Quantifying Non-Markovianity with Temporal Steering

Thermodynamic Approach to Quantifying Incompatible Instruments

We consider a thermodynamic framework to quantify instrument incompatibility via a resource theory subject to thermodynamic constraints. We use the minimal thermalization time needed to erase incompatibility's signature to measure incompatibility. Unexpectedly, this time value is equivalent to incompatibility advantage in a work extraction task. Hence, both thermalization time and extractable work can directly quantify instrument incompatibility. Finally, we show that incompatibility signatures must vanish in non-Markovian thermalization.

Experimental hierarchy of two-qubit quantum correlations without state tomography

A Werner state, which is the singlet Bell state affected by white noise, is a prototype example of states, which can reveal a hierarchy of quantum entanglement, steering, and Bell nonlocality by controlling the amount of noise. However, experimental demonstrations of this hierarchy in a sufficient and necessary way (i.e., by applying measures or universal witnesses of these quantum correlations) have been mainly based on full quantum state tomography, corresponding to measuring at least 15 real parameters of two-qubit states. Here we report an experimental demonstration of this hierarchy by measuring only six elements of a correlation matrix depending on linear combinations of two-qubit Stokes parameters. We show that our experimental setup can also reveal the hierarchy of these quantum correlations of generalized Werner states, which are any two-qubit pure states affected by white noise.

Observation of Non-Markovian Evolution of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is a type of characteristic nonlocal correlation and provides an important resource in quantum information tasks, especially in view of its asymmetric property. Although plenty of works on EPR steering have been reported, the study of non-Markovian evolution of EPR steering, in which the interactions between the quantum system and surrounding environment are taken into consideration, still lacks intuitive experimental evidence. Here, we experimentally observe the non-Markovian evolution of EPR steering including its sudden death and revival processes, during which the degree of memory effect plays a key role in the recovery of steering. Additionally, a strict unsteerable feature is sufficiently verified during the non-Markovian evolution within multisetting measurements. This Letter, revealing the whole evolution of EPR steering under the non-Markovian process, provides incisive insight into the applications of EPR steering in quantum open systems.

Observing Information Backflow from Controllable Non-Markovian Multichannels in Diamond

The unavoidable interaction of a quantum open system with its environment leads to the dissipation of quantum coherence and correlations, making its dynamical behavior a key role in many quantum technologies. In this Letter, we demonstrate the engineering of multiple dissipative channels by controlling the adjacent nuclear spins of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. With a controllable non-Markovian dynamics of this open system, we observe that the quantum Fisher information flows to and from the environment using different noisy channels. Our work contributes to the developments of both noisy quantum metrology and quantum open systems from the viewpoints of metrologically useful entanglement.

Hierarchy of temporal quantum correlations using a correlated spontaneous emission laser

As an active quantum system, the correlated spontaneous emission laser has many valuable applications in quantum information processing. Here, we report on temporal evolution of the quantum correlations such as quantum discord, entanglement, steering, and Bell non-locality for the field retrieved in the form of two-mode Gaussian state using a system of correlated spontaneous emission laser. We consider the initial modes of the cavity field as two independent arbitrary single-mode Gaussian states inside the cavity. The density matrix for the resulting cavity field is evaluated both analytically and numerically with respect to the time evolution of the laser system. The influences of the non-classicality and purity of the initial cavity modes, the Rabi frequency of the classical coupling field, and the cavity damping rates are studied thoroughly. We show explicitly that the boundaries for the four kinds of the temporal quantum correlations of the cavity field retrieved satisfy a strict hierarchy.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering Inequalities and Applications

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is very important quantum correlation of a composite quantum system. It is an intermediate type of nonlocal correlation between entanglement and Bell nonlocality. In this paper, based on introducing definitions and characterizations of EPR steering, some EPR steering inequalities are derived. With these inequalities, the steerability of the maximally entangled state is checked and some conditions for the steerability of the X-states are obtained.

Quantum steerability based on joint measurability

Occupying a position between entanglement and Bell nonlocality, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Many criteria have been proposed and experimentally implemented to characterize EPR-steering. Nevertheless, only a few results are available to quantify steerability using analytical results. In this work, we propose a method for quantifying the steerability in two-qubit quantum states in the two-setting EPR-steering scenario, using the connection between joint measurability and steerability. We derive an analytical formula for the steerability of a class of X-states. The sufficient and necessary conditions for two-setting EPR-steering are presented. Based on these results, a class of asymmetric states, namely, one-way steerable states, are obtained.

Quantifying Quantum-Mechanical Processes

The act of describing how a physical process changes a system is the basis for understanding observed phenomena. For quantum-mechanical processes in particular, the affect of processes on quantum states profoundly advances our knowledge of the natural world, from understanding counter-intuitive concepts to the development of wholly quantum-mechanical technology. Here, we show that quantum-mechanical processes can be quantified using a generic classical-process model through which any classical strategies of mimicry can be ruled out. We demonstrate the success of this formalism using fundamental processes postulated in quantum mechanics, the dynamics of open quantum systems, quantum-information processing, the fusion of entangled photon pairs, and the energy transfer in a photosynthetic pigment-protein complex. Since our framework does not depend on any specifics of the states being processed, it reveals a new class of correlations in the hierarchy between entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering and paves the way for the elaboration of a generic method for quantifying physical processes.

Spatio-Temporal Steering for Testing Nonclassical Correlations in Quantum Networks

We introduce the concept of spatio-temporal steering (STS), which reduces, in special cases, to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering and the recently-introduced temporal steering. We describe two measures of this effect referred to as the STS weight and robustness. We suggest that these STS measures enable a new way to assess nonclassical correlations in an open quantum network, such as quantum transport through nano-structures or excitation transfer in a complex biological system. As one of our examples, we apply STS to check nonclassical correlations among sites in a photosynthetic pigment-protein complex in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson model.

Experimental temporal quantum steering

Temporal steering is a form of temporal correlation between the initial and final state of a quantum system. It is a temporal analogue of the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (spatial) steering. We demonstrate, by measuring the photon polarization, that temporal steering allows two parties to verify if they have been interacting with the same particle, even if they have no information about what happened with the particle in between the measurements. This is the first experimental study of temporal steering. We also performed experimental tests, based on the violation of temporal steering inequalities, of the security of two quantum key distribution protocols against individual attacks. Thus, these results can lead to applications for secure quantum communications and quantum engineering.

Operational Characterization of Divisibility of Dynamical Maps

In this work, we show the operational characterization to the divisibility of dynamical maps in terms of the distinguishability of quantum channels. It is proven that the distinguishability of any pair of quantum channels does not increase under divisible maps, in which the full hierarchy of divisibility is isomorphic to the structure of entanglement between system and environment. This shows that (i) channel distinguishability is the operational quantity signifying (detecting) divisibility (indivisibility) of dynamical maps and (ii) the decision problem for the divisibility of maps is as hard as the separability problem in entanglement theory. We also provide the information-theoretic characterization to the divisibility of maps with conditional min-entropy.