Quantum tomography of mesoscopic superpositions of radiation states

We show the feasibility of a tomographic reconstruction of Schr\"{o}dinger cat states generated according to the scheme proposed by S. Song, C.M. Caves and B. Yurke [Phys. Rev. A 41, 5261 (1990)]. We present a technique that tolerates realistic values for quantum efficiency at photodetectors. The measurement can be achieved by a standard experimental setup.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.; 4 pages including 6 ps figure

Local observables for entanglement witnesses

We present an explicit construction of entanglement witnesses for depolarized states in arbitrary finite dimension. For infinite dimension we generalize the construction to twin-beams perturbed by Gaussian noises in the phase and in the amplitude of the field. We show that entanglement detection for all these families of states requires only three local measurements. The explicit form of the corresponding set of local observables (quorom) needed for entanglement witness is derived.Comment: minor corrections, title change

Quantum teleportation with squeezed vacuum states

We show how the partial entanglement inherent in a two mode squeezed vacuum state admits two different teleportation protocols. These two protocols refer to the different kinds of joint measurements that may be made by the sender. One protocol is the recently implemented quadrature phase approach of Braunstein and Kimble[Phys. Rev. Lett.{\bf 80}, 869 (1998)]. The other is based on recognising that a two mode squeezed vacuum state is also entangled with respect to photon number difference and phase sum. We show that this protocol can also realise teleportation, however limitations can arise due to the fact that the photon number spectrum is bounded from below by zero. Our examples show that a given entanglement resource may admit more than a single teleportation protocol and the question then arises as to what is the optimum protocol in the general case

Mode structure and photon number correlations in squeezed quantum pulses

The question of efficient multimode description of optical pulses is studied. We show that a relatively very small number of nonmonochromatic modes can be sufficient for a complete quantum description of pulses with Gaussian quadrature statistics. For example, a three-mode description was enough to reproduce the experimental data of photon number correlations in optical solitons [S. Spalter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 786 (1998)]. This approach is very useful for a detailed understanding of squeezing properties of soliton pulses with the main potential for quantum communication with continuous variables. We show how homodyne detection and/or measurements of photon number correlations can be used to determine the quantum state of the multi-mode field. We also discuss a possible way of physical separation of the nonmonochromatic modes.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; minor revisions of the text, new references; to appear in the Phys. Rev.

Linear optics substituting scheme for multi-mode operations

We propose a scheme allowing a conditional implementation of suitably truncated general single- or multi-mode operators acting on states of traveling optical signal modes. The scheme solely relies on single-photon and coherent states and applies beam splitters and zero- and single-photon detections. The signal flow of the setup resembles that of a multi-mode quantum teleportation scheme thus allowing the individual signal modes to be spatially separated from each other. Some examples such as the realization of cross-Kerr nonlinearities, multi-mode mirrors, and the preparation of multi-photon entangled states are considered.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps-figures, using revtex

Purity of Gaussian states: measurement schemes and time-evolution in noisy channels

We present a systematic study of the purity for Gaussian states of single-mode continuous variable systems. We prove the connection of purity to observable quantities for these states, and show that the joint measurement of two conjugate quadratures is necessary and sufficient to determine the purity at any time. The statistical reliability and the range of applicability of the proposed measurement scheme is tested by means of Monte Carlo simulated experiments. We then consider the dynamics of purity in noisy channels. We derive an evolution equation for the purity of general Gaussian states both in thermal and squeezed thermal baths. We show that purity is maximized at any given time for an initial coherent state evolving in a thermal bath, or for an initial squeezed state evolving in a squeezed thermal bath whose asymptotic squeezing is orthogonal to that of the input state.Comment: 9 Pages, 6 Figures; minor errors correcte

Optical realization of universal quantum cloning

Beyond the no-cloning theorem, the universal symmetric quantum cloning machine was first addressed by Buzek and Hillery. Here, we realized the one-to-two qubits Buzek-Hillery cloning machine with linear optical devices. This method relies on the representation of several qubits by a single photon. We showed that, the fidelities between the two output qubits and the original qubit are both 5/6 (which proved to be the optimal fidelity of one-to-two qubits universal cloner) for arbitrary input pure states.Comment: 5 Pages, 2 Figure

Empirical Determination of Bang-Bang Operations

Strong and fast "bang-bang" (BB) pulses have been recently proposed as a means for reducing decoherence in a quantum system. So far theoretical analysis of the BB technique relied on model Hamiltonians. Here we introduce a method for empirically determining the set of required BB pulses, that relies on quantum process tomography. In this manner an experimenter may tailor his or her BB pulses to the quantum system at hand, without having to assume a model Hamiltonian.Comment: 14 pages, 2 eps figures, ReVTeX4 two-colum

Proposal of an experimental scheme for realising a translucent eavesdropping on a quantum cryptographic channel

Purpose of this paper is to suggest a scheme, which can be realised with today's technology and could be used for entangling a probe to a photon qubit based on polarisation. Using this probe a translucent or a coherent eavesdropping can be performed.Comment: in pres

Optimal estimation of qubit states with continuous time measurements

We propose an adaptive, two steps strategy, for the estimation of mixed qubit states. We show that the strategy is optimal in a local minimax sense for the trace norm distance as well as other locally quadratic figures of merit. Local minimax optimality means that given $n$ identical qubits, there exists no estimator which can perform better than the proposed estimator on a neighborhood of size $n^{-1/2}$ of an arbitrary state. In particular, it is asymptotically Bayesian optimal for a large class of prior distributions. We present a physical implementation of the optimal estimation strategy based on continuous time measurements in a field that couples with the qubits. The crucial ingredient of the result is the concept of local asymptotic normality (or LAN) for qubits. This means that, for large $n$, the statistical model described by $n$ identically prepared qubits is locally equivalent to a model with only a classical Gaussian distribution and a Gaussian state of a quantum harmonic oscillator. The term `local' refers to a shrinking neighborhood around a fixed state $\rho_{0}$. An essential result is that the neighborhood radius can be chosen arbitrarily close to $n^{-1/4}$. This allows us to use a two steps procedure by which we first localize the state within a smaller neighborhood of radius $n^{-1/2+\epsilon}$, and then use LAN to perform optimal estimation.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Commun. Math. Phy