Complementarity between micro-micro and micro-macro entanglement in a Bose–Einstein condensate with two Rydberg impurities

We theoretically study complementarity between micro-micro and micro-macro entanglement in a Bose–Einstein condensate with two Rydberg impurities. We investigate quantum dynamics of micro-micro and micro-macro entanglement in the micro-macro system. It is found that strong micro-macro entanglement between Rydberg impurities and the BEC can be generated by the use of initial micro-micro entanglement between two Rydberg impurities, which acts as the seed entanglement to create micro-macro entanglement. We demonstrate a curious complementarity relation between micro-micro and micro-macro entanglement, and find that the complementarity property can be sustained to some extent even though in the presence of the BEC decoherence.     

Proposal for inverting the quantum cloning of photons

We propose an experiment where a photon is first cloned by stimulated parametric down-conversion, making many (imperfect) copies, and then the cloning transformation is inverted, regenerating the original photon while destroying the copies. Focusing on the case where the initial photon is entangled with another photon, we study the conditions under which entanglement can be proven in the final state. The proposed experiment would provide a clear demonstration that quantum information is preserved in quantum cloning. It would furthermore allow a definitive experimental proof for micro-macro entanglement in the intermediate multiphoton state, which is still an outstanding challenge. Finally, it might provide a quantum detection technique for small differences in transmission (e.g., in biological samples), whose sensitivity scales better with the number of photons used than a classical transmission measurement.     

光学体系宏观-微观纠缠及其在量子密钥分配中的应用

宏观-微观纠缠最早起源于“薛定谔的猫”思想实验, 是指在宏观体系与微观体系之间建立量子纠缠. 实现宏观-微观纠缠可以利用多种物理体系来完成, 本文重点介绍了在光学体系中制备和检验宏观-微观纠缠的发展过程. 从最初的受激辐射单光子量子克隆到光学参量放大, 再到相空间的位移操作, 实验上制备宏观-微观纠缠的方法取得了长足的进步. 利用非线性光学参量放大过程制备的宏观-微观纠缠的光子数可以达到10⁴量级, 人眼已经可以观察到, 因此使用人眼作为探测器来检验宏观-微观纠缠的实验开始出现. 但随后人们意识到, 粗精度的光子数探测器, 例如人眼, 无法严格判定宏观-微观纠缠的存在. 为了解决这个难题, 提出了一种巧妙的方法, 即在制备宏-微观纠缠后, 利用局域操作过程将宏观态再变为微观态, 通过判定微观纠缠存在的方法来判定宏微观纠缠的存在. 之后相空间的位移操作方法将宏观态的粒子数提高到10⁸, 并且实现了纠缠的严格检验. 利用光机械实现宏观-微观纠缠的方案也被提出. 由于量子密钥分配中纠缠是必要条件, 而宏观-微观纠缠态光子数较多这一优势可能会对量子密钥分配的传输距离有所提高. 本文介绍了利用相位纠缠的相干态来进行量子秘钥分配的方案, 探讨了利用宏观-微观纠缠实现量子密钥分配的可能性.     

Quantum dynamics of an impurity-doped Bose-Einstein condensate system

We study the quantum dynamics of an impurity-doped Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) system. We show how to generate the macroscopic quantum superposition states (MQSSs) of the BEC by the use of projective measurements on impurity atoms. It is found that the nonclassicality of MQSSs can be manipulated by changing the number of the impurities and their interaction with the BEC. It is shown that the BEC matter-wave field exhibits a collapse and revival phenomenon which reveals the quantum nature of the BEC matter-wave field. We investigate the micro-macro entanglement between the impurities and the BEC, and find enhancement of the micro-macro entanglement induced by the initial quantum coherence of the impurity atoms.     

An atom and a photon

The coherent control of single-photon emitters as, e.g., single ions or atoms, is a crucial element for mapping quantum information between light and matter. The possibility of generating entanglement between a photon and the emitter system provides an interface between matter-based quantum memories and photonic quantum communication channels, which is the essential resource for quantum repeaters and other future quantum information applications. To generate entangled atom-photon states, in our experiment, we store a single ⁸⁷Rb atom in an optical dipole trap. The single-atom/single-photon character is confirmed by the observation of photon antibunching in the detected fluorescence light. The spectral properties of single photons emitted by the atom allowed us to determine the mean kinetic energy of the atom corresponding to 105 μK. We describe a single-atom state analysis method which allowed us to characterize the entanglement between the atom and a single photon emitted in the spontaneous decay. We obtain an entanglement fidelity of 89% that clearly shows the high degree of entanglement in our system and potential for further applications in quantum communication.     

Entanglement in a system of two two-level atoms interacting with a single-mode field

We investigate the entanglement in a system of two coupling atoms interacting with a single-mode field by means of quantum information entropy theory. The quantum entanglement between the two atoms and the coherent field is discussed by using the quantum reduced entropy, and the entanglement between the two coupling atoms is also investigated by using the quantum relative entropy. In addition, the influences of the atomic dipole--dipole interaction intensity and the average photon number of the coherent field on the degree of the entanglement is examined. The results show that the evolution of the degree of entanglement between the two atoms and the field is just opposite to that of the degree of entanglement between the two atoms. And the properties of the quantum entanglement in the system rely on the atomic dipole--dipole interaction and the average photon number of the coherent field.     

Atom-photon entanglement in the system with competing k-photon and l-photon transitions

We have investigated the evolution of the atomic quantum entropy and the entanglement of atom-photon in the system with competing k-photon and l-photon transitions by means of fully quantum theory, and examined the effects of competing photon numbers （k and l）, the relative coupling strength between the atom and the two-mode field （A/g）, and the initial photon number of the field on the atomic quantum entropy and the entanglement of atom-photon. The results show that the multiphoton competing transitions or the large relative coupling strength can lead to the strong entanglement between atoms and photons. The maximal atom-photon entanglement can be prepared via the appropriate selection of system parameters and interaction time.     

Modulation of entanglement and quantum discord for circuit cavity QED states

The paper investigates the dynamic evolution behaviors of entanglement and quantum discord of coupled superconducting qubits in circuit QED system. We put emphasis on the effects of cavity field quantum state on quantum entanglement and quantum correlations dynamic behaviors of coupling superconducting qubits. The results show that, (1) generally speaking, the entanglement will appear the death and new birth because of the interaction between qubits and cavity field, on the contrary, this phenomenon will not appear in quantum discord. (2) When the cavity field is in coherent state, the entanglement survival time is controlled by the average photon number. The more the average photon number is, the longer survival time of entanglement is prolonged. Thus it has the benefit of keeping quantum correlations. (3) When the cavity field is in squeezed state, the squeezed amplitude parameters have controlling effects on quantum correlations including entanglement and quantum discord. On the one hand, the increase of squeezed amplitude parameters can prolong the survival time of entanglement, on the other hand, with the increase of squeezed amplitude parameters, the robustness of quantum discord is more and more superior to concurrence and is more advantage to keep the system quantum correlations. The further study results show that the increase of the initial relative phase of coupling superconducting qubits can also keep the quantum correlations.     

Cloning the entanglement of a pair of d-dimensional quantum systems

We derive a quantum cloning machine that maximizes the entanglement of formation of the two copies of any maximally entangled input state, while preserving the separability of all unentangled input states. In addition, it is proven to optimally duplicate the entanglement of formation of all isotropic input states. For large d, the cloning machine behaves classically and outperforms a local entanglement cloner, studied for comparison. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

一种基于纠缠态的量子中继通信系统

提出了一种基于纠缠态的量子中继通信系统,该系统应用纠缠为基本资源.纠缠为量子隐形传态和绝对安全的量子通信提供了保证.量子中继器用来延长高纠缠度的纠缠光子对的纠缠距离,利用纠缠交换和纠缠纯化在系统的发信者与受信者之间建立光子对的纠缠.应用量子隐形传态的原理传输量子信息.系统分析表明,量子通信系统的吞吐率随着通信双方成功建立纠缠的概率增大而显著增加,量子信号的传输距离取决于量子中继节点的级数.     

Geometrical quantum discord and negativity of two separable and mixed qubits

We studied quantum correlation and quantum entanglement of a quantum system in which a coherent state light field interacts with two qubits that are initially prepared in a separable and mixed state.The influence of mean photon number of the coherent field and distribution probability of the atom on the geometrical quantum discord and the negativity are discussed.Our results show that the mean photon number of light field and distribution function of the atom can regulate and control the quantum correlation and quantum entanglement.     

Approximate Disentanglement

We construct a quantum machine which, by using an asymmetric cloner, disentangles an entangled state and nearly retains it. The attainable maximum value of the scaling parameter for disentangling is identical to that obtained in previous works. The fidelity of the output residual entangled state with respect to the input entangled state is state-dependent. The result shows that it is possible to deal with disentanglement and broadcasting entanglement in a single unitary evolution.     

"量身定做"单光子波包:在量子网络中控制光子/自旋量子界面

文章简要地介绍了如何在量子网络中控制量子界面动力学以实现静态量子比特和动态量子比特的相互转换．具体言之，该界面由半导体量子点、固体光学微腔以及光学波导管构成，静态及动态比特分别为量子点中的电子自旋和波导管中的单光子波包所携带．界面动力学的控制则是基于对量子点、微腔和波导管耦合系统的量子电动力学的严格求解．据此可实现网络中两个远距离节点间的量子态传输、交换以及确定性的建立量子纠缠等量子操作．上述量子界面亦可用于任意指定波形的单光子源或者单光子探测装置。     

Memory-based quantum repeater in quantum information communication

This paper studies the quantum repeater in quantum information communication. We propose to introduce the photon buffer mechanism for storing photons, which uses fibre delay loops as photon memories and a programmable 1×N switcher for distributing photon delay time. Meanwhile, we also consider entanglement purification and entanglement swapping restoration at an entanglement purification or entanglement swapping failure and introduce a protection link mechanism that allows the photonic quantum repeater of a broken connection to initiate a connection restoration process.     

Optimal quantum cloning on a beam splitter

We demonstrate how a beam splitter in combination with different light sources can be used as an optimal universal 1-->2 quantum cloner and as an optimal universal quantum NOT machine for the polarization qubit of a single photon. For the cloning a source of single photons with maximally mixed polarization is required and for the NOT operation a source of maximally entangled photon pairs. We demonstrate both operations with near optimal fidelity. Our scheme can be generalized in a natural way to clone and NOT the spin state of electrons.     

Coherence of an entangled exciton-photon state

We study the effect of the exciton fine-structure splitting on the polarization entanglement of photon pairs produced by the biexciton cascade in a quantum dot. Entanglement persists despite separations between the intermediate energy levels of up to 4 microeV. Measurements show that entanglement of the photon pair is robust to the dephasing of the intermediate exciton state responsible for the first-order coherence time of either single photon. We present a theoretical framework incorporating the effects of spin scattering, background light, and dephasing. We distinguish between the first-order coherence time, and a parameter which we measure for the first time and define as the cross-coherence time.     

Entanglement entropy converges to classical entropy around periodic orbits

We consider oscillators evolving subject to a periodic driving force that dynamically entangles them, and argue that this gives the linearized evolution around periodic orbits in a general chaotic Hamiltonian dynamical system. We show that the entanglement entropy, after tracing over half of the oscillators, generically asymptotes to linear growth at a rate given by the sum of the positive Lyapunov exponents of the system. These exponents give a classical entropy growth rate, in the sense of Kolmogorov, Sinai and Pesin. We also calculate the dependence of this entropy on linear mixtures of the oscillator Hilbert-space factors, to investigate the dependence of the entanglement entropy on the choice of coarse graining. We find that for almost all choices the asymptotic growth rate is the same.     

Remote entanglement between a single atom and a Bose-Einstein condensate

Entanglement between stationary systems at remote locations is a key resource for quantum networks. We report on the experimental generation of remote entanglement between a single atom inside an optical cavity and a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). To produce this, a single photon is created in the atom-cavity system, thereby generating atom-photon entanglement. The photon is transported to the BEC and converted into a collective excitation in the BEC, thus establishing matter-matter entanglement. After a variable delay, this entanglement is converted into photon-photon entanglement. The matter-matter entanglement lifetime of 100 μs exceeds the photon duration by 2 orders of magnitude. The total fidelity of all concatenated operations is 95%. This hybrid system opens up promising perspectives in the field of quantum information.     

Concepts of coarse graining in quantum mechanics

Various procedures of coarse graining in quantum mechanics and their relationships are reviewed. A recently developed notion of relative coarse graining is described which is based on a certain type of classical embedding of quantum states. The ensuing structure of the set of quantum observables is studied. As an application of the new concept an operational classical limit procedure is sketched out.