On sequential measurements with indefinite causal order

Aaron Z. Goldberg, Khabat Heshami, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto

Giulio Chiribella

Paul Busch, Gianni Cassinelli, PEKKA J. LAHTI

Zixuan Liu, Ognyan Oreshkov

Processes with indefinite causal order can arise when quantum theory is locally valid and they allow accomplishing new informational tasks. Despite recent progress, the correlations allowed in such processes have not been clearly understood. Here, we propose to study the constraints on information exchange through such processes in a paradigm of locally sequential operations. In this paradigm, we identify an information-theoretic principle constraining the correlations, termed parity erasure, which follows from the local validity of causality. We show that this principle completely characterizes the local-tomography representation of higher-order processes with indefinite causal order: among all multipartite channels, the ones describing valid higher-order processes are those and only those whose input-output correlations respect parity erasure. This approach reveals a fundamental property of information exchange in scenarios with indefinite causal structure and opens a new arena for exploring their potential applications.

Zhu Cao

Indefinite causal order has found numerous applications in quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum metrology. Before its usage, the quality of the indefinite causal order needs to be first certified, and the certification should ideally be device independent (DI) to avoid the impact of device imperfections. In this work, we initiate the study of the sequential DI certification of an indefinite causal order. This can be useful in experimental platforms where the generation of an indefinite causal order is difficult. We show that an arbitrary number of sequential DI certifications of an indefinite causal order can be achieved with a quantum switch and also analyze practical requirements for experimental implementations of the certifications. Our work opens the possibility of reusing the resource of an indefinite causal order multiple times in device-independent quantum information processing.

Carlos Cardoso-Isidoro, Francisco Delgado

Quantum teleportation has had notorious advances in the last decade, being successfully deployed in the experimental domain. In other terrains, the understanding of indefinite causal order has demonstrated a valuable enhancement in quantum communication to correct channel imperfections. In this work, we address the symmetries underlying imperfect teleportation when it is assisted by indefinite causal order to correct the use of noisy entangled resources. In the strategy being presented, indefinite causal order introduces a control state to address the causal ordering. Then, by using post-selection, it fulfills the teleportation enhancement to recover the teleported state by constructive interference. By analysing primarily sequential teleportation under definite causal order, we perform a comparison basis for notable outcomes derived from indefinite causal order. After, the analysis is conducted by increasing the number of teleportation processes, thus suggesting additional alternatives to exploit the most valuable outcomes in the process by adding weak measurement as a complementary strategy. Finally, we discuss the current affordability for an experimental implementation.