arXiv subjects

Hiroo Azuma

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroo Azuma.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Wigner functions, negativity volumes, and experimental generation of Pegg-Barnett phase-operator eigenstates

In this paper, we study the non-Gaussianity of the eigenstates of the Pegg-Barnett phase observable. By computing the Wigner functions of the eigenstates, we confirm that they take negative values in specific regions of the phase space. The Pegg-Barnett phase-operator eigenstates are defined in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. Thus, we examine how their negativity volumes depend on the dimension of the Hilbert space. Moreover, we present a quantum-optical circuit that generates these eigenstates and identify single-photon detection as the origin of their non-Gaussianity. To investigate a more realistic experimental implementation, we introduce imperfect single-photon detectors with non-unit efficiency into the circuit. We then examine how the detection probability, the output-ideal fidelity, and the negativity volume of the approximate eigenstate output from the circuit change with the detector efficiency. Finally, as a practical application, we consider a phase-estimation experiment of an arbitrary unknown state by injecting both the unknown state and a known Pegg-Barnett eigenstate into a 50-50 beam splitter and individually counting the numbers of photons emitted from its two output ports.

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arXiv2026

The two-time Leggett-Garg inequalities of a superconducting qubit interacting with thermal photons in a cavity

In this paper, we study the two-time Leggett-Garg (LG) inequalities of a quantum optical model that appears in the Josephson-junction quantum bit (qubit) interacting with an external magnetic flux. This model is a natural extension of an exactly solvable model whose interaction between a qubit and single-mode photons is given by a product of the Pauli $z$ operator of the qubit and a linear combination of annihilation and creation operators of the photons. By contrast, a photon's part of the interaction of our model is given by the square of the linear combination. Because our model is not solvable, we approximately investigate its time evolution up to the second-order perturbation. Our numerical calculations show that violation of the LG inequality diminishes as the temperature increases. Moreover, it exhibits power laws of the temperature, whose exponents vary depending on the coupling constant of the interaction between the qubit and photons. The violation of the LG inequality decreases and becomes less sensitive to the temperature as the coupling constant of the interaction gets larger.

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arXiv2025

Application and quantum properties of superpositions of oppositely squeezed states

We show that superpositions of oppositely squeezed states -- non-Gaussian Schr{\"{o}}dinger-cat-like states -- exhibit enhanced nonclassical features and provide an entanglement advantage in the small-squeezing regime. These states possess photon-number structures distinct from conventional coherent-state cat states, and we analyze their Wigner functions and the entanglement generated when they are injected into a 50-50 beam splitter. As a practical application, we demonstrate that they enable a high-quality heralded single-photon source whose second-order intensity correlation function is smaller than that obtained from a pure two-mode squeezed vacuum state. We further propose a linear-optical heralding scheme that approximates these superpositions without requiring strong Kerr nonlinearities. Our results indicate that the superposition of oppositely squeezed states is a promising non-Gaussian resource for quantum information processing, particularly for single-photon generation.

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arXiv2025

Quantum phase transitions in the multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model

We explore quantum phase transitions in the multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model (JCHM). Using the mean-field approximation, we demonstrate that the multiphoton JCHM exhibits quantum phase transitions between the Mott insulator (MI) phase, the superfluid phase, and an additional phase we refer to as the forbidden phase. The multiphoton JCHM MI phases are classified according to a conserved quantity associated with the total number of excited atoms and photons. When this conserved quantity diverges toward positive infinity, this system enters the forbidden phase. By analyzing the system, we observe MI, superfluid, and forbidden phases in both the single- and two-photon JCHMs, although the MI phases in the two-photon case are confined to subspaces with small values of the conserved quantity. In contrast, only the superfluid and forbidden phases appear in the three- and four-photon JCHMs, with no MI phase observed.

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arXiv2025

A heralded single-photon source implemented with second-order nonlinear photonic crystals

We study implementing a heralded single-photon source with second-order nonlinear photonic crystals. Injecting pump and signal light beams into a one-dimensional photonic crystal composed of a material with a large second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility $\chi^{(2)}$, we can transform the coherent incident signal light into squeezed light. Preparing two squeezed light beams by this method and input them into two ports of a 50-50 beam splitter independently, we can transform them into a two-mode squeezed state. Because those two modes of photons share entanglement, a single photon of the one mode is emitted with a high probability on the condition of the single-photon detection of the other mode as a heralding signal. We evaluate the efficiency and the second-order intensity correlation function $g^{(2)}(0)$ for this heralded single-photon source. Moreover, we examine changes in the efficiency and $g^{(2)}(0)$ when we assume that the single-photon detector for the heralding signal is imperfect. For a specific concrete example, we consider a case where the nonlinear medium is lithium niobate $\mbox{LiNbO}_{3}$ and the frequency of the incident signal light is on the order of $10^{14}$ Hz.

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arXiv2024

Quasiperiodic trajectories drawn by the Bloch vector of the thermal multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model

We study the time evolution of the Bloch vector of the thermal multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM). If the multiphoton JCM incorporates thermal fluctuations, its corresponding Bloch vector evolves unpredictably, traces a disordered trajectory, and exhibits quasiperiodicity. However, if we plot the trajectory as a discrete-time sequence with a constant time interval, it reveals unexpected regularities. First, we show that this plot is invariant under a scale transformation of a finite but non-zero time interval. Second, we numerically evaluate the times at which the absolute value of the $z$-component of the Bloch vector is nearly equal to zero. At those times, the density matrix of the two-level system approximates a classical ensemble of the ground and excited states. We demonstrate that some time values can be derived from the denominators of the fractions of certain approximations for irrational numbers. The reason underlying these findings is that the components of the Bloch vector for the thermal multiphoton JCM are described with a finite number of trigonometric functions whose dimensionless angular frequencies are irrational numbers in the low-temperature limit.

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arXiv2024

Insensitivity of the two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model to thermal noise

We study the thermal effects of the multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) using a thermofield dynamics (TFD) method. Letting the initial state of the whole system for the multiphoton JCM be a product of the ground state of an atom and a coherent state of a cavity field at finite temperature, we compute its time evolution. We evaluate a period of the collapse and revival of the Rabi oscillations and the relative entropy of coherence of the atom up to the second-order perturbation of the low-temperature expansion. We show that an intuitive estimation of the period matches the result of the perturbation theory of TFD well. In particular, we see that the period of the two-photon JCM hardly depends on the amplitude of the coherent state of the cavity field or the temperature. Numerical calculations suggest that the relative entropy of coherence of the two-photon JCM does not decay even for nonzero-temperature cases as time proceeds. By contrast, the relative entropyies of coherence for single-, three-, and four-photon JCMs decay as time proceeds for zero- and finite-temperature cases.

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arXiv2024

Heralded single-photon source based on superpositions of squeezed states

We propose a heralded single-photon source based on injecting a superposition of oppositely squeezed states onto a beam splitter. Our superposition of squeezed states is composed of only even photon number states (the number of photons is equal to $2,6,10,...$) meaning the probability for an emitted single photon given as a heralded single-photon event is higher than what one can achieve from the usual two-mode squeezed state. This enables one to realize an enhanced heralded single-photon source. We discuss how to create this superposition of squeezed states utilizing a single-mode squeezed state and the cross-Kerr nonlinearity. Our proposed method significantly improves the probability of emitting the heralded single photon compared to spontaneous parametric down-conversion.

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arXiv2023

Generation of a coherent squeezed like state defined with the Lie-Trotter product formula using a nonlinear photonic crystal

In this paper, we investigate how to generate coherent squeezed like light using a nonlinear photonic crystal. Because the photonic crystal reduces the group velocity of the incident light, if it is composed of a material with a second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility $\chi^{(2)}$, the interaction between the nonlinear material and the light passing through it strengthens and the quantum state of the emitted light is largely squeezed. Thus, we can generate a coherent squeezed like light with a resonating cavity in which the nonlinear photonic crystal is placed. This coherent squeezed like state is defined with the Lie-Trotter product formula and its mathematical expression is different from those of conventional coherent squeezed states. We show that we can obtain this coherent squeezed like state with a squeezing level $15.9$ dB practically by adjusting physical parameters for our proposed method. Feeding the squeezed light whose average number of photons is given by one or two into a beam splitter and splitting the flow of the squeezed light into a pair of entangled light beams, we estimate their entanglement quantitatively. This paper is a sequel to H. Azuma, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 55, 315106 (2022).

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arXiv2022

Leggett-Garg inequalities with deformed Pegg-Barnett phase observables

We investigate the Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGIs) for a boson system whose observables are given by deforming the Pegg-Barnett phase operators. We consider two observables and show that the quantum Fourier transform is useful in the realization of the required measurements. Deriving explicit forms for the LGIs using the coherent state $|\alpha\rangle$ as the initial state, we explore the regimes where they are violated when the time difference between observations of the phase operators is varied. We show that the system remains nonclassical in the large amplitude limit without dissipation, however with dissipation, our violation diminishes rapidly.

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arXiv2021

A simplified M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen gate for the trapped ion quantum computer

We discuss how to simplify the Molmer-Sorensen (MS) gate which is used for the trapped ion quantum computer. The original MS gate is implemented by illuminating two ions with bichromatic coherent light fields separately at the same time. In this paper, we propose a method for transforming a separable state of two ions into one of the Bell states by illuminating the two ions with monochromatic coherent light fields individually and this point is the advantage of our scheme over the original MS gate. The length of the execution time of our proposed gate is comparable to that of the original MS gate, however, numerical calculations show that our proposed gate is weakly sensitive to thermal fluctuations of the phonons. By giving another example of a simple two-ion gate that can generate entanglement but is strongly vulnerable to thermal fluctuations, we show that our simplified MS gate is more marked than usual.

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arXiv2021

Generation of entangled photons with a second-order nonlinear photonic crystal and a beam splitter

We discuss the generation of entangled photons using a nonlinear photonic crystal and beam splitter. In our method, the photonic crystal is assumed to be composed of a material with a large second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility $\chi^{(2)}$. Our proposal relies on two facts: (1) A nonlinear photonic crystal changes coherent incident light into squeezed light. (2) A beam splitter transforms the squeezed light into entangled light beams flying in two different directions. We estimate the yield efficiency of pairs of entangled photons per pulse of the very weak coherent light for our method at $0.0783$ for a specific concrete example. Our method is more effective because the conversion efficiency (entangled biphotons per incident pump photons) in the spontaneous parametric downconversion is of the order of $4\times 10^{-6}$. The only drawback is that it requires very fine tuning of the frequency of signal photons fed into the photonic crystal; for example, an adjustment is given by $\Delta\nu=3.11\times 10^{8}$ Hz for the signal light of $\nu=3.23\times 10^{14}$ Hz. We investigate the application of entangled photons produced by our method to the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol, and we explore how to detect an eavesdropper. We suggest that our method is promising for decoy-state quantum key distribution using weak coherent light.

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arXiv2021

Violations of the Leggett-Garg inequality for coherent and cat states

We show that in some cases the coherent state can have a larger violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality (LGI) than the cat state by numerical calculations. To achieve this result, we consider the LGI of the cavity mode weakly coupled to a zero-temperature environment as a practical instance of the physical system. We assume that the bosonic mode undergoes dissipation because of an interaction with the environment but is not affected by dephasing. Solving the master equation exactly, we derive an explicit form of the violation of the inequality for both systems prepared initially in the coherent state $|\alpha\rangle$ and the cat state $(|\alpha\rangle+|-\alpha\rangle)$. For the evaluation of the inequality, we choose the displaced parity operators characterized by a complex number $\beta$. We look for the optimum parameter $\beta$ that lets the upper bound of the inequality be maximum numerically. Contrary to our expectations, the coherent state occasionally exhibits quantum quality more strongly than the cat state for the upper bound of the violation of the LGI in a specific range of three equally spaced measurement times (spacing $\tau$). Moreover, as we let $\tau$ approach zero, the optimized parameter $\beta$ diverges and the LGI reveals intense singularity.

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arXiv2019

Noise reduction caused by eavesdropping on six-state quantum key distribution over collective-noise channel

In this paper, we show that there are instances where eavesdropping causes noise reduction for a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol. To witness these phenomena, we investigate a fault-tolerant six-state QKD protocol over a collective unitary noise channel. In this protocol, legitimate users send and receive two-qubit states that belong to the noiseless subspace being robust against collective unitary errors. We examine eavesdropper's intercept/resend and entangling probe attacks on this protocol. In general, the collective unitary noises lessen the probability that legitimate users share a random bit with the QKD protocol. However, we show that eavesdropping enlarges that probability in some specific scenarios although the effects of the collective unitary noise channel are strong enough. These phenomena make the legitimate users difficult to distinguish between noises and eavesdropper's malicious acts by monitoring the probability that they share the same random key.

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arXiv2018

The intercept/resend and translucent attacks on the quantum key distribution protocol based on the pre- and post-selection effect

We investigate the security against the intercept/resend and translucent attacks on the quantum key distribution protocol based on the pre- and post-selection effect. In 2001, Bub proposed the quantum cryptography scheme, which was an application of the so-called mean king's problem. We evaluate a probability that legitimate users cannot detect eavesdropper's malicious acts for Bub's protocol. We also estimate a probability that the eavesdropper guesses right at the random secret key one of the legitimate users tries to share with the other one. From rigorous mathematical and numerical analyses, we conclude that Bub's protocol is weaker than the Bennett-Brassard protocol of 1984 (BB84) against both the intercept/resend and translucent attacks. Because Bub's protocol uses a two-way quantum channel, the analyses of its security are tough to accomplish. We refer to their technical points accurately in the current paper. For example, we impose some constraints upon the eavesdropper's strategies in order to let their degrees of freedom be small.

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arXiv2018

Numerical analyses of emission of a single-photon pulse based on single-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics

We numerically investigate an on-demand single-photon source, which is implemented with a strongly coupled atom-cavity system, proposed by Kuhn {\it et al}., Appl. Phys. B \textbf{69}, 373 (1999). In the scheme of Kuhn {\it et al}., a $\Lambda$-type three-level atom is captured in a single-mode optical cavity. Considering the three atomic levels, the ground state $u$, the first excited state $g$ accompanying the cavity mode, and the second excited state $e$, in the $\Lambda$-configuration, we assume that a classical field and a quantized cavity field lead to the transition between $u$ and $e$ and that between $e$ and $g$, respectively. The classical light pulse rising sufficiently slowly triggers an adiabatic process of the system and lets a single photon of the cavity mode emerge. We simulate this adiabatic evolution and transmission of the single photon through an imperfect mirror of the cavity using the master equation. We concentrate on examining physical properties of the efficiency of single-photon generation, the fluctuation of the duration of the photon emission, and the time of the emission measured from a peak of the trigger pulse. We find a function that approximates to the efficiency closely and the upper bound of the fluctuation of the duration.

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arXiv2018

The Leggett-Garg inequalities and the relative entropy of coherence in the Bixon-Jortner model

We investigate the Leggett-Garg inequalities and the relative entropy of coherence in the Bixon-Jortner model. First, we analytically derive the general solution of the Bixon-Jortner model by a technique of the Laplace transform. So far, only a special solution has been known for this model. The model has a single state coupled to equally spaced quasi-continuum states. These couplings cause discontinuities in the time evolution of the occupation probability of each state. Second, using the analytical solution, we show that the probability distribution of the quasi-continuum states approaches the Lorentzian function in a period of time between the initial time and the first discontinuity. Third, we examine violation of the Leggett-Garg inequalities and temporal variation of the relative entropy of coherence in the model. We prove that both the inequalities and the relative entropy are invariant under transformations of the energy-level detuning of the single state.

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arXiv2017

An entangling-probe attack on Shor's algorithm for factorization

We investigate how to attack Shor's quantum algorithm for factorization with an entangling probe. We show that an attacker can steal an exact solution of Shor's algorithm outside an institute where the quantum computer is installed if he replaces its initialized quantum register with entangled qubits, namely the entangling probe. He can apply arbitrary local operations to his own probe. Moreover, we assume that there is an unauthorized person who helps the attacker to commit a crime inside the institute. He tells garbage data obtained from measurements of the quantum register to the attacker secretly behind a legitimate user's back. If the attacker succeeds in cracking Shor's algorithm, the legitimate user obtains a random answer and does not notice the attacker's illegal acts. We discuss how to detect the attacker. Finally we estimate a probability that the quantum algorithm inevitably makes an error, of which the attacker can take advantage.

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