Optimal photonic indistinguishability tests in multimode networks

Particle indistinguishability is at the heart of quantum statistics that regulates fundamental phenomena such as the electronic band structure of solids, Bose-Einstein condensation and superconductivity. Moreover, it is necessary in practical applications such as linear optical quantum computation and simulation, in particular for Boson Sampling devices. It is thus crucial to develop tools to certify genuine multiphoton interference between multiple sources. Here we show that so-called Sylvester interferometers are near-optimal for the task of discriminating the behaviors of distinguishable and indistinguishable photons. We report the first implementations of integrated Sylvester interferometers with 4 and 8 modes with an efficient, scalable and reliable 3D-architecture. We perform two-photon interference experiments capable of identifying indistinguishable photon behaviour with a Bayesian approach using very small data sets. Furthermore, we employ experimentally this new device for the assessment of scattershot Boson Sampling. These results open the way to the application of Sylvester interferometers for the optimal assessment of multiphoton interference experiments.Comment: 9+10 pages, 6+6 figures, added supplementary material, completed and updated bibliograph

Experimental generalized quantum suppression law in Sylvester interferometers

Photonic interference is a key quantum resource for optical quantum computation, and in particular for so-called boson sampling machines. In interferometers with certain symmetries, genuine multiphoton quantum interference effectively suppresses certain sets of events, as in the original Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. Recently, it was shown that some classical and semi-classical models could be ruled out by identifying such suppressions in Fourier interferometers. Here we propose a suppression law suitable for random-input experiments in multimode Sylvester interferometers, and verify it experimentally using 4- and 8-mode integrated interferometers. The observed suppression is stronger than what is observed in Fourier interferometers of the same size, and could be relevant to certification of boson sampling machines and other experiments relying on bosonic interference.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + 11 pages, 3 figures Supplementary Informatio

Experimental Scattershot Boson Sampling

Boson Sampling is a computational task strongly believed to be hard for classical computers, but efficiently solvable by orchestrated bosonic interference in a specialised quantum computer. Current experimental schemes, however, are still insufficient for a convincing demonstration of the advantage of quantum over classical computation. A new variation of this task, Scattershot Boson Sampling, leads to an exponential increase in speed of the quantum device, using a larger number of photon sources based on parametric downconversion. This is achieved by having multiple heralded single photons being sent, shot by shot, into different random input ports of the interferometer. Here we report the first Scattershot Boson Sampling experiments, where six different photon-pair sources are coupled to integrated photonic circuits. We employ recently proposed statistical tools to analyse our experimental data, providing strong evidence that our photonic quantum simulator works as expected. This approach represents an important leap toward a convincing experimental demonstration of the quantum computational supremacy.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (plus Supplementary Materials, 14 pages, 8 figures

Cosmology with variable parameters and effective equation of state for Dark Energy

A cosmological constant, Lambda, is the most natural candidate to explain the origin of the dark energy (DE) component in the Universe. However, due to experimental evidence that the equation of state (EOS) of the DE could be evolving with time/redshift (including the possibility that it might behave phantom-like near our time) has led theorists to emphasize that there might be a dynamical field (or some suitable combination of them) that could explain the behavior of the DE. While this is of course one possibility, here we show that there is no imperative need to invoke such dynamical fields and that a variable cosmological constant (including perhaps a variable Newton's constant too) may account in a natural way for all these features.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the 7th Intern. Workshop on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT 05

Persistent black holes in bouncing cosmologies

In this paper we explore the idea that black holes can persist in a universe that collapses to a big crunch and then bounces into a new phase of expansion. We use a scalar field to model the matter content of such a universe {near the time} of the bounce, and look for solutions that represent a network of black holes within a dynamical cosmology. We find exact solutions to Einstein's constraint equations that provide the geometry of space at the minimum of expansion and that can be used as initial data for the evolution of hyperspherical cosmologies. These solutions illustrate that there exist models in which multiple distinct black holes can persist through a bounce, and allow for concrete computations of quantities such as the black hole filling factor. We then consider solutions in flat cosmologies, as well as in higher-dimensional spaces (with up to nine spatial dimensions). We derive conditions for the black holes to remain distinct (i.e. avoid merging) and hence persist into the new expansion phase. Some potentially interesting consequences of these models are also discussed.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure

Piecewise Silence in Discrete Cosmological Models

20 pages, 1 figure20 pages, 1 figureWe consider a family of cosmological models in which all mass is confined to a regular lattice of identical black holes. By exploiting the reflection symmetry about planes that bisect these lattices into identical halves, we are able to consider the evolution of a number of geometrically distinguished surfaces that exist within each of them. We find that the evolution equations for the reflection symmetric surfaces can be written as a simple set of Friedmann-like equations, with source terms that behave like a set of interacting effective fluids. We then show that gravitational waves are effectively trapped within small chambers for all time, and are not free to propagate throughout the space-time. Each chamber therefore evolves as if it were in isolation from the rest of the universe. We call this phenomenon "piecewise silence"

From Big Bang to Asymptotic de Sitter: Complete Cosmologies in a Quantum Gravity Framework

Using the Einstein-Hilbert approximation of asymptotically safe quantum gravity we present a consistent renormalization group based framework for the inclusion of quantum gravitational effects into the cosmological field equations. Relating the renormalization group scale to cosmological time via a dynamical cutoff identification this framework applies to all stages of the cosmological evolution. The very early universe is found to contain a period of ``oscillatory inflation'' with an infinite sequence of time intervals during which the expansion alternates between acceleration and deceleration. For asymptotically late times we identify a mechanism which prevents the universe from leaving the domain of validity of the Einstein-Hilbert approximation and obtain a classical de Sitter era.Comment: 47 pages, 17 figure

Hubble expansion and structure formation in the "running FLRW model" of the cosmic evolution

A new class of FLRW cosmological models with time-evolving fundamental parameters should emerge naturally from a description of the expansion of the universe based on the first principles of quantum field theory and string theory. Within this general paradigm, one expects that both the gravitational Newton's coupling, G, and the cosmological term, Lambda, should not be strictly constant but appear rather as smooth functions of the Hubble rate. This scenario ("running FLRW model") predicts, in a natural way, the existence of dynamical dark energy without invoking the participation of extraneous scalar fields. In this paper, we perform a detailed study of these models in the light of the latest cosmological data, which serves to illustrate the phenomenological viability of the new dark energy paradigm as a serious alternative to the traditional scalar field approaches. By performing a joint likelihood analysis of the recent SNIa data, the CMB shift parameter, and the BAOs traced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we put tight constraints on the main cosmological parameters. Furthermore, we derive the theoretically predicted dark-matter halo mass function and the corresponding redshift distribution of cluster-size halos for the "running" models studied. Despite the fact that these models closely reproduce the standard LCDM Hubble expansion, their normalization of the perturbation's power-spectrum varies, imposing, in many cases, a significantly different cluster-size halo redshift distribution. This fact indicates that it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the "running" models and the LCDM cosmology using realistic future X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster surveys.Comment: Version published in JCAP 08 (2011) 007: 1+41 pages, 6 Figures, 1 Table. Typos corrected. Extended discussion on the computation of the linearly extrapolated density threshold above which structures collapse in time-varying vacuum models. One appendix, a few references and one figure adde

A Stokes-based spectro-polarimetric analysis of the amplified spontaneous emission in a semiconductor optical amplifier

Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs), key devices for future all-optical communication systems, are inherently polarisation-dependent, which is a major drawback for most networks applications. In spite of numerous studies carried out in order to design polarisation-insensitive structures, no complete spectro-polarimetric characterization of a SOA has been published so far. In particular, the spectral and polarimetric behaviour of the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE), acting as a partly polarized broadband source, is of interest, since ASE draws from the same carrier reservoir as the amplified signal. In this paper, we present a full spectro-polarimetric characterization of ASE emitted from a commercial, strained-bulk SOA within the frame of the Stokes formalism. This formalism not only allows a determination of the degree of polarisation (DOP) of ASE directly from its Stokes vector, but also gives access to a full, spectrally resolved characterization of its polarized fraction with respect to the bias current applied to the SOA. The way the state of polarisation of that fraction is governed by the dependence of the material gain upon polarisation is spectrally resolved, quantified, and discussed. The same study is performed when a polarized signal is injected into the SOA