Non-Gaussian-state generation certified using the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-steering inequality

We present a novel, detailed study on the usefulness of three-mode Gaussian states for realistic processing of continuous variable (CV) quantum information, with a particular emphasis on the possibilities opened up by their genuine tripartite entanglement. We describe practical schemes to engineer several classes of pure and mixed three-mode states that stand out for their informational and/or entanglement properties. In particular, we introduce a simple procedure—based on passive optical elements—to produce pure three-mode Gaussian states with arbitrary entanglement structure (upon availability of an initial two-mode squeezed state). We analyse in depth the properties of distributed entanglement and the origin of its sharing structure, showing that the promiscuity of entanglement sharing is a feature peculiar to symmetric Gaussian states that survives even in the presence of significant degrees of mixedness and decoherence. Next, we discuss the suitability of the considered tripartite entangled states to the implementation of quantum information and communication protocols with CVs. This will lead to a feasible experimental proposal to test the promiscuous sharing of CV tripartite entanglement, in terms of the optimal fidelity of teleportation networks with Gaussian resources. We finally focus on the application of three-mode states to symmetric and asymmetric telecloning, and single out the structural properties of the optimal Gaussian resources for the latter protocol in different settings. Our analysis aims to lay the basis for a practical quantum communication with CVs beyond the bipartite scenario.

Quantum information and quantum computing offer a new range of possibilities in terms ofnew computing algorithms, the ability to perform new types of operations and make statementsabout information in terms of what it is physically possible to know about a system.Experiments in quantum information and quantum computing have been advancing significantly,especially over the last decade. In optical quantum computing there are two maintypes of experiments that are performed today. They are experiments involving single photonswith information encoded on the polarisation of the photon and experiments involvingstates with Gaussian noise profiles in their quadratures. There appears to be no way toperform the required operations for universal quantum computing using operations whichtake Gaussian states to Gaussian states. Universal quantum computing using single photonsis possible but uses either enormously large non-linearities or a large number of resources.Also, operations which take Gaussian states to non-Gaussian states are not well understoodin general and can often be very difficult to implement.This thesis presents three sources of optical non-Gaussian states which demonstrate someof the interesting properties of these states. First, a scheme for universal quantum computingusing superpositions of coherent states is presented. Error correction and the fault toleranceproperties of this scheme is also explored and compared with current single photon architectures.These gates require superpositions of coherent states as resources and a relativelysimple scheme is shown for how these states may be generated. Next a scheme for distillingnear ideal Gaussian entanglement using non-Gaussian operations is presented. The loss andnoise conditions under which ideal distillation can be achieved are presented. Finally, a verysimple way of generating mixed non-Gaussian states from two Gaussian states is presented.These states are shown to give rise to counter-intuitive results when measuring their entanglementand when analysing their operational ability in terms of teleportation and quantumkey distribution.

EPR steering is an asymmetric form of correlations which is intermediate between quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality, and can be exploited for quantum communication with one untrusted party. In particular, steering of continuous variable Gaussian states has been extensively studied as a manifestation of the EPR paradox. While most of these studies focused on quadrature measurements for steering detection, two recent works revealed that there exist Gaussian states which are only steerable by non-Gaussian measurements. In this paper we perform a systematic investigation of EPR steering of bipartite Gaussian states by pseudospin measurements, complementing and extending previous findings. We first derive the density matrix elements of two-mode squeezed thermal states in the Fock basis, which may be of independent interest. We then use such a representation to investigate steering of these states as detected by a nonlinear criterion, based on second moments of the pseudospin correlation matrix. This analysis reveals previously unexplored regimes where non-Gaussian measurements are more effective than Gaussian ones to witness steering of Gaussian states in the presence of local noise. We further consider an alternative set of pseudospin observables, whose expectation value can be expressed compactly in terms of Wigner functions for all two-mode Gaussian states. However, according to the adopted criterion, these observables are found to be always less sensitive than Gaussian observables for steering detection. Finally, we investigate continuous variable Werner states, which are non-Gaussian mixtures of Gaussian states, and find that pseudospin measurements are always more effective than Gaussian ones to reveal their steerability. Our results provide useful insights on the role of non-Gaussian measurements in characterizing quantum correlations of Gaussian and non-Gaussian states.

Quantum information can be encoded in a scalable manner over the continuous variables (CV) that are the canonically conjugate quantum amplitudes of the electromagnetic field, which are mathematical equivalents of the position and momentum of the quantum harmonic oscillator. Previous results in our group in Charlottesville and the groups of Akira Furusawa in Tokyo, of Nicolas Treps in Paris, and of Ping-Koy Lam in Canberra, have shown that CV quantum information is massively scalable. In addition, Nicolas Menicucci in Melbourne has shown that there exists a fault tolerance threshold for CV quantum computing with the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill qubit error encoding. Here, we report on our exploration of the extension of scalable CV encoding by way of intramode, rather than intermode, squeezing and entanglement. As is well known, single-mode squeezing can only be considered along with the quasi-mode approximation which assimilates the modes of the optical parametric oscillator cavity used in the experiment to delta functions. As Hans Bachor and Tim Ralph noted, when one ambles beyond this approximation, single-mode squeezing can be described as intramode two-mode squeezing. Here, we aim at generalizing this situation to the case of multipartite entangled cluster states.

Suppose two distant observers Alice and Bob share a pure bipartite quantum state. By applying local operations and communicating with each other using a classical channel, Alice and Bob can manipulate it into some other states. Previous investigations of entanglement manipulations have been largely limited to a small number of strategies and their average outcomes. Here we consider a general entanglement manipulation strategy, and go beyond the average property. For a pure entangled state shared between two separated persons Alice and Bob, we show that the mathematical interchange symmetry of the Schmidt decomposition can be promoted into a physical symmetry between the actions of Alice and Bob. Consequently, the most general (multistep two-way-communications) strategy of entanglement manipulation of a pure state is, in fact, equivalent to a strategy involving only a single (generalized) measurement by Alice followed by one-way communications of its result to Bob. We also prove that strategies with one-way communications are generally more powerful than those without communications. In summary, one-way communications is necessary and sufficient for entanglement manipulations of a pure bipartite state. The supremum probability of obtaining a maximally entangled state (of any dimension) from an arbitrary state is determined, and a strategy for achieving this probability is constructed explicitly. One important question is whether collective manipulations in quantum mechanics can greatly enhance the probability of large deviations from the average behavior. We answer this question in the negative by showing that, given n pairs of identical partly entangled pure states $(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)$ with entropy of entanglement $E(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉),$ the probability of getting $\mathrm{nK}$ $[KgE(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)]$ singlets out of entanglement concentration tends to zero as n tends to infinity.

Bipartite and multipartite entangled states are of central interest in quantum information processing and foundational studies. Efficient verification of these states, especially in the adversarial scenario, is a key to various applications, including quantum computation, quantum simulation, and quantum networks. However, little is known about this topic in the adversarial scenario. Here we initiate a systematic study of pure-state verification in the adversarial scenario. In particular, we introduce a general method for determining the minimal number of tests required by a given strategy to achieve a given precision. In the case of homogeneous strategies, we can even derive an analytical formula. Furthermore, we propose a general recipe to verifying pure quantum states in the adversarial scenario by virtue of protocols for the nonadversarial scenario. Thanks to this recipe, the resource cost for verifying an arbitrary pure state in the adversarial scenario is comparable to the counterpart for the nonadversarial scenario, and the overhead is at most three times for high-precision verification. Our recipe can readily be applied to efficiently verify bipartite pure states, stabilizer states, hypergraph states, weighted graph states, and Dicke states in the adversarial scenario, even if only local projective measurements are accessible. This paper is an extended version of the companion paper Zhu and Hayashi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 260504 (2019).

In this work, we study the generation of non-Gaussian quantum states of light using multimode quantum resources. We first propose a theoretical framework to describe photon subtraction operation - a well known non-Gaussian operation - applied to a multimode Gaussian state. We apply this framework to the case of Schrödinger kitten state generation using a multimode squeezed vacuum as input state. We show that a monomode non-Gaussian state with high purity can be generated by a better choice of the different experimental parameters. Then, we propose a new protocol to generate high amplitude non-Gaussian states using spectral multiplexing of input states and Gaussian operations. We show that this protocol can implement the cat breeding operation with less complexity. We show also that this protocol can be used for the generation of approximated GKP state.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-entangled state light field at a telecommunication wavelength of 1.5 μm is an important quantum source for realizing the continuous variable quantum information processing and some quantum protocols over optical fiber channel. When the EPR-entangled state light field is distributed over the optical fiber channel, the disentanglement is always present because the the EPR entangled state interacts with the fiber channel. It affects the performance of quantum information processing. In this paper, we theoretically calculate the positive partial transposition (PPT) of the entangled state distributed over the optical fiber channel in the single-channel and dual-channel distribution scheme, respectively. Three types of initial entangled light field are considered and analyzed, they being an initial EPR entangled state, an EPR entangled state with asymmetric quadratures, and an EPR entangled state with asymmetric modes. Furthermore, the influence of the extra noise in the optical fiber on the transmission distance of EPR entangled state over the optical fiber channel is investigated. In the single-channel scheme or dual-channel scheme, the extra noise in the optical fiber channel leads the entangled state light field to be disentangled, and the transmission distance of EPR entangled state over the optical fiber channel to decrease rapidly with the increase of the extra noise. For maintaining the robustness of EPR entangled states in lossy optical fiber channels, the dual-channel scheme has more stringent requirements for the correlation quadrature symmetry and purity of the initial entangled state than the single-channel scheme. In the single fiber noise channel scheme, the maximum transmission distance and the robustness of the EPR entangled states with asymmetric modes are not sensitive to the asymmetry between modes. The change of asymmetry between modes does not lead to being disentangled. The maximum transmission distance does not change either. However, the decrease of asymmetry between modes results in the disentanglement in the double fiber noise channels’ scheme. The maximum transmission distance is reduced and the sudden death occurs to the entanglement. The present results will lay a foundation for continuous variables quantum information processing based on optical fiber, such as realizing continuous variables quantum communication over optical fiber and constructing metropolitan quantum network over optical fiber.

We present a class of non-Gaussian two-mode continuous-variable states for which the separability criterion for Gaussian states can be employed to detect whether they are separable or not. These states reduce to the two-mode Gaussian states as a special case.

We investigate continuous variable (CV) quantum teleportation using relevant classes of non-Gaussian states of the radiation field as entangled resources. First, we introduce the class two-mode squeezed symmetric superposition of Fock states, including finite truncations of twin-beam Gaussian states as special realizations. These states depend on a set of free independent parameters that can be adjusted for the optimization of teleportation protocols, with an enhancement of the success probability of teleportation both for coherent and Fock input states. We show that the optimization procedure reduces the entangled resources to truncated twin beam states, which thus represents an optimal class of non-Gaussian resources for quantum teleportation. We then introduce a further class of two-mode non-Gaussian entangled resources, in the form of squeezed cat-like states. We analyze the performance and the properties of such states when optimized for (CV) teleportation, and compare them to the optimized squeezed Bell-like states introduced in a previous work [12]. We discuss how optimal resources for teleportation are characterized by a suitable balance of entanglement content and squeezed vacuum affinity. We finally investigate the effects of thermal noise on the efficiency of quantum teleportation. To this aim, a convenient framework is to describe noisy entangled resources as linear superpositions of non-Gaussian state and thermal states. Although the presence of the thermal component strongly reduces the teleportation fidelity, noisy non-Gaussian states remain preferred resources when compared to noisy twin-beam Gaussian states.

Generation of high fidelity photonic non-Gaussian states is a crucial\ningredient for universal quantum computation using continous-variable\nplatforms, yet it remains a challenge to do so efficiently. We present a\ngeneral framework for a probabilistic production of multimode non-Gaussian\nstates by measuring few modes of multimode Gaussian states via\nphoton-number-resolving detectors. We use Gaussian elements consisting of\nsqueezed displaced vacuum states and interferometers, the only non-Gaussian\nelements consisting of photon-number-resolving detectors. We derive analytic\nexpressions for the output Wigner function, and the probability of generating\nthe states in terms of the mean and the covariance matrix of the Gaussian state\nand the photon detection pattern. We find that the output states can be written\nas a Fock basis superposition state followed by a Gaussian gate, and we derive\nexplicit expressions for these parameters. These analytic expressions show\nexactly what non-Gaussian states can be generated by this probabilistic scheme.\nFurther, it provides a method to search for the Gaussian circuit and\nmeasurement pattern that produces a target non-Gaussian state with optimal\nfidelity and success probability. We present specific examples such as the\ngeneration of cat states, ON states, Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states, NOON\nstates and bosonic code states. The proposed framework has potential\nfar-reaching implications for the generation of bosonic error-correction codes\nthat require non-Gaussian states, resource states for the implementation of\nnon-Gaussian gates needed for universal quantum computation, among other\napplications requiring non-Gaussianity. The tools developed here could also\nprove useful for the quantum resource theory of non-Gaussianity.\n

Distillation of entanglement using only Gaussian operations is an important primitive in quantum communication, quantum repeater architectures, and distributed quantum computing. Existing distillation protocols for continuous degrees of freedom are only known to converge to a Gaussian state when measurements yield precisely the vacuum outcome. In sharp contrast, non-Gaussian states can be deterministically converted into Gaussian states while preserving their second moments, albeit by usually reducing their degree of entanglement. In this work-based on a novel instance of a noncommutative central limit theorem-we introduce a picture general enough to encompass the known protocols leading to Gaussian states, and new classes of protocols including multipartite distillation. This gives the experimental option of balancing the merits of success probability against entanglement produced.

The dynamics of Markovian open quantum systems are described by Lindblad master equations. For fermionic and bosonic systems that are quasi-free, i.e. with Hamiltonians that are quadratic in the ladder operators and Lindblad operators that are linear in the ladder operators, we derive the equation of motion for the covariance matrix. This determines the evolution of Gaussian initial states and the steady states, which are also Gaussian. Using ladder super-operators (a.k.a. third quantization), we show how the Liouvillian can be transformed to a many-body Jordan normal form which also reveals the full many-body spectrum. Extending previous work by Prosen and Seligman, we treat fermionic and bosonic systems on equal footing with Majorana operators, shorten and complete some derivations, also address the odd-parity sector for fermions, give a criterion for the existence of bosonic steady states, cover non-diagonalizable Liouvillians also for bosons, and include quadratic systems. In extension of the quasi-free open systems, quadratic open systems comprise additional Hermitian Lindblad operators that are quadratic in the ladder operators. While Gaussian states may then evolve into non-Gaussian states, the Liouvillian can still be transformed to a useful block-triangular form, and the equations of motion for k-point Green’s functions form a closed hierarchy. Based on this formalism, results on criticality and dissipative phase transitions in such models are discussed in a companion paper.

Traditionally quantum information research has centred on discrete quantum variables, particularly binary variables (qubits). However, recently much attention has focused on quantum information manipulations with continuous variables such as the amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic field. As well as offering the possibility of high data rates, continuous variables also exhibit greater versatility in realizing certain operations. For example teleportation, in which quantum information is passed intact through a classical channel with the assistance of shared entanglement, can be achieved more efficiently using continuous variable techniques. I review recent work on the characterization of teleportation and entanglement swapping and present new work on interferometric tests of teleportation. These interferometric tests are important because they allow the efficacy of teleportation to be checked without knowledge of the input quantum state. They can be applied equally to the cases of discrete and continuous variable inputs and in so doing highlight unexpected similarities. I contrast the various classical limits which emerge from the different ways of assessing teleportation. An obvious omission from the list of continuous variable quantum information manipulations is any proposal for direct analogues of 2 photon interference effects, especially those that lead to Bell inequality type tests of local realism. Bell-type correlations are the defining feature of discrete variable entanglement experimentally. I discuss new work that shows how entanglement of the Bell-type can be observed in continuous variable, homodyne measurement schemes.

Purity and entanglement of two-photon polarization states generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion