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Squeezed states both maximize and minimize the same notion of quantumness

Aaron Z. Goldberg, Khabat Heshami

Published Jun 7, 2021• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Beam splitters are routinely used for generating entanglement between modes in the optical and microwave domains, requiring input states that are not convex combinations of coherent states. This leads to the ability to generate entanglement at a beam splitter as a notion of quantumness. A similar, yet distinct, notion of quantumness is the amount of entanglement generated by two-mode squeezers (i.e., four-wave mixers). We show that squeezed-vacuum states, paradoxically, both minimize and maximize these notions of quantumness, with the crucial resolution of the paradox hinging upon the relative phases between the input states and the devices. Our notion of quantumness is intrinsically related to eigenvalue equations involving creation and annihilation operators, governed by a set of inequalities that leads to generalized cat and squeezed-vacuum states.

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Beam splitters are routinely used for generating entanglement between modes in the optical and microwave domains, requiring input states that are not convex combinations of coherent states. This leads to the ability to generate entanglement at a beam splitter as a notion of quantumness. A similar, yet distinct, notion of quantumness is the amount of entanglement generated by two-mode squeezers (i.e., four-wave mixers). We show that squeezed-vacuum states, paradoxically, both minimize and maximize these notions of quantumness, with the crucial resolution of the paradox hinging upon the relative phases between the input states and the devices. Our notion of quantumness is intrinsically related to eigenvalue equations involving creation and annihilation operators, governed by a set of inequalities that leads to generalized cat and squeezed-vacuum states.
Beam splitters are routinely used for generating entanglement between modes in the optical and microwave domains, requiring input states that are not convex combinations of coherent states. This leads to the ability to generate entanglement at a beam splitter as a notion of quantumness. A similar, yet distinct, notion of quantumness is the amount of entanglement generated by two-mode squeezers (i.e., four-wave mixers). We show that squeezed-vacuum states, paradoxically, both minimize and maximize these notions of quantumness, with the crucial resolution of the paradox hinging upon the relative phases between the input states and the devices. Our notion of quantumness is intrinsically related to eigenvalue equations involving creation and annihilation operators, governed by a set of inequalities that leads to generalized cat and squeezed-vacuum states.
In this work, the basic idea of the quantum scissors (QS) device is slightly modified to generate finite-dimensional quantum states by means of conditional measurements on beam splitters (BSs). It turns out that a QS device with two single-photon inputs and two single-photon detections is just a projection operator composed of the vacuum state, one-photon state, and two-photon state, depending upon the transmission coefficients of BSs. As the most general example, we consider the squeezed coherent state as the input state and derive the analytical expression of the output state. Its nonclassical characteristics are analyzed in detail by means of the average photon number, intensity gain, and Wigner function. In addition, we extend this technique to the two-mode squeezed vacuum state (TMSVS). The resulting state is just the generalized Bell state, containing only the twin vacuum, twin one-photon, and twin two-photon components, whose entanglement properties are quantified by the von Neumann entropy and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen correlation. The results show that the entanglement of the truncated TMSVS is stronger than that of TMSVS within a certain range of squeezing parameter and transmissivity.
Abstract Quantum optics connects fundamental phenomena such as entanglement and superposition with practical applications like metrology and communication. Throughout, there is an interplay between information theoretic concepts such as entropy and physical considerations such as quantum system design, noise, and loss. Therefore, a result at the heart of these fields can have numerous ramifications in development of applications and advancing our understanding of quantum physics. Our recent proof for the entanglement properties of states interfering with the vacuum on a beam splitter led to monotonicity and convexity properties for quantum states undergoing photon loss [Lupu-Gladstein et al., PRA 112 , 033722 (2025)] by breathing life into a decades-old conjecture. In this work, we extend these fundamental properties to measures of similarity between states, provide inequalities for creation and annihilation operators beyond the Cauchy–Bunyakovsky–Schwarz inequality, prove a conjecture [Hertz et al., PRA 110 , 012408 (2024)] dictating that nonclassicality through the quadrature coherence scale is uncertifiable beyond a loss of 50%, place constraints on quasiprobability distributions of all physical states, and explore entanglement generation optimized over all input states and linear optical networks. These ideas can now be used throughout quantum optics.
Abstract The aim of this work is to answer the question of how much quantum coherence a beam splitter is able to produce. To this end, we consider as the variables under study both the amount of coherence of the input states as well as the beam splitter characteristics. We conclude that there is an optimal combination of these factors making the gain of coherence maximum. In addition, the two-mode squeezed vacuum arises as the studied state most capable of gaining coherence when passing through a beam splitter. These results are qualitatively equivalent for the l1-norm of coherence and the relative entropy of coherence.
Entangled coherent states are shown to emerge, with high fidelity, when mixing coherent and squeezed vacuum states of light on a beam-splitter. These maximally entangled states, where photons bunch at the exit of a beamsplitter, are measured experimentally by Fock-state projections. Entanglement is examined theoretically using a Bell-type nonlocality test and compared with ideal entangled coherent states. We experimentally show nearly perfect similarity with entangled coherent states for an optimal ratio of coherent and squeezed vacuum light. In our scheme, entangled coherent states are generated deterministically with small amplitudes, which could be beneficial, for example, in deterministic distribution of entanglement over long distances.
Abstract Beam splitters are routinely used for generating entanglement. Their entangling properties have been studied extensively, with nonclassicality of the input states a prerequisite for entanglement at the output. Here we quantify the amount of entanglement generated by weakly-reflecting beam splitters, and look for nonclassical states that are not entangled by general beam splitters. We extend the known class of results to mixed and non-Gaussian states, finding that inputting highly nonclassical combinations of unpolarized states that are squeezed and displaced onto a beam splitter can still yield separable output states. This is important in light of the challenge of characterizing mixed state entanglement. We further identify a parallel between SU(2) unpolarized states and the two-mode vacuum. Our result is crucial for understanding the generation of modal entanglement by beam splitters.