Remigiusz Augusiak

Local orthogonality as a multipartite principle for quantum correlations

In recent years, the use of information principles to understand quantum correlations has been very successful. Unfortunately, all principles considered so far have a bipartite formulation, but intrinsically multipartite principles, yet to be discovered, are necessary for reproducing quantum correlations. Here we introduce local orthogonality, an intrinsically multipartite principle stating that events involving different outcomes of the same local measurement must be exclusive or orthogonal. We prove that it is equivalent to no-signalling in the bipartite scenario but more restrictive for more than two parties. By exploiting this non-equivalence, it is then demonstrated that some bipartite supra-quantum correlations do violate the local orthogonality when distributed among several parties. Finally, we show how its multipartite character allows revealing the non-quantumness of correlations for which any bipartite principle fails. We believe that local orthogonality is a crucial ingredient for understanding no-signalling and quantum correlations.

Existence of an information unit as a postulate of quantum theory

Significance Despite the enormous success of quantum theory, its significance and meaning are still being debated. In particular, the standard postulates of quantum theory are abstract mathematical statements in terms of complex vectors, self-adjoint operators, etc., and as such they lack a clear physical interpretation. For this reason, it is difficult to assess what they say about the structure of the physical world. In this article, we prove that quantum theory can be formulated through four very simple postulates, each having a direct physical and intuitive meaning. Also, our postulates unveil some connections between physics and information that remain hidden in the standard postulates, thus supporting Wheeler’s hypothesis “it from bit.” Does information play a significant role in the foundations of physics? Information is the abstraction that allows us to refer to the states of systems when we choose to ignore the systems themselves. This is only possible in very particular frameworks, like in classical or quantum theory, or more generally, whenever there exists an information unit such that the state of any system can be reversibly encoded in a sufficient number of such units. In this work, we show how the abstract formalism of quantum theory can be deduced solely from the existence of an information unit with suitable properties, together with two further natural assumptions: the continuity and reversibility of dynamics, and the possibility of characterizing the state of a composite system by local measurements. This constitutes a set of postulates for quantum theory with a simple and direct physical meaning, like the ones of special relativity or thermodynamics, and it articulates a strong connection between physics and information.

Inequivalence of entanglement, steering, and Bell nonlocality for general measurements

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is a form of inseparability in quantum theory commonly acknowledged to be intermediate between entanglement and Bell nonlocality. However, this statement has so far only been proven for a restricted class of measurements, namely, projective measurements. Here we prove that entanglement, one-way steering, two-way steering, and nonlocality are genuinely different considering general measurements, i.e., single round positive-operator-valued measures. Finally, we show that the use of sequences of measurements is relevant for steering tests, as they can be used to reveal “hidden steering.”

Unified framework for correlations in terms of local quantum observables.

We provide a unified framework for nonsignalling quantum and classical multipartite correlations, allowing all to be written as the trace of some local (quantum) measurements multiplied by an operator. The properties of this operator define the corresponding set of correlations. We then show that if the theory is such that all local quantum measurements are possible, one obtains the correlations corresponding to the extension of Gleasons Theorem to multipartite systems. Such correlations coincide with the quantum ones for one and two parties, but we prove the existence of a gap for three or more parties.

Detecting nonlocality in many-body quantum states

Testing nonlocality for many particles Distant parts of a quantum-mechanical system can be correlated in ways that cannot be described classically—a concept known as nonlocality. Tura et al. propose a simple test for nonlocality in systems with multiple particles. The test involves quantities that should readily be measurable in, for example, cold atom experiments. This is an improvement over currently available tests, which are difficult to implement experimentally. Science, this issue p. 1256 A simplified, experimentally accessible form of Bell inequalities is derived for systems with many particles. Intensive studies of entanglement properties have proven essential for our understanding of quantum many-body systems. In contrast, much less is known about the role of quantum nonlocality in these systems because the available multipartite Bell inequalities involve correlations among many particles, which are difficult to access experimentally. We constructed multipartite Bell inequalities that involve only two-body correlations and show how they reveal the nonlocality in many-body systems relevant for nuclear and atomic physics. Our inequalities are violated by any number of parties and can be tested by measuring total spin components, opening the way to the experimental detection of many-body nonlocality, for instance with atomic ensembles.Bell inequalities define experimentally observable quantities to detect non-locality. In general, they involve correlation functions of all the parties. Unfortunately, these measurements are hard to implement for systems consisting of many constituents, where only few-body correlation functions are accessible. Here we demonstrate that higher-order correlation functions are not necessary to certify nonlocality in multipartite quantum states by constructing Bell inequalities from one- and two-body correlation functions for an arbitrary number of parties. The obtained inequalities are violated by some of the Dicke states, which arise naturally in many-body physics as the ground states of the two-body Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick Hamiltonian.

Bound entanglement maximally violating bell inequalities : Quantum entanglement is not fully equivalent to cryptographic security

It is shown that Smolin four-qubit bound entangled states [J. A. Smolin, Phys. Rev. A 63, 032306 (2001)] can maximally violate the simple two-setting Bell inequality similar to the standard Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality. The simplicity of the setting and the robustness of the entanglement make it promising for current experimental technology. On the other hand, the entanglement does not allow for secure key distillation, so neither entanglement nor maximal violation of Bell inequalities implies directly the presence of a quantum secure key. As a result, one concludes that two tasks--reducing of communication complexity and cryptography--are not (even qualitatively) equivalent in a quantum multipartite scenario.

Detecting non-locality in multipartite quantum systems with two-body correlation functions

Testing nonlocality for many particles Distant parts of a quantum-mechanical system can be correlated in ways that cannot be described classically—a concept known as nonlocality. Tura et al. propose a simple test for nonlocality in systems with multiple particles. The test involves quantities that should readily be measurable in, for example, cold atom experiments. This is an improvement over currently available tests, which are difficult to implement experimentally. Science, this issue p. 1256 A simplified, experimentally accessible form of Bell inequalities is derived for systems with many particles. Intensive studies of entanglement properties have proven essential for our understanding of quantum many-body systems. In contrast, much less is known about the role of quantum nonlocality in these systems because the available multipartite Bell inequalities involve correlations among many particles, which are difficult to access experimentally. We constructed multipartite Bell inequalities that involve only two-body correlations and show how they reveal the nonlocality in many-body systems relevant for nuclear and atomic physics. Our inequalities are violated by any number of parties and can be tested by measuring total spin components, opening the way to the experimental detection of many-body nonlocality, for instance with atomic ensembles.Bell inequalities define experimentally observable quantities to detect non-locality. In general, they involve correlation functions of all the parties. Unfortunately, these measurements are hard to implement for systems consisting of many constituents, where only few-body correlation functions are accessible. Here we demonstrate that higher-order correlation functions are not necessary to certify nonlocality in multipartite quantum states by constructing Bell inequalities from one- and two-body correlation functions for an arbitrary number of parties. The obtained inequalities are violated by some of the Dicke states, which arise naturally in many-body physics as the ground states of the two-body Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick Hamiltonian.

Universal observable detecting all two-qubit entanglement and determinant-based separability tests

We construct a single observable measurement of which mean value on four copies of an {\it unknown} two-qubit state is sufficient for unambiguous decision whether the state is separable or entangled. In other words, there exists a universal collective entanglement witness detecting all two-qubit entanglement. The test is directly linked to a function which characterizes to some extent the entanglement quantitatively. This function is an entanglement monotone under so--called local pure operations and classical communication (pLOCC) which preserve local dimensions. Moreover it provides tight upper and lower bounds for negativity and concurrence. Elementary quantum computing device estimating unknown two-qubit entanglement is designed.

Entanglement and Nonlocality are Inequivalent for Any Number of Parties

Understanding the relation between nonlocality and entanglement is one of the fundamental problems in quantum physics. In the bipartite case, it is known that these two phenomena are inequivalent, as there exist entangled states of two parties that do not violate any Bell inequality. However, except for a single example of an entangled three-qubit state that has a local model, almost nothing is known about such a relation in multipartite systems. We provide a general construction of genuinely multipartite entangled states that do not display genuinely multipartite nonlocality, thus proving that entanglement and nonlocality are inequivalent for any number of parties.

Exploring the Local Orthogonality Principle

Nonlocality is arguably one of the most fundamental and counterintuitive aspects of quantum theory. Nonlocal correlations could, however, be even more nonlocal than quantum theory allows, while still complying with basic physical principles such as no-signaling. So why is quantum mechanics not as nonlocal as it could be? Are there other physical or information-theoretic principles which prohibit this? So far, the proposed answers to this question have been only partially successful, partly because they are lacking genuinely multipartite formulations. In Nat. Comm. 4, 2263 (2013) we introduced the principle of Local Orthogonality (LO), an intrinsically multipartite principle which is satisfied by quantum mechanics but is violated by non-physical correlations. Here we further explore the LO principle, presenting new results and explaining some of its subtleties. In particular, we show that the set of no-signaling boxes satisfying LO is closed under wirings, present a classification of all LO inequalities in certain scenarios, show that all extremal tripartite boxes with two binary measurements per party violate LO, and explain the connection between LO inequalities and unextendible product bases.