Noise-adding methods have been widely used to manipulate the direction of quantum steering, but all related experimental schemes only worked under the assumption that Gaussian measurements were performed and ideal target states were accurately prepared. Here, we prove, and then experimentally observe, that a class of two-qubit states can be flexibly changed among two-way steerable, one-way steerable and no-way steerable, by adding either phase damping noise or depolarization noise. The steering direction is determined by measuring steering radius and critical radius, each of which represents a necessary and sufficient steering criterion valid for general projective measurements and actually prepared states. Our work provides a more efficient and rigorous way to manipulate the direction of quantum steering, and can also be employed to manipulate other types of quantum correlations.
Noise-adding methods have been widely used to manipulate the direction of quantum steering, but all related experimental schemes only worked under the assumption that Gaussian measurements were performed and ideal target states were accurately prepared. Here, we prove, and then experimentally observe, that a class of two-qubit states can be flexibly changed among two-way steerable, one-way steerable and no-way steerable, by adding either phase damping noise or depolarization noise. The steering direction is determined by measuring steering radius and critical radius, each of which represents a necessary and sufficient steering criterion valid for general projective measurements and actually prepared states. Our work provides a more efficient and rigorous way to manipulate the direction of quantum steering, and can also be employed to manipulate other types of quantum correlations.
Quantum steering exhibits an inherent asymmetric property that differs from both quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality, which leads to no-way, one-way, and two-way steering. Flexibly manipulating the direction of quantum steering without reducing the quantum steerability is very important for information processing. In this paper, implementing sequential unsharp measurements and the steering-radius criterion, we show how to manipulate that steering direction among multiple Alices and Bobs. We demonstrate that the change in steering direction depends on the number of measurement settings and the sharpness of measurements. For a given two-qubit asymmetric state, we obtain 13 kinds of steering regions with different steering directions in the case of one Alice and three Bobs and obtain 11 kinds in the case with two Alices and two Bobs. For the case with one Alice and three Bobs, we further find a volume bound to visualize quantum steering. Our manipulation scheme is experimentally easy to achieve and rather assigns the steerability to more observers without reducing it, which offers a direct reference for the practical application of quantum steering.
Quantum steering is the ability that one system affects another one without delay by performing local measurements. During the past few years, the research on quantum steering has been verified in a number of experiments by the choices of measurements. But this research cannot detect all steerable states. Recently, the definition of critical radius was proposed by Nguyen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 240401 (2019)]. The critical radius can detect all steerable states for two-qubit states. Therefore the critical radius can be regarded as the best method for detecting the steerability of two-qubit states. However, relevant experimental research is still lacking. In this work, for comparison, we experimentally investigate three steering criteria based on the critical radius, the geometric Bell-like inequality, and the three-setting measurements steering inequality and find that the critical radius can detect the most steerable states. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the critical radius satisfies the scaling property. The results show that we only need to calculate the critical radii of some quantum states to obtain the critical radii of more scaling quantum states. Thus this property can provide the convenience for detecting the steerability of many quantum states.
Quantum steering is a stronger form of quantum entanglement and is considered to rigorously address the nonlocal correlation in the original Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox. We study the quantum steerability of two classes of continuous-variable (CV) entangled states that are most often employed for CV quantum informatics-entangled coherent states (ECSs) and two-mode-squeezed vacuum (TMSV). We test the two steering criteria by utilizing Heisenberg and entropic uncertainty relations, respectively, and find that the latter can reveal the steerability of ECSs of any size and parity, whereas the former scarcely can. The steering behaviors of the two states are investigated and compared when they experience a noisy environment, i.e., an amplitude damping channel. When the noise is added asymmetrically, e.g., when only one party of the bipartite system is subject to noise, quantum steering can be possible only in one direction, e.g., Alice on Bob’s state but not Bob on Alice’s state. We show the emergence of this one-directional steering for both ECSs and the TMSV in a certain parameter range under decoherence.
Within the hierarchy of inseparable quantum correlations, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is distinguished from both entanglement and Bell nonlocality by its asymmetry-there exist conditions where the steering phenomenon changes from being observable to not observable, simply by exchanging the role of the two measuring parties. While this one-way steering feature has been previously demonstrated for the restricted class of Gaussian measurements, for the general case of positive-operator-valued measures even its theoretical existence has only recently been settled. Here, we prove, and then experimentally observe, the one-way steerability of an experimentally practical class of entangled states in this general setting. As well as its foundational significance, the demonstration of fundamentally asymmetric nonlocality also has practical implications for the distribution of the trust in quantum communication networks.
Quantum steering is a recently defined form of quantum correlation which lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. In contrast to other types of quantum correlations, quantum steering is inherently asymmetric, which implies that it could manifest in one direction but not in the opposite direction. This rather peculiar phenomenon, known as one-way steering, has been demonstrated in several experiments, but subtlety remains. In fact, all experiments were shown to be ambiguous until a very recent conclusive one, which, however, made crucial use of a high-dimensional embedding to get around assumptions. This leaves the question open of whether the one-way steering phenomenon can be reliably demonstrated in the genuine two-qubit system. Here, we report such an experimental demonstration of one-way steering for a family of two-qubit states. Our experimental setup and results thus resolve the subtlety caused by fidelity assumption in previous experiments without the need for higher dimensional embedding. Moreover, our work provides a universal method to characterize one-way steering phenomenon for generic two-qubit states.
Quantum steering-a strong correlation to be verified even when one party or its measuring device is fully untrusted-not only provides a profound insight into quantum physics but also offers a crucial basis for practical applications. For continuous-variable (CV) systems, Gaussian states among others have been extensively studied, however, mostly confined to Gaussian measurements. While the fulfilment of Gaussian criterion is sufficient to detect CV steering, whether it is also necessary for Gaussian states is a question of fundamental importance in many contexts. This critically questions the validity of characterizations established only under Gaussian measurements like the quantification of steering and the monogamy relations. Here, we introduce a formalism based on local uncertainty relations of non-Gaussian measurements, which is shown to manifest quantum steering of some Gaussian states that Gaussian criterion fails to detect. To this aim, we look into Gaussian states of practical relevance, i.e. two-mode squeezed states under a lossy and an amplifying Gaussian channel. Our finding significantly modifies the characteristics of Gaussian-state steering so far established such as monogamy relations and one-way steering under Gaussian measurements, thus opening a new direction for critical studies beyond Gaussian regime.