Eliminating interactions between non-neighboring qubits in the preparation of cluster states in quantum molecules

We propose a scheme to eliminate the effect of non-nearest-neighbor qubits in preparing cluster state with double-dot molecules. As the interaction Hamiltonians between qubits are Ising-model and mutually commute, we can get positive and negative effective interactions between qubits to cancel the effect of non-nearest-neighbor qubits by properly changing the electron charge states of each quantum dot molecule. The total time for the present multi-step cluster state preparation scheme is only doubled for one-dimensional qubit chain and tripled for two-dimensional qubit array comparing with the time of previous protocol leaving out the non-nearest-neighbor interactions.     

Thermal entanglement of two interacting qubits in a static magnetic field

We study systematically the entanglement of a two-qubit Heisenberg XY model in thermal equilibrium in the presence of an external arbitrarily-directed static magnetic field, thereby generalizing our prior work [G. Lagmago Kamta, A.F. Starace, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 107901 (2002)]. We show that a magnetic field having a component in the xy-plane containing the spin-spin interaction components produces different entanglement for ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) couplings. In particular, quantum phase transitions induced by the magnetic field-driven level crossings always occur for the AFM-coupled qubits, but only occur in FM-coupled qubits when the coupling is of Ising type or when the magnetic field has a component perpendicular to the xy-plane. When the magnetic field has a component in the xy-plane, the cut-off temperature above which the entanglement of both the FM- and AFM-coupled qubits vanishes can always be controlled using the magnetic field for any value of the XY coupling anisotropy parameter. Thus, by adjusting the magnetic field, an entangled state of two spins can be produced at any finite temperature. Finally, we find that a higher level of entanglement is achieved when the in-plane component of the magnetic field is parallel to the direction in which the XY exchange coupling is smaller.     

Reading entanglement in terms of spin configurations in quantum magnets

We consider a quantum many-body system made of N interacting S=1/2 spins on a lattice, and develop a formalism which allows to extract, out of conventional magnetic observables, the quantum probabilities for any selected spin pair to be in maximally entangled or factorized two-spin states. This result is used in order to capture the meaning of entanglement properties in terms of magnetic behavior. In particular, we consider the concurrence between two spins and show how its expression extracts information on the presence of bipartite entanglement out of the probability distributions relative to specific sets of two-spin quantum states. We apply the above findings to the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in a uniform magnetic field, both on a chain and on a two-leg ladder. Using Quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we obtain the above probability distributions and the associated entanglement, discussing their evolution under application of the field.     

Entanglement and the Kondo effect in serially coupled double quantum dots

We investigate entanglement between electrons in serially coupled double quantum dots attached to noninteracting leads. In addition to local repulsion we consider the influence of capacitive inter-dot interaction. We show how the competition between extended Kondo and local singlet phases determines the ground state and thereby the entanglement. The results are additionally discussed in connection with the linear conductance through the system.     

Entanglement and transport through correlated quantum dot

We study quantum entanglement in a single-level quantum dot in the linear-response regime. The results show, that the maximal quantum value of the conductance 2e²/h not always match the maximal entanglement. The pairwise entanglement between the quantum dot and the nearest atom of the lead is also analyzed by utilizing the Wootters formula for charge and spin degrees of freedom separately. The coexistence of zero concurrence and the maximal conductance is observed for low values of the dot-lead hybridization. Moreover, the pairwise concurrence vanish simultaneously for charge and spin degrees of freedom, when the Kondo resonance is present in the system. The values of a Kondo temperature, corresponding to the zero-concurrence boundary, are also provided.     

On the optimality of individual entangling-probe attacks against BB84 quantum key distribution

Some MIT researchers [Phys. Rev. A 75, 042327 (2007)] have recently claimed that their implementation of the Slutsky-Brandt attack [Phys. Rev. A 57, 2383 (1998); Phys. Rev. A 71, 042312 (2005)] to the BB84 quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocol puts the security of this protocol “to the test” by simulating “the most powerful individual-photon attack” [Phys. Rev. A 73, 012315 (2006)]. A related unfortunate news feature by a scientific journal [G. Brumfiel, Quantum cryptography is hacked, News @ Nature (april 2007); Nature 447, 372 (2007)] has spurred some concern in the QKD community and among the general public by misinterpreting the implications of this work. The present article proves the existence of a stronger individual attack on QKD protocols with encrypted error correction, for which tight bounds are shown, and clarifies why the claims of the news feature incorrectly suggest a contradiction with the established “old-style” theory of BB84 individual attacks. The full implementation of a quantum cryptographic protocol includes a reconciliation and a privacy-amplification stage, whose choice alters in general both the maximum extractable secret and the optimal eavesdropping attack. The authors of [Phys. Rev. A 75, 042327 (2007)] are concerned only with the error-free part of the so-called sifted string, and do not consider faulty bits, which, in the version of their protocol, are discarded. When using the provably superior reconciliation approach of encrypted error correction (instead of error discard), the Slutsky-Brandt attack is no more optimal and does not “threaten” the security bound derived by Lütkenhaus [Phys. Rev. A 59, 3301 (1999)]. It is shown that the method of Slutsky and collaborators [Phys. Rev. A 57, 2383 (1998)] can be adapted to reconciliation with error correction, and that the optimal entangling probe can be explicitly found. Moreover, this attack fills Lütkenhaus bound, proving that it is tight (a fact which was not previously known).     

Full separability criterion for tripartite quantum systems

In this paper, an intuitive approach is employed to generalize the full separability criterion of tripartite quantum states of qubits to the higher-dimensional systems [Phys. Rev. A 72, 022333 (2005)]. A distinct characteristic of the present generalization is that less restrictive conditions are needed to characterize the properties of full separability. Furthermore, the formulation for pure states can be conveniently extended to the case of mixed states by utilizing the Kronecker product approximate technique. As applications, we give the analytic approximation of the criterion for weakly mixed tripartite quantum states and investigate the full separability of some weakly mixed states.     

Postponement of dark-count effects in practical quantum key-distribution by two-way post-processing

The influence of imperfections on achievable secret-key generation rates of quantum key distribution protocols is investigated. As examples of relevant imperfections, we consider tagging of Alice's qubits and dark counts at Bob's detectors, while we focus on a powerful eavesdropping strategy which takes full advantage of tagged signals. It is demonstrated that error correction and privacy amplification based on a combination of a two-way classical communication protocol and asymmetric Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes may significantly postpone the disastrous influence of dark counts. As a result, the distances are increased considerably over which a secret key can be distributed in optical fibres reliably. Results are presented for the four-state, the six-state, and the decoy-state protocols.     

Entanglement-Assisted Classical Capacity of a Generalized Amplitude Damping Channel

The entanglement-assisted capacity of a generalized amplitude damping channel is investigated by using the properties of partial symmetry and concavity of mutual information. The numerical and analytical results of the entanglement-assisted capacity are obtained under certain conditions. It is shown that the entanglement-assisted capacity depends on the channel parameters representing the ambient temperature and dissipation, and the prior entanglement between sender and receiver can approximately double the classical capacity of the generalized amplitude damping channel.     

Quantum state reconstruction by entangled measurements

We address quantum state reconstruction for d-dimensional systems based on measuring, on the system of interest and a probe, of a single entangled observable defined on the bipartite system/probe Hilbert space. We show that the statistics of the measurement and the knowledge of the probe preparation suffice to reliably reconstruct the density matrix of the system, as well as the expectation value of any desired operator, including those not corresponding to observable quantities. The statistical robustness of the reconstruction is examined and a method is developed to minimize statistical errors by tuning the probe preparation. Numerical simulations of the whole reconstruction procedure are also presented for qubit systems.     

Random unitary qubit channels: entropy relations,private quantum channels and non-malleability

Channels encrypting quantum bits by the application of randomly chosen unitary operators are studied. Quantities based on averages of linear entropies which characterize certain aspects of the encoding quality and the non-malleability of the channels are introduced. The relation between the entropy of the classical key and the choice of the encryption operators with the behaviour of these properties is discussed. The extension of exact private quantum channels in order to improve non-malleability via additional encryption operators is considered.     

Generation of maximally entangled atom pairs in driven dissipative cavity QED systems

We investigate the entanglement of an open tripartite system where a cavity field mode in thermal equilibrium is off-resonantly coupled with two atoms that are simultaneously driven by a resonant coherent field. For moderately detuned atom-field coupling and strong atomic driving we show the generation, at given interaction times and for low enough cavity decay rates, of atomic Bell states and of Bell state superpositions relevant for quantum gates implementation. The system can oscillate between bi-separable and fully separable states. Also we describe the distribution of quantum correlations between the atom-atom and the two atom-field subsystems. In the dispersive coupling regime with strongly driven atoms we show the generation of nearly stationary Bell states which remain protected from cavity dissipation.     

Teleportation of a cat-state via attenuated quantum channel using only threshold detectors

An experimental scheme is proposed for faithful teleportation of a unknown optical cat-state via attenuated quantum channel due to energy loss or photon absorption during the process of entanglement sharing. The scheme is probabilistic, yet conclusive, and the effective classical communication costs just Log₂3 bits, instead of five bits which are necessary for full record of the measurement outcome. The scheme uses only threshold (i.e., yes/no) detectors so that exact photon counting is not needed. However, it requires application of a nonlinear element called cross-phase modulator. Feasibility of the scheme is also discussed with respect to EIT-based modern techniques.     

Generation of field cluster states through collective operation of cavity QED disentanglement eraser

We investigate effects of a collective disentanglement eraser performed over states of two pairs of pre-entangled cavities tagged independently with two identical three-level atoms. It is shown that the collective disentanglement operation ensures not only the recovery of initial coherence but also its extension from the initial two to four qubits, generating four-qubit field cluster states. We also propose a cavity QED scheme to generate an arbitrary field graph state by means of a collective operation of disentanglement erasers.     

Perfect teleportation of arbitrary n-qudit states using different quantum channels

We propose a protocol Dn for faithfully teleporting an arbitrary n-qudit state with the tensor product state (TPS) of n generalized Bell states (GBSs) as the quantum channel. We also put forward explicit protocols and for faithfully teleporting an arbitrary n-qudit state with two classes of 2n-qudit GESs as the quantum channel, where the GESs we constructed are a kind of genuine entangled states which cannot be reducible to the TPS of n GBSs.     

Entanglement dynamics under decoherence: from qubits to qudits

We investigate the time evolution of entanglement for bipartite systems of arbitrary dimensions under the influence of decoherence. For qubits, we determine the precise entanglement decay rates under different system-environment couplings, including finite temperature effects. For qudits, we show how to obtain upper bounds for the decay rates and also present exact solutions for various classes of states.     

Quantum teleportation for continuous variables and related quantum information processing

Quantum teleportation is one of the most important subjects in quantum information science. This is because quantum teleportation can be regarded as not only quantum information transfer but also a building block for universal quantum information processing. Furthermore, deterministic quantum information processing is very important for efficient processing and it can be realized with continuous-variable quantum information processing. In this review, quantum teleportation for continuous variables and related quantum information processing are reviewed from these points of view.     

Quantum entanglement and classical bifurcations in a coupled two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the relation between quantum states and classical fixed-point bifurcations in a coupled two-component Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). It is shown that the classical bifurcations are closely related to a topological change of the corresponding quantum levels, and such a structure change can be manifested in the entanglement properties of the corresponding quantum states. That is, the entanglement of the quantum states displays some peaks near the classical bifurcation points.     

Long-distance quantum communication in a decoherence-free subspace

We show how to realize long-distance quantum communication using a long-lived quantum memory, which is embedded in a decoherence-free subspace (DFS). Neutral atoms were used in the present scheme, whose interactions are catalyzed by single photons or weak coherent light. The generation, purification and swapping of logical entangled states are performed with help of cavity-assisted photon scattering which is robust to random variation in the atom-photon coupling rate.     

Entanglement dynamics for a solid polariton system at zero and finite temperatures

The dynamics of the entanglement for a solid polariton system is investigated. The polariton system is a photon-phonon complex and its time-dependent characteristic function in the Wigner representation for the system is obtained analytically. It is found that when the photon field is initially prepared in the squeezed vacuum state, and the phonon in the thermal state, the polariton system can evolve into a two-mode Gaussian mixed state. The entanglement between photon and phonon turns out to be apparently dependent on the squeezing parameter and exhibits a critical behavior with respect to the temperature.