Tommaso F. Demarie

Fundamental quantum optics experiments conceivable with satellites : reaching relativistic distances and velocities

Physical theories are developed to describe phenomena in particular regimes, and generally are valid only within a limited range of scales. For example, general relativity provides an effective description of the Universe at large length scales, and has been tested from the cosmic scale down to distances as small as 10 m (Dimopoulos 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 111102; 2008 Phys. Rev. D 78 042003). In contrast, quantum theory provides an effective description of physics at small length scales. Direct tests of quantum theory have been performed at the smallest probeable scales at the Large Hadron Collider, ~10−20 m, up to that of hundreds of kilometres (Ursin et al 2007 Nature Phys. 3 481–6). Yet, such tests fall short of the scales required to investigate potentially significant physics that arises at the intersection of quantum and relativistic regimes. We propose to push direct tests of quantum theory to larger and larger length scales, approaching that of the radius of curvature of spacetime, where we begin to probe the interaction between gravity and quantum phenomena. In particular, we review a wide variety of potential tests of fundamental physics that are conceivable with artificial satellites in Earth orbit and elsewhere in the solar system, and attempt to sketch the magnitudes of potentially observable effects. The tests have the potential to determine the applicability of quantum theory at larger length scales, eliminate various alternative physical theories, and place bounds on phenomenological models motivated by ideas about spacetime microstructure from quantum gravity. From a more pragmatic perspective, as quantum communication technologies such as quantum key distribution advance into space towards large distances, some of the fundamental physical effects discussed here may need to be taken into account to make such schemes viable.

Photon polarization and geometric phase in general relativity

Rotation of polarization in an external gravitational field is one of the effects of general relativity that can serve as a basis for its precision tests. A careful analysis of reference frames is crucial for a proper evaluation of this effect. We introduce an operationally-motivated local reference frame that allows for a particularly simple description. We present a solution of null geodesics in Kerr space-time that is organized around a new expansion parameter, allowing a better control of the series, and use it to calculate the resulting polarization rotation. While this rotation depends on the reference-frame convention, we demonstrate a gauge-independent geometric phase for closed paths in general space-times.

Universality of quantum computation with cluster states and (X, Y)-plane measurements

Measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC) is a model of quantum computation where quantum information is coherently processed by means of projective measurements on highly entangled states. Following the introduction of MBQC, cluster states have been studied extensively both from the theoretical and experimental point of view. Indeed, the study of MBQC was catalysed by the realisation that cluster states are universal for MBQC with (X, Y)-plane and Z measurements. Here we examine the question of whether the requirement for Z measurements can be dropped while maintaining universality. We answer this question in the affirmative by showing that universality is possible in this scenario.

Flow Ambiguity: A Path Towards Classically Driven Blind Quantum Computation

Blind quantum computation protocols allow a user to delegate a computation to a remote quantum computer in such a way that the privacy of their computation is preserved, even from the device implementing the computation. To date, such protocols are only known for settings involving at least two quantum devices: either a user with some quantum capabilities and a remote quantum server or two or more entangled but noncommunicating servers. In this work, we take the first step towards the construction of a blind quantum computing protocol with a completely classical client and single quantum server. Specifically, we show how a classical client can exploit the ambiguity in the flow of information in measurement-based quantum computing to construct a protocol for hiding critical aspects of a computation delegated to a remote quantum computer. This ambiguity arises due to the fact that, for a fixed graph, there exist multiple choices of the input and output vertex sets that result in deterministic measurement patterns consistent with the same fixed total ordering of vertices. This allows a classical user, computing only measurement angles, to drive a measurement-based computation performed on a remote device while hiding critical aspects of the computation.

Entropy and entanglement in polymer quantization

Polymer quantization is a useful toy model for the mathematical aspects of loop quantum gravity and is interesting in its own right. Analyzing entropies of physically equivalent states in the standard Hilbert space and the polymer Hilbert space we show that they converge in the limit of vanishing polymer scale. We derive a general bound that relates entropies of physically equivalent states in unitarily inequivalent representations.

Detecting topological entanglement entropy in a lattice of quantum harmonic oscillators

The Kitaev surface code model is the most studied example of a topologically ordered phase and typically involves four-spin interactions on a two-dimensional surface. A universal signature of this phase is topological entanglement entropy (TEE), but due to low signal to noise, it is extremely difficult to observe in these systems, and one usually resorts to measuring anyonic statistics of excitations or non-local string operators to reveal the order. We describe a continuous-variable analog to the surface code using quantum harmonic oscillators on a two-dimensional lattice, which has the distinctive property of needing only two-body nearest-neighbor interactions for its creation. Though such a model is gapless, it satisfies an area law and the ground state can be simply prepared by measurements on a finitely squeezed and gapped two-dimensional cluster-state without topological order. Asymptotically, the continuous variable surface code TEE grows linearly with the squeezing parameter and a recently discovered non-local quantity, the topological logarithmic negativity, behaves analogously. We also show that the mixed-state generalization of the TEE, the topological mutual information, is robust to some forms of state preparation error and can be detected simply using single-mode quadrature measurements. Finally, we discuss scalable implementation of these methods using optical and circuit-QED technology.

Continuous-variable topological quantum codes enable anonymous broadcasting of classical information

Broadcasting information anonymously becomes more difficult as surveillance technology improves, but remarkably, quantum protocols exist that enable provably traceless broadcasting. The difficulty is making scalable entangled resource states that are robust to errors. We propose an anonymous broadcasting protocol that uses a continuous-variable surface-code state that can be produced using current technology. High squeezing enables large transmission bandwidth and strong anonymity, and the topological nature of the state enables local error mitigation.Broadcasting information anonymously becomes more difficult as surveillance technology improves, but remarkably, quantum protocols exist that enable provably traceless broadcasting. The difficulty is making scalable entangled resource states that are robust to errors. We propose an anonymous broadcasting protocol that uses a continuous-variable surface-code state that can be produced using current technology. High squeezing enables large transmission bandwidth and strong anonymity, and the topological nature of the state enables local error mitigation.