The statistics of local measurements of joint quantum systems can sometimes be used to distinguish the spatiotemporal structure in which they were measured. We first prove that every bipartite separable density matrix is temporally compatible with direct causal influence for arbitrary finite-dimensional quantum systems and measurements of a tomographically complete class of observables, which includes all Pauli observables in the case of multi-qubit systems. Equivalently, if a bipartite density matrix is not temporally compatible with direct causal influence, then it must be entangled. We also provide an operational meaning for the two temporal evolutions consistent with such correlations in terms of generalized dephasing channels and pretty good measurements. The two temporal evolutions are Bayesian inverses of each other, which is different from them being Petz recovery maps of each other. Finally, we prove necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary bipartite quantum state to be temporally compatible, thereby providing a temporal analogue of the positive partial transpose criterion valid for quantum systems of any dimension.
The statistics of local measurements of joint quantum systems can sometimes be used to distinguish the spatiotemporal structure in which they were measured. We first prove that every bipartite separable density matrix is temporally compatible with direct causal influence for arbitrary finite-dimensional quantum systems and measurements of a tomographically complete class of observables, which includes all Pauli observables in the case of multi-qubit systems. Equivalently, if a bipartite density matrix is not temporally compatible with direct causal influence, then it must be entangled. We also provide an operational meaning for the two temporal evolutions consistent with such correlations in terms of generalized dephasing channels and pretty good measurements. The two temporal evolutions are Bayesian inverses of each other, which is different from them being Petz recovery maps of each other. Finally, we prove necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary bipartite quantum state to be temporally compatible, thereby providing a temporal analogue of the positive partial transpose criterion valid for quantum systems of any dimension.
The joint expectation values of quantum observables measured by two parties typically depend on the causal structure of the measurement protocol. The two causal structures we investigate here are the direct-cause scenario, in which a single quantum state is measured twice in series with a general quantum channel between measurements, and the common-cause scenario, in which a shared bipartite quantum state is measured in parallel. Through a variety of examples of qubit channels with tunable parameters, we identify the full set of input states where the direct-cause joint expectation values of Pauli observables coincide with those obtained from a common cause, a situation that we call causal confusion. More generally, for arbitrary finite-dimensional quantum systems and light-touch observables, we prove that a channel exhibits causal confusion for some input state if and only if it is a positive-partial-transpose (PPT) channel, thereby endowing PPT channels with a new operational meaning in terms of causal confusion. Using this result, we characterize the set of qubit channels for which there exists an input state leading to causal confusion as the set of entanglement-breaking channels.
General physical background of Peres-Horodecki positive partial transpose (ppt-) separability criterion is revealed. Especially, the physical sense of partial transpose operation is shown to be equivalent to the local causality reversal (LCR-) procedure for all separable quantum systems or to the uncertainty in a global time arrow direction in all entangled cases. Using these universal causal considerations the heuristic causal separability criterion has been proposed for arbitrary $ D^{N} \times D^{N}$ density matrices acting in $ \mathcal{H}_{D}^{\otimes N} $ Hilbert spaces which describe the ensembles of $ N $ quantum systems of $ D $ eigenstates each. Resulting general formulas have been then analyzed for the widest special type of one-parametric density matrices of arbitrary dimensionality, which model equivalent quantum subsystems being equally connected (EC-) with each other by means of a single entnaglement parameter $ p $. In particular, for the family of such EC-density matrices it has been found that there exists a number of $ N $- and $ D $-dependent separability (or entanglement) thresholds $ p_{th}(N,D) $ which in the case of a qubit-pair density matrix in $ \mathcal{H}_{2} \otimes \mathcal{H}_{2} $ Hilbert space are shown to reduce to well-known results obtained earlier by Peres [5] and Horodecki [6]. As the result, a number of remarkable features of the entanglement thresholds for EC-density matrices has been described for the first time. All novel results being obtained for the family of arbitrary EC-density matrices are shown to be applicable for a wide range of both interacting and non-interacting multi-partite quantum systems, such as arrays of qubits, spin chains, ensembles of quantum oscillators, strongly correlated quantum many-body systems with the possibility of many-body localization, etc.
We give a causal inference scheme using quantum observations alone for a case with both temporal and spatial correlations: a bipartite quantum system with measurements at two times. The protocol determines compatibility with five causal structures distinguished by the direction of causal influence and whether there are initial correlations. We derive and exploit a closed-form expression for the spacetime pseudo-density matrix (PDM) for many times and qubits. This PDM can be determined by light-touch coarse-grained measurements alone. We prove that if there is no signalling between two subsystems, the reduced state of the PDM cannot have negativity, regardless of initial spatial correlations. In addition, the protocol exploits the time asymmetry of the PDM to determine the temporal order. The protocol succeeds for a state with coherence undergoing a fully decohering channel. Thus coherence in the channel is not necessary for the quantum advantage of causal inference from observations alone.
Identifying causal order from restricted projective data is generally nontrivial. When two quantum players interact only through an unobserved environment, the available local measurement statistics are typically not tomographically complete, so the underlying process cannot in general be reconstructed exactly from the observed distribution. As a result, causal direction can be statistically identifiable in some cases but fundamentally indistinguishable in others.
In this work, we determine necessary and sufficient conditions for deciding when an observed distribution is compatible with a memoryless sequential quantum process in a fixed direction. We show that directional conditional-independence structure and the positivity criterion based on the pseudo-density matrix, as developed in recent work by We show that directional conditional-independence structure and PDM-based positivity criteria are not sufficient by themselves. We then specialize to the two-qubit Pauli setting, where the problem remains non-tomographic but becomes explicitly tractable. In this regime, we characterize when the two sequential directions are statistically indistinguishable, and we show by example that positivity alone does not exclude more general memoryful strategies, whereas the additional algebraic consistency requirement does.
General physical background of famous Peres-Horodecki positive partial transpose (PH- or PPT-) separability criterion is revealed. Especially, the physical sense of partial transpose operation is shown to be equivalent to what one could call as the "local causality reversal" (LCR-) procedure for all separable quantum systems or to the uncertainty in a global time arrow direction in all entangled cases. Using these universal causal considerations brand new general relations for the heuristic causal separability criterion have been proposed for arbitrary [Formula: see text] density matrices acting in [Formula: see text] Hilbert spaces which describe the ensembles of N quantum systems of D eigenstates each. Resulting general formulas have been then analyzed for the widest special type of one-parametric density matrices of arbitrary dimensionality, which model a number of equivalent quantum subsystems being equally connected (EC-) with each other to arbitrary degree by means of a single entanglement parameter p. In particular, for the family of such EC-density matrices it has been found that there exists a number of N- and D-dependent separability (or entanglement) thresholds [Formula: see text] for the values of the corresponded entanglement parameter p, which in the simplest case of a qubit-pair density matrix in [Formula: see text] Hilbert space are shown to reduce to well-known results obtained earlier independently by Peres (Phys Rev Lett 77:1413-1415, 1996) and Horodecki (Phys Lett A 223(1-2):1-8, 1996). As the result, a number of remarkable features of the entanglement thresholds for EC-density matrices has been described for the first time. All novel results being obtained for the family of arbitrary EC-density matrices are shown to be applicable to a wide range of both interacting and non-interacting (at the moment of measurement) multi-partite quantum systems, such as arrays of qubits, spin chains, ensembles of quantum oscillators, strongly correlated quantum many-body systems with the possibility of many-body localization, etc.
While quantum correlations between two spacelike-separated systems are fully encoded by the bipartite density operator associated with the joint system, there does not exist an analogous operator representing general quantum correlations across space and time. This is in stark contrast to the case of classical random variables, which make no distinction between spacelike and timelike correlations. Despite this, we show that spatiotemporal correlations between light-touch observables (i.e., observables whose eigenvalues are all equal in magnitude) admit a unique operator representation for arbitrary timelike-separated quantum systems. A special case of our result reproduces generalized Pauli observables and pseudo-density matrices, which have, up until now, only been defined for multi-qubit systems. In the case of qutrit systems, we use our results to illustrate an intriguing connection between light-touch observables and symmetric, informationally complete, positive operator-valued measures (SIC-POVMs).