Exposing hypersensitivity in quantum chaotic dynamics.

We study hypersensitivity to initial-state perturbation in the unitary dynamics of a multiqubit system. We use the quantum state metric, introduced by Girolami and Anza [Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 170502 (2021)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.126.170502], which can be interpreted as a quantum Hamming distance. To provide a proof of principle, we take the multiqubit implementation of the quantum kicked top, a paradigmatic system known to exhibit quantum chaotic behavior. Our findings confirm that the observed hypersensitivity corresponds to commonly used signatures of quantum chaos. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed metric can detect quantum chaos in the same regime and under analogous initial conditions as in the corresponding classical case.

Transition from order to chaos in reduced quantum dynamics.

We study a damped kicked top dynamics of a large number of qubits (N→∞) and focus on an evolution of a reduced single-qubit subsystem. Each subsystem is subjected to the amplitude damping channel controlled by the damping constant r∈[0,1], which plays the role of the single control parameter. In the parameter range for which the classical dynamics is chaotic, while varying r we find the universal period-doubling behavior characteristic to one-dimensional maps: period-2 dynamics starts at r_{1}≈0.3181, while the next bifurcation occurs at r_{2}≈0.5387. In parallel with period-4 oscillations observed for r≤r_{3}≈0.5672, we identify a secondary bifurcation diagram around r≈0.544, responsible for a small-scale chaotic dynamics inside the attractor. The doubling of the principal bifurcation tree continues until r≤r_{∞}∼0.578, which marks the onset of the full scale chaos interrupted by the windows of the oscillatory dynamics corresponding to the Sharkovsky order. Finally, for r=1 the model reduces to the standard undamped chaotic kicked top.

Weighted Bures length uncovers quantum state sensitivity.

The unitarity of quantum evolutions implies that an overlap between two initial states does not change in time. This property is commonly believed to explain the apparent lack of state sensitivity in quantum theory, a feature that is prevailing in classical chaotic systems. However, classical state sensitivity is based on a distance between two trajectories in phase space which is a completely different mathematical concept than an overlap between two vectors in Hilbert space. It is possible that state sensitivity in quantum theory can be detected with the help of some special metric. Here we show that the recently introduced Weighted Bures length achieves this task. We numerically investigate a unitary cellular automaton of N interacting qubits and analyze how a single-qubit perturbation affects the evolution of WBL between the unperturbed and perturbed states. We observe a linear growth of WBL if the qubits are arranged into a cyclic graph and an exponential growth if they are arranged into a random bipartite graph.

Quantum semipermeable barriers: Investigating Maxwell's demon toolbox.

We study quantum Maxwell's demon in a discrete space-time setup. We consider a collection of particles hopping on a one-dimensional chain and a semipermeable barrier that allows the particles to hop in only one direction. Our main result is a formulation of a local unitary dynamics describing the action of this barrier. Such dynamics utilizes an auxiliary system A and we study how properties of A influence the behavior of particles. An immediate consequence of unitarity is the fact that particles cannot be trapped on one side of the barrier forever, unless A is infinite. In addition, coherent superpositions and quantum correlations are affected once particles enter the confinement region. Finally, we show that initial superposition of A allows the barrier to act as a beam splitter.

Monogamy of Particle Statistics in Tripartite Systems Simulating Bosons and Fermions.

In the quantum world, correlations can take the form of entanglement which is known to be monogamous. In this Letter we show that another type of correlation, indistinguishability, is also restricted by some form of monogamy. Namely, if particles A and B simulate bosons, then A and C cannot perfectly imitate fermions. Our main result consists in demonstrating to what extent it is possible.

Generalized Probabilistic Description of Noninteracting Identical Particles.

We investigate an operational description of identical noninteracting particles in multiports. In particular, we look for physically motivated restrictions that explain their bunching probabilities. We focus on a symmetric 3-port in which a triple of superquantum particles admitted by our generalized probabilistic framework would bunch with a probability of 3/4. The bosonic bound of 2/3 can then be restored by imposing the additional requirement of product evolution of certain input states. These states are characterized by the fact that, much like product states, their entropy equals the sum of entropies of their one-particle substates. This principle is, however, not enough to exclude the possibility of superquantum particles in higher-order multiports.

Experimental Detection of Information Deficit in a Photonic Contextuality Scenario.

Contextuality is an essential characteristic of quantum theory, and supplies the power for many quantum information processes. Previous tests of contextuality focus mainly on the probability distribution of measurement results. However, a test of contextuality can be formulated in terms of entropic inequalities whose violations imply information deficit in the studied system. This information deficit has not been observed on a single local system. Here we report the first experimental detection of information deficit in an entropic test of quantum contextuality based on photonic setup. The corresponding inequality is violated with more than 13 standard deviations.

Entropic Tests of Multipartite Nonlocality and State-Independent Contextuality.

We introduce a multipartite extension of an information-theoretic distance introduced by Zurek [Nature (London) 341, 119 (1989)]. We use it to develop a new tool for studying quantum correlations from an information-theoretic perspective. In particular, we derive entropic tests of multipartite nonlocality for three qubits and for an arbitrary even number of qubits as well as a test of state-independent contextuality. In addition, we rederive the tripartite Mermin inequality and a state-independent noncontextuality inequality by Cabello [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 210401 (2008)]. This suggests that the information-theoretic distance approach to multipartite nonlocality and state-independent contextuality can provide a more general treatment of nonclassical correlations than the orthodox approach based on correlation functions.

Fundamental monogamy relation between contextuality and nonlocality.

We show that the no-disturbance principle imposes a tradeoff between locally contextual correlations violating the Klyachko-Can-Biniciogˇlu-Shumovski inequality and spatially separated correlations violating the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality. The violation of one inequality forbids the violation of the other. We also obtain the corresponding monogamy relation imposed by quantum theory for a qutrit-qubit system. Our results show the existence of fundamental monogamy relations between contextuality and nonlocality that suggest that entanglement might be a particular form of a more fundamental resource.

Contextuality in bosonic bunching.

In the classical probability theory a sum of probabilities of three pairwise exclusive events is always bounded by one. This is also true in quantum mechanics if these events are represented by pairwise orthogonal projectors. However, this might not be true if the three events refer to a system of indistinguishable particles. We show that one can find three pairwise exclusive events for a system of three bosonic particles whose corresponding probabilities sum to 3/2. This can be done under assumptions of realism and noncontextuality, i.e., that it is possible to assign outcomes to events before measurements are performed and in a way that does not depend on a particular measurement setup. The root of this phenomenon comes from the fact that for indistinguishable particles there are events that can be deduced to be exclusive under the aforementioned assumptions, but at the same time are complementary because the corresponding projectors are not orthogonal.

An experimental proposal for revealing contextuality in almost all qutrit states.

Contextuality is a foundational phenomenon underlying key differences between quantum theory and classical realistic descriptions of the world. Here we propose an experimental test which is capable of revealing contextuality in all qutrit systems, except the completely mixed state, provided we choose the measurement basis appropriately. The 3-level system is furnished by the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of a single photon, which encompass three orthogonal modes. Projective measurements along rays in the 3-dimensional Hilbert space are made by linear optical elements and detectors which are sensitive to single mode. We also discuss the impact of detector inefficiency and losses and review the theoretical foundations of this test.

Quantum walk as a generalized measuring device.

We show that a one-dimensional discrete time quantum walk can be used to implement a generalized measurement in terms of a positive operator value measure (POVM) on a single qubit. More precisely, we show that for a single qubit any set of rank 1 and rank 2 POVM elements can be generated by a properly engineered quantum walk. In such a scenario the measurement of a particle at a position x=i corresponds to a measurement of a POVM element E_{i} on a qubit. Since the idea of quantum walks originates from the von Neumann model of measurement, in which the change of the position of the pointer depends on the state of the system that is being measured, we argue that von Neumann measurements can be naturally extended to POVMs if one includes the internal evolution of the system in the model.

Generalized monogamy of contextual inequalities from the no-disturbance principle.

In this Letter, we demonstrate that the property of monogamy of Bell violations seen for no-signaling correlations in composite systems can be generalized to the monogamy of contextuality in single systems obeying the Gleason property of no disturbance. We show how one can construct monogamies for contextual inequalities by using the graph-theoretic technique of vertex decomposition of a graph representing a set of measurements into subgraphs of suitable independence numbers that themselves admit a joint probability distribution. After establishing that all the subgraphs that are chordal graphs admit a joint probability distribution, we formulate a precise graph-theoretic condition that gives rise to the monogamy of contextuality. We also show how such monogamies arise within quantum theory for a single four-dimensional system and interpret violation of these relations in terms of a violation of causality. These monogamies can be tested with current experimental techniques.

Is there contextuality for a single qubit?

Cabello and Nakamura have shown [A. Cabello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 190401 (2003)10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.190401] that the Kochen-Specker theorem can be applied to two-dimensional systems if one uses positive operator-valued measures (POVM). We show that the contextuality in their models is not of the Kochen-Specker type, but it is rather a result of not keeping track of the whole system on which the measurement is performed. This is connected to the fact that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the POVM elements and projectors on the extended Hilbert space, and the same POVM element has to originate from two different projectors when used in Cabello-Nakamura models. Moreover, we propose a hidden-variable formulation of the above models.

Quasiperiodic dynamics of a quantum walk on the line.

We study the dynamics of a generalization of a quantum coin walk on the line, which is a natural model for a diffusion modified by quantum or interference effects. In particular, our results provide surprisingly simple explanations for recurrence phenomena observed by Bouwmeester et al. [Phys. Rev. A 61, 13410 (1999)]] in their optical Galton board experiment, and a description of a stroboscopic quantum walk given by Buerschaper and Burnett [quant-ph/0406039] through numerical simulations. We also provide heuristic explanations for the behavior of our model which show, in particular, that its dynamics can be viewed as a discrete version of Bloch oscillations.