Quantum Reports

Spin-orbital interaction of light attracts much attention in nanophotonics opening new horizons for modern optical systems and devices. The photonic spin Hall effect or Imbert-Fedorov shift takes a special place among the variety of spin-orbital interaction phenomena. It exhibits as a polarization-dependent transverse light shift usually observed in specular scattering of light at interfaces with anisotropic materials. Nevertheless, the effect of the polarization mixing caused by anisotropy on the Imbert-Fedorov shift is commonly underestimated. In this work, we demonstrate that polarization mixing contribution cannot be ignored for a broad range of optical systems. In particular, we show the dominant influence of the mixing term over the standard one for the polarized optical beam incident at a quarter-wave plate within the paraxial approximation. Moreover, our study reveals a novel contribution with extraordinary polarization dependence not observable within the simplified approach. We believe that these results advance the understanding of photonic spin Hall effect and open new opportunities for spin-dependent optical phenomena. Full article

We investigate a possible reduction mechanism from (bosonic) Quantum Field Theory (QFT) to Quantum Mechanics (QM), in a manner that could explain the apparent loss of degrees of freedom of the original theory in terms of quantum information in the reduced one. This reduction mechanism consists mainly of performing an ansatz on the boson field operator, which takes into account quantum foam and non-commutative geometry. Through the reduction mechanism, QFT reveals its hidden internal structure, which is a quantum network of maximally entangled multipartite states. In the end, a new approach to the quantum simulation of QFT is proposed through the use of QFT’s internal quantum network. Finally, the entropic equilibrium of fully mixed and maximally entangled states in the quantum network seems to suggest that the black hole paradox of information loss might be solved under suitable conditions. Full article

Arguments for a two boundary theory are briefly outlined. Plausible concepts of how in such a theory an approximate causal macroscopic theory can emerge are presented. A problem with simple implementations of the two boundary theory is that effective or real willful decisions can not be added as there is no consecutive macroscopic time ordering. In this letter, we present a somewhat drastic but beautiful way to avoid it. Full article

A “time”-covariant Schrödinger equation is defined for the minisuperspace model of the Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole, as a “hybrid” between the “intrinsic time” Schrödinger and Wheeler–DeWitt (WDW) equations. To do so, a reduced, regular, and “time(r)”-dependent Hamiltonian density was constructed, without “breaking” the re-parametrization covariance $r\to f(\tilde{r})$. As a result, the evolution of states with respect to the parameter r and the probabilistic interpretation of the resulting quantum description is possible, while quantum schemes for different gauge choices are equivalent by construction. The solutions are found for Dirac’s delta and Gaussian initial states. A geometrical interpretation of the wavefunctions is presented via Bohm analysis. Alongside this, a criterion is presented to adjudicate which, between two singular spacetimes, is “more” or “less” singular. Two ways to adjudicate the existence of singularities are compared (vanishing of the probability density at the classical singularity and semi-classical spacetime singularity). Finally, an equivalence of the reduced equations with those of a 3D electromagnetic pp-wave spacetime is revealed. Full article

Several methods for exploiting quantum effects in radar have been proposed, and some have been shown theoretically to outperform any classical radar scheme. Here, a model is presented of quantum-enhanced noise radar enabling a similar analysis. This quantum radar scheme has a potential advantage in terms of ease of implementation insofar as it requires no quantum memory. A significant feature of the model introduced is the inclusion of quantum noise consistent with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applied to simultaneous determination of field quadratures. The model enables direct comparison to other quantum and classical radar schemes. A bound on the probability of an error in target detection is shown to match that of the optimal classical-state scheme. The detection error is found to be typically higher than for ideal quantum illumination, but orders of magnitude lower than for the most similar classical noise radar scheme. Full article

Electric-magnetic duality or S-duality, extending the symmetry of Maxwell’s equations by including the symmetry between Noether electric charges and topological magnetic monopoles, is one of the most fundamental concepts of modern physics. In two-dimensional systems harboring Cooper pairs, S-duality manifests in the emergence of superinsulation, a state dual to superconductivity, which exhibits an infinite resistance at finite temperatures. The mechanism behind this infinite resistance is the linear charge confinement by a magnetic monopole plasma. This plasma constricts electric field lines connecting the charge–anti-charge pairs into electric strings, in analogy to quarks within hadrons. However, the origin of the monopole plasma remains an open question. Here, we consider a two-dimensional Josephson junction array (JJA) and reveal that the magnetic monopole plasma arises as quantum instantons, thus establishing the underlying mechanism of superinsulation as two-dimensional quantum tunneling events. We calculate the string tension and the dimension of an electric pion determining the minimal size of a system capable of hosting superinsulation. Our findings pave the way for study of fundamental S-duality in desktop experiments on JJA and superconducting films. Full article

We report on the design and construction of a spin-flip Zeeman slower, a quadrupole magnetic trap and a Feshbach field for a new machine for ultra-cold Li-7. The small mass of the Li-7 atom, and the tight lattice spacing, will enable to achieve a 100-fold increase in tunneling rates over comparable Rb-87 optical lattice emulator experiments. These improvements should enable to access new regimes in quantum magnetic phase transitions and spin dynamics. Full article

Quantum teleportation plays a key role in modern quantum technologies. Thus, it is of much interest to generate alternative approaches or representations that are aimed at allowing us a better understanding of the physics involved in the process from different perspectives. With this purpose, here an approach based on graph theory is introduced and discussed in the context of some applications. Its main goal is to provide a fully symbolic framework for quantum teleportation from a dynamical viewpoint, which makes explicit at each stage of the process how entanglement and information swap among the qubits involved in it. In order to construct this dynamical perspective, it has been necessary to define some auxiliary elements, namely virtual nodes and edges, as well as an additional notation for nodes describing potential states (against nodes accounting for actual states). With these elements, not only the flow of the process can be followed step by step, but they also allow us to establish a direct correspondence between this graph-based approach and the usual state vector description. To show the suitability and versatility of this graph-based approach, several particular teleportation examples are examined in detail, which include bipartite, tripartite, and tetrapartite maximally entangled states as quantum channels. From the analysis of these cases, a general protocol is devised to describe the sharing of quantum information in presence of maximally entangled multi-qubit system. Full article

We investigate the entanglement dynamics of a system comprising a pair of two-level dipole-dipole interacting atoms coupled to a microtoroidal resonator. Each atom is individually coupled with the two counter-propagating whispering gallery modes of the resonator through their evanescent fields. The atom-atom entanglement shown for several parameter sets of the system was obtained using the negativity. For ideal resonators, it is seen that the entanglement is correlated to the dipole-dipole interaction and the average number of photons when the modes of the resonator are prepared in a thermal state even at high temperatures. Further, for the non-ideal resonator case, where there is a small structural deformation of the microtoroidal structure that allows a direct coupling between the modes, a counter-intuitive result is presented. The imperfections also offer the advantage of generating maximally entangled states for a two-atom subsystem with maximum fidelity. Full article

Quantum computing allows us to solve some problems much faster than existing classical algorithms. Yet, the quantum computer has been believed to be no more powerful than the most general computing model—the Turing machine. Undecidable problems, such as the halting problem, and unrecognizable inputs, such as the real numbers, are beyond the theoretical limit of the Turing machine. I suggest a model for a quantum computer, which is less general than the Turing machine, but may solve the halting problem for any task programmable on it. Moreover, inputs unrecognizable by the Turing machine can be recognized by the model, thus breaking the theoretical limit for a computational task. A quantum computer is not just a successful design of the Turing machine as it is widely perceived now, but is a different, less general but more powerful model for computing, the practical realization of which may need different strategies than those in use now. Full article

The Einstein action for the gravitational field has some properties which make of it, after quantization, a rare prototype of systems with quantum configurations that do not have a classical analogue. Assuming spherical symmetry in order to reduce the effective dimensionality, we have performed a Monte Carlo simulation of the path integral with transition probability $e^{-\beta \left|S\right|}$ . Although this choice does not allow to reproduce the full dynamics, it does lead us to find a large ensemble of metric configurations having action $\left|S\right|\ll ħ$ by several magnitude orders. These vacuum fluctuations are strong deformations of the flat space metric (for which $S=0$ exactly). They exhibit a periodic polarization in the scalar curvature R. In the simulation we fix a length scale L and divide it into N sub-intervals. The continuum limit is investigated by increasing N up to $\sim {10}^6$ ; the average squared action $⟨S^2⟩$ is found to scale as $1/N^2$ and thermalization of the algorithm occurs at a very low temperature (classical limit). This is in qualitative agreement with analytical results previously obtained for theories with stabilized conformal factor in the asymptotic safety scenario. Full article

Many people believe that the study of complex quantum systems may be simplified by first analyzing the static and dynamic entanglement present in those systems [Phys. Rev. A 66 (2002) 032110]. In this paper, we attempt to complement such notion by adding an order–disorder quantifier called statistical complexity and studying how it is correlated with the degree of entanglement as measured by the concurrence quantifier. We perform such an analysis with reference to a representative system chosen from condensed matter theory, the so-called $XY$ model. Some interesting insight is obtained as the concurrence and the complexity become correlated in an unexpected fashion. Full article

We present an experimental realisation of a measurement-based adaptation protocol with quantum reinforcement learning in a Rigetti cloud quantum computer. The experiment in this few-qubit superconducting chip faithfully reproduces the theoretical proposal, setting the first steps towards a semiautonomous quantum agent. This experiment paves the way towards quantum reinforcement learning with superconducting circuits. Full article

Classical evaluations of configurations of intertwined quantum contexts induce relations, such as true-implies-false and true-implies-true, but also nonseparability among the input and output terminals. When combined, these exploitable configurations (also known as gadgets) deliver the strongest form of classical value indefiniteness. However, the choice of the respective configuration among all such collections, and thus the relation of its terminals, remains arbitrary and cannot be motivated by some superselection principle inherent to quantum or classical physics. Full article

The resting membrane voltage of excitable cells such as neurons and muscle cells is determined by the electrochemical equilibrium of potassium and sodium ions. This voltage is calculated by using the Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz equation. However, from the quantum perspective, ions with significant quantum tunneling through closed channels can interfere with the electrochemical equilibrium and affect the value of the membrane voltage. Hence, in this case the equilibrium becomes quantum electrochemical. Therefore, the model of quantum tunneling of ions is used in this study to modify the Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz equation in such a way to calculate the resting membrane voltage at the point of equilibrium. According to the present calculations, it is found that lithium—with its lower mass—shows a significant depolarizing shift in membrane voltage. In addition to this, when the free gating energy of the closed channels decreases, even sodium and potassium ions depolarize the resting membrane voltage via quantum tunneling. This study proposes the concept of quantum electrochemical equilibrium, at which the electrical potential gradient, the concentration gradient and the quantum gradient (due to quantum tunneling) are balanced. Additionally, this concept may be used to solve many issues and problems in which the quantum behavior becomes more influential. Full article

We employ another approach to quantize electromagnetic fields in the coordinate space, instead of the mode (or Fourier) space, such that local features of photons can be efficiently, physically, and more intuitively described. To do this, coordinate-ladder operators are defined from mode-ladder operators via the unitary transformation of systems involved in arbitrary inhomogeneous dielectric media. Then, one can expand electromagnetic field operators through the coordinate-ladder operators weighted by non-orthogonal and spatially-localized bases, which are propagators of initial quantum electromagnetic (complex-valued) field operators. Here, we call them QEM-CV-propagators. However, there are no general closed form solutions available for them. This inspires us to develop a quantum finite-difference time-domain (Q-FDTD) scheme to numerically time evolve QEM-CV-propagators. In order to check the validity of the proposed Q-FDTD scheme, we perform computer simulations to observe the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect resulting from the destructive interference of two photons in a 50/50 quantum beam splitter. Full article