On the quantumness of correlations in nuclear magnetic resonance

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was successfully employed to test several protocols and ideas in Quantum Information Science. In most of these implementations the existence of entanglement was ruled out. This fact introduced concerns and questions about the quantum nature of such bench tests. In this article we address some issues related to the non-classical aspects of NMR systems. We discuss some experiments where the quantum aspects of this system are supported by quantum correlations of separable states. Such quantumness, beyond the entanglement-separability paradigm, is revealed via a departure between the quantum and the classical versions of information theory. In this scenario, the concept of quantum discord seems to play an important role. We also present an experimental implementation of an analogous of the single-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer employing two nuclear spins to encode the interferometric paths. This experiment illustrate how non-classical correlations of separable states may be used to simulate quantum dynamics. The results obtained are completely equivalent to the optical scenario, where entanglement (between two field modes) may be present

Evidence for entanglement at high temperatures in an engineered molecular magnet

The molecular compound [Fe$_{2}$($\mu_{2}$-oxo)(C$_{3}$H$_{4}$N$_{2}$)$_{6}$(C$_{2}$O$_{4}$)$_{2}$] was designed and synthesized for the first time and its structure was determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The magnetic susceptibility of this compound was measured from 2 to 300 K. The analysis of the susceptibility data using protocols developed for other spin singlet ground-state systems indicates that the quantum entanglement would remain at temperatures up to 732 K, significantly above the highest entanglement temperature reported to date. The large gap between the ground state and the first-excited state (282 K) suggests that the spin system may be somewhat immune to decohering mechanisms. Our measurements strongly suggest that molecular magnets are promising candidate platforms for quantum information processing

Experimental realization of the Yang-Baxter Equation via NMR interferometry

The Yang-Baxter equation is an important tool in theoretical physics, with many applications in different domains that span from condensed matter to string theory. Recently, the interest on the equation has increased due to its connection to quantum information processing. It has been shown that the Yang-Baxter equation is closely related to quantum entanglement and quantum computation. Therefore, owing to the broad relevance of this equation, besides theoretical studies, it also became significant to pursue its experimental implementation. Here, we show an experimental realization of the Yang-Baxter equation and verify its validity through a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) interferometric setup. Our experiment was performed on a liquid state Iodotrifluoroethylene sample which contains molecules with three qubits. We use Controlled-transfer gates that allow us to build a pseudo-pure state from which we are able to apply a quantum information protocol that implements the Yang-Baxter equation.Comment: 10 pages and 6 figure

Influence of the external pressure on the quantum correlations of molecular magnets

The study of quantum correlations in solid state systems is a large avenue for research and their detection and manipulation are an actual challenge to overcome. In this context, we show by using first-principles calculations on the prototype material KNaCuSi$_{4}$O$_{10}$ that the degree of quantum correlations in this spin cluster system can be managed by external hydrostatic pressure. Our results open the doors for research in detection and manipulation of quantum correlations in magnetic systems with promising applications in quantum information science

Exact Nonequilibrium Work Generating Function for a Small Classical System

We obtain the exact nonequilibrium work generating function (NEWGF), for a small system consisting of a massive Brownian particle connected to internal and external springs. The external work is provided to the system for a finite time interval. The Jarzynski equality (JE), obtained in this case directly from the NEWGF, is shown to be valid for the present model, in an exact way regardless of the rate of external work

Experimental Determination of Thermal Entanglement in Spin Clusters using Magnetic Susceptibility Measurements

The present work reports an experimental observation of thermal entanglement in a clusterized spin chain formed in the compound Na$_2$Cu$_5$Si$_4$O$_{14}$. The presence of entanglement was investigated through two measured quantities, an Entanglement Witness and the Entanglement of Formation, both derived from the magnetic susceptibility. It was found that pairwise entanglement exists below $\sim 200$ K. Tripartite entanglement was also observed below $\sim 240$ K. A theoretical study of entanglement evolution as a function of applied field and temperature is also presented.Comment: Submited to Phys. Rev.

Nonclassical correlation in NMR quadrupolar systems

The existence of quantum correlation (as revealed by quantum discord), other than entanglement and its role in quantum-information processing (QIP), is a current subject for discussion. In particular, it has been suggested that this nonclassical correlation may provide computational speedup for some quantum algorithms. In this regard, bulk nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been successfully used as a test bench for many QIP implementations, although it has also been continuously criticized for not presenting entanglement in most of the systems used so far. In this paper, we report a theoretical and experimental study on the dynamics of quantum and classical correlations in an NMR quadrupolar system. We present a method for computing the correlations from experimental NMR deviation-density matrices and show that, given the action of the nuclear-spin environment, the relaxation produces a monotonic time decay in the correlations. Although the experimental realizations were performed in a specific quadrupolar system, the main results presented here can be applied to whichever system uses a deviation-density matrix formalism.Comment: Published versio