Zeng-Bing Chen

Coupling-deformed pointer observables and weak values

While the novel applications of weak values have recently attracted wide attention, weak measurement, the usual way to extract weak values, suffers from risky approximations and severe quantum noises. In this paper, we show that the weak-value information can be obtained exactly in strong measurement with postselections, via measuring the coupling-deformed pointer observables, i.e., the observables selected according to the coupling strength. With this approach, we keep all the advantages claimed by weak-measurement schemes and at the same time solve some widely criticized problems thereof, such as the questionable universality, systematical bias, and drastic inefficiency.

Detector-decoy quantum key distribution without monitoring signal disturbance

The round-robin differential phase-shift quantum key distribution protocol provides a secure way to exchange private information without monitoring conventional disturbances and still maintains a high tolerance of noise, making it desirable for practical implementations of quantum key distribution. However, photon number resolving detectors are required to ensure that the detected signals are single photons in the original protocol. Here, we adopt the detector-decoy method and give the bounds to the fraction of detected events from single photons. Utilizing the advantages of the protocol, we provide a practical method of performing the protocol with desirable performances requiring only threshold single-photon detectors.

Practical quantum digital signature

Guaranteeing nonrepudiation, unforgeability as well as transferability of a signature is one of the most vital safeguards in todays e-commerce era. Based on fundamental laws of quantum physics, quantum digital signature (QDS) aims to provide information-theoretic security for this cryptographic task. However, up to date, the previously proposed QDS protocols are impractical due to various challenging problems and most importantly, the requirement of authenticated (secure) quantum channels between participants. Here, we present the first quantum digital signature protocol that removes the assumption of authenticated quantum channels while remaining secure against the collective attacks. Besides, our QDS protocol can be practically implemented over more than 100 km under current mature technology as used in quantum key distribution.

Security of quantum key distribution with multiphoton components.

Most qubit-based quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols extract the secure key merely from single-photon component of the attenuated lasers. However, with the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 2004 (SARG04) QKD protocol, the unconditionally secure key can be extracted from the two-photon component by modifying the classical post-processing procedure in the BB84 protocol. Employing the merits of SARG04 QKD protocol and six-state preparation, one can extract secure key from the components of single photon up to four photons. In this paper, we provide the exact relations between the secure key rate and the bit error rate in a six-state SARG04 protocol with single-photon, two-photon, three-photon, and four-photon sources. By restricting the mutual information between the phase error and bit error, we obtain a higher secure bit error rate threshold of the multiphoton components than previous works. Besides, we compare the performances of the six-state SARG04 with other prepare-and-measure QKD protocols using decoy states.

Quantum uncertainty switches on or off the error-disturbance tradeoff

The uncertainty principle is often interpreted by the tradeoff between the error of a measurement and the consequential disturbance to the followed ones, which originated long ago from Heisenberg himself but now falls into reexamination and even heated debate. Here we show that the tradeoff is switched on or off by the quantum uncertainties of two involved non-commuting observables: if one is more certain than the other, there is no tradeoff; otherwise, they do have tradeoff and the Jensen-Shannon divergence gives it a good characterization.The indeterminacy of quantum mechanics was originally presented by Heisenberg through the tradeoff between the measuring error of the observable A and the consequential disturbance to the value of another observable B. This tradeoff now has become a popular interpretation of the uncertainty principle. However, the historic idea has never been exactly formulated previously and is recently called into question. A theory built upon operational and state-relevant definitions of error and disturbance is called for to rigorously reexamine the relationship. Here by putting forward such natural definitions, we demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that there is no tradeoff if the outcome of measuring B is more uncertain than that of A. Otherwise, the tradeoff will be switched on and well characterized by the Jensen-Shannon divergence. Our results reveal the hidden effect of the uncertain nature possessed by the measured state, and conclude that the state-relevant relation between error and disturbance is not almosteverywhere a tradeoff as people usually believe.

Ground-state cooling of a dispersively coupled optomechanical system in the unresolved sideband regime via a dissipatively coupled oscillator

In the optomechanical cooling of a dispersively coupled oscillator, it is only possible to reach the oscillator ground state in the resolved sideband regime, where the cavity-mode line width is smaller than the resonant frequency of the mechanical oscillator being cooled. In this paper, we show that the dispersively coupled system can be cooled to the ground state in the unresolved sideband regime using an ancillary oscillator, which is coupled to the same optical mode via dissipative interaction. The ancillary oscillator has a resonant frequency close to that of the target oscillator; thus, the ancillary oscillator is also in the unresolved sideband regime. We require only a single blue-detuned laser mode to drive the cavity.

Experimental investigation of the information entropic Bell inequality.

Inequalities of information entropic play a fundamental role in information theory and have been employed effectively in finding bounds on optimal rates of various information-processing tasks. In this paper, we perform the first experimental demonstration of the information-theoretic spin-1/2 inequality using the high-fidelity entangled state. Furthermore, we study the evolution of information difference of entropy when photons passing through different noisy channels and give the experimental rules of the information difference degradation. Our work provides an new essential tool for quantum information processing and measurement, and offers new insights into the dynamics of quantum correlation in open systems.