Complete and Nondestructive Atomic Bell‐State Analysis Assisted by Inverse Engineering

A protocol for complete and nondestructive atomic Bell‐state analysis by using inverse engineering is presented. The setups for the Bell‐state analysis contain four atoms trapped in four separated cavities, respectively. The laser pulses designed by inverse engineering help in the manipulation of the transitions of atoms in a robust manner. By using the protocol, the information for distinguishing four Bell states of two information‐carrying atoms is encoded on two auxiliary atoms. Therefore, the four Bell states can be distinguished without being destroyed by detecting the states of the two auxiliary atoms. Moreover, as shown by the numerical simulations, the protocol has high successful probabilities to distinguish four Bell states when decoherence is considered. Thus, the protocol may provide some helpful perspectives for the quantum information tasks based on Bell states.     

Distinguishing Quantum States with Holevo Bound and Its Application to Spatially Separated Bell States

Consider a system prepared in one of the quantum states of the ensemble {ρ _i } with a priori probability p _i . We prove that the quantum state can be deterministically distinguished if and only if the information gain from the measurement reaches the Holevo bound. We find it can be applied to distinguish spatially separated Bell states. A single copy of spatially separated Bell state cannot be distinguished under local operation and classical communication (LOCC), but it can be identified with an ancillary qubit. When two ancillary qubits are used, a spatially separated Bell state can be identified without demolition.     

Local Copying of <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>×<Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-dimensional Partially Entangled Pure States

We examine the problem of copying a set of orthogonal, entangled partially (non-maximally) bipartite pure states with an entangled blank state under the restriction to local operations and classical communication (LOCC), and show a protocol for copying these states by LOCC. The necessary and sufficient condition for locally copying partially entangled pure states is then represented. As a result, we find that the problem of local copying these entangled states can be regarded to some extent as that of catalytic transformation between them by LOCC.     

Robustness of entanglement for Bell decomposable states

We propose a simple geometrical approach for finding robustness of entanglement for Bell decomposable states of two-qubit quantum systems. It is shown that for these states robustness is equal to the concurrence. We also present an analytical expression for two separable states that wipe out all entanglement of these states. Random robustness of these states is also obtained. We also obtain robustness of a class of states obtained from Bell decomposable states via some special local operations and classical communications (LOCC).Received: 28 October 2002, Published online: 5 August 2003PACS: 03.65.Ud Entanglement and quantum nonlocality (e.g. EPR paradox, Bell's inequalities, GHZ states, etc.)     

Optimal and covariant single-copy LOCC transformation between two two-qubit states

Given two two-qubit pure states characterized by their Schmidt numbers we investigate an optimal strategy to convert the states between themselves with respect to their local unitary invariance. We discuss the efficiency of this transformation and its connection to LOCC convertibility properties between two single-copy quantum states. As an illustration of the investigated transformations we present a communication protocol where in spite of all expectations a shared maximally entangled pair between two participants is the worst quantum resource.     

Single-Qubit Operation Sharing with Bell and W Product States

Two tripartite schemes are put forward with shared entanglements and Local Operation and Classical Communication (LOCC) for sharing an operation on a remote target sate. The first scheme uses a Bell and a symmetric W states as quantum channels, while the second replaces the symmetric W state by an asymmetric one. Both schemes are treated and compared from the aspects of quantum resource consumption, operation complexity, classical resource consumption, success probability and efficiency. It is found that the latter scheme is better than the former one. Particularly, the sharing can be achieved only probabilistically with the first scheme deterministically with the second one.     

Complete deterministic linear optics Bell state analysis

We show how hyperentanglement allows us to deterministically distinguish between all four polarization Bell states of two photons. In this proof-of-principle experiment, we employ the intrinsic time-energy correlation of photon pairs generated with high temporal definition in addition to the polarization entanglement obtained from parametric down-conversion. For the identification, no nonlinear optical elements or auxiliary photons are needed. The new possibilities this complete Bell measurement offers are demonstrated by realizing an optimal dense coding protocol.     

Single-Qubit Operation Sharing with Bell and W Product States

Two tripartite schemes are put forward with shared entanglements and Local Operation and Classical Communication (LOCC) for sharing an operation on a remote target sate.The first scheme uses a Bell and a symmetric W states as quantum channels,while the second replaces the symmetric W state by an asymmetric one.Both schemes are treated and compared from the aspects of quantum resource consumption,operation complexity,classical resource consumption,success probability and efficiency.It is found that the latter scheme is better than the former one.Particularly,the sharing can be achieved only probabilistically with the first scheme deterministically with the second one.     

Discrete photodetection for protocols of linear optical quantum calculations and communications

A theory of a discrete photodetection method is developed in which an atomic packet in a microresonator is used as a probe. Such a detector is adjusted by selecting the number of atoms in the packet, the constant of interaction between the mode under study and atoms and the interaction duration. The possibility is analyzed for using this detector to distinguish one-photon and two-photon Fock states and applications in protocols of linear optical quantum measurements and communications. A protocol of a Bell-state analyzer is prepared that allows one to distinguish all the four Bell states constructed on the polarization states of a photon pair.     

Bidirectional Quantum States Sharing

With the help of the shared entanglement and LOCC, multidirectional quantum states sharing is considered. We first put forward a protocol for implementing four-party bidirectional states sharing (BQSS) by using eight-qubit cluster state as quantum channel. In order to extend BQSS, we generalize this protocol from four sharers to multi-sharers utilizing two multi-qubit GHZ-type states as channel, and propose two multi-party BQSS schemes. On the other hand, we generalize the three schemes from two senders to multi-senders with multi GHZ-type states of multi-qubit as quantum channel, and give a multidirectional quantum states sharing protocol. In our schemes, all receivers can reconstruct the original unknown single-qubit state if and only if all sharers can cooperate. Only Pauli operations, Bell-state measurement and single-qubit measurement are used in our schemes, so these schemes are easily realized in physical experiment and their successful probabilities are all one.     

A Framework for Bounding Nonlocality of State Discrimination

We consider the class of protocols that can be implemented by local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC) between two parties. In particular, we focus on the task of discriminating a known set of quantum states by LOCC. Building on the work in the paper Quantum nonlocality without entanglement (Bennett et al., Phys Rev A 59:1070–1091, 1999), we provide a framework for bounding the amount of nonlocality in a given set of bipartite quantum states in terms of a lower bound on the probability of error in any LOCC discrimination protocol. We apply our framework to an orthonormal product basis known as the domino states and obtain an alternative and simplified proof that quantifies its nonlocality. We generalize this result for similar bases in larger dimensions, as well as the “rotated” domino states, resolving a long-standing open question (Bennett et al., Phys Rev A 59:1070–1091, 1999).     

Multi-party Semi-quantum Key Agreement with Delegating Quantum Computation

A multi-party semi-quantum key agreement (SQKA) protocol based on delegating quantum computation (DQC) model is proposed by taking Bell states as quantum resources. In the proposed protocol, the participants only need the ability of accessing quantum channel and preparing single photons {|0〉, |1〉, |+〉, |?〉}, while the complicated quantum operations, such as the unitary operations and Bell measurement, will be delegated to the remote quantum center. Compared with previous quantum key agreement protocols, this client-server model is more feasible in the early days of the emergence of quantum computers. In order to prevent the attacks from outside eavesdroppers, inner participants and quantum center, two single photon sequences are randomly inserted into Bell states: the first sequence is used to perform the quantum channel detection, while the second is applied to disorder the positions of message qubits, which guarantees the security of the protocol.     

Generation of remote multi-photon entangled state from Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen photon pairs

We describe a protocol for generation of remote multi-photon entanglement using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) photon pairs via entanglement swapping. According to the requests of users, Quantum Switch (QS) can prepare three-photon W entangled states or Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states based on independent, spatially separated EPR pairs among three distant users. Only Bell states measurement (BSM) is needed utilizing a CPHASE gate and PAs. This protocol can also generate remote N-photon GHZ entangled states.     

High-Efficiency Three-Party Quantum Key Agreement Protocol with Quantum Dense Coding and Bell States

We propose a high-efficiency three-party quantum key agreement protocol, by utilizing two-photon polarization-entangled Bell states and a few single-photon polarization states as the information carriers, and we use the quantum dense coding method to improve its efficiency. In this protocol, each participant performs one of four unitary operations to encode their sub-secret key on the passing photons which contain two parts, the first quantum qubits of Bell states and a small number of single-photon states. At the end of this protocol, based on very little information announced by other, all participants involved can deduce the same final shared key simultaneously. We analyze the security and the efficiency of this protocol, showing that it has a high efficiency and can resist both outside attacks and inside attacks. As a consequence, our protocol is a secure and efficient three-party quantum key agreement protocol.

     

High-Capacity Quantum Secret Sharing with Hyperdense Coding Assisted by Hyperentangled Photon Pairs

We presents a high-capacity three-party quantum secret sharing (QSS) protocol with a sequence of photon pairs in hyperentangled Bell states in both the polarization and the spatial-mode degrees of freedom. In our scheme, the boss Alice prepares a sequence of photon pairs in hyperentangled Bell states and divides them into two photon sequences which are sent the two agents, respectively. Alice exploits four subsets of decoy photons to assure the security of the photon transmission between her and her agents. The present QSS scheme has the advantage of having a high channel capacity as each photon pair can carry 4 bits of secret message in principle, two times of that by Deng et al. (Phys. Lett. A 372: 1957, 2008). We give out the setups for the preparation of the photon pairs in hyperentangled Bell states with a beta barium borate crystal and the manipulation of the photons with linear optical elements. It will be shown that our QSS protocol is feasible with current experimental technology.     

Local cloning of CAT states

In this Letter we analyze the (im)possibility of the exact cloning of orthogonal three-qubit CAT states under local operation and classical communication (LOCC) with the help of a restricted entangled state. We also classify the three-qubit CAT states that can (not) be cloned under LOCC restrictions and extend the results to the n-qubit case.     

On the Significance of the Bell Inequalities for the Locality Problem in Different Realistic Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

The relation between the Bell inequalities, locality and the existence of joint probability distributions is discussed in different realist interpretations of quantum mechanics. We distinguish four realist interpretations, viz., the objectivistic one, the contextualistic one, the strictly nonobjectivistic and the quasi-objectivistic interpretation. Conclusions are differing largely in different interpretations. We also distinguish between two kinds of locality, viz, macrolocality and Einstein/Bell locality. From a classical model of stochastic measuring processes a definition of Einstein/Bell locality is derived that differs from the Bell/Clauser/Horne/Shimony factorizability condition. It is demonstrated that only in the quasi-objectivistic interpretation the Einstein/Bell locality condition plays a role in the derivation of a Bell inequality for quantities that are experimentally relevant. It is argued that even in this interpretation it is not possible to arrive at the conclusions that the Bell inequalities stem from the locality condition because of the tacit assumption of an additional property, namely the existence of probability distributions conditionalized on the dispersionfree states of the hidden variables. Consideration of a phase space representation of the Schrödinger equation demonstrates that this latter assumption is at odds with the statistics of quantum systems.     

Cryptanalysis and Improvement of Quantum Private Comparison Protocol Based on Bell Entangled States

Recently, Liu et al. [Commun. Theor. Phys. 57 (2012) 583] proposed a quantum private comparison protocol based on entanglement swapping of Bell states, which aims to securely compare the equality of two participants' information with the help of a semi-honest third party (TP). However, the present study points out there is a fatal loophole in Liu et al.'s protocol, and TP can make Bell-basis measurement to know all the participants' secret inputs without being detected. To fix the problem, a simple solution, which uses one-time eavesdropper checking with decoy photons instead of twice eavesdropper checking with Bell states, is demonstrated. Compared with the original protocol, it not only reduces the Bell states consumption but also simplifies the protocol steps.     

Cryptanalysis and Improvement of Quantum Private Comparison Protocol Based on Bell Entangled States

Recently, Liu et al. [Commun. Theor. Phys. 57(2012) 583] proposed a quantum private comparison protocol based on entanglement swapping of Bell states, which aims to securely compare the equality of two participants' information with the help of a semi-honest third party(TP). However, the present study points out there is a fatal loophole in Liu et al.'s protocol, and TP can make Bell-basis measurement to know all the participants' secret inputs without being detected. To fix the problem, a simple solution, which uses one-time eavesdropper checking with decoy photons instead of twice eavesdropper checking with Bell states, is demonstrated. Compared with the original protocol,it not only reduces the Bell states consumption but also simplifies the protocol steps.     

Entanglement cost of implementing controlled-unitary operations

We investigate the minimum entanglement cost of the deterministic implementation of two-qubit controlled-unitary operations using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We show that any such operation can be implemented by a three-turn LOCC protocol, which requires at least 1 ebit of entanglement when the resource is given by a bipartite entangled state with Schmidt number 2. Our result implies that there is a gap between the minimum entanglement cost and the entangling power of controlled-unitary operations. This gap arises due to the requirement of implementing the operations while oblivious to the identity of the inputs.