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Experimental characterisation of unsharp qubit measurements in a semi-device-independent setting

Hammad Anwer, Sadiq Muhammad, Walid Cherifi, Nikolai Miklin, Armin Tavakoli, Mohamed Bourennane

Published Jan 14, 2020• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

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.

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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.
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 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.
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.
Based on a sequential communication game, semi-device-independent certification of an unsharp instrument has recently been demonstrated [K. Mohan, A. Tavakoli, and N. Brunner, New J. Phys. 21, 083034 (2019)]. In this paper, we provide semi-device-independent self-testing protocols in the prepare-measure scenario to certify multiple unsharpness parameters along with the states and the measurement settings. This is achieved through the sequential quantum advantage shared by multiple independent observers in a suitable communication game known as the parity-oblivious random-access code. We demonstrate that in the three-bit parity-oblivious random-access code at most three independent observers can sequentially share quantum advantage. The optimal pair (triple) of quantum advantages enables us to uniquely certify the qubit states, the measurement settings, and the unsharpness parameter(s). The practical implementation of a given protocol involves inevitable losses. In a suboptimal scenario, we derive a certified interval within which a specific unsharpness parameter has to be confined. We extend our treatment to the four-bit case and show that at most two observers can share quantum advantage for the qubit system. Further, we provide an outline to argue that four sequential observers can share the quantum advantage for the two-qubit system, thereby enabling the certification of three unsharpness parameters.
Abstract Semi-device-independent certification of an unsharp instrument has recently been demonstrated (2019 New J. Phys. 21 083034) based on the sequential sharing of quantum advantages in a prepare-measure communication game by assuming the system to be qubit. In this work, we provide device-independent (DI) self-testing of the unsharp instrument through the quantum violation of two Bell inequalities where the devices are uncharacterized and the dimension of the system remains unspecified. We introduce an elegant sum-of-squares approach to derive the dimension-independent optimal quantum violation of Bell inequalities which plays a crucial role. Note that the standard Bell test cannot self-test the post-measurement states and consequently cannot self-test unsharp instrument. The sequential Bell test possess the potential to self-test an unsharp instrument. We demonstrate that there exists a trade-off between the maximum sequential quantum violations of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality, and they form an optimal pair that enables the DI self-testing of the entangled state, the observables, and the unsharpness parameter. Further, we extend our study to the case of elegant Bell inequality and we argue that it has two classical bounds—the local bound and the non-trivial preparation non-contextual bound, lower than the local bound. Based on the sharing of preparation contextuality by three independent sequential observers, we demonstrate the DI self-testing of two unsharpness parameters. Since an actual experimental scenario involves losses and imperfection, we demonstrate robustness of our certification to noise.