We address the superposition of causal orders in the quantum switch as a convenient framework for quantum process discrimination in the presence of noise in qubit systems, using Bayes strategy. We show that, for different kinds of qubit noises, the indefinite causal order between the unitary to be discriminated and noise gives enhancement compared to the definite causal order case without reaching the ultimate bound of discrimination in general. Whereas, for entanglement breaking channels, the enhancement is significant, where the quantum switch allows for the attainability of the ultimate bound for discrimination posed by quantum mechanics. Memory effects escorting the superposition of causal orders are discussed, where we point out that processes describing an indefinite causal order, violate the notion of Markov locality. Accordingly, a suggestion for the simulation of indefinite causal orders in more generic scenarios beyond the quantum switch is given.
We address the superposition of causal orders in the quantum switch as a convenient framework for quantum process discrimination in the presence of noise in qubit systems, using Bayes strategy. We show that, for different kinds of qubit noises, the indefinite causal order between the unitary to be discriminated and noise gives enhancement compared to the definite causal order case without reaching the ultimate bound of discrimination in general. Whereas, for entanglement breaking channels, the enhancement is significant, where the quantum switch allows for the attainability of the ultimate bound for discrimination posed by quantum mechanics. Memory effects escorting the superposition of causal orders are discussed, where we point out that processes describing an indefinite causal order, violate the notion of Markov locality. Accordingly, a suggestion for the simulation of indefinite causal orders in more generic scenarios beyond the quantum switch is given.
Entanglement certification is often performed on states that have already undergone noisy transmission or processing. Noise can reduce the surviving entanglement and can also cause a given criterion to fail even when entanglement remains. In this context, the quantum switch, a paradigmatic realization of indefinite causal order (ICO), coherently controls the orders in which two channels act and has been shown to offer advantages across a range of quantum information-processing tasks. Here we ask whether this coherent control enlarges the noise-parameter region in which entanglement remains certifiable. We regard the two order branches as the arms of a causal-order interferometer and insert a local unitary between the channel uses to tune their interference. For stochastic Pauli noise, a postselected ICO output can exhibit greater entanglement negativity than any classical mixture of the two definite orders; in particular, we identify regimes where its negativity remains nonzero while that of every classical mixture vanishes. A suitable local Pauli unitary substantially enlarges this ICO-only region, while an input-dependent path-difference indicator qualitatively links operator noncommutativity to the postselected negativity gain. Numerical examples extend the advantage to local amplitude-damping noise and two-qutrit Weyl noise. At a representative Weyl-noise point for the 3×3 positive-partial-transpose (PPT) Tiles bound-entangled state, a nondecomposable witness detects the postselected ICO output, whereas an analytic bound excludes detection of the definite-order outputs and their mixtures by the entire locally rotated witness family. These results identify causal-order interferometry as a strategy for enhancing entanglement certification across distinct noise models and dimensions.
Quantum compositions of channels can grant advantages over classical compositions in quantum information processing or thermodynamical tasks. One of such quantum composition is one with indefinite causal order, where multiple quantum channels are placed in a superposition of different causal or operation orders. The advantages of indefinite causal order were demonstrated in an experimentally realizable setup known as the quantum switch and were often attributed to this new quantum resource of indefinite causality, but some doubts and disagreements still remains as compositions without indefinite causal order can achieve the same advantages. In this work, we proposed that the quantum switch's uniqueness lies in its ability to exhibit coherent non-Markovianity, where memory effects acts across different paths of superposition. We showed that the quantum switch violates completely positive or CP-divisibility and thus has intrinsic non-Markovianity in its evolution, which allows for non-Markovian backflow of information from the environment. This backflow of information can then play a role in the many advantages seen in the quantum switch, and by extending the quantum switch operation such that the non-Markovianity is controllable, we showed that these advantages depend on the presence and amount of non-Markovianity, achieving the quantum switch case when the system is fully non-Markovian. Particularly, we demonstrated this for the quantum switch's advantages in communication capacities, work extraction via daemonic ergotropy, and refrigeration via heat extraction. Other quantum compositions that are often compared to indefinite causal order, such as the superposition of independent channels and superposition of trajectories, are also captured by this extended construction of the quantum switch, and we showed that their difference with the quantum switch lies in the presence or absence of non-Markovianity. Our work suggests that non-Markovianity is an important recipe for the quantum switch or indefinite causal order, and is a nonnegligible factor for its advantages.
Quantum processes with indefinite causal order challenge the classical assumption that operations must occur in a single fixed temporal sequence. The quantum switch provides a concrete setting in which two operation orders, A≺B and B≺A, are coherently controlled by a quantum system. In the strict process matrix formulation of the lazy guess your neighbour’s input (LGYNI) game, however, quantum theory, including the quantum switch, does not violate the standard causal inequality when probabilities are computed solely from local instruments. In this work, we study an extended control-assisted operational protocol in which the control system of the quantum switch is measured and used to define the task output. We compare increasingly expressive strategy classes, including single-qubit SU(2) operations, product target-ancilla operations, and entangling Cartan-decomposed two-qubit operations with generalized POVMs. Restricted models saturate or remain below the 3/4 fixed-order benchmark, whereas the optimized Cartan + ancilla + POVM strategy reaches Psuccext≈0.83596, demonstrating enhanced task performance within the extended protocol. The optimized strategy remains operationally no-signaling to numerical precision and retains its extended protocol advantage under more than 25% white noise admixture. These results identify the operational resources required for control-assisted quantum switch enhancement and support the view that indefinite temporal order can be used as a quantum informational resource without implying a breakdown of operational causality.
The quantum switch, the canonical example of a process with indefinite causal order, has been claimed to provide various advantages over processes with definite causal orders for some particular tasks in the field of quantum metrology. In this work, we argue that some of these advantages in fact do not hold if a fairer comparison is made. To this end, we consider a framework that allows for a proper comparison between the performance, quantified by the quantum Fisher information, of different classes of indefinite causal order processes and that of causal strategies on a given metrological task. More generally, by considering the recently proposed classes of circuits with classical or quantum control of the causal order, we come up with different examples where processes with indefinite causal order offer (or not) an advantage over processes with definite causal order, qualifying the interest of indefinite causal order regarding quantum metrology. As it turns out, for a range of examples, the class of quantum circuits with quantum control of causal order, which are known to be physically realizable, is shown to provide a strict advantage over causally ordered quantum circuits as well as over the class of quantum circuits with causal superposition. Thus, the consideration of this class provides new evidence that indefinite causal order strategies can strictly outperform definite causal order strategies in quantum metrology.
In a recent series of works [Ebler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 120502 (2018); arXiv:1809.06655v2; arXiv:1810.10457v2], it has been shown that the quantum superposition of causal order---the quantum switch---offers an enhancement of classical and quantum channel capacity through noisy channels, a phenomenon that was coined ``causal activation.'' In this paper, we attempt to clarify the nature of the advantage, by comparing the quantum switch to a class of processes that can be interpreted as quantum superposition of processes with the same causal order. We show that some of these processes can match or even outperform the quantum switch at enhancing classical and quantum channel capacity, and argue that they require the same resources as the switch. We conclude, in agreement with Abbott et al. [arXiv:1810.09826v1], that the aforementioned advantages appear to be attributable to the ability to coherently control quantum operations, and not to indefinite causal order per se.
Logical consistency with free local operations is compatible with nontrivial classical communications, where all parties can be both in each other’s past and future—a phenomenon known as noncausality. Noncausal processes, such as the “Lugano process,” violate causal inequalities, yet their physical realizability remains an open question. In contrast, the quantum switch—a physically realizable process with indefinite causal order—can only generate causal correlations. Building on a recently established correspondence [Kunjwal and Baumeler, ] between the SHIFT measurement, which exhibits nonlocality without entanglement, and the Lugano process, we demonstrate that the SHIFT measurement can be implemented using a quantum switch of classical communications in a scenario with quantum inputs. This shows that the structure of the Lugano process can be simulated by a quantum switch and that successful SHIFT discrimination witnesses causal nonseparability rather than noncausality. Finally, we identify a broad class of “superposition of classical communications” derived from classical processes without global past capable of realizing similar causally indefinite measurements. We examine these results in relation to the ongoing debate on implementations of indefinite causal orders.