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Pawel Horodecki

Publications and source records attributed to Pawel Horodecki.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Universal observable detecting all two-qubit entanglement and determinant based separability tests

We construct a single observable measurement of which mean value on four copies of an {\it unknown} two-qubit state is sufficient for unambiguous decision whether the state is separable or entangled. In other words, there exists a universal collective entanglement witness detecting all two-qubit entanglement. The test is directly linked to a function which characterizes to some extent the entanglement quantitatively. This function is an entanglement monotone under so--called local pure operations and classical communication (pLOCC) which preserve local dimensions. Moreover it provides tight upper and lower bounds for negativity and concurrence. Elementary quantum computing device estimating unknown two-qubit entanglement is designed.

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Quantum key distribution based on private states: unconditional security over untrusted channels with zero quantum capacity

We prove unconditional security for a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol based on distilling pbits (twisted ebits) [quant-ph/0309110] from an arbitrary untrusted state that is claimed to contain distillable key. Our main result is that we can verify security using only public communication -- via parameter estimation of the given untrusted state. The technique applies even to bound entangled states, thus extending QKD to the regime where the available quantum channel has zero quantum capacity. We also show how to convert our purification-based QKD schemes to prepare-measure schemes.

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No-local-broadcasting theorem for quantum correlations

We prove that the correlations present in a multipartite quantum state have an \emph{operational} quantum character as soon as the state does not simply encode a multipartite classical probability distribution, i.e. does not describe the joint state of many classical registers. Even unentangled states may exhibit such \emph{quantumness}, that is pointed out by the new task of \emph{local broadcasting}, i.e. of locally sharing pre-established correlations: this task is feasible if and only if correlations are classical and derive a no-local-broadcasting theorem for quantum correlations. Thus, local broadcasting is able to point out the quantumness of correlations, as standard broadcasting points out the quantum character of single system states. Further, we argue that our theorem implies the standard no-broadcasting theorem for single systems, and that our operative approach leads in a natural way to the definition of measures for quantumness of correlations.

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Quantum entanglement

All our former experience with application of quantum theory seems to say: {\it what is predicted by quantum formalism must occur in laboratory}. But the essence of quantum formalism - entanglement, recognized by Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen and Schrödinger - waited over 70 years to enter to laboratories as a new resource as real as energy. This holistic property of compound quantum systems, which involves nonclassical correlations between subsystems, is a potential for many quantum processes, including ``canonical'' ones: quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and dense coding. However, it appeared that this new resource is very complex and difficult to detect. Being usually fragile to environment, it is robust against conceptual and mathematical tools, the task of which is to decipher its rich structure. This article reviews basic aspects of entanglement including its characterization, detection, distillation and quantifying. In particular, the authors discuss various manifestations of entanglement via Bell inequalities, entropic inequalities, entanglement witnesses, quantum cryptography and point out some interrelations. They also discuss a basic role of entanglement in quantum communication within distant labs paradigm and stress some peculiarities such as irreversibility of entanglement manipulations including its extremal form - bound entanglement phenomenon. A basic role of entanglement witnesses in detection of entanglement is emphasized.

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Unifying classical and quantum key distillation

Assume that two distant parties, Alice and Bob, as well as an adversary, Eve, have access to (quantum) systems prepared jointly according to a tripartite state. In addition, Alice and Bob can use local operations and authenticated public classical communication. Their goal is to establish a key which is unknown to Eve. We initiate the study of this scenario as a unification of two standard scenarios: (i) key distillation (agreement) from classical correlations and (ii) key distillation from pure tripartite quantum states. Firstly, we obtain generalisations of fundamental results related to scenarios (i) and (ii), including upper bounds on the key rate. Moreover, based on an embedding of classical distributions into quantum states, we are able to find new connections between protocols and quantities in the standard scenarios (i) and (ii). Secondly, we study specific properties of key distillation protocols. In particular, we show that every protocol that makes use of pre-shared key can be transformed into an equally efficient protocol which needs no pre-shared key. This result is of practical significance as it applies to quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, but it also implies that the key rate cannot be locked with information on Eve's side. Finally, we exhibit an arbitrarily large separation between the key rate in the standard setting where Eve is equipped with quantum memory and the key rate in a setting where Eve is only given classical memory. This shows that assumptions on the nature of Eve's memory are important in order to determine the correct security threshold in QKD.

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Simple test for quantum channel capacity

Basing on states and channels isomorphism we point out that semidefinite programming can be used as a quick test for nonzero one-way quantum channel capacity. This can be achieved by search of symmetric extensions of states isomorphic to a given quantum channel. With this method we provide examples of quantum channels that can lead to high entanglement transmission but still have zero one-way capacity, in particular, regions of symmetric extendibility for isotropic states in arbitrary dimensions are presented. Further we derive {\it a new entanglement parameter} based on (normalised) relative entropy distance to the set of states that have symmetric extensions and show explicitly the symmetric extension of isotropic states being the nearest to singlets in the set of symmetrically extendible states. The suitable regularisation of the parameter provides a new upper bound on one-way distillable entanglement.

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Unconditional privacy over channels which cannot convey quantum information

By sending systems in specially prepared quantum states, two parties can communicate without an eavesdropper being able to listen. The technique, called quantum cryptography, enables one to verify that the state of the quantum system has not been tampered with, and thus one can obtain privacy regardless of the power of the eavesdropper. All previous protocols relied on the ability to faithfully send quantum states. In fact, until recently, they could all be reduced to a single protocol where security is ensured though sharing maximally entangled states. Here we show this need not be the case -- one can obtain verifiable privacy even through some channels which cannot be used to reliably send quantum states.

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Quantum channel capacities - multiparty communication

We analyze different aspects of multiparty communication over quantum memoryless channels and generalize some of key results known from bipartite channels to that of multiparty scenario. In particular, we introduce multiparty versions of minimal subspace transmission fidelity and entanglement transmission fidelity. We also provide alternative, local, versions of fidelities and show their equivalence to the global ones in context of capacity regions defined. The equivalence of two different capacity notions with respect to two types of the fidelities is proven. In analogy to bipartite case it is shown, via sufficiency of isometric encoding theorem, that additional classical forward side channel does not increase capacity region of any quantum channel with $k$ senders and $m$ receivers which represents a compact unit of general quantum networks theory. The result proves that recently provided capacity region of multiple access channel ([M. Horodecki et al, Nature {\bf 436} 673 (2005)], [J.Yard et al, quant-ph/0501045]) is optimal also in the scenario of additional support of forward classical communication.

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Are quantum correlations symmetric ?

To our knowledge, all known bipartite entanglement measures are symmetric under exchange of subsystems. We ask if an entanglement measure that is not symmetric can exist. A related question is if there is a state that cannot be swapped by means of LOCC. We show, that in general one cannot swap states by LOCC. This allows to construct nonsymmetric measure of entanglement, and a parameter that reports asymmetry of entanglement contents of quantum state. We propose asymptotic measure of asymmetry of entanglement, and show that states for which it is nonzero, contain necessarily bound entanglement.

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Direct measurement of non-linear properties of bipartite quantum states

Non-linear properties of quantum states, such as entropy or entanglement, quantify important physical resources and are frequently used in quantum information science. They are usually calculated from a full description of a quantum state, even though they depend only on a small number parameters that specify the state. Here we extract a non-local and a non-linear quantity, namely the Renyi entropy, from local measurements on two pairs of polarization entangled photons. We also introduce a "phase marking" technique which allows to select uncorrupted outcomes even with non-deterministic sources of entangled photons. We use our experimental data to demonstrate the violation of entropic inequalities. They are examples of a non-linear entanglement witnesses and their power exceeds all linear tests for quantum entanglement based on all possible Bell-CHSH inequalities.

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Low dimensional bound entanglement with one-way distillable cryptographic key

We provide a class of bound entangled states that have positive distillable secure key rate. The smallest state of this kind is $4 \otimes 4$, which shows that peculiar security contained in bound entangled states does not need high dimensional systems. We show, that for these states a positive key rate can be obtained by {\it one-way} Devetak-Winter protocol. Subsequently the volume of bound entangled key-distillable states in arbitrary dimension is shown to be nonzero. We provide a scheme of verification of cryptographic quality of experimentally prepared state in terms of local observables. Proposed set of 7 collective settings is proven to be optimal in number of settings.

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Secure key from bound entanglement

We characterize the set of shared quantum states which contain a cryptographically private key. This allows us to recast the theory of privacy as a paradigm closely related to that used in entanglement manipulation. It is shown that one can distill an arbitrarily secure key from bound entangled states. There are also states which have less distillable private key than the entanglement cost of the state. In general the amount of distillable key is bounded from above by the relative entropy of entanglement. Relationships between distillability and distinguishability are found for a class of states which have Bell states correlated to separable hiding states. We also describe a technique for finding states exhibiting irreversibility in entanglement distillation.

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Towards efficient algorithm deciding separability of distributed quantum states

It is pointed out that separability problem for arbitrary multi-partite states can be fully solved by a finite size, elementary recursive algorithm. In the worse case scenario, the underlying numerical procedure, may grow doubly exponentially with the state's rank. Nevertheless, we argue that for generic states, analysis of concurrence matrices essentially reduces the task of solving separability problem in $m \times n$ dimensions to solving a set of linear equations in about $\binom{mn+D-1}{D}$ variables, where $D$ decreases with $mn$ and for large $mn$ it should not exceed 4. Moreover, the same method is also applicable to multipartite states where it is at least equally efficient.

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Unconditional fidelity thresholds in single copy distillation and some aspects of quantum error correction

Various aspects of distillation of noisy entanglement and some associated effects in quantum error correction are considered. In particular we prove that if only one--way classical communication (from Alice to Bob) is allowed and the shared $d \otimes d$ state is not pure then there is a threshold for optimal entanglement fraction $F$ of the state (being an overlap between the shared state and symmetric maximally entangled state) which can be obtained in single copy distillation process. This implies that to get (probabilistically) arbitrary good conclusive teleportation via mixed state at least one classical bit of backward communication (for Bob to Alice) has to be sent. We provide several other threshold properties in this context including in particular the existence of ultimate threshold of optimal $F$ for states of full rank. Finally the threshold results are linked to those of error correction. Namely it is pointed out that in quantum computer working on fixed number of quantum bits almost any kind of noise can be (probabilistically) corrected only to some threshold error bar though there are some (rare) exceptions.

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Optimal strategy for a single-qubit gate and trade-off between opposite types of decoherence

We study reliable quantum information processing (QIP) under two different types of environment. First type is Markovian exponential decay, and the appropriate elementary strategy of protection of qubit is to apply fast gates. The second one is strongly non-Markovian and occurs solely during operations on the qubit. The best strategy is then to work with slow gates. If the two types are both present, one has to optimize the speed of gate. We show that such a trade-off is present for a single-qubit operation in a semiconductor quantum dot implementation of QIP, where recombination of exciton (qubit) is Markovian, while phonon dressing gives rise to the non-Markovian contribution.

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Generalised Smolin states and their properties

Four qubit bound entangled Smolin states are generalised in a natural way to even number of qubits. They are shown to maximally violate simple correlation Bell inequalities and, as such, to reduce communication complexity, though they do not admit quantum security. They are also shown to serve for remote quantum information concentration like in the case of the original four qubit states. Application of the information concentration to the process of unlocking of classical correlations and quantum entanglement by quantum bit is pointed out.

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Local versus non-local information in quantum information theory: formalism and phenomena

In spite of many results in quantum information theory, the complex nature of compound systems is far from being clear. In general the information is a mixture of local, and non-local ("quantum") information. To make this point more clear, we develop and investigate the quantum information processing paradigm in which parties sharing a multipartite state distill local information. The amount of information which is lost because the parties must use a classical communication channel is the deficit. This scheme can be viewed as complementary to the notion of distilling entanglement. After reviewing the paradigm, we show that the upper bound for the deficit is given by the relative entropy distance to so-called psuedo-classically correlated states; the lower bound is the relative entropy of entanglement. This implies, in particular, that any entangled state is informationally nonlocal i.e. has nonzero deficit. We also apply the paradigm to defining the thermodynamical cost of erasing entanglement. We show the cost is bounded from below by relative entropy of entanglement. We demonstrate the existence of several other non-local phenomena. For example,we prove the existence of a form of non-locality without entanglement and with distinguishability. We analyze the deficit for several classes of multipartite pure states and obtain that in contrast to the GHZ state, the Aharonov state is extremely nonlocal (and in fact can be thought of as quasi-nonlocalisable). We also show that there do not exist states, for which the deficit is strictly equal to the whole informational content (bound local information). We then discuss complementary features of information in distributed quantum systems. Finally we discuss the physical and theoretical meaning of the results and pose many open questions.

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Bound entanglement maximally violating Bell inequalities: quantum entanglement is not equivalent to quantum security

It is shown that Smolin four-qubit bound entangled states [Phys. Rev. A, 63 032306 (2001)] can maximally violate two-setting Bell inequality similar to standard CHSH inequality. Surprisingly this entanglement does not allow for secure key distillation, so neither entanglement nor violation of Bell inequalities implies quantum security. It is also pointed out how that kind of bound entanglement can be useful in reducing communication complexity.

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