by squeezing or by linearly mixing via a beam-splitter
a factorized two-mode thermal state. For these density matrices, we study how
non-classical correlations are related with the entanglement present in the
system and with its total photon number.Comment: 11+6 pages, 4 figure
Continuous Variable Optimisation of Quantum Randomness and Probabilistic Linear Amplification
In the past decade, quantum communication protocols based on
continuous variables (CV) has seen considerable development in
both theoretical and experimental aspects.
Nonetheless, challenges remain in both the practical security and
the operating range for CV systems, before such systems may be
used extensively. In this thesis, we present
the optimisation of experimental parameters for secure randomness
generation and propose a non-deterministic approach to enhance
amplification of CV quantum state.
The first part of this thesis examines the security of quantum
devices: in particular, we investigate quantum random number
generators (QRNG) and quantum key distribution
(QKD) schemes. In a realistic scenario, the output of a quantum
random number generator is inevitably tainted by classical
technical noise, which potentially compromises
the security of such a device. To safeguard against this, we
propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach that produces
side-information independent randomness. We present a method for
maximising such randomness contained in a number sequence
generated from a given quantum-to-classical-noise ratio. The
detected photocurrent
in our experiment is shown to have a real-time random-number
generation rate of 14 (Mbit/s)/MHz.
Next, we study the one-sided device-independent (1sDI) quantum
key distribution scheme in the context of continuous variables.
By exploiting recently proven entropic
uncertainty relations, one may bound the information leaked to an
eavesdropper. We use such a bound to further derive the secret
key rate, that depends only upon the
conditional Shannon entropies accessible to Alice and Bob, the
two honest communicating parties. We identify and experimentally
demonstrate such a protocol, using only
coherent states as the resource. We measure the correlations
necessary for 1sDI key distribution up to an applied loss
equivalent to 3.5 km of fibre transmission.
The second part of this thesis concerns the improvement in the
transmission of a quantum state. We study two approximate
implementations of a probabilistic noiseless
linear amplifier (NLA): a physical implementation that truncates
the working space of the NLA or a measurement-based
implementation that realises the truncation
by a bounded postselection filter. We do this by conducting a
full analysis on the measurement-based NLA (MB-NLA), making
explicit the relationship between its various
operating parameters, such as amplification gain and the cut-off
of operating domain. We compare it with its physical counterpart
in terms of the Husimi Q-distribution and
their probability of success.
We took our investigations further by combining a probabilistic
NLA with an ideal deterministic linear amplifier (DLA). In
particular, we show that when NLA gain is strictly lesser than
the DLA gain, this combination can be realised by integrating an
MB-NLA in an optical DLA setup. This results in a hybrid device
which we refer to as the heralded hybrid quantum amplifier. A
quantum cloning machine based on this hybrid amplifier is
constructed through an amplify-then-split method. We perform
probabilistic cloning of arbitrary coherent states, and
demonstrate the production of up to five clones, with the
fidelity of each clone clearly exceeding the corresponding
no-cloning limit
Developing new paradigms for quantum measurements
L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
Diverse applications of the Quantum Walk model in Quantum Information: a theoretical and experimental analysis in the optical framework
Quantum Walks have been a very important model in the last thirty years, after their first definition and rigorous description. The analysis of the many possible variations of their behavior has delivered a plethora of solutions and platforms for the many diverse fields of investigation. The applications of the Quantum Walk model spreads from the development of Quantum Algorithm, to the modeling and simulation of systems of the most diverse nature, such as solid state or biological systems. In general, it helped developing a well-established quantum (or coherent) propagation model, which is useful both inside and outside physics. In this thesis, we focus on the study of disordered Quantum Walks, in order to get better understanding of the inuence of Quantum Walk disordered dynamics to non-classical correlations and propagating quantum information. Afterwards, we generalize this dynamical approach to Quantum Information processing, developing a Quantum Receiver for Quantum State Discrimination featuring a time multiplexing structure and we investigate the potentiality of this Quantum Walk inspired framework in the field of Quantum State Discrimination, through
the developing and realization of experimental protocols characterized by increasing complexity. We also report on some apparent deviations from this path, although still aimed at the transfer of our expertise, built in previous investigations, to the study of new models and more complex quantum systems
Quantum-enhanced measurements without entanglement
Quantum-enhanced measurements exploit quantum mechanical effects for increasing the sensitivity of measurements of certain physical parameters and have great potential for both fundamental science and concrete applications. Most of the research has so far focused on using highly entangled states, which are, however, difficult to produce and to stabilize for a large number of constituents. In the following we review alternative mechanisms, notably the use of more general quantum correlations such as quantum discord, identical particles, or non-trivial Hamiltonians; the estimation of thermodynamical parameters or parameters characterizing non-equilibrium states; and the use of quantum phase transitions. We describe both theoretically achievable enhancements and enhanced sensitivities, not primarily based on entanglement, that have already been demonstrated experimentally, and indicate some possible future research directions
- …