Bell correlations at finite temperature

We show that spin systems with infinite-range interactions can violate at thermal equilibrium a multipartite Bell inequality, up to a finite critical temperature $T_c$. Our framework can be applied to a wide class of spin systems and Bell inequalities, to study whether nonlocality occurs naturally in quantum many-body systems close to the ground state. Moreover, we also show that the low-energy spectrum of the Bell operator associated to such systems can be well approximated by the one of a quantum harmonic oscillator, and that spin-squeezed states are optimal in displaying Bell correlations for such Bell inequalities.Comment: 9 pages (7 + Appendix), 2 figures. Version accepted for publication in Quantu

Split spin-squeezed Bose-Einstein Condensates

We investigate and model the behaviour of split spin-squeezed Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) system. In such a system, a spin-polarized BEC is first squeezed using a $(S^z)^2$ interaction, then are split into two separate clouds. After the split, we consider that the particle number in each cloud collapses to a fixed number. We show that this procedure is equivalent to applying an interaction corresponding to squeezing each cloud individually plus an entangling operation. We analyse the system's entanglement properties and show that it can be detected using correlation-based entanglement criteria. The nature of the states are illustrated by Wigner functions and have the form of a correlated squeezed state. The conditional Wigner function shows high degrees of non-classicality for dimensionless squeezing times beyond $1/\sqrt{N}$, where $N$ is the number of particles per BEC.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Number-phase entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering

We use the uncertainty relation between the operators associated to the total number of particles and to the relative phase of two bosonic modes to construct entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering criteria. These can be tested experimentally in a variety of systems, such as optical fields, Bose-Einstein condensates or mechanical oscillators. While known entanglement criteria involving the phase observable typically require to perform interference measurements by recombining the two systems, our criteria can be tested through local measurements at two spatially distinct positions, to investigate the nonlocal nature of quantum correlations. We present simple examples where our criteria are violated, and show their robustness to noise. Apart from being useful for state characterization, they might find application in quantum information protocols, for example based on number-phase teleportation.Comment: Comments are welcome

Bounding the Set of Classical Correlations of a Many-Body System

We present a method to certify the presence of Bell correlations in experimentally observed statistics, and to obtain new Bell inequalities. Our approach is based on relaxing the conditions defining the set of correlations obeying a local hidden variable model, yielding a convergent hierarchy of semidefinite programs (SDP's). Because the size of these SDP's is independent of the number of parties involved, this technique allows us to characterize correlations in many-body systems. As an example, we illustrate our method with the experimental data presented in Science 352, 441 (2016)

Time-energy uncertainty relation for quantum events

Textbook quantum mechanics treats time as a classical parameter and not as a quantum observable with an associated Hermitian operator. For this reason, to make sense of usual time-energy uncertainty relations such as ΔtΔE≳ℏ, the term Δt must be interpreted as a time interval and not as a time measurement uncertainty due to quantum noise. However, quantum clocks allow for a measurement of the “time at which an event happens” by conditioning the system's evolution on an additional quantum degree of freedom. Within this framework we derive here two uncertainty relations that relate the uncertainty in the quantum measurement of the time at which a quantum event happens on a system to its energy uncertainty

Entanglement of Local Hidden States

Steering criteria are conditions whose violation excludes the possibility of describing the observed measurement statistics with local hidden state (LHS) models. When the available data do not allow to exclude arbitrary LHS models, it may still be possible to exclude LHS models with a specific separability structure. Here, we derive experimentally feasible criteria that put quantitative bounds on the multipartite entanglement of LHS. Our results reveal that separable states may contain hidden entanglement that can be unlocked by measurements on another system, even if no steering between the two systems is possible

Normalized Gaussian Path Integrals

Path integrals play a crucial role in describing the dynamics of physical systems subject to classical or quantum noise. In fact, when correctly normalized, they express the probability of transition between two states of the system. In this work, we show a consistent approach to solve conditional and unconditional Euclidean (Wiener) Gaussian path integrals that allow us to compute transition probabilities in the semi-classical approximation from the solutions of a system of linear differential equations. Our method is particularly useful for investigating Fokker-Planck dynamics, and the physics of string-like objects such as polymers. To give some examples, we derive the time evolution of the d-dimensional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, and of the Van der Pol oscillator driven by white noise. Moreover, we compute the end-to-end transition probability for a charged string at thermal equilibrium, when an external field is applied.Comment: 15 pages (7 of appendices), one figur

Does a large quantum Fisher information imply Bell correlations?

The quantum Fisher information (QFI) of certain multipartite entangled quantum states is larger than what is reachable by separable states, providing a metrological advantage. Are these nonclassical correlations strong enough to potentially violate a Bell inequality? Here, we present evidence from two examples. First, we discuss a Bell inequality designed for spin-squeezed states which is violated only by quantum states with a large QFI. Second, we relax a well-known lower bound on the QFI to find the Mermin Bell inequality as a special case. However, a fully general link between QFI and Bell correlations is still open.Comment: 4 pages, minor edit