arXiv subjects

C. P. Sun

Publications and source records attributed to C. P. Sun.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Fisher information of a squeezed-state interferometer with a finite photon-number resolution

Squeezed-state interferometry plays an important role in quantum-enhanced optical phase estimation, as it allows the estimation precision to be improved up to the Heisenberg limit by using ideal photon-number-resolving detectors at the output ports. Here we show that for each individual $N$-photon component of the phase-matched coherent $\otimes$ squeezed vacuum input state, the classical Fisher information always saturates the quantum Fisher information. Moreover, the total Fisher information is the sum of the contributions from each individual $N$-photon components, where the largest $N$ is limited by the finite number resolution of available photon counters. Based on this observation, we provide an approximate analytical formula that quantifies the amount of lost information due to the finite photon number resolution, e.g., given the mean photon number $\bar{n}$ in the input state, over $96$ percent of the Heisenberg limit can be achieved with the number resolution larger than $5\bar{n}$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Maximal coherence in generic basis

Since quantum coherence is an undoubted characteristic trait of quantum physics, the quantification and application of quantum coherence has been one of the long-standing central topics in quantum information science. Within the framework of a resource theory of quantum coherence proposed recently, a \textit{fiducial basis} should be pre-selected for characterizing the quantum coherence in specific circumstances, namely, the quantum coherence is a \textit{basis-dependent} quantity. Therefore, a natural question is raised: what are the maximum and minimum coherences contained in a certain quantum state with respect to a generic basis? While the minimum case is trivial, it is not so intuitive to verify in which basis the quantum coherence is maximal. Based on the coherence measure of relative entropy, we indicate the particular basis in which the quantum coherence is maximal for a given state, where the Fourier matrix (or more generally, \textit{complex Hadamard matrices}) plays a critical role in determining the basis. Intriguingly, though we can prove that the basis associated with the Fourier matrix is a stationary point for optimizing the $l_1$ norm of coherence, numerical simulation shows that it is not a global optimal choice.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Spontaneous Decoherence of Coupled Harmonic Oscillators Confined in A Ring

We study the spontaneous decoherence of the coupled harmonic oscillators confined in a ring container, where the nearest-neighbor harmonic potentials are taken into consideration. Without any external symmetry breaking field or surrounding environment, the quantum superposition state prepared in the relative degrees of freedom gradually loses its quantum coherence spontaneously. This spontaneous decoherence is interpreted by the hidden couplings between the center-of-mass and relative degrees of freedoms, which actually originates from the symmetries of the ring geometry and corresponding nontrivial boundary conditions. Especially, such spontaneous decoherence completely vanishes at the thermodynamical limit because the nontrivial boundary conditions become trivial Born-von Karman boundary conditions when the perimeter of the ring container tends to infinity. Our investigation shows that a thermal macroscopic object with certain symmetries has chance to degrade its quantum properties even without applying an external symmetry breaking field or surrounding environment.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantifying Spontaneously Symmetry Breaking of Quantum Many-body Systems

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is related to the appearance of emergent phenomena, while a non-vanishing order parameter has been viewed as the sign of turning into such symmetry breaking phase. Recently, we have proposed a continuous measure of symmetry of a physical system using group theoretical approach. Within this framework, we study the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the conventional superconductor and Bose-Einstein condensation by showing both the two many body systems can be mapped into the many spin model. Moreover we also formulate the underlying relation between the spontaneous symmetry breaking and the order parameter quantitatively. The degree of symmetry stays unity in the absence of the two emergent phenomena, while decreases exponentially at the appearance of the order parameter which indicates the inextricable relation between the spontaneous symmetry and the order parameter.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Spin-Orbit Coupling Induced Spin Squeezing in Three-Component Bose Gases

We observe spin squeezing in three-component Bose gases where all three hyperfine states are coupled by synthetic spin-orbit coupling. This phenomenon is a direct consequence of spin-orbit coupling, as can be seen clearly from an effective spin Hamiltonian. By solving this effective model analytically with the aid of a Holstein-Primakoff transformation for spin-1 system in the low excitation limit, we conclude that the spin-nematic squeezing, a novel category of spin squeezing existing exclusively in large spin systems, is enhanced with increasing spin-orbit intensity and effective Zeeman field, which correspond to Rabi frequency and two-photon detuning within the Raman scheme for synthetic spin-orbit coupling, respectively. These trends of dependence are in clear contrast to spin-orbit coupling induced spin squeezing in spin-1/2 systems. We also analyze the effects of harmonic trap and interaction with realistic experimental parameters numerically, and find that a strong harmonic trap favors spin-nematic squeezing. We further show spin-nematic squeezing can be interpreted as two-mode entanglement or two-spin squeezing at low excitation. Our findings can be observed in ^{87}Rb gases with existing techniques of synthetic spin-orbit coupling and spin-selectively imaging.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Negative Refraction Induced by Möbius Topology

We theoretically show the negative refraction existing in Möbius molecules. The negative refractive index is induced by the non-trivial topology of the molecules. With the Möbius boundary condition, the effective electromagnetic fields felt by the electron in a Möbius ring is spatially inhomogeneous. In this regard, the $D_{N}$ symmetry is broken in Möbius molecules and thus the magnetic response is induced through the effective magnetic field. Our findings open up a new architecture for negative refractive index materials based on the non-trivial topology of Möbius molecules.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

An efficient and compact quantum switch for quantum circuits

The engineering of quantum devices has reached the stage where we now have small scale quantum processors containing multiple interacting qubits within them. Simple quantum circuits have been demonstrated and scaling up to larger numbers is underway. However as the number of qubits in these processors increases, it becomes challenging to implement switchable or tunable coherent coupling among them. The typical approach has been to detune each qubit from others or the quantum bus it connected to, but as the number of qubits increases this becomes problematic to achieve in practice due to frequency crowding issues. Here, we demonstrate that by applying a fast longitudinal control field to the target qubit, we can turn off its couplings to other qubits or buses (in principle on/off ratio higher than 100 dB). This has important implementations in superconducting circuits as it means we can keep the qubits at their optimal points, where the coherence properties are greatest, during coupling/decoupling processing. Our approach suggests a new way to control coupling among qubits and data buses that can be naturally scaled up to large quantum processors without the need for auxiliary circuits and yet be free of the frequency crowding problems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Frobenius-norm-based measures of quantum coherence and asymmetry

We formulate the Frobenius-norm-based measures for quantum coherence and asymmetry respectively. In contrast to the resource theory of coherence and asymmetry, we construct a natural measure of quantum coherence inspired from optical coherence theory while the group theoretical approach is employed to quantify the asymmetry of quantum states. Besides their simple structures and explicit physical meanings, we observe that these quantities are intimately related to the purity (or linear entropy) of the corresponding quantum states. Remarkably, we demonstrate that the proposed coherence quantifier is not only a measure of mixedness, but also an intrinsic (basis-independent) quantification of quantum coherence contained in quantum states, which can also be viewed as a normalized version of Brukner-Zeilinger invariant information. In our context, the asymmetry of N-qubit quantum systems is considered under local independent and collective SU(2) transformations. Intriguingly, it is illustrated that the collective effect has a significant impact on the asymmetry measure, and quantum correlation between subsystems plays a non-negligible role in this circumstance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantification of Symmetry

Symmetry is conventionally described in a contrariety manner that the system is either completely symmetric or completely asymmetric. Using group theoretical approach to overcome this dichotomous problem, we introduce the degree of symmetry (DoS) as a non-negative continuous number ranging from zero to unity. DoS is defined through an average of the fidelity deviations of Hamiltonian or quantum state over its transformation group G, and thus is computable by making use of the completeness relations of the irreducible representations of G. The monotonicity of DoS can effectively probe the extended group for accidental degeneracy while its multi-valued natures characterize some (spontaneous) symmetry breaking.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum optics in a non-inertial reference frame: the Rabi splitting in a rotating ring cavity

We study quantum optics with the atoms coupled to the quantized electromagnetic (EM) field in a non-inertial reference frame by making use of quantum field theory in curved spacetime. We rigorously establish the microscopic model for a two-level atom interacting with the quantized EM field in a rotating ring cavity by deriving a Jaynes-Cummings (JC) type Hamiltonian. Due to the two fold degeneracy of the ring cavity modes, the Rabi splitting exhibits three rather than two resonant frequency peaks. We find that the heights of the two side peaks show a sensitive linear dependence on the rotating velocity. This high sensitivity can be utilized to detect the angular velocity of the whole system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum coherence in multipartite systems

Within the unified framework of exploiting the relative entropy as a distance measure of quantum correlations, we make explicit the hierarchical structure of quantum coherence, quantum discord and quantum entanglement in multipartite systems. On this basis, we introduce a new measure of quantum coherence, the basis-free quantum coherence and prove that this quantity is exactly equivalent to quantum discord. Furthermore, since the original relative entropy of coherence is a basis-dependent quantity, we investigate the local and nonlocal unitary creation of quantum coherence, focusing on the two-qubit unitary gates. Intriguingly, our results demonstrate that nonlocal unitary gates do not necessarily outperform the local unitary gates. Finally, the additivity relationship of quantum coherence in tripartite systems is discussed in detail, where the strong subadditivity of von Neumann entropy plays an essential role.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Steady quantum coherence in non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of a three-level system in contact with a non-equilibrium environment, which is composed of two independent heat baths at different temperatures. We derive a master equation to describe the non-equilibrium process of the system. For the three level systems with two dipole transitions, i.e., the $Λ$-type and V-type, we find that the interferences of two transitions in a non-equilibrium environment can give rise to non-vanishing steady quantum coherence, namely, there exist non-zero off-diagonal terms in the steady state density matrix (in the energy representation). Moreover, the non-vanishing off-diagonal terms increase with the temperature difference of the two heat baths. Such interferences of the transitions were usually omitted by secular approximation, for it was usually believed that they only take effect in short time behavior and do not affect the steady state. Here we show that, in non-equilibrium systems, such omission would lead to the neglect of the steady quantum coherence.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Floquet control of quantum dissipation in spin chains

Controlling the decoherence induced by the interaction of quantum system with its environment is a fundamental challenge in quantum technology. Utilizing Floquet theory, we explore the constructive role of temporal periodic driving in suppressing decoherence of a spin-1/2 particle coupled to a spin bath. It is revealed that, accompanying the formation of a Floquet bound state in the quasienergy spectrum of the whole system including the system and its environment, the dissipation of the spin system can be inhibited and the system tends to coherently synchronize with the driving. It can be seen as an analog to the decoherence suppression induced by the structured environment in spatially periodic photonic crystal setting. Comparing with other decoherence control schemes, our protocol is robust against the fluctuation of control parameters and easy to realize in practice. It suggests a promising perspective of periodic driving in decoherence control.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Implications and applications of the variance-based uncertainty equalities

In quantum mechanics, the variance-based Heisenberg-type uncertainty relations are a series of mathematical inequalities posing the fundamental limits on the achievable accuracy of the state preparations. In contrast, we construct and formulate two quantum uncertainty equalities, which hold for all pairs of incompatible observables and indicate the new uncertainty relations recently introduced by L. Maccone and A. K. Pati [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 260401 (2014)]. Furthermore, we present an explicit interpretation lying behind the derivations and relate these relations to the so-called intelligent states. As an illustration, we investigate the properties of these uncertainty inequalities in the qubit system and a state-independent bound is obtained for the sum of variances. Finally, we apply these inequalities to the spin squeezing scenario and its implication in interferometric sensitivity is also discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Microwave degenerate parametric down-conversion with a single cyclic three-level system in circuit QED

With the assistance of a single cyclic three-level system, which can be realized by a superconducting flux qubit, we study theoretically the degenerate microwave parametric down-conversion (PDC) in a superconducting transmission line resonator with the fundamental and second harmonic modes involved. By adiabatically eliminating the excited states of the three-level system, we obtain an effective microwave PDC Hamiltonian for the two resonator modes in such a circuit QED system. The corresponding PDC efficiency in our model can be much larger than that in the similar circuit QED system based on a single two-level superconducting qubit [K. Moon and S. M. Girvin, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 140504 (2005)]. Furthermore, we consider the squeezing and bunching behavior of the fundamental mode resulting from the coherent drive to the second harmonic one.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Multiple phase estimation for arbitrary pure states under white noise

In any realistic quantum metrology scenarios, the ultimate precision in the estimation of parameters is limited not only by the so-called Heisenberg scaling, but also the environmental noise encountered by the underlying system. In the context of quantum estimation theory, it is of great significance to carefully evaluate the impact of a specific type of noise on the corresponding quantum Fisher information (QFI) or quantum Fisher information matrix (QFIM). Here we investigate the multiple phase estimation problem for a natural parametrization of arbitrary pure states under white noise. We obtain the explicit expression of the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) and hence the analytical formula of QFIM. Moreover, the attainability of the quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) is confirmed by the commutability of SLDs and the optimal estimators are elucidated for the experimental purpose. These findings generalize previously known partial results and highlight the role of white noise in quantum metrology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Indirect control of spin precession by electric field via spin-orbit coupling

The spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can mediate electric-dipole spin resonance (EDSR) in an a.c. electric field. In this letter, the EDSR is essentially understood as an spin precession under an effective a.c. magnetic field induced by the SOC in the reference frame, which is exactly following the classical trajectory of the electron and obtained by applying a quantum linear coordinate transformation. With this observation for one-dimensional (1D) case, we find a upper limit for the spin-flipping speed in the EDSR-based control of spin, which is given by the accessible data from the current experiment. For two-dimensional case, the azimuthal dependence of the effective magnetic field can be used to measure the ratio of the Rashba and Dresselhause SOC strengths.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Entropy Production of Open Quantum System in Multi-Bath Environment

We study the entropy production of an open quantum system surrounded by a complex environment consisting of several heat baths at different temperatures. The detailed balance is elaborated in view of the distinguishable channels provided by the couplings to different heat baths, and a refined entropy production rate is derived accordingly. It is demonstrated that the entropy production rates can characterize the quantum statistical property of the baths: the bosonic and fermionic baths display different behaviors in the high-temperature limit while they have the same asymptotic behavior at low temperature.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗