arXiv subjects

Vlatko Vedral

Publications and source records attributed to Vlatko Vedral.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Quantum entanglement between the electron clouds of nucleic acids in DNA

We model the electron clouds of nucleic acids in DNA as a chain of coupled quantum harmonic oscillators with dipole-dipole interaction between nearest neighbours resulting in a van der Waals type bonding. Crucial parameters in our model are the distances between the acids and the coupling between them, which we estimate from numerical simulations [1]. We show that for realistic parameters nearest neighbour entanglement is present even at room temperature. We quantify the amount of entanglement in terms of negativity and single base von Neumann entropy. We find that the strength of the single base von Neumann entropy depends on the neighbouring sites, thus questioning the notion of treating single bases as logically independent units. We derive an analytical expression for the binding energy of the coupled chain in terms of entanglement and show the connection between entanglement and correlation energy, a quantity commonly used in quantum chemistry.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Sustained Quantum Coherence and Entanglement in the Avian Compass

In artificial systems, quantum superposition and entanglement typically decay rapidly unless cryogenic temperatures are used. Could life have evolved to exploit such delicate phenomena? Certain migratory birds have the ability to sense very subtle variations in Earth's magnetic field. Here we apply quantum information theory and the widely accepted "radical pair" model to analyze recent experimental observations of the avian compass. We find that superposition and entanglement are sustained in this living system for at least tens of microseconds, exceeding the durations achieved in the best comparable man-made molecular systems. This conclusion is starkly at variance with the view that life is too "warm and wet" for such quantum phenomena to endure.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Entanglement spectrum: Identification of the transition from vortex-liquid to vortex-lattice state in a weakly interacting rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

We use entanglement to investigate the transition from vortex liquid phase to vortex lattice phase in weakly interacting rotating Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Ground state entanglement spectrum is analyzed to distinguish these two different phases. For the torus geometry, the low-lying part of ground state entanglement spectrum, as well as the behavior of its lowest level change clearly when the transition occurs. For the sphere geometry, the disappearance of entanglement gap in the conformal limit (CL) can indicate this transition. We also show that the decrease of entanglement between particles can be regarded as a signal of the transition.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Testing Bell inequalities with circuit QEDs by joint spectral measurements

We propose a feasible approach to test Bell's inequality with the experimentally-demonstrated circuit QED system, consisting of two well-separated superconducting charge qubits (SCQs) dispersively coupled to a common one-dimensional transmission line resonator (TLR). Our proposal is based on the joint spectral measurements of the two SCQs, i.e., their quantum states in the computational basis $\{|kl>,\,k,l=0,1\}$ can be measured by detecting the transmission spectra of the driven TLR: each peak marks one of the computational basis and its relative height corresponds to the probability superposed. With these joint spectral measurements, the generated Bell states of the two SCQs can be robustly confirmed without the standard tomographic technique. Furthermore, the statistical nonlocal-correlations between these two distant qubits can be directly read out by the joint spectral measurements, and consequently the Bell's inequality can be tested by sequentially measuring the relevant correlations related to the suitably-selected sets of the classical local variables $\{θ_j,θ_j', j=1,2\}$. The experimental challenges of our proposal are also analyzed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Necessary and sufficient condition for non-zero quantum discord

Quantum discord characterizes "non-classicality" of correlations in quantum mechanics. It has been proposed as the key resource present in certain quantum communication tasks and quantum computational models without containing much entanglement. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of non-zero quantum discord for any dimensional bipartite states. This condition is easily experimentally implementable. Based on this, we propose a geometrical way of quantifying quantum discord. For two qubits this results in a closed form of expression for discord. We apply our results to the model of deterministic quantum computation with one qubit, showing that quantum discord is unlikely to be the reason behind its speedup.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Entanglement at the quantum phase transition in a harmonic lattice

The entanglement properties of the phase transition in a two dimensional harmonic lattice, similar to the one observed in recent ion trap experiments, are discussed both, for finite number of particles and thermodynamical limit. We show that for the ground state at the critical value of the trapping potential two entanglement measures, the negativity between two neighbouring sites and the block entropy for blocks of size 1, 2 and 3, change abruptly. Entanglement thus indicates quantum phase transitions in general; not only in the finite dimensional case considered in [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 93}, 250404 (2004)]. Finally, we consider the thermal state and compare its exact entanglement with a temperature entanglement witness introduced in [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 77} 062102 (2008)].

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Vibration-enhanced energy transfer in living molecules

The conversion of an absorbed photon from the exciton energy into the reaction centre in the photosynthetic complex has a near unit efficiency. It is becoming clear that any classical model, where the exciton hopping is modeled by a classical stochastic diffusion equation, cannot explain such a high degree of efficiency. A number of different quantum models have been proposed, ranging from a purely unitary model with long range exciton interactions to a noise-aided stochastic resonance models. Here we propose a very simple spin-boson model that captures all the features of the efficient part of energy transfer. We show how this model describes a scenario where a donor-acceptor system can be brought into resonance by a narrow band of vibrational modes so that the excitation transfer between the two can be made arbitrarily high. This is then extended to a seven exciton system such as the widely-studied FMO photosynthetic complex to show that a high efficiency is also achievable therein. Our model encodes a number of readily testable predictions and we discuss its generalisations to include the localisation in the reaction centre.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Physically Realizable Entanglement by Local Continuous Measurements

Quantum systems prepared in pure states evolve into mixtures under environmental action. Physically realizable ensembles are the pure state decompositions of those mixtures that can be generated in time through continuous measurements of the environment. Here, we define physically realizable entanglement as the average entanglement over realizable ensembles. We optimize the measurement strategy to maximize and minimize this quantity through local observations on the independent environments that cause two qubits to disentangle in time. We then compare it with the entanglement bounds for the unmonitored system. For some relevant noise sources the maximum realizable entanglement coincides with the upper bound, establishing the scheme as an alternative to locally protect entanglement. However, for local strategies, the lower bound of the unmonitored system is not reached.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Measurement Based Quantum Computation on Fractal Lattices

In this article we extend on work which establishes an analology between one-way quantum computation and thermodynamics to see how the former can be performed on fractal lattices. We find fractals lattices of arbitrary dimension greater than one which do all act as good resources for one-way quantum computation, and sets of fractal lattices with dimension greater than one all of which do not. The difference is put down to other topological factors such as ramification and connectivity. This work adds confidence to the analogy and highlights new features to what we require for universal resources for one-way quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Unified View of Quantum and Classical Correlations

We discuss the problem of the separation of total correlations in a given quantum state into entanglement, dissonance, and classical correlations using the concept of relative entropy as a distance measure of correlations. This allows us to put all correlations on an equal footing. Entanglement and dissonance, whose definition is introduced here, jointly belong to what is known as quantum discord. Our methods are completely applicable for multipartite systems of arbitrary dimensions. We investigate additivity relations between different correlations and show that dissonance may be present in pure multipartite states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Detecting Entanglement with Jarzynski's Equality

We present a method for detecting the entanglement of a state using non-equilibrium processes. A comparison of relative entropies allows us to construct an entanglement witness. The relative entropy can further be related to the quantum Jarzynski equality, allowing non-equilibrium work to be used in entanglement detection. To exemplify our results, we consider two different spin chains.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Natural mode entanglement as a resource for quantum communication

Natural particle-number entanglement resides between spatial modes in coherent ultra-cold atomic gases. However, operations on the modes are restricted by a superselection rule that forbids coherent superpositions of different particle numbers. This seemingly prevents mode entanglement being used as a resource for quantum communication. In this paper, we demonstrate that mode entanglement of a single massive particle can be used for dense coding and quantum teleportation despite the superselection rule. In particular, we provide schemes where the dense coding linear photonic channel capacity is reached without a shared reservoir and where the full quantum channel capacity is achieved if both parties share a coherent particle reservoir.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Entanglement in pure and thermal cluster states

We present a closest separable state to cluster states. We start by considering linear cluster chains and extend our method to cluster states that can be used as a universal resource in quantum computation. We reproduce known results for pure cluster states and show how our method can be used in quantifying entanglement in noisy cluster states. Operational meaning is given to our method that clearly demonstrates how these closest separable states can be constructed from two-qubit clusters in the case of pure states. We also discuss the issue of finding the critical temperature at which the cluster state becomes only classically correlated and the importance of this temperature to our method.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Quantum physics meets biology

Quantum physics and biology have long been regarded as unrelated disciplines, describing nature at the inanimate microlevel on the one hand and living species on the other hand. Over the last decades the life sciences have succeeded in providing ever more and refined explanations of macroscopic phenomena that were based on an improved understanding of molecular structures and mechanisms. Simultaneously, quantum physics, originally rooted in a world view of quantum coherences, entanglement and other non-classical effects, has been heading towards systems of increasing complexity. The present perspective article shall serve as a pedestrian guide to the growing interconnections between the two fields. We recapitulate the generic and sometimes unintuitive characteristics of quantum physics and point to a number of applications in the life sciences. We discuss our criteria for a future quantum biology, its current status, recent experimental progress and also the restrictions that nature imposes on bold extrapolations of quantum theory to macroscopic phenomena.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Nested Quantum Error Correction Codes

The theory of quantum error correction was established more than a decade ago as the primary tool for fighting decoherence in quantum information processing. Although great progress has already been made in this field, limited methods are available in constructing new quantum error correction codes from old codes. Here we exhibit a simple and general method to construct new quantum error correction codes by nesting certain quantum codes together. The problem of finding long quantum error correction codes is reduced to that of searching several short length quantum codes with certain properties. Our method works for all length and all distance codes, and is quite efficient to construct optimal or near optimal codes. Two main known methods in constructing new codes from old codes in quantum error-correction theory, the concatenating and pasting, can be understood in the framework of nested quantum error correction codes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

The work value of information

We present quantitative relations between work and information that are valid both for finite sized and internally correlated systems as well in the thermodynamical limit. We suggest work extraction should be viewed as a game where the amount of work an agent can extract depends on how well it can guess the micro-state of the system. In general it depends both on the agent's knowledge and risk-tolerance, because the agent can bet on facts that are not certain and thereby risk failure of the work extraction. We derive strikingly simple expressions for the extractable work in the extreme cases of effectively zero- and arbitrary risk tolerance respectively, thereby enveloping all cases. Our derivation makes a connection between heat engines and the smooth entropy approach. The latter has recently extended Shannon theory to encompass finite sized and internally correlated bit strings, and our analysis points the way to an analogous extension of statistical mechanics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

The elusive source of quantum effectiveness

We discuss two qualities of quantum systems: various correlations existing between their subsystems and the distingushability of different quantum states. This is then applied to analysing quantum information processing. While quantum correlations, or entanglement, are clearly of paramount importance for efficient pure state manipulations, mixed states present a much richer arena and reveal a more subtle interplay between correlations and distinguishability. The current work explores a number of issues related with identifying the important ingredients needed for quantum information processing. We discuss the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, the Shor algorithm, the Grover algorithm and the power of a single qubit class of algorithms. One section is dedicated to cluster states where entanglement is crucial, but its precise role is highly counter-intuitive. Here we see that distinguishability becomes a more useful concept.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Effect of entanglement on geometric phase for multi-qubit states

When a multi-qubit state evolves under local unitaries it may obtain a geometric phase, a feature dependent on the geometry of the state's projective Hilbert space. A correction term to this geometric phase in addition to the local subsystem phases may appear from correlations between the subsystems. We find this correction term can be characterized completely either by the entanglement or completely by the classical correlations for several classes of entangled state. States belonging to the former set are W states and their mixtures, while members of the latter set are cluster states, GHZ states and two classes of bound entangled state. We probe the structures of these states more finely using local invariants and suggest the cause of the entanglement correction is a gauge field like $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ invariant recently introduced named twist.

quant-ph↗