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arXiv:1707.07340 · Physical Review A

Generalizing entanglement

Ding Jia

Published Dec 28, 2017• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The expected indefinite causal structure in quantum gravity poses a challenge to the notion of entanglement: If two parties are in an indefinite causal relation of being causally connected and not, can they still be entangled? If so, how does one measure the amount of entanglement? We propose to generalize the notions of entanglement and entanglement measure to address these questions. Importantly, the generalization opens the path to study quantum entanglement of states, channels, networks, and processes with definite or indefinite causal structure in a unified fashion, e.g., we show that the entanglement distillation capacity of a state, the quantum communication capacity of a channel, and the entanglement generation capacity of a network or a process are different manifestations of one and the same entanglement measure.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.062132

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The expected indefinite causal structure in quantum gravity poses a challenge to the notion of entanglement: If two parties are in an indefinite causal relation of being causally connected and not, can they still be entangled? If so, how does one measure the amount of entanglement? We propose to generalize the notions of entanglement and entanglement measure to address these questions. Importantly, the generalization opens the path to study quantum entanglement of states, channels, networks, and processes with definite or indefinite causal structure in a unified fashion, e.g., we show that the entanglement distillation capacity of a state, the quantum communication capacity of a channel, and the entanglement generation capacity of a network or a process are different manifestations of one and the same entanglement measure.
In studies of entanglement, finding out if a state is entangled and quantifying the amount of entanglement contained in a state are related but different questions. Similarly in studies of causality, finding out the causal structures compatible with a model and quantifying the causal strengths are related but different questions. Recently much research have been directed towards the first question but considerably less attention is paid to the second one. In this paper we propose axioms for all reasonable quantitative measures of causality to obey. The axioms apply to a broad family of operational probabilistic theories with and without definite causal structure. For quantum models, we study causality measures based on one-shot quantum capacities in detail. These measures are used to define the notions of quantum signalling and quantum causality measures in order to quantify quantum causality.
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Quantum mechanics has achieved unparalleled success as an operational theory, describing a wide range of experiments to remarkable accuracy. However, the physical foundations on which it rests remain as puzzling as they were a century ago, and a concise statement of the physical principles that underlie quantum mechanics is still outstanding. One promising approach holds that these principles should be formulated in terms of information, since many of the counter-intuitive effects in quantum theory concern questions such as what one can know about a quantum system and how the information encoded therein can be processed and distributed between parties. Another challenging feature of quantum theory is its incompatibility with the other cornerstone of modern physics, general relativity. In order to reconcile the two, one must identify and retain only the essential concepts and principles of each theory, and in the case of general relativity, causality has been identified as such a concept. This raises the question of how our classical understanding of causality must change when quantum theory is taken into account. In order to address these questions about information, knowledge and causality, I turn to the framework of causal models. In classical statistics, causal models explain the relations among a set of variables in terms of causal influences, which makes them a powerful tool for structuring our knowledge about complex systems and developing strategies for interacting with them. More importantly, the framework provides the conceptual underpinnings and mathematical methods for addressing questions about causation, information and knowledge in a rigorous manner. In this thesis, I develop a version of the classical causal models framework that is compatible with quantum theory and explore its physical implications. \n \n \nA first step is to define quantum versions of fundamental elements such as variables, conditionals and belief propagation rules. This allows one to consider the question of what one can come to know about a quantum variable from the point of view of causal modelling. The conditionals relating quantum variables are found to have a richer structure than their classical counterparts, which can be exploited for the task of discerning causal relations given limited data -- a central problem in classical causal modelling. The mathematical properties of quantum conditionals also establish a correspondence between various classes of two-party correlations, such as bound and distillable entanglement, and the types of causal structures that can give rise to them, which may become a useful tool for entanglement theory and quantum information processing. In the context of open quantum systems dynamics, quantum causal models provide a clear physical explanation of not completely positive maps and, more broadly, of non-Markovian quantum dynamics. Finally, I consider the possibility of non-classical effects in the way that different causal mechanisms are combined -- that is, non-classical causal structures. For the simple case of two causally ordered variables, I propose indicators that witness different classes of combinations of causal mechanisms, including a non-classical mixture, and describe an experiment realizing examples of the different classes. \n \n \nAs these results illustrate, the framework of quantum causal models provides both greater conceptual clarity and a comprehensive mathematical formalism for studying a diverse set of problems, ranging from foundational questions to applications in open systems dynamics and the exploration of non-classical causal structures, which are likely to feature in a future theory of quantum gravity. The material presented in this thesis is intended as a foundation and inspiration for further applications of quantum causal models.
We adopt an operational mode of thinking to study spacetime fluctuations and their impacts on questions of quantum gravity. Particular emphasis is put on studying causal structure fluctuations. The study is guided by the principle of causal neutrality, which says that fundamental concepts and laws of physics should be stated without assuming a definite spacetime causal structure. Most traditional concepts and theories of physics violate this principle. A major theme of this thesis is to upgrade the traditional concepts and theories in accordance with the principle of causal neutrality. \n \nAmong other things, the thesis include works on the following. (1) An axiomatic derivation of the complex Hilbert space structure of quantum theory without assuming definite causal structure. (2) A so-called causally neutral quantum field theory (CNQFT) framework for algebraic quantum physics allowing indefinite causal structure. (3) A proposal that causal fluctuation regularizes quantum field ultraviolet divergences (UV) and that the UV regularizing correlation functions with causal fluctuations characterize the UV structure of physical states. (4) A study on quantitative measures of causality. (5) A so-called ``correlation networks'' framework to study quantum theory with indefinite causal structure, which generalizes previous frameworks. (6) New definitions of entanglement and entanglement measures that conform to the causal neutrality principle. (7) Ideas on finding a causally neutral analogue of Einstein's equation for quantum spacetime. (8) A simple theorem showing that the communication capacities of general correlations (with definite or indefinite causal structure) defined with respect to state transmission can be reduced to those of channels.
Quantum mechanics allows operations to be in indefinite causal order, leading to advantages in computational and communication tasks. However, basic notions such as communication capacity have not yet been formalized. In light of this, through the process matrix formalism, we formulate different classical capacities for a bipartite quantum process. For one-way communication, we find that general quantum processes satisfy a generalization of the Holevo bound, i.e., we can send, at most, one bit per qubit. The result also holds for processes with indefinite causal order and with shared entanglement between the sender and the receiver. We further extend known bounds to classical channel capacities, showing that general processes cannot outperform causally separable ones. Next, we study bidirectional communication through a causally separable process. Our result shows that a bidirectional protocol cannot exceed the limit of a one-way communication protocol. Finally, we generalize this result to a multiparty broadcast communication protocol through a definite ordered process.