arXiv subjects

Nobuyuki Imoto

Publications and source records attributed to Nobuyuki Imoto.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

A weak-value interpretation of the Schwinger mechanism of massless/massive pair productions

According to the Schwinger mechanism, a uniform electric field brings about pair productions in vacuum; the relationship between the production rate and the electric field is different, depending on the dimension of the system. In this paper, we make an offer of another model for the pair productions, in which weak values are incorporated: energy fluctuations trigger the pair production, and a weak value appears as the velocity of a particle there. Although our model is only available for the approximation of the pair production rates, the weak value reveals a new aspect of the pair production. Especially, within the first order, our estimation approximately agrees with the exponential decreasing rate of the Landau-Zener tunneling through the mass energy gap. In other words, such tunneling can be associated with energy fluctuations via the weak value, when the tunneling gap can be regarded as so small due to the high electric field.

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arXiv2015

Extracting an entangled photon pair from collectively decohered pairs at a telecommunication wavelength

We experimentally demonstrated entanglement extraction scheme by using photons at the telecommunication band for optical-fiber-based quantum communications. We generated two pairs of non-degenerate polarization entangled photons at 780~nm and 1551~nm by spontaneous parametric down-conversion and distributed the two photons at 1551~nm through a collective phase damping channel which gives the same amount of random phase shift on the two photons. Through local operation and classical communication, we extracted an entangled photon pair from two phase-disturbed photon pairs. An observed fidelity of the extracted photon pair to a maximally entangled photon pair was 0.73 $\pm$ 0.07 which clearly shows the recovery of entanglement.

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arXiv2014

Optimal two-qubit tomography based on local and global measurements: Maximal robustness against errors as described by condition numbers

We present an error analysis of various tomographic protocols based on the linear inversion for the reconstruction of an unknown two-qubit state. We solve the problem of finding a tomographic protocol which is the most robust against errors in terms of the lowest value (i.e., equal to 1) of a condition number, as required by the Gastinel-Kahan theorem. In contrast, standard tomographic protocols, including those based on mutually unbiased bases, are nonoptimal for determining all 16 elements of an unknown two-qubit density matrix. Our method is based on the measurements of the 16 generalized Pauli operators, where twelve of them can be locally measured, and the other four require nonlocal Bell measurements. Our method corresponds to selectively measuring, one by one, all of the real and imaginary elements of an unknown two-qubit density matrix. We describe two experimentally feasible setups of this protocol for the optimal reconstruction of two photons in an unknown polarization state using conventional detectors and linear-optical elements. Moreover, we define the operators for the optimal reconstruction of the states of multiqubit or multilevel (qudit) systems.

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arXiv2014

A weak-value model for virtual particles supplying the electric current in graphene: the minimal conductivity and the Schwinger mechanism

We propose a model for the electric current in graphene in which electric carriers are supplied by virtual particles allowed by the uncertainty relations. The process to make a virtual particle real is described by a weak value of a group velocity: the velocity is requisite for the electric field to give the virtual particle the appropriate changes of both energy and momentum. With the weak value, we approximately estimate the electric current, considering the ballistic transport of the electric carriers. The current shows the quasi-Ohimic with the minimal conductivity of the order of e^2/h per channel. Crossing a certain ballistic time scale, it is brought to obey the Schwinger mechanism.

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arXiv2014

A quantum algorithm for additive approximation of Ising partition functions

We investigate quantum computational complexity of calculating partition functions of Ising models. We construct a quantum algorithm for an additive approximation of Ising partition functions on square lattices. To this end, we utilize the overlap mapping developed by Van den Nest, Dür, and Briegel [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 117207 (2007)] and its interpretation through measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC). We specify an algorithmic domain, on which the proposed algorithm works, and an approximation scale, which determines the accuracy of the approximation. We show that the proposed algorithm does a nontrivial task, which would be intractable on any classical computer, by showing the problem solvable by the proposed quantum algorithm are BQP-complete. In the construction of the BQP-complete problem coupling strengths and magnetic fields take complex values. However, the Ising models that are of central interest in statistical physics and computer science consist of real coupling strengths and magnetic fields. Thus we extend the algorithmic domain of the proposed algorithm to such a real physical parameter region and calculate the approximation scale explicitly. We found that the overlap mapping and its MBQC interpretation improves the approximation scale exponentially compared to a straightforward constant depth quantum algorithm. On the other hand, the proposed quantum algorithm also provides us a partial evidence that there exist no efficient classical algorithm for a multiplicative approximation of the Ising partition functions even on the square lattice. This result supports that the proposed quantum algorithm does a nontrivial task also in the physical parameter region.

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arXiv2014

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution for Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 04 protocol

The measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) was proposed to make BB84 completely free from any side-channel in detectors. Like in prepare & measure QKD, the use of other protocols in MDI setting would be advantageous in some practical situations. In this paper, we consider SARG04 protocol in MDI setting. The prepare & measure SARG04 is proven to be able to generate a key up to two-photon emission events. In MDI setting we show that the key generation is possible from the event with single or two-photon emission by a party and single-photon emission by the other party, but the two-photon emission event by both parties cannot contribute to the key generation. On the contrary to prepare & measure SARG04 protocol where the experimental setup is exactly the same as BB84, the measurement setup for SARG04 in MDI setting cannot be the same as that for BB84 since the measurement setup for BB84 in MDI setting induces too many bit errors. To overcome this problem, we propose two alternative experimental setups, and we simulate the resulting key rate. Our study highlights the requirements that MDI QKD poses on us regarding with the implementation of a variety of QKD protocols.

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arXiv2014

A low-noise frequency down-conversion to the telecommunication band for a quantum communication based on NV centers in diamond

We demonstrate a low-noise frequency down-conversion of photons at 637 nm to the telecommunication band at 1587 nm by the difference frequency generation in a periodically-poled lithium niobate. An internal conversion efficiency of the converter is estimated to be 0.44 at the maximum which is achieved by a pump power of 430 mW, whereas a rate of internal background photons caused by the strong cw pump laser is estimated to be 9 kHz/mW within a bandwidth of about 1 nm. By using the experimental values related to the intrinsic property of the converter, and using the intensity correlation and the average photon number of a 637-nm input light pulse, we derive the intensity correlation of a converted telecom light pulse. Then we discuss feasibility of a single-photon frequency conversion to the telecommunication band for a long-distance quantum communication based on NV centers in diamond.

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arXiv2014

Universal gates for transforming multipartite entangled Dicke states

We determine the minimal number of qubits that it is necessary to have access to in order to transform Dicke states into other Dicke states. In general, the number of qubits in Dicke states cannot be increased via transformation gates by accessing only a single qubit, in direct contrast to other multipartite entangled states such as GHZ, W and cluster states. We construct a universal optimal gate which adds spin-up qubits or spin-down qubits to any Dicke state by minimal access. We also show the existence of a universal gate which transforms any size of Dicke state as long as it has access to at least the required number of qubits. Our results have important consequences for the generation of Dicke states in physical systems such as ion traps, all-optical setups and cavity-QED settings where they can be used for a variety of quantum information processing tasks.

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arXiv2014

Measurement-free topological protection using dissipative feedback

Protecting quantum information from decoherence due to environmental noise is vital for fault-tolerant quantum computation. To this end, standard quantum error correction employs parallel projective measurements of individual particles, which makes the system extremely complicated. Here we propose measurement-free topological protection in two dimension without any selective addressing of individual particles. We make use of engineered dissipative dynamics and feedback operations to reduce the entropy generated by decoherence in such a way that quantum information is topologically protected. We calculate an error threshold, below which quantum information is protected, without assuming selective addressing, projective measurements, nor instantaneous classical processing. All physical operations are local and translationally invariant, and no parallel projective measurement is required, which implies high scalability. Furthermore, since the engineered dissipative dynamics we utilized has been well studied in quantum simulation, the proposed scheme can be a promising route progressing from quantum simulation to fault-tolerant quantum information processing.

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arXiv2013

Observation of two output light pulses from a partial wavelength converter preserving phase of an input light at a single-photon level

We experimentally demonstrate that both a converted and an unconverted light pulses after wavelength conversion with various conversion efficiencies preserve phase information of an input light at a single-photon level. In our experiment, we converted temporally-separated two coherent light pulses with average photon numbers of $\sim$ 0.1 at 780 nm to light pulses at 1522 nm by using difference-frequency generation in a periodically-poled lithium niobate waveguide. We observed a single-photon interference between temporally-separated two modes for both the converted and the unconverted light pulses at various values of the conversion efficiency. We observed interference visibilities greater than 0.88 without suppressing the background noises for any value of the conversion efficiency the wavelength converter achieves. At a conversion efficiency of $\sim$ 0.5, the observed visibilities are 0.98 for the unconverted light and 0.99 for the converted light.

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arXiv2013

Robustness of quantum communication based on a decoherence-free subspace using a counter-propagating weak coherent light pulse

We study distribution schemes for a polarization entangled photon pair based on a decoherence-free subspace over lossy quantum channels and propose an efficient scheme that is robust against not only collective phase noises but also general collective noises for two qubits. While the proposed scheme employs two photons to build the decoherence-free subspace, the success probability is proportional to the channel transmittance of a single photon with the aid of a counter-propagating weak coherent light pulse. The key ingredient in the scheme is found to be the reciprocity of the channel. The proposed scheme shares the rest of the properties with the previously proposed schemes, i.e., it can be realized by linear optical elements and it is robust against the fluctuations in the optical circuits used by the two parties.

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arXiv2013

Non-classical two-photon interference between independent telecom light pulses converted by difference-frequency generation

We experimentally demonstrated the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference between two photons after visible-to-telecommunication wavelength conversion. In the experiment, we prepared a heralded single photon by using spontaneous parametric down-conversion and the other photon from a weak laser source at 780 nm. We converted the wavelength of both photons to the telecommunication wavelength of 1522 nm by using difference-frequency generation in a periodically-poled lithium niobate, and then observed the HOM interference between the photons. The observed visibility is $0.76\pm 0.12$ which clearly shows the non-classical interference of the two photons. The high-visibility interference is an important step for fiber-based quantum communications of photons generated from visible photon emitters.

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arXiv2013

Does "quantum nonlocality without entanglement" have quantum origin?

Quantum separable operations are defined as those that cannot produce entanglement from separable states, and it is known that they strictly surpass local operations and classical communication (LOCC) in a number of tasks, which is sometimes referred to as "quantum nonlocality without entanglement." Here we consider a task with such a gap regarding the trade-off between state discrimination and preservation of entanglement. We show that this task along with the gap has an analogue in a purely classical setup, indicating that the quantum properties are not essential in the existence of a nonzero gap between the separable operations and LOCC.

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arXiv2013

Blind post-processing for the unbalanced BB84

For the realization of quantum key distribution, it is important to investigate its security based on a mathematical model that captures properties of the actual devices used by the legitimate users. Recently, Ferenczi, et. al. (Phys. Rev. A 86 042327 (2012)) pointed out potential influences that the losses in phase modulators and/or the unbalance in the transmission rate of beam splitters may have on the security of the phase-encoded BB84 and analyzed the security of this scheme, which is called the unbalanced BB84. In this paper, we ask whether blindly applying the post-processing of the balanced BB84 to the unbalanced BB84 would lead to an insecure key or not, and we conclude that we can safely distill a secure key even with this post-processing. It follows from our proof that as long as the unbalances are basis-independent, our conclusion holds even if the unbalances are unknown and fluctuate in time.

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arXiv2012

Fundamental limit to Qubit Control with Coherent Field

The ultimate accuracy as regards controlling a qubit with a coherent field is studied in terms of degradation of the fidelity by employing a fully quantum mechanical treatment. While the fidelity error accompanied by pi/2 pulse control is shown to be inversely proportional to the average photon number in a way similar to that revealed by the Gea-Banacloche's results. Our results show that the error depends strongly on the initial state of the qubit. When the initial state of the qubit is in the ground state, the error is about 20 times smaller than that of the control started from the exited state, no matter how large N is. This dependency is explained in the context of an exact quantum mechanical description of the pulse area theorem. By using the result, the error accumulation tendency of successive pulse controls is found to be both non-linear and initial state-dependent.

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arXiv2012

A strange weak value in spontaneous pair productions via a supercritical step potential

We consider a case where a weak value is introduced as a physical quantity rather than an average of weak measurements. The case we treat is a time evolution of a particle by 1+1 dimensional Dirac equation. Particularly in a spontaneous pair production via a supercritical step potential, a quantitative explanation can be given by a weak value for the group velocity of the particle. We also show the condition for the pair production (supercriticality) corresponds to the condition when the weak value takes a strange value (superluminal velocity).

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arXiv2012

High-fidelity conversion of photonic quantum information to telecommunication wavelength with superconducting single-photon detectors

We experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity visible-to-telecommunication wavelength conversion of a photon by using a solid-state-based difference frequency generation. In the experiment, one half of a pico-second visible entangled photon pair at 780 nm is converted to a 1522-nm photon, resulting in the entangled photon pair between 780 nm and 1522 nm. Using superconducting single-photon detectors with low dark count rates and small timing jitters, we selectively observed well-defined temporal modes containing the two photons. We achieved a fidelity of $0.93 \pm 0.04$ after the wavelength conversion, indicating that our solid-state-based scheme can be used for faithful frequency down-conversion of visible photons emitted from quantum memories composed of various media.

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arXiv2012

A distributed architecture for scalable quantum computation with realistically noisy devices

Tremendous efforts have been paid for realization of fault-tolerant quantum computation so far. However, preexisting fault-tolerant schemes assume that a lot of qubits live together in a single quantum system, which is incompatible with actual situations of experiment. Here we propose a novel architecture for practically scalable quantum computation, where quantum computation is distributed over small-size (four-qubit) local systems, which are connected by quantum channels. We show that the proposed architecture works even with the error probability 0.1% of local operations, which breaks through the consensus by one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the fidelity of quantum channels can be very low $\sim$ 0.7, which substantially relaxes the difficulty of scaling-up the architecture. All key elements and their accuracy required for the present architecture are within reach of current technology. The present architecture allows us to achieve efficient scaling of quantum computer, as has been achieved in today's classical computer.

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