Critical behavior in ultra-strong-coupled oscillators

We investigate the strong coupling regime of a linear $x$-$x$ coupled harmonic oscillator system, by performing a direct diagonalization of the hamiltonian. It is shown that the $x$-$x$ coupled hamiltonian can be equivalently described by a Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer with a quadratic unitary operation in each of its arms. We show a sharp transition of the unitary operation from an elliptical phase rotator to an elliptical squeezer as the coupling gets stronger, which leads to the continuous generation of entanglement, even for a significantly thermal state, in the ultra-strong coupled regime. It is also shown that this critical regime cannot be achieved by a classical Hookian coupling. Finally, the effect of a finite-temperature environment is analyzed, showing that entanglement can still be generated from a thermal state in the ultra-strong coupled regime, but is destroyed rapidly

Probing anharmonicity of a quantum oscillator in an optomechanical cavity

We present a way of measuring with high precision the anharmonicity of a quantum oscillator coupled to an optical field via radiation pressure. Our protocol uses a sequence of pulsed interactions to perform a loop in the phase space of the mechanical oscillator, which is prepared in a thermal state. We show how the optical field acquires a phase depending on the anharmonicity. Remarkably, one only needs small initial cooling of the mechanical motion to probe even small anharmonicities. Finally, by applying tools from quantum estimation theory, we calculate the ultimate bound on the estimation precision posed by quantum mechanics and compare it with the precision obtainable with feasible measurements such as homodyne and heterodyne detection on the cavity field. In particular we demonstrate that homodyne detection is nearly optimal in the limit of a large number of photons of the field and we discuss the estimation precision of small anharmonicities in terms of its signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX

Quantum non-Gaussianity witnesses in the phase space

We address detection of quantum non-Gaussian states, i.e. nonclassical states that cannot be expressed as a convex mixture of Gaussian states, and present a method to derive a new family of criteria based on generic linear functionals. We then specialise this method to derive witnesses based on $s$-parametrized quasiprobability functions, generalising previous criteria based on the Wigner function. In particular we discuss in detail and analyse the properties of Husimi Q-function based witnesses and prove that they are often more effective than previous criteria in detecting quantum non-Gaussianity of various kinds of non-Gaussian states evolving in a lossy channel.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Reliable source of conditional non-Gaussian states from single-mode thermal fields

We address both theoretically and experimentally the generation of pulsed non-Gaussian states from classical Gaussian ones by means of conditional measurements. The setup relies on a beam splitter and a pair of linear photodetectors able to resolve up to tens of photons in the two outputs. We show the reliability of the setup and the good agreement with the theory for a single-mode thermal field entering the beam splitter and present a thorough characterization of the photon statistics of the conditional states.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure

Conditional measurements on multimode pairwise entangled states from spontaneous parametric downconversion

We address the intrinsic multimode nature of the quantum state of light obtained by pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion and develop a theoretical model based only on experimentally accessible quantities. We exploit the pairwise entanglement as a resource for conditional multimode measurements and derive closed formulas for the detection probability and the density matrix of the conditional states. We present a set of experiments performed to validate our model in different conditions that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Finally, we evaluate nonGaussianity of the conditional states obtained from our source with the aim of discussing the effects of the different experimental parameters on the efficacy of this type of conditional state preparation

Tripartite quantum state mapping and discontinuous entanglement transfer in a cavity QED open system

We describe the transfer of quantum information and entanglement from three flying (radiation) to three localized (atomic) qubits via cavity modes resonantly coupled to the atoms, in the presence of a common reservoir. Upon addressing the full dynamics of the resulting nine-qubit open system, we find that once the cavities are fed, fidelity and transferred entanglement are optimal, while their peak values exponentially decrease due to dissipative processes. The external radiation is then turned off and quantum correlations oscillate between atomic and cavity qubits. For a class of mixtures of W and GHZ input states we deal with a discontinuous exchange of entanglement among the subsystems, facing the still open problem of entanglement sudden death and birth in a multipartite system.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Nonequilibrium readiness and precision of Gaussian quantum thermometers

The dimensionality of a thermometer is key in the design of quantum thermometry schemes. In general, the phenomenology that is typical of qubit-based quantum thermometry does not apply to infinite-dimensional ones. We analyze the dynamical and metrological features of nonequilibrium Gaussian quantum thermometers: On one hand, we highlight how quantum entanglement can enhance the readiness of composite Gaussian thermometers; on the other hand, we show that nonequilibrium conditions do not guarantee the best sensitivities in temperature estimation, thus suggesting the reassessment of some of the working principles underpinning quantum thermometry

Analysis of spin-squeezing generation in cavity-coupled atomic ensembles with continuous measurements

We analyze the generation of spin-squeezed states via coupling of three-level atoms to an optical cavity and continuous quantum measurement of the transmitted cavity field in order to monitor the evolution of the atomic ensemble. Using analytical treatment and microscopic simulations of the dynamics, we show that one can achieve significant spin squeezing, favorably scaling with the number of atoms N. However, contrary to some previous literature, we clarify that it is not possible to obtain Heisenberg scaling without the continuous feedback that is proposed in optimal approaches. In fact, in the adiabatic cavity removal approximation and large N limit, we find the scaling behavior N - 2 / 3 for spin squeezing and N - 1 / 3 for the corresponding protocol duration. These results can be obtained only by considering the curvature of the Bloch sphere, since linearizing the collective spin operators tangentially to its equator yields inaccurate predictions. With full simulations, we characterize how spin-squeezing generation depends on the system parameters and departs from the bad cavity regime, by gradually mixing with cavity-filling dynamics until metrological advantage is lost. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this spin-squeezing protocol to state-of-the-art optical clocks