We show how the property of dualism, which can exist in the entanglement of identical particles, can be tested in the usual photonic Bell measurement apparatus with minor modifications. Two different sets of coincidence measurements on the same experimental setup consisting of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer demonstrate how the same two-photon state can emerge entangled in the polarization or the momentum degree of freedom depending on the dynamical variables used for labeling the particles. Our experiment demonstrates how the same source can be used as both a polarization entangled state as well as a dichotomic momentum entangled state shared between distant users Alice and Bob in accordance with which sets of detectors they access. When the particles become distinguishable by letting the information about one of the variables be imprinted in yet another (possibly inaccessible) system or degree of freedom, the feature of dualism is expected to vanish. We verify this feature by polarization decoherence (polarization information in the environment) or arrival time difference, which both respectively destroy one of the dual forms of entanglement.
We show how the property of dualism, which can exist in the entanglement of identical particles, can be tested in the usual photonic Bell measurement apparatus with minor modifications. Two different sets of coincidence measurements on the same experimental setup consisting of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer demonstrate how the same two-photon state can emerge entangled in the polarization or the momentum degree of freedom depending on the dynamical variables used for labeling the particles. Our experiment demonstrates how the same source can be used as both a polarization entangled state as well as a dichotomic momentum entangled state shared between distant users Alice and Bob in accordance with which sets of detectors they access. When the particles become distinguishable by letting the information about one of the variables be imprinted in yet another (possibly inaccessible) system or degree of freedom, the feature of dualism is expected to vanish. We verify this feature by polarization decoherence (polarization information in the environment) or arrival time difference, which both respectively destroy one of the dual forms of entanglement.
It was shown recently that entanglement of identical particles has a feature called dualism (Bose and Home 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 140404 ), which is fundamentally connected with quantum indistinguishability. Here we report an experiment that observes the entanglement duality for the first time with two identical photons, which manifest polarization entanglement when labeled by different paths or path entanglement when labeled by polarization states. By adjusting the mismatch in frequency or arrival time of the entangled photons, we tune the photon indistinguishability from the quantum to the classical limit and observe that the entanglement duality disappears under the emergence of classical distinguishability, confirming it as a characteristic feature of quantum indistinguishable particles.
Two photons are identical if they are prepared in the same quantum state and there is a unique way to achieve this. Conversely, there are many different ways of preparing two non-identical photons: they may differ in polarization, frequency, mode-function, etc. Thus, photon distinguishability depends upon the degree of freedom being varied. By analyzing the coincidence probability distribution in a Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment, we show that photon distinguishability can be quantified by the rate of distinguishability of photons, an experimentally measurable parameter that crucially depends on both the photon-quantum state and the degree of freedom under control.
Two photons are said to be identical if they are prepared in the same quantum state. Given the latter, there is a unique way to achieve this. Conversely, there are many different ways of preparing two non-identical photons: they may differ in frequency, polarization, amplitude, etc. Therefore, photon distinguishability depends upon the specific degree of freedom being varied. By means of a careful analysis of the coincidence probability distribution in a Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment, we can show that photon distinguishability can be actually quantified by the rate of distinguishability of photons, an experimentally measurable parameter that crucially depends on both the photon quantum state and the degree of freedom under control.
Entanglement is a key resource for fundamental tests of physics and emerging quantum technologies. In quantum optics, two perspectives on entanglement coexist. In the continuous-variable framework, entanglement is understood as holding between optical modes. In contrast, discrete-variable quantum optics focuses on quantum correlations in degrees of freedom such as polarization that label fixed numbers of photons. In this paper, we show that entanglement can transcend this separation. Spontaneous parametric down-conversion inherently generates correlations in optical phase space, photon number, and labelling degrees of freedom simultaneously. In polarization, this structure is traditionally described by macroscopic Bell states. Existing witnesses, however, fail to detect the genuine hybrid entanglement of these states, which goes beyond the continuous-discrete-variable categorization. Here, we lay the groundwork for a general framework unifying continuous- and discrete-variable notions of entanglement. In particular, we derive an operational witness providing a sufficient criterion for genuine hybrid number-polarization entanglement and outline its experimental implementation. Finally, we discuss exemplary states which, together with our results on macroscopic Bell states, motivate a broader classification of genuine hybrid quantum correlations.
We investigate duality in entanglement of a bipartite multiphoton system generated from a coherent state of light. The system can exhibit polarization entanglement if the two parts are distinguished by their parity, or parity entanglement if the parts are distinguished by polarization. It was shown in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 140404 (2013) that this phenomenon can be exploited as a method to test indistinguishability of two particles and it was conjectured that one can also test indistinguishability of macroscopic systems. We propose a setup to test this conjecture. Contrary to the previous studies using two-particle interference effect as in the Hong-Ou- Mandel setup, our setup neither assumes that the tested state is composed of single particles nor requires that the total number of particles be fixed. Consequently, the notion of entanglement duality is shown to be compatible with a broader class of physical systems. Moreover, by observing duality in entanglement in the above system one can confirm that macroscopic systems exhibit quantum behavior. As a practical side, entanglement duality is a useful concept that enables adaptive conversion of entanglement of one degree of freedom (DOF) to that of another DOF according to varying quantum protocols.
We show a hitherto unexplored consequence of the property of identicity in quantum mechanics. If two identical objects, distinguished by a dynamical variable A, are in certain entangled states of another dynamical variable B, then, for such states, they are also entangled in variable A when distinguished from each other by variable B. This dualism is independent of quantum statistics. Departures from identicity of the objects due to arbitrarily small differences in their innate attributes destroy this dualism. A system independent scheme to test the dualism is formulated which is readily realizable with photons. This scheme can be performed without requiring the entangled objects to be brought together. Thus whether two macro-systems behave as quantum identical objects can be probed without the complications of scattering. Such a study would complement the program of testing the validity of quantum superposition principle in the macro-domain which has stimulated considerable experimentation.