Quantum parallelism of the controlled-NOT operation: an experimental criterion for the evaluation of device performance

It is shown that a quantum controlled-NOT gate simultaneously performs the logical functions of three distinct conditional local operations. Each of these local operations can be verified by measuring a corresponding truth table of four local inputs and four local outputs. The quantum parallelism of the gate can then be observed directly in a set of three simple experimental tests, each of which has a clear intuitive interpretation in terms of classical logical operations. Specifically, quantum parallelism is achieved if the average fidelity of the three classical operations exceeds 2/3. It is thus possible to evaluate the essential quantum parallelism of an experimental controlled-NOT gate by testing only three characteristic classical operations performed by the gate.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, added references and discussio

Looking for meson molecules in B decays

We discuss the possibility of observing a loosely bound molecular state in a B three-body hadronic decay. In particular we use the QCD sum rule approach to study a $\eta^\prime-\pi$ molecular current. We consider an isovector-scalar $I^G J^{PC}= 1^-~0^{++}$ molecular current and we use the two-point and three-point functions to study the mass and decay width of such state. We consider the contributions of condensates up to dimension six and we work at leading order in $\alpha_s$. We obtain a mass around 1.1 GeV, consistent with a loosely bound state, and a $\eta^\prime-\pi\rightarrow K^+ K^-$ decay width around 10 MeV.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Distillation of local purity from quantum states

Recently Horodecki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 100402 (2003)] introduced an important quantum information processing paradigm, in which two parties sharing many copies of the same bipartite quantum state distill local pure states, by means of local unitary operations assisted by a one-way (two-way) completely dephasing channel. Local pure states are a valuable resource from a thermodynamical point of view, since they allow thermal energy to be converted into work by local quantum heat engines. We give a simple information-theoretical characterization of the one-way distillable local purity, which turns out to be closely related to a previously known operational measure of classical correlations, the one-way distillable common randomness.Comment: 8 page

Special Issue “Machine Learning in Insurance”

Learning in Insurance”, which represents a compilation of ten high-quality articles discussing avant-garde developments or introducing new theoretical or practical advances in this field

Plasmonic metagratings for simultaneous determination of Stokes parameters

Measuring light's state of polarization is an inherently difficult problem, since the phase information between orthogonal polarization states is typically lost in the detection process. In this work, we bring to the fore the equivalence between normalized Stokes parameters and diffraction contrasts in appropriately designed phase-gradient birefringent metasurfaces and introduce a concept of all-polarization birefringent metagratings. The metagrating, which consists of three interweaved metasurfaces, allows one to easily analyze an arbitrary state of light polarization by conducting simultaneous (i.e., parallel) measurements of the correspondent diffraction intensities that reveal immediately the Stokes parameters of the polarization state under examination. Based on plasmonic metasurfaces operating in reflection at the wavelength of 800 nm, we design and realize phase-gradient birefringent metasurfaces and the correspondent metagrating, while experimental characterization of the fabricated components convincingly demonstrates the expected functionalities. We foresee the use of the metagrating in compact polarimetric setups at any frequency regime of interest

High purity bright single photon source

Using cavity-enhanced non-degenerate parametric downconversion, we have built a frequency tunable source of heralded single photons with a narrow bandwidth of 8 MHz, making it compatible with atomic quantum memories. The photon state is 70% pure single photon as characterized by a tomographic measurement and reconstruction of the quantum state, revealing a clearly negative Wigner function. Furthermore, it has a spectral brightness of ~1,500 photons/s per MHz bandwidth, making it one of the brightest single photon sources available. We also investigate the correlation function of the down-converted fields using a combination of two very distinct detection methods; photon counting and homodyne measurement.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; minor changes, added referenc

Frustration, interaction strength and ground-state entanglement in complex quantum systems

Entanglement in the ground state of a many-body quantum system may arise when the local terms in the system Hamiltonian fail to commute with the interaction terms in the Hamiltonian. We quantify this phenomenon, demonstrating an analogy between ground-state entanglement and the phenomenon of frustration in spin systems. In particular, we prove that the amount of ground-state entanglement is bounded above by a measure of the extent to which interactions frustrate the local terms in the Hamiltonian. As a corollary, we show that the amount of ground-state entanglement is bounded above by a ratio between parameters characterizing the strength of interactions in the system, and the local energy scale. Finally, we prove a qualitatively similar result for other energy eigenstates of the system.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Collapse of the quantum correlation hierarchy links entropic uncertainty to entanglement creation

Quantum correlations have fundamental and technological interest, and hence many measures have been introduced to quantify them. Some hierarchical orderings of these measures have been established, e.g., discord is bigger than entanglement, and we present a class of bipartite states, called premeasurement states, for which several of these hierarchies collapse to a single value. Because premeasurement states are the kind of states produced when a system interacts with a measurement device, the hierarchy collapse implies that the uncertainty of an observable is quantitatively connected to the quantum correlations (entanglement, discord, etc.) produced when that observable is measured. This fascinating connection between uncertainty and quantum correlations leads to a reinterpretation of entropic formulations of the uncertainty principle, so-called entropic uncertainty relations, including ones that allow for quantum memory. These relations can be thought of as lower-bounds on the entanglement created when incompatible observables are measured. Hence, we find that entanglement creation exhibits complementarity, a concept that should encourage exploration into "entanglement complementarity relations".Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. Added Figure 1 and various remarks to improve clarity of presentatio

Quantum computation with unknown parameters

We show how it is possible to realize quantum computations on a system in which most of the parameters are practically unknown. We illustrate our results with a novel implementation of a quantum computer by means of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. In particular we show how a universal set of gates can be carried out even if the number of atoms per site is uncertain.Comment: 3 figure