Probability-based comparison of quantum states

We address the following state comparison problem: is it possible to design an experiment enabling us to unambiguously decide (based on the observed outcome statistics) on the sameness or difference of two unknown state preparations without revealing complete information about the states? We find that the claim "the same" can never be concluded without any doubts unless the information is complete. Moreover, we prove that a universal comparison (that perfectly distinguishes all states) also requires complete information about the states. Nevertheless, for some measurements, the probability distribution of outcomes still allows one to make an unambiguous conclusion regarding the difference between the states even in the case of incomplete information. We analyze an efficiency of such a comparison of qudit states when it is based on the SWAP-measurement. For qubit states, we consider in detail the performance of special families of two-valued measurements enabling us to successfully compare at most half of the pairs of states. Finally, we introduce almost universal comparison measurements which can distinguish almost all non-identical states (up to a set of measure zero). The explicit form of such measurements with two and more outcomes is found in any dimension.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, some results are extende

Coexistence of antiferrodistortive and ferroelectric distortions at the PbTiO3_3 (001) surface

The c(2$\times$2) reconstruction of (001) PbTiO$_3$ surfaces is studied by means of first principles calculations for paraelectric (non-polar) and ferroelectric ([001] polarized) films. Analysis of the atomic displacements in the near-surface region shows how the surface modifies the antiferrodistortive (AFD) instability and its interaction with ferroelectric (FE) distortions. The effect of the surface is found to be termination dependent. The AFD instability is suppressed at the TiO$_2$ termination while it is strongly enhanced, relative to the bulk, at the PbO termination resulting in a c(2x2) surface reconstruction which is in excellent agreement with experiments. We find that, in contrast to bulk PbTiO$_3$, in-plane ferroelectricity at the PbO termination does not suppress the AFD instability. The AFD and the in-plane FE distortions are instead concurrently enhanced at the PbO termination. This leads to a novel surface phase with coexisting FE and AFD distortions which is not found in PbTiO$_3$ bulk

Disentanglement of two harmonic oscillators in relativistic motion

We study the dynamics of quantum entanglement between two Unruh-DeWitt detectors, one stationary (Alice), and another uniformly accelerating (Rob), with no direct interaction but coupled to a common quantum field in (3+1)D Minkowski space. We find that for all cases studied the initial entanglement between the detectors disappears in a finite time ("sudden death"). After the moment of total disentanglement the correlations between the two detectors remain nonzero until late times. The relation between the disentanglement time and Rob's proper acceleration is observer dependent. The larger the acceleration is, the longer the disentanglement time in Alice's coordinate, but the shorter in Rob's coordinate.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures; typos added, minor changes in Secs. I and

High fidelity readout scheme for rare-earth solid state quantum computing

We propose and analyze a high fidelity readout scheme for a single instance approach to quantum computing in rare-earth-ion-doped crystals. The scheme is based on using different species of qubit and readout ions, and it is shown that by allowing the closest qubit ion to act as a readout buffer, the readout error can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude. The scheme is shown to be robust against certain experimental variations, such as varying detection efficiencies, and we use the scheme to predict the expected quantum fidelity of a CNOT gate in these solid state systems. In addition, we discuss the potential scalability of the protocol to larger qubit systems. The results are based on parameters which we believed are experimentally feasible with current technology, and which can be simultaneously realized.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Spin three gauge theory revisited

We study the problem of consistent interactions for spin-3 gauge fields in flat spacetime of arbitrary dimension n>3. Under the sole assumptions of Poincar\'e and parity invariance, local and perturbative deformation of the free theory, we determine all nontrivial consistent deformations of the abelian gauge algebra and classify the corresponding deformations of the quadratic action, at first order in the deformation parameter. We prove that all such vertices are cubic, contain a total of either three or five derivatives and are uniquely characterized by a rank-three constant tensor (an internal algebra structure constant). The covariant cubic vertex containing three derivatives is the vertex discovered by Berends, Burgers and van Dam, which however leads to inconsistencies at second order in the deformation parameter. In dimensions n>4 and for a completely antisymmetric structure constant tensor, another covariant cubic vertex exists, which contains five derivatives and passes the consistency test where the previous vertex failed.Comment: LaTeX, 37 pages. References and comments added. Published versio

Lower and upper bounds on the fidelity susceptibility

We derive upper and lower bounds on the fidelity susceptibility in terms of macroscopic thermodynamical quantities, like susceptibilities and thermal average values. The quality of the bounds is checked by the exact expressions for a single spin in an external magnetic field. Their usefulness is illustrated by two examples of many-particle models which are exactly solved in the thermodynamic limit: the Dicke superradiance model and the single impurity Kondo model. It is shown that as far as divergent behavior is considered, the fidelity susceptibility and the thermodynamic susceptibility are equivalent for a large class of models exhibiting critical behavior.Comment: 19 page

CP^n, or, entanglement illustrated

We show that many topological and geometrical properties of complex projective space can be understood just by looking at a suitably constructed picture. The idea is to view CP^n as a set of flat tori parametrized by the positive octant of a round sphere. We pay particular attention to submanifolds of constant entanglement in CP^3 and give a few new results concerning them.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure