There are a number of tasks in quantum information science that exploit non-transitional adiabatic dynamics. Such a dynamics is bounded by the adiabatic theorem, which naturally imposes a speed limit in the evolution of quantum systems. Here, we inve
stigate an approach for quantum state engineering exploiting a shortcut to the adiabatic evolution, which is based on rapid quenches in a continuous-time Hamiltonian evolution. In particular, this procedure is able to provide state preparation faster than the adiabatic brachistochrone. Remarkably, the evolution time in this approach is shown to be ultimately limited by its thermodynamical cost,provided in terms of the average work rate (average power) of the quench process. We illustrate this result in a scenario that can be experimentally implemented in a nuclear magnetic resonance setup.
We review the theoretical and the experimental aspects regarding the quantification and identification of quantum correlations in liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems at room temperature. We start by introducing a formal method to ob
tain the quantum discord and its classical counterpart in systems described by a deviation matrix. Next, we apply such a method to experimentally demonstrate that the peculiar dynamics, with a sudden change behaviour, of quantum discord under decoherence, theoretically predicted only for phase-noise channels, is also present even under the effect of a thermal environment. This result shows that such a phenomena are much stronger than we could think, at principle. Walking through a different path, we discuss an observable witness for the quantumness of correlations in two-qubit systems and present the first experimental implementation of such a quantity in a NMR setup. Such a witness could be very useful in situations were the knowledge of the nature of correlations (in contrast of how much correlations) presented in a given state is enough.
Non-classical correlations play a crucial role in the development of quantum information science. The recent discovery that non-classical correlations can be present even in separable (unentangled) states has broadened this scenario. This generalized
quantum correlation has been increasing relevance in several fields, among them quantum communication, quantum computation, quantum phase transitions, and biological systems. We demonstrate here the occurrence of the sudden-change phenomenon and immunity against some sources of noise for the quantum discord and its classical counterpart, in a room temperature nuclear magnetic resonance setup. The experiment is performed in a decohering environment causing loss of phase relations among the energy eigenstates and exchange of energy between system and environment, resulting in relaxation to a Gibbs ensemble.
The quantification of quantum correlations (other than entanglement) usually entails laboured numerical optimization procedures also demanding quantum state tomographic methods. Thus it is interesting to have a laboratory friendly witness for the nat
ure of correlations. In this Letter we report a direct experimental implementation of such a witness in a room temperature nuclear magnetic resonance system. In our experiment the nature of correlations is revealed by performing only few local magnetization measurements. We also compare the witness results with those for the symmetric quantum discord and we obtained a fairly good agreement.
