Detecting genuine multipartite continuous-variable entanglement

We derive necessary conditions in terms of the variances of position and momentum linear combinations for all kinds of separability of a multi-party multi-mode continuous-variable state. Their violations can be sufficient for genuine multipartite entanglement, provided the combinations contain both conjugate variables of all modes. Hence a complete state determination, for example by detecting the entire correlation matrix of a Gaussian state, is not needed.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Bell-state measurement exceeding 50% success probability with linear optics

Bell-state projections serve as a fundamental basis for most quantum communication and computing protocols today. However, with current Bell-state measurement schemes based on linear optics, only two of four Bell states can be identified, which means that the maximum success probability of this vital step cannot exceed $50\%$. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scheme that amends the original measurement with additional modes in the form of ancillary photons, which leads to a more complex measurement pattern, and ultimately a higher success probability of $62.5\%$. Experimentally, we achieve a success probability of $(57.9 \pm 1.4)\%$, a significant improvement over the conventional scheme. With the possibility of extending the protocol to a larger number of ancillary photons, our work paves the way towards more efficient realisations of quantum technologies based on Bell-state measurements

Broadband teleportation

Quantum teleportation of an unknown broadband electromagnetic field is investigated. The continuous-variable teleportation protocol by Braunstein and Kimble [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 80}, 869 (1998)] for teleporting the quantum state of a single mode of the electromagnetic field is generalized for the case of a multimode field with finite bandwith. We discuss criteria for continuous-variable teleportation with various sets of input states and apply them to the teleportation of broadband fields. We first consider as a set of input fields (from which an independent state preparer draws the inputs to be teleported) arbitrary pure Gaussian states with unknown coherent amplitude (squeezed or coherent states). This set of input states, further restricted to an alphabet of coherent states, was used in the experiment by Furusawa {\it et al.} [Science {\bf 282}, 706 (1998)]. It requires unit-gain teleportation for optimizing the teleportation fidelity. In our broadband scheme, the excess noise added through unit-gain teleportation due to the finite degree of the squeezed-state entanglement is just twice the (entanglement) source's squeezing spectrum for its ``quiet quadrature.'' The teleportation of one half of an entangled state (two-mode squeezed vacuum state), i.e., ``entanglement swapping,'' and its verification are optimized under a certain nonunit gain condition. We will also give a broadband description of this continuous-variable entanglement swapping based on the single-mode scheme by van Loock and Braunstein [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 61}, 10302 (2000)]Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, revised version for publication, Physical Review A (August 2000); major changes, in parts rewritte

Quantum information with continuous variables

Quantum information is a rapidly advancing area of interdisciplinary research. It may lead to real-world applications for communication and computation unavailable without the exploitation of quantum properties such as nonorthogonality or entanglement. We review the progress in quantum information based on continuous quantum variables, with emphasis on quantum optical implementations in terms of the quadrature amplitudes of the electromagnetic field.Comment: accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Physic

Quantum channel of continuous variable teleportation and nonclassicality of quantum states

Noisy teleportation of nonclassical quantum states via a two-mode squeezed-vacuum state is studied with the completely positive map and the Glauber-Sudarshan $P$-function. Using the nonclassical depth as a measure of transmission performance, we compare the teleportation scheme with the direct transmission through a noisy channel. The noise model is based on the coupling to the vacuum field. It is shown that the teleportation channel has better transmission performance than the direct transmission channel in a certain region. The bounds for such region and for obtaining the nonvanished nonclassicality of the teleported quantum states are also discussed. Our model shows a reasonable agreement with the observed teleportation fidelity in the experiment by Furusawa et al. [Science {\bf 282}, 706 (1998)]. We finally mention the required conditions for transmitting nonclassical features in real experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure