A scheme for entanglement extraction from a solid

Some thermodynamical properties of solids, such as heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility, have recently been shown to be linked to the amount of entanglement in a solid. However, this entanglement may appear a mere mathematical artefact of the typical symmetrization procedure of many-body wavefunction in solid state physics. Here we show that this entanglement is physical, demonstrating the principles of its extraction from a typical solid-state system by scattering two particles off the system. Moreover, we show how to simulate this process using present day optical lattice technology. This demonstrates not only that entanglement exists in solids but also that it can be used for quantum information processing or as a test of Bell's inequalities.

Distributing fully optomechanical quantum correlations

We present a scheme to prepare quantum correlated states of two mechanical systems based on the pouring of preavailable all-optical entanglement into the state of two micromirrors belonging to remote and noninteracting optomechanical cavities. We show that, under realistic experimental conditions, the protocol allows for the preparation of a genuine quantum state of a composite mesoscopic system whose nonclassical features extend beyond the occurrence of entanglement. We finally discuss a way to access such mechanical correlations.

Faithful nonclassicality indicators and extremal quantum correlations in two-qubit states

The state disturbance induced by locally measuring a quantum system yields a signature of nonclassical correlations beyond entanglement. Here, we present a detailed study of such correlations for two-qubit mixed states. To overcome the asymmetry of quantum discord and the unfaithfulness of measurement-induced disturbance (severely overestimating quantum correlations), we propose an ameliorated measurement-induced disturbance as nonclassicality indicator, optimized over joint local measurements, and we derive its closed expression for relevant two-qubit states. We study its analytical relation with discord, and characterize the maximally quantum-correlated mixed states, that simultaneously extremize both quantifiers at given von Neumann entropy: among all two-qubit states, these states possess the most robust quantum correlations against noise.

Hybrid methods for witnessing entanglement in a microscopic-macroscopic system

We propose a hybrid approach to the experimental assessment of the genuine quantum features of a general system consisting of microscopic and macroscopic parts. We infer entanglement by combining dichotomic measurements on a bidimensional system and phase-space inference through the Wigner distribution associated with the macroscopic component of the state. As a benchmark, we investigate the feasibility of our proposal in a bipartite-entangled state composed of a single-photon and a multiphoton field. Our analysis shows that, under ideal conditions, maximal violation of a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt-based inequality is achievable regardless of the number of photons in the macroscopic part of the state. The difficulty in observing entanglement when losses and detection inefficiency are included can be overcome by using a hybrid entanglement witness that allows efficient correction for losses in the few-photon regime.

Entangling two distant oscillators with a quantum reservoir

The generation of entanglement between two oscillators that interact via a common reservoir is theoretically studied. The reservoir is modeled by a one-dimensional harmonic crystal initially in thermal equilibrium. Starting from a separable state, the oscillators can become entangled after a transient time, that is of the order of the thermalization time scale. This behaviour is observed at finite temperature even when the oscillators are at a distance significantly larger than the crystal's interparticle spacing. The underlying physical mechanisms can be explained by the dynamical properties of the collective variables of the two oscillators which may decouple from or be squeezed by the reservoir. Our predictions can be tested with an ion chain in a linear Paul trap. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011

Detection of Entanglement in Ultracold Lattice Gases

Probing non trivial magnetic ordering in quantum magnets realized with ultracold lattice gases demands detection methods with some spatial resolution built on it. Here we demonstrate that the Faraday matter-light interface provides an experimentally feasible tool to distinguish indubitably different quantum phases of a given many-body system in a non-demolishing way. We illustrate our approach by focussing on the Heisenberg chain for spin-1 bosons in the presence of a SU(2) symmetry breaking field. We explain how using the light signal obtained via homodyne detection one can reconstruct the phase diagram of the model. Further we show that the very same technique that provides a direct experimentally measurable signal of different order parameters can be extended to detect also the presence of multipartite entanglement in such systems.

Propagation of nonclassical correlations across a quantum spin chain

We study the transport of quantum correlations across a chain of interacting spin-1/2 particles. As a quantitative figure of merit, we choose a symmetric version of quantum discord and compare it with the transported entanglement, addressing various operating regimes of the spin medium. Discord turns out to be better transported for a wide range of working points and initial conditions of the system. We relate this behavior to the efficiency of propagation of a single excitation across the spin chain. Moreover, we point out the role played by a magnetic field in the dynamics of discord in the effective channel embodied by the chain. Our analysis can be interestingly extended to transport processes in more complex networks and the study of nonclassical correlations under general quantum channels.

Almost all quantum states have nonclassical correlations

Quantum discord quantifies nonclassical correlations in a quantum system including those not captured by entanglement. Thus, only states with zero discord exhibit strictly classical correlations. We prove that these states are negligible in the whole Hilbert space: typically a state picked out at random has positive discord and, given a state with zero discord, a generic arbitrarily small perturbation drives it to a positive-discord state. These results hold for any Hilbert-space dimension and have direct implications for quantum computation and for the foundations of the theory of open systems. In addition, we provide a simple necessary criterion for zero quantum discord. Finally, we show that, for almost all positive-discord states, an arbitrary Markovian evolution cannot lead to a sudden, permanent vanishing of discord.

Entanglement control via reservoir engineering in ultracold atomic gases

We study the entanglement of two impurity qubits immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) reservoir. This open quantum system model allows for interpolation between a common dephasing scenario and an independent dephasing scenario by modifying the wavelength of the superlattice superposed to the BEC, and how this influences the dynamical properties of the impurities. We demonstrate the existence of rich dynamics corresponding to different values of reservoir parameters, including phenomena such as entanglement trapping, revivals of entanglement, and entanglement generation. In the spirit of reservoir engineering, we present the optimal BEC parameters for entanglement generation and trapping, showing the key role of the ultracold-gas interactions. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013

Global quantum correlations in finite-size spin chains

We perform an extensive study of the properties of global quantum correlations in finite-size one-dimensional quantum spin models at finite temperature. By adopting a recently proposed measure for global quantum correlations (Rulli and Sarandy 2011 Phys. Rev. A 84 042109), called global discord, we show that critical points can be neatly detected even for many-body systems that are not in their ground state. We consider the transverse Ising model, the cluster-Ising model where three-body couplings compete with an Ising-like interaction, and the nearest-neighbor XX Hamiltonian in transverse magnetic field. These models embody our canonical examples showing the sensitivity of global quantum discord close to criticality. For the Ising model, we find a universal scaling of global discord with the critical exponents pertaining to the Ising universality class.

Entanglement control in hybrid optomechanical systems

We demonstrate the control of entanglement in a hybrid optomechanical system comprising an optical cavity with a mechanical end-mirror and an intracavity Bose-Einstein condensate. Pulsed laser light (tuned within realistic experimental conditions) is shown to induce an almost sixfold increase of the atom-mirror entanglement and to be responsible for interesting dynamics between such mesoscopic systems. In order to assess the advantages offered by the proposed control technique, we compare the time-dependent dynamics of the system under constant pumping with the evolution due to the modulated laser light.

Entanglement Replication in Driven Dissipative Many-Body systems

We study the dissipative dynamics of two independent arrays of many-body systems, locally driven by a common entangled field. We showthat in the steady state the entanglement of the driving field is reproduced in an arbitrarily large series of inter-array entangled pairs over all distances. Local nonclassical driving thus realizes a scale-free entanglement replication and long-distance entanglement distribution mechanism that has immediate bearing on the implementation of quantum communication networks. 

Linear Optics Simulation of Quantum Non-Markovian Dynamics

The simulation of open quantum dynamics has recently allowed the direct investigation of the features of system-environment interaction and of their consequences on the evolution of a quantum system. Such interaction threatens the quantum properties of the system, spoiling them and causing the phenomenon of decoherence. Sometimes however a coherent exchange of information takes place between system and environment, memory effects arise and the dynamics of the system becomes non-Markovian. Here we report the experimental realisation of a non-Markovian process where system and environment are coupled through a simulated transverse Ising model. By engineering the evolution in a photonic quantum simulator, we demonstrate the role played by system-environment correlations in the emergence of memory effects.

Transferring entanglement to the steady state of flying qubits

The transfer of entanglement from optical fields to qubits provides a viable approach to entangling remote qubits in a quantum network. In cavity quantum electrodynamics, the scheme relies on the interaction between a photonic resource and two stationary intracavity atomic qubits. However, it might be hard in practice to trap two atoms simultaneously and synchronize their coupling to the cavities. To address this point, we propose and study entanglement transfer from cavities driven by an entangled external field to controlled flying qubits. We consider two exemplary non-Gaussian driving fields: NOON and entangled coherent states. We show that in the limit of long coherence time of the cavity fields, when the dynamics is approximately unitary, entanglement is transferred from the driving field to two atomic qubits that cross the cavities. On the other hand, a dissipation-dominated dynamics leads to very weakly quantum-correlated atomic systems, as witnessed by vanishing quantum discord.