Using weak nonlinearity under decoherence for macroscopic entanglement generation and quantum computation

Recently, there have been several suggestions that weak Kerr nonlinearity can be used for generation of macroscopic superpositions and entanglement and for linear optics quantum computation. However, it is not immediately clear that this approach can overcome decoherence effects. Our numerical study shows that nonlinearity of weak strength could be useful for macroscopic entanglement generation and quantum gate operations in the presence of decoherence. We suggest specific values for real experiments based on our analysis. Our discussion shows that the generation of macroscopic entanglement using this approach is within the reach of current technology.

Multipartite entanglement in harmonic oscillators subjected to dissipative quantum dynamics

Una detallada descripción de la dinámica de bajas energías del entrelazamiento multipartito es proporcionada para sistemas armónicos en una gran variedad de escenarios disipativos. Sin hacer ninguna aproximación central, esta descripción yace principalmente sobre un conjunto razonable de hipótesis acerca del entorno e interacción entorno-sistema, ambas consistente con un análisis lineal de la dinámica disipativa. En la primera parte se deriva un criterio de inseparabilidad capaz de detectar el entrelazamiento k-partito de una extensa clase de estados gausianos y no-gausianos en sistemas de variable continua. Este criterio se emplea para monitorizar la dinámica transitiva del entrelazamiento, mostrando que los estados no-gausianos pueden ser tan robustos frente a los efectos disipativos como los gausianos. Especial atención se dedicada a la dinámica estacionaria del entrelazamiento entre tres osciladores interaccionando con el mismo entorno o diferentes entornos a distintas temperaturas. Este estudio contribuye a dilucidar el papel de las correlaciones cuánticas en el comportamiento de la corrientes energéticas.

Gaussian entanglement for quantum key distribution from a single-mode squeezing source

We report the suitability of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entanglement source for Gaussian continuous-variable quantum key distribution at 1550 nm. Our source is based on a single continuous-wave squeezed vacuum mode combined with a vacuum mode at a balanced beam splitter. Extending a recent security proof, we characterize the source by quantifying the extractable length of a composable secure key from a finite number of samples under the assumption of collective attacks. We show that distances in the order of 10 km are achievable with this source for a reasonable sample size despite the fact that the entanglement was generated including a vacuum mode. Our security analysis applies to all states having an asymmetry in the field quadrature variances, including those generated by superposition of two squeezed modes with different squeezing strengths.

Efficient entanglement distillation without quantum memory

Entanglement distribution between distant parties is an essential component to most quantum communication protocols. Unfortunately, decoherence effects such as phase noise in optical fibres are known to demolish entanglement. Iterative (multistep) entanglement distillation protocols have long been proposed to overcome decoherence, but their probabilistic nature makes them inefficient since the success probability decays exponentially with the number of steps. Quantum memories have been contemplated to make entanglement distillation practical, but suitable quantum memories are not realised to date. Here, we present the theory for an efficient iterative entanglement distillation protocol without quantum memories and provide a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration. The scheme is applied to phase-diffused two-mode-squeezed states and proven to distil entanglement for up to three iteration steps. The data are indistinguishable from those that an efficient scheme using quantum memories would produce. Since our protocol includes the final measurement it is particularly promising for enhancing continuous-variable quantum key distribution.

Quantum theory beyond the physical : information in context

Measures and theories of information abound, but there are few formalised methods for treating the contextuality that can manifest in different information systems. Quantum theory provides one possible formalism for treating information in context. This paper introduces a quantum-like model of the human mental lexicon, and shows one set of recent experimental data suggesting that concept combinations can indeed behave non-separably. There is some reason to believe that the human mental lexicon displays entanglement.

Modelling the activation of words in human memory : the spreading activation, spooky-activation-at-a-distance and the entanglement models compared

Modelling how a word is activated in human memory is an important requirement for determining the probability of recall of a word in an extra-list cueing experiment. The spreading activation, spooky-action-at-a-distance and entanglement models have all been used to model the activation of a word. Recently a hypothesis was put forward that the mean activation levels of the respective models are as follows: Spreading � Entanglment � Spooking-action-at-a-distance This article investigates this hypothesis by means of a substantial empirical analysis of each model using the University of South Florida word association, rhyme and word norms.

Quantum models of cognition and decision

Much of our understanding of human thinking is based on probabilistic models. This innovative book by Jerome R. Busemeyer and Peter D. Bruza argues that, actually, the underlying mathematical structures from quantum theory provide a much better account of human thinking than traditional models. They introduce the foundations for modelling probabilistic-dynamic systems using two aspects of quantum theory. The first, "contextuality", is a way to understand interference effects found with inferences and decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The second, "entanglement", allows cognitive phenomena to be modelled in non-reductionist ways. Employing these principles drawn from quantum theory allows us to view human cognition and decision in a totally new light...

How activation, entanglement, and searching a semantic network contribute to event memory

Free association norms indicate that words are organized into semantic/associative neighborhoods within a larger network of words and links that bind the net together. We present evidence indicating that memory for a recent word event can depend on implicitly and simultaneously activating related words in its neighborhood. Processing a word during encoding primes its network representation as a function of the density of the links in its neighborhood. Such priming increases recall and recognition and can have long lasting effects when the word is processed in working memory. Evidence for this phenomenon is reviewed in extralist cuing, primed free association, intralist cuing, and single-item recognition tasks. The findings also show that when a related word is presented to cue the recall of a studied word, the cue activates it in an array of related words that distract and reduce the probability of its selection. The activation of the semantic network produces priming benefits during encoding and search costs during retrieval. In extralist cuing recall is a negative function of cue-to-distracter strength and a positive function of neighborhood density, cue-to-target strength, and target-to cue strength. We show how four measures derived from the network can be combined and used to predict memory performance. These measures play different roles in different tasks indicating that the contribution of the semantic network varies with the context provided by the task. We evaluate spreading activation and quantum-like entanglement explanations for the priming effect produced by neighborhood density.

Steady state genuine multipartite entanglement in harmonic oscillator ensembles with a common environment

Steady state entanglement in ensembles of harmonic oscillators with a common squeezed reservoir is studied. Under certain conditions the ensemble features genuine multipartite entanglement in the steady state. Several analytic results regarding the bipartite and multipartite entanglement properties of the system are derived. We also discuss a possible experimental implementation which may exhibit steady state genuine multipartite entanglement.

Entanglement production due to quench dynamics of an anisotropic XY chain in a transverse field

We compute concurrence and negativity as measures of two-spin entanglement generated by a power-law quench (characterized by a rate tau(-1) and an exponent alpha) which takes an anisotropic XY chain in a transverse field through a quantum critical point (QCP). We show that only spins separated by an even number of lattice spacings get entangled in such a process. Moreover, there is a critical rate of quench, tau(-1)(c), above which no two-spin entanglement is generated; the entire entanglement is multipartite. The ratio of the entanglements between consecutive even neighbors can be tuned by changing the quench rate. We also show that for large tau, the concurrence (negativity) scales as root alpha/tau(alpha/tau), and we relate this scaling behavior to defect production by the quench through a QCP.

Dynamics after a sweep through a quantum critical point

The coherent quantum evolution of a one-dimensional many-particle system after slowly sweeping the Hamiltonian through a critical point is studied using a generalized quantum Ising model containing both integrable and nonintegrable regimes. It is known from previous work that universal power laws of the sweep rate appear in such quantities as the mean number of excitations created by the sweep. Several other phenomena are found that are not reflected by such averages: there are two different scaling behaviors of the entanglement entropy and a relaxation that is power law in time rather than exponential. The final state of evolution after the quench is not characterized by any effective temperature, and the Loschmidt echo converges algebraically for long times, with cusplike singularities in the integrable case that are dynamically broadened by nonintegrable perturbations.

Entanglement and nonclassicality for multimode radiation-field states

Nonclassicality in the sense of quantum optics is a prerequisite for entanglement in multimode radiation states. In this work we bring out the possibilities of passing from the former to the latter, via action of classicality preserving systems like beam splitters, in a transparent manner. For single-mode states, a complete description of nonclassicality is available via the classical theory of moments, as a set of necessary and sufficient conditions on the photon number distribution. We show that when the mode is coupled to an ancilla in any coherent state, and the system is then acted upon by a beam splitter, these conditions turn exactly into signatures of negativity under partial transpose (NPT) entanglement of the output state. Since the classical moment problem does not generalize to two or more modes, we turn in these cases to other familiar sufficient but not necessary conditions for nonclassicality, namely the Mandel parameter criterion and its extensions. We generalize the Mandel matrix from one-mode states to the two-mode situation, leading to a natural classification of states with varying levels of nonclassicality. For two-mode states we present a single test that can, if successful, simultaneously show nonclassicality as well as NPT entanglement. We also develop a test for NPT entanglement after beam-splitter action on a nonclassical state, tracing carefully the way in which it goes beyond the Mandel nonclassicality test. The result of three-mode beam-splitter action after coupling to an ancilla in the ground state is treated in the same spirit. The concept of genuine tripartite entanglement, and scalar measures of nonclassicality at the Mandel level for two-mode systems, are discussed. Numerous examples illustrating all these concepts are presented.

Entanglement entropy from the holographic stress tensor

We consider entanglement entropy in the context of gauge/gravity duality for conformal field theories in even dimensions. The holographic prescription due to Ryu and Takayanagi (RT) leads to an equation describing how the entangling surface extends into the bulk geometry. We show that setting to zero, the timetime component of the Brown-York stress tensor evaluated on the co-dimension 1 entangling surface, leads to the same equation. By considering a spherical entangling surface as an example, we observe that the Euclidean actionmethods in AdS/CFT will lead to the RT area functional arising as a counterterm needed to regularize the stress tensor. We present arguments leading to a justification for the minimal area prescription.

ENTANGLEMENT ENTROPY FROM SURFACE TERMS IN GENERAL RELATIVITY

Entanglement entropy in local quantum field theories is typically ultraviolet divergent due to short distance effects in the neighborhood of the entangling region. In the context of gauge/gravity duality, we show that surface terms in general relativity are able to capture this entanglement entropy. In particular, we demonstrate that for 1+1-dimensional (1 + 1d) conformal field theories (CFTs) at finite temperature whose gravity dual is Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole, the Gibbons-Hawking-York term precisely reproduces the entanglement entropy which can be computed independently in the field theory.