arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. F. Sacchi.
We solve the problem of achieving the optimal physical approximation of the transposition for pure states of arbitrary quantum systems for finite and infinite dimensions. A unitary realization is also given for any finite dimension, which provides the optimal quantum cloning map of the ancilla as well.
We explicitly construct a large class of unitary transformations that allow to perform the ideal estimation of the phase-shift on a single-mode radiation field. The ideal phase distribution is obtained by heterodyne detection on two radiation modes after the interaction.
We present a general theoretical framework for both deterministic and probabilistic entanglement transformations of bipartite pure states achieved via local operations and classical communication. This framework unifies and greatly simplifies previous works. A necessary condition for ``pure contraction'' transformations is given. Finally, constructive protocols to achieve both probabilistic and deterministic entanglement transformations are presented.
We construct the protocols to achieve probabilistic and deterministic entanglement transformations for bipartite pure states by means of local operations and classical communication. A new condition on pure contraction transformations is provided.
We consider the problem of obtaining maximally entangled photon states at distance in the presence of loss. We compare the efficiency of two different schemes in establishing $N$ shared ebits: i) $N$ single ebit states with the qubit encoded on polarization; ii) a single continuous variable entangled state (emode) assisted by optimal local operation and classical communication (LOCC) protocol in order to obtain a $2^N$-dimensional maximally entangled state, with qubits encoded on the photon number.
We give a first physical model for the quantum measurement of the spin direction. It is an Arthurs-Kelly model that involves a kind of magnetic-dipole interaction of the spin with three modes of radiation. We show that in a limit of infinite squeezing of radiation the optimal POVM for the measurement of the spin direction is achieved for spin 1/2.
We present an experimental scheme that achieves ideal phase detection on a two-mode field. The two modes $a$ and $b$ are the signal and image band modes of an heterodyne detector, with the field approaching an eigenstate of the photocurrent $\hat{Z}=a+b^†$. The field is obtained by means of a high-gain phase-insensitive amplifier followed by a high-transmissivity beam-splitter with a strong local oscillator at the frequency of one of the two modes.
In a recent paper, Walgate et. al. demonstrated that any two orthogonal multipartite pure states can be optimally distinguished using only local operations. We utilise their result to show that this is true for any two multiparty pure states, in the sense of inconclusive discrimination. There are also certain regimes of conclusive discrimination for which the same also applies, although we can only conjecture that the result is true for all conclusive regimes. We also discuss a class of states that can be distinguished locally according to any discrimination measure, as they can be locally recreated in the hands of one party. A consequence of this is that any two maximally entangled states can always be optimally discriminated locally, according to any figure of merit.
The maximum-likelihood method for quantum estimation is reviewed and applied to the reconstruction of density matrix of spin and radiation as well as to the determination of several parameters of interest in quantum optics.
We propose an experimental scheme for the cloning machine of continuous quantum variables through a network of parametric amplifiers working as input-output four-port gates.
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.
We show that universally covariant cloning is not optimal for achieving joint measurements of noncommuting observables with minimum added noise. For such a purpose a cloning transformation that is covariant with respect to a restricted transformation group is needed.
An effective maximum likelihood method is suggested to characterize the absorption/amplification properties of active optical media through homodyne detection.
We explore the possibility of achieving optimal joint measurements of noncommuting observables on a single quantum system by performing conventional measurements of commuting self adjoint operators on optimal clones of the original quantum system. We consider the case of both finite dimensional and infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces. In the former we study the joint measurement of three orthogonal components of a spin 1/2, in the latter we consider the case of the joint measurements of any pair of noncommuting quadratures of one mode of the electromagnetic field. We show that universally covariant cloning is not ideal for joint measurements, and a suitable non universally covariant cloning is needed.
A general matrix approach to study entangled states is presented, based on operator completeness relations. Bases of unitary operators are considered, with focus on irreducible representations of groups. Bell measurements for teleportation are considered, and robustness of teleportation to various kinds of non idealities is shown.
We prove that isotropic squeezing of the phase is equivalent to reversing the arrow of time.
We suggest a tunable optical device to synthesize Fock states and their superpositions starting from a coherent source. The scheme involves an avalanche triggering photodetector and a ring cavity coupled to a traveling wave through a cross-Kerr medium. Low quantum efficiency at the photodetector improves the synthesizing quality at the expense of reducing the synthesizing rate.
We present a universal technique for quantum state estimation based on the maximum-likelihood method. This approach provides a positive definite estimate for the density matrix from a sequence of measurements performed on identically prepared copies of the system. The method is versatile and can be applied to multimode radiation fields as well as to spin systems. The incorporation of physical constraints, which is natural in the maximum-likelihood strategy, leads to a substantial reduction of statistical errors. Numerical implementation of the method is based on a particular form of the Gauss decomposition for positive definite Hermitian matrices.