Coherent quantum measurement for the direct determination of the degree of polarization and Polarization Mode Dispersion compensation

An example of a coherent measurement for the direct evaluation of the degree of polarization of a single-mode optical beam is presented. It is applied to the case of great practical importance where depolarization is caused by polarization mode dispersion. It is demonstrated that coherent measurement has the potential of significantly increasing the information gain, compared to standard incoherent measurements.Comment: 4 pages + 3 figure

Non-linear photonic crystals as a source of entangled photons

Non-linear photonic crystals can be used to provide phase-matching for frequency conversion in optically isotropic materials. The phase-matching mechanism proposed here is a combination of form birefringence and phase velocity dispersion in a periodic structure. Since the phase-matching relies on the geometry of the photonic crystal, it becomes possible to use highly non-linear materials. This is illustrated considering a one-dimensional periodic Al$_{0.4}$Ga$_{0.6}$As / air structure for the generation of 1.5 $\mu$m light. We show that phase-matching conditions used in schemes to create entangled photon pairs can be achieved in photonic crystals.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Multipartite entanglement of fermionic systems in noninertial frames

The bipartite and tripartite entanglement of a 3-qubit fermionic system when one or two subsystems accelerated are investigated. It is shown that all the one-tangles decrease as the acceleration increases. However, unlike the scalar case, here one-tangles ${\cal N}_{C_I(AB_I)}$ and ${\cal N}_{C_I(AB)}$ never reduce to zero for any acceleration. It is found that the system has only tripartite entanglement when either one or two subsystems accelerated, which means that the acceleration doesn't generate bipartite entanglement and doesn't effect the entanglement structure of the quantum states in this system. It is of interest to note that the $\pi$-tangle of the two-observers-accelerated case decreases much quicker than that of the one-observer-accelerated case and it reduces to a non-zero minimum in the infinite acceleration limit. Thus we argue that the qutrit systems are better than qubit systems to perform quantum information processing tasks in noninertial systems.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Entanglement Witnesses in Spin Models

We construct entanglement witnesses using fundamental quantum operators of spin models which contain two-particle interactions and posses a certain symmetry. By choosing the Hamiltonian as such an operator, our method can be used for detecting entanglement by energy measurement. We apply this method to the cubic Heisenberg lattice model in a magnetic field, the XY model and other familiar spin systems. Our method is used to obtain a temperature bound for separable states for systems in thermal equilibrium. We also study the Bose-Hubbard model and relate its energy minimum for separable states to the minimum obtained from the Gutzwiller ansatz.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures, revtex4; some typos correcte

Resilience of multi-photon entanglement under losses

We analyze the resilience under photon loss of the bi-partite entanglement present in multi-photon states produced by parametric down-conversion. The quantification of the entanglement is made possible by a symmetry of the states that persists even under polarization-independent losses. We examine the approach of the states to the set of states with a positive partial transpose as losses increase, and calculate the relative entropy of entanglement. We find that some bi-partite distillable entanglement persists for arbitrarily high losses.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, title changed, minor typographic errors correcte

Quantum random walk of two photons in separable and entangled state

We discuss quantum random walk of two photons using linear optical elements. We analyze the quantum random walk using photons in a variety of quantum states including entangled states. We find that for photons initially in separable Fock states, the final state is entangled. For polarization entangled photons produced by type II downconverter, we calculate the joint probability of detecting two photons at a given site. We show the remarkable dependence of the two photon detection probability on the quantum nature of the state. In order to understand the quantum random walk, we present exact analytical results for small number of steps like five. We present in details numerical results for a number of cases and supplement the numerical results with asymptotic analytical results

Optical qubit generation by state truncation using an experimentally feasible scheme

Generation of arbitrary superposition of vacuum and one-photon states using quantum scissors device (QSD) is studied. The device allows the preparation of states by truncating an input coherent light. Optimum values of the intensity of the coherent light for the generation of any desired state using the experimentally feasible QSD scheme are found.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Entanglement Purification through Zeno-like Measurements

We present a novel method to purify quantum states, i.e. purification through Zeno-like measurements, and show an application to entanglement purification.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; Contribution to the Proceedings of "Mysteries, Puzzles and Paradoxes in Quantum Mechanics", Gargnano, Italy, 2003 (to be published in J. Mod. Opt.