Entanglement swapping in a Franson interferometer setup

We propose a simple scheme to swap the non local correlations, characteristic of a Franson interferometric setup, between pairs of frequency entangled photons emitted by distinct non linear crystals in a parametric down conversion process. Our scheme consists of two distinct sources of frequency entangled photons. One photon of each pair is sent to a separate Mach - Zender interferometer while the other photons of the pairs are mixed by a beam splitter and then detected in a Ou - Mandel interferometer. For suitably postselected joint measuremetns, the photons sent at the Mach -Zender show a coincidence photocount statistics which depends non locally on the settings of the two interferometers.Comment: Published on the special issue of JMO in honour of the 60th birthday of Sir Peter Knight, FRS. Submitted to JMO on 10 February 2007. While the present manuscript was processed an independent experimental implementation of the same scheme discussed in our manuscript has been made bythe Geneva GAP as described in arXiv:0704.0758v

Entanglement enhanced information transmission over a quantum channel with correlated noise

We show that entanglement is a useful resource to enhance the mutual information of the depolarizing channel when the noise on consecutive uses of the channel has some partial correlations. We obtain a threshold in the degree of memory, depending on the shrinking factor of the channel, above which a higher amount of classical information is transmitted with entangled signals

Composite quantum collision models

A collision model (CM) is a framework to describe open quantum dynamics. In its {\it memoryless} version, it models the reservoir $\mathcal R$ as consisting of a large collection of elementary ancillas: the dynamics of the open system $\mathcal{S}$ results from successive "collisions" of $\mathcal{S}$ with the ancillas of $\mathcal R$. Here, we present a general formulation of memoryless {\it composite} CMs, where $\mathcal S$ is partitioned into the very open system under study $S$ coupled to one or more auxiliary systems $\{S_i\}$. Their composite dynamics occurs through internal $S$-$\{S_i\}$ collisions interspersed with external ones involving $\{S_i\}$ and the reservoir $\mathcal R$. We show that important known instances of quantum {\it non-Markovian} dynamics of $S$ -- such as the emission of an atom into a reservoir featuring a Lorentzian, or multi-Lorentzian, spectral density or a qubit subject to random telegraph noise -- can be mapped on to such {\it memoryless} composite CMs.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

The role of auxiliary states in state discrimination with linear optical evices

The role of auxiliary photons in the problem of identifying a state secretly chosen from a given set of L-photon states is analyzed. It is shown that auxiliary photons do not increase the ability to discriminate such states by means of a global measurement using only optical linear elements, conditional transformation and auxiliary photons.Comment: 5 pages. 1 figure. RevTex documen

Class of exact memory-kernel master equations

A well-known situation in which a non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system $S$ arises is when this is coherently coupled to an auxiliary system $M$ in contact with a Markovian bath. In such cases, while the joint dynamics of $S$-$M$ is Markovian and obeys a standard (bipartite) Lindblad-type master equation (ME), this is in general not true for the reduced dynamics of $S$. Furthermore, there are several instances (\eg the dissipative Jaynes-Cummings model) in which a {\it closed} ME for the $S$'s state {\it cannot} even be worked out. Here, we find a class of bipartite Lindblad-type MEs such that the reduced ME of $S$ can be derived exactly and in a closed form for any initial product state of $S$-$M$. We provide a detailed microscopic derivation of our result in terms of a mapping between two collision modelsComment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Photon localization versus population trapping in a coupled-cavity array

We consider a coupled-cavity array (CCA), where one cavity interacts with a two-level atom under the rotating-wave approximation. We investigate the excitation transport dynamics across the array, which arises in the atom's emission process into the CCA vacuum. Due to the known formation of atom-photon bound states, partial field localization and atomic population trapping in general take place. We study the functional dependance on the coupling strength of these two phenomena and show that the threshold values beyond which they become significant are different. As the coupling strength grows from zero, field localization is exhibited first.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Replaced one plot in Fig.

Entanglement entropy in a periodically driven quantum Ising chain

We numerically study the dynamics of entanglement entropy, induced by an oscillating time periodic driving of the transverse field, h(t), of a one-dimensional quantum Ising chain. We consider several realizations of h(t), and we find a number of results in analogy with entanglement entropy dynamics induced by a sudden quantum quench. After short-time relaxation, the dynamics of entanglement entropy synchronises with h(t), displaying an oscillatory behaviour at the frequency of the driving. Synchronisation in the dynamics of entanglement entropy, is spoiled by the appearance of quasi-revivals which fade out in the thermodynamic limit, and which we interpret using a quasi-particle picture adapted to periodic drivings. Taking the time-average of the entanglement entropy in the synchronised regime, we find that it obeys a volume law scaling with the subsystem's size. Such result is reminiscent of a thermal state or of a Generalised Gibbs ensemble of a quenched Ising chain, although the system does not heat up towards infinite temperature as a consequence of the integrability of the model.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Geometric phase induced by a cyclically evolving squeezed vacuum reservoir

We propose a new way to generate an observable geometric phase by means of a completely incoherent phenomenon. We show how to imprint a geometric phase to a system by "adiabatically" manipulating the environment with which it interacts. As a specific scheme we analyse a multilevel atom interacting with a broad-band squeezed vacuum bosonic bath. As the squeezing parameters are smoothly changed in time along a closed loop, the ground state of the system acquires a geometric phase. We propose also a scheme to measure such geometric phase by means of a suitable polarization detection.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Reversible and irreversible dynamics of a qubit interacting with a small environment

We analyze the dynamics of a system qubit interacting by means a sequence of pairwise collisions with an environment consisting of just two qubits. We show that the density operator of the qubits approaches a common time averaged equilibrium state, characterized by large fluctuations, only for a random sequence of collisions. For a regular sequence of collisions the qubitstates of the system and of the reservoir undergo instantaneous periodic oscillations and do not relax to a common state. Furthermore we show that pure bipartite entanglement is developed only when at least two qubits are initially in the same purestate while otherwise also genuine multipartite entanglement builds up.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Quantum non-Markovian piecewise dynamics from collision models

Recently, a large class of quantum non-Markovian piecewise dynamics for an open quantum system obeying closed evolution equations has been introduced [B. Vacchini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 230401 (2016)]. These dynamics have been defined in terms of a waiting-time distribution between quantum jumps, along with quantum maps describing the effect of jumps and the system's evolution between them. Here, we present a quantum collision model with memory, whose reduced dynamics in the continuous-time limit reproduces the above class of non-Markovian piecewise dynamics, thus providing an explicit microscopic realization.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figures. Submitted to "Open Systems and Information Dynamics" as a contribution to the upcoming special issue titled "40 years of the GKLS equation