arXiv subjects

Bi-Heng Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Bi-Heng Liu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Experimental verification of bound and multiparticle entanglement with the randomized measurement toolbox

In recent years, analysis methods for quantum states based on randomized measurements have been investigated extensively. Still, in the experimental implementations these methods were typically used for characterizing strongly entangled states and not to analyze the different families of multiparticle or weakly entangled states. In this work, we experimentally prepare various entangled states with path-polarization hyper-entangled photon pairs, and study their entanglement properties using the full toolbox of randomized measurements. First, we successfully characterize the correlations of a series of GHZ-W mixed states using the second moments of the random outcomes, and demonstrate the advantages of this method by comparing it with the well-known three-tangle and squared concurrence. Second, we generate bound entangled chessboard states of two three-dimensional systems and verify their weak entanglement with a criterion derived from moments of randomized measurements.

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arXiv2023

Semi-device-independent certification of indefinite causal order in a photonic quantum switch

We report an experimental certification of indefinite causal order that relies only on the characterization of the operations of a single party. We do so in the semi-device-independent scenario with the fewest possible assumptions of characterization of the parties' local operations in which indefinite causal order can be demonstrated with the quantum switch. To achieve this result, we introduce the concept of semi-device-independent causal inequalities and show that the correlations generated in a photonic quantum switch, in which all parties are able to collect local outcome statistics, achieve a violation of this inequality of 224 standard deviations. This result consists of the experimental demonstration of indefinite causal order with the fewest device-characterization assumptions to date.

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arXiv2023

Experimental super-Heisenberg quantum metrology with indefinite gate order

The precision of quantum metrology is widely believed to be restricted by the Heisenberg limit, corresponding to a root mean square error that is inversely proportional to the number of independent processes probed in an experiment, N. In the past, some proposals have challenged this belief, for example using non-linear interactions among the probes. However, these proposals turned out to still obey the Heisenberg limit with respect to other relevant resources, such as the total energy of the probes. Here, we present a photonic implementation of a quantum metrology protocol surpassing the Heisenberg limit by probing two groups of independent processes in a superposition of two alternative causal orders. Each process creates a phase space displacement, and our setup is able to estimate a geometric phase associated to two sets of N displacements with an error that falls quadratically with N. Our results only require a single-photon probe with an initial energy that is independent of N. Using a superposition of causal orders outperforms every setup where the displacements are probed in a definite order. Our experiment features the demonstration of indefinite causal order in a continuous-variable system, and opens up the experimental investigation of quantum metrology setups boosted by indefinite causal order.

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arXiv2023

Experimental demonstration of quantum cooling engine powered by entangled measurement

Traditional refrigeration is driven either by external force or an information-feedback mechanism. Surprisingly, the quantum measurement and collapse, which are generally detrimental, can also be used to power a cooling engine even without requiring any feedback mechanism. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate quantum measurement cooling (QMC) powered by entangled measurement by using a novel linear optical simulator. In the simulator, different thermodynamic processes can be simulated by adjusting the energy-level spacing of working substance and the temperature of thermal bath. We show experimentally that, without prior knowledge about the measurement to be made, QMC remains likely to occur. We also demonstrate that QMC is robust against measurement noise. Those experimental results show that quantum measurement is not always detrimental but can be a valuable thermodynamic resource.

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arXiv2023

Device-independent verification of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering

Entanglement lies at the heart of quantum mechanics, and has been identified an essential resource for diverse applications in quantum information. If entanglement could be verified without any trust in the devices of observers, i.e., in a device-independent (DI) way, then unconditional security can be guaranteed for various quantum information tasks. In this work, we propose an experimental-friendly DI protocol to certify the presence of entanglement, based on Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering. We first establish the DI verification framework, relying on the measurement-device-independent technique and self-testing, and show it is able to verify all EPR-steerable states. In the context of three-measurement settings as per party, it is found to be noise robustness towards inefficient measurements and imperfect self-testing. Finally, a four-photon experiment is implemented to device-independently verify EPR-steering even for Bell local states. Our work paves the way for realistic implementations of secure quantum information tasks.

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arXiv2022

Certification of non-classicality in all links of a photonic star network without assuming quantum mechanics

Networks composed of independent sources of entangled particles that connect distant users are a rapidly developing quantum technology and an increasingly promising test-bed for fundamental physics. Here we address the certification of their post-classical properties through demonstrations of full network nonlocality. Full network nonlocality goes beyond standard nonlocality in networks by falsifying any model in which at least one source is classical, even if all the other sources are limited only by the no-signaling principle. We report on the observation of full network nonlocality in a star-shaped network featuring three independent sources of photonic qubits and joint three-qubit entanglement-swapping measurements. Our results constitute the first experimental demonstration of full network nonlocality beyond the bilocal network.

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arXiv2022

Experimental beating the standard quantum limit under non-markovian dephasing environment

Entanglement enhanced quantum metrology has been well investigated for beating the standard quantum limit (SQL). However, the metrological advantage of entangled states becomes much more elusive in the presence of noise. Under strictly Markovian dephasing noise, the uncorrelated and maximally entangled states achieve exactly the same measurement precision. However, it was predicted that in a non-Markovian dephasing channel, the entangled probes can recover their metrological advantage. Here, by using a highly controlled photonic system, we simulate a non-Markovian dephasing channel fulfill the quadratic decay behaviour. Under such a channel, we demonstrate the GHZ states can surpass the SQL in a scaling manner, up to six photons. Since the quadratic decay behavior is quite general for short time expansion in open quantum systems (also known as the quantum Zeno effect), our results suggest a universal and scalable method to beat the SQL in the real-word metrology tasks.

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arXiv2022

Experimental implementation of Hardy-like quantum pigeonhole paradoxes

We present the general Hardy-like quantum pigeonhole paradoxes for \textit{n}-particle states, and find that each of such paradoxes can be simply associated to an un-colorable solution of a specific vertex-coloring problem induced from the projected-coloring graph (a kind of unconventional graph). Besides, as a special kind of Hardy's paradox, several kinds of Hardy-like quantum pigeonhole paradoxes can even give rise to higher success probability in demonstrating the conflict between quantum mechanics and local or noncontextual realism than the previous Hardy's paradoxes. Moreover, not only multi-qubit states, but high-dimensional states can exhibit the paradoxes. In contrast to only one type of contradiction presented in the original quantum pigeonhole paradox, two kinds of three-qubit projected-coloring graph states as the minimal illustration are discussed in our work, and an optical experiment to verify such stronger paradox is performed. This quantum paradox provides innovative thoughts and methods in exploring new types of stronger multi-party quantum nonlocality and may have potential applications in multi-party untrusted communications and device-independent random number generation.

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arXiv2022

Twenty years of quantum contextuality at USTC

Quantum contextuality is one of the most perplexing and peculiar features of quantum mechanics. Concisely, it refers to the observation that the result of a single measurement in quantum mechanics depends on the set of joint measurements actually performed. The study of contextuality has a long history at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Here we review the theoretical and experimental advances in this direction achieved at USTC over the last 20 years. We start by introducing the renowned simplest proof of state-independent contextuality. We then present several experimental tests of quantum versus noncontextual theories with photons. Finally, we discuss the investigation on the role of contextuality in general quantum information science and its application in quantum computation.

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arXiv2022

Measuring Small Longitudinal Phase Shifts via Weak Measurement Amplification

Weak measurement amplification, which is considered as a very promising scheme in precision measurement, has been applied to various small physical quantities estimation. Since many quantities can be converted to phase signal, it is thus interesting and important to consider measuring ultra-small longitudinal phase shifts by using weak measurement. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel weak measurement amplification based ultra-small longitudinal phase estimation, which is suitable for polarization interferometry. We realize one order of magnitude amplification measurement of small phase signal directly introduced by Liquid Crystal Variable Retarder and show its robust to finite visibility of interference. Our results may find important applications in high-precision measurements, such as gravitational waves detection.

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arXiv2022

Entanglement swapping and quantum correlations via Elegant Joint Measurements

We use hyper-entanglement to experimentally realize deterministic entanglement swapping based on quantum Elegant Joint Measurements. These are joint projections of two qubits onto highly symmetric, iso-entangled, bases. We report measurement fidelities no smaller than $97.4\%$. We showcase the applications of these measurements by using the entanglement swapping procedure to demonstrate quantum correlations in the form of proof-of-principle violations of both bilocal Bell inequalities and more stringent correlation criteria corresponding to full network nonlocality. Our results are a foray into entangled measurements and nonlocality beyond the paradigmatic Bell state measurement and they show the relevance of more general measurements in entanglement swapping scenarios.

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arXiv2022

Self-Testing of a Single Quantum System: Theory and Experiment

Certifying individual quantum devices with minimal assumptions is crucial for the development of quantum technologies. Here, we investigate how to leverage single-system contextuality to realize self-testing. We develop a robust self-testing protocol based on the simplest contextuality witness for the simplest contextual quantum system, the Klyachko-Can-Binicioğlu-Shumovsky (KCBS) inequality for the qutrit. We establish a lower bound on the fidelity of the state and the measurements (to an ideal configuration) as a function of the value of the witness under a pragmatic assumption on the measurements we call the KCBS orthogonality condition. We apply the method in an experiment with randomly chosen measurements on a single trapped $^{40}{\rm Ca}^+$ and near-perfect detection efficiency. The observed statistics allow us to self-test the system and provide the first experimental demonstration of quantum self-testing of a single system. Further, we quantify and report that deviations from our assumptions are minimal, an aspect previously overlooked by contextuality experiments.

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arXiv2022

Quantum simulation of indefinite causal order induced quantum refrigeration

In the classical world, physical events always happen in a fixed causal order. However, it was recently revealed that quantum mechanics allows events to occur with indefinite causal order (ICO). In this study, we use an optical quantum switch to experimentally investigate the application of ICO in thermodynamic tasks. Specifically, we simulate the working system interacting with two identical thermal reservoirs in an ICO, observing the quantum heat extraction even though they are in thermal equilibrium where heat extraction is unaccessible by traditional thermal contact. Using such a process, we simulate an ICO refrigeration cycle and investigate its properties. We also show that by passing through the ICO channel multiple times, one can extract more heat per cycle and thus obtain a higher refrigeration performance. Our results suggest that the causal nonseparability can be a powerful resource for quantum thermodynamic tasks.

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arXiv2022

Experimental Demonstration that No Tripartite-Nonlocal Causal Theory Explains Nature's Correlations

Quantum theory predicts the existence of genuinely tripartite-entangled states, which cannot be obtained from local operations over any bipartite entangled states and unlimited shared randomness. Some of us recently proved that this feature is a fundamental signature of quantum theory. The state $\left|{GHZ}_3\right\rangle=(\left|000\right\rangle+\left|111\right\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$ gives rise to tripartite quantum correlations which cannot be explained by any causal theory limited to bipartite nonclassical common causes of any kind (generalising entanglement) assisted with unlimited shared randomness. Hence, any conceivable physical theory which would reproduce quantum predictions will necessarily include genuinely tripartite resources. In this work, we verify that such tripartite correlations are experimentally achievable. We derive a new device-independent witness capable of falsifying causal theories wherein nonclassical resources are merely bipartite. Using a high-performance photonic $\left|{GHZ}_3\right\rangle$ states with fidelities of $ 0.9741\pm0.002$, we provide a clear experimental violation of that witness by more than $26.3$ standard deviation, under the locality and fair sampling assumption. We generalise our work to the $\left|{GHZ}_4\right\rangle$ state, obtaining correlations which cannot be explained by any causal theory limited to tripartite nonclassical common causes assisted with unlimited shared randomness.

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arXiv2021

Optimized detection of high-dimensional entanglement

Entanglement detection is one of the most conventional tasks in quantum information processing. While most experimental demonstrations of high-dimensional entanglement rely on fidelity-based witnesses, these are powerless to detect entanglement within a large class of entangled quantum states, the so-called unfaithful states. In this paper, we introduce a highly flexible automated method to construct optimal tests for entanglement detection given a bipartite target state of arbitrary dimension, faithful or unfaithful, and a set of local measurement operators. By restricting the number or complexity of the considered measurement settings, our method outputs the most convenient protocol which can be implemented using a wide range of experimental techniques such as photons, superconducting qudits, cold atoms or trapped ions. With an experimental quantum optics setup that can prepare and measure arbitrary high-dimensional mixed states, we implement some $3$-setting protocols generated by our method. These protocols allow us to experimentally certify 2- and 3-unfaithful entanglement in 4-dimensional photonic states, some of which contain well above 50% of noise.

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arXiv2021

Experimental one-step deterministic entanglement purification

Entanglement purification is to distill high-quality entangled states from low-quality entangled states. It is a key step in quantum repeaters, determines the efficiency and communication rates of quantum communication protocols, and is hence of central importance in long-distance communications and quantum networks. In this work, we report the first experimental demonstration of deterministic entanglement purification using polarization and spatial mode hyperentanglement. After purification, the fidelity of polarization entanglement arises from $0.268\pm0.002$ to $0.989\pm0.001$. Assisted with robust spatial mode entanglement, the total purification efficiency can be estimated as $10^{9}$ times that of the entanglement purification protocols using two copies of entangled states when one uses the spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources. Our work may have the potential to be implemented as a part of full repeater protocols.

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arXiv2021

Pathways for entanglement based quantum communication in the face of high noise

Entanglement based quantum communication offers an increased level of security in practical secret shared key distribution. One of the fundamental principles enabling this security -- the fact that interfering with one photon will destroy entanglement and thus be detectable -- is also the greatest obstacle. Random encounters of traveling photons, losses and technical imperfections make noise an inevitable part of any quantum communication scheme, severely limiting distance, key rate and environmental conditions in which QKD can be employed. Using photons entangled in their spatial degree of freedom, we show that the increased noise resistance of high-dimensional entanglement, can indeed be harnessed for practical key distribution schemes. We perform quantum key distribution in eight entangled paths at various levels of environmental noise and show key rates that, even after error correction and privacy amplification, still exceed $1$ bit per photon pair and furthermore certify a secure key at noise levels that would prohibit comparable qubit based schemes from working.

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arXiv2021

Nonlocality, steering and quantum state tomography in a single experiment

We investigate whether paradigmatic measurements for quantum state tomography, namely mutually unbiased bases and symmetric informationally complete measurements, can be employed to certify quantum correlations. For this purpose, we identify a simple and noise-robust correlation witness for entanglement detection, steering and nonlocality that can be evaluated based on the outcome statistics obtained in the tomography experiment. This allows us to perform state tomography on entangled qutrits, a test of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering and a Bell inequality test, all within a single experiment. We also investigate the trade-off between quantum correlations and subsets of tomographically complete measurements as well as the quantification of entanglement in the different scenarios. Finally, we perform a photonics experiment in which we demonstrate quantum correlations under these flexible assumptions, namely with both parties trusted, one party untrusted and both parties untrusted.

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