Not all quantum protocols require entanglement to outperform their classical alternatives. The nonclassical correlations that lead to this quantum advantage are conjectured to be captured by quantum discord. Here we demonstrate that discord can be explicitly used as a resource: certifying untrusted entangling gates without generating entanglement at any stage. We implement our protocol in the single-photon regime, and show its success in the presence of high levels of noise and imperfect gate operations. Our technique offers a practical method for benchmarking entangling gates in physical architectures in which only highly-mixed states are available.
We present a general theory for laser-free entangling gates with trapped-ion hyperfine qubits, using either static or oscillating magnetic-field gradients combined with a pair of uniform microwave fields symmetrically detuned about the qubit frequency. By transforming into a `bichromatic interaction picture, we show that either ${hat{sigma}_{phi}otimeshat{sigma}_{phi}}$ or ${hat{sigma}_{z}otimeshat{sigma}_{z}}$ geometric phase gates can be performed. The gate basis is determined by selecting the microwave detuning. The driving parameters can be tuned to provide intrinsic dynamical decoupling from qubit frequency fluctuations. The ${hat{sigma}_{z}otimeshat{sigma}_{z}}$ gates can be implemented in a novel manner which eases experimental constraints. We present numerical simulations of gate fidelities assuming realistic parameters.
It is an open question if there are leakage-free entangling Fibonacci braiding gates. We provide evidence to the conjecture for the negative in this paper. We also found a much simpler protocol to generate approximately leakage-free entangling Fibonacci braiding gates than existing algorithms in the literature.
We introduce a modification of the standard entanglement swapping protocol where the generation of entanglement between two distant modes is realized and verified using only local optical measurements. We show, indeed, that a simple condition on the purity of the initial state involving also an ancillary mode is sufficient to guarantee the success of the protocol by local measurements {M. Abdi textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. textbf{109}, 143601 (2012)}]. We apply the proposed protocol to a tripartite optomechanical system where the never interacting mechanical modes become entangled and certified using only local optical measurements.
We study the entangling properties of multipartite unitary gates with respect to the measure of entanglement called one-tangle. Putting special emphasis on the case of three parties, we derive an analytical expression for the entangling power of an $n$-partite gate as an explicit function of the gate, linking the entangling power of gates acting on $n$-partite Hilbert space of dimension $d_1 ldots d_n$ to the entanglement of pure states in the Hilbert space of dimension $(d_1 ldots d_n)^2$. Furthermore, we evaluate its mean value averaged over the unitary and orthogonal groups, analyze the maximal entangling power and relate it to the absolutely maximally entangled (AME) states of a system with $2n$ parties. Finally, we provide a detailed analysis of the entangling properties of three-qubit unitary and orthogonal gates.
The capacity of a quantum gate to produce entangled states on a bipartite system is quantified in terms of the entangling power. This quantity is defined as the average of the linear entropy of entanglement of the states produced after applying a quantum gate over the whole set of separable states. Here we focus on symmetric two-qubit quantum gates, acting on the symmetric two-qubit space, and calculate the entangling power in terms of the appropriate local-invariant. A geometric description of the local equivalence classes of gates is given in terms of the $mathfrak{su}(3)$ Lie algebra root vectors. These vectors define a primitive cell with hexagonal symmetry on a plane, and through the Weyl group the minimum area on the plane containing the whole set of locally equivalent quantum gates is identified. We give conditions to determine when a given quantum gate produces maximally entangled states from separable ones (perfect entanglers). We found that these gates correspond to one fourth of the whole set of locally-distinct quantum gates. The theory developed here is applicable to three-level systems in general, where the non-locality of a quantum gate is related to its capacity to perform non-rigid transformations on the Majorana constellation of a state. The results are illustrated by an anisotropic Heisenberg model, the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, and two coupled quantized oscillators with cross-Kerr interaction.