Erratum: Almost Qudits in the Prepare-and-Measure Scenario [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 250504 (2022)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.250504.

Adaptive Advantage in Entanglement-Assisted Communications.

Entanglement is known to boost the efficiency of classical communication. In distributed computation, for instance, exploiting entanglement can reduce the number of communicated bits or increase the probability to obtain a correct answer. Entanglement-assisted classical communication protocols usually consist of two successive rounds: first, a Bell test round, in which the parties measure their local shares of the entangled state, and then a communication round, where they exchange classical messages. Here, we go beyond this standard approach and investigate adaptive uses of entanglement: we allow the receiver to wait for the arrival of the sender's message before measuring their share of the entangled state. We first show that such adaptive protocols improve the success probability in random access codes. Second, we show that once adaptive measurements are used, an entanglement-assisted bit becomes a strictly stronger resource than a qubit in prepare-and-measure scenarios. We briefly discuss the extension of these ideas to scenarios involving quantum communication and we identify resource inequalities.

Almost Qudits in the Prepare-and-Measure Scenario.

Quantum communication is often investigated in scenarios where only the dimension of Hilbert space is known. However, assigning a precise dimension is often an approximation of what is actually a higher-dimensional process. Here, we introduce and investigate quantum information encoded in carriers that nearly, but not entirely, correspond to standard qudits. We demonstrate the relevance of this concept for semi-device-independent quantum information by showing how small higher-dimensional components can significantly compromise the conclusions of established protocols. Then we provide a general method, based on semidefinite relaxations, for bounding the set of almost qudit correlations, and apply it to remedy the demonstrated issues. This method also offers a novel systematic approach to the well-known task of device-independent tests of classical and quantum dimensions with unentangled devices. Finally, we also consider viewing almost qubit systems as a physical resource available to the experimenter and determine the optimal quantum protocol for the well-known random access code.

Bell Inequalities Tailored to Maximally Entangled States.

Bell inequalities have traditionally been used to demonstrate that quantum theory is nonlocal, in the sense that there exist correlations generated from composite quantum states that cannot be explained by means of local hidden variables. With the advent of device-independent quantum information protocols, Bell inequalities have gained an additional role as certificates of relevant quantum properties. In this work, we consider the problem of designing Bell inequalities that are tailored to detect maximally entangled states. We introduce a class of Bell inequalities valid for an arbitrary number of measurements and results, derive analytically their tight classical, nonsignaling, and quantum bounds and prove that the latter is attained by maximally entangled states. Our inequalities can therefore find an application in device-independent protocols requiring maximally entangled states.

Secrecy in Prepare-and-Measure Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Tests with a Qubit Bound.

The security of device-independent (DI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols relies on the violation of Bell inequalities. As such, their security can be established based on minimal assumptions about the devices, but their implementation necessarily requires the distribution of entangled states. In a setting with fully trusted devices, any entanglement-based protocol is essentially equivalent to a corresponding prepare-and-measure protocol. This correspondence, however, is not generally valid in the DI setting unless one makes extra assumptions about the devices. Here we prove that a known tight lower bound on the min entropy in terms of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell correlator, which has featured in a number of entanglement-based DI QKD security proofs, also holds in a prepare-and-measure setting, subject only to the assumption that the source is limited to a two-dimensional Hilbert space.

Randomness versus nonlocality and entanglement.

The outcomes obtained in Bell tests involving two-outcome measurements on two subsystems can, in principle, generate up to 2 bits of randomness. However, the maximal violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality guarantees the generation of only 1.23 bits of randomness. We prove here that quantum correlations with arbitrarily little nonlocality and states with arbitrarily little entanglement can be used to certify that close to the maximum of 2 bits of randomness are produced. Our results show that nonlocality, entanglement, and randomness are inequivalent quantities. They also imply that device-independent quantum key distribution with an optimal key generation rate is possible by using almost-local correlations and that device-independent randomness generation with an optimal rate is possible with almost-local correlations and with almost-unentangled states.

Device-independent witnesses of genuine multipartite entanglement.

We consider the problem of determining whether genuine multipartite entanglement was produced in an experiment, without relying on a characterization of the systems observed or of the measurements performed. We present an n-partite inequality that is satisfied by all correlations produced by measurements on biseparable quantum states, but which can be violated by n-partite entangled states, such as Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. In contrast to traditional entanglement witnesses, the violation of this inequality implies that the state is not biseparable independently of the Hilbert space dimension and of the measured operators. Violation of this inequality does not imply, however, genuine multipartite nonlocality. We show more generically how the problem of identifying genuine tripartite entanglement in a device-independent way can be addressed through semidefinite programming.

Secure device-independent quantum key distribution with causally independent measurement devices.

Device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD) aims to provide key distribution schemes, the security of which is based on the laws of quantum physics, but which does not require any assumptions about the internal working of the devices used in the protocol. This strong form of security is possible only when using correlations that violate a Bell inequality. Here, we provide a general security proof for a large class of protocols in a model in which the raw key is generated by independent measurements. This independence condition may be justifiable in several implementations and is necessarily satisfied when the raw key is generated by N separate pairs of devices. Our work shows that device-independent QKD is possible with key rates comparable to those of standard schemes.

Guess your neighbor's input: a multipartite nonlocal game with no quantum advantage.

We present a multipartite nonlocal game in which each player must guess the input received by his neighbor. We show that quantum correlations do not perform better than classical ones at this game, for any prior distribution of the inputs. There exist, however, input distributions for which general no-signaling correlations can outperform classical and quantum correlations. Some of the Bell inequalities associated with our construction correspond to facets of the local polytope. Thus our multipartite game identifies parts of the boundary between quantum and postquantum correlations of maximal dimension. These results suggest that quantum correlations might obey a generalization of the usual no-signaling conditions in a multipartite setting.

Proposal for implementing device-independent quantum key distribution based on a heralded qubit amplifier.

In device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD), the violation of a Bell inequality is exploited to establish a shared key that is secure independently of the internal workings of the QKD devices. An experimental implementation of DIQKD, however, is still awaited, since hitherto all optical Bell tests are subject to the detection loophole, making the protocol unsecured. In particular, photon losses in the quantum channel represent a fundamental limitation for DIQKD. Here we introduce a heralded qubit amplifier based on single-photon sources and linear optics that provides a realistic solution to overcome the problem of channel losses in Bell tests.

Closing the detection loophole in Bell experiments using qudits.

We show that the detection efficiencies required for closing the detection loophole in Bell tests can be significantly lowered using quantum systems of dimension larger than two. We introduce a series of asymmetric Bell tests for which an efficiency arbitrarily close to 1/N can be tolerated using N-dimensional systems, and a symmetric Bell test for which the efficiency can be lowered down to 61.8% using four-dimensional systems. Experimental perspectives for our schemes look promising considering recent progress in atom-photon entanglement and in photon hyperentanglement.

Quantifying multipartite nonlocality.

The nonlocal correlations of multipartite entangled states can be reproduced by a classical model if sufficiently many parties join together or if sufficiently many parties broadcast their measurement inputs. The maximal number m of groups and the minimal number k of broadcasting parties that allow for the reproduction of a given set of correlations quantify their multipartite nonlocal content. We show how upper bounds on m and lower bounds on k can be computed from the violation of the Mermin-Svetlichny inequalities. While n-partite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states violate these inequalities maximally, we find that W states violate them only by a very small amount.

Testing the dimension of Hilbert spaces.

Given a set of correlations originating from measurements on a quantum state of unknown Hilbert space dimension, what is the minimal dimension d necessary to describe such correlations? We introduce the concept of dimension witness to put lower bounds on d. This work represents a first step in a broader research program aiming to characterize Hilbert space dimension in various contexts related to fundamental questions and quantum information applications.

Device-independent security of quantum cryptography against collective attacks.

We present the optimal collective attack on a quantum key distribution protocol in the "device-independent" security scenario, where no assumptions are made about the way the quantum key distribution devices work or on what quantum system they operate. Our main result is a tight bound on the Holevo information between one of the authorized parties and the eavesdropper, as a function of the amount of violation of a Bell-type inequality.

Noise robustness of the nonlocality of entangled quantum states.

We study the nonlocal properties of states resulting from the mixture of an arbitrary entangled state rho of two d-dimensional systems and completely depolarized noise, with respective weights p and 1-p. We first construct a local model for the case in which rho is maximally entangled and p at or below a certain bound. We then extend the model to arbitrary rho. Our results provide bounds on the resistance to noise of the nonlocal correlations of entangled states. For projective measurements, the critical value of the noise parameter p for which the state becomes local is at least asymptotically log(d) larger than the critical value for separability.

Bounding the set of quantum correlations.

We introduce a hierarchy of conditions necessarily satisfied by any distribution P_{alphabeta} representing the probabilities for two separate observers to obtain outcomes alpha and beta when making local measurements on a shared quantum state. Each condition in this hierarchy is formulated as a semidefinite program. Among other applications, our approach can be used to obtain upper bounds on the quantum violation of an arbitrary Bell inequality. It yields, for instance, tight bounds for the violations of the Collins et al. inequalities.

Maximally nonlocal and monogamous quantum correlations.

We introduce a version of the chained Bell inequality for an arbitrary number of measurement outcomes and use it to give a simple proof that the maximally entangled state of two d-dimensional quantum systems has no local component. That is, if we write its quantum correlations as a mixture of local correlations and general (not necessarily quantum) correlations, the coefficient of the local correlations must be zero. This suggests an experimental program to obtain as good an upper bound as possible on the fraction of local states and provides a lower bound on the amount of classical communication needed to simulate a maximally entangled state in dxd dimensions. We also prove that the quantum correlations violating the inequality are monogamous among nonsignaling correlations and, hence, can be used for quantum key distribution secure against postquantum (but nonsignaling) eavesdroppers.

Popescu-Rohrlich correlations as a unit of nonlocality.

A set of nonlocal correlations that have come to be known as a Popescu-Rohrlich (PR) box suggest themselves as a natural unit of nonlocality, much as a singlet is a natural unit of entanglement. We present two results relevant to this idea. One is that a wide class of multipartite correlations can be simulated using local operations on PR boxes only. We show this with an explicit scheme, which has the interesting feature that the number of PR boxes required is related to the computational resources necessary to represent a function defining the multipartite box. The second result is that there are quantum multipartite correlations, arising from measurements on a cluster state, that cannot be simulated with n PR boxes, for any n.