No Arabic abstract
A possible notion of nonclassicality for single systems can be defined on the basis of the notion of memory cost of classically simulating probabilities observed in a temporal sequence of measurements. We further explore this idea in a theory-independent framework, namely, from the perspective of general probability theories (GPTs), which includes classical and quantum theory as special examples. Under the assumption that each system has a finite memory capacity, identified with the maximal number of states perfectly distinguishable with a single measurement, we investigate what are the temporal correlations achievable with different theories, namely, classical, quantum, and GPTs beyond quantum mechanics. Already for the simplest nontrivial scenario, we derive inequalities able to distinguish temporal correlations where the underlying system is classical, quantum, or more general.
Quantum temporal correlations exhibited by violations of Leggett-Garg Inequality (LGI) and Temporal Steering Inequality (TSI) are in general found to be non-increasing under decoherence channels when probed on two-qubit pure entangled states. We study the action of decoherence channels, such as amplitude damping, phase-damping and depolarising channels when partial memory is introduced in a way such that two consecutive uses of the channels are time-correlated. We show that temporal correlations demonstrated by violations of the above temporal inequalities can be protected against decoherence using the effect of memory.
Space and time are crucial twins in physics. In quantum mechanics, spatial correlations already reveal nonclassical features, such as entanglement, and have bred many quantum technologies. However, the nature of quantum temporal correlations still remains in vague. In this Letter, based on the entangled-history formalism, we prove rigorously that temporal correlations are equivalent to spatial correlations. The effect of temporal correlations corresponds to a quantum channel. The resulting quantifications and classifications of quantum temporal correlations are illustrated in a natural way. Our proposed procedures also show how to determine temporal correlations completely.
The correlations arising from sequential measurements on a single quantum system form a polytope. This is defined by the arrow-of-time (AoT) constraints, meaning that future choices of measurement settings cannot influence past outcomes. We discuss the resources needed to simulate the extreme points of the AoT polytope, where resources are quantified in terms of the minimal dimension, or internal memory of the physical system. First, we analyze the equivalence classes of the extreme points under symmetries. Second, we characterize the minimal dimension necessary to obtain a given extreme point of the AoT polytope, including a lower scaling bound in the asymptotic limit of long sequences. Finally, we present a general method to derive dimension-sensitive temporal inequalities for longer sequences, based on inequalities for shorter ones, and investigate their robustness to imperfections.
Markovianity lies at the heart of classical communication problems. This in turn makes the information-theoretic characterization of Markovian processes worthwhile. Data processing inequalities are ubiquitous in this sense, assigning necessary conditions for all Markovian processes. We address here the problem of the information-theoretic analysis of constraints on Markovian processes in the quantum regime. Firstly, we show the existence of a novel class of quantum data processing inequalities called here quantum Markov monogamy inequalities. This new class of necessary conditions on quantum Markovian processes is inspired by its counterpart for classical Markovian processes, and thus providing a strong link between classical and quantum constraints on Markovianity. Secondly, we show the relevance of such inequalities by considering an example of non-Markovian behaviour witnessed by a monogamy inequality, nevertheless, do not violating any of the remaining data processing inequalities. Lastly, we show how this inequalities can be used to witness non-Markovianity at the level of the process tensor formalism.
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is an intermediate quantum correlation that lies in between entanglement and Bell non-locality. Its temporal analogue, temporal steering, has recently been shown to have applications in quantum information and open quantum systems. Here, we show that there exists a hierarchy among the three temporal quantum correlations: temporal inseparability, temporal steering, and macrorealism. Given that the temporal inseparability can be used to define a measure of quantum causality, similarly the quantification of temporal steering can be viewed as a weaker measure of direct cause and can be used to distinguish between direct cause and common cause in a quantum network.