1,335 research outputs found
Extracting joint weak values with local, single-particle measurements
Weak measurement is a new technique which allows one to describe the
evolution of postselected quantum systems. It appears to be useful for
resolving a variety of thorny quantum paradoxes, particularly when used to
study properties of pairs of particles. Unfortunately, such nonlocal or joint
observables often prove difficult to measure weakly in practice (for instance,
in optics -- a common testing ground for this technique -- strong photon-photon
interactions would be needed). Here we derive a general, experimentally
feasible, method for extracting these values from correlations between
single-particle observables.Comment: 6 page
Nonlinear optics with less than one photon
We demonstrate suppression and enhancement of spontaneous parametric down-
conversion via quantum interference with two weak fields from a local
oscillator (LO). Pairs of LO photons are observed to upconvert with high
efficiency for appropriate phase settings, exhibiting an effective nonlinearity
enhanced by at least 10 orders of magnitude. This constitutes a two-photon
switch, and promises to be useful for a variety of nonlinear optical effects at
the quantum level.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Classical dispersion-cancellation interferometry
Even-order dispersion cancellation, an effect previously identified with
frequency-entangled photons, is demonstrated experimentally for the first time
with a linear, classical interferometer. A combination of a broad bandwidth
laser and a high resolution spectrometer was used to measure the intensity
correlations between anti-correlated optical frequencies. Only 14% broadening
of the correlation signal is observed when significant material dispersion,
enough to broaden the regular interferogram by 4250%, is introduced into one
arm of the interferometer.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Quantum computing on encrypted data
The ability to perform computations on encrypted data is a powerful tool for
protecting privacy. Recently, protocols to achieve this on classical computing
systems have been found. Here we present an efficient solution to the quantum
analogue of this problem that enables arbitrary quantum computations to be
carried out on encrypted quantum data. We prove that an untrusted server can
implement a universal set of quantum gates on encrypted quantum bits (qubits)
without learning any information about the inputs, while the client, knowing
the decryption key, can easily decrypt the results of the computation. We
experimentally demonstrate, using single photons and linear optics, the
encryption and decryption scheme on a set of gates sufficient for arbitrary
quantum computations. Because our protocol requires few extra resources
compared to other schemes it can be easily incorporated into the design of
future quantum servers. These results will play a key role in enabling the
development of secure distributed quantum systems
Efficient Toffoli Gates Using Qudits
The simplest decomposition of a Toffoli gate acting on three qubits requires
{\em five} 2-qubit gates. If we restrict ourselves to controlled-sign (or
controlled-NOT) gates this number climbs to six. We show that the number of
controlled-sign gates required to implement a Toffoli gate can be reduced to
just {\em three} if one of the three quantum systems has a third state that is
accessible during the computation, i.e. is actually a qutrit. Such a
requirement is not unreasonable or even atypical since we often artificially
enforce a qubit structure on multilevel quantums systems (eg. atoms, photonic
polarization and spatial modes). We explore the implementation of these
techniques in optical quantum processing and show that linear optical circuits
could operate with much higher probabilities of success
Comment on "A linear optics implementation of weak values in Hardy's paradox"
A recent experimental proposal by Ahnert and Payne [S.E. Ahnert and M.C.
Payne, Phys. Rev. A 70, 042102 (2004)] outlines a method to measure the weak
value predictions of Aharonov in Hardy's paradox. This proposal contains flaws
such as the state preparation method and the procedure for carrying out the
requisite weak measurements. We identify previously published solutions to some
of the flaws.Comment: To be published in Physical Review
Time-reversal and super-resolving phase measurements
We demonstrate phase super-resolution in the absence of entangled states. The
key insight is to use the inherent time-reversal symmetry of quantum mechanics:
our theory shows that it is possible to \emph{measure}, as opposed to prepare,
entangled states. Our approach is robust, requiring only photons that exhibit
classical interference: we experimentally demonstrate high-visibility phase
super-resolution with three, four, and six photons using a standard laser and
photon counters. Our six-photon experiment demonstrates the best phase
super-resolution yet reported with high visibility and resolution.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Full characterization of a three-photon GHZ state using quantum state tomography
We have performed the first experimental tomographic reconstruction of a
three-photon polarization state. Quantum state tomography is a powerful tool
for fully describing the density matrix of a quantum system. We measured 64
three-photon polarization correlations and used a "maximum-likelihood"
reconstruction method to reconstruct the GHZ state. The entanglement class has
been characterized using an entanglement witness operator and the maximum
predicted values for the Mermin inequality was extracted.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
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