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arXiv:2506.02226 · Physical Review A

Semi-device-independent nonstabilizerness certification in the prepare-and-measure scenario

Santiago Zamora, Rafael A. Macêdo, Tailan S. Sarubi, Moisés Alves, Davide Poderini, Rafael Chaves

Published Sep 10, 2025• 7 citations
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Abstract

Nonstabilizerness is an essential resource for quantum computational advantage as stabilizer states admit efficient classical simulation. We develop a semi-device-independent framework for certifying nonstabilizer states in prepare-and-measure (PAM) scenarios, relying only on assumptions about the system's dimension. Within this framework, we introduce PAM witnesses that can distinguish stabilizer from nonstabilizer states, and we provide analytical proofs that threshold violations of these witnesses certify nonstabilizerness. In the simplest setting---three preparations, two measurements, and qubit systems---surpassing a specific threshold guarantees that at least one prepared state lies outside the stabilizer polytope, while a stronger violation can certify at least two. We extend this approach by linking it to quantum random access codes, also generalizing our results to qutrit systems and introducing a necessary condition for certifying nonstabilizerness based on state overlaps (Gram matrices). These results offer a set of semi-device-independent tools for practically and systematically verifying nonstabilizer states using PAM inequalities.

DOI
10.1103/wm7m-xnfq

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Nonstabilizerness is an essential resource for quantum computational advantage as stabilizer states admit efficient classical simulation. We develop a semi-device-independent framework for certifying nonstabilizer states in prepare-and-measure (PAM) scenarios, relying only on assumptions about the system's dimension. Within this framework, we introduce PAM witnesses that can distinguish stabilizer from nonstabilizer states, and we provide analytical proofs that threshold violations of these witnesses certify nonstabilizerness. In the simplest setting---three preparations, two measurements, and qubit systems---surpassing a specific threshold guarantees that at least one prepared state lies outside the stabilizer polytope, while a stronger violation can certify at least two. We extend this approach by linking it to quantum random access codes, also generalizing our results to qutrit systems and introducing a necessary condition for certifying nonstabilizerness based on state overlaps (Gram matrices). These results offer a set of semi-device-independent tools for practically and systematically verifying nonstabilizer states using PAM inequalities.
An absolutely entangled set (AES) is a collection of states for which at least one member remains entangled under any choice of global unitary transformation. We develop a semi-device-independent framework for certifying this property from dimensionally bounded prepare-and-measure correlations. A witness value above the maximum attainable with separable preparations of a given dimension rules out every non-AES realization. To upperbound this limit, we construct a semidefinite-programming (SDP) hierarchy tailored to separable preparations. For a two-qubit random-access-code witness, the SDP upper bound and the heuristic lower bound coincide to the reported precision, yielding a concrete AES certification. We also formulate a general construction of witnesses for extended preparation sets containing target pure-state AESs. Examples based on equiangular tight frames, a minimal AES, and mutually unbiased bases further illustrate the scope of the method. In summary, our results establish a systematic and experimentally feasible approach to the certification of AESs in semi-device-independent quantum information protocols.
Recently, a novel framework for semi-device-independent quantum prepare-and-measure protocols has been proposed, based on the assumption of a limited distinguishability between the prepared quantum states. Here, we discuss the problem of characterizing an unknown quantum measurement device in this setting. We present several methods to attack the problem. Considering the simplest scenario of two preparations with lower bounded overlap, we show that genuine three-outcome positive-operator valued measures (POVMs) can be certified, even in the presence of noise. Moreover, we show that the optimal POVM for performing unambiguous state discrimination can be self-tested.
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The number of outcomes is a defining property of a quantum measurement, in particular, if the measurement cannot be decomposed into simpler measurements with fewer outcomes. Importantly, the number of outcomes of a quantum measurement can be irreducibly higher than the dimension of the system. The certification of this property is possible in a semi-device-independent way either based on a Bell-like scenario or by utilizing the simpler prepare-and-measure scenario. Here we show that in the latter scenario the minimal scheme for certifying an irreducible three-outcome qubit measurement requires three state preparations and only two measurements and we provide experimentally feasible examples for this minimal certification scheme. We also discuss the dimension assumption characteristic of the semi-device-independent approach and to what extent it can be mitigated.
Certifying high-dimensional quantum channels is essential for ensuring the reliability of quantum communication protocols. Existing certification schemes often rely on fully trusted internal devices, which is difficult to achieve in realistic scenarios. Here, we propose a semi-device-independent framework for certifying channel properties directly from observed statistics, assuming only that the system dimension is known. By explicitly incorporating the full set of structural constraints inherent to Choi states, our approach exploits the Choi-Jamiołkowski isomorphism for rigorous certification of quantum channels. The entanglement dimensionality of quantum channels is first certified by introducing a witness and numerically determining its Schmidt-number-dependent bounds. This certification method reproduces known analytical benchmarks and is applied to dephasing and depolarizing noise channels, thereby confirming its validity. To provide a more complete assessment of channel performance, the entanglement fidelity of quantum channels is also certified using a hierarchy of semidefinite programming relaxations based on localizing matrices. Lower bounds on the entanglement fidelity are obtained that are compatible with either the full set of observed statistics or a single witness value.
We present a hitherto unexplored semi-device-independent (SDI) self-testing protocol designed to certify unitary operations within a variant of prepare-measure framework. We consider a communication game which we refer to as a variant of 333-bit prepare-measure random access code (PMRAC) involving two parties, Alice and Bob, who share a prior two-qubit quantum state. Alice encodes her message by applying unitary operations on her subsystem and sends it to Bob. To decode the message, Bob performs a measurement on the whole system. We demonstrate that the optimal quantum advantage of the variant of 333-bit PMRAC over the classical bound enables the self-testing of Alice's unitary operations and Bob's measurements. The derivation of the optimal quantum success probability is fully analytical. The approach is so elegant that it can be generalized for any arbitrary nnn-bit PMRAC and may also be extended to other prepare-measure communication games.