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arXiv:1706.09275 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Keyring models: An approach to steerability

Carl A. Miller, Roger Colbeck, Yaoyun Shi

Published Feb 1, 2018• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

If a measurement is made on one half of a bipartite system, then, conditioned on the outcome, the other half has a new reduced state. If these reduced states defy classical explanation—that is, if shared randomness cannot produce these reduced states for all possible measurements—the bipartite state is said to be steerable. Determining which states are steerable is a challenging problem even for low dimensions. In the case of two-qubit systems, a criterion is known for T-states (that is, those with maximally mixed marginals) under projective measurements. In the current work, we introduce the concept of keyring models—a special class of local hidden state models. When the measurements made correspond to real projectors, these allow us to study steerability beyond T-states. Using keyring models, we completely solve the steering problem for real projective measurements when the state arises from mixing a pure two-qubit state with uniform noise. We also give a partial solution in the case when the uniform noise is replaced by independent depolarizing channels.

DOI
10.1063/1.5006199

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If a measurement is made on one half of a bipartite system, then, conditioned on the outcome, the other half has a new reduced state. If these reduced states defy classical explanation—that is, if shared randomness cannot produce these reduced states for all possible measurements—the bipartite state is said to be steerable. Determining which states are steerable is a challenging problem even for low dimensions. In the case of two-qubit systems, a criterion is known for T-states (that is, those with maximally mixed marginals) under projective measurements. In the current work, we introduce the concept of keyring models—a special class of local hidden state models. When the measurements made correspond to real projectors, these allow us to study steerability beyond T-states. Using keyring models, we completely solve the steering problem for real projective measurements when the state arises from mixing a pure two-qubit state with uniform noise. We also give a partial solution in the case when the uniform noise is replaced by independent depolarizing channels.
Fully characterizing the steerability of a quantum state of a bipartite system has remained an open problem ever since the concept of steerability was first defined. In this paper, using our recent geometrical approach to steerability, we suggest a necessary and sufficient condition for a two-qubit state to be steerable with respect to projective measurements. To this end, we define the critical radius of local models and show that a state of two qubits is steerable with respect to projective measurements from Alice's side if and only if her critical radius of local models is less than 1. As an example, we calculate the critical radius of local models for the so-called T-states by proving the optimality of a recently suggested local hidden state model.
The phenomenon of quantum steering in bipartite quantum systems can be reduced to the question of whether or not the first party can perform measurements such that the conditional states on the second party can be explained by a local hidden-state model. Clearly, the answer to this depends on the measurements which the first party is able to perform. We introduce a local hidden-state model explaining the conditional states for all generalized measurements on Bell-diagonal states of two qubits. More precisely, it is known for the restricted case of projective measurements and Bell-diagonal states characterized by the correlation matrix TTT that a local hidden-state model exists if and only if ${R}_{T}=2\ensuremath{\pi}{N}_{T}\left|det(T)\right|\ensuremath{\ge}1$, where NT{N}_{T}NT​ is defined by an integral over the Bloch sphere. For generalized measurements described by positive operator-valued measures we construct a model if ${R}_{T}\ensuremath{\ge}6/5$. Our work paves the way for a systematic study of steerability of quantum states with generalized measurements beyond the highly symmetric Werner states.
When two qubits, AAA and BBB, are in an appropriate state, Alice can remotely steer Bob's system BBB into different ensembles by making different measurements on AAA. This famous phenomenon is known as quantum steering, or Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering. Importantly, quantum steering establishes the correspondence not only between a measurement on AAA (made by Alice) and an ensemble of BBB (owned by Bob) but also between each of Alice's measurement outcomes and an unnormalized conditional state of Bob's system. The unnormalized conditional states of BBB corresponding to all possible measurement outcomes of Alice are called Alice's steering outcomes. We show that, surprisingly, the four-dimensional geometry of Alice's steering outcomes completely determines both the nonseparability of the two-qubit state and its steerability from her side. Consequently, the problem of classifying two-qubit states into nonseparable and steerable classes is equivalent to geometrically classifying certain four-dimensional skewed double cones.
Not all entangled states can exhibit quantum steering, and determining whether a given entangled state is steerable is a crucial problem in quantum information theory. The main challenge lies in verifying the existence of a local hidden-state (LHS) model capable of reproducing all post-measurement assemblages generated by arbitrary measurements. To address this, we propose a machine learning-based framework that employs batch sampling of measurements and gradient-based optimization to construct an optimal LHS model. We validate our method by analyzing the steerability of two-qubit Werner and two-qutrit isotropic states. For Werner states, our approach saturates the analytical visibility bounds under three Pauli measurements, arbitrary projective measurements (PVMs), and arbitrary positive operator-valued measurements (POVMs). For isotropic states, we achieve the known analytical bounds under arbitrary PVMs. We further investigate the steerability of this class of states under arbitrary POVMs, and our results suggest that POVMs can offer an advantage over PVMs in revealing the steerability of such states.
For a bipartite entangled state shared by two observers, Alice and Bob, Alice can affect the postmeasured states left to Bob by choosing different measurements on her half. Alice can convince Bob that she has such an ability if and only if the unnormalized postmeasured states cannot be described by a local-hidden-state (LHS) model. In this case, the state is termed steerable from Alice to Bob. By converting the problem to construct LHS models for two-qubit Bell diagonal states to the one for Werner states, we obtain the optimal models given by Jevtic et al. [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 32, A40 (2015)], which are developed by using the steering ellipsoid formalism. Such conversion also enables us to derive a sufficient criterion for unsteerability of any two-qubit state.
Quantum steering can be detected via the violation of steering inequalities, which provide sufficient conditions for the steerability of quantum states. Here we discuss the converse problem, namely, ensuring that an entangled state is unsteerable and hence Bell local. We present a simple criterion, applicable to any two-qubit state, that guarantees that the state admits a local hidden state model for arbitrary projective measurements. Specifically, we construct local hidden state models for a large class of entangled states, which thus cannot violate any steering or Bell inequality. In turn, this leads to sufficient conditions for a state to be only one-way steerable and provides the simplest possible example of one-way steering. Finally, by exploiting the connection between steering and measurement incompatibility, we give a sufficient criterion for a continuous set of qubit measurements to be jointly measurable.