Quantum Measurements, Energy Conservation and Quantum Clocks

We consider a spin chain extending from Alice to Bob with next neighbors interactions, initially in its ground state. Assuming that Bob measures the last spin of the chain, the energy of the spin chain has to increase, at least on average, due to the measurement disturbance. Presumably, the energy is provided by Bob's measurement apparatus. Assuming now that, simultaneously to Bob's measurement, Alice measures the first spin, we show that either energy is not conserved, - implausible - or the projection postulate doesn't apply, and that there is signalling. An explicit measurement model shows that energy is conserved (as expected), but that the spin chain energy increase is not provided by the measurement apparatus(es), that the projection postulate is not always valid - illustrating the Wigner-Araki-Yanase (WAY) theorem - and that there is signalling, indeed. The signalling is due to the non-local interaction Hamiltonian. This raises the question of a suitable quantum information inspired model of such non-local Hamiltonians.Comment: 7 pages + appendices, 6 figure

Tight Bell inequalities from polytope slices

We derive new tight bipartite Bell inequalities for various scenarios. A bipartite Bell scenario $(X,Y,A,B)$ is defined by the numbers of settings and outcomes per party, $X$, $A$ and $Y$, $B$ for Alice and Bob, respectively. We derive the complete set of facets of the local polytopes of $(6,3,2,2)$, $(3,3,3,2)$, $(3,2,3,3)$, and $(2,2,3,5)$. We provide extensive lists of facets for $(2,2,4,4)$, $(3,3,4,2)$ and $(4,3,3,2)$. For each inequality we compute the maximum quantum violation, the resistance to noise, and the minimal symmetric detection efficiency required to close the detection loophole, for qubits, qutrits and ququarts. Based on these results, we identify scenarios which perform better in terms of visibility, resistance to noise, or both, when compared to CHSH. Such scenarios could find important applications in quantum communication

High precision measurement of the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction between two rare-earth ions in a solid

We report on a direct measurement of the pair-wise anti-symmetric exchange interaction, known as the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction (DMI), in a Nd3+-doped YVO4 crystal. To this end we introduce a broadband electron spin resonance technique coupled with an optical detection scheme which selectively detects only one Nd3+-Nd3+ pair. Using this technique we can fully determine the spin-spin coupling tensor, allowing us to experimentally determine both the strength and direction of the DMI vector. We believe that this ability to fully determine the interaction Hamiltonian is of interest for studying the numerous magnetic phenomena where the DMI interaction is of fundamental importance, including multiferroics. We also detect a singlet-triplet transition within the pair, with a highly suppressed magnetic-field dependence, which suggests that such systems could form singlet-triplet qubits with long coherence times for quantum information applications

Semi-device-independent quantum key distribution based on a coherence equality

We introduce the first example of a semi-device-independent quantum key distribution (SDI-QKD) protocol with a classical Alice and Bob. The protocol is based on the Coherence Equality (CE) game recently introduced by del Santo and Daki\'c, which verifies a coherent quantum superposition of communication trajectories in a de-localized way. We show the protocol to be semi-device-independent since the only trusted operations occur in the users' labs, and establish security against an adversary with bounded quantum memory. Finally, we recast the setup of the protocol as a counterfactual test of nonlocality, and provide additional insight into the CE game.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Characterising correlations under informational restrictions

The strength of correlations observed between two separated events hinges on the amount of information transmitted between them. We characterise the correlations that can be created in classical and quantum experiments which feature a given amount of communicated information. For classical models, we present a complete characterisation of informationally restricted correlations in terms of linear programming. For quantum models, we develop a hierarchy of increasingly precise semidefinite relaxations to bound the set of informationally restricted quantum correlations. We leverage these techniques to i) derive device-independent witnesses of the information content of quantum communication, ii) the derivation of strict inequalities for different quantum information resources and iii) a new avenue for semi-device-independent random number generation based on the information assumption.Comment: First versio

Third law of thermodynamics and the scaling of quantum computers

The third law of thermodynamics, also known as the Nernst unattainability principle, puts a fundamental bound on how close a system, whether classical or quantum, can be cooled to a temperature near to absolute zero. On the other hand, a fundamental assumption of quantum computing is to start each computation from a register of qubits initialized in a pure state, i.e., at zero temperature. These conflicting aspects, at the interface between quantum computing and thermodynamics, are often overlooked or, at best, addressed only at a single-qubit level. In this work, we argue how the existence of a small, but finite, effective temperature, which makes the initial state a mixed state, poses a real challenge to the fidelity constraints required for the scaling of quantum computers. Our theoretical results, carried out for a generic quantum circuit with $N$-qubit input states, are validated by test runs performed on a real quantum processor.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Quantum-inspired classification based on quantum state discrimination

We present quantum-inspired algorithms for classification tasks inspired by the problem of quantum state discrimination. By construction, these algorithms can perform multiclass classification, prevent overfitting, and generate probability outputs. While they could be implemented on a quantum computer, we focus here on classical implementations of such algorithms. The training of these classifiers involves Semi-Definite Programming. We also present a relaxation of these classifiers that utilizes Linear Programming (but that can no longer be interpreted as a quantum measurement). Additionally, we consider a classifier based on the Pretty Good Measurement (PGM) and show how to implement it using an analogue of the so-called Kernel Trick, which allows us to study its performance on any number of copies of the input state. We evaluate these classifiers on the MNIST and MNIST-1D datasets and find that the PGM generally outperforms the other quantum-inspired classifiers and performs comparably to standard classifiers.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Efficient optical pumping using hyperfine levels in 145^{145}Nd3+^{3+}:Y2_2SiO5_5 and its application to optical storage

Efficient optical pumping is an important tool for state initialization in quantum technologies, such as optical quantum memories. In crystals doped with Kramers rare-earth ions, such as erbium and neodymium, efficient optical pumping is challenging due to the relatively short population lifetimes of the electronic Zeeman levels, of the order of 100 ms at around 4 K. In this article we show that optical pumping of the hyperfine levels in isotopically enriched $^{145}$Nd$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystals is more efficient, owing to the longer population relaxation times of hyperfine levels. By optically cycling the population many times through the excited state a nuclear-spin flip can be forced in the ground-state hyperfine manifold, in which case the population is trapped for several seconds before relaxing back to the pumped hyperfine level. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in applications we perform an atomic frequency comb memory experiment with 33% storage efficiency in $^{145}$Nd$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$, which is on a par with results obtained in non-Kramers ions, e.g. europium and praseodymium, where optical pumping is generally efficient due to the quenched electronic spin. Efficient optical pumping in neodymium-doped crystals is also of interest for spectral filtering in biomedical imaging, as neodymium has an absorption wavelength compatible with tissue imaging. In addition to these applications, our study is of interest for understanding spin dynamics in Kramers ions with nuclear spin.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure