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arXiv:2608.06726 · Physical Review A

Robust device-independent characterization of sharpness and incompatibility of unsharp instruments

Qian Zhang, Kai-Yu Yuan, Yan-Xin Rong, Zhen Shang, Yong-Jian Gu, Ya Xiao

quant-phSubmitted Aug 7, 2026• Announced Aug 10, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Unsharp measurements are key resources for tasks that balance information gain and disturbance, but certifying them without device assumptions remains a challenge. We propose a fully device-independent protocol for characterizing unsharp instruments, based on an entanglement-assisted sequential quantum random access code, where the first decoder is allowed to communicate her measurement setting to the second. This communication-enhanced scheme creates a decoding regime in which both decoders surpass classical bounds, enabling tight quantification of sharpness and direct quantification of measurement incompatibility beyond noncommunicating protocols. Experimentally, we implement tunable unsharp measurements using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, observing the predicted sequential enhancement in decoding probability. Additionally, we achieve significantly narrower sharpness intervals and incompatibility quantification across multiple target sharpness values. Our results show that communication is a powerful operational resource for certifying precisely unsharp instruments and advancing device-independent quantum information protocols.

Journal reference
Physical Review A 114, 022411 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/yxq6-n2nr
Comments
This article is an Editors' Suggestion published in Physical Review A, total 8 pages, 5 figures. Copyright 2026 American Physical Society. This manuscript is posted for non-commercial academic use with APS permission

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Unsharp measurements are key resources for tasks that balance information gain and disturbance, but certifying them without device assumptions remains a challenge. We propose a fully device-independent protocol for characterizing unsharp instruments, based on an entanglement-assisted sequential quantum random access code, where the first decoder is allowed to communicate her measurement setting to the second. This communication-enhanced scheme creates a decoding regime in which both decoders surpass classical bounds, enabling tight quantification of sharpness and direct quantification of measurement incompatibility beyond noncommunicating protocols. Experimentally, we implement tunable unsharp measurements using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, observing the predicted sequential enhancement in decoding probability. Additionally, we achieve significantly narrower sharpness intervals and incompatibility quantification across multiple target sharpness values. Our results show that communication is a powerful operational resource for certifying precisely unsharp instruments and advancing device-independent quantum information protocols.
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Unsharp measurements are increasingly important for foundational insights in quantum theory and quantum information applications. Here, we report an experimental implementation of unsharp qubit measurements in a sequential communication protocol, based on a quantum random access code. The protocol involves three parties; the first party prepares a qubit system, the second party performs operations that return both a classical and quantum outcome, and the latter is measured by the third party. We demonstrate a nearly optimal sequential quantum random access code that outperforms both the best possible classical protocol and any quantum protocol that utilizes only projective measurements. Furthermore, while only assuming that the involved devices operate on qubits and that detected events constitute a fair sample, we demonstrate the noise-robust characterization of unsharp measurements based on the sequential quantum random access code. We apply this characterization towards quantifying the degree of incompatibility of two sequential pairs of quantum measurements.
Unsharp measurements are increasingly important in quantum information theory and tests of quantum theory. Here, in a semi-device-independent setting, we experimentally demonstrate their noise-robust characterisation while only assuming that the involved devices operate on qubits and that the detected events constitute a fair sample. Our experiment involves three parties; the first party prepares a qubit system, the second party performs operations which returns both a classical and quantum outcome and the later is measured by the third party. From the measured probabilities we show nearly-optimal quantum correlations for unsharp observales, falsify every model in which the operations are simulated with stochastic projective qubit measurements and obtain narrow intervals to which the sharpness parameter can be confined. Moreover, we also certify two sequential pairs of incompatible measurements and quantify their degree of incompatibility. Finally, we discuss our characterisation of the sharpness parameter as compared to that obtained from a tomographic scheme subjected to small errors.
Communication games are one of the widely used tools that are designed to demonstrate quantum supremacy over classical resources in which two or more parties collaborate to perform an information processing task to achieve the highest success probability of winning the game. We propose a specific two-party communication game in the prepare-measure scenario that relies on an encoding-decoding task of specific information. We first demonstrate that quantum theory outperforms the classical preparation noncontextual theory and the optimal quantum success probability of such a communication game enables the semi-device-independent certification of qubit states and measurements. Further, we consider the sequential sharing of quantum preparation contextuality and show that, at most, two sequential observers can share the quantum advantage. The suboptimal quantum advantages for two sequential observers form an optimal pair which certifies a unique value of the unsharpness parameter of the first observer. Since the practical implementation inevitably introduces noise, we devised a scheme to demonstrate the robust certification of the states and unsharp measurement instruments of both the sequential observers.
Communication games are one of the widely used tools that are designed to demonstrate quantum supremacy over classical resources. In that, two or more parties collaborate to perform an information processing task to achieve the highest success probability of winning the game. We propose a specific two-party communication game in the prepare-measure scenario that relies on an encoding-decoding task of specific information. We first demonstrate that quantum theory outperforms the classical preparation non-contextual theory, and the optimal quantum success probability of such a communication game enables the semi-device-independent certification of qubit states and measurements. Further, we consider the sequential sharing of quantum preparation contextuality and show that, at most, two sequential observers can share the quantum advantage. The sub-optimal quantum advantages for two sequential observers form an optimal pair that certifies a unique value of the unsharpness parameter of the first observer. Since the practical implementation inevitably introduces noise, we devised a scheme to demonstrate the robust certification of the states and unsharp measurement instruments of both the sequential observers.
Abstract Unsharp measurements play an increasingly important role in quantum information theory. In this paper, we study a three-party prepare-transform-measure experiment with unsharp measurements based on 3 → 1 sequential random access codes (RACs). We derive optimal trade-off between the two correlation witnesses in 3 → 1 sequential quantum random access codes (QRACs), and use the result to complete the self-testing of quantum preparations, instruments and measurements for three sequential parties. We also give the upper and lower bounds of the sharpness parameter to complete the robustness analysis of the self-testing scheme. In addition, we find that classical correlation witness violation based on 3 → 1 sequential RACs cannot be obtained by both correlation witnesses simultaneously. This means that if the second party uses strong unsharp measurements to overcome the classical upper bound, the third party cannot do so even with sharp measurements. Finally, we give the analysis and comparison of the random number generation efficiency under different sharpness parameters based on the determinant value, 2 → 1 and 3 → 1 QRACs separately. This letter sheds new light on generating random numbers among multi-party in semi-device independent framework.