Abstract Mechanical quantum systems embedded in an external nonlinear potential currently offer the first deep excursion into quantum non-Gaussian motion. The Gaussian statistics of the motion of a linear mechanical quantum system, characterised by its mass and a linear-and-quadratic potential, possess a limited capacity to reduce noise in nonlinear variables. This limitation induces thresholds for noise reduction in nonlinear variables beyond which linear mechanical oscillators cannot pass. Squeezing below the thresholds for such variables is relevant for the implementation of nonlinear mechanical devices, such as sensors, processors or engines. First however, quantum non-Gaussian conservative motion must be identified in experiments with diverse nonlinear potentials. For this purpose, we provide sufficient criteria for quantum non-Gaussian motional states in conservative systems based on the observation of squeezing in nonlinear variables. We further extend these criteria to a hierarchy able to recognise the quantum non-Gaussian motion induced via diverse nonlinear potentials through their various capacities to produce nonlinear squeezing.
Abstract Mechanical quantum systems embedded in an external nonlinear potential currently offer the first deep excursion into quantum non-Gaussian motion. The Gaussian statistics of the motion of a linear mechanical quantum system, characterised by its mass and a linear-and-quadratic potential, possess a limited capacity to reduce noise in nonlinear variables. This limitation induces thresholds for noise reduction in nonlinear variables beyond which linear mechanical oscillators cannot pass. Squeezing below the thresholds for such variables is relevant for the implementation of nonlinear mechanical devices, such as sensors, processors or engines. First however, quantum non-Gaussian conservative motion must be identified in experiments with diverse nonlinear potentials. For this purpose, we provide sufficient criteria for quantum non-Gaussian motional states in conservative systems based on the observation of squeezing in nonlinear variables. We further extend these criteria to a hierarchy able to recognise the quantum non-Gaussian motion induced via diverse nonlinear potentials through their various capacities to produce nonlinear squeezing.
Abstract Processing quantum information on continuous variables requires a highly nonlinear element in order to attain universality. Noise reduction in processing such quantum information involves the use of a nonlinear phase state as a non-Gaussian ancilla. A necessary condition for a nonlinear phase state to implement a nonlinear phase gate is that noise in a selected nonlinear quadrature should decrease below the level of classical states. A reduction of the variance in this nonlinear quadrature below the ground state of the ancilla, a type of nonlinear squeezing, is the resource embedded in these non-Gaussian states and a figure of merit for nonlinear quantum processes. Quantum optomechanics with levitating nanoparticles trapped in nonlinear optical potentials is a promising candidate to achieve such resources in a flexible way. We provide a scheme for reconstructing this figure of merit, which we call nonlinear squeezing, in standard linear quantum optomechanics, analysing the effects of mechanical decoherence processes on the reconstruction and show that all mechanical states which exhibit reduced noise in this nonlinear quadrature are nonclassical.
Squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator are a common resource in applications of quantum technology. If the noise is suppressed in a nonlinear combination of quadrature operators below threshold for all possible up-to-quadratic Hamiltonians, the quantum states are non-Gaussian and we refer to the noise reduction as nonlinear squeezing. Non-Gaussian aspects of quantum states are often more vulnerable to decoherence due to imperfections appearing in realistic experimental implementations. Therefore, a stability of nonlinear squeezing is essential. We analyze the behavior of quantum states with cubic nonlinear squeezing under loss and dephasing. The properties of nonlinear squeezed states depend on their initial parameters which can be optimized and adjusted to achieve the maximal robustness for the potential applications.
Quantum continuous variable systems are quantum systems obeying the canonical commutation relations. As we have seen in the previous chapter, such systems always require the adoption of infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, even when a finite number of degrees of freedom is considered. Besides making their dynamics potentially intractable, this fact also implies that the study of properties related to the information and correlation content of continuous variable systems turns out to be particularly difficult. A widely known way to make continuous variable systems more tractable is to consider the restriction to Gaussian states. Already well trodden in older research on quantum optics, the study of Gaussian systems has more recently become a central theme of continuous variable quantum information. If open quantum systems, coupled to an external environment, are considered, the Gaussian regime applies when the system couples linearly to its environment and when system and environment are governed by Hamiltonians which are at most quadratic in the canonical operators (or, equivalently, when the overall Hamiltonian of system and environment is at most quadratic). These conditions may seem rather restrictive but, as we shall point out in the course of the book, are actually ordinarily met by a vast number of existing experimental set-ups in the areas of quantum optics, trapped ions, optomechanics, atomic ensembles and certain superconducting degrees of freedom (all of these platforms are reviewed in Chapter 9 ). What we will refer to as Gaussian measurements – POVMs that preserve the Gaussian character of initial states – are also customarily carried out with comparatively high efficiency, while the description of quantum noise can be incorporated seamlessly into the Gaussian picture. What is perhaps even more important to note is that the restriction to the Gaussian realm, while not exhaustive of the full wealth of dynamics and situations allowed in the whole Hilbert space, still lets one include most of the processes relevant to quantum technologies. Squeezing, whereby certain canonical quadratures have uncertainties below the vacuum state noise, and can hence be used in precision measurements, quantum entanglement, and cooling, where the entropy is drained out of a system in order to reach a pure quantum state and thus initialise information protocols or low noise experiments, may all be described within the Gaussian regime. Within the quantum information discourse, the Gaussian restriction has been often criticised on the grounds that no real genuinely quantum effects can ever be observed without leaving it at some point, since the statistics obtained from Gaussian states through Gaussian measurements can be reproduced by classical probability distributions. While technically correct, the reader should be reminded that such critiques often disregard the fact that the object described by a Gaussian state does entail a genuinely quantum description in a Hilbert space. Hence, for instance, the preparation of a pure Gaussian quantum state is the preparation of a pure vector of the Hilbert space. Likewise, a highly squeezed Gaussian state prepared for a metrological protocol is a state with very low noise in a certain physical observable, regardless of whether it can be mimicked by a classical distribution or not. The testing and exploitation of quantum non-locality (stronger than classical correlations that imply the presence of quantum entanglement) with Gaussian states does instead require a departure from Gaussian measurements. However, as we will see, certain non-Gaussian measurements are customarily implemented with current technology, and it is hence still relevant to study in detail the creation of such a resource for Gaussian states. This chapter will introduce Gaussian states from a somewhat unusual angle: as ground and thermal states of at most second-order Hamiltonians. Our treatment will highlight the privileged role played by quadratic canonical ( i.e. , ‘symplectic’) transformations in this context, which we will take care to describe in full generality, and will hinge on the reduction of Gaussian states into their normal modes, which allows for their systematic diagonalisation. We will then proceed to explore an equivalent characterisation in terms of statistical moments of the canonical operators, and to introduce the implications of non-commutativity on such statistics in the form of the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation.
Squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator are a common resource in applications of quantum technology. If the noise is suppressed in a nonlinear combination of quadrature operators, the quantum states are non-Gaussian and we refer to the noise reduction as nonlinear squeezing. Non-Gaussian aspects of quantum states are often those most vulnerable to decoherence due to imperfections appearing in realistic experimental implementations. We analyze the behavior of quantum states with cubic nonlinear squeezing under loss and dephasing. The properties of nonlinear squeezed states depend on their initial parameters that can be optimized and adjusted to achieve the maximal robustness for the potential applications.
Building upon the work of Hu, Paz, and Zhang [1,2] on open quantum systems we consider the quantum Brownian motion (QBM) model with one oscillator (position variable x) as the system, {\it nonlinearly} coupled to an environment of N harmonic oscillators (with mass mn, natural frequency ωn, position qn and momentum pn variables) in the form ∑n(vn1(x)qnk+vn2(x)pnl) where k,l are integers (the present work only considers the k=l=2 cases). The vertex functions $v_{n1}, v_{n2} $ are of the form vn1=λCn1f(x),vn2(x)=−λCn2mn−2ωn−2f(x) where Cn1,2 are the coupling constants with the nth oscillator, f(x) is any arbitrary function of x, and λ is a dimensionless constant. Employing the closed-time-path formalism the influence action SIF is calculated using a perturbative expansion in λ. It is possible to identify the terms in SIF quadratic or higher in Δ(s)≡f(x+(s))−f(x−(s)) to constitute the noise kernel, while terms linear in Δ to that of the dissipation kernel. The non-Gaussian noise kernel gives rise to non-zero three-point correlation function of the corresponding stochastic force. The pathway presented here should be useful for the exploration of \textit{non-Gaussian properties of systems nonlinearly coupled with their environments}; examples in early universe cosmology and in quantum optomechanics (QOM) are mentioned. A modified fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) is also established, which ensures the consistency of the model and the accuracy of results even at higher perturbative orders. Another result of significance is the derivation of a nonlinear Langevin equation which is expected to be useful for many open quantum system applications.
Abstract High-order quantum nonlinearity is an important prerequisite for the advanced quantum technology leading to universal quantum processing with large information capacity of continuous variables. Levitated optomechanics, a field where motion of dielectric particles is driven by precisely controlled tweezer beams, is capable of attaining the required nonlinearity via engineered potential landscapes of mechanical motion. Importantly, to achieve nonlinear quantum effects, the evolution caused by the free motion of mechanics and thermal decoherence have to be suppressed. For this purpose, we devise a method of stroboscopic application of a highly nonlinear potential to a mechanical oscillator that leads to the motional quantum non-Gaussian states exhibiting nonclassical negative Wigner function and squeezing of a nonlinear combination of mechanical quadratures. We test the method numerically by analyzing highly instable cubic potential with relevant experimental parameters of the levitated optomechanics, prove its feasibility within reach, and propose an experimental test. The method paves a road for experiments instantaneously transforming a ground state of mechanical oscillators to applicable nonclassical states by nonlinear optical force.