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arXiv:1708.06522

Separation of finite and infinite-dimensional quantum correlations, with infinite question or answer sets

Andrea Coladangelo, Jalex Stark

Published Aug 22, 2017• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Completely determining the relationship between quantum correlation sets is a long-standing open problem, known as Tsirelson's problem. Following recent progress by Slofstra [arXiv:1606.03140 (2016), arXiv:1703.08618 (2017)] only two instances of the problem remain open. One of them is the question of whether the set of finite-dimensional quantum correlations is strictly contained in the set of infinite-dimensional ones (i.e. whether $\mathcal C_{q} \neq \mathcal C_{qs}$). The usual formulation of the question assumes finite question and answer sets. In this work, we show that, when one allows for either infinite answer sets (and finite question sets) or infinite question sets (and finite answer sets), there exist correlations that are achievable using an infinite-dimensional quantum strategy, but not a finite-dimensional one. For the former case, our proof exploits a recent result [Nat. Comm. 8, 15485 (2017)], which shows self-testing of any pure bipartite entangled state of arbitrary local dimension $d$, using question sets of size 3 and 4 and answer sets of size $d$. For the latter case, a key step in our proof is to show a novel self-test, inspired by [Nat. Comm. 8, 15485 (2017)], of all bipartite entangled states of any local dimension d, using question sets of size $O(d)$, and answer sets of size 4 and 3 respectively.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1708.06522

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Completely determining the relationship between quantum correlation sets is a long-standing open problem, known as Tsirelson's problem. Following recent progress by Slofstra [arXiv:1606.03140 (2016), arXiv:1703.08618 (2017)] only two instances of the problem remain open. One of them is the question of whether the set of finite-dimensional quantum correlations is strictly contained in the set of infinite-dimensional ones (i.e. whether Cq≠Cqs\mathcal C_{q} \neq \mathcal C_{qs}Cq​=Cqs​). The usual formulation of the question assumes finite question and answer sets. In this work, we show that, when one allows for either infinite answer sets (and finite question sets) or infinite question sets (and finite answer sets), there exist correlations that are achievable using an infinite-dimensional quantum strategy, but not a finite-dimensional one. For the former case, our proof exploits a recent result [Nat. Comm. 8, 15485 (2017)], which shows self-testing of any pure bipartite entangled state of arbitrary local dimension ddd, using question sets of size 3 and 4 and answer sets of size ddd. For the latter case, a key step in our proof is to show a novel self-test, inspired by [Nat. Comm. 8, 15485 (2017)], of all bipartite entangled states of any local dimension d, using question sets of size O(d)O(d)O(d), and answer sets of size 4 and 3 respectively.
Determining the relationship between quantum correlation sets is a long-standing open problem. The most well-studied part of the hierarchy is captured by the chain of inclusions Cq⊆Cqs⊊Cqa⊆Cqc\mathcal C_q \subseteq \mathcal C_{qs} \subsetneq \mathcal C_{qa} \subseteq \mathcal C_{qc}Cq​⊆Cqs​⊊Cqa​⊆Cqc​. The separation Cqs≠Cqa\mathcal C_{qs} \neq \mathcal C_{qa}Cqs​=Cqa​, showing that the set of quantum spatial correlations is not closed, was proven in breakthrough work by Slofstra [arXiv:1606.03140 (2016), arXiv:1703.08618 (2017)]. Resolving the question of Cqa=Cqc\mathcal C_{qa} = \mathcal C_{qc}Cqa​=Cqc​ would resolve the Connes Embedding Conjecture and would represent major progress in the mathematical field of operator algebras. In this work, we resolve the ambiguity in the first inclusion, showing that Cq≠Cqs\mathcal{C}_q \neq \mathcal{C}_{qs}Cq​=Cqs​. We provide an explicit construction of a correlation that can be attained on a tensor product of infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces but not finite-dimensional ones. This property is also conjectured to be possessed by any correlation which maximally violates the I3322I_{3322}I3322​ inequality.
Bell's theorem, a landmark result in the foundations of physics, establishes that quantum mechanics is a non-local theory. It asserts, in particular, that two spatially separated, but entangled, quantum systems can be correlated in a way that cannot be mimicked by classical systems. A direct operational consequence of Bell's theorem is the existence of statistical tests which can detect the presence of entanglement. Remarkably, certain correlations not only witness entanglement, but they give quantitative bounds on the minimum dimension of quantum systems attaining them. In this work, we show that there exists a correlation which is not attainable by quantum systems of any arbitrary finite dimension, but is attained exclusively by infinite-dimensional quantum systems (such as infinite-level systems arising from quantum harmonic oscillators). This answers the long-standing open question about the existence of a finite correlation witnessing infinite entanglement.
One of the most fundamental and counterintuitive features of quantum me- chanics is entanglement, which is central to many demonstrations of the quantum advantage. Studying quantum correlations generated by local measurements on an entangled physical system is one of the direct ways to gain insights into en- tanglement. The focus of this dissertation is to get better understanding of the hardness of determining if a given correlation is quantum, which is also known as the membership problem of quantum correlations. Previous work has shown that the general membership problem is computationally undecidable. Where does the hardness come from? Is it just because the size of a quantum correlation (i.e., the number of real values in the description of the correlation) can be arbitrarily large? We would like to understand the role played by the varying sizes of correlations in the hardness of the membership problem. It has been shown that certain quantum correlations require the measured quantum system to be maximally entangled with a certain dimension. This is a unique phenomenon of quantum correlations and it is known as self-testing. The first step towards answering the hardness of the membership problem of quantum correlations is to get deeper understandings about self-testing, and more specifically, about the size of a correlation that can self-test a maximally entangled state of arbitrarily large dimension. If correlations of a fixed size can self- test entangled states of unbounded dimension, this phenomenon is a strong evidence suggesting that deciding membership of fixed-sized correlations can be very hard. We first show that there exists an infinite subset of the set of all the prime numbers such that, for each prime p in this set, a maximally entangled state of local dimension (p − 1) can be self-tested by a correlation of a fixed size. Since this set is infinite, this result implies that constant-sized correlations are sufficient to self-test maximally entangled states of unbounded dimension. Building on the self-testing result, we show that the varying sizes of correlations are not the only root of the hardness. Specifically, we show that the membership problem of fixed finite-sized correlations is still computationally undecidable when the fixed size is sufficiently large. That is, the hardness of the membership problem of quantum correlations is independent of the varying sizes of correlations. In fact, the hardness arises from the fact that the structure of some set of correlations of a particular size is so complicated that no finite description of this set can allow a Turing machine to decide if a correlation is quantum or not.
A key goal in the foundations of quantum mechanics is to identify operational constraints characterizing physical theories. Bell inequalities do so for classical probability theory, while Tsirelson's bound provides a first step for quantum mechanics. Here, we address the dual question: Can one certify that all correlations predicted by quantum theory are actually realizable? In this work, we construct a finite number of two-body correlations such that the only probabilistic theory that (1) realizes them, and (2) does so in a way that is stable under iterated teleportation, is quantum theory. For nnn quantum systems of dimension ddd each, Condition (1) can be verified using poly⁡(d,n)\operatorname{poly}(d,n)poly(d,n) measurement settings. Condition (2) may be understood as a hierarchy of tests, one for each number NNN of teleportation steps. There is thus a sense in which finite-dimensional quantum theory can be self-tested. In particular, one can certify the existence of Bell inequality violations larger than any that have been directly observed.
The set Q\mathcal{Q}Q of quantum correlations is the collection of all possible probability distributions on measurement outcomes achievable by space-like separated parties sharing a quantum state. Since the original work of Tsirelson [Tsirelson, Lett. Math. Phys. 4, 93 (1980)], this set has mainly been studied through the means algebraic and convex geometry techniques. We introduce a perturbative method using Lie-theoretic tools for the unitary group to analyze the response of the evaluations of Bell functionals under infinitesimal unitary perturbations of quantum strategies. Our main result shows that, near classical deterministic points, an (n,2,d)(n, 2, d)(n,2,d) Bell operator decomposes into a direct sum of (k,2,d−1)(k, 2, d-1)(k,2,d−1) Bell operators which we call \emph{subset games}. We then derive three key insights: (1) in the (n,2,2)(n, 2, 2)(n,2,2) case, if p0p_0p0​ is classically optimal, it remains locally optimal even among 2-dimensional quantum strategies, implying in turn that the boundary of Q\mathcal{Q}Q is flat around classical deterministic points; (2) it suggests a proof strategy for Gisin's open problem on correlations in Q(D)\mathcal{Q}(D)Q(D) unattainable by projective strategies of the same dimension; and (3) it establishes that the Ansatz dimension is a critical resource for learning in distributed scenarios, even when the optimal solution admits a low-dimensional representation.
Quantum information has the potential to disrupt the present computational landscape. Much of this potential rests on the existence of efficient quantum algorithms for classically intractable problems and of quantum cryptographic protocols for tasks that are provably impossible to realize classically. At the heart of many quantum advantages is one of the most counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics, known as entanglement. The central motivating question of this thesis is the following: if quantum devices will perform tasks that are beyond the reach of classical devices, can we hope to certify that they are performing these tasks correctly? Bell's theorem, a landmark result in physics, provides a partial answer to this question: it asserts that measurements on spatially isolated, but entangled, particles can result in outcomes that are correlated in a way that cannot be explained by any local hidden variable theory (such as Newtonian physics). A direct operational consequence of this theorem is that one can devise a statistical test to certify the presence of entanglement (and hence of genuine quantumness). Remarkably, nature allows us to take this certification one step further: in some cases, the correlation of measurement outcomes is sufficient to single out a unique quantum setup compatible with this correlation. This phenomenon is often referred to as self-testing, and is the central topic of this thesis. In the first part of this thesis, we review the basic terminology and results in the theory of self-testing. We then explore a concrete application to the problem of verifiably delegating a quantum computation. Our main technical contribution is a test that robustly certifies products of single-qubit Clifford measurements on many EPR pairs. We employ this test to obtain a protocol which allows a classical user to verifiably delegate her quantum computation to two spatially isolated quantum servers. The overall complexity of our protocol is near-optimal, requiring resources that scale almost linearly in the size of the circuit being delegated. In the second part of this thesis, the driving question is the following: what is the class of quantum states and measurements that can be certified through self-testing? Does self-testing only apply to a few special cases, like EPR pairs or copies of EPR pairs, or are these instances of a more general phenomenon? One of the main results of this thesis is that we settle this question for the case of bipartite states. We show the existence of a self-testing correlation for any pure bipartite entangled state of any finite local dimension. We then move on to explore the multipartite case, and we show that a significantly larger class of states can be self-tested than was previously known. This includes all multipartite partially entangled GHZ states, and more generally all multipartite qudit states which admit a Schmidt decomposition. In the final part of this thesis, we explore connections of the theory of self-testing to basic questions about entanglement and quantum correlation sets. In particular, we set out to understand the expressive power of infinite-dimensional quantum systems. We consider two questions: can spatially isolated quantum systems of infinite dimension produce correlations that are unattainable by finite-dimensional systems? Does there exist a correlation that cannot be attained exactly by spatially isolated quantum systems (not even infinite-dimensional ones), but can be approximated arbitrarily well by a sequence of finite or infinite-dimensional systems? The first question was posed by Tsirelson in 1993, and its answer has been elusive. One of the main results of this thesis is a resolution of this question. The second question is better known as the "non-closure of the set of quantum correlations", and was answered affirmatively in a breakthrough of Slofstra. We give a new elementary proof of this result which leverages one of our self-testing results and a phenomenon known as embezzlement.