2,132 research outputs found
Loss-Induced Limits to Phase Measurement Precision with Maximally Entangled States
The presence of loss limits the precision of an approach to phase measurement
using maximally entangled states, also referred to as NOON states. A
calculation using a simple beam-splitter model of loss shows that, for all
nonzero values L of the loss, phase measurement precision degrades with
increasing number N of entangled photons for N sufficiently large. For L above
a critical value of approximately 0.785, phase measurement precision degrades
with increasing N for all values of N. For L near zero, phase measurement
precision improves with increasing N down to a limiting precision of
approximately 1.018 L radians, attained at N approximately equal to 2.218/L,
and degrades as N increases beyond this value. Phase measurement precision with
multiple measurements and a fixed total number of photons N_T is also examined.
For L above a critical value of approximately 0.586, the ratio of phase
measurement precision attainable with NOON states to that attainable by
conventional methods using unentangled coherent states degrades with increasing
N, the number of entangled photons employed in a single measurement, for all
values of N. For L near zero this ratio is optimized by using approximately
N=1.279/L entangled photons in each measurement, yielding a precision of
approximately 1.340 sqrt(L/N_T) radians.Comment: Additional references include
Quantum estimation of a damping constant
We discuss an interferometric approach to the estimation of quantum
mechanical damping. We study specific classes of entangled and separable probe
states consisting of superpositions of coherent states. Based on the assumption
of limited quantum resources we show that entanglement improves the estimation
of an unknown damping constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
The role of the electromagnetic field in the formation of domains in the process of symmetry breaking phase transitions
In the framework of quantum field theory we discuss the emergence of a phase
locking among the electromagnetic modes and the matter components on an
extended space-time region. We discuss the formation of extended domains
exhibiting in their fundamental states non-vanishing order parameters, whose
existence is not included in the Lagrangian. Our discussion is motivated by the
interest in the study of the general problem of the stability of mesoscopic and
macroscopic complex systems arising from fluctuating quantum components in
connection with the problem of defect formation during the process of
non-equilibrium symmetry breaking phase transitions characterized by an order
parameter.Comment: Physical Review A, in the pres
Overcoming decoherence in the collapse and revival of spin Schr\"odinger cats
In addition to being a very interesting quantum phenomenon, Schr\"odinger cat
swapping has the potential for application in the preparation of quantum states
that could be used in metrology and other quantum processing. We study in
detail the effects of field decoherence on a cat-swapping system comprising a
set of identical qubits, or spins, all coupled to a field mode. We demonstrate
that increasing the number of spins actually mitigates the effects of field
decoherence on the collapse and revival of a spin Schr\"odinger cat, which
could be of significant utility in quantum metrology and other quantum
processing.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Recoherence in the entanglement dynamics and classical orbits in the N-atom Jaynes-Cummings model
The rise in linear entropy of a subsystem in the N-atom Jaynes-Cummings model
is shown to be strongly influenced by the shape of the classical orbits of the
underlying classical phase space: we find a one-to-one correspondence between
maxima (minima) of the linear entropy and maxima (minima) of the expectation
value of atomic excitation J_z. Since the expectation value of this operator
can be viewed as related to the orbit radius in the classical phase space
projection associated to the atomic degree of freedom, the proximity of the
quantum wave packet to this atomic phase space borderline produces a maximum
rate of entanglement. The consequence of this fact for initial conditions
centered at periodic orbits in regular regions is a clear periodic recoherence.
For chaotic situations the same phenomenon (proximity of the atomic phase space
borderline) is in general responsible for oscillations in the entanglement
properties.Comment: 15 pages (text), 6 figures; to be published in Physical Review
Laser-modified one- and two-photon absorption:Expanding the scope of optical nonlinearity
It is shown that conventional one-photon and two-photon absorption processes can be made subject to nonlinear optical control, in each case significantly modifying the efficiency of absorption, through the effect of a secondary, off-resonant stimulus laser beam. The mechanistic origin of these laser-modified absorption processes, in which the stimulus beam emerges unchanged, is traced to higher-order terms in standard perturbation treatments. These normally insignificant terms become unusually prominent when the secondary optical stimulus is moderately intense. Employing a quantum formulation, the effects of the stimulus beam on one-photon and two-photon absorption are analyzed, and calculations are performed to determine the degree of absorption enhancement, and the form of spectral manifestation, under various laser intensities. The implications of differences in selection rules are also considered and exemplified, leading to the identification of dark states that can be populated as a result of laser-modified absorption. Attention is also drawn to the possibility of quantum nondemolition measurements, based on such a form of optical nonlinearity
An efficient scheme for the deterministic maximal entanglement of N trapped ions
We propose a method for generating maximally entangled states of N two-level
trapped ions. The method is deterministic and independent of the number of ions
in the trap. It involves a controlled-NOT acting simultaneously on all the ions
through a dispersive interaction. We explore the potential application of our
scheme for high precision frequency standards.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, submitted to PRL, under review, Revised Version:
Incorporated referee comment
Theory versus experiment for vacuum Rabi oscillations in lossy cavities
The 1996 Brune {\it et al.} experiment on vacuum Rabi oscillation is analyzed
by means of alternative models of atom-reservoir interaction. Agreement with
experimental Rabi oscillation data can be obtained if one defines jump
operators in the dressed-state basis, and takes into account thermal
fluctuations between dressed states belonging to the same manifold. Such
low-frequency transitions could be ignored in a closed cavity, but the cavity
employed in the experiment was open, which justifies our assumption. The cavity
quality factor corresponding to the data is , whereas
reported in the experiment was . The rate of decoherence arising
from opening of the cavity can be of the same order as an analogous correction
coming from finite time resolution (formally equivalent to
collisional decoherence). Peres-Horodecki separability criterion shows that the
rate at which the atom-field state approaches a separable state is controlled
by fluctuations between dressed states from the same manifold, and not by the
rate of transitions towards the ground state. In consequence, improving the
factor we do not improve the coherence properties of the cavity.Comment: typo in eq. (60) corrected; (older comments: 14 figures (1 added),
value of Q improved, a section on the Peres-Horodecki test of separability
added, various small improvements; v3 includes discussion of finite time
resolution, v4 includes microscopic derivation of the master equation
Symmetric M-ary phase discrimination using quantum-optical probe states
We present a theoretical study of minimum error probability discrimination,
using quantum- optical probe states, of M optical phase shifts situated
symmetrically on the unit circle. We assume ideal lossless conditions and full
freedom for implementing quantum measurements and for probe state selection,
subject only to a constraint on the average energy, i.e., photon number. In
particular, the probe state is allowed to have any number of signal and
ancillary modes, and to be pure or mixed. Our results are based on a simple
criterion that partitions the set of pure probe states into equivalence classes
with the same error probability performance. Under an energy constraint, we
find the explicit form of the state that minimizes the error probability. This
state is an unentangled but nonclassical single-mode state. The error
performance of the optimal state is compared with several standard states in
quantum optics. We also show that discrimination with zero error is possible
only beyond a threshold energy of (M - 1)/2. For the M = 2 case, we show that
the optimum performance is readily demonstrable with current technology. While
transmission loss and detector inefficiencies lead to a nonzero erasure
probability, the error rate conditional on no erasure is shown to remain the
same as the optimal lossless error rate.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Loss-resilient photonic entanglement swapping using optical hybrid states
We propose a scheme of loss-resilient entanglement swapping between two distant parties via an imperfect optical channel. In this scheme, two copies of hybrid entangled states are prepared and the continuous-variable parts propagate through lossy media. In order to perform successful entanglement swapping, several different measurement schemes are considered for the continuous-variable parts such as single-photon detection for ideal cases and a homodyne detection for practical cases. We find that the entanglement swapping using hybrid states with small amplitudes offers larger entanglement than the discrete-variable entanglement swapping in the presence of large losses. Remarkably, this hybrid scheme still offers excellent robustness of entanglement to the detection inefficiency. Thus, the proposed scheme could be used for the practical quantum key distribution in hybrid optical states under photon losses
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