The physical principle of nonlocality is of particular interest both for fundamental tests of quantum theory via Bell inequality violations and for many quantum information processing applications like quantum key distribution (QKD). Over the last decades, corresponding studies have been performed mostly on the basis of two-dimensional quantum states (qubits). In order to gain a deeper insight into the nature of nonlocality, more complex quantum states are studied by increasing the dimension of the state to d-dimensions (qudits). For QKD, for instance, it has been shown, at least theoretically, that increasing the dimension of the alphabet by using qudits increases the effective bit rate of the protocol as well as the resistance to noise compared to qubits.
The physical principle of nonlocality is of particular interest both for fundamental tests of quantum theory via Bell inequality violations and for many quantum information processing applications like quantum key distribution (QKD). Over the last decades, corresponding studies have been performed mostly on the basis of two-dimensional quantum states (qubits). In order to gain a deeper insight into the nature of nonlocality, more complex quantum states are studied by increasing the dimension of the state to d-dimensions (qudits). For QKD, for instance, it has been shown, at least theoretically, that increasing the dimension of the alphabet by using qudits increases the effective bit rate of the protocol as well as the resistance to noise compared to qubits.
Entanglement of quasiclassical (coherent) states of two harmonic oscillators leads to striking quantum effects and is useful for quantum technologies. These effects and applications are closely related to nonlocal correlations inherent in these states, manifested by the violation of Bell inequalities. With previous frameworks, this violation is limited by the size of the system, which does not approach the maximum, even when the amount of entanglement approaches its maximum. Here, we propose a new version of Bell correlation operators, with which a nearly maximal violation can be obtained, as long as the associated entanglement approximates to the maximum. Consequently, the revealed nonlocality is significantly stronger than those with previous frameworks for a wide range of the system size. We present a new scheme for realizing the gate necessary for measurement of the nonlocal correlations. In addition to the use in test of quantum nonlocality, this gate is useful for quantum information processing with coherent states.
Despite the success of quantum mechanics in predicting the outcomes of experiments in many branches of physics, the foundations of the theory have remained subject of research and dispute. At the basis of this struggle with the theory lie the phenomena of nonlocality and entanglement. Since it was first predicted by Bell in 1964, nonlocality was not only verified in numerous experiments, but also identified as a useful resource for quantum information processing. Thus, the study of nonlocality is important both from a fundamental point of view and with respect to new applications in quantum information theory, such as secure cryptography and randomness generation. The identification of entanglement as a resource for quantum information led to a strong theoretical effort devoted to its characterisation and detection. Many of the resulting mathematical tools find application in several domains of physics. Although the only known way to create nonlocal correlations is to measure entangled quantum systems, it has been shown that entanglement and nonlocality constitute two inequivalent properties. Therefore, in the light of the success of entanglement theory, it is of interest to also devise a resource theory of nonlocality. The task of this thesis is to develop such a theoretical framework for the characterisation of nonlocality as a resource. To gain a better understanding of nonlocal correlations it will be necessary to investigate correlation scenarios that go beyond the situation originally considered by Bell. In doing so, this thesis provides new description of nonlocality that also have implications for the characterisation of quantum correlations and the detection of new forms of nonlocality. The first question we address is how nonlocality can consistently be defined in a scenario of arbitrarily many parties that may collaborate among each other. To this end we recognise which are the allowed physical operations in this situation and then define nonlocality as the resource that cannot be created by these operations. Our approach shows that the conventional definition of multipartite nonlocality, adopted by the community so far, is inconsistent with this operational definition; we further propose and analyse new models that do not suffer from these inconsistencies. Furthermore, we show that our findings have implications for the characterisation of quantum correlations. A recent approach to describe the set of quantum correlation consists in using principles inspired from information theory. By using a special instance of the models we defined earlier we show a fundamental limitation of this approach: no bipartite information principle is sufficient to single out the set of quantum correlations from the set of nonsignalling correlations. We then developed a description of nonlocality in an even more generalised scenario of several parties. Motivated by a result of Popescu we study scenarios where the parties are allowed to perform not only a single but sequences of measurements on their systems. Characterising nonlocality also in this scenario in operational terms and defining local models compatible with this definition, we show that a new form of nonlocality can be detected Lastly, we examine the problem of detecting the presence of nonlocality in a multipartite scenario when one is given only partial access to the global system. We find that one can verify that the total system must display nonlocality, even though the accessible subsystems only exhibit local correlations.
The question of how Bell nonlocality behaves in bipartite systems of higher dimensions is addressed. By employing the probability of violation of local realism under random measurements as the figure of merit, we investigate the nonlocality of entangled qudits with dimensions ranging from d=2 up to d=10. We proceed in two complementary directions. First, we study the specific Bell scenario defined by the Collins-Gisin-Linden-Massar-Popescu (CGLMP) inequality. Second, we consider the nonlocality of the same states under a more general perspective by directly addressing the space of joint probabilities (computing the frequencies of behaviours outside the local polytope). In both approaches we find that the nonlocality decreases as the dimension d grows, but in quite distinct ways. While the drop in the probability of violation is exponential in the CGLMP scenario, it presents, at most, a linear decay in the space of behaviors. Furthermore, in the latter approach the states that produce maximal numeric violations in the CGLMP inequality present low probabilities of violation in comparison to maximally entangled states, so no anomaly is observed. Finally, the nonlocality of states with nonmaximal Schmidt rank is investigated.
Quantum entanglement is a unique property of quantum particles. It can correlate them in such a way, that further correlations to an additional unwanted party is prevented. This renders quantum theory as the prime candidate to implement a secure distribution of an encryption key. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is dedicated to this task. A striking feature of correlations in a statistical experiment is, that they can, in principle, always be approximated. Even more so, correlations can be obtained without a detailed knowledge about the underlying physical process that generated the experimental data. This no-characterization approach is at the heart of the device-independent (DI) paradigm. Here, Bell inequalities are an imperative tool to detect nonlocal correlations, which are necessary for a DI secret key. One central subject of this thesis is multipartite DIQKD and the implications of Bell nonlocality in this context. Any DIQKD protocol involves test rounds in which the violation of a Bell inequality is checked. For multipartite DIQKD, however, not all Bell inequalities are suitable. We identify the crucial properties a Bell test requires to be a viable option. In this light, a published protocol for multipartite DIQKD is examined. We establish an incompatibility which is inherent to the proposed Bell test in combination with the required quantum states. This leads us to the conclusion, that the proposed protocol necessarily aborts. In a subsequent work, we develop a family of multipartite Bell inequalities, specifically tailored to the task of DI conference key agreement (CKA). Several features of this Bell inequality are analytically characterized. In addition, we prove its usefulness for the purposes of DICKA. To this end, semidefinite programming techniques are employed and extended to the multipartite scenario which allows us to quantify asymptotic DI conference key rates. In a second part, we explore the challenges of implementing (bipartite) long-distance DIQKD with quantum repeaters. For two repeater protocols, we describe how experimental parameters manifest themselves in DI secret-key rates. In doing so, we shed light on the fundamental differences between the usual and the DI scenario and we benchmark the threshold requirements of quantum devices to make profitable DI secret-key rates feasible. Finally, we develop a general method to describe in a non-DI setting the propagation of an important class of errors through quantum circuits in arbitrary dimensions. With this, we discuss the potential of error-corrected quantum repeaters to overcome fundamental point-to-point limitations.
Quantum nonlocality is a cornerstone property for the development of the socalled quantum protocols as well as for the characterisation, and possible generalisation of quantum theory. However, there are still fundamental aspects of this property that need to be addressed; in particular, its relation with the property of quantum entanglement. It is well known that every nonlocal state is an entangled one, yet there exist entangled local states. Therefore, within their original defnitions, these two properties are not equivalent. The study of this relationship has been put forward by means of the generalisation of nonlocality through the so-called activation of nonlocality scenarios. The idea is to only work with these entangled local states in order to try to recover (activate) nonlocality. In this Thesis, we have numerically addressed the properties of entanglement, nonlocality (mostly by means of the violation of the CHSH-inequality), as well as the following generalisations of nonlocality: k-copy nonlocality, hidden nonlocality, and the combination of these two scenarios, namely, hidden k-copy nonlocality and tensor/filter activation of hidden nonlocality. We have studied these properties for some bipartite entangled local states, and some two-qubit not CHSH-inequality violating states of interest. In particular, we have analysed these properties for two-qubit states that come from the study of quantum games' strategies and the dynamics of open quantum systems.
Abstract For the maximal violation of all Bell inequalities by an arbitrary pure two-qudit state of any dimension, we derive a new lower bound expressed via the concurrence of this pure state. This new lower bound and the upper bound on the maximal Bell violation, found in Loubenets and Namkung (2022 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 55 285301) and also expressed via the concurrence, analytically quantify Bell nonlocality of a pure two-qudit state via its entanglement, in particular, prove explicitly that entanglement of a pure two-qudit state is necessary and sufficient for its Bell nonlocality. By re-visiting the pure two-qubit case, we also find and rigorously prove the new results on correlation properties of an arbitrary pure two-qubit state.