Abstract Semi-device-independent certification of an unsharp instrument has recently been demonstrated (2019 New J. Phys. 21 083034) based on the sequential sharing of quantum advantages in a prepare-measure communication game by assuming the system to be qubit. In this work, we provide device-independent (DI) self-testing of the unsharp instrument through the quantum violation of two Bell inequalities where the devices are uncharacterized and the dimension of the system remains unspecified. We introduce an elegant sum-of-squares approach to derive the dimension-independent optimal quantum violation of Bell inequalities which plays a crucial role. Note that the standard Bell test cannot self-test the post-measurement states and consequently cannot self-test unsharp instrument. The sequential Bell test possess the potential to self-test an unsharp instrument. We demonstrate that there exists a trade-off between the maximum sequential quantum violations of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality, and they form an optimal pair that enables the DI self-testing of the entangled state, the observables, and the unsharpness parameter. Further, we extend our study to the case of elegant Bell inequality and we argue that it has two classical bounds—the local bound and the non-trivial preparation non-contextual bound, lower than the local bound. Based on the sharing of preparation contextuality by three independent sequential observers, we demonstrate the DI self-testing of two unsharpness parameters. Since an actual experimental scenario involves losses and imperfection, we demonstrate robustness of our certification to noise.
Abstract Semi-device-independent certification of an unsharp instrument has recently been demonstrated (2019 New J. Phys. 21 083034) based on the sequential sharing of quantum advantages in a prepare-measure communication game by assuming the system to be qubit. In this work, we provide device-independent (DI) self-testing of the unsharp instrument through the quantum violation of two Bell inequalities where the devices are uncharacterized and the dimension of the system remains unspecified. We introduce an elegant sum-of-squares approach to derive the dimension-independent optimal quantum violation of Bell inequalities which plays a crucial role. Note that the standard Bell test cannot self-test the post-measurement states and consequently cannot self-test unsharp instrument. The sequential Bell test possess the potential to self-test an unsharp instrument. We demonstrate that there exists a trade-off between the maximum sequential quantum violations of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality, and they form an optimal pair that enables the DI self-testing of the entangled state, the observables, and the unsharpness parameter. Further, we extend our study to the case of elegant Bell inequality and we argue that it has two classical bounds—the local bound and the non-trivial preparation non-contextual bound, lower than the local bound. Based on the sharing of preparation contextuality by three independent sequential observers, we demonstrate the DI self-testing of two unsharpness parameters. Since an actual experimental scenario involves losses and imperfection, we demonstrate robustness of our certification to noise.
Self-testing protocols refer to novel device-independent certification schemes wherein the devices are uncharacterized and the dimension of the system remains unspecified. The optimal quantum violation of Bell's inequality facilitates such self-testing. In this work we put forth a protocol for self-testing of noisy quantum instruments, specifically, the unsharpness parameter of smeared projective measurements in any arbitrary dimension. Our protocol hinges on the sequential quantum violations of a bipartite Bell-type preparation noncontextual inequality, involving three measurement settings per party. First, we demonstrate that at most three sequential independent Bobs manifest simultaneous preparation contextuality with a single Alice through the violation of this inequality. Subsequently, we show that the suboptimal sequential quantum violations of the noncontextual inequality form an optimal set, eventually enabling the self-testing of a shared state, local measurements, and unsharpness parameters of one party. Notably, we derive the optimal set of quantum violations without specifying the dimension of the quantum system, thereby circumventing the constraint that may arise due to Naimark's theorem. Furthermore, we extend our investigation to quantify the degree of incompatible measurements pertaining to the sequential observers, exploring how variations in the degree of incompatibility impact the values of unsharp parameters necessary for sequential quantum violation.
Based on a sequential communication game, semi-device-independent certification of an unsharp instrument has recently been demonstrated [K. Mohan, A. Tavakoli, and N. Brunner, New J. Phys. 21, 083034 (2019)]. In this paper, we provide semi-device-independent self-testing protocols in the prepare-measure scenario to certify multiple unsharpness parameters along with the states and the measurement settings. This is achieved through the sequential quantum advantage shared by multiple independent observers in a suitable communication game known as the parity-oblivious random-access code. We demonstrate that in the three-bit parity-oblivious random-access code at most three independent observers can sequentially share quantum advantage. The optimal pair (triple) of quantum advantages enables us to uniquely certify the qubit states, the measurement settings, and the unsharpness parameter(s). The practical implementation of a given protocol involves inevitable losses. In a suboptimal scenario, we derive a certified interval within which a specific unsharpness parameter has to be confined. We extend our treatment to the four-bit case and show that at most two observers can share quantum advantage for the qubit system. Further, we provide an outline to argue that four sequential observers can share the quantum advantage for the two-qubit system, thereby enabling the certification of three unsharpness parameters.
In a device-independent Bell test, the devices are considered to be black boxes and the dimension of the system remains unspecified. The dichotomic observables involved in such a Bell test can be degenerate and one may invoke a suitable measurement scheme to lift the degeneracy. However, the standard Bell test cannot account for whether or up to what extent the degeneracy is lifted, as the effect of lifting the degeneracy can only be reflected in the postmeasurement states, which the standard Bell tests do not certify. In this work, we demonstrate the device-independent certification of degeneracy-breaking measurement based on the sequential Bell test by multiple observers who perform degeneracy-breaking unsharp measurements characterized by positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs)---the noisy variants of projectors. The optimal quantum violation of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality by multiple sequential observers eventually enables us to certify up to what extent the degeneracy has been lifted. In particular, our protocol certifies the upper bound on the number of POVMs used for performing such measurements along with the entangled state and measurement observables. We use an elegant sum-of-squares approach that powers such certification of degeneracy-breaking measurements.
Self-testing refers to the strongest device-independent (DI) certification method that validates the nature of a quantum system and devices solely based on the observed statistics. We demonstrate the self-testing of state and measurements based on the Gisin Bell inequality (GBI) featuring arbitrary inputs for both parties. We introduce a systematic and elegant sum-of-squares (SOS) approach that enables the dimension-independent derivation of the optimal quantum violation of GBI. We derive the state and the interrelation between the local observables directly from the optimization condition. Since the practical experimental scenario involves inevitable noise and imperfection, we present a comprehensive strategy for robust self-testing.
Self-testing is the strongest certification procedure that uniquely characterizes the physical system based on the observed statistics, without any knowledge of the inner workings of the devices. The optimal quantum violation of a Bell inequality enables such a device-independent (DI) self-testing of the source and the measurement devices. In this work, we demonstrate the DI self-testing based on the arbitrary-input chained Bell inequality. We devise a systematic and elegant sum-of-squares (SOS) technique enabling dimension-independent optimization of the quantum violation. Our approach enables the derivation of the state along with the relationship between the local observables directly from the optimization condition. One significant aspect is the robustness of such self-testing in real experimental situations involving noise and imperfection, leading to deviation from the optimal quantum violation. We provide an analytical technique for robust self-testing in the presence of noise. As an application of our scheme, we demonstrate the generation of two bit DI randomness and analyze the robustness of such randomness. Our optimization method is both simple and elegant, making it suitable for deriving the optimal quantum violation of various arbitrary-input Bell inequalities.
Given a Bell inequality, if its maximal quantum violation can be achieved only by a single set of measurements for each party or a single quantum state, up to local unitaries, one refers to such a phenomenon as self-testing. For instance, the maximal quantum violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality certifies that the underlying state contains the two-qubit maximally entangled state and the measurements of one party contains a pair of anti-commuting qubit observables. As a consequence, the other party automatically verifies the set of states remotely steered, namely the "assemblage", is in the eigenstates of a pair of anti-commuting observables. It is natural to ask if the quantum violation of the Bell inequality is not maximally achieved, or if one does not care about self-testing the state or measurements, are we capable of estimating how close the underlying assemblage is to the reference one? In this work, we provide a systematic device-independent estimation by proposing a framework called "robust self-testing of steerable quantum assemblages". In particular, we consider assemblages violating several paradigmatic Bell inequalities and obtain the robust self-testing statement for each scenario. Our result is device-independent (DI), i.e., no assumption is made on the shared state and the measurement devices involved. Our work thus not only paves a way for exploring the connection between the boundary of quantum set of correlations and steerable assemblages, but also provides a useful tool in the areas of DI quantum certification. As two explicit applications, we show 1) that it can be used for an alternative proof of the protocol of DI certification of all entangled two-qubit states proposed by Bowles et al., and 2) that it can be used to verify all non-entanglement-breaking qubit channels with fewer assumptions compared with the work of Rosset et al.