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arXiv:1602.00146 · International Journal of Quantum Information

Operational approach to entanglement and how to certify it

Marian Kupczyński

Published May 11, 2016• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Entangled physical systems are an important resource in quantum information. Many papers were published trying to grasp the meaning of entanglement. It was noticed that a Hilbert space of possible state vectors of compound physical system can be partitioned by introducing various tensor product structures induced by the experimentally accessible observables (interactions and measurements). In this sense, the entanglement is relative to a particular set of experimental capabilities. Inspired by these results some authors claim that in fact all quantum states are entangled. In this paper, we show that this claim is incorrect and we discuss in operational way differences existing between separable and entangled states. A sufficient condition for entanglement is the violation of Bell–CHSH-CH inequalities and/or steering inequalities. Since there exist experiments outside the domain of quantum physics violating these inequalities therefore in the operational approach one cannot say that the entanglement is an exclusive quantum phenomenon. We also explain that an unambiguous experimental certification of the entanglement is a difficult task because classical statistical significance tests may not be trusted if sample homogeneity cannot be tested or is not tested carefully enough.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749916400037

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Entangled physical systems are an important resource in quantum information. Many papers were published trying to grasp the meaning of entanglement. It was noticed that a Hilbert space of possible state vectors of compound physical system can be partitioned by introducing various tensor product structures induced by the experimentally accessible observables (interactions and measurements). In this sense, the entanglement is relative to a particular set of experimental capabilities. Inspired by these results some authors claim that in fact all quantum states are entangled. In this paper, we show that this claim is incorrect and we discuss in operational way differences existing between separable and entangled states. A sufficient condition for entanglement is the violation of Bell–CHSH-CH inequalities and/or steering inequalities. Since there exist experiments outside the domain of quantum physics violating these inequalities therefore in the operational approach one cannot say that the entanglement is an exclusive quantum phenomenon. We also explain that an unambiguous experimental certification of the entanglement is a difficult task because classical statistical significance tests may not be trusted if sample homogeneity cannot be tested or is not tested carefully enough.
In early days of quantum theory it was believed that the results of measurements performed on two distant physical systems should be uncorrelated thus their quantum state should be separable it means described by a simple tensor product of the individual local state vectors or a tensor product of individual local density operators. It was shown many years ago by EPR that two systems which interacted in the past and separated afterwards had to be described in most cases by particular non-separable states which are called entangled. It was noticed by Zanardi et al. that a Hilbert space of possible state vectors of compound physical system could be partitioned in different way by introducing various tensor product structures induced by the experimentally accessible observables (interactions and measurements). Therefore a separable state in one partition could become entangled in different partition. In this sense the entanglement was relative to a particular set of experimental capabilities. Continuing this line of thought Torre et al. claimed to prove that for any separable state there existed strongly correlated physical observables therefore all quantum states were entangled. The same claims one may find in several recent papers. In this paper we will discuss in operational way the differences existing between separable, non-separable and entangled states and we will show that the conclusions of Torre et al. were unjustified. A sufficient condition for entanglement is the violation of BI-CHSH and/or steering inequalities. Since there exist experiments outside the quantum physics violating these inequalities therefore in the operational approach one cannot say that the entanglement is an exclusive quantum phenomenon.
Quantum nonlocality is presented often as the most remarkable and inexplicable phenomenon known to modern science. It has been known already for a long time that the probabilistic models used to prove Bell and Clauser-Horn-Shimony-Holt inequalities (BI-CHSH) for spin polarization correlation experiments (SPCE) are incompatible with the experimental protocols of SPCE. In particular these models use the same common probability space, joint probability distributions and/or conditional independence to describe coincidence experiments in incompatible experimental settings. Strangely enough these results are not known or simply neglected. This is why we will once again reanalyze Bell locality assumptions and show that they have nothing to do with the notion of Einsteinian locality therefore their violation should not be called quantum nonlocality but rather quantum non-Kolmogorovness or quantum contextuality. Moreover if local variables describing the measuring instruments are correctly taken into account then BI-CHSH can no longer be proven and one can easily construct non-signaling probabilistic models able to reproduce the predictions of QT. The violation of BI-CHSH is considered usually as a proof that a quantum state is entangled. Since BI-CHSH are violated also in some experiments from outside the domain of quantum physics therefore the entanglement is not exclusively a quantum phenomenon. In order to further demystify these notions we show that one can prepare two macroscopic systems in such a way that simple realizable local experiments on these systems violate BI. In view of these arguments the further testing of BI-CHSH inequalities in search for the loopholes does not seem to be necessary.
Entanglement, a defining property of quantum mechanics in which two physical subsystems cannot be seen as independent entities, challenges our everyday experience and classical intuition. However, only such strong quantum correlations enable quantum technologies, including quantum computing or communication, while revealing the limits of our classical worldview by violating local realism. Given its importance in modern quantum science, we present this tutorial addressing the questions: What is entanglement, how does it differ from classical correlations, and how can it be experimentally verified? Using celebrated examples, such as Schrödinger's cat, we highlight the distinction between classical and quantum correlations and illustrate the definition of entangled and separable states. We review entanglement criteria by discussing Heisenberg-type uncertainty relations for continuous variables and the CHSH inequality for discrete systems. Focusing on concepts of quantum correlations and operational entanglement witnesses, we provide accessible tools and illustrative examples aimed at demystifying entanglement for a broad readership.
Abstract We generalize Gisin’s theorem on the relation between the entanglement of pure states and Bell non-classicality to the case of mode entanglement of separated groups of modes of quantum fields extending the theorem to cover also states with undefined particle number. We show that any pure state of the field which contains entanglement between two groups of separated modes violates some Clauser–Horne (CH) inequality. In order to construct the observables leading to a violation in the first step, we show an isomorphism between the Fock space built from a single-particle space involving two separated groups of modes and a tensor product of two abstract separable Hilbert spaces spanned by formal monomials of creation operators. In the second step, we perform a Schmidt decomposition of a given entangled state mapped to this tensor product space and then we map back the obtained Schmidt decomposition to the original Fock space of the system under consideration. Such obtained Schmidt decomposition in Fock space allows for construction of observables leading to a violation of the CH inequality. We also show that our generalization of Gisin’s theorem holds for the case of states on non-separable Hilbert spaces, which physically represent states with actually infinite number of particles. Such states emerge, for example, in the discussion of quantum phase transitions. Finally, we discuss the experimental feasibility of constructed Bell test and provide a necessary condition for realizability of this test within the realm of passive linear optics.
Abstract Quantum entanglement obscures the notion of local operations; there exist quantum states for which all local actions on one subsystem can be equivalently realized by actions on another. We characterize the states for which this fundamental property of entanglement does and does not hold, including multipartite and mixed states. Our results lead to a method for quantifying entanglement based on operational symmetries and has connections to quantum steering, envariance, the Reeh–Schlieder theorem, and classical entanglement.