Against Quantum Noise

This is a brief description of how to protect quantum states from dissipation and decoherence that arise due to uncontrolled interactions with the environment. We discuss recoherence and stabilisation of quantum states based on two techniques known as "symmetrisation" and "quantum error correction". We illustrate our considerations with the most popular quantum-optical model of the system-environment interaction, commonly used to describe spontaneous emission, and show the benefits of quantum error correction in this case.Comment: 12 pages. Presented at the International Conference "Quantum Optics IV", Jaszowiec, Poland, June 17-24 1997. An introductory overview of quantum dissipation and error correction. Late submission to the archive due to requests and the limited availability of the journa

Classical and quantum capacities of a fully correlated amplitude damping channel

We study information transmission over a fully correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive the single-shot classical channel capacity and show that entanglement is needed to achieve the channel best performance. We discuss the degradability properties of the channel and evaluate the quantum capacity for any value of the noise parameter. We finally compute the entanglement-assisted classical channel capacity.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Information transmission over an amplitude damping channel with an arbitrary degree of memory

We study the performance of a partially correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive lower bounds for the single-shot classical capacity by studying two kinds of quantum ensembles, one which allows to maximize the Holevo quantity for the memoryless channel and the other allowing the same task but for the full-memory channel. In these two cases, we also show the amount of entanglement which is involved in achieving the maximum of the Holevo quantity. For the single-shot quantum capacity we discuss both a lower and an upper bound, achieving a good estimate for high values of the channel transmissivity. We finally compute the entanglement-assisted classical channel capacity.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Quantum channel detection

We present a method to detect properties of quantum channels, assuming that some a priori information about the form of the channel is available. The method is based on a correspondence with entanglement detection methods for multipartite density matrices based on witness operators. We first illustrate the method in the case of entanglement breaking channels and non separable random unitary channels, and show how it can be implemented experimentally by means of local measurements. We then study the detection of non separable maps and show that for pairs of systems of dimension higher than two the detection operators are not the same as in the random unitary case, highlighting a richer separability structure of quantum channels with respect to quantum states. Finally we consider the set of PPT maps, developing a technique to reveal NPT maps.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, published versio

On Quantum Algorithms

Quantum computers use the quantum interference of different computational paths to enhance correct outcomes and suppress erroneous outcomes of computations. In effect, they follow the same logical paradigm as (multi-particle) interferometers. We show how most known quantum algorithms, including quantum algorithms for factorising and counting, may be cast in this manner. Quantum searching is described as inducing a desired relative phase between two eigenvectors to yield constructive interference on the sought elements and destructive interference on the remaining terms.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Stabilisation of Quantum Computations by Symmetrisation

We propose a method for the stabilisation of quantum computations (including quantum state storage). The method is based on the operation of projection into $\cal SYM$, the symmetric subspace of the full state space of $R$ redundant copies of the computer. We describe an efficient algorithm and quantum network effecting $\cal SYM$--projection and discuss the stabilising effect of the proposed method in the context of unitary errors generated by hardware imprecision, and nonunitary errors arising from external environmental interaction. Finally, limitations of the method are discussed.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 2 postscript figure

Equi-entangled bases in arbitrary dimensions

For the space of two identical systems of arbitrary dimensions, we introduce a continuous family of bases with the following properties: i) the bases are orthonormal, ii) in each basis, all the states have the same values of entanglement, and iii) they continuously interpolate between the product basis and the maximally entangled basis. The states thus constructed may find applications in many areas related to quantum information science including quantum cryptography, optimal Bell tests and investigation of enhancement of channel capacity due to entanglement.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Error Correction in Quantum Communication

We show how procedures which can correct phase and amplitude errors can be directly applied to correct errors due to quantum entanglement. We specify general criteria for quantum error correction, introduce quantum versions of the Hamming and the Gilbert-Varshamov bounds and comment on the practical implementation of quantum codes.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex fil

Generation and detection of bound entanglement

We propose a method for the experimental generation of two different families of bound entangled states of three qubits. Our method is based on the explicit construction of a quantum network that produces a purification of the desired state. We also suggest a route for the experimental detection of bound entanglement, by employing a witness operator plus a test of the positivity of the partial transposes

Experimental generation of entanglement from classical correlations via non-unital local noise

We experimentally show how classical correlations can be turned into quantum entanglement, via the presence of non-unital local noise and the action of a CNOT gate. We first implement a simple two-qubit protocol in which entanglement production is not possible in the absence of local non-unital noise, while entanglement arises with the introduction of noise, and is proportional to the degree of noisiness. We then perform a more elaborate four-qubit experiment, by employing two hyperentangled photons initially carrying only classical correlations. We demonstrate a scheme where the entanglement is generated via local non-unital noise, with the advantage to be robust against local unitaries performed by an adversary.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure