Review and suggested resolution of the problem of Schrodinger’s cat

This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement. This problem, also known as ‘Schrodinger’s cat’, has long posed an apparent paradox because the state resulting from a measurement appears to be a quantum superposition in which the detector is in two macroscopically distinct states (alive and dead in the case of the cat) simultaneously. Many alternative interpretations of the quantum mathematical formalism, and several alternative modifications of the theory, have been proposed to resolve this problem, but no consensus has formed supporting any one of them. Applying standard quantum theory to the measurement state, together with the analysis and results of decades of nonlocality experiments with pairs of entangled systems, this paper shows the entangled measurement state is not a paradoxical macroscopic superposition of states. It is instead a phase-dependent superposition of correlations between states of the subsystems. Thus Schrodinger’s cat is a non-paradoxical ‘macroscopic correlation’ in which one of the two correlated systems happens to be a detector. This insight resolves the problem of definite outcomes but it does not entirely resolve the measurement problem because the entangled state is still reversible.     

Bell’s theorem with no locality assumption: putting free will at work

We prove a version of Bell’s Theorem which does not assume Locality but instead only the conjunction of a Free Will Principle (so weak that one’s will needs not be free from one’s past) and what we call the Effect After Cause Principle (EACP) according to which for any Lorentz observer the value of an observable measured at (x ₀ , t ₀) cannot further change to another value at (x ₀ , t ₀) because of any cause which happens after said observable has been measured at (x ₀ , t ₀) for that observer, with a similar condition on variables which depend on Realism. Since the EACP, which does not forbid all forms of dependance upon future effects, is compatible both with Locality and with Non-Locality, Locality cannot be considered as the common cause of all the contradictions obtained in all versions of Bell’s Theory. By the very nature of what is a Bell’s Inequality, all versions of Bell’s Theorem assume Weak Realism according to which the value of an observable needed in the discussion of Bell’s Theorem is well defined whenever the measurement could have been made and some measurement is made. This work supports the view that it is Weak Realism, not Locality, which needs to be negated to avoid the contradictions in microscopic Physics associated to Bell’s Theory, at least if one refuses as false the de Broglie-Bohm Hidden Variable theory, e.g., because of its essential violation not only of Locality but also of Lorentz invariance.     

Statistical mechanics of flux lines in high-T c superconductors

A theory of the entangled flux liquids which arise in the new high-T _c superconductors is reviewed. New physics appears because of the weak interplanar couplings and high critical temperatures in these materials. Flux line wandering melts the conventional Abrikosov flux lattice, and leads to an entangled vortex state whose statistical mechanics is closely related to the physics of interacting bosons in two dimensions. The phase diagram as a function of magnetic field and temperature is discussed, and it is argued that an entangled vortex liquid appears just aboveH _c1 at all nonzero temperatures. The decay of vortex line correlations in the entangled liquid state is controlled by the superfluid excitation spectrum of the bosons. Line wandering produces drastic changes in theB(H) constitutive relation nearH _c1.     

Objectivity vs. Locality in Quantum Physics

An Objectivity Principle (O) and a Locality Principle (L) are considered with respect to two simple, but fundamental Gedanken experiments, namely a “Welcher-Weg” Gedanken experiment and an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Gedanken experiment. It is shown that, if both principles (O) and (L) are assumed to be valid, a contradiction, in the EPR case Bell’s inequality, can be derived implying that at least one of the two principles (O) and (L) has to be denied. It is shown that, if (O) is denied, (L) is preserved in the EPR-Gedanken experiment. For a more adequate discussion, in particular of (L), the two experiments are described in Minkowskian space-time of special relativity.     

四能级量子制冷循环

本文提出以两个qubit量子纠缠系统为工质的四能级制冷循环模型, 基于量子热力学第一定律和热纠缠概念, 分析了在循环中系统与外界交换的热量、输入功、制冷系数等热力学参数与量子纠缠之间的关系, 结果表明: 制冷系数等高线图是环状曲线, 随纠缠比r增加而非单调变化; 当相互作用常数J比较小时, 量子制冷机运行区间在c₁>c₂, 当增加J值时, 制冷机运行区间在c₁>c₂和 c₁<c₂两个区域; 最大制冷系数ε_max随J值增大而增加.     

Spin-orbit hybrid entanglement quantum key distribution scheme

We propose a novel quantum key distribution scheme by using the SAM-OAM hybrid entangled state as the physical resource.To obtain this state,the polarization entangled photon pairs are created by the spontaneous parametric down conversion process,and then,the q-plate acts as a SAM-to-OAM transverter to transform the polarization entangled pairs into the hybrid entangled pattern,which opens the possibility to exploit the features of the higher-dimensional space of OAM state to encode information.In the manipulation and encoding process,Alice performs the SAM measurement by modulating the polarization stateπ lθx on one photon,whereas Bob modulates the OAM sector state lx' on the other photon to encode his key elements using the designed holograms which is implemented by the computer-controlled SLM.With coincidence measurement,Alice could extract the key information.It is showed that N-based keys can be encoded with each pair of entangled photon,and this scheme is robust against Eve’s individual attack.Also,the MUBs are not used.Alice and Bob do not need the classical communication for the key recovery.     

Wigner’s Friend Scenarios and the Internal Consistency of Standard Quantum Mechanics

Wigner’s friend scenarios involve an Observer, or Observers, measuring a Friend, or Friends, who themselves make quantum measurements. In recent discussions, it has been suggested that quantum mechanics may not always be able to provide a consistent account of a situation involving two Observers and two Friends. We investigate this problem by invoking the basic rules of quantum mechanics as outlined by Feynman in the well-known “Feynman Lectures on Physics”. We show here that these “Feynman rules” constrain the a priori assumptions which can be made in generalised Wigner’s friend scenarios, because the existence of the probabilities of interest ultimately depends on the availability of physical evidence (material records) of the system’s past. With these constraints obeyed, a non-ambiguous and consistent account of all measurement outcomes is obtained for all agents, taking part in various Wigner’s Friend scenarios.     

量子纠缠态的普适远程克隆

提出一种任意两粒子纠缠态1→2普适远程克隆方案. 此方案仅需一个特殊的四粒子纠缠态作为量子信道, 就可使处于空间不同位置的两个接收者分别以5/6的保真度得到任意输入态的近似拷贝, 该保真度远高于已有方案中的保真度. 将方案推广到任意两粒子纠缠态1→N(N>2)普适远程克隆的情况, 可使处于不同地点的N个接收者分别以(2N+1)/(3N)的保真度得到输入态的近似拷贝. 另外, 提出一种以上述单个特殊四粒子纠缠态作为量子信道, 在多目标量子比特受控非门和 关键词： 量子纠缠态 普适远程克隆 保真度     

Is Nonlocality Responsible for the Violation of Bell’s Inequalities?

Bell’s theorem has been widely argued to show that some of the predictions of quantum mechanics which are obtained by applying the Born’s rule to a class of entangled states, are not compatible with any local-causal statistical model, via the violation of Bell’s inequalities. On the other hand, in the previous works, we have shown that quantum dynamics and kinematics are emergent from a statistical model that is singled out uniquely by the principle of Locality. Here we shall show that the local-causal model supports entangled states and give the statistical origin of their generation. We then study the Stern-Gerlach experiment to show that the Born’s rule can also be derived as a mathematical theorem in the local-causal model. These results lead us to argue that nonlocality is not responsible for the quantum mechanical and most importantly experimental violation of Bell’s inequalities. The source(s) of violation has to be sought somewhere else.     

Universal Global Cloning of Continuous Variables Entanglement

It is impossible to perfectly duplicate an unknown entangled state while preserving inseparability, which is known as the entanglement no-cloning principle. Nevertheless, approximate cloning of entanglement is allowed by quantum mechanics. A universal entanglement cloning machine (UECM) duplicates an entangled state such that the quality of its entanglement replicas does not depend on the input. To duplicate entanglement shared between two parties, 1-to-N universal local entanglement cloning machine (ULECM) has already been proposed (Weedbrook, et al., Phys. Rev. A, 77, 052313 (2008)), which employs two local UECMs to copy each party of the entangled state. However, the ULECM can never preserve the inseparability in its replicas. Here, a 1-to-N universal global entanglement cloning machine (UGECM) that takes the entire entangled state as the input and then globally clone it to produce replicas is proposed. It is demonstrated that the UGECM outperforms the ULECM both in terms of the fidelity and the inseparability preservation. In addition, the UGECM is of more simple and easy structure, compared with the UGECM. Such a UGECM may find its new applications in quantum entanglement broadcasting.     

Tripartite Quantum Controlled Teleportation via Seven-Qubit Cluster State

In this paper, a theoretical scheme for tripartite quantum controlled teleportation is presented using the entanglement property of seven-qubit cluster state. This means that Alice wants to transmit a entangled state of particle a to Bob, Charlie wants to transmit a entangled state of particle b to David and Edison wants to transmit a entangled state of particle c to Ford via the control of the supervisor. In the end, we compared the aspects of quantum resource consumption, operation complexity, classical resource consumption, quantum information bits transmitted, success probability and efficiency with other schemes.     

Testing EPR locality using B-mesons

We study the possibility of testing local realistic theory (LRT) based on the Bell inequality for the correlations in the decay modes of entangled K or B-mesons. It is shown that such a test is possible for a restricted class of LRT, despite the passive nature of decay events and/or the non-unitary treatment of the correlations which invalidate the test for general LRT. Unfortunately, the present setup of the KEKB (Belle) experiment, where the coherence of entangled B-mesons has been confirmed recently, does not admit such a test due to the indeterminacy in the separate decay times of the entangled pairs.     

On-chip multiphoton Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state based on integrated frequency combs

One of the most important multipartite entangled states, Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state (GHZ), serves as a fundamental resource for quantum foundation test, quantum communication and quantum computation. To increase the number of entangled particles, significant experimental efforts should been invested due to the complexity of optical setup and the difficulty in maintaining the coherence condition for high-fidelity GHZ state. Here, we propose an ultra-integrated scalable on-chip GHZ state generation scheme based on frequency combs. By designing several microrings pumped by different lasers, multiple partially overlapped quantum frequency combs are generated to supply as the basis for on-chip polarization-encoded GHZ state with each qubit occupying a certain spectral mode. Both even and odd numbers of GHZ states can be engineered with constant small number of integrated components and easily scaled up on the same chip by only adjusting one of the pump wavelengths. In addition, we give the on-chip design of projection measurement for characterizing GHZ states and show the reconfigurability of the state. Our proposal is rather simple and feasible within the existing fabrication technologies and we believe it will boost the development of multiphoton technologies.     

Generalized tripartite scheme for sharing arbitrary 2n-qudit state

Utilizing three non-maximally entangled qutrit pairs as quantum channels, we first propose a generalized tripartite scheme for sharing an arbitrary two-qutrit state with generalized Bell-state measurements. In the scheme if and only if the two recipients collaborate together, they can recover the split qutrit state with the probability determined uniquely by the smallest coefficients of the non-maximally entangled pairs. Afterwards, we further extend the scheme for sharing an arbitrary 2n-qudit state by taking 3n non-maximally entangled qudit pairs as quantum channels. Moreover, the scheme success probability relative to the inherent entanglement in quantum channels and its structure is simply discussed.     

Quantum correlations from local amplitudes and the resolution of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen nonlocality puzzle

The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) nonlocality puzzle has been recognized as one of the most important unresolved issues in the foundational aspects of quantum mechanics. We show that the problem is more or less entirely resolved, if the quantum correlations are calculated directly from local quantities, which preserve the phase information in the quantum system. We assume strict locality for the probability amplitudes instead of local realism for the outcomes and calculate an amplitude correlation function. Then the experimentally observed correlation of outcomes is calculated from the square of the amplitude correlation function. Locality of amplitudes implies that measurement on one particle does not collapse the companion particle to a definite state. Apart from resolving the EPR puzzle, this approach shows that the physical interpretation of apparently “nonlocal” effects, such as quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping, are different from what is usually assumed. Bell-type measurements do not change distant states. Yet the correlations are correctly reproduced, when measured, if complex probability amplitudes are treated as the basic local quantities. As examples, we derive the quantum correlations of two-particle maximally entangled states and the three-particle Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entangled state.     

Scheme for implementing perfect quantum teleportation with four-qubit entangled states in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Recently, Peng et al. [2010 Eur. Phys. J. D 58 403] proposed to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state with a family of four-qubit entangled states, which simultaneously include the tensor product of two Bell states, linear cluster state and Dicke-class state. This paper proposes to implement their scheme in cavity quantum electrodynamics and then presents a new family of four-qubit entangled state |Ω₄>₁₂₃₄. It simultaneously includes all the well-known four-qubit entangled states which can be used to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state. The distinct advantage of the scheme is that it only needs a single setup to prepare the whole family of four-qubit entangled states, which will be very convenient for experimental realization. After discussing the experimental condition in detail, we show the scheme may be feasible based on present technology in cavity quantum electrodynamics.     

Beyond Causal Explanation: Einstein’s Principle Not Reichenbach’s

Our account provides a local, realist and fully non-causal principle explanation for EPR correlations, contextuality, no-signalling, and the Tsirelson bound. Indeed, the account herein is fully consistent with the causal structure of Minkowski spacetime. We argue that retrocausal accounts of quantum mechanics are problematic precisely because they do not fully transcend the assumption that causal or constructive explanation must always be fundamental. Unlike retrocausal accounts, our principle explanation is a complete rejection of Reichenbach’s Principle. Furthermore, we will argue that the basis for our principle account of quantum mechanics is the physical principle sought by quantum information theorists for their reconstructions of quantum mechanics. Finally, we explain why our account is both fully realist and psi-epistemic.     

A Generalization of Quantum Stein’s Lemma

Given many independent and identically-distributed (i.i.d.) copies of a quantum system described either by the state ρ or σ (called null and alternative hypotheses, respectively), what is the optimal measurement to learn the identity of the true state? In asymmetric hypothesis testing one is interested in minimizing the probability of mistakenly identifying ρ instead of σ, while requiring that the probability that σ is identified in the place of ρ is bounded by a small fixed number. Quantum Stein’s Lemma identifies the asymptotic exponential rate at which the specified error probability tends to zero as the quantum relative entropy of ρ and σ. We present a generalization of quantum Stein’s Lemma to the situation in which the alternative hypothesis is formed by a family of states, which can moreover be non-i.i.d. We consider sets of states which satisfy a few natural properties, the most important being the closedness under permutations of the copies. We then determine the error rate function in a very similar fashion to quantum Stein’s Lemma, in terms of the quantum relative entropy. Our result has two applications to entanglement theory. First it gives an operational meaning to an entanglement measure known as regularized relative entropy of entanglement. Second, it shows that this measure is faithful, being strictly positive on every entangled state. This implies, in particular, that whenever a multipartite state can be asymptotically converted into another entangled state by local operations and classical communication, the rate of conversion must be non-zero. Therefore, the operational definition of multipartite entanglement is equivalent to its mathematical definition.     

Entanglement in the linear-chain Heisenberg antiferromagnet Cu(C<Subscript>4</Subscript>H<Subscript>4</Subscript>N<Subscript>2</Subscript>)(NO<Subscript>3</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Quantum correlations are generally impossible to address directly in bulk systems. Quantum measures extended only to a few number of parties can be discussed in practice. In the present work we study a cluster of spins belonging to a compound whose structure is that of a quantum magnet. We reproduce at a much smaller scale the experimental outcomes and then we study the role of quantum correlations there. A macroscopic entanglement witness has been introduced in order to reveal quantum correlations at nonzero temperatures. The critical point beyond which entanglement is zero is found at T _c = 15 K.     

The estimates of correlations in two-dimensional Ising model

We investigate the correlation inequalities and the decay of correlations of stochastic Ising model in a rectangle with side length 2L×K(LlnL)^1/2, where K is some positive constant. With different boundary conditions, at inverse temperature β>β_c or β<β_c and zero external field, we show some estimates of the correlation functions for the two-dimensional Ising model.