arXiv subjects

Gilad Gour

Publications and source records attributed to Gilad Gour.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

The Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Processes

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which imposes intrinsic restrictions on our ability to predict the outcomes of incompatible quantum measurements to arbitrary precision, demonstrates one of the key differences between classical and quantum mechanics. The physical systems considered in the uncertainty principle are static in nature and described mathematically with a quantum state in a Hilbert space. However, many physical systems are dynamic in nature and described with the formalism of a quantum channel. In this paper, we show that the uncertainty principle can be reformulated to include process-measurements that are performed on quantum channels. Since both quantum states and quantum measurements are themselves special cases of quantum channels, our formalism encapsulates the uncertainty principle in its utmost generality. More specifically, we obtain expressions that generalize the Maassen-Uffink uncertainty relation and the universal uncertainty relations from quantum states to quantum channels.

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arXiv2019

Strong Majorization Uncertainty Relations: Theory and Experiment

In spite of enormous theoretical and experimental progresses in quantum uncertainty relations, the experimental investigation of most current, and universal formalism of uncertainty relations, namely majorization uncertainty relations (MURs), has not been implemented yet. A significant problem is that previous studies on the classification of MURs only focus on their mathematical expressions, while the physical difference between various forms remains unknown. First, we use a guessing game formalism to study the MURs, which helps us disclosing their physical nature, and distinguishing the essential differences of physical features between diverse forms of MURs. Second, we tighter the bounds of MURs in terms of flatness processes, or equivalently, in terms of majorization lattice. Third, to benchmark our theoretical results, we experimentally verify MURs in the photonic systems.

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arXiv2019

Dynamical Resource Theory of Quantum Coherence

Decoherence is all around us. Every quantum system that interacts with the environment is doomed to decohere. The preservation of quantum coherence is one of the major challenges faced in quantum technologies, but its use as a resource is very promising and can lead to various operational advantages, for example in quantum algorithms. Hence, much work has been devoted in recent years to quantify the coherence present in a system. In the present paper, we formulate the quantum resource theory of dynamical coherence. The underlying physical principle we follow is that the free dynamical objects are those that cannot preserve or distribute coherence. This leads us to identify classical channels as the free elements in this theory. Consequently, even the quantum identity channel is not free as all physical systems undergo decoherence and hence, the preservation of coherence should be considered a resource. In our work, we introduce four different types of free superchannels (analogous to MIO, DIO, IO, and SIO) and discuss in detail two of them, namely, dephasing-covariant incoherent superchannels (DISC), maximally incoherent superchannels (MISC). The latter consists of all superchannels that do not generate non-classical channels from classical ones. We quantify dynamical coherence using channel-divergence-based monotones for MISC and DISC. We show that some of these monotones have operational interpretations as the exact, the approximate, and the liberal coherence cost of a quantum channel. Moreover, we prove that the liberal asymptotic cost of a channel is equal to a new type of regularized relative entropy. Finally, we show that the conversion distance between two channels under MISC and DISC can be computed using a semi-definite program (SDP).

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arXiv2019

How to quantify a dynamical quantum resource

We show that the generalization of the relative entropy of a resource from states to channels is not unique, and there are at least six such generalizations. We then show that two of these generalizations are asymptotically continuous, satisfy a version of the asymptotic equipartition property, and their regularizations appear in the power exponent of channel versions of the quantum Stein's Lemma. To obtain our results, we use a new type of "smoothing" that can be applied to functions of channels (with no state analog). We call it "liberal smoothing" as it allows for more spread in the optimization. Along the way, we show that the diamond norm can be expressed as a D_max distance to the set of quantum channels, and prove a variety of properties of all six generalizations of the relative entropy of a resource.

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arXiv2019

The Complementary Information Principle of Quantum Mechanics

The uncertainty principle bounds the uncertainties about incompatible measurements, clearly setting quantum theory apart from the classical world. Its mathematical formulation via uncertainty relations, plays an irreplaceable role in quantum technologies. However, neither the uncertainty principle nor uncertainty relations can fully describe the complementarity between quantum measurements. As an attempt to advance the efforts of complementarity in quantum theories, we formally propose a complementary information principle, significantly extending the one introduced by Heisenberg. First, we build a framework of black box testing consisting of pre- and post-testing with two incompatible measurements, introducing a rigorous mathematical expression of complementarity with definite information causality. Second, we provide majorization lower and upper bounds for the complementary information by utilizing the tool of semidefinite programming. In particular, we prove that our bounds are optimal under majorization due to the completeness of the majorization lattice. Finally, as applications to our framework, we present a general method to outer-approximating all uncertainty regions and also establish fundamental limits for all qualified joint uncertainties.

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arXiv2019

Entanglement manipulation and distillability beyond LOCC

When a quantum system is distributed to spatially separated parties, it is natural to consider how the system evolves when the parties perform local quantum operations with classical communication (LOCC). However, the structure of LOCC channels is exceedingly complex leaving many important physical problems unsolved. In this paper we consider generalized resource theories of entanglement based on different relaxations to the class of LOCC. The behavior of various entanglement measures is studied under non-entangling channels, as well as the newly introduced classes of dually non-entangling and PPT-preserving channels. In an effort to better understand the nature of LOCC bound entanglement, we study the problem of entanglement distillation in these generalized resource theories. We first show that unlike LOCC, general non-entangling maps can be superactivated, in the sense that two copies of the same non-entangling map can nevertheless be entangling. On the single-copy level, we demonstrate that every NPT entangled state can be converted into an LOCC-distillable state using channels that are both dually non-entangling and having a PPT Choi representation and that every state can be converted into an LOCC-distillable state using operations belonging to any family of polytopes that approximate LOCC. We then turn to the stochastic convertibility of multipartite pure states and show that any two states can be interconverted by any polytope approximation to the set of separable channels. Finally, as an analog to $k$-positive maps, we introduce and analyze the set of $k$-non-entangling channels.

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arXiv2019

Bounds On Entanglement Catalysts

Given a finite dimensional pure state transformation restricted by entanglement assisted local operations and classical communication (ELOCC), we derive minimum and maximum bounds on the entanglement of an ancillary catalyst that allows that transformation. These bounds are non-trivial even when the Schmidt number of both the original and ancillary states becomes large. We identify a lower bound for the dimension of a catalyst allowing a particular ELOCC transformation. Along with these bounds, we present further constraints on ELOCC transformations by identifying restrictions on the Schmidt coefficients of the target state. In addition, an example showing the existence of qubit ELOCC transformations with multiple ranges of potential ancillary states is provided. This example reveals some additional difficulty in finding strict bounds on ELOCC transformations, even in the qubit case. Finally, a comparison of the bounds in this paper with previously discovered bounds is presented.

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arXiv2019

Quantum Resource Theories

Quantum resource theories (QRTs) offer a highly versatile and powerful framework for studying different phenomena in quantum physics. From quantum entanglement to quantum computation, resource theories can be used to quantify a desirable quantum effect, develop new protocols for its detection, and identify processes that optimize its use for a given application. Particularly, QRTs revolutionize the way we think about familiar properties of physical systems like entanglement, elevating them from just being interesting from a fundamental point of view to being useful in performing practical tasks. The basic methodology of a general QRT involves partitioning all quantum states into two groups, one consisting of free states and the other consisting of resource states. Accompanying the set of free states is a collection of free quantum operations arising from natural restrictions on physical systems, and that consists of all the physical processes allowed by the resource theory and which acts invariantly on the set of free states. The QRT then studies what information processing tasks become possible using the restricted operations. Despite the large degree of freedom in how one defines the free states and free operations, unexpected similarities emerge among different QRTs in terms of resource measures and resource convertibility. As a result, objects that appear quite distinct on the surface, such as entanglement and quantum reference frames, appear to have great similarity on a deeper structural level. In this article we review the general framework of a quantum resource theory, focusing on common structural features, operational tasks, and resource measures. To illustrate these concepts, an overview is provided on some of the more commonly studied QRTs in the literature.

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arXiv2019

Comparison of Quantum Channels by Superchannels

We extend the definition of the conditional min-entropy from bipartite quantum states to bipartite quantum channels. We show that many of the properties of the conditional min-entropy carry over to the extended version, including an operational interpretation as a guessing probability when one of the subsystems is classical. We then show that the extended conditional min-entropy can be used to fully characterize when two bipartite quantum channels are related to each other via a superchannel (also known as supermap or a comb) that is acting on one of the subsystems. This relation is a pre-order that extends the definition of "quantum majorization" from bipartite states to bipartite channels, and can also be characterized with semidefinite programming. As a special case, our characterization provides necessary and sufficient conditions for when a set of quantum channels is related to another set of channels via a single superchannel. We discuss the applications of our results to channel discrimination, and to resource theories of quantum processes. Along the way we study channel divergences, entropy functions of quantum channels, and noise models of superchannels, including random unitary superchannels, and doubly-stochastic superchannels. For the latter we give a physical meaning as being completely-uniformity preserving.

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arXiv2019

Monogamy of the Entanglement of Formation

We show that any measure of entanglement that on pure bipartite states is given by a strictly concave function of the reduced density matrix is monogamous on pure tripartite states. This includes the important class of bipartite measures of entanglement that reduce to the (von Neumann) entropy of entanglement. Moreover, we show that the convex roof extension of such measures (e.g., entanglement of formation) are monogamous also on \emph{mixed} tripartite states. To prove our results, we use the definition of monogamy without inequalities, recently put forward[Gour and Guo, Quantum \textbf{2}, 81 (2018)]. Our results promote the theme that monogamy of entanglement is a property of quantum entanglement and not an attribute of some particular measures of entanglement.

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arXiv2019

Quantifying memory capacity as a quantum thermodynamic resource

The information-carrying capacity of a memory is known to be a thermodynamic resource facilitating the conversion of heat to work. Szilard's engine explicates this connection through a toy example involving an energy-degenerate two-state memory. We devise a formalism to quantify the thermodynamic value of memory in general quantum systems with nontrivial energy landscapes. Calling this the thermal information capacity, we show that it converges to the non-equilibrium Helmholtz free energy in the thermodynamic limit. We compute the capacity exactly for a general two-state (qubit) memory away from the thermodynamic limit, and find it to be distinct from known free energies. We outline an explicit memory--bath coupling that can approximate the optimal qubit thermal information capacity arbitrarily well.

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arXiv2019

Experimental investigation of majorization uncertainty relations in the high-dimensional systems

Uncertainty relation is not only of fundamental importance to quantum mechanics, but also crucial to the quantum information technology. Recently, majorization formulation of uncertainty relations (MURs) have been widely studied, ranging from two measurements to multiple measurements. Here, for the first time, we experimentally investigate MURs for two measurements and multiple measurements in the high-dimensional systems, and study the intrinsic distinction between direct-product MURs and direct-sum MURs. The experimental results reveal that by taking different nonnegative Schur-concave functions as uncertainty measure, the two types of MURs have their own particular advantages, and also verify that there exists certain case where three-measurement majorization uncertainty relation is much stronger than the one obtained by summing pairwise two-measurement uncertainty relations. Our work not only fills the gap of experimental studies of majorization uncertainty relations, but also represents an advance in quantitatively understanding and experimental verification of majorization uncertainty relations which are universal and capture the essence of uncertainty in quantum theory.

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arXiv2018

Quantifying the Imaginarity of Quantum Mechanics

The use of imaginary numbers in modelling quantum mechanical systems encompasses the wave-like nature of quantum states. Here we introduce a resource theoretic framework for imaginarity, where the free states are taken to be those with density matrices that are real with respect to a fixed basis. This theory is closely related to the resource theory of coherence, as it is basis dependent, and the imaginary numbers appear in the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Unlike coherence however, the set of physically realizable free operations is identical to both completely resource non-generating operations, and stochastically resource non-generating operations. Moreover, the resource theory of imaginarity does not have a self-adjoint resource destroying map. After introducing and characterizing the free operations, we provide several measures of imaginarity, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for pure state transformations via physically consistent free operations in the single shot regime.

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arXiv2018

Monogamy of entanglement without inequalities

We provide a fine-grained definition for monogamous measure of entanglement that does not invoke any particular monogamy relation. Our definition is given in terms an equality, as oppose to inequality, that we call the "disentangling condition". We relate our definition to the more traditional one, by showing that it generates standard monogamy relations. We then show that all quantum Markov states satisfy the disentangling condition for any entanglement monotone. In addition, we demonstrate that entanglement monotones that are given in terms of a convex roof extension are monogamous if they are monogamous on pure states, and show that for any quantum state that satisfies the disentangling condition, its entanglement of formation equals the entanglement of assistance. We characterize all bipartite mixed states with this property, and use it to show that the G-concurrence is monogamous. In the case of two qubits, we show that the equality between entanglement of formation and assistance holds if and only if the state is a rank 2 bipartite state that can be expressed as the marginal of a pure 3-qubit state in the W class.

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arXiv2018

Transformations among Pure Multipartite Entangled States via Local Operations Are Almost Never Possible

Local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) constitute the free operations in entanglement theory. Hence, the determination of LOCC transformations is crucial for the understanding of entanglement. We characterize here almost all LOCC transformations among pure multipartite multilevel states. Combined with the analogous results for qubit states shown by Gour \emph{et al.} [J. Math. Phys. 58, 092204 (2017)], this gives a characterization of almost all local transformations among multipartite pure states. We show that nontrivial LOCC transformations among generic, fully entangled, pure states are almost never possible. Thus, almost all multipartite states are isolated. They can neither be deterministically obtained from local-unitary-inequivalent (LU-inequivalent) states via local operations, nor can they be deterministically transformed to pure, fully entangled LU-inequivalent states. In order to derive this result, we prove a more general statement, namely, that, generically, a state possesses no nontrivial local symmetry. We discuss further consequences of this result for the characterization of optimal, probabilistic single copy and probabilistic multi-copy LOCC transformations and the characterization of LU-equivalence classes of multipartite pure states.

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arXiv2018

Quantification and manipulation of magic states

Magic states can be used as a resource to circumvent the restrictions due to stabilizer-preserving operations, and magic-state conversion has not been studied in the single-copy regime thus far. Here we solve the question of whether a stabilizer-preserving quantum operation exists that can convert between two given magic states in the single-shot regime. We first phrase this question as a feasibility problem for a semi-definite program (SDP), which provides a procedure for constructing a stabilizer-preserving quantum operation (free channel) if it exists. Then we employ a variant of the Farkas Lemma to derive necessary and sufficient conditions for existence, and this method is used to construct a complete set of magic monotones.

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arXiv2018

The Conditional Uncertainty Principle

We develop a general operational framework that formalizes the concept of conditional uncertainty in a measure-independent fashion. Our formalism is built upon a mathematical relation which we call conditional majorization. We define conditional majorization and, for the case of classical memory, we provide its thorough characterization in terms of monotones, i.e., functions that preserve the partial order under conditional majorization. We demonstrate the application of this framework by deriving two types of memory-assisted uncertainty relations: (1) a monotone-based conditional uncertainty relation, (2) a universal measure-independent conditional uncertainty relation, both of which set a lower bound on the minimal uncertainty that Bob has about Alice's pair of incompatible measurements, conditioned on arbitrary measurement that Bob makes on his own system. We next compare the obtained relations with their existing entropic counterparts and find that they are at least independent.

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arXiv2017

Quantum majorization and a complete set of entropic conditions for quantum thermodynamics

What does it mean for one quantum process to be more disordered than another? Here we provide a precise answer to this question in terms of a quantum-mechanical generalization of majorization. The framework admits a complete description in terms of single-shot entropies, and provides a range of significant applications. These include applications to the comparison of quantum statistical models and quantum channels, to the resource theory of asymmetry, and to quantum thermodynamics. In particular, within quantum thermodynamics, we apply our results to provide the first complete set of of necessary and sufficient conditions for arbitrary quantum state transformation under thermodynamic processes, and which rigorously accounts for quantum-mechanical properties, such as coherence. Our framework of generalized thermal processes extends thermal operations, and is based on natural physical principles, namely, energy conservation, the existence of equilibrium states, and the requirement that quantum coherence be accounted for thermodynamically. In the zero coherence case we recover thermo-majorization while in the asymptotic coherence regime we obtain a constraint that takes the form of a Page-Wootters clock condition.

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