arXiv subjects

Paweł Horodecki

Publications and source records attributed to Paweł Horodecki.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

The experiment paradox in physics

Modern physics is founded on two mainstays: mathematical modelling and empirical verification. These two assumptions are prerequisite for the objectivity of scientific discourse. Here we show, however, that they are contradictory, leading to the `experiment paradox'. We reveal that any experiment performed on a physical system is - by necessity - invasive and thus establishes inevitable limits to the accuracy of any mathematical model. We track its manifestations in both classical and quantum physics and show how it is overcome `in practice' via the concept of environment. We argue that the scientific pragmatism ordains two methodological principles of compressibility and stability.

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arXiv2018

Steering is an essential feature of non-locality in quantum theory

A physical theory is called non-local when observers can produce instantaneous effects over distant systems. Non-local theories rely on two fundamental effects: local uncertainty relations and steering of physical states at a distance. In quantum mechanics, the former one dominates the other in a well-known class of non-local games known as XOR games. In particular, optimal quantum strategies for XOR games are completely determined by the uncertainty principle alone. This breakthrough result has yielded the fundamental open question whether optimal quantum strategies are always restricted by local uncertainty principles, with entanglement-based steering playing no role. In this work, we provide a negative answer to the question, showing that both steering and uncertainty relations play a fundamental role in determining optimal quantum strategies for non-local games. Our theoretical findings are supported by an experimental implementation with entangled photons.

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arXiv2018

At the limits of criticality-based quantum metrology: apparent super-Heisenberg scaling revisited

We address the question whether the super-Heisenberg scaling for quantum estimation is realizable. We unify the results of two approaches. In the first one, the original system is compared with its copy rotated by the parameter dependent dynamics. If the parameter is coupled to the one-body part of the Hamiltonian the precision of its estimation is known to scale at most as $N^{-1}$ (Heisenberg scaling) in terms of the number of elementary subsystems used, $N$. The second approach considers fidelity at criticality often leading to an apparent super-Heisenberg scaling. However, scaling of time needed to ensure adiabaticity of the evolution brings back the the Heisenberg limit. We illustrate the general theory on a ferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain which exhibits such super-Heisenberg scaling of fidelity around the critical value of the magnetic field. Even an elementary estimator represented by a single-site magnetization already outperforms the Heisenberg behavior providing the $N^{-1.5}$ scaling. In this case Fisher information sets the ultimate scaling as $N^{-1.75}$ which can be saturated by measuring magnetization on all sites simultaneously. We discuss universal scaling predictions of the estimation precision offered by such observables, both at zero and finite temperatures, and support them with numerical simulations in the model. We provide an experimental proposal of realization of the considered model via mapping the system to ultra-cold bosons in periodically shaken optical lattice. We explicitly derive that the Heisenberg limit is recovered when time needed for preparation of quantum states involved is taken into acocunt.

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arXiv2017

System information propagation for spin structures

We study in details decoherence process of a spin register, coupled to a spin environment. We use recently developed methods of information transfer study in open quantum systems to analyze information flow between the register and its environment. We show that there are regimes when not only the register decoheres effectively to a classical bit string, but this bit string is redundantly encoded in the environment, making it available to multiple observations. This process is more subtle than in a case of a single qubit due to possible presence of protected subspaces: Decoherence free subspaces and, so called, orthogonalization free subspaces. We show that this leads to a rich structure of coherence loss/protection in the asymptotic state of the register and a part of its environment. We formulate a series of examples illustrating these structures.

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arXiv2016

Randomness amplification against no-signaling adversaries using two devices

Recently, a physically realistic protocol amplifying the randomness of Santha-Vazirani sources producing cryptographically secure random bits was proposed; however for reasons of practical relevance, the crucial question remained open whether this can be accomplished under the minimal conditions necessary for the task. Namely, is it possible to achieve randomness amplification using only two no-signaling components and in a situation where the violation of a Bell inequality only guarantees that some outcomes of the device for specific inputs exhibit randomness? Here, we solve this question and present a device-independent protocol for randomness amplification of Santha-Vazirani sources using a device consisting of two non-signaling components. We show that the protocol can amplify any such source that is not fully deterministic into a fully random source while tolerating a constant noise rate and prove the composable security of the protocol against general no-signaling adversaries. Our main innovation is the proof that even the partial randomness certified by the two-party Bell test (a single input-output pair ($\textbf{u}^*, \textbf{x}^*$) for which the conditional probability $P(\textbf{x}^* | \textbf{u}^*)$ is bounded away from $1$ for all no-signaling strategies that optimally violate the Bell inequality) can be used for amplification. We introduce the methodology of a partial tomographic procedure on the empirical statistics obtained in the Bell test that ensures that the outputs constitute a linear min-entropy source of randomness. As a technical novelty that may be of independent interest, we prove that the Santha-Vazirani source satisfies an exponential concentration property given by a recently discovered generalized Chernoff bound.

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arXiv2016

Relativistic Causality vs. No-Signaling as the limiting paradigm for correlations in physical theories

The no-signaling constraints state that the probability distribution of the outputs of any subset of parties is independent of the inputs of the complementary set; here we re-examine these to see how they arise from relativistic causality. We show that while the usual no-signaling constraints are sufficient, in general they are not necessary to ensure that a theory does not violate causality. Depending on the exact space-time coordinates of the measurement events in a multi-party Bell experiment, causality only imposes a subset of the usual no-signaling conditions. After revisiting the derivation of the two-party no-signaling constraints, we consider the three-party Bell scenario and characterise a space-time region in which a subset of the no-signaling conditions is sufficient to preserve causality. Secondly, we examine the implications for device-independent cryptography against an eavesdropper constrained only by the laws of relativity. We show an explicit attack in certain measurement configurations on a family of protocols based on the n-party Mermin inequalities that were previously proven secure under the old no-signaling conditions. We then show that security of two-party protocols can also be compromised when the eavesdropper's measurement configuration is not constrained. The monogamy of non-local correlations that underpin their use in secrecy can also be broken in certain space-time configurations. Thirdly, we inspect the notion of free-choice and propose a definition of free-choice in the multi-party Bell experiment. We then re-examine the question whether quantum correlations may admit explanations by finite speed superluminal influences. Finally, we study genuine multiparty non-locality and present a new class of causal bilocal models. We propose a new Svetlichny-type inequality that is satisfied by the causal bilocal model and show its violation within quantum theory.

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arXiv2016

Sharp transitions in low-number quantum dots Bayesian magnetometry

We consider Bayesian estimate of static magnetic field, characterized by a prior Gaussian probability distribution, in systems of a few electron quantum dot spins interacting with infinite temperature spin environment via hyperfine interaction. Sudden transitions among optimal states and measurements are observed. Usefulness of measuring occupation levels is shown for all times of the evolution, together with the role of entanglement in the optimal scenario. For low values of magnetic field, memory effects stemming from the interaction with environment provide limited metrological advantage.

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arXiv2016

No quantum realization of extremal no-signaling boxes

Pure states are very important in any theory since they represent states of maximal information about the system within the theory. Here, we show that no non-trivial (not local realistic) extremal states (boxes) of general no-signaling theories can be realized within quantum theory. We then explore three interesting consequences of this fact. Firstly, since the pure states are uncorrelated from the environment, the statement forms a no-go result against the most straightforward device-independent protocol for randomness or secure key generation against general no-signaling adversaries. It also leads to the interesting question whether all non-extremal boxes allow for non-local correlations with the adversary. Secondly, in addition to the fact that new information-theoretic principles (designed to pick out the set of quantum correlations from among all non signaling ones) can in consequence be tested on arbitrary non-local vertices to check their validity, it also allows the possibility of excluding from the quantum set any box of no-signaling correlations that can be distilled to a non-local vertex. Finally, it also forms a sufficient condition to identify non-local games with no quantum winning strategy, when one can show that the game has a single unique non-signaling winning strategy. We illustrate each of these consequences with the example of generalized Popescu-Rohrlich boxes.

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arXiv2016

Monitoring of the process of system information broadcasting in time

One of the fundamental problems of modern physics is how the classical world, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and the whole irreversibility emerges from the quantum reality with reversible evolution. This relates to the problem of measurement transforming quantum, non-copyable data, towards intersubjective, copyable classical knowledge. We use the quantum state discrimination to show in a central system model how it's evolution leads to the broadcasting of the classical information. We analyze the process of orthogonalization and decoherence, their time scales and dependence on the environment.

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arXiv2016

Quantum steering inequality with tolerance for measurement-setting-errors: experimentally feasible signature of unbounded violation

Quantum steering is a relatively simple test for quantumness of correlations, proving that the values of quantum-mechanical measurement outcomes come into being only in the act of measurement. By exploiting quantum correlations Alice can influence -- steer -- Bob's physical system in a way inaccessible in classical world, leading to violation of some inequalities. Demonstrating this and similar quantum effects for systems of increasing size, approaching even the classical limit, is a long-standing challenging problem. Here we provide experimentally feasible signature of unbounded violation of a steering inequality. We derive its universal form where tolerance for measurement-setting-errors is explicitly build-in by means of the Deutsch-Maassen-Uffink uncertainty relation. Then, generalizing the mutual unbiasedness, we apply the inequality to the multi-singlet and multi-particle bipartite Bell-state. However, the method is general and opens the possibility of employing multi-particle bipartite steering for randomness certification and development of quantum technologies, e.g.\ random access codes.

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arXiv2015

Linear game non-contextuality and Bell inequalities - a graph-theoretic approach

We study the classical and quantum values of one- and two-party linear games, an important class of unique games that generalizes the well-known XOR games to the case of non-binary outcomes. We introduce a ``constraint graph" associated to such a game, with the constraints defining the linear game represented by an edge-coloring of the graph. We use the graph-theoretic characterization to relate the task of finding equivalent games to the notion of signed graphs and switching equivalence from graph theory. We relate the problem of computing the classical value of single-party anti-correlation XOR games to finding the edge bipartization number of a graph, which is known to be MaxSNP hard, and connect the computation of the classical value of more general XOR-d games to the identification of specific cycles in the graph. We construct an orthogonality graph of the game from the constraint graph and study its Lovász theta number as a general upper bound on the quantum value even in the case of single-party contextual XOR-d games. Linear games possess appealing properties for use in device-independent applications such as randomness of the local correlated outcomes in the optimal quantum strategy. We study the possibility of obtaining quantum algebraic violation of these games, and show that no finite linear game possesses the property of pseudo-telepathy leaving the frequently used chained Bell inequalities as the natural candidates for such applications. We also show this lack of pseudo-telepathy for multi-party XOR-type inequalities involving two-body correlation functions.

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arXiv2015

Distributed correlations and information flows within a hybrid multipartite quantum-classical system

Understanding the non-Markovian mechanisms underlying the revivals of quantum entanglement in the presence of classical environments is central in the theory of quantum information. Tentative interpretations have been given by either the role of the environment as a control device or the concept of hidden entanglement. We address this issue from an information-theoretic point of view. To this aim, we consider a paradigmatic tripartite system, already realized in the laboratory, made of two independent qubits and a random classical field locally interacting with one qubit alone. We study the dynamical relationship between the two-qubit entanglement and the genuine tripartite correlations of the overall system, finding that collapse and revivals of entanglement correspond, respectively, to raise and fall of the overall tripartite correlations. Interestingly, entanglement dark periods can enable plateaux of nonzero tripartite correlations. We then explain this behavior in terms of information flows among the different parties of the system. Besides showcasing the phenomenon of the freezing of overall correlations, our results provide new insights on the origin of retrieval of entanglement within a hybrid quantum-classical system.

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arXiv2015

Method for universal detection of two-photon polarization entanglement

Detecting and quantifying quantum entanglement of a given unknown state poses problems that are fundamentally important for quantum information processing. Surprisingly, no direct (i.e., without quantum tomography) universal experimental implementation of a necessary and sufficient test of entanglement has been designed even for a general two-qubit state. Here we propose an experimental method for detecting a collective universal witness, which is a necessary and sufficient test of two-photon polarization entanglement. It allows us to detect entanglement for any two-qubit mixed state and to establish tight upper and lower bounds on its amount. A different element of this method is the sequential character of its main components, which allows us to obtain relatively complicated information about quantum correlations with the help of simple linear-optical elements. As such, this proposal realizes a universal two-qubit entanglement test within the present state of the art of quantum optics. We show the optimality of our setup with respect to the minimal number of measured quantities.

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arXiv2015

Long-distance quantum communication over noisy networks without long-time quantum memory

The problem of sharing entanglement over large distances is crucial for implementations of quantum cryptography. A possible scheme for long-distance entanglement sharing and quantum communication exploits networks whose nodes share Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs. In Perseguers et al. [Phys. Rev. A 78, 062324 (2008)] the authors put forward an important isomorphism between storing quantum information in a dimension $D$ and transmission of quantum information in a $D+1$-dimensional network. We show that it is possible to obtain long-distance entanglement in a noisy two-dimensional (2D) network, even when taking into account that encoding and decoding of a state is exposed to an error. For 3D networks we propose a simple encoding and decoding scheme based solely on syndrome measurements on 2D Kitaev topological quantum memory. Our procedure constitutes an alternative scheme of state injection that can be used for universal quantum computation on 2D Kitaev code. It is shown that the encoding scheme is equivalent to teleporting the state, from a specific node into a whole two-dimensional network, through some virtual EPR pair existing within the rest of network qubits. We present an analytic lower bound on fidelity of the encoding and decoding procedure, using as our main tool a modified metric on space-time lattice, deviating from a taxicab metric at the first and the last time slices.

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arXiv2014

Can communication power of separable correlations exceed that of entanglement resource?

The scenario of remote state preparation with shared correlated quantum state and one bit of forward communication [B. Dakic et al. Nature Physics 8, 666-670 (2012)] is considered. The transmission efficiency is examined by considering general encoding and decoding strategies. The importance of use of linear fidelity is recognized. It is shown that separable states cannot exceed the efficiency of entangled states in this protocol. It is proven however that such a surprising phenomena may naturally occur when the decoding agent has limited resources in the sense that either (i) has no information about the coordinates in the sender plane being in question or (ii) is forced to use bistochastic operations only which may be imposed by physically inconvenient local thermodynamical conditions.

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arXiv2014

Characterising the Performance of XOR Games and the Shannon Capacity of Graphs

In this paper we give a set of necessary and sufficient conditions such that quantum players of a two-party {\sc xor} game cannot perform any better than classical players. With any such game, we associate a graph and examine its zero-error communication capacity. This allows us to specify a broad new class of graphs for which the Shannon capacity can be calculated. The conditions also enable the parametrisation of new families of games which have no quantum advantage, for arbitrary input probability distributions up to certain symmetries. In the future, these might be used in information-theoretic studies on reproducing the set of quantum non-local correlations.

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arXiv2014

Quantum-state transfer in spin chains via isolated resonance of terminal spins

We propose a quantum-state transfer protocol in a spin chain that requires only the control of the spins at the ends of the quantum wire. The protocol is to a large extent insensitive to inhomogeneity caused by local magnetic fields and perturbation of exchange couplings. Moreover, apart from the free evolution regime, it allows one to induce an adiabatic spin transfer, which provides the possibility of performing the transfer on demand. We also show that the amount of information leaking into the central part of the chain is small throughout the whole transfer process (which protects the information sent from being eavesdropped) and can be controlled by the magnitude of the external magnetic field.

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arXiv2014

The decay of quantum correlations between quantum dot spin qubits and the characteristics of its magnetic field dependence

We address the question of the role of quantum correlations beyond entanglement in context of quantum magnetometry. To this end, we study the evolution of the quantum discord, measured by the rescaled discord, of two electron-spin qubits interacting with an environment of nuclear spins via the hyperfine interaction. We have found that depending on the initial state the evolution can or cannot display indifferentiability points in its time-evolution (due to the energy conservation law), as well as non-trivial dependence on inter-qubit phase. Furthermore, we show that for initial Bell states, quantum correlations display a strong magnetic-field sensitivity which can be utilized for decoherence-driven measurements of the external magnetic field. The potential discord-based measurement is sensitive to a wider range of magnetic field values than the entanglement-based measurement. In principle, entanglement is not a necessary resource for reliable decoherence-driven measurement, while the presence of quantum correlations beyond entanglement is.

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