Resonance of vector vortex beams in a triangular optical cavity.

We experimentally demonstrate resonance of first-order vector vortex beams (VVB) with a triangular optical cavity. We also show that, due to their symmetry properties, the VVBs commonly known as radial and azimuthal beams do not resonate at the same cavity length, which could be explored to use the triangular resonator as a mode sorter. In addition, an intracavity Pancharatnam phase shifter (PPS) is implemented in order to compensate for any birefringent phase that the cavity mirrors may introduce.

Experimental entanglement redistribution under decoherence channels.

When an initially entangled pair of qubits undergoes local decoherence processes, there are a number of ways in which the original entanglement can spread throughout the multipartite system consisting of the two qubits and their environments. Here, we report theoretical and experimental results regarding the dynamics of the distribution of entanglement in this system. The experiment employs an all optical setup in which the qubits are encoded in the polarization degrees of freedom of two photons, and each local decoherence channel is implemented with an interferometer that couples the polarization to the path of each photon, which acts as an environment. We monitor the dynamics and distribution of entanglement and observe the transition from bipartite to multipartite entanglement and back, and show how these transitions are intimately related to the sudden death and sudden birth of entanglement. The multipartite entanglement is further analyzed in terms of three- and four-partite entanglement contributions, and genuine four-qubit entanglement is observed at some points of the evolution.

Measuring spatial correlations of photon pairs by automated raster scanning with spatial light modulators.

We demonstrate the use of a phase-only spatial light modulator for the measurement of transverse spatial distributions of coincidence counts between twin photon beams, in a fully automated fashion. This is accomplished by means of the polarization dependence of the modulator, which allows the conversion of a phase pattern into an amplitude pattern. We also present a correction procedure, that accounts for unwanted coincidence counts due to polarization decoherence effects.

Linear-optical simulation of the cooling of a cluster-state Hamiltonian system.

A measurement-based quantum computer could consist of a local-gapped Hamiltonian system, whose thermal states-at sufficiently low temperature-are universal resources for the computation. Initialization of the computer would correspond to cooling the system. We perform an experimental quantum simulation of such a cooling process with entangled photons. We prepare three-qubit thermal cluster states exploiting the equivalence between local dephasing and thermalization for these states. This allows us to tune the system's temperature by changing the dephasing strength. We monitor the entanglement as the system cools down and observe the transitions from separability to bound entanglement, and then to free entanglement. We also analyze the performance of the system for measurement-based single-qubit state preparation. These studies constitute a basic characterization of experimental cluster-state computation under imperfect conditions.

Ancilla-assisted measurement of photonic spatial correlations and entanglement.

We report an experiment in which the moments of spatial coordinates are measured in down-converted photons directly, without having to reconstruct any marginal probability distributions. We use a spatial light modulator to couple the spatial degrees of freedom and the polarization of the fields, which acts as an ancilla system. Information about the spatial correlations is obtained via measurements on the ancilla qubit. Among other applications, this new method provides a more efficient technique to identify continuous variable entanglement.

Emergence of the pointer basis through the dynamics of correlations.

We use the classical correlation between a quantum system being measured and its measurement apparatus to analyze the amount of information being retrieved in a quantum measurement process. Accounting for decoherence of the apparatus, we show that these correlations may have a sudden transition from a decay regime to a constant level. This transition characterizes a nonasymptotic emergence of the pointer basis, while the system apparatus can still be quantum correlated. We provide a formalization of the concept of emergence of a pointer basis in an apparatus subject to decoherence. This contrast of the pointer basis emergence to the quantum to classical transition is demonstrated in an experiment with polarization entangled photon pairs.

Observation of the emergence of multipartite entanglement between a bipartite system and its environment.

The dynamics of the environment is usually experimentally inaccessible and hence ignored for open systems. Here we overcome this limitation by using an interferometric setup that allows the implementation of several decoherence channels and full access to all environmental degrees of freedom. We show that when a qubit from an entangled pair interacts with the environment, the initial bipartite entanglement gets redistributed into bipartite and genuine multipartite entanglements involving the two qubits and the environment. This is yet another trait of the subtle behavior of entangled open systems.

Experimental estimate of a classicality witness via a single measurement.

The perception that quantum correlations can still appear in separable states has opened exciting new possibilities regarding their use as a resource in quantum information science. Quantifying such quantum correlations involves the complete knowledge of the system's state and numerical optimization procedures. Thus, it is natural to seek methods involving fewer measurements that indicate the nature of the correlations in a system. Here we propose a classicality witness that can be accurately estimated via statistics from a single measurement and perform an experiment to explore the utility of this witness for quantum states with different types of correlations.

Interference effects induced by non-local spatial filtering.

The spatial correlation between down-converted photons allows for non-local spatial filtering when two-photon coincidences are registered. This allows one to non-locally control the visibility of interference fringes, to observe ghost images and interference patterns, and to "retrieve" a coherent quantum image from an incoherent field distribution. We show theoretically that non-local spatial filtering can lead to counter-intuitive effects when the pump beam is no longer given by a Gaussian profile. Namely, increased non-local filtering can actually decrease the visibility of interference fringes, contrary to what has been observed so far. We explain this behavior through the transverse spatial parity entanglement of the down-converted photons.

Revealing hidden Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen nonlocality.

Steering is a form of quantum nonlocality that is intimately related to the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox that ignited the ongoing discussion of quantum correlations. Within the hierarchy of nonlocal correlations appearing in nature, EPR steering occupies an intermediate position between Bell nonlocality and entanglement. In continuous variable systems, EPR steering correlations have been observed by violation of Reid's EPR inequality, which is based on inferred variances of complementary observables. Here we propose and experimentally test a new criterion based on entropy functions, and show that it is more powerful than the variance inequality for identifying EPR steering. Using the entropic criterion our experimental results show EPR steering, while the variance criterion does not. Our results open up the possibility of observing this type of nonlocality in a wider variety of quantum states.

Quantum entanglement beyond Gaussian criteria.

Most of the attention given to continuous variable systems for quantum information processing has traditionally been focused on Gaussian states. However, non-Gaussianity is an essential requirement for universal quantum computation and entanglement distillation, and can improve the efficiency of other quantum information tasks. Here we report the experimental observation of genuine non-Gaussian entanglement using spatially entangled photon pairs. The quantum correlations are invisible to all second-order tests, which identify only Gaussian entanglement, and are revealed only under application of a higher-order entanglement criterion. Thus, the photons exhibit a variety of entanglement that cannot be reproduced by Gaussian states.

Observation of a nonlocal optical vortex.

We report the observation of an optical vortex in the correlations of photons produced from spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The singularity appears in a nonlocal coordinate plane consisting of 1 degree of freedom of each photon.

Determining the dynamics of entanglement.

The estimation of the entanglement of multipartite systems undergoing decoherence is important for assessing the robustness of quantum information processes. It usually requires access to the final state and its full reconstruction through quantum tomography. General dynamical laws may simplify this task. We found that when one of the parties of an initially entangled two-qubit system is subject to a noisy channel, a single universal curve describes the dynamics of entanglement for both pure and mixed states, including those for which entanglement suddenly disappears. Our result, which is experimentally demonstrated using a linear optics setup, leads to a direct and efficient determination of entanglement through the knowledge of the initial state and single-party process tomography alone, foregoing the need to reconstruct the final state.

Environment-induced sudden death of entanglement.

We demonstrate the difference between local, single-particle dynamics and global dynamics of entangled quantum systems coupled to independent environments. Using an all-optical experimental setup, we showed that, even when the environment-induced decay of each system is asymptotic, quantum entanglement may suddenly disappear. This "sudden death" constitutes yet another distinct and counterintuitive trait of entanglement.

Comunidade de inimigos naturais e controle biológico natural do pulgão, aphis gossypii glover (hemiptera: aphididae) e do curuquerê, alabama argillacea hübner (lepidoptera: noctuidae) na cultura do algodoeiro no distrito federal

ABSTRACT The intensive use of chemical pesticides has been a common practice among farmers which leads to increases in the abundance of pests due the disturbances caused by the mortality of natural enemies and reduction of biological controls. Aiming to evaluate the natural biological control in cotton crops on the Distrito Federal, Brazil, predators of the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and parasitoids of the cotton leaf worm Alabama argillacea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) were identified and evaluated during 2004/2005. Evaluation was done on cotton crops located in different areas and managed with different pest-control methods (chemical insecticides, microbial insecticides and control). Five species of ladybeetles, Cycloneda sanguinea, Scymnus sp., Hippodamia convergens, Eriopis conexa and Olla v-nigrum, as well as the earwig Doru cf. luteipes and predator fly Condylostylus sp. (Dolichopodidae) and several other species of spider were observed as the most abundant predators of aphids. There was no difference in the predator species richness within the studied areas. There was a positive and significant correlation between predator species and the density of aphids in the biological insecticides treatment, suggesting a possible numerical response of predators in the absence of broad-range chemical insecticide use. Chemical pesticides offered satisfactory control only for the first generation of the cotton leaf worm A. argillacea. This finding could be related to a parasitism incidence in this treatment (2.2 ± 1.40%) against the control (23.9 ± 9.50%). A disruption effect in parasitism was not observed in the biological control area (5.8 ± 1.87%) when compared with the control. Parasitoids were found in the orders Diptera (Tachinidae, Phoridae) and Hymenoptera (Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Chalcididae, Ichneumonidae, and Braconidae).

RESUMO O uso intensivo de inseticidas químicos é uma prática comum que pode causar o aumento na abundância de pragas devido ao desequilíbrio resultante da destruição de inimigos naturais e redução do controle biológico natural. Visando avaliar o controle biológico natural em algodoeiros no Distrito Federal na safra 2004/2005, predadores do pulgão, Aphis gossypii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) e parasitóides da lagarta curuquerê, Alabama argillacea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), foram identificados e avaliados/5. As avaliações foram realizadas em diferentes áreas de plantio e sob diferentes métodos de controle de pragas (inseticidas químicos, microbianos e controle). Cinco espécies de joaninhas, Cycloneda sanguinea, Scymnus sp., Hippodamia convergens, Eriopis conexa e Olla v-nigrum, a tesourinha, Doru cf. luteipes, a mosca Condylostylus sp. (Dolichopodidae) e várias espécies de aranhas foram os predadores mais abundantes de pulgões. Não houve diferença na riqueza de espécies nas áreas estudadas. Foi observada correlação positiva e significativa entre as populações de pulgões e alguns grupos de predadores apenas no tratamento com inseticidas biológicos, indicando possível resposta numérica do predador na ausência de inseticidas químicos de largo espectro. O uso de inseticidas químicos controlou satisfatoriamente a população de lagartas apenas na primeira geração, o que pode estar relacionado à menor incidência de parasitismo neste tratamento (2,20 ± 1,40%) quando comparado com a testemunha (23,90 ± 9,50%). Não foram observados efeitos deletérios de inseticidas biológicos nas taxas de parasitismo (5,80

Quantum key distribution with higher-order alphabets using spatially encoded qudits.

We present a proof of principle demonstration of a quantum key distribution scheme in higher-order -dimensional alphabets using spatial degrees of freedom of photons. Our implementation allows for the transmission of 4.56 bits per sifted photon, while providing improved security: an intercept-resend attack on all photons would induce an average error rate of 0.47. Using our system, it should be possible to send more than a byte of information per sifted photon.

Experimental determination of entanglement with a single measurement.

Nearly all protocols requiring shared quantum information--such as quantum teleportation or key distribution--rely on entanglement between distant parties. However, entanglement is difficult to characterize experimentally. All existing techniques for doing so, including entanglement witnesses or Bell inequalities, disclose the entanglement of some quantum states but fail for other states; therefore, they cannot provide satisfactory results in general. Such methods are fundamentally different from entanglement measures that, by definition, quantify the amount of entanglement in any state. However, these measures suffer from the severe disadvantage that they typically are not directly accessible in laboratory experiments. Here we report a linear optics experiment in which we directly observe a pure-state entanglement measure, namely concurrence. Our measurement set-up includes two copies of a quantum state: these 'twin' states are prepared in the polarization and momentum degrees of freedom of two photons, and concurrence is measured with a single, local measurement on just one of the photons.

Observation of image transfer and phase conjugation in stimulated down-conversion.

We observe experimentally the transfer of angular spectrum and image formation in the process of stimulated parametric down-conversion. Images and interference patterns can be transferred from either the pump or the auxiliary laser beams to the stimulated down-converted one. The stimulated field propagates as the complex conjugate of the auxiliary laser. The phase conjugation is observed through intensity pattern measurements.