Gaussian states have played an important role in the physics of continuous-variable quantum systems.They are appealing for the experimental ease with which they can be produced, and for their compact and elegant mathematical description.Nevertheless, many proposed quantum technologies require us to go beyond the realm of Gaussian states and introduce non-Gaussian elements.In this Tutorial, we provide a roadmap for the physics of non-Gaussian quantum states.We introduce the phase-space representations as a framework to describe the different properties of quantum states in continuous-variable systems.We then use this framework in various ways to explore the structure of the state space.We explain how non-Gaussian states can be characterized not only through the negative values of their Wigner function, but also via other properties such as quantum non-Gaussianity and the related stellar rank.For multimode systems, we are naturally confronted with the question of how non-Gaussian properties behave with respect to quantum correlations.To answer this question, we first show how non-Gaussian states can be created by performing measurements on a subset of modes in a Gaussian state.Then, we highlight that these measured modes must be correlated via specific quantum correlations to the remainder of the system to create quantum non-Gaussian or Wigner-negative states.On the other hand, non-Gaussian operations are also shown to enhance or even create quantum correlations.Finally, we demonstrate that Wigner negativity is a requirement to violate Bell inequalities and to achieve a quantum computational advantage.At the end of the Tutorial, we also provide an overview of several experimental realizations of non-Gaussian quantum states in quantum optics and beyond.
Gaussian states have played an important role in the physics of continuous-variable quantum systems.They are appealing for the experimental ease with which they can be produced, and for their compact and elegant mathematical description.Nevertheless, many proposed quantum technologies require us to go beyond the realm of Gaussian states and introduce non-Gaussian elements.In this Tutorial, we provide a roadmap for the physics of non-Gaussian quantum states.We introduce the phase-space representations as a framework to describe the different properties of quantum states in continuous-variable systems.We then use this framework in various ways to explore the structure of the state space.We explain how non-Gaussian states can be characterized not only through the negative values of their Wigner function, but also via other properties such as quantum non-Gaussianity and the related stellar rank.For multimode systems, we are naturally confronted with the question of how non-Gaussian properties behave with respect to quantum correlations.To answer this question, we first show how non-Gaussian states can be created by performing measurements on a subset of modes in a Gaussian state.Then, we highlight that these measured modes must be correlated via specific quantum correlations to the remainder of the system to create quantum non-Gaussian or Wigner-negative states.On the other hand, non-Gaussian operations are also shown to enhance or even create quantum correlations.Finally, we demonstrate that Wigner negativity is a requirement to violate Bell inequalities and to achieve a quantum computational advantage.At the end of the Tutorial, we also provide an overview of several experimental realizations of non-Gaussian quantum states in quantum optics and beyond.
Gaussian states are central to continuous-variable quantum systems, as they are experimentally accessible and admit a compact mathematical description. Nevertheless, many proposed quantum technologies require non-Gaussian elements. In resource-theoretic terms, non-Gaussian states are resources, while Gaussian states and operations are free. The task of broadcasting, then, asks whether the resource content of a state can be meaningfully cloned. In this Letter, we prove that broadcasting of non-Gaussian states via Gaussian operations is not possible. We first show that the relative entropy of non-Gaussianity is not superadditive, ruling it out for such no-go analyses. Our proof instead uses fixed points of Gaussian operations and relates to control theory. The theorem also implies that if two initially uncorrelated systems interact by Gaussian dynamics, and one subsystem gains non-Gaussianity, the other must lose it irreversibly. Keeping the set of free operations fixed to Gaussian operations, we also comment on the broadcasting of Wigner negativity and genuine quantum non-Gaussianity.
This review covers recent theoretical and experimental efforts to extend the application of the continuous-variable quantum technology of light beyond "Gaussian" quantum states, such as coherent and squeezed states, into the domain of "non-Gaussian" states with negative Wigner functions. Starting with basic Gaussian nonclassicality associated with single- and two-mode vacuum states produced by means of parametric down-conversion and applying a set of standard tools, such as linear interferometry, coherent state injection, and conditional homodyne and photon number measurements, one can implement a large variety of optical states and processes that are relevant in fundamental quantum physics as well as quantum optical information processing. We present a systematic review of these methods, paying attention to both fundamental and practical aspects of their implementation, as well as a comprehensive overview of the results achieved therewith.
One of the central foundational questions of physics is to identify what makes a system quantum as opposed to classical. One seminal notion of classicality of a quantum system is the existence of a non-contextual hidden variable model as introduced in the early work by Bell, Kochen and Specker. In quantum optics, the non-negativity of the Wigner function is a ubiquitous notion of classicality. In this work we establish an equivalence between these two concepts. In particular, we show that any non-contextual hidden variable model for Gaussian quantum optics has an alternative non-negative Wigner function description. Conversely, it was known that the Wigner representation provides a non-negative non-contextual description of Gaussian quantum optics. It follows that contextuality and Wigner negativity are equivalent notions of non-classicality and equivalent resources for this quantum subtheory. In particular, both contextuality and Wigner negativity are necessary for a computational speed-up of quantum Gaussian optics. At the technical level, our result holds true for any subfamily of Gaussian measurements that include homodyne measurements, i.e., measurements of standard quadrature observables.
Quantum correlations and Wigner negativity are two important signatures of nonclassicality in continuous-variable quantum systems. In this work, we investigate how both are intertwined in the context of the conditional generation of Wigner negativity. It was previously shown that when Alice and Bob share a Gaussian state, Bob can perform some measurement on his system to create Wigner negativity on Alice's side if and only if there is Gaussian steering from Alice to Bob. In this work, we attempt to generalise these findings to a much broader class of scenarios on which Alice and Bob share a non-Gaussian state. We show that if Alice can initially steer Bob's system with Wigner-positive measurements, Bob can remotely create Wigner negativity in Alice's subsystem. Even though this shows that quantum steering is sufficient, we also show that quantum correlations are in general not necessary for the conditional generation of Wigner negativity.
We present an effort to find a measure of non-Gaussianity of non-Gaussian states. We compute the difference between the logarithmic negativities of a non-Gaussian state and its Gaussified form as a non-Gaussian entanglement resource. We use the latter to assess the resource content of non-Gaussianity of experimentally relevant state - two- mode squeezed vacuum with a subtracted photon. We also used symplectic analysis to discard the Gaussian entanglement. Therefore the measure is reduced to the logarithmic negativity of a non-Gaussian state only. We compare the measure with the Wigner distribution and its negativity and discuss the results. 1
Quantum continuous variable systems are quantum systems obeying the canonical commutation relations. As we have seen in the previous chapter, such systems always require the adoption of infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, even when a finite number of degrees of freedom is considered. Besides making their dynamics potentially intractable, this fact also implies that the study of properties related to the information and correlation content of continuous variable systems turns out to be particularly difficult. A widely known way to make continuous variable systems more tractable is to consider the restriction to Gaussian states. Already well trodden in older research on quantum optics, the study of Gaussian systems has more recently become a central theme of continuous variable quantum information. If open quantum systems, coupled to an external environment, are considered, the Gaussian regime applies when the system couples linearly to its environment and when system and environment are governed by Hamiltonians which are at most quadratic in the canonical operators (or, equivalently, when the overall Hamiltonian of system and environment is at most quadratic). These conditions may seem rather restrictive but, as we shall point out in the course of the book, are actually ordinarily met by a vast number of existing experimental set-ups in the areas of quantum optics, trapped ions, optomechanics, atomic ensembles and certain superconducting degrees of freedom (all of these platforms are reviewed in Chapter 9 ). What we will refer to as Gaussian measurements – POVMs that preserve the Gaussian character of initial states – are also customarily carried out with comparatively high efficiency, while the description of quantum noise can be incorporated seamlessly into the Gaussian picture. What is perhaps even more important to note is that the restriction to the Gaussian realm, while not exhaustive of the full wealth of dynamics and situations allowed in the whole Hilbert space, still lets one include most of the processes relevant to quantum technologies. Squeezing, whereby certain canonical quadratures have uncertainties below the vacuum state noise, and can hence be used in precision measurements, quantum entanglement, and cooling, where the entropy is drained out of a system in order to reach a pure quantum state and thus initialise information protocols or low noise experiments, may all be described within the Gaussian regime. Within the quantum information discourse, the Gaussian restriction has been often criticised on the grounds that no real genuinely quantum effects can ever be observed without leaving it at some point, since the statistics obtained from Gaussian states through Gaussian measurements can be reproduced by classical probability distributions. While technically correct, the reader should be reminded that such critiques often disregard the fact that the object described by a Gaussian state does entail a genuinely quantum description in a Hilbert space. Hence, for instance, the preparation of a pure Gaussian quantum state is the preparation of a pure vector of the Hilbert space. Likewise, a highly squeezed Gaussian state prepared for a metrological protocol is a state with very low noise in a certain physical observable, regardless of whether it can be mimicked by a classical distribution or not. The testing and exploitation of quantum non-locality (stronger than classical correlations that imply the presence of quantum entanglement) with Gaussian states does instead require a departure from Gaussian measurements. However, as we will see, certain non-Gaussian measurements are customarily implemented with current technology, and it is hence still relevant to study in detail the creation of such a resource for Gaussian states. This chapter will introduce Gaussian states from a somewhat unusual angle: as ground and thermal states of at most second-order Hamiltonians. Our treatment will highlight the privileged role played by quadratic canonical ( i.e. , ‘symplectic’) transformations in this context, which we will take care to describe in full generality, and will hinge on the reduction of Gaussian states into their normal modes, which allows for their systematic diagonalisation. We will then proceed to explore an equivalent characterisation in terms of statistical moments of the canonical operators, and to introduce the implications of non-commutativity on such statistics in the form of the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation.