Toward the Device-Independent Certification of a Quantum Memory.

Quantum memories represent one of the main ingredients of future quantum communication networks. Their certification is therefore a key challenge. Here we develop efficient certification methods for quantum memories. Considering a device-independent approach, where no a priori characterization of sources or measurement devices is required, we develop a robust self-testing method for quantum memories. We then illustrate the practical relevance of our technique in a relaxed scenario by certifying a fidelity of 0.87 in a recent solid-state ensemble quantum memory experiment. More generally, our methods apply for the characterization of any device implementing a qubit identity quantum channel.

Partial Self-Testing and Randomness Certification in the Triangle Network.

Quantum nonlocality can be demonstrated without inputs (i.e., each party using a fixed measurement setting) in a network with independent sources. Here we consider this effect on ring networks, and show that the underlying quantum strategy can be partially characterized, or self-tested, from observed correlations. Applying these results to the triangle network allows us to show that the nonlocal distribution of Renou et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 140401 (2019)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.123.140401] requires that (i) all sources produce a minimal amount of entanglement, (ii) all local measurements are entangled, and (iii) each local outcome features a minimal entropy. Hence we show that the triangle network allows for genuine network quantum nonlocality and certifiable randomness.

Unlimited One-Way Steering.

This work explores the asymmetry of quantum steering in a setup using high-dimensional entanglement. We construct entangled states with the following properties: (i) one party (Bob) can never steer the state of the other party (Alice), considering the most general measurements, and (ii) Alice can strongly steer the state of Bob, in the sense of demonstrating genuine high-dimensional steering. In other words, Alice can convince Bob that they share an entangled state of arbitrarily high Schmidt number, while Bob can never convince Alice that the state is even simply entangled. In this sense, one-way steering can become unlimited. A key result for our construction is a condition for the joint measurability of all high-dimensional measurements subjected to the combined effect of noise and loss, which is of independent interest.

Operational Definition of the Temperature of a Quantum State.

Temperature is usually defined for physical systems at thermal equilibrium. Nevertheless one may wonder if it would be possible to attribute a meaningful notion of temperature to an arbitrary quantum state, beyond simply the thermal (Gibbs) state. In this Letter, we propose such a notion of temperature considering an operational task, inspired by the zeroth law of thermodynamics. Specifically, we define two effective temperatures for quantifying the ability of a quantum system to cool down or heat up a thermal environment. In this way we can associate an operationally meaningful notion of temperature to any quantum density matrix. We provide general expressions for these effective temperatures, for both single- and many-copy systems, establishing connections to concepts previously discussed in the literature. Finally, we consider a more sophisticated scenario where the heat exchange between the system and the thermal environment is assisted by a quantum reference frame. This leads to an effect of "coherent quantum catalysis," where the use of a coherent catalyst allows for exploiting quantum energetic coherences in the system, now leading to much colder or hotter effective temperatures. We demonstrate our findings using a two-level atom coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field.

Simulability of High-Dimensional Quantum Measurements.

We investigate the compression of quantum information with respect to a given set M of high-dimensional measurements. This leads to a notion of simulability, where we demand that the statistics obtained from M and an arbitrary quantum state ρ are recovered exactly by first compressing ρ into a lower-dimensional space, followed by some quantum measurements. A full quantum compression is possible, i.e., leaving only classical information, if and only if the set M is jointly measurable. Our notion of simulability can thus be seen as a quantification of measurement incompatibility in terms of dimension. After defining these concepts, we provide an illustrative example involving mutually unbiased bases, and develop a method based on semidefinite programming for constructing simulation models. In turn we analytically construct optimal simulation models for all projective measurements subjected to white noise or losses. Finally, we discuss how our approach connects with other concepts introduced in the context of quantum channels and quantum correlations.

Semi-Device-Independent Certification of Causal Nonseparability with Trusted Quantum Inputs.

While the standard formulation of quantum theory assumes a fixed background causal structure, one can relax this assumption within the so-called process matrix framework. Remarkably, some processes, termed causally nonseparable, are incompatible with a definite causal order. We explore a form of certification of causal nonseparability in a semi-device-independent scenario where the involved parties receive trusted quantum inputs, but whose operations are otherwise uncharacterized. Defining the notion of causally nonseparable distributed measurements, we show that certain causally nonseparable processes that cannot violate any causal inequality, including the canonical example of the quantum switch, can generate noncausal correlations in such a scenario. Moreover, by imposing some further natural structure to the untrusted operations, we show that all bipartite causally nonseparable process matrices can be certified with trusted quantum inputs.

Network Quantum Steering.

The development of large-scale quantum networks promises to bring a multitude of technological applications as well as shed light on foundational topics, such as quantum nonlocality. It is particularly interesting to consider scenarios where sources within the network are statistically independent, which leads to so-called network nonlocality, even when parties perform fixed measurements. Here we promote certain parties to be trusted and introduce the notion of network steering and network local hidden state (NLHS) models within this paradigm of independent sources. In one direction, we show how the results from Bell nonlocality and quantum steering can be used to demonstrate network steering. We further show that it is a genuinely novel effect by exhibiting unsteerable states that nevertheless demonstrate network steering based upon entanglement swapping yielding a form of activation. On the other hand, we provide no-go results for network steering in a large class of scenarios by explicitly constructing NLHS models.

Experimental relativistic zero-knowledge proofs.

Protecting secrets is a key challenge in our contemporary information-based era. In common situations, however, revealing secrets appears unavoidable; for instance, when identifying oneself in a bank to retrieve money. In turn, this may have highly undesirable consequences in the unlikely, yet not unrealistic, case where the bank's security gets compromised. This naturally raises the question of whether disclosing secrets is fundamentally necessary for identifying oneself, or more generally for proving a statement to be correct. Developments in computer science provide an elegant solution via the concept of zero-knowledge proofs: a prover can convince a verifier of the validity of a certain statement without facilitating the elaboration of a proof at all1. In this work, we report the experimental realization of such a zero-knowledge protocol involving two separated verifier-prover pairs2. Security is enforced via the physical principle of special relativity3, and no computational assumption (such as the existence of one-way functions) is required. Our implementation exclusively relies on off-the-shelf equipment and works at both short (60 m) and long distances (≥400 m) in about one second. This demonstrates the practical potential of multi-prover zero-knowledge protocols, promising for identification tasks and blockchain applications such as cryptocurrencies or smart contracts4.

Quantum Speed-Up in Collisional Battery Charging.

We present a collision model for the charging of a quantum battery by identical nonequilibrium qubit units. When the units are prepared in a mixture of energy eigenstates, the energy gain in the battery can be described by a classical random walk, where both average energy and variance grow linearly with time. Conversely, when the qubits contain quantum coherence, interference effects buildup in the battery and lead to a faster spreading of the energy distribution, reminiscent of a quantum random walk. This can be exploited for faster and more efficient charging of a battery initialized in the ground state. Specifically, we show that coherent protocols can yield higher charging power than any possible incoherent strategy, demonstrating a quantum speed-up at the level of a single battery. Finally, we characterize the amount of extractable work from the battery through the notion of ergotropy.

Genuine High-Dimensional Quantum Steering.

High-dimensional quantum entanglement can give rise to stronger forms of nonlocal correlations compared to qubit systems, offering significant advantages for quantum information processing. Certifying these stronger correlations, however, remains an important challenge, in particular in an experimental setting. Here we theoretically formalize and experimentally demonstrate a notion of genuine high-dimensional quantum steering. We show that high-dimensional entanglement, as quantified by the Schmidt number, can lead to a stronger form of steering, provably impossible to obtain via entanglement in lower dimensions. Exploiting the connection between steering and incompatibility of quantum measurements, we derive simple two-setting steering inequalities, the violation of which guarantees the presence of genuine high-dimensional steering, and hence certifies a lower bound on the Schmidt number in a one-sided device-independent setting. We report the experimental violation of these inequalities using macropixel photon-pair entanglement certifying genuine high-dimensional steering. In particular, using an entangled state in dimension d=31, our data certifies a minimum Schmidt number of n=15.

Set Coherence: Basis-Independent Quantification of Quantum Coherence.

The coherence of an individual quantum state can be meaningfully discussed only when referring to a preferred basis. This arbitrariness can, however, be lifted when considering sets of quantum states. Here we introduce the concept of set coherence for characterizing the coherence of a set of quantum systems in a basis-independent way. We construct measures for quantifying set coherence of sets of quantum states as well as quantum measurements. These measures feature an operational meaning in terms of discrimination games and capture precisely the advantage offered by a given set over incoherent ones. Along the way, we also connect the notion of set coherence to various resource-theoretic approaches recently developed for quantum systems.

All Quantum Resources Provide an Advantage in Exclusion Tasks.

A key ingredient in quantum resource theories is a notion of measure. Such as a measure should have a number of fundamental properties, and desirably also a clear operational meaning. Here we show that a natural measure known as the convex weight, which quantifies the resource cost of a quantum device, has all the desired properties. In particular, the convex weight of any quantum resource corresponds exactly to the relative advantage it offers in an exclusion (or antidistinguishability) task. After presenting the general result, we show how the construction works for state assemblages, sets of measurements, and sets of transformations. Moreover, in order to bound the convex weight analytically, we give a complete characterization of the convex components and corresponding weights of such devices.

Self-testing nonprojective quantum measurements in prepare-and-measure experiments.

Self-testing represents the strongest form of certification of a quantum system. Here, we theoretically and experimentally investigate self-testing of nonprojective quantum measurements. That is, how can one certify, from observed data only, that an uncharacterized measurement device implements a desired nonprojective positive-operator valued measure (POVM). We consider a prepare-and-measure scenario with a bound on the Hilbert space dimension and develop methods for (i) robustly self-testing extremal qubit POVMs and (ii) certifying that an uncharacterized qubit measurement is nonprojective. Our methods are robust to noise and thus applicable in practice, as we demonstrate in a photonic experiment. Specifically, we show that our experimental data imply that the implemented measurements are very close to certain ideal three- and four-outcome qubit POVMs and hence non-projective. In the latter case, the data certify a genuine four-outcome qubit POVM. Our results open interesting perspective for semi-device-independent certification of quantum devices.

Constraints on nonlocality in networks from no-signaling and independence.

The possibility of Bell inequality violations in quantum theory had a profound impact on our understanding of the correlations that can be shared by distant parties. Generalizing the concept of Bell nonlocality to networks leads to novel forms of correlations, the characterization of which is, however, challenging. Here, we investigate constraints on correlations in networks under the natural assumptions of no-signaling and independence of the sources. We consider the triangle network with binary outputs, and derive strong constraints on correlations even though the parties receive no input, i.e., each party performs a fixed measurement. We show that some of these constraints are tight, by constructing explicit local models (i.e. where sources distribute classical variables) that can saturate them. However, we also observe that other constraints can apparently not be saturated by local models, which opens the possibility of having nonlocal (but non-signaling) correlations in the triangle network with binary outputs.

Quantum Nonlocality in Networks Can Be Demonstrated with an Arbitrarily Small Level of Independence between the Sources.

Quantum nonlocality can be observed in networks even in the case where every party can only perform a single measurement, i.e., does not receive any input. So far, this effect has been demonstrated under the assumption that all sources in the network are fully independent from each other. Here we investigate to what extent this independence assumption can be relaxed. After formalizing the question, we show that, in the triangle network without inputs, quantum nonlocality can be observed, even when assuming only an arbitrarily small level of independence between the sources. This means that quantum predictions cannot be reproduced by a local model unless the three sources can be perfectly correlated.

Genuine Quantum Nonlocality in the Triangle Network.

Quantum networks allow in principle for completely novel forms of quantum correlations. In particular, quantum nonlocality can be demonstrated here without the need of having various input settings, but only by considering the joint statistics of fixed local measurement outputs. However, previous examples of this intriguing phenomenon all appear to stem directly from the usual form of quantum nonlocality, namely via the violation of a standard Bell inequality. Here we present novel examples of "quantum nonlocality without inputs," which we believe represent a new form of quantum nonlocality, genuine to networks. Our simplest examples, for the triangle network, involve both entangled states and joint entangled measurements. A generalization to any odd-cycle network is also presented.

Unifying Paradigms of Quantum Refrigeration: A Universal and Attainable Bound on Cooling.

Cooling quantum systems is arguably one of the most important thermodynamic tasks connected to modern quantum technologies and an interesting question from a foundational perspective. It is thus of no surprise that many different theoretical cooling schemes have been proposed, differing in the assumed control paradigm and complexity, and operating either in a single cycle or in steady state limits. Working out bounds on quantum cooling has since been a highly context dependent task with multiple answers, with no general result that holds independent of assumptions. In this Letter we derive a universal bound for cooling quantum systems in the limit of infinite cycles (or steady state regimes) that is valid for any control paradigm and machine size. The bound only depends on a single parameter of the refrigerator and is theoretically attainable in all control paradigms. For qubit targets we prove that this bound is achievable in a single cycle and by autonomous machines.

Unifying paradigms of quantum refrigeration: Fundamental limits of cooling and associated work costs.

In classical thermodynamics the work cost of control can typically be neglected. On the contrary, in quantum thermodynamics the cost of control constitutes a fundamental contribution to the total work cost. Here, focusing on quantum refrigeration, we investigate how the level of control determines the fundamental limits to cooling and how much work is expended in the corresponding process. We compare two extremal levels of control: first, coherent operations, where the entropy of the resource is left unchanged, and, second, incoherent operations, where only energy at maximum entropy (i.e., heat) is extracted from the resource. For minimal machines, we find that the lowest achievable temperature and associated work cost depend strongly on the type of control, in both single-cycle and asymptotic regimes. We also extend our analysis to general machines. Our work provides a unified picture of the different approaches to quantum refrigeration developed in the literature, including algorithmic cooling, autonomous quantum refrigerators, and the resource theory of quantum thermodynamics.

Limits on Correlations in Networks for Quantum and No-Signaling Resources.

A quantum network consists of independent sources distributing entangled states to distant nodes which can then perform entangled measurements, thus establishing correlations across the entire network. But how strong can these correlations be? Here we address this question, by deriving bounds on possible quantum correlations in a given network. These bounds are nonlinear inequalities that depend only on the topology of the network. We discuss in detail the notably challenging case of the triangle network. Moreover, we conjecture that our bounds hold in general no-signaling theories. In particular, we prove that our inequalities for the triangle network hold when the sources are arbitrary no-signaling boxes which can be wired together. Finally, we discuss an application of our results for the device-independent characterization of the topology of a quantum network.

Quantifying Measurement Incompatibility of Mutually Unbiased Bases.

Quantum measurements based on mutually unbiased bases are commonly used in quantum information processing, as they are generally viewed as being maximally incompatible and complementary. Here we quantify precisely the degree of incompatibility of mutually unbiased bases (MUB) using the notion of noise robustness. Specifically, for sets of k MUB in dimension d, we provide upper and lower bounds on this quantity. Notably, we get a tight bound in several cases, in particular for complete sets of k=d+1 MUB (using the standard construction for d being a prime power). On the way, we also derive a general upper bound on the noise robustness for an arbitrary set of quantum measurements. Moreover, we prove the existence of sets of k MUB that are operationally inequivalent, as they feature different noise robustness, and we provide a lower bound on the number of such inequivalent sets up to dimension 32. Finally, we discuss applications of our results for Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering.