Dynamical Resource Theory of Informational Nonequilibrium Preservability.

Information is instrumental in our understanding of thermodynamics. Their interplay has been studied through completely degenerate Hamiltonians whereby the informational contributions to thermodynamic transformations can be isolated. In this setting, all states other than the maximally mixed state are considered to be in informational nonequilibrium. An important yet still open question is how to characterize the ability of quantum dynamics to preserve informational nonequilibrium. Here, the dynamical resource theory of informational nonequilibrium preservability is introduced to begin providing an answer to this question. A characterization of the allowed operations is given for qubit channels and the n-dimensional Weyl-covariant channels-a physically relevant subset of the general channels. An operational interpretation of a state discrimination game with Bell state measurements is given. Finally, an explicit link between a channel's classical capacity and its ability to preserve informational nonequilibrium is made.

Maxwell's Demon Walks into Wall Street: Stochastic Thermodynamics Meets Expected Utility Theory.

The interplay between thermodynamics and information theory has a long history, but its quantitative manifestations are still being explored. We import tools from expected utility theory from economics into stochastic thermodynamics. We prove that, in a process obeying Crooks's fluctuation relations, every α Rényi divergence between the forward process and its reverse has the operational meaning of the "certainty equivalent" of dissipated work (or, more generally, of entropy production) for a player with risk aversion r=α-1. The two known cases α=1 and α=∞ are recovered and receive the new interpretation of being associated with a risk-neutral and an extreme risk-averse player, respectively. Among the new results, the condition for α=0 describes the behavior of a risk-seeking player willing to bet on the transient violations of the second law. Our approach further leads to a generalized Jarzynski equality, and generalizes to a broader class of statistical divergences.

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.

Catalytic Quantum Teleportation.

In this work, we address fundamental limitations of quantum teleportation-the process of transferring quantum information using classical communication and preshared entanglement. We develop a new teleportation protocol based upon the idea of using ancillary entanglement catalytically, i.e., without depleting it. This protocol is then used to show that catalytic entanglement allows for a noiseless quantum channel to be simulated with a quality that could never be achieved using only entanglement from the shared state, even for catalysts with a small dimension. On the one hand, this allows for a more faithful transmission of quantum information using generic states and fixed amount of consumed entanglement. On the other hand, this shows, for the first time, that entanglement catalysis provides a genuine advantage in a generic quantum-information processing task. Finally, we show that similar ideas can be directly applied to study quantum catalysis for more general problems in quantum mechanics. As an application, we show that catalysts can activate so-called passive states, a concept that finds widespread application, e.g., in quantum thermodynamics.

Operational Interpretation of Weight-Based Resource Quantifiers in Convex Quantum Resource Theories.

We introduce the resource quantifier of weight of resource for convex quantum resource theories of states and measurements with arbitrary resources. We show that it captures the advantage that a resourceful state (measurement) offers over all possible free states (measurements) in the operational task of exclusion of subchannels (states). Furthermore, we introduce information-theoretic quantities related to exclusion for quantum channels and find a connection between the weight of resource of a measurement and the exclusion-type information of quantum-to-classical channels. Our results apply to the resource theory of entanglement in which the weight of resource is known as the best-separable approximation or Lewenstein-Sanpera decomposition introduced in 1998. Consequently, the results found here provide an operational interpretation to this 21-year-old entanglement quantifier.

Bipartite Postquantum Steering in Generalized Scenarios.

The study of stronger-than-quantum effects is a fruitful line of research that provides valuable insight into quantum theory. Unfortunately, traditional bipartite steering scenarios can always be explained by quantum theory. Here, we show that, by relaxing this traditional setup, bipartite steering incompatible with quantum theory is possible. The two scenarios we describe, which still feature Alice remotely steering Bob's system, are (i) one where Bob also has an input and operates on his subsystem, and (ii) the "instrumental steering" scenario. We show that such bipartite postquantum steering is a genuinely new type of postquantum nonlocality, which does not follow from postquantum Bell nonlocality. In addition, we present a method to bound quantum violations of steering inequalities in these scenarios.

Robustness of Measurement, Discrimination Games, and Accessible Information.

We introduce a resource theory of measurement informativeness. This allows us to define an associated quantifier, which we call the robustness of measurement. It describes how much "noise" must be added to a measurement before it becomes completely uninformative. We show that this geometric quantifier has operational significance in terms of the advantage the measurement provides over guessing at random in a suitably chosen state discrimination game and that it is the single-shot generalization of the accessible information of a certain quantum-to-classical channel. Using this insight, we further show that the recently introduced robustness of asymmetry or coherence is the single-shot generalization of the accessible information of an ensemble. Finally, we discuss more generally the connection between robustness-based measures, discrimination problems, and information-theoretic quantities.

All Sets of Incompatible Measurements give an Advantage in Quantum State Discrimination.

Some quantum measurements cannot be performed simultaneously; i.e., they are incompatible. Here we show that every set of incompatible measurements provides an advantage over compatible ones in a suitably chosen quantum state discrimination task. This is proven by showing that the robustness of incompatibility, a quantifier of how much noise a set of measurements tolerates before becoming compatible, has an operational interpretation as the advantage in an optimally chosen discrimination task. We also show that if we take a resource-theory perspective of measurement incompatibility, then the guessing probability in discrimination tasks of this type forms a complete set of monotones that completely characterize the partial order in the resource theory. Finally, we make use of previously known relations between measurement incompatibility and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering to also relate the latter with quantum state discrimination.

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.

Experimental Study of Nonclassical Teleportation Beyond Average Fidelity.

Quantum teleportation establishes a correspondence between an entangled state shared by two separate parties that can communicate classically and the presence of a quantum channel connecting the two parties. The standard benchmark for quantum teleportation, based on the average fidelity between the input and output states, indicates that some entangled states do not lead to channels which can be certified to be quantum. It was recently shown that if one considers a finer-grained witness, then all entangled states can be certified to produce a nonclassical teleportation channel. Here we experimentally demonstrate a complete characterization of a new family of such witnesses, of the type proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 110501 (2017)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.119.110501 under different conditions of noise. We report nonclassical teleportation using quantum states that cannot achieve average fidelity of teleportation above the classical limit. We further use the violation of these witnesses to estimate the negativity of the shared state. Our results have fundamental implications in quantum information protocols and may also lead to new applications and quality certification of quantum technologies.

Maximal Randomness Generation from Steering Inequality Violations Using Qudits.

We consider the generation of randomness based upon the observed violation of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering inequality, known as one-sided device-independent randomness generation. We show that in the simplest scenario-involving only two parties and two measurements for the uncharacterised party with d outcomes-that there exist EPR steering inequalities whose maximal violation certifies maximal randomness generation, equal to log(d) bits. We further show that all pure partially entangled full-Schmidt-rank states in all dimensions can achieve maximal violation of these inequalities, and thus lead to maximal randomness generation in the one-sided device-independent setting. More generally, the amount of randomness that can be generated is given by a semidefinite program, which we use to study the behavior for nonmaximal violations of the inequalities.

Multidimensional quantum entanglement with large-scale integrated optics.

The ability to control multidimensional quantum systems is central to the development of advanced quantum technologies. We demonstrate a multidimensional integrated quantum photonic platform able to generate, control, and analyze high-dimensional entanglement. A programmable bipartite entangled system is realized with dimensions up to 15 × 15 on a large-scale silicon photonics quantum circuit. The device integrates more than 550 photonic components on a single chip, including 16 identical photon-pair sources. We verify the high precision, generality, and controllability of our multidimensional technology, and further exploit these abilities to demonstrate previously unexplored quantum applications, such as quantum randomness expansion and self-testing on multidimensional states. Our work provides an experimental platform for the development of multidimensional quantum technologies.

Erratum: All Entangled States Can Demonstrate Nonclassical Teleportation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 110501 (2017)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.110501.

All Entangled States can Demonstrate Nonclassical Teleportation.

Quantum teleportation, the process by which Alice can transfer an unknown quantum state to Bob by using preshared entanglement and classical communication, is one of the cornerstones of quantum information. The standard benchmark for certifying quantum teleportation consists in surpassing the maximum average fidelity between the teleported and the target states that can be achieved classically. According to this figure of merit, not all entangled states are useful for teleportation. Here we propose a new benchmark that uses the full information available in a teleportation experiment and prove that all entangled states can implement a quantum channel which cannot be reproduced classically. We introduce the idea of nonclassical teleportation witness to certify if a teleportation experiment is genuinely quantum and discuss how to quantify this phenomenon. Our work provides new techniques for studying teleportation that can be immediately applied to certify the quality of quantum technologies.

Performance of autonomous quantum thermal machines: Hilbert space dimension as a thermodynamical resource.

Multilevel autonomous quantum thermal machines are discussed. In particular, we explore the relationship between the size of the machine (captured by Hilbert space dimension) and the performance of the machine. Using the concepts of virtual qubits and virtual temperatures, we show that higher dimensional machines can outperform smaller ones. For instance, by considering refrigerators with more levels, lower temperatures can be achieved, as well as higher power. We discuss the optimal design for refrigerators of a given dimension. As a consequence we obtain a statement of the third law in terms of Hilbert space dimension: Reaching absolute zero temperature requires infinite dimension. These results demonstrate that Hilbert space dimension should be considered a thermodynamic resource.

Thermodynamics of quantum systems with multiple conserved quantities.

Recently, there has been much progress in understanding the thermodynamics of quantum systems, even for small individual systems. Most of this work has focused on the standard case where energy is the only conserved quantity. Here we consider a generalization of this work to deal with multiple conserved quantities. Each conserved quantity, which, importantly, need not commute with the rest, can be extracted and stored in its own battery. Unlike the standard case, in which the amount of extractable energy is constrained, here there is no limit on how much of any individual conserved quantity can be extracted. However, other conserved quantities must be supplied, and the second law constrains the combination of extractable quantities and the trade-offs between them. We present explicit protocols that allow us to perform arbitrarily good trade-offs and extract arbitrarily good combinations of conserved quantities from individual quantum systems.

Hierarchy of Steering Criteria Based on Moments for All Bipartite Quantum Systems.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is a manifestation of quantum correlations exhibited by quantum systems that allows for entanglement certification when one of the subsystems is not characterized. Detecting the steerability of quantum states is essential to assess their suitability for quantum information protocols with partially trusted devices. We provide a hierarchy of sufficient conditions for the steerability of bipartite quantum states of any dimension, including continuous variable states. Previously known steering criteria are recovered as special cases of our approach. The proposed method allows us to derive optimal steering witnesses for arbitrary families of quantum states and provides a systematic framework to analytically derive nonlinear steering criteria. We discuss relevant examples and, in particular, provide an optimal steering witness for a lossy single-photon Bell state; the witness can be implemented just by linear optics and homodyne detection and detects steering with a higher loss tolerance than any other known method. Our approach is readily applicable to multipartite steering detection and to the characterization of joint measurability.

Postquantum Steering.

The discovery of postquantum nonlocality, i.e., the existence of nonlocal correlations that are stronger than any quantum correlations but nevertheless consistent with the no-signaling principle, has deepened our understanding of the foundations of quantum theory. In this work, we investigate whether the phenomenon of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering, a different form of quantum nonlocality, can also be generalized beyond quantum theory. While post-quantum steering does not exist in the bipartite case, we prove its existence in the case of three observers. Importantly, we show that postquantum steering is a genuinely new phenomenon, fundamentally different from postquantum nonlocality. Our results provide new insight into the nonlocal correlations of multipartite quantum systems.

Most energetic passive states.

Passive states are defined as those states that do not allow for work extraction in a cyclic (unitary) process. Within the set of passive states, thermal states are the most stable ones: they maximize the entropy for a given energy, and similarly they minimize the energy for a given entropy. Here we find the passive states lying in the other extreme, i.e., those that maximize the energy for a given entropy, which we show also minimize the entropy when the energy is fixed. These extremal properties make these states useful to obtain fundamental bounds for the thermodynamics of finite-dimensional quantum systems, which we show in several scenarios.

Small quantum absorption refrigerator with reversed couplings.

Small quantum absorption refrigerators have recently attracted renewed attention. Here we present a missing design of a two-qubit fridge, the main feature of which is that one of the two machine qubits is itself maintained at a temperature colder than the cold bath. This is achieved by "reversing" the couplings to the baths compared to previous designs, where only a transition is maintained cold. We characterize the working regime and the efficiency of the fridge. We demonstrate the soundness of the model by deriving and solving a master equation. Finally, we discuss the performance of the fridge, in particular the heat current extracted from the cold bath. We show that our model performs comparably to the standard three-level quantum fridge and thus appears appealing for possible implementations of nanoscale thermal machines.