We study the entanglement structure, i.e., the structure of quantum composite system from operational aspects. The structure is not uniquely determined in General Probabilistic Theories (GPTs) even if we impose reasonable postulate about local systems. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that the standard entanglement structure can be determined uniquely by repeatability of measurement processing and its saturated situation called self-duality. Surprisingly, self-duality cannot determine the standard entanglement structure even if we additionally impose local unitary symmetry assumption. In this paper, we show the existence of infinite structures of quantum composite system such that it is self-dual with local unitary symmetry. Besides, we also show the existence of a structure of quantum composite system such that non-orthogonal states in the structure are perfectly distinguishable. In addition, as a byproduct, we derive an sufficient condition to achieve the detection of the entanglement property with a finite number of parameterized minimizations.
We study the entanglement structure, i.e., the structure of quantum composite system from operational aspects. The structure is not uniquely determined in General Probabilistic Theories (GPTs) even if we impose reasonable postulate about local systems. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that the standard entanglement structure can be determined uniquely by repeatability of measurement processing and its saturated situation called self-duality. Surprisingly, self-duality cannot determine the standard entanglement structure even if we additionally impose local unitary symmetry assumption. In this paper, we show the existence of infinite structures of quantum composite system such that it is self-dual with local unitary symmetry. Besides, we also show the existence of a structure of quantum composite system such that non-orthogonal states in the structure are perfectly distinguishable. In addition, as a byproduct, we derive an sufficient condition to achieve the detection of the entanglement property with a finite number of parameterized minimizations.
This thesis deals with General Probabilistic Theories (GPTs) and Entanglement Structures (ESs). An ES is a possible structure of a quantum composite system in GPTs, which is not uniquely determined as the Standard Entanglement Structure (SES). It is an important problem to find reasonable postulates that determine various ESs as the SES. In order to solve this problem, this thesis explores the diversity of ESs. The topics of this thesis are roughly divided into two parts. First, this thesis considers state discrimination in ESs. As a main result, this thesis gives equivalent conditions for a given measurement in ESs to have a performance superior to standard quantum theory. Second, this thesis focuses on symmetry and self-duality. As a main result, this thesis gives derivations of the SES by symmetric conditions. On the other hand, this thesis clarifies that there are infinitely many self-dual ESs, even if they cannot be distinguished from the SES by a certain physical experiment with small errors.
Abstract An experimental verification of the maximally entangled state ensures that the constructed state is close to the maximally entangled state, but it does not guarantee that the state is exactly the same as the maximally entangled state. Further, the entanglement structure is not uniquely determined in general probabilistic theories even if we impose that the local subsystems are fully equal to quantum systems. Therefore, the existence of the maximally entangled state depends on whether the standard entanglement structure (SES) is valid. To examine this issue, we introduce pseudo SES as a structure of quantum composite system under natural assumptions based on the existence of projective measurements and the existence of approximations of all maximally entangled standard states. Surprisingly, there exist infinitely many pseudo SESs different from the SES. In our setting, any maximally entangled state can be arbitrarily approximated by an entangled state that belongs to our obtained pseudo standard entanglement structure. That is, experimental verification does not exclude the possibility of our obtained pseudo standard entanglement structure that is different from the standard entanglement structure. On the other hand, such pseudo structures never possess global unitary symmetry, i.e. global unitary symmetry is essential condition for the SES.
Inspired by its fundamental importance in quantum mechanics, we define and study the notion of entanglement for abstract physical theories, investigating its profound connection with the concept of superposition. We adopt the formalism of general probabilistic theories (GPTs), encompassing all physical models whose predictive power obeys minimal requirements. Examples include classical theories, which do not exhibit superposition and whose state space has the shape of a simplex, quantum mechanics, as well as more exotic models such as Popescu-Rohrlich boxes. We call two GPTs entangleable if their composite admits either entangled states or entangled measurements, and conjecture that any two non-classical theories are in fact entangleable. We present substantial evidence towards this conjecture by proving it (1) for the simplest case of 3-dimensional theories; (2) when the local state spaces are discrete, which covers foundationally relevant cases; (3) when one of the local theories is quantum mechanics. Furthermore, (4) we envision the existence of a quantitative relation between local non-classicality and global entangleability, explicitly describing it in the geometrically natural case where the local state spaces are centrally symmetric.
Using a result of H. Hanche-Olsen, we show that (subject to fairly natural constraints on what constitutes a system, and on what constitutes a composite system), orthodox finite-dimensional complex quantum mechanics with superselection rules is the only non-signaling probabilistic theory in which (i) individual systems are Jordan algebras (equivalently, their cones of unnormalized states are homogeneous and self-dual), (ii) composites are locally tomographic (meaning that states are determined by the joint probabilities they assign to measurement outcomes on the component systems) and (iii) at least one system has the structure of a qubit. Using this result, we also characterize finite dimensional quantum theory among probabilistic theories having the structure of a dagger-monoidal category.
Entanglement is a central and subtle feature of quantum theory, whose structure and operational behavior can change dramatically when additional physical constraints, such as symmetries or superselection rules, are imposed. Such constraints can give rise to striking and counter-intuitive phenomena, including local broadcasting of entangled states and failures of entanglement monogamy. These effects naturally arise in tomographically nonlocal theories (like real quantum theory, twirled worlds, or fermionic quantum theory), where composite systems possess holistic degrees of freedom that are inaccessible to local measurements. In this work, we study entanglement in such theories within the framework of generalized probabilistic theories. We show that the failure of tomographic locality leads to two qualitatively distinct forms of entanglement, which we term tomographically-local entanglement and tomographically-nonlocal entanglement. We analyze the operational consequences of this distinction, proving that tomographically-nonlocal entanglement is useless for Bell nonlocality, steering, and teleportation, but sufficient for dense coding and perfectly secure data hiding. This framework clarifies the origin of several previously puzzling features of entanglement that arise when tomographic locality fails, as can happen even in quantum theory when one considers fermions or fundamental superselection rules.
Quantum theory is considered to be the most fundamental and most accurate physical theory of today. Although quantum theory is conceptually difficult to understand, its mathematical structure is quite simple. What determines this particularly simple and elegant mathematical structure? In short: Why is quantum theory as it is? Addressing such questions is the aim of investigating the foundations of quantum theory. In the past this field of research was sometimes considered as an academic subject without much practical impact. However, with the emergence of quantum information theory this perception has changed significantly and both fields started to fruitfully influence each other. Today fundamental aspects of quantum theory attract increasing attention and the field belongs to the most exciting subjects of theoretical physics. This thesis is concerned with a particular branch in this field, namely, with so-called Generalized Probabilistic Theories (GPTs), which provide a unified theoretical framework in which classical and quantum theory emerge as special cases. This is used to examine nonlocal features that help to distinguish quantum theory from alternative toy theories. In order to extend the scope of theories that can be examined with the framework, we also introduce several generalizations to the framework itself. We start in Chapter 1 with introducing the standard GPT framework and summarize previous results, based on a review paper of the author [New J. Phys. 13, 063024 (2011)]. To keep the introduction accessible to a broad readership, we follow a constructive approach. Starting from few basic physically motivated assumptions we show how a given set of observations can be manifested in an operational theory. Furthermore, we characterize consistency conditions limiting the range of possible extensions. We point out that non-classical features of single systems can equivalently result from higher dimensional classical theories that have been restricted. Entanglement and non-locality, however, are shown to be genuine non-classical features. We review features that have been found to be specific for quantum theory separably or single and joint systems. Chapter 2 incorporates results published in [J. Phys. A 47(32), pp. 1-32 (2014)] and [Proc. QPL 2011 via EPTCS vol. 95, pp. 183–192 (2012)]. The GPT framework is applied to show how the structure of local state spaces indirectly affects possible nonlocal correlations, which are global properties of a theory. These correlations are stronger than those possible in a classical theory, but happen to show different restrictions that can be linked to the structure of subsystems. We first illustrate the phenomenon with toy theories with particular local state spaces. We than show that a particular class of joint states (inner product states), whose existence depends on geometrical properties of the local subsystems, can only have correlations for a known limited set called Q1. All bipartite correlations of both, quantum and classical correlations, can be mapped to measurement statistics from such joint states. Chapter 3 shows unpublished results on entanglement swapping in GPTs. This protocol, which is well known in quantum information theory, allows to nonlocally transfer entanglement to initially unentangled parties with the help of a third party that shares entanglement with each. We review our approach published in [Proc. QPL 2011 via EPTCS vol. 95, pp. 183–192 (2012)], which mimics the joint systems' structure of quantum theory by modifying a popular toy theory known as boxworld. However, it is illustrated that this approach fails for bigger multipartite systems due to inconsistencies evoked by entanglement swapping. It turns out that the GPT framework does not allow entanglement swapping for general subsystems with two-dimensional state spaces with transitive pure states. Altering the GPT framework to allow completely globally degrees of freedom, however, enables us to construct consistent entanglement swapping for these subsystems. This construction resembles the situation in quantum theory on a real Hilbert space. A questionable assumption usually taken in the standard GPT framework is the so-called no-restriction hypothesis. It states that the measurement that are possible in a theory can be derived from the state space. In fact, this assumption seems to exist for reasons of mathematical convenience, but it seems to lack physical motivation. We generalize the GPT framework to also account for systems that do not obey the no-restriction hypothesis in Chapter 4, which presents results published in [Phys. Rev. A 87, 052131 (2013)] and [Proc. QPL 2013, to be published in EPTCS]. The extended framework includes new classes of probabilistic theories. As an example, we show how to construct theories that include intrinsic noise. We also provide a "self-dualization" procedure that requires the violation of the no-restriction hypothesis. This procedure restricts the measurement of arbitrary theories such that the theories act as if they were self-dual. Self-duality has recently gathered lots of interest, since such theories share many features of quantum theory. For example Tsirelson’s bound holds for correlations on the maximally entangled state in these theories. Finally, we characterize the maximal set of joint states that can be consistently defined for given subsystems. This generalizes the maximal tensor product of the standard GPT framework.