arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D. Bruss.
We study optimal eavesdropping in quantum cryptography with three-dimensional systems, and show that this scheme is more secure than protocols using two-dimensional states. We generalize the according eavesdropping transformation to arbitrary dimensions, and discuss the connection with optimal quantum cloning.
We discuss quantum correlations in systems of indistinguishable particles in relation to entanglement in composite quantum systems consisting of well separated subsystems. Our studies are motivated by recent experiments and theoretical investigations on quantum dots and neutral atoms in microtraps as tools for quantum information processing. We present analogies between distinguishable particles, bosons and fermions in low-dimensional Hilbert spaces. We introduce the notion of Slater rank for pure states of pairs of fermions and bosons in analogy to the Schmidt rank for pairs of distinguishable particles. This concept is generalized to mixed states and provides a correlation measure for indistinguishable particles. Then we generalize these notions to pure fermionic and bosonic states in higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces and also to the multi-particle case. We review the results on quantum correlations in mixed fermionic states and discuss the concept of fermionic Slater witnesses. Then the theory of quantum correlations in mixed bosonic states and of bosonic Slater witnesses is formulated. In both cases we provide methods of constructing optimal Slater witnesses that detect the degree of quantum correlations in mixed fermionic and bosonic states.
We present an abstract formulation of the so-called Innsbruck-Hannover programme that investigates quantum correlations and entanglement in terms of convex sets. We present a unified description of optimal decompositions of quantum states and the optimization of witness operators that detect whether a given state belongs to a given convex set. We illustrate the abstract formulation with several examples, and discuss relations between optimal entanglement witnesses and n-copy non-distillable states with non-positive partial transpose.
We introduce a classification of mixed three-qubit states, in which we define the classes of separable, biseparable, W- and GHZ-states. These classes are successively embedded into each other. We show that contrary to pure W-type states, the mixed W-class is not of measure zero. We construct witness operators that detect the class of a mixed state. We discuss the conjecture that all entangled states with positive partial transpose (PPTES) belong to the W-class. Finally, we present a new family of PPTES "edge" states with maximal ranks.
We calculate the highest possible information gain in a measurement of entangled states when employing a beamsplitter. The result is used to evaluate the fidelity, averaged over all unknown inputs, in a realistic teleportation protocol that takes account of the imperfect detection of Bell states. Finally, we introduce a probabilistic teleportation scheme, where measurements are made in a partially entangled basis.
We show that nonlocality of quantum mechanics cannot lead to superluminal transmission of information, even if most general local operations are allowed, as long as they are linear and trace preserving. In particular, any quantum mechanical approximate cloning transformation does not allow signalling. On the other hand, the no-signalling constraint on its own is not sufficient to prevent a transformation from surpassing the known cloning bounds. We illustrate these concepts on the basis of some examples.
Quantum mechanics is already 100 years old, but remains alive and full of challenging open problems. On one hand, the problems encountered at the frontiers of modern theoretical physics like Quantum Gravity, String Theories, etc. concern Quantum Theory, and are at the same time related to open problems of modern mathematics. But even within non-relativistic quantum mechanics itself there are fundamental unresolved problems that can be formulated in elementary terms. These problems are also related to challenging open questions of modern mathematics; linear algebra and functional analysis in particular. Two of these problems will be discussed in this article: a) the separability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system does not contain any quantum correlations or entanglement and b) the distillability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system can be transformed to an entangled pure state using local operations (local refers here to component subsystems of a given system). Although many results concerning the above mentioned problems have been obtained (in particular in the last few years in the framework of Quantum Information Theory), both problems remain until now essentially open. We will present a primer on the current state of knowledge concerning these problems, and discuss the relation of these problems to one of the most challenging questions of linear algebra: the classification and characterization of positive operator maps.
We study the distillability of a certain class of bipartite density operators which can be obtained via depolarization starting from an arbitrary one. Our results suggest that non-positivity of the partial transpose of a density operator is not a sufficient condition for distillability, when the dimension of both subsystems is higher than two.
We consider an N -> M quantum cloning transformation acting on pure two-level states lying on the equator of the Bloch sphere. An upper bound for its fidelity is presented, by establishing a connection between optimal phase covariant cloning and phase estimation. We give the explicit form of a cloning transformation that achieves the bound for the case N=1, M=2, and find a link between this case and optimal eavesdropping in the quantum cryptographic scheme BB84.
We analyse the role of entanglement for transmission of classical information through a memoryless depolarising channel. Using the isotropic character of this channel we prove analytically that the mutual information cannot be increased by encoding classical bits into entangled states of two qubits.
We establish a connection between optimal quantum cloning and optimal state estimation for d-dimensional quantum systems. In this way we derive an upper limit on the fidelity of state estimation for d-dimensional pure quantum states and, furthermore, for generalized inputs supported on the symmetric subspace.
We derive a tight upper bound for the fidelity of a universal N to M qubit cloner, valid for any M \geq N, where the output of the cloner is required to be supported on the symmetric subspace. Our proof is based on the concatenation of two cloners and the connection between quantum cloning and quantum state estimation. We generalise the operation of a quantum cloner to mixed and/or entangled input qubits described by a density matrix supported on the symmetric subspace of the constituent qubits. We also extend the validity of optimal state estimation methods to inputs of this kind.
We present a study of parity (P) violating contributions to the eigenenergies of stationary systems containing atoms in spatially inhomogeneous external electric fields. In this context the subtle interplay of P-violation and time reversal (T) invariance plays an important role. If the entire field configuration is chosen to exhibit chirality the energies are in general shifted by pseudoscalar contributions which change sign under a planar reflection of the field. To calculate the effects we use the standard model of elementary particle physics where the P-odd interaction arises through the exchange of Z-bosons between the quarks in the nucleus and the atomic electrons. We consider in detail hydrogen-like systems in unstable levels of principal quantum number n=2. The nominal order of P-violating effects is 10^-5...10^-9 Hz which is determined by the mixing of the 2S_1/2 and 2P_1/2 states. However we point out that it is possible to enhance the P-violating energy shifts dramatically! Instead of energy shifts linear in the P-violation parameters we get then shifts proportional to the square root of these parameters. Numerically we find such energy shifts to be of order 10^-5...1 Hz. Application of our technique to hydrogen-like atoms with a nucleus of spin I=1/2 yields P-violating energy shifts which are very sensitive to the nuclear spin dependent P-odd force, which receives a rather large contribution from the polarized strange quark density in polarized nuclei. Thus, a measurement of these energy shifts could provide an important tool to elucidate nuclear properties connected to the so called ``spin crisis''. We also present a method for treating degenerate perturbation theory which combines advantages of both, Kato's and Bloch's methods.
We establish the best possible approximation to a perfect quantum cloning machine which produces two clones out of a single input. We analyze both universal and state-dependent cloners. The maximal fidelity of cloning is shown to be 5/6 for universal cloners. It can be achieved either by a special unitary evolution or by a novel teleportation scheme. We construct the optimal state-dependent cloners operating on any prescribed two non-orthogonal states, discuss their fidelities and the use of auxiliary physical resources in the process of cloning. The optimal universal cloners permit us to derive a new upper bound on the quantum capacity of the depolarizing quantum channel.
We consider hydrogen-like atoms in unstable levels of principal quantum number n=2, confined to a finite size region in a non-homogeneous electric field carrying handedness. The interplay between the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms and the external ones of their c.m. motion can produce P-odd contributions to the eigenenergies. The nominal order of such shifts is 10^-8 Hz. Typically such energy shifts depend linearly on the small P-violation parameters delta_i similarequal 10^-12 (i=1,2), essentially the ratios of the P-violating mixing matrix elements of the 2S and 2P states over the Lamb shift, with i=1 (i=2) corresponding to the nuclear spin independent (dependent) term. We show how such energy shifts can be enhanced by a factor of similarequal 10^6 in a resonance like way for special field configurations where a crossing of unstable levels occurs, leading to P-violating effects proportional to squareroot{delta_i}. Measurements of such effects can give information concerning the ``spin crisis'' of the nucleons.
We present a network consisting of quantum gates which produces two imperfect copies of an arbitrary qubit. The quality of the copies does not depend on the input qubit. We also show that for a restricted class of inputs it is possible to use a very similar network to produce three copies instead of two. For qubits in this class, the copy quality is again independent of the input and is the same as the quality of the copies produced by the two-copy network.
We propose to test the CP symmetry in the reactions Z -> mu+ mu- gamma and Z -> tau+ tau- gamma. The experimental analysis of angular correlations allows to determine a set of effective couplings: the electric and weak dipole moments of the muon and the tau lepton, and in particular chirality conserving 4-particle couplings, all of which can be induced by CP--violation in renormalizable theories of electroweak interactions beyond the Standard Model. We update an indirect bound on the weak dipole moment of the muon.
We discuss the effect of CP-violating $Zb\bar{b}$, $Zb\bar{b}G$ and $Zb\bar{b}γ$ couplings on the width $Γ(Z\rightarrow b\bar bX)$. The presence of such couplings leads in a natural way to an increase of this width relative to the prediction of the standard model. Various strategies of a direct search for such CP-violating couplings by using CP-odd observables are outlined. The number of $Z$ bosons required to obtain significant information on the couplings in this way is well within the reach of present LEP experiments.