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arXiv:1408.4477 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Hellinger distance as a measure of Gaussian discord

Paulina Marian, Tudor A. Marian

Published Feb 19, 2015• 34 citations

Abstract

Especially investigated in recent years, the Gaussian discord can tentatively be quantified by a distance between a given two-mode Gaussian state (GS) and the set of all the zero-discord two-mode GSs. However, as this set consists only of product states, such a distance captures all the correlations (quantum and classical) between modes. Therefore it is merely an upper bound for the geometric discord, no matter which is the employed distance. In this work we choose for this purpose the Hellinger metric that is known to have many beneficial properties recommending it as a good measure of quantum behaviour. In general, this metric is determined by affinity, a relative of the Uhlmann fidelity with which it shares many important features. As a first step of our work, the affinity of a pair of n -mode GSs is written. Then, in the two-mode case, we succeeded in determining exactly the closest Gaussian product state and computed the Gaussian discord accordingly. The obtained general formula is remarkably simple and becomes still friendlier in the significant case of symmetric two-mode GSs. We then analyse in detail two special classes of two-mode GSs of theoretical and experimental interest as well: the squeezed thermal states and the mode-mixed thermal ones. The former are separable under a well-known threshold of squeezing, while the latter are always separable. It is worth stressing that for symmetric states belonging to either of these classes, we find consistency between their geometric Hellinger discord and the originally defined discord in the Gaussian approach. At the same time, the Gaussian Hellinger discord of such a state turns out to be a reliable measure of the total amount of its cross correlations.

DOI: 10.1088/1751-8113/48/11/115301

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Especially investigated in recent years, the Gaussian discord can tentatively be quantified by a distance between a given two-mode Gaussian state (GS) and the set of all the zero-discord two-mode GSs. However, as this set consists only of product states, such a distance captures all the correlations (quantum and classical) between modes. Therefore it is merely an upper bound for the geometric discord, no matter which is the employed distance. In this work we choose for this purpose the Hellinger metric that is known to have many beneficial properties recommending it as a good measure of quantum behaviour. In general, this metric is determined by affinity, a relative of the Uhlmann fidelity with which it shares many important features. As a first step of our work, the affinity of a pair of n -mode GSs is written. Then, in the two-mode case, we succeeded in determining exactly the closest Gaussian product state and computed the Gaussian discord accordingly. The obtained general formula is remarkably simple and becomes still friendlier in the significant case of symmetric two-mode GSs. We then analyse in detail two special classes of two-mode GSs of theoretical and experimental interest as well: the squeezed thermal states and the mode-mixed thermal ones. The former are separable under a well-known threshold of squeezing, while the latter are always separable. It is worth stressing that for symmetric states belonging to either of these classes, we find consistency between their geometric Hellinger discord and the originally defined discord in the Gaussian approach. At the same time, the Gaussian Hellinger discord of such a state turns out to be a reliable measure of the total amount of its cross correlations.

In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we address the quantification of general non-classical correlations in Gaussian states of continuous variable systems from a geometric perspective. We give a description of the Gaussian geometric discord by using the Hellinger distance as a measure for quantum correlations between two non-interacting non-resonant bosonic modes embedded in a thermal environment. We evaluate the Gaussian geometric discord by taking two-mode squeezed thermal states as initial states of the system and show that it has finite values between 0 and 1 and that it decays asymptotically to zero in time under the effect of the thermal bath.

We extend the geometric measure of quantum discord, introduced and computed for two-qubit states, to quantify non-classical correlations in composite Gaussian states of continuous variable systems. We lay the formalism for the evaluation of a Gaussian geometric discord in two-mode Gaussian states, and present explicit formulas for the class of two-mode squeezed thermal states. In such a case, under physical constraints of bounded mean energy, geometric discord is shown to admit upper and lower bounds for a fixed value of the conventional (entropic) quantum discord. We finally discuss alternative geometric approaches to quantify Gaussian quadrature correlations.

Abstract We investigate and compare three distinguished geometric measures of bipartite quantum correlations that have been recently introduced in the literature: the geometric discord, the measurement-induced geometric discord, and the discord of response, each one defined according to three contractive distances on the set of quantum states, namely the trace, Bures, and Hellinger distances. We establish a set of exact algebraic relations and inequalities between the different measures. In particular, we show that the geometric discord and the discord of response based on the Hellinger distance are easy to compute analytically for all quantum states whenever the reference subsystem is a qubit. These two measures thus provide the first instance of discords that are simultaneously fully computable, reliable (since they satisfy all the basic Axioms that must be obeyed by a proper measure of quantum correlations), and operationally viable (in terms of state distinguishability). We apply the general mathematical structure to determine the closest classical-quantum state of a given state and the maximally quantum-correlated states at fixed global state purity according to the different distances, as well as a necessary condition for a channel to be quantumness breaking.

It is known that a reliable geometric quantifier of discord-like correlations can be built by employing the so-called trace distance. This is used to measure how far the state under investigation is from the closest "classical-quantum" one. To date, the explicit calculation of this indicator for two qubits was accomplished only for states such that the reduced density matrix of the measured party is maximally mixed, a class that includes Bell-diagonal states. Here, we first reduce the required optimization for a general two-qubit state to the minimization of an explicit two-variable function. Using this framework, we show next that the minimum can be analytically worked out in a number of relevant cases including quantum-classical and X states. This provides an explicit and compact expression for the trace distance discord of an arbitrary state belonging to either of these important classes of density matrices.

In recent years the paradigm based on entanglement as the unique measure of quantum correlations has been challenged by the rise of new correlation concepts, such as quantum discord, able to reveal quantum correlations that are present in separable states. It is in general difficult to compute quantum discord, because it involves a minimization over all possible local measurements in a bipartition. In the realm of continuous-variable (CV) systems, a Gaussian version of quantum discord has been put forward upon restricting to Gaussian measurements. It is natural to ask whether non-Gaussian measurements can lead to a stronger minimization than Gaussian ones. Here we focus on two relevant classes of two-mode Gaussian states: squeezed thermal states and mixed thermal states, and allow for a range of experimentally feasible non-Gaussian measurements, comparing the results with the case of Gaussian measurements. We provide evidence that Gaussian measurements are optimal for Gaussian states.

Quantum discord, a measure of genuinely quantum correlations, is generalized to continuous variable systems. For all two-mode Gaussian states, we calculate analytically the quantum discord and a related measure of classical correlations, solving an optimization over all Gaussian measurements. Almost all two-mode Gaussian states are shown to have quantum correlations, while for separable states, the discord is smaller than unity. For a given amount of entanglement, it admits tight upper and lower bounds. Via a duality between entanglement and classical correlations, we derive a closed formula for the Gaussian entanglement of formation of a family of three-mode Gaussian states.