arXiv subjects

Marco Túlio Quintino

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Túlio Quintino.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Quantifying Quantumness of Channels Without Entanglement

Quantum channels breaking entanglement, incompatibility, or nonlocality are defined as such because they are not useful for entanglement-based, one-sided device-independent, or device-independent quantum information processing, respectively. Here, we show that such breaking channels are related to complementary tests of macrorealism i.e., temporal separability, channel unsteerability, temporal unsteerability, and the temporal Bell inequality. To demonstrate this we first define a steerability-breaking channel, which is conceptually similar to entanglement and nonlocality-breaking channels and prove that it is identical to an incompatibility-breaking channel. A hierarchy of quantum non-breaking channels is derived, akin to the existing hierarchy relations for temporal and spatial quantum correlations. We then introduce the concept of channels that break temporal correlations, explain how they are related to the standard breaking channels, and prove the following results: (1) A robustness-based measure for non-entanglement-breaking channels can be probed by temporal nonseparability. (2) A non-steerability-breaking channel can be quantified by channel steering. (3) Temporal steerability and non-macrorealism can be used for, respectively, distinguishing unital steerability-breaking channels and nonlocality-breaking channels for a maximally entangled state. Finally, a two-dimensional depolarizing channel is experimentally implemented as a proof-of-principle example to demonstrate the hierarchy relation of non-breaking channels using temporal quantum correlations

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Unitary channel discrimination beyond group structures: Advantages of sequential and indefinite-causal-order strategies

For minimum-error channel discrimination tasks that involve only unitary channels, we show that sequential strategies may outperform the parallel ones. Additionally, we show that general strategies that involve indefinite causal order are also advantageous for this task. However, for the task of discriminating a uniformly distributed set of unitary channels that forms a group, we show that parallel strategies are, indeed, optimal, even when compared to general strategies. We also show that strategies based on the quantum switch cannot outperform sequential strategies in the discrimination of unitary channels. Finally, we derive an absolute upper bound for the maximal probability of successfully discriminating any set of unitary channels with any number of copies for the most general strategies that are suitable for channel discrimination. Our bound is tight since it is saturated by sets of unitary channels forming a group k-design.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Deterministic transformations between unitary operations: Exponential advantage with adaptive quantum circuits and the power of indefinite causality

This work analyses the performance of quantum circuits and general processes to transform $k$ uses of an arbitrary unitary operation $U$ into another unitary operation $f(U)$. When the desired function $f$ a homomorphism, i.e., $f(UV)=f(U)f(V)$, it is known that optimal average fidelity is attainable by parallel circuits and indefinite causality does not provide any advantage. Here we show that the situation changes dramatically when considering anti-homomorphisms, i.e., $f(UV)=f(V)f(U)$. In particular, we prove that when $f$ is an anti-homomorphism, sequential circuits could exponentially outperform parallel ones and processes with indefinite causal order could outperform sequential ones. We presented explicit constructions on how to obtain such advantages for the unitary inversion task $f(U)=U^{-1}$ and the unitary transposition task $f(U)=U^T$. We also stablish a one-to-one connection between the problem of unitary estimation and parallel unitary transposition, allowing one to easily translate results from one field to the other. Finally, we apply our results to several concrete problem instances and present a method based on computer-assisted proofs to show optimality.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Semi-device-independent certification of indefinite causal order

When transforming pairs of independent quantum operations according to the fundamental rules of quantum theory, an intriguing phenomenon emerges: some such higher-order operations may act on the input operations in an indefinite causal order. Recently, the formalism of process matrices has been developed to investigate these noncausal properties of higher-order operations. This formalism predicts, in principle, statistics that ensure indefinite causal order even in a device-independent scenario, where the involved operations are not characterised. Nevertheless, all physical implementations of process matrices proposed so far require full characterisation of the involved operations in order to certify such phenomena. Here we consider a semi-device-independent scenario, which does not require all operations to be characterised. We introduce a framework for certifying noncausal properties of process matrices in this intermediate regime and use it to analyse the quantum switch, a well-known higher-order operation, to show that, although it can only lead to causal statistics in a device-independent scenario, it can exhibit noncausal properties in semi-device-independent scenarios. This proves that the quantum switch generates stronger noncausal correlations than it was previously known.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Strict hierarchy between parallel, sequential, and indefinite-causal-order strategies for channel discrimination

We present an instance of a task of minimum-error discrimination of two qubit-qubit quantum channels for which a sequential strategy outperforms any parallel strategy. We then establish two new classes of strategies for channel discrimination that involve indefinite causal order and show that there exists a strict hierarchy among the performance of all four strategies. Our proof technique employs a general method of computer-assisted proofs. We also provide a systematic method for finding pairs of channels that showcase this phenomenon, demonstrating that the hierarchy between the strategies is not exclusive to our main example.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Simple and maximally robust processes with no classical common-cause or direct-cause explanation

Guided by the intuition of coherent superposition of causal relations, recent works presented quantum processes without classical common-cause and direct-cause explanation, that is, processes which cannot be written as probabilistic mixtures of quantum common-cause and quantum direct-cause relations (CCDC). In this work, we analyze the minimum requirements for a quantum process to fail to admit a CCDC explanation and present "simple" processes, which we prove to be the most robust ones against general noise. These simple processes can be realized by preparing a maximally entangled state and applying the identity quantum channel, thus not requiring an explicit coherent mixture of common-cause and direct-cause, exploiting the possibility of a process to have both relations simultaneously. We then prove that, although all bipartite direct-cause processes are bipartite separable operators, there exist bipartite separable processes which are not direct-cause. This shows that the problem of deciding weather a process is direct-cause process is not equivalent to entanglement certification and points out the limitations of entanglement methods to detect non-classical CCDC processes. We also present a semi-definite programming hierarchy that can detect and quantify the non-classical CCDC robustnesses of every non-classical CCDC process. Among other results, our numerical methods allow us to show that the simple processes presented here are likely to be also the maximally robust against white noise. Finally, we explore the equivalence between bipartite direct-cause processes and bipartite processes without quantum memory, to present a separable process which cannot be realized as a process without quantum memory.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Certifying dimension of quantum systems by sequential projective measurements

This work analyzes correlations arising from quantum systems subject to sequential projective measurements to certify that the system in question has a quantum dimension greater than some $d$. We refine previous known methods and show that dimension greater than two can be certified in scenarios which are considerably simpler than the ones presented before and, for the first time in this sequential projective scenario, we certify quantum systems with dimension strictly greater than three. We also perform a systematic numerical analysis in terms of robustness and conclude that performing random projective measurements on random pure qutrit states allows a robust certification of quantum dimensions with very high probability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Consequences of preserving reversibility in quantum superchannels

Similarly to quantum states, quantum operations can also be transformed by means of quantum superchannels, also known as process matrices. Quantum superchannels with multiple slots are deterministic transformations whichtake independent quantum operations as inputs. While they are enforced to respect the laws of quantum mechanics, the use of input operations may lack a definite causal order, and characterizations of general superchannels in terms of quantum objects with a physical implementation have been missing. In this paper, we provide a mathematical characterization for pure superchannels with two slots (also known as bipartite pure processes), which are superchannels preserving the reversibility of quantum operations. We show that the reversibility preserving condition restricts all pure superchannels with two slots to be either a quantum circuit only consisting of unitary operations or a coherent superposition of two unitary quantum circuits where the two input operations are differently ordered. The latter may be seen as a generalization of the quantum switch, allowing a physical interpretation for pure two-slot superchannels. An immediate corollary is that purifiable bipartite processes cannot violate device-independent causal inequalities.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Success-or-Draw: A Strategy Allowing Repeat-Until-Success in Quantum Computation

Repeat-until-success strategy is a standard method to obtain success with a probability which grows exponentially in the number of iterations. However, since quantum systems are disturbed after a quantum measurement, it is not straightforward how to perform repeat-until-success strategies in certain quantum algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new structure for probabilistic higher-order transformation named success-or-draw, which allows a repeat-until-success implementation. For that we provide a universal construction of success-or-draw structure which works for any probabilistic higher-order transformation on unitary operations. We then present a semidefinite programming approach to obtain optimal success-or-draw protocols and analyze in detail the problem of inverting a general unitary operation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Probabilistic exact universal quantum circuits for transforming unitary operations

This paper addresses the problem of designing universal quantum circuits to transform $k$ uses of a $d$-dimensional unitary input-operation into a unitary output-operation in a probabilistic heralded manner. Three classes of protocols are considered, parallel circuits, where the input-operations can be simultaneously, adaptive circuits, where sequential uses of the input-operations are allowed, and general protocols, where the use of the input-operations may be performed without a definite causal order. For these three classes, we develop a systematic semidefinite programming approach that finds a circuit which obtains the desired transformation with the maximal success probability. We then analyse in detail three particular transformations; unitary transposition, unitary complex conjugation, and unitary inversion. For unitary transposition and unitary inverse, we prove that for any fixed dimension $d$, adaptive circuits have an exponential improvement in terms of uses $k$ when compared to parallel ones. For unitary complex conjugation and unitary inversion we prove that if the number of uses $k$ is strictly smaller than $d-1$, the probability of success is necessarily zero. We also discuss the advantage of indefinite causal order protocols over causal ones and introduce the concept of delayed input-state quantum circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Reversing Unknown Quantum Transformations: Universal Quantum Circuit for Inverting General Unitary Operations

Given a quantum gate implementing a $d$-dimensional unitary operation $U_d$, without any specific description but $d$, and permitted to use $k$ times, we present a universal probabilistic heralded quantum circuit that implements the exact inverse $U_d^{-1}$, whose failure probability decays, exponentially in $k$. The protocol employs an adaptive strategy, proven necessary for the exponential performance. It requires $k\geq d-1$, proven necessary for exact implementation of $U_d^{-1}$ with quantum circuits. Moreover, even when quantum circuits with indefinite causal order are allowed, $k\geq d-1$ uses are required. We then present a finite set of linear and positive semidefinite constraints characterizing universal unitary inversion protocols and formulate a convex optimization problem whose solution is the maximum success probability for given $k$ and $d$. The optimal values are computed using semidefinite programming solvers for $k\leq 3$ when $d=2$ and $k\leq 2$ for $d=3$. With this numerical approach we show for the first time that indefinite causal order circuits provide an advantage over causally ordered ones in a task involving multiple uses of the same unitary operation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Distributed sampling, quantum communication witnesses, and measurement incompatibility

We study prepare-and-measure experiments where the sender (Alice) receives trusted quantum inputs but has an untrusted state-preparation device and the receiver (Bob) has a fully-untrusted measurement device. A distributed-sampling task naturally arises in such scenario, whose goal is for Alice and Bob to reproduce the statistics of his measurements on her quantum inputs using a fixed communication channel. Their performance at such task can certify quantum communication (QC), and this is formalised by measurement-device-independent QC witnesses. Furthermore, we prove that QC can provide an advantage (over classical communication) for distributed sampling if and only if Bob's measurements are incompatible. This gives an operational interpretation to the fundamental notion of measurement incompatibility, and motivates a generalised notion of it. Our findings have both fundamental and applied implications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Device-independent tests of structures of measurement incompatibility

In contrast with classical physics, in quantum physics some sets of measurements are incompatible in the sense that they can not be performed simultaneously. Among other applications, incompatibility allows for contextuality and Bell nonlocality. This makes of crucial importance developing tools for certifying whether a set of measurements posses a certain structure of incompatibility. Here we show that, for quantum or nonsignaling models, if the measurements employed in a Bell test satisfy a given type of compatibility, then the amount of violation of some specific Bell inequalities become limited. Then, we show that correlations arising from local measurements on two-qubit states violate these limits, which rules out in a device-independent way such structures of incompatibility. In particular, we prove that quantum correlations allow for a device-independent demonstration of genuine triplewise incompatibility. Finally, we translate these results into a semi-device-independent Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-steering scenario.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Implementing positive maps with multiple copies of an input state

Valid transformations between quantum states are necessarily described by completely positive maps, instead of just positive maps. Positive but not completely positive maps such as the transposition map cannot be implemented due to the existence of entanglement in composite quantum systems, but there are classes of states for which the positivity is guaranteed, e.g., states not correlated to other systems. In this paper, we introduce the concept of N-copy extension of maps to quantitatively analyze the difference between positive maps and completely positive maps. We consider implementations of the action of positive but not completely positive maps on uncorrelated states by allowing an extra resource of consuming multiple copies of the input state and characterize the positive maps in terms of implementability with multiple copies. We show that by consuming multiple copies, the set of implementable positive maps becomes larger, and almost all positive maps are implementable with finite copies of an input state. The number of copies of the input state required to implement a positive map quantifies the degree by which a positive map violates complete positivity. We then analyze the optimal N-copy implementability of a noisy version of the transposition map.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantum measurement incompatibility does not imply Bell nonlocality

We discuss the connection between the incompatibility of quantum measurements, as captured by the notion of joint measurability, and the violation of Bell inequalities. Specifically, we present explicitly a given a set of non jointly measurable POVMs $\mathcal{M}_A$ with the following property. Considering a bipartite Bell test where Alice uses $\mathcal{M}_A$, then for any possible shared entangled state $ρ$ and any set of (possibly infinitely many) POVMs $\mathcal{N}_B$ performed by Bob, the resulting statistics admits a local model, and can thus never violate any Bell inequality. This shows that quantum measurement incompatibility does not imply Bell nonlocality in general.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Most incompatible measurements for robust steering tests

We address the problem of characterizing the steerability of quantum states under restrictive measurement scenarios, i.e., the problem of determining whether a quantum state can demonstrate steering when subjected to $N$ measurements of $k$ outcomes. We consider the cases of either general positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) or specific kinds of measurements (e.g., projective or symmetric). We propose general methods to calculate lower and upper bounds for the white-noise robustness of a $d$-dimensional quantum state under different measurement scenarios that are also applicable to the study of the noise robustness of the incompatibility of sets of unknown qudit measurements. We show that some mutually unbiased bases, symmetric informationally complete measurements, and other symmetric choices of measurements are not optimal for steering isotropic states and provide candidates to the most incompatible sets of measurements in each case. Finally, we provide numerical evidence that nonprojective POVMs do not improve over projective ones for this task.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Better local hidden variable models for two-qubit Werner states and an upper bound on the Grothendieck constant $K_G(3)$

We consider the problem of reproducing the correlations obtained by arbitrary local projective measurements on the two-qubit Werner state $ρ= v |ψ_- > <ψ_- | + (1- v ) \frac{1}{4}$ via a local hidden variable (LHV) model, where $|ψ_- >$ denotes the singlet state. We show analytically that these correlations are local for $ v = 999\times689\times{10^{-6}}$ $\cos^4(π/50) \simeq 0.6829$. In turn, as this problem is closely related to a purely mathematical one formulated by Grothendieck, our result implies a new bound on the Grothendieck constant $K_G(3) \leq 1/v \simeq 1.4644$. We also present a LHV model for reproducing the statistics of arbitrary POVMs on the Werner state for $v \simeq 0.4553$. The techniques we develop can be adapted to construct LHV models for other entangled states, as well as bounding other Grothendieck constants.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Entanglement without hidden nonlocality

We consider Bell tests in which the distant observers can perform local filtering before testing a Bell inequality. Notably, in this setup, certain entangled states admitting a local hidden variable model in the standard Bell scenario can nevertheless violate a Bell inequality after filtering, displaying so-called hidden nonlocality. Here we ask whether all entangled states can violate a Bell inequality after well-chosen local filtering. We answer this question in the negative by showing that there exist entangled states without hidden nonlocality. Specifically, we prove that some two-qubit Werner states still admit a local hidden variable model after any possible local filtering on a single copy of the state.

quant-ph↗