Measuring entanglement in condensed matter systems

Collective Randomized Measurements in Quantum Information Processing

The concept of randomized measurements on individual particles has proven to be useful for analyzing quantum systems and is central for methods like shadow tomography of quantum states. We introduce collective randomized measurements as a tool in quantum information processing. Our idea is to perform measurements of collective angular momentum on a quantum system and actively rotate the directions using simultaneous multilateral unitaries. Based on the moments of the resulting probability distribution, we propose systematic approaches to characterize quantum entanglement in a collective-reference-frame-independent manner. First, we show that existing spin-squeezing inequalities can be accessible in this scenario. Next, we present an entanglement criterion based on three-body correlations, going beyond spin-squeezing inequalities with two-body correlations. Finally, we apply our method to characterize entanglement between spatially separated two ensembles.

Entanglement Quantification in Atomic Ensembles

Entanglement measures quantify nonclassical correlations present in a quantum system, but can be extremely difficult to calculate, even more so, when information on its state is limited. Here, we consider broad families of entanglement criteria that are based on variances of arbitrary operators and analytically derive the lower bounds these criteria provide for two relevant entanglement measures: the best separable approximation and the generalized robustness. This yields a practical method for quantifying entanglement in realistic experimental situations, in particular, when only few measurements of simple observables are available. As a concrete application of this method, we quantify bipartite and multipartite entanglement in spin-squeezed Bose-Einstein condensates of ∼500  atoms, by lower bounding the best separable approximation and the generalized robustness only from measurements of first and second moments of the collective spin operator.

Bounds on Mixed State Entanglement

In the general framework of d1×d2 mixed states, we derive an explicit bound for bipartite negative partial transpose (NPT) entanglement based on the mixedness characterization of the physical system. The derived result is very general, being based only on the assumption of finite dimensionality. In addition, it turns out to be of experimental interest since some purity-measuring protocols are known. Exploiting the bound in the particular case of thermal entanglement, a way to connect thermodynamic features to the monogamy of quantum correlations is suggested, and some recent results on the subject are given a physically clear explanation.

Rényi Generalization of the Accessible Entanglement Entropy

Operationally accessible entanglement in bipartite systems of indistinguishable particles could be reduced due to restrictions on the allowed local operations as a result of particle number conservation. In order to quantify this effect, Wiseman and Vaccaro [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 097902 (2003)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.91.097902] introduced an operational measure of the von Neumann entanglement entropy. Motivated by advances in measuring Rényi entropies in quantum many-body systems subject to conservation laws, we derive a generalization of the operationally accessible entanglement that is both computationally and experimentally measurable. Using the Widom theorem, we investigate its scaling with the size of a spatial subregion for free fermions and find a logarithmically violated area law scaling, similar to the spatial entanglement entropy, with at most a double-log leading-order correction. A modification of the correlation matrix method confirms our findings in systems of up to 10^{5} particles.

Multipartite Entanglement in Topological Quantum Phases

We witness multipartite entanglement in the ground state of the Kitaev chain-a benchmark model of a one dimensional topological superconductor-also with variable-range pairing, using the quantum Fisher information. Phases having a finite winding number, for both short- and long-range pairing, are characterized by a power-law diverging finite-size scaling of multipartite entanglement. Moreover, the occurring quantum phase transitions are sharply marked by the divergence of the derivative of the quantum Fisher information, even in the absence of a closing energy gap.

Minimal Entanglement Witness from Electrical Current Correlations

Despite great efforts, an unambiguous demonstration of entanglement of mobile electrons in solid state conductors is still lacking. Investigating theoretically a generic entangler-detector setup, we here show that a witness of entanglement between two flying electron qubits can be constructed from only two current cross correlation measurements, for any nonzero detector efficiencies and noncollinear polarization vectors. We find that all entangled pure states, but not all mixed ones, can be detected with only two measurements, except the maximally entangled states, which require three. Moreover, detector settings for optimal entanglement witnessing are presented.

Entanglement classification with matrix product states

We propose an entanglement classification for symmetric quantum states based on their diagonal matrix-product-state (MPS) representation. The proposed classification, which preserves the stochastic local operation assisted with classical communication (SLOCC) criterion, relates entanglement families to the interaction length of Hamiltonians. In this manner, we establish a connection between entanglement classification and condensed matter models from a quantum information perspective. Moreover, we introduce a scalable nesting property for the proposed entanglement classification, in which the families for N parties carry over to the N + 1 case. Finally, using techniques from algebraic geometry, we prove that the minimal nontrivial interaction length n for any symmetric state is bounded by .

Practical Entanglement Estimation for Spin-System Quantum Simulators

We present practical methods to measure entanglement for quantum simulators that can be realized with trapped ions, cold atoms, and superconducting qubits. Focusing on long- and short-range Ising-type Hamiltonians, we introduce schemes that are applicable under realistic experimental conditions including mixedness due to, e.g., noise or temperature. In particular, we identify a single observable whose expectation value serves as a lower bound to entanglement and that may be obtained by a simple quantum circuit. As such circuits are not (yet) available for every platform, we investigate the performance of routinely measured observables as quantitative entanglement witnesses. Possible applications include experimental studies of entanglement scaling in critical systems and the reliable benchmarking of quantum simulators.

Spatially Resolved Detection of a Spin-Entanglement Wave in a Bose-Hubbard Chain

Entanglement is an essential property of quantum many-body systems. However, its local detection is challenging and was so far limited to spin degrees of freedom in ion chains. Here we measure entanglement between the spins of atoms located on two lattice sites in a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard chain which features both local spin- and particle-number fluctuations. Starting with an initially localized spin impurity, we observe an outwards propagating entanglement wave and show quantitatively how entanglement in the spin sector rapidly decreases with increasing particle-number fluctuations in the chain.

Quantum correlation with sandwiched relative entropies: Advantageous as order parameter in quantum phase transitions

Quantum discord is a measure of quantum correlations beyond the entanglement-separability paradigm. It is conceptualized by using the von Neumann entropy as a measure of disorder. We introduce a class of quantum correlation measures as differences between total and classical correlations, in a shared quantum state, in terms of the sandwiched relative Rényi and Tsallis entropies. We compare our results with those obtained by using the traditional relative entropies. We find that the measures satisfy all the plausible axioms for quantum correlations. We evaluate the measures for shared pure as well as paradigmatic classes of mixed states. We show that the measures can faithfully detect the quantum critical point in the transverse quantum Ising model and find that they can be used to remove an unquieting feature of nearest-neighbor quantum discord in this respect. Furthermore, the measures provide better finite-size scaling exponents of the quantum critical point than the ones for other known order parameters, including entanglement and information-theoretic measures of quantum correlations.

Optically promoted bipartite atomic entanglement in hybrid metallic carbon nanotube systems

We study theoretically a pair of spatially separated extrinsic atomic type species (extrinsic atoms, ions, molecules, or semiconductor quantum dots) near a metallic carbon nanotube, that are coupled both directly via the inter-atomic dipole-dipole interactions and indirectly by means of the virtual exchange by resonance plasmon excitations on the nanotube surface. We analyze how the optical preparation of the system by using strong laser pulses affects the formation and evolution of the bipartite atomic entanglement. Despite a large number of possible excitation regimes and evolution pathways, we find a few generic scenarios for the bipartite entanglement evolution and formulate practical recommendations on how to optimize and control the robust bipartite atomic entanglement in hybrid carbon nanotube systems.

Spatial entanglement of bosons in optical lattices

Entanglement is a fundamental resource for quantum information processing, occurring naturally in many-body systems at low temperatures. The presence of entanglement and, in particular, its scaling with the size of system partitions underlies the complexity of quantum many-body states. The quantitative estimation of entanglement in many-body systems represents a major challenge, as it requires either full-state tomography, scaling exponentially in the system size, or the assumption of unverified system characteristics such as its Hamiltonian or temperature. Here we adopt recently developed approaches for the determination of rigorous lower entanglement bounds from readily accessible measurements and apply them in an experiment of ultracold interacting bosons in optical lattices of ~10(5) sites. We then study the behaviour of spatial entanglement between the sites when crossing the superfluid-Mott insulator transition and when varying temperature. This constitutes the first rigorous experimental large-scale entanglement quantification in a scalable quantum simulator.

Device-independent entanglement quantification and related applications

We present a general method to quantify both bipartite and multipartite entanglement in a device-independent manner, meaning that we put a lower bound on the amount of entanglement present in a system based on the observed data only but independent of any quantum description of the employed devices. Some of the bounds we obtain, such as for the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality or the Svetlichny inequality, are shown to be tight. Besides, device-independent entanglement quantification can serve as a basis for numerous tasks. We show in particular that our method provides a rigorous way to construct dimension witnesses, gives new insights into the question whether bound entangled states can violate a Bell inequality, and can be used to construct device-independent entanglement witnesses involving an arbitrary number of parties.

Non-Markovianity: initial correlations and nonlinear optical measurements

By extending the response function approach developed in nonlinear optics, we analytically derive an expression for the non-Markovianity in the time evolution of a system in contact with a quantum mechanical bath, and find a close connection with the directly observable nonlinear optical response. The result indicates that memory in the bath-induced fluctuations rather than in the dissipation causes non-Markovianity. Initial correlations between states of the system and the bath are shown to be essential for a correct understanding of the non-Markovianity. These correlations are included in our treatment through a preparation function.

Behavior of magnetic currents in anisotropic Heisenberg spin chains out of equilibrium

The behavior of the magnetic currents in one-dimensional Heisenberg XXZ spin chains kept out of equilibrium by boundary driving fields is investigated. In particular, the dependence of the spin currents on the anisotropy parameter Δ and on the boundary fields is studied both analytically and numerically in the framework of the Lindblad master equation formalism. We show that the spin current can be maximized with appropriate choices of the boundary fields, and for odd system sizes, N, we demonstrate the existence of additional symmetries that cause the current to be an odd function of Δ. From direct numerical integrations of the quantum master equation, we find that for an arbitrary N the current J(z)(N) vanishes for Δ=0, while for Δ negative it alternates its sign with the system size. In the gapless critical region |Δ|<1, the scaling of the current is shown to be J(z)(N)∼1/N while in the gapped region |Δ|>1 we find that J(z)(N)∼exp(-αN). A simple mean-field approach, which predicts rather well the values of J(z)(N) for the gapped region and the values of the absolute current maxima in the critical region, is developed. The existence of two different stationary solutions for the mean-field density matrix in the whole parameter range is also demonstrated.

Frustrated quantum spin models with cold Coulomb crystals

We exploit the geometry of a zigzag cold-ion crystal in a linear trap to propose the quantum simulation of a paradigmatic model of long-ranged magnetic frustration. Such a quantum simulation would clarify the complex features of a rich phase diagram that presents ferromagnetic, dimerized-antiferromagnetic, paramagnetic, and floating phases, together with previously unnoticed features that are hard to assess by numerics. We analyze in detail its experimental feasibility, and provide supporting numerical evidence on the basis of realistic parameters in current ion-trap technology.