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Physical Review A

Realizable higher-dimensional two-particle entanglements via multiport beam splitters

Marek Z-dotukowski, Anton Zeilinger, Michael Horne

Published Apr 1, 1997• 263 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Multiport beam splitters are shown to be applicable in feasible optical realizations of higher-dimensional EPR correlations, and of tests of local realism involving measurements of nondichotomic variables. These multiports permit optical realizations of any unitary operator in Hilbert spaces of arbitrary finite dimension. Thus it is shown that one is by no means constrained to entangled spin systems, and to Stern-Gerlach apparatuses. In the analysis the concept of generalized Bell numbers is employed, which is more suitable than the standard set of spin eigenvalues. The results presented here move the discussion on entangled higher-than- spin systems from the realm of gedanken experiments to real experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.55.2564

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Multiport beam splitters are shown to be applicable in feasible optical realizations of higher-dimensional EPR correlations, and of tests of local realism involving measurements of nondichotomic variables. These multiports permit optical realizations of any unitary operator in Hilbert spaces of arbitrary finite dimension. Thus it is shown that one is by no means constrained to entangled spin systems, and to Stern-Gerlach apparatuses. In the analysis the concept of generalized Bell numbers is employed, which is more suitable than the standard set of spin eigenvalues. The results presented here move the discussion on entangled higher-than- spin systems from the realm of gedanken experiments to real experiments.
Tests of local realism versus quantum mechanics based on Bell's inequality employ two entangled qubits. We investigate the general case of two entangled quantum systems defined in N-dimensional Hilbert spaces, or " quNits." Via a numerical linear optimization method we show that violations of local realism are stronger for two maximally entangled quNits ( 3</=N</=9) than for two qubits and that they increase with N. The two quNit measurements can be experimentally realized using entangled photons and unbiased multiport beam splitters.
An algorithmic proof that any discrete finite-dimensional unitary operator can be constructed in the laboratory using optical devices is given. Our recursive algorithm factorizes any N\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}N unitary matrix into a sequence of two-dimensional beam splitter transformations. The experiment is built from the corresponding devices. This also permits the measurement of the observable corresponding to any discrete Hermitian matrix. Thus optical experiments with any type of radiation (photons, atoms, etc.) exploring higher-dimensional discrete quantum systems become feasible.
The states generated by a multiport beam splitter usually display genuine multipartite entanglement between the many spatial modes. Here we investigate the different classes of multipartite entangled states that arise in this practical situation, working within the paradigm of stochastic local operations with classical communication. We highlight three scenarios, one where the multipartite entanglement classes follow a total number hierarchy, another where the various classes follow a nonclassicality degree hierarchy, and a third one that is a combination of the previous two. Moreover, the multipartite entanglement of higher-dimensional versions of Dicke states relates naturally to our results.
Abstract We generalize a new approach to entanglement conditions for light of undefined photons numbers given in Żukowski et al (2017 Phys. Rev. A 95 042113) for polarization correlations to a broader family of interferometric phenomena. Integrated optics allows one to perform experiments based upon multiport beamsplitters. To observe entanglement effects one can use multi-mode parametric down-conversion emissions. When the structure of the Hamiltonian governing the emissions has (infinitely) many equivalent Schmidt decompositions into modes (beams), one can have perfect EPR-like correlations of numbers of photons emitted into ‘conjugate modes’ which can be monitored at spatially separated detection stations. We provide entanglement conditions for experiments involving three modes on each side, and three-input-three-output multiport beamsplitters, and show their violations by bright squeezed vacuum states. We show that a condition expressed in terms of averages of observed rates is a much better entanglement indicator than a related one for the usual intensity variables. Thus, the rates seem to emerge as a powerful concept in quantum optics, especially for fields of undefined intensities.
Any future quantum information machine will contain unitary operators and entangled particle states. The Hilbert space describing the action of the quantum information machine separates into a bosonic and a fermionic sector. Because the bosonic sector is of higher dimension, it is always possible to encode more information into a multiboson state than into a multifermion state, given the same complexity, that is unitary representation, of the quantum information machine. This is explicitly studied for the case of two particles defined in two modes. There the beam splitter is a generic representation of any U(2) matrix, and it has recently been shown that one can realize any N-dimensional unitary operator by successive application of such two-dimensional operators. The two-boson two-mode Hilbert space is of dimension three, and thus one can encode log23 = 1·57 bits of information into such an entangled state. Finally, some explicit schemes for creating and detecting the three possible, two-photon, two-mode states spanning the bosonic Bell basis are given.
In 1935 Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen used the assumption of local realism to conclude in a Gedankenexperiment with two entangled particles that quantum mechanics is not complete. For this reason EPR motivated an extension of quantum mechanics by so-called local hidden variables. Based on this idea in 1964 Bell constructed a mathematical inequality whereby experimental tests could distinguish between quantum mechanics and local-realistic theories. Many experiments have since been done that are consistent with quantum mechanics, disproving the concept of local realism. But all these tests suffered from loopholes allowing a local-realistic explanation of the experimental observations by exploiting either the low detector efficiency or the fact that the detected particles were not observed space-like separated. In this context, of special interest is entanglement between different quantum objects like atoms and photons, because it allows one to entangle distant atoms by the interference of photons. The resulting space-like separation together with the almost perfect detection efficiency of the atoms allows a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. The primary goal of the present thesis is the experimental realization of entanglement between a single localized atom and a single spontaneously emitted photon at a wavelength suitable for the transport over long distances. In the experiment a single optically trapped Rb87 atom is excited to a state which has two selected decay channels. In the following spontaneous decay a photon is emitted coherently with equal probability into both decay channels. This accounts for perfect correlations between the polarization state of the emitted photon and the Zeeman state of the atom after spontaneous decay. Because these decay channels are spectrally and in all other degrees of freedom indistinguishable, the spin state of the atom is entangled with the polarization state of the photon. To verify entanglement, appropriate correlation measurements in complementary bases of the photon polarization and the internal quantum state of the atom are performed. It is shown, that the generated atom-photon state yields an entanglement fidelity of 0.82. The experimental results of this work mark an important step towards the generation of entanglement between space-like separated atoms for a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. Furthermore entanglement between a single atom and a single photon is an important tool for new quantum communication and information applications, e.g. the remote state preparation of a single atom over large distances.