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Quantum communication and metrology in curved spacetime

Jan Kohlrus

Published Mar 15, 2019• 1 citation

Abstract

In this thesis we study relativistic effects on quantum systems. Quantum physics in curved spacetime is reviewed in a first place, with a focus on continuous variables formalism, quantum metrology techniques, and the relativistic treatment of polarised photons. Then, three topics of interest are studied. The first one is the phononic gravitational wave detector, where resonant mode-mixing and particle creation are triggered in a Bose-Einstein condensate by the passing of a gravitational wave, which can then be measured thanks to quantum metrology techniques. The theory for the phonons’ transformation is developed in details in different resonance scenarios and some sources of noise are considered, like shaking of the cavity where the condensate is trapped and thermal noise. The second topic adressed is quantum communication and metrology in space. In this part, we describe quantum experiments involving communications between Earth and satellites using frequency modes of photons. The propagated and measured photons encode parameters of the spacetime background that can be measured using quantum metrology. Several satellite schemes are discussed, such as satellite to satellite radial communications in Kerr spacetime or Earth to satellite communications in Schwarzschild spacetime. The last topic of this thesis is the evolution of helicity states of photons in a relativistic picture. Two experiments are considered: one where the photons propagate between Earth and satellites through the curved spacetime background surrounding the Earth. The other experiment looks at quantum states of polarised photons as seen by centrifuged observers. For each of these parts, we provide the theory for novel experimental proposals, within the frameworks of either (or both) quantum communications and quantum metrology, that, we believe, would lead to a better understanding in the overlap of quantum mechanics and the relativity theories.

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We study how quantum systems that propagate in the spacetime of a rotating planet are affected by the curved background. Spacetime curvature affects wavepackets of photons propagating from Earth to a satellite, and the changes in the wavepacket encode the parameters of the spacetime. This allows us to evaluate quantitatively how quantum communications are affected by the curved spacetime background of the Earth and to achieve precise measurements of Earth's Schwarzschild radius and equatorial angular velocity. We then provide a comparison with the state of the art in parameter estimation obtained through classical means. Satellite to satellite communications and future directions are also discussed.

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Quantum-metrology estimation of spacetime parameters of the Earth outperforming classical precision

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In this thesis we study relativistic effects on quantum systems. Quantum physics in curved spacetime is reviewed in a first place, with a focus on continuous variables formalism, quantum metrology techniques, and the relativistic treatment of polarised photons. Then, three topics of interest are studied. The first one is the phononic gravitational wave detector, where resonant mode-mixing and particle creation are triggered in a Bose-Einstein condensate by the passing of a gravitational wave, which can then be measured thanks to quantum metrology techniques. The theory for the phonons’ transformation is developed in details in different resonance scenarios and some sources of noise are considered, like shaking of the cavity where the condensate is trapped and thermal noise. The second topic adressed is quantum communication and metrology in space. In this part, we describe quantum experiments involving communications between Earth and satellites using frequency modes of photons. The propagated and measured photons encode parameters of the spacetime background that can be measured using quantum metrology. Several satellite schemes are discussed, such as satellite to satellite radial communications in Kerr spacetime or Earth to satellite communications in Schwarzschild spacetime. The last topic of this thesis is the evolution of helicity states of photons in a relativistic picture. Two experiments are considered: one where the photons propagate between Earth and satellites through the curved spacetime background surrounding the Earth. The other experiment looks at quantum states of polarised photons as seen by centrifuged observers. For each of these parts, we provide the theory for novel experimental proposals, within the frameworks of either (or both) quantum communications and quantum metrology, that, we believe, would lead to a better understanding in the overlap of quantum mechanics and the relativity theories.

We study how quantum systems that propagate in the spacetime of a rotating planet are affected by the curved background. Spacetime curvature affects wavepackets of photons propagating from Earth to a satellite, and the changes in the wavepacket encode the parameters of the spacetime. This allows us to evaluate quantitatively how quantum communications are affected by the curved spacetime background of the Earth and to achieve precise measurements of Earth's Schwarzschild radius and equatorial angular velocity. We then provide a comparison with the state of the art in parameter estimation obtained through classical means. Satellite to satellite communications and future directions are also discussed.

We consider quantum communication schemes where quantum optical signals are exchanged between a source on Earth and a satellite. The background curved spacetime affects the quantum state of the propagating photons. We employ quantum-metrology techniques to obtain optimal bounds for the precision of quantum measurements of relevant physical parameters encoded in the final state. We focus on satellites in low Earth orbits and we find that our scheme improves the precision of the measurement of the Schwarzschild radius obtained within previous studies. Therefore, our techniques can provide the theoretical tools for novel developments that can potentially outperform the state-of-the-art obtained through classical means. We also review the impact of the relativistic effects on a simple quantum key distribution protocol within satellite schemes and find that such effects can be greatly damaging if they are not properly accounted for.

n n n The precision of physical parameters is fundamentally limited by irreducible levelsof noise set by quantum mechanics. Quantum metrology is the study of reaching theselimits of noise by employing optimal schemes for parameter estimation. Techniquesin quantum metrology can assist in developing devices to measure the fundamentalinterplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity at state-of-the-artprecision. An example of this is the recent detection of gravitational waves bythe LIGO interferometer. In this thesis, we focus on using quantum metrologyfor estimating space-time parameters. We show the optimal quantum resourcesthat are needed for estimating the gravitational redshift of light propagating in theSchwarzschild space-time of Earth including the inevitable losses due to atmosphericdistortion. We also propose a quantum interferometer using higher order Kerrnon-linearities to improve the sensitivity of estimating gravitational time dilation.In principle, we would be able to downsize interferometers and probe gravity over asmall scale potentially making it practical for measuring gravitational gradients. Wethen study the interesting features of the metric around a rotating massive bodyknown as the Kerr metric and propose implementing a stationary interferometer tomeasure the effect of frame dragging. Finally, we consider loss in the visibility ofquantum interference of single photons in rotating reference frames, and analogouslyin the Kerr metric. In essence, the quantum interference of photons will be affectedby the relativistic effect of rotation. We find experimentally feasible parametersrequiring long optical fibre for long coherence lengths of photons. Our results willhopefully contribute to the efforts of building future quantum technologies that willenter a new regime where general relativistic effects can be measured.

This thesis is a compilation of research in relativistic quantum information theory, and research in quantum reference frames. The research in the former category provides a fundamental construction of quantum information theory of localised qubits in curved spacetimes. For example, this concerns quantum experiments on free-space photons and electrons in the vicinity of the Earth. From field theory a description of localised qubits that traverse classical trajectories in curved spacetimes is obtained, for photons and massive spin-1/2 fermions. The equations governing the evolution of the two-dimensional quantum state and its absolute phase are determined. Quantum information theory of these qubits is then developed. The Stern-Gerlach measurement formalism for massive spin-1/2 fermions is also derived from field theory. In the latter category of research, the process of changing reference frames is considered for the case where the reference frames are quantum systems. As part of this process, it is shown that decoherence is necessarily induced on any quantum system described relative to these frames. This process is explored using examples involving quantum reference frames for phase and orientation. Quantifying the effect of changing quantum reference frames provides a theoretical description for this process in quantum experiments, and serves as a first step in developing a relativity principle for theories in which all objects including reference frames are necessarily quantum.

The preparation of quantum systems and the execution of quantum information tasks between distant users are always affected by gravitational and relativistic effects. In this work, we quantitatively analyze how the curved space-time background of the Earth affects the classical and quantum correlations between photon pairs that are initially prepared in a two-mode squeezed state. More specifically, considering the rotation of the Earth, the space-time around the Earth is described by the Kerr metric. Our results show that these state correlations, which initially increase for a specific range of satellite's orbital altitude, will gradually approach a finite value with increasing height of satellite's orbit (when the special relativistic effects become relevant). More importantly, our analysis demonstrates that the changes of correlations generated by the total gravitational frequency shift could reach the level of [Formula: see text] within the satellite's height at geostationary Earth orbits.

This thesis examines how atomic quantum systems can be utilized to probe spacetime effects in regimes where quantum mechanics and general relativity intersect, and how gravitational phenomena imprint on experimentally accessible observables. The work is based on two complementary studies. In Article I, we propose an experimental scheme that combines trapped-atom interferometry with Ramsey interrogation to realize a clock held in a spatial superposition at two heights in Earth’s gravitational field. Using a path-integral treatment of interferometric phases and incorporating the internal-energy contribution to mass, we derive leading relativistic corrections and identify two signatures of proper-time superposition: (i) oscillations of interferometric visibility and (ii) an effective shift of the clock transition frequency. We argue that this frequency-shift signature may be within reach of current or near-term technology, even when visibility changes are too small to resolve. In Article II, we develop a general framework for spontaneous emission in curved spacetime and apply it to a gravitational-wave background. We demonstrate that gravitational waves can induce spectral sidebands and directional modulations in the emitted radiation, and formulate parameter estimation via Fisher-information-based sensitivity bounds, yielding order-of-magnitude requirements for detectability under idealized measurement conditions.