No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] We consider quantum metrology for unitary evolutions generated by parameter-dependent Hamiltonians. We focus on the unitary evolutions generated by the Ising Hamiltonian that describes the dynamics of a one-dimensional chain of spins with nearest-neighbour interactions and in the presence of a global, transverse, magnetic field. We analytically solve the problem and show that the precision with which one can estimate the magnetic field (interaction strength) given one knows the interaction strength (magnetic field) scales at the Heisenberg limit, and can be achieved by a linear superposition of the vacuum and N free fermion states. In addition, we show that Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger-type states exhibit Heisenberg scaling in precision throughout the entire regime of parameters. Moreover, we numerically observe that the optimal precision using a product input state scales at the standard quantum limit. (paper)

[en] We consider the usage of dynamical decoupling in quantum metrology, where the joint evolution of system plus environment is described by a Hamiltonian. We show that by ultra-fast unitary control operations acting locally only on system qubits, noise can be eliminated while the desired evolution is only reduced by at most a constant factor, leading to Heisenberg scaling. We identify all kinds of noise where such an approach is applicable. Only noise that is generated by the Hamiltonian to be estimated itself cannot be altered. However, even for such parallel noise, one can achieve an improved scaling as compared to the standard quantum limit for any local noise by means of symmetrization. Our results are also applicable in other schemes based on dynamical decoupling, e.g. the generation of high-fidelity entangling gates. (paper)

[en] The experimental verification of quantum features, such as entanglement, at large scales is extremely challenging because of environment-induced decoherence. Indeed, measurement techniques for demonstrating the quantumness of multiparticle systems in the presence of losses are difficult to define, and if they are not sufficiently accurate they can provide wrong conclusions. We present a Bell test where one photon of an entangled pair is amplified and then detected by threshold detectors, whose signals undergo postselection. The amplification is performed by a classical machine, which produces a fully separable micro-macro state. However, by adopting such a technique one can surprisingly observe a violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality. This is due to the fact that ignoring the detection loophole opened by the postselection and the system losses can lead to misinterpretations, such as claiming micro-macro entanglement in a setup where evidently it is not present. By using threshold detectors and postselection, one can only infer the entanglement of the initial pair of photons, and so micro-micro entanglement, as is further confirmed by the violation of a nonseparability criterion for bipartite systems. How to detect photonic micro-macro entanglement in the presence of losses with the currently available technology remains an open question.

[en] In the quantum regime information can be copied with only a finite fidelity. This fidelity gradually increases to 1 as the system becomes classical. In this Letter we show how this fact can be used to directly measure the amount of radiated power. We demonstrate how these principles can be used to build a practical primary standard.

[en] We consider a bipartite scenario where two parties hold ensembles of 1/2-spins which can only be measured collectively. We give numerical arguments supporting the conjecture that in this scenario no Bell inequality can be violated for arbitrary numbers of spins if only first order moment observables are available. We then give a recipe to achieve a significant Bell violation with a split many-body system when this restriction is lifted. This highlights the strong requirements needed to detect bipartite quantum correlations in many-body systems device-independently. (paper)

[en] We show that the interaction of a pulsed laser light with a mechanical oscillator through the radiation pressure results in an opto-mechanical entangled state in which the photon number is correlated with the oscillator position. Interestingly, the mechanical oscillator can be delocalized over a large range of positions when driven by an intense laser light. This provides a simple yet sensitive method to probe hypothetical post-quantum theories including an explicit wave function collapse model, like the Diosi and Penrose model. We propose an entanglement witness to reveal the quantum nature of this opto-mechanical state as well as an optical technique to record the decoherence of the mechanical oscillator. We also report on a detailed feasibility study giving the experimental challenges that need to be overcome in order to confirm or rule out predictions from explicit wave function collapse models. (paper)

[en] By amplifying photonic qubits it is possible to produce states that contain enough photons to be seen with the human eye, potentially bringing quantum effects to macroscopic scales [P. Sekatski, N. Brunner, C. Branciard, N. Gisin, and C. Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 113601 (2009)]. In this paper we theoretically study quantum states obtained by amplifying one side of an entangled photon pair with different types of optical cloning machines for photonic qubits. We propose a detection scheme that involves lossy threshold detectors (such as the human eye) on the amplified side and conventional photon detectors on the other side. We show that correlations obtained with such coarse-grained measurements prove the entanglement of the initial photon pair and do not prove the entanglement of the amplified state. We emphasize the importance of the detection loophole in Bell violation experiments by giving a simple preparation technique for separable states that violate a Bell inequality without closing this loophole. Finally, we analyze the genuine entanglement of the amplified states and its robustness to losses before, during, and after amplification.

[en] Quantum metrology offers a quadratic advantage over classical approaches to parameter estimation problems by utilising entanglement and nonclassicality. However, the hurdle of actually implementing the necessary quantum probe states and measurements, which vary drastically for different metrological scenarios, is usually not taken into account. We show that for a wide range of tasks in metrology, 2D cluster states (a particular family of states useful for measurement-based quantum computation) can serve as flexible resources that allow one to efficiently prepare any required state for sensing, and perform appropriate (entangled) measurements using only single qubit operations. Crucially, the overhead in the number of qubits is less than quadratic, thus preserving the quantum scaling advantage. This is ensured by using a compression to a logarithmically sized space that contains all relevant information for sensing. We specifically demonstrate how our method can be used to obtain optimal scaling for phase and frequency estimation in local estimation problems, as well as for the Bayesian equivalents with Gaussian priors of varying widths. Furthermore, we show that in the paradigmatic case of local phase estimation 1D cluster states are sufficient for optimal state preparation and measurement. (paper)