No Arabic abstract
Entanglement distillation is an essential building block in quantum communication protocols. Here, we study the class of near-term implementable distillation protocols that use bilocal Clifford operations followed by a single round of communication. We introduce tools to enumerate and optimise over all protocols for up to $n=5$ (not necessarily equal) Bell-diagonal states using a commodity desktop computer. Furthermore, by exploiting the symmetries of the input states, we find all protocols for up to $n=8$ copies of a Werner state. For the latter case, we present circuits that achieve the highest fidelity. These circuits have modest depth and number of two-qubit gates. Our results are based on a correspondence between distillation protocols and double cosets of the symplectic group, and improve on previously known protocols.
Entanglement swapping is a process by which two initially independent quantum systems can become entangled and generate nonlocal correlations. To characterize such correlations, we compare them to those predicted by bilocal models, where systems that are initially independent are described by uncorrelated states. We extend in this paper the analysis of bilocal correlations initiated in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 170401 (2010)]. In particular, we derive new Bell-type inequalities based on the bilocality assumption in different scenarios, we study their possible quantum violations, and analyze their resistance to experimental imperfections. The bilocality assumption, being stronger than Bells standard local causality assumption, lowers the requirements for the demonstration of quantumness in entanglement swapping experiments.
Chiral symmetry provides the symmetry protection for a large class of topological edge states. It exists in non-Hermitian systems as well, and the same anti-commutation relation between the Hamiltonian and a linear chiral operator, i.e., ${H,Pi}=0$, now warrants a symmetric spectrum about the origin of the complex energy plane. Here we show two general approaches to identify and generate chiral symmetry in non-Hermitian systems, with an emphasis on lattices with detuned on-site potentials that can vary in both their real and imaginary parts. One approach utilizes the Clifford algebra satisfied by the Dirac matrices, while the other relies on the simultaneous satisfaction of non-Hermitian particle-hole symmetry and bosonic anti-linear symmetry, extended beyond simple spatial transformations to include, for example, an imaginary gauge transformation.
We introduce a new algorithm for enumerating chambers of hyperplane arrangements which exploits their underlying symmetry groups. Our algorithm counts the chambers of an arrangement as a byproduct of computing its characteristic polynomial. We showcase our julia implementation, based on OSCAR, on examples coming from hyperplane arrangements with applications to physics and computer science.
Quantum mechanics admits correlations that cannot be explained by local realistic models. Those most studied are the standard local hidden variable models, which satisfy the well-known Bell inequalities. To date, most works have focused on bipartite entangled systems. Here, we consider correlations between three parties connected via two independent entangled states. We investigate the new type of so-called bilocal models, which correspondingly involve two independent hidden variables. Such models describe scenarios that naturally arise in quantum networks, where several independent entanglement sources are employed. Using photonic qubits, we build such a linear three-node quantum network and demonstrate non-bilocal correlations by violating a Bell-like inequality tailored for bilocal models. Furthermore, we show that the demonstration of non-bilocality is more noise-tolerant than that of standard Bell non-locality in our three-party quantum network.
The Casimir force between bodies in vacuum can be understood as arising from their interaction with an infinite number of fluctuating electromagnetic quantum vacuum modes, resulting in a complex dependence on the shape and material of the interacting objects. Becoming dominant at small separations, the force plays a significant role in nanomechanics and object manipulation at the nanoscale, leading to a considerable interest in identifying structures where the Casimir interaction behaves significantly different from the well-known attractive force between parallel plates. Here we experimentally demonstrate that by nanostructuring one of the interacting metal surfaces at scales below the plasma wavelength, an unexpected regime in the Casimir force can be observed. Replacing a flat surface with a deep metallic lamellar grating with sub-100 nm features strongly suppresses the Casimir force and for large inter-surfaces separations reduces it beyond what would be expected by any existing theoretical prediction.