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arXiv:1411.3543 · Physical Review A

Two-step procedure to discriminate discordant from classical correlated or factorized states

S. Cialdi, Andrea Smirne, Matteo G. A. Paris, Stefano Olivares, Bassano Vacchini

Published Nov 4, 2014• 32 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We devise and experimentally realize a procedure capable of detecting and distinguishing quantum discord and classical correlations as well the presence of factorized states in a joint system-environment setting. Our scheme builds on recent theoretical results showing how the distinguishability between two reduced states of a quantum system in a bipartite setting can convey important information about the correlations present in the bipartite state and the interaction between the subsystems. The two addressed subsystems are the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of the signal beam generated by parametric down-conversion, which are suitably prepared by the idler beam. Different global and local operations allow for the detection of different correlations by studying via state tomography the trace distance behavior between suitable polarization subsystem states.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.050301

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We devise and experimentally realize a procedure capable of detecting and distinguishing quantum discord and classical correlations as well the presence of factorized states in a joint system-environment setting. Our scheme builds on recent theoretical results showing how the distinguishability between two reduced states of a quantum system in a bipartite setting can convey important information about the correlations present in the bipartite state and the interaction between the subsystems. The two addressed subsystems are the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of the signal beam generated by parametric down-conversion, which are suitably prepared by the idler beam. Different global and local operations allow for the detection of different correlations by studying via state tomography the trace distance behavior between suitable polarization subsystem states.
Recently, we proposed a method for the local detection of quantum correlations on the basis of local measurements and state tomography at different instances in time [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 180402 (2011)]. The method allows for the detection of quantum discord in bipartite systems when access is restricted to only one of the subsystems. Here, we elaborate the details of this method and provide applications to specific physical models. In particular, we discuss the performance of the scheme for generic complex systems by investigating thermal equilibrium states corresponding to randomly generated Hamiltonians. Moreover, we formulate an ergodicity-type hypothesis which links the time average to the analytically obtained average over the group of unitary operators equipped with the Haar measure.
Developing techniques for characterizing quantum mechanical systems has been a major topic of research, especially in recent years, as quantum technologies, such as quantum communication and quantum cryptography, have grown to become an important asset in modern society. Although techniques such as quantum state tomography is an effective method to characterize a system consisting of two-level systems, the characterization of continuous degree of freedom such as space or frequency stills represents a time-consuming task as the state space scales exponentially with the dimension of the system. In this work, we show an indirect approach for measuring properties of high-dimensional degrees of freedom by coupling them to two-dimensional subsystems that can be measured efficiently via quantum state tomography. In our case, the property of interest is the correlation factor of the joint spectral amplitude describing the two-photon frequency states, which are coupled to the polarization degree of freedom using a completely positive trace-preserving map, called a dephasing channel. The action of the map on the polarization state induces a decoherence effect that depends on the initial frequency state, thus allowing to retrieve information about the frequency correlation factor by only measuring the decoherence in the polarization state. In the experimental part, we produced a pair of photons using spontaneous parametric down-conversion and characterized the joint spectral intensity with stimulated emission tomography. The decoherence was controlled with a birefringent material that acts as a dephasing channel. The polarization state was measured after the dephasing channel for two different initial frequency configurations using quantum state tomography. The bounds for the frequency correlation factor were calculated from the fidelity of the two polarization states and the generalized data processing inequality. The results of this work show that the polarization decoherence can be used as a tool to measure the frequency correlation factor of the joint spectral amplitude.
Correlations may arise in quantum systems through various means, of which the most remarkable one is quantum entanglement. Additionally, there are systems that exhibit nonclassical correlations even in the absence of entanglement. Quantum dissonance refers to how Quantum Discord (QD) — the difference between the total correlation and the classical correlation in a given quantum state — appears as a nonclassical correlation in a system without entanglement. It could be said that QD has the potential to provide a more inclusive viewpoint for discerning the nonclassical correlations. In this paper, we address the problem of manipulating the QD between two subsystems through local operations. We propose two explicit procedures for obtaining separable Werner states, a type of mixed state with nonzero QD. Both approaches involve performing local operations on classically correlated states and offers a step-by-step method for obtaining separable Werner states with nonzero discord, providing an alternative (explicit and user-friendly) to existing methods.
The processes for decreasing probabilistically and increasing deterministically the overlap between two quantum states must be assisted by an auxiliary quantum system. The probabilistic scheme is implemented through a unitary-reduction process, while the deterministic one is accomplished only with a joint unitary transformation. In both schemes a unitary operation is responsible for coupling the two involved systems thus introducing correlation between them. In this work we study the quantum correlations required to achieve the probabilistic scheme with optimal probability, and we characterize the quantum correlation involved in the deterministic procedure. We find a that both schemes can be accomplished with quantum discord and without entanglement. In addition, we propose a physical implementation of the probabilistic scheme with twin photons generated in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The states are encoded in the polarization of a single photon and the auxiliary system becomes its propagation path; the second photon is used for heralded detection.
We introduce a simple and efficient technique to verify quantum discord in unknown Gaussian states and certain class of non-Gaussian states. We show that any separation in the peaks of the marginal distributions of one subsystem conditioned on two different outcomes of homodyne measurements performed on the other subsystem indicates correlation between the corresponding quadratures and hence nonzero quantum discord. We also demonstrate that under certain measurement constraints, discord between bipartite systems can be consumed to encode information that can only be accessed by coherent quantum interaction.
Quantum discord is a measure of nonclassical correlations in quantum systems. While the bipartite version of quantum discord is experimentally well-studied, the multipartite version has never been convincingly measured. In this study, we experimentally investigate tripartite quantum discord using an NMR quantum information processor. Building on a theoretical framework for conditional projective measurements and quantum conditional mutual information, we quantify the tripartite quantum discord and its contributions in different three-qubit states such as the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) and Werner (W) states as well as classical mixtures of biseparable Bell states, and classical mixtures of product states. The experiments employed full quantum state tomography and temporal averaging to prepare mixed states, achieving fidelities exceeding 95%. Our results confirm that quantum discord persists even in the absence of entanglement, highlighting its utility as a broader indicator of quantum correlations. Furthermore, we validate the nonconvexity of discord, confirming that classical mixtures of zero-discord states can exhibit nonzero discord. This experimentally confirms that quantum discord does not fit into the framework of resource theory. This work establishes a robust methodology for measuring quantum discord, illuminating the structure and distribution of quantum correlations in multipartite systems.