Quantum Physics

We describe the measurement statistics of the balanced homodyne detection scheme in terms of the moment operators of the associated positive operator measures. In particular, we give a mathematically rigorous proof for the fact that the high amplitude limit in the local oscillator leads to a measurement of a rotated quadrature operator of the signal _eld. Using these results, we also show that each covariant phase space observable can be measured with the eight-port homodyne detector.

One of the most significant questions in quantum information is about the origin of the computational power of the quantum computer; namely, from which feature of quantum mechanics and how does the quantum computer obtain its superior computational potential compared with the classical computer? In my talk, I address this open question more concisely through the study of measurement-based quantum computer, in which all the quantum resource is attributed to entanglement since computation is carried through its consumption by local measurements. I also show a simple model of the phase transition of quantum computer occurring at some threshold, below which the quantum computer comes to allow an efficient classical simulation in accordance with an exponential drop in the amount of entanglement.

Quantum fields in the Minkowski vacuum are entangled with respect to local field modes. This entanglement can be swapped to spatially separated quantum systems using standard local couplings. A single, inertial field detector in the exponentially expanding (de Sitter) vacuum responds as if it were bathed in thermal radiation in a Minkowski universe. Using two inertial detectors, interactions with the field in the thermal case will entangle certain detector pairs that would not become entangled in the corresponding de Sitter case.The two universes can thus be distinguished by their entangling power.

First, a brief description of Bell\'s theorem will be given. It states states that there is no classical-like (local realistic) description of all quantum predictions. Next, a plausible class of non-local realistic models will be presented which is incompatible with quantum mechanics, as first shown by Leggett. Experiments confirming the incompatibility will be described. Finally, it will be argued that quantum mechanics can be seen as a theory of systems with limited information resources.

We attempt at characterizing the correlations present in the quantum computational model DQC1, introduced by Knill and Laflamme [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5672 (1998)]. The model involves a collection of qubits in the completely mixed state coupled to a single control qubit that has nonzero purity. Although there is little or no entanglement between two parts of this system, it provides an exponential speedup in certain problems. On the contrary, we find that the quantum discord across the most natural split is nonzero for typical instances of the DQC1 ciruit. Nonzero values of discord indicate the presence of nonclassical correlations. We propose quantum discord as figure of merit for characterizing the resources present in this computational model. This might be a complementary measure for counting resources in quantum information science.

We derive a set of Bell inequalities using correlated random variables. Our inequalities are necessary conditions for the existence of a local realistic description of projective measurements on qubits. We analyze our inequalities for the case of two qubits and find that they are equivalent to the well known CHSH inequalities. We also discuss the sufficiency of our inequalities as well as their applicability to more than two qubits.

A class of operations distinct to entangled states shared between more than two parties is their conversion to entangled states shared between fewer parties. The extent to which these can be achieved in the regime of local operations and classical communication provides an operational characterisation of multiparty states, for example in the \"entanglement of assistance\" and related quantities. I will give a brief overview of this topic and discuss our results showing qualitatively different behaviour when the parties receiving the final state are not chosen beforehand.

Several finite dimensional quasi-probability representations of quantum states have been proposed to study various problems in quantum information theory and quantum foundations. These representations are often defined only on restricted dimensions and their physical significance in contexts such as drawing quantum-classical comparisons is limited by the non-uniqueness of the particular representation. Here we show how the mathematical theory of frames provides a unified formalism which accommodates all known quasi-probability representations of finite dimensional quantum systems.

We will compare quantum phase estimation from the point of view of quantum computation and quantum metrology. In the simplest cases, the former can be simplified to a sequential (unentangled) protocol, while the latter is parallel (entangled). We show that both protocols can be formally related with circuit identities and that they respond in exactly the same way to decoherence. We present sequential protocols for optimal estimation and frame synchronization in DQC1. Finally, we introduce new estimation protocols based on nonlinear Hamiltonians. We show that both optimal input states and product states with separable measurements improve the scaling of linear Hamiltonians. We will comment on the effect of decoherence in nonlinear protocols, and the role of entanglement in nonlinear protocols with product states.

A new microcanonical equilibrium state is introduced for quantum systems with finite-dimensional state spaces. Equilibrium is characterised by a uniform distribution on a level surface of the expectation value of the Hamiltonian. The distinguishing feature of the proposed equilibrium state is that the corresponding density of states is a continuous function of the energy, and hence thermodynamic functions are well defined for finite quantum systems. The density of states, however, is not in general an analytic function. It is demonstrated that generic quantum systems therefore exhibit second-order phase transitions at finite temperatures. The talk is based on work carried out in collaboration with D.W. Hook and L.P. Hughston.

What if the second law of thermodynamics, in the hierarchy of physical laws, were at the same level as the fundamental laws of mechanics, such as the great conservation principles? What if entropy were an intrinsic property of matter at the same level as energy is universally understood to be? What if irreversibility were an intrinsic feature of the microscopic dynamical law of all physical objects, including an individual qubit or qudit? This talk will show how positive answers to these questions need not contradict any of the known results of quantum mechanics. We construct a logically consistent, mathematically sound and definite, physically intriguing, non-relativistic and non-statistical quantum theory, in which the second law of thermodynamics is embedded as a fundamental microscopical law. The theory hinges upon a nonlinear extension of unitary Hamiltonian dynamics which for uncorrelated and noninteracting systems reduces to the usual Schroedinger equation for the zero entropy states, but in general generates a group (not a semi group) of irreversible time evolutions, where the non-Hamiltonian entropy generating term in the evolution equation attracts the state towards the direction of maximal entropy increase. Various examples and features of this highly non-conventional dynamical theory are discussed. References available at http://www.quantumthermodynamics.org/