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arXiv:1112.6238 · Reviews of Modern Physics

The classical-quantum boundary for correlations: Discord and related measures

Kavan Kishore Modi, Aharon Brodutch, Hugo V. Cable, Tomasz Paterek, Vlatko Vedral

Published Nov 26, 2012• 1,599 citations

Abstract

One of the best signatures of nonclassicality in a quantum system is the existence of correlations that have no classical counterpart. Different methods for quantifying the quantum and classical parts of correlations are among the more actively studied topics of quantum-information theory over the past decade. Entanglement is the most prominent of these correlations, but in many cases unentangled states exhibit nonclassical behavior too. Thus distinguishing quantum correlations other than entanglement provides a better division between the quantum and classical worlds, especially when considering mixed states. Here different notions of classical and quantum correlations quantified by quantum discord and other related measures are reviewed. In the first half, the mathematical properties of the measures of quantum correlations are reviewed, related to each other, and the classical-quantum division that is common among them is discussed. In the second half, it is shown that the measures identify and quantify the deviation from classicality in various quantum-information-processing tasks, quantum thermodynamics, open-system dynamics, and many-body physics. It is shown that in many cases quantum correlations indicate an advantage of quantum methods over classical ones.

DOI: 10.1103/revmodphys.84.1655

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Quantum discord, as introduced by Olliver and Zurek [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 017901 (2001)], is a measure of the discrepancy between two natural yet different quantum analogs of the classical mutual information. This notion characterizes and quantifies quantumness of correlations in bipartite states from a measurement perspective, and is fundamentally different from the various entanglement measures in the entanglement vs separability paradigm. The phenomenon of nonzero quantum discord is a manifestation of quantum correlations due to noncommutativity rather than due to entanglement, and has interesting and significant applications in revealing the advantage of certain quantum tasks. We will evaluate analytically the quantum discord for a large family of two-qubit states, and make a comparative study of the relationships between classical and quantum correlations in terms of the quantum discord. We furthermore compare the quantum discord with the entanglement of formation, and illustrate that the latter may be larger than the former, although for separable states, the entanglement of formation always vanishes and thus is less than the quantum discord.

We give a pedagogical introduction to quantum discord and discuss the problem of separation of total correlations in a given quantum state into entanglement, dissonance, and classical correlations using the concept of relative entropy. This allows us to put all correlations on an equal footing. Entanglement and dissonance jointly belong to what is known as quantum discord. Our methods are completely applicable for multipartite systems of arbitrary dimensions. We finally show, using relative entropy, how different notions of quantum correlations are related to each other. This gives a single theory that incorporates all correlations, quantum and classical, and different methods of quantifying them.

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Recent measures of nonclassical correlations are motivated by different notions of classicality and operational means. Quantum discord has received a great deal of attention in studies involving quantum computation, metrology, dynamics, many-body physics, and thermodynamics. In this article I show how quantum discord is different from quantum entanglement from a pedagogical point of view. I begin with a pedagogical introduction to quantum entanglement and quantum discord, followed by a historical review of quantum discord. Next, I give a novel definition of quantum discord in terms of any classically extractable information, an approach that is fitting for the current avenues of research. Lastly, I put forth several arguments for why discord is an interesting quantity to study and why it is of interest to so many researchers in the community.

We provide a historical perspective of how the notion of correlations has evolved within quantum physics. We begin by reviewing Shannon's information theory and its first application in quantum physics, due to Everett, in explaining the information conveyed during a quantum measurement. This naturally leads us to Lindblad's information theoretic analysis of quantum measurements and his emphasis of the difference between the classical and quantum mutual information. After briefly summarizing the quantification of entanglement using these ideas, we arrive at the concept of quantum discord, which naturally captures the boundary between entanglement and classical correlations. Finally we discuss possible links between discord, which the generation of correlations in thermodynamic transformations of coupled harmonic oscillators.

Recent work has relatively comprehensively studied the quantum discord, which is supposed to account for all the nonclassical correlations present in a bipartite state (including entanglement), and provide computational speedup and quantum enhancement even in separable states. Firstly, we introduce several different indicators of nonclassical correlations, including their definitions and interpretations, mathematical properties, and the relationship between them. Secondly, we review two major topics of quantum discord. One is the remarkable behavior at quantum phase transitions. The pairwise quantum discord for nearest neighbors as well as distant spin pairs can perfectly signal the critical behavior of many physical models, even at finite temperatures. The other is quantum discord dynamics in open systems, especially for "system-spin environment" models. Quantum discord is more robust than entanglement against external perturbations. It can be created, greatly amplified or protected under certain conditions, and presents promising applications in quantum technologies such as quantum computers.