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arXiv:1509.03963

NMR simulation of Quantum Pigeonhole Effect

V. S. Anjusha, Swathi S. Hegde, T. S. Mahesh

Published Sep 14, 2015• 0 citations
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Abstract

Quantum simulators based on nuclear spin-systems controlled by NMR techniques have been used for studying various quantum phenomena. In this work, using a four-qubit NMR quantum simulator, we investigate the recently postulated quantum pigeon-hole effect. In mathematics, the pigeonhole effect is described by a set of three objects being allocated with only two containers. Classically, one would expect at least one container to accommodate more than one object. However, recently it was predicted that there exist quantum scenarios wherein three quantum particles appear to reside in two containers in such a way that no two particles can be simultaneously assigned with a single container. In our experiments, quantum pigeons are emulated by three nuclear qubits whose states are probed jointly and noninvasively by an ancillary spin. The qubit-states $\{\ket{0}$, $\ket{1}\}$ emulate the two containers available for each of the qubits. The experimental results are in good agreement with quantum theoretical predictions.

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Quantum simulators based on nuclear spin-systems controlled by NMR techniques have been used for studying various quantum phenomena. In this work, using a four-qubit NMR quantum simulator, we investigate the recently postulated quantum pigeon-hole effect. In mathematics, the pigeonhole effect is described by a set of three objects being allocated with only two containers. Classically, one would expect at least one container to accommodate more than one object. However, recently it was predicted that there exist quantum scenarios wherein three quantum particles appear to reside in two containers in such a way that no two particles can be simultaneously assigned with a single container. In our experiments, quantum pigeons are emulated by three nuclear qubits whose states are probed jointly and noninvasively by an ancillary spin. The qubit-states {∣0⟩\{\ket{0}{∣0⟩, ∣1⟩}\ket{1}\}∣1⟩} emulate the two containers available for each of the qubits. The experimental results are in good agreement with quantum theoretical predictions.
Quantum pigeonhole principle states that if there are three pigeons and two boxes then there are instances where no two pigeons are in the same box which seems to defy classical pigeonhole counting principle. Here, we investigate the quantum pigeonhole effect on the ibmqx2 superconducting chip with five physical qubits. We also observe the same effect in a proposed non-local circuit which avoid any direct physical interactions between the qubits which may lead to some unknown local effects. We use the standard quantum gate operations and measurement to construct the required quantum circuits on IBM quantum experience platform. We perform the experiment and simulation which illustrates the fact that no two qubits (pigeons) are in the same quantum state (boxes). The experimental results obtained using IBM quantum computer are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
Quantum pigeonhole principle states that if there are three pigeons and two boxes then there are instances where no two pigeons are in the same box which seems to defy classical pigeonhole counting principle. Here, we investigate the quantum pigeonhole effect on the ibmqx2 superconducting chip with five physical qubits. We also observe the same effect in a proposed non-local circuit which avoid any direct physical interactions between the qubits which may lead to some unknown local effects. We use the standard quantum gate operations and measurement to construct the required quantum circuits on IBM quantum experience platform. We perform the experiment and simulation which illustrates the fact that no two qubits (pigeons) are in the same quantum state (boxes). The experimental results obtained using IBM quantum computer are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
There has been considerable interest in a recent preprint - arXiv/1407.3194 - describing an effect named as the Quantum Pigeonhole Principle. The classical pigeonhole principle (classical PHP) refers to a result in number theory which states that if n objects are distributed between m boxes, with m less than n, then at least one box must contain more than one object. An experiment is proposed in the preprint where interactions between particles would reveal that they were in the same box, but a quantum mechanical measurement would imply that no more than 1 of the n objects is contained in any of the m boxes, even though n is greater than m. This result has been greeted by the authors of the preprint and some others as being of great importance in the understanding of quantum mechanics. In this paper we show by a full quantum mechanical treatment that the effect appears to arise as a result of interference between the components of the wavefunctions, each of which is subject to the classical PHP.
The pigeonhole principle: "If you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes at least two of the pigeons end up in the same hole" is an obvious yet fundamental principle of Nature as it captures the very essence of counting. Here however we show that in quantum mechanics this is not true! We find instances when three quantum particles are put in two boxes, yet no two particles are in the same box. Furthermore, we show that the above "quantum pigeonhole principle" is only one of a host of related quantum effects, and points to a very interesting structure of quantum mechanics that was hitherto unnoticed. Our results shed new light on the very notions of separability and correlations in quantum mechanics and on the nature of interactions. It also presents a new role for entanglement, complementary to the usual one. Finally, interferometric experiments that illustrate our effects are proposed.
The pigeonhole principle: "If you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes, at least two of the pigeons end up in the same hole," is an obvious yet fundamental principle of nature as it captures the very essence of counting. Here however we show that in quantum mechanics this is not true! We find instances when three quantum particles are put in two boxes, yet no two particles are in the same box. Furthermore, we show that the above "quantum pigeonhole principle" is only one of a host of related quantum effects, and points to a very interesting structure of quantum mechanics that was hitherto unnoticed. Our results shed new light on the very notions of separability and correlations in quantum mechanics and on the nature of interactions. It also presents a new role for entanglement, complementary to the usual one. Finally, interferometric experiments that illustrate our effects are proposed.
We implement an embedding quantum simulator (EQS) in nuclear spin systems. The experiment consists of a simulator of up to three qubits, plus a single ancillary qubit, where we are able to efficiently measure the concurrence and the three-tangle of two-qubit and three-qubit systems as they undergo entangling dynamics. The EQS framework allows us to drastically reduce the number of measurements needed for this task, which otherwise would require full-state reconstruction of the qubit system. Our simulator is built of the nuclear spins of four 13C^{13}\mathrm{C}13C atoms in a molecule of trans-crotonic acid manipulated with NMR techniques.