Two-mode squeezed vacuum and squeezed light in correlated interferometry

We study in detail a system of two interferometers aimed to the detection of extremely faint phase-fluctuations. This system can represent a breakthrough for detecting a faint correlated signal that would remain otherwise undetectable even using the most sensitive individual interferometric devices, that are limited by the shot noise. If the two interferometers experience identical phase-fluctuations, like the ones introduced by the so called "holographic noise", this signal should emerge if their output signals are correlated, while the fluctuations due to shot noise and other independent contributions will vanish. We show how the injecting quantum light in the free ports of the interferometers can reduce the photon noise of the system beyond the shot-noise, enhancing the resolution in the phase-correlation estimation. We analyze both the use of two-mode squeezed vacuum or twin-beam state (TWB) and of two independent squeezing states. Our results basically confirms the benefit of using squeezed beams together with strong coherent beams in interferometry, even in this correlated case. However, mainly we concentrate on the possible use of TWB, discovering interesting and probably unexplored areas of application of bipartite entanglement and in particular the possibility of reaching in principle surprising uncertainty reduction

Toward third order ghost imaging with thermal light

Recently it has been suggested that an enhancement in the visibility of ghost images obtained with thermal light can be achieved exploiting higher order correlations [3]. This paper reports on the status of an higher order ghost imaging experiment carried on at INRIM labs exploiting a pseudo-thermal source and a CCD camera.Comment: To be published in Proceedings of Recent advances in Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Informatio

Experimental estimation of quantum discord for polarization qubit and the use of fidelity to assess quantum correlations

We address the experimental determination of entropic quantum discord for systems made of a pair of polarization qubits. We compare results from full and partial tomography and found that the two determinations are statistically compatible, with partial tomography leading to a smaller value of discord for depolarized states. Despite the fact that our states are well described, in terms of fidelity, by families of depolarized or phase-damped states, their entropic discord may be largely different from that predicted for these classes of states, such that no reliable estimation procedure beyond tomography may be effectively implemented. Our results, together with the lack of an analytic formula for the entropic discord of a generic two-qubit state, demonstrate that the estimation of quantum discord is an intrinsically noisy procedure. Besides, we question the use of fidelity as a figure of merit to assess quantum correlations

Direct experimental observation of nonclassicality in ensembles of single photon emitters

In this work we experimentally demonstrate for the first time a recently proposed criterion adressed to detect nonclassical behavior in the fluorescence emission of ensembles of single-photon emitters. In particular, we apply the method to study clusters of NV centres in diamond observed via single-photon-sensitive confocal microscopy. Theoretical considerations on the behavior of the parameter at any arbitrary order in presence of poissonian noise are presented and, finally, the opportunity of detecting manifold coincidences is discussed

Statistical Estimation of Quantum Tomography Protocols Quality

A novel operational method for estimating the efficiency of quantum state tomography protocols is suggested. It is based on a-priori estimation of the quality of an arbitrary protocol by means of universal asymptotic fidelity distribution and condition number, which takes minimal value for better protocol. We prove the adequacy of the method both with numerical modeling and through the experimental realization of several practically important protocols of quantum state tomography