Alessandro Farace

Measures of quantum synchronization in continuous variable systems.

We introduce and characterize two different measures which quantify the level of synchronization of coupled continuous variable quantum systems. The two measures allow us to extend to the quantum domain the notions of complete and phase synchronization. The Heisenberg principle sets a universal bound to complete synchronization. The measure of phase synchronization is, in principle, unbounded; however, in the absence of quantum resources (e.g., squeezing) the synchronization level is bounded below a certain threshold. We elucidate some interesting connections between entanglement and synchronization and, finally, discuss an application based on quantum optomechanical systems.

Enhancing quantum effects via periodic modulations in optomechanical systems

Parametrically modulated optomechanical systems have been recently proposed as a simple and efficient setting for the quantum control of a micromechanical oscillator: relevant possibilities include the generation of squeezing in the oscillator position (or momentum) and the enhancement of entanglement between mechanical and radiation modes. In this paper we further investigate this new modulation regime, considering an optomechanical system with one or more parameters being modulated over time. We first apply a sinusoidal modulation of the mechanical frequency and characterize the optimal regime in which the visibility of purely quantum effects is maximal. We then introduce a second modulation on the input laser intensity and analyze the interplay between the two. We find that an interference pattern shows up, so that different choices of the relative phase between the two modulations can either enhance or cancel the desired quantum effects.

Mutual information as an order parameter for quantum synchronization

Spontaneous synchronization is a fundamental phenomenon, important in many theoretical studies and applications. Recently, this effect has been analyzed and observed in a number of physical systems close to the quantum-mechanical regime. In this work we propose mutual information as a useful order parameter which can capture the emergence of synchronization in very different contexts, ranging from semiclassical to intrinsically quantum-mechanical systems. Specifically, we first study the synchronization of two coupled Van der Pol oscillators in both classical and quantum regimes and later we consider the synchronization of two qubits inside two coupled optical cavities. In all these contexts, we find that mutual information can be used as an appropriate figure of merit for determining the synchronization phases independently of the specific details of the system.

Discriminating strength: a bona fide measure of non-classical correlations

A new measure of non-classical correlations is introduced and characterized. It tests the ability of using a state ? of a composite system AB as a probe for a quantum illumination task (e.g. see Lloyd 2008 Science 321 1463), in which one is asked to remotely discriminate between the two following scenarios: (i) either nothing happens to the probe, or (ii) the subsystem A is transformed via a local unitary whose properties are partially unspecified when producing ?. This new measure can be seen as the discrete version of the recently introduced interferometric power measure (Girolami et al 2013 e-print arXiv:1309.1472) and, at least for the case in which A is a qubit, it is shown to coincide (up to an irrelevant scaling factor) with the local quantum uncertainty measure of Girolami, Tufarelli and Adesso (2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 240402). Analytical expressions are derived which allow us to formally prove that, within the set of separable configurations, the maximum value of our non-classicality measure is achieved over the set of quantum-classical states (i.e. states ? which admit a statistical unravelling where each element of the associated ensemble is distinguishable via local measures on B).

Quantum optomechanical piston engines powered by heat

We study two different models of optomechanical systems where a temperature gradient between two radiation baths is exploited for inducing self-sustained coherent oscillations of a mechanical resonator. From a thermodynamic perspective, such systems represent quantum instances of self-contained thermal machines converting heat into a periodic mechanical motion and thus they can be interpreted as nano-scale analogues of macroscopic piston engines. Our models are potentially suitable for testing fundamental aspects of quantum thermodynamics in the laboratory and for applications in energy efficient nanotechnology.

Steady-state entanglement activation in optomechanical cavities

Quantum discord, and a number of related indicators, are currently raising a relentless interest as a novel paradigm of non-classical correlations beyond entanglement. Beside merely fundamental aspects, various works have shown that discord is a valuable -- so far largely unexplored -- resource in quantum information processing. Along this line, quite a striking scheme is {entanglement activation}. An initial amount of discord between two disentangled parties of a multipartite system affects the dynamics so as to establish entanglement across a bipartition, which would not arise otherwise. To date, such a process was proven to be achievable only dynamically, i.e., with no guarantee of a stationary entanglement throughput in the presence of noise. Here, we discover a {\it discord-activated mechanism yielding steady-state entanglement} production in a realistic continuous-variable setup. This comprises two coupled optomechanical cavities, where the optical modes (OMs) communicate through a fiber. We first use a simplified model to highlight the creation of steady-state discord between the OMs. We show next that such discord improves the level of stationary optomechanical entanglement attainable in the system, making it more robust against temperature and thermal noise.

Building versatile bipartite probes for quantum metrology

We consider bipartite systems as versatile probes for the estimation of transformations acting locally on one of the subsystems. We investigate what resources are required for the probes to offer a guaranteed level of metrological performance, when the latter is averaged over specific sets of local transformations. We quantify such a performance via the average skew information, a convex quantity which we compute in closed form for bipartite states of arbitrary dimensions, and which is shown to be strongly dependent on the degree of local purity of the probes. Our analysis contrasts and complements the recent series of studies focused on the minimum, rather than the average, performance of bipartite probes in local estimation tasks, which was instead determined by quantum correlations other than entanglement. We provide explicit prescriptions to characterize the most reliable states maximizing the average skew information, and elucidate the role of state purity, separability and correlations in the classification of optimal probes. Our results can help in the identification of useful resources for sensing, estimation and discrimination applications when complete knowledge of the interaction mechanism realizing the local transformation is unavailable, and access to pure entangled probes is technologically limited.

Gaussian discriminating strength

We present a quantifier of nonclassical correlations for bipartite, multimode Gaussian states. It is derived from the Discriminating Strength measure, introduced for finite dimensional systems in Farace et al., [New J. Phys. 16, 073010 (2014)]. As the latter the new measure exploits the quantum Chernoff bound to gauge the susceptibility of the composite system with respect to local perturbations induced by unitary gates extracted from a suitable set of allowed transformations (the latter being identified by posing some general requirements). Closed expressions are provided for the case of two-mode Gaussian states obtained by squeezing or by linearly mixing via a beam splitter a factorized two-mode thermal state. For these density matrices, we study how nonclassical correlations are related with the entanglement present in the system and with its total photon number.

Digital lattice gauge theories

We propose a general scheme for a digital construction of lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions. In this method, the four-body interactions arising in models with

Versatile Gaussian probes for squeezing estimation

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