We provide a unified framework for nonsignalling quantum and classical multipartite correlations, allowing all to be written as the trace of some local (quantum) measurements multiplied by an operator. The properties of this operator define the corresponding set of correlations. We then show that if the theory is such that all local quantum measurements are possible, one obtains the correlations corresponding to the extension of Gleason's Theorem to multipartite systems. Such correlations coincide with the quantum ones for one and two parties, but we prove the existence of a gap for three or more parties.
We provide a unified framework for nonsignalling quantum and classical multipartite correlations, allowing all to be written as the trace of some local (quantum) measurements multiplied by an operator. The properties of this operator define the corresponding set of correlations. We then show that if the theory is such that all local quantum measurements are possible, one obtains the correlations corresponding to the extension of Gleason's Theorem to multipartite systems. Such correlations coincide with the quantum ones for one and two parties, but we prove the existence of a gap for three or more parties.
We analyze a family of measures of general quantum correlations for composite systems, defined in terms of the bipartite entanglement necessarily created between systems and apparatuses during local measurements. For every entanglement monotone E, this operational correspondence provides a different measure QE of quantum correlations. Examples of such measures are the relative entropy of quantumness, the quantum deficit, and the negativity of quantumness. In general, we prove that any so-defined quantum correlation measure is always greater than (or equal to) the corresponding entanglement between the subsystems, ${Q}_{E}\ensuremath{\ge}E$, for arbitrary states of composite quantum systems. We analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the flow of correlations in iterated measurements, showing that general quantum correlations and entanglement can never decrease along von Neumann chains, and that genuine multipartite entanglement in the initial state of the observed system always gives rise to genuine multipartite entanglement among all subsystems and all measurement apparatuses at any level in the chain. Our results provide a comprehensive framework to understand and quantify general quantum correlations in multipartite states.
Quantum correlations often defy an explanation in terms of fundamental notions of classical physics, such as causality, locality, and realism. While the mathematical theory underpinning quantum correlations between spacelike separated systems has been well-established since the 1930s, the mathematical theory for correlations between non-spacelike separated systems is much less developed. In this work, we develop the theory of what we refer to as "local-density operators", which we view as joint states for possibly non-spacelike separated quantum systems. Local-density operators are unit trace operators whose marginals are genuine density operators, which we show not only subsumes the notion of density operator, but also several extensions of the notion of density operator into the spatiotemporal domain, such as pseudo-density operators and quantum states over time. More importantly, we prove a result which establishes a one-to-one correspondence between local-density operators and what we refer to as "Dirac measures", which are complex-valued measures on the space of separable projectors associated with two quantum systems. In the case that one of the systems is the trivial quantum system with a one-dimensional Hilbert space, our result recovers the fundamental result known as Gleason's Theorem, which implies that the Born rule from quantum theory is the only way in which one may assign probabilities to the outcomes of measurements performed on quantum systems in a non-contextual manner. As such, our results establish a direct generalization of Gleason's Theorem to measurements performed on possibly non-spacelike separated systems, thus extending the mathematical theory of quantum correlations across space to quantum correlations across space and time.
Quantum correlations, crucial for the advantage and advancement of quantum science and technology, arise from the impossibility of expressing a quantum state as a tensor product over a given set of parties. In this work, a generalized notion of correlations via arbitrary products is formulated. Remarkably, as a universal property, the connection between such general products and tensor products is established, allowing one to relate generic non-product states to the common notion of entangled states. We construct the set of free operations for general types of products by extending the local-operation-and-classical-communication paradigm, familiar from standard entanglement theory, thereby establishing a resource theory of correlations for general products. A generalization is provided beyond two factors that can be universally related to multipartite entanglement. Applications that highlight the usefulness of the approach are discussed, such as the factorization of fermionic states, the non-local factorization of multi-photon states into single-photon states, and the interesting possibility of understanding prime numbers as a form of single-party entanglement.
Despite the success of quantum mechanics in predicting the outcomes of experiments in many branches of physics, the foundations of the theory have remained subject of research and dispute. At the basis of this struggle with the theory lie the phenomena of nonlocality and entanglement. Since it was first predicted by Bell in 1964, nonlocality was not only verified in numerous experiments, but also identified as a useful resource for quantum information processing. Thus, the study of nonlocality is important both from a fundamental point of view and with respect to new applications in quantum information theory, such as secure cryptography and randomness generation. The identification of entanglement as a resource for quantum information led to a strong theoretical effort devoted to its characterisation and detection. Many of the resulting mathematical tools find application in several domains of physics. Although the only known way to create nonlocal correlations is to measure entangled quantum systems, it has been shown that entanglement and nonlocality constitute two inequivalent properties. Therefore, in the light of the success of entanglement theory, it is of interest to also devise a resource theory of nonlocality. The task of this thesis is to develop such a theoretical framework for the characterisation of nonlocality as a resource. To gain a better understanding of nonlocal correlations it will be necessary to investigate correlation scenarios that go beyond the situation originally considered by Bell. In doing so, this thesis provides new description of nonlocality that also have implications for the characterisation of quantum correlations and the detection of new forms of nonlocality. The first question we address is how nonlocality can consistently be defined in a scenario of arbitrarily many parties that may collaborate among each other. To this end we recognise which are the allowed physical operations in this situation and then define nonlocality as the resource that cannot be created by these operations. Our approach shows that the conventional definition of multipartite nonlocality, adopted by the community so far, is inconsistent with this operational definition; we further propose and analyse new models that do not suffer from these inconsistencies. Furthermore, we show that our findings have implications for the characterisation of quantum correlations. A recent approach to describe the set of quantum correlation consists in using principles inspired from information theory. By using a special instance of the models we defined earlier we show a fundamental limitation of this approach: no bipartite information principle is sufficient to single out the set of quantum correlations from the set of nonsignalling correlations. We then developed a description of nonlocality in an even more generalised scenario of several parties. Motivated by a result of Popescu we study scenarios where the parties are allowed to perform not only a single but sequences of measurements on their systems. Characterising nonlocality also in this scenario in operational terms and defining local models compatible with this definition, we show that a new form of nonlocality can be detected Lastly, we examine the problem of detecting the presence of nonlocality in a multipartite scenario when one is given only partial access to the global system. We find that one can verify that the total system must display nonlocality, even though the accessible subsystems only exhibit local correlations.
Characterizing quantum correlations from physical principles is a central problem in the field of quantum information theory. Entanglement breaks bounds on correlations put forth by Bell's theorem, thus challenging the notion of local causality as a physical principle. A natural relaxation is to study no-signalling as a constraint on joint probability distributions. It was shown that, when considered with respect to so-called locally quantum observables, bipartite nonsignalling correlations never exceed their quantum counterparts; still, such correlations generally do not derive from quantum states. This leaves open the search for additional principles which identify quantum states within the larger set of (collections of) nonsignalling joint probability distributions over locally quantum observables. Here, we suggest a natural generalization of no-signalling in the form of no-disturbance to dilated systems. We prove that nonsignalling joint probability distributions satisfying this extension correspond with bipartite quantum states up to a choice of time orientation in subsystems.
Physical theories with local structure similar to quantum theory can allow beyond-quantum global states that are in agreement with unentangled Gleason's theorem. In a standard Bell experiment any such bipartite state produces correlations that are always quantum simulable. In this limited classical-input-classical-output Bell scenario, we show that there exist bipartite beyond-quantum states that produce correlations all of which are in-fact classically simulable. However, if the type of Bell scenario is generalized to consider quantum states as inputs, we then show that any such bipartite beyond-quantum state yields beyond-quantum input-output correlations. We also analyze the implication of this quantum input scenario while studying generic multipartite correlations obtained from local quantum theory but potentially allowing different global structure. Our study suggests the requirement of type sensitive information principles for isolating the quantum correlations from the beyond-quantum ones.