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If a single-mode nonclassical light is combined with the vacuum on a beam splitter, then the output state is entangled. As proposed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 173602 (2005)], by measuring this output-state entanglement for a balanced lossless beam splitter, one can quantify the input-state nonclassicality. These measures of nonclassicality (referred to as entanglement potentials) can be based, in principle, on various entanglement measures, leading to the negativity (NP) and concurrence (CP) potentials, and the potential for the relative entropy of entanglement (REEP). We search for the maximal relative nonclassicality, which can be achieved by comparing two entanglement measures for (i) arbitrary two-qubit states and (ii) those which can be generated from a photon-number qubit via a balanced lossless beam splitter, where the qubit basis states are the vacuum and single-photon states. Surprisingly, we find that the maximal relative nonclassicality, measured by the REEP for a given value of the NP, can be increased (if NP < 0.527) by using either a tunable beam splitter or by amplitude damping of the output state of the balanced beam splitter. We also show that the maximal relative nonclassicality, measured by the NP for a given value of the REEP, can be increased by phase damping (dephasing). Note that the entanglement itself is not increased by these losses (since they act locally), but the possible ratios of different measures are affected. Moreover, we show that partially dephased states can be more nonclassical than both pure states and completely dephased states, by comparing the NP for a given value of the REEP. Thus, one can conclude that not all standard entanglement measures can be used as entanglement potentials. Alternatively, one can infer that a single balanced lossless beam splitter is not always transferring the whole nonclassicality of its input state into the entanglement of its output modes. The application of a lossy beam splitter can solve this problem, at least for the cases analyzed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an error analysis of various tomographic protocols based on the linear inversion for the reconstruction of an unknown two-qubit state. We solve the problem of finding a tomographic protocol which is the most robust against errors in terms of the lowest value (i.e., equal to 1) of a condition number, as required by the Gastinel-Kahan theorem. In contrast, standard tomographic protocols, including those based on mutually unbiased bases, are nonoptimal for determining all the 16 elements of an unknown two-qubit density matrix. Our method is based on the measurements of the 16 generalized Pauli operators, where twelve of them can be locally measured, and the other four require nonlocal Bell measurements. Our method corresponds to selectively measuring, one by one, all the real and imaginary elements of an unknown two-qubit density matrix. We describe two experimentally feasible setups of this protocol for the optimal reconstruction of two photons in an unknown polarization state using conventional detectors and linear-optical elements. Moreover, we define the operators for the optimal reconstruction of the states of multiqubit or multilevel (qudit) systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An arbitrary initial state of an optical or microwave field in a lossy driven nonlinear cavity can be changed into a partially incoherent superposition of only the vacuum and the single-photon states. This effect is known as single-photon blockade, which is usually analyzed for a Kerr-type nonlinear cavity parametrically driven by a single-photon process assuming single-photon loss mechanisms. We study photon blockade engineering via a nonlinear reservoir, i.e., a quantum reservoir, where only two-photon absorption is allowed. Namely, we analyze a lossy nonlinear cavity parametrically driven by a two-photon process and allowing two-photon loss mechanisms, as described by the master equation derived for a two-photon absorbing reservoir. The nonlinear cavity engineering can be realized by a linear cavity with a tunable two-level system via the Jaynes-Cummings interaction in the dispersive limit. We show that by tuning properly the frequencies of the driving field and the two-level system, the steady state of the cavity field can be the single-photon Fock state or a partially incoherent superposition of several Fock states with photon numbers, e.g., (0,2), (1,3), (0,1,2), or (0,2,4). At the right (now fixed) frequencies, we observe that an arbitrary initial coherent or incoherent superposition of Fock states with an even (odd) number of photons is changed into a partially incoherent superposition of a few Fock states of the same photon-number parity. We find analytically approximate formulas for these two kinds of solutions for several differently tuned systems. A general solution for an arbitrary initial state is a weighted mixture of the above two solutions with even and odd photon numbers, where the weights are given by the probabilities of measuring the even and odd numbers of photons of the initial cavity field, respectively. This can be interpreted as two separate evolution-dissipation channels for even and odd-number states. Thus, in contrast to the standard predictions of photon blockade, we prove that the steady state of the cavity field, in the engineered photon blockade, can depend on its initial state. To make our results more explicit, we analyze photon blockades for some initial infinite-dimensional quantum and classical states via the Wigner and photon-number distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional Glauber coherent states (CS) can be defined in several equivalent ways, e.g., by displacing the vacuum or, explicitly, by their infinite Poissonian expansion in Fock states. It is well known that these definitions become inequivalent if applied to finite d-level systems (qudits). We present a comparative Wigner-function description of the qudit CS defined (i) by the action of the truncated displacement operator on the vacuum and (ii) by the Poissonian expansion in Fock states of the Glauber CS truncated at (d-1)-photon Fock state. These states can be generated from a classical light by its optical truncation using nonlinear and linear quantum scissors devices, respectively. We show a surprising effect that a macroscopically distinguishable superposition of two qudit CS (according to both definitions) can be generated with high fidelity by displacing the vacuum in the qudit Hilbert space. If the qudit dimension d is even (odd), then the superposition state contains Fock states with only odd (even) photon numbers, which can be referred to as the odd (even) qudit CS or Schrödinger's cat state. This phenomenon can be interpreted as an interference of a single CS with its reflection from the highest-energy Fock state of the Hilbert space, as clearly seen via phase-space interference of the Wigner function. We also analyze nonclassical properties of the qudit CS including their photon-number statistics and nonclassical volume of the Wigner function, which is a quantitative parameter of nonclassicality (quantumness) of states. Finally, we study optical tomograms, which can be directly measured in the homodyne detection of the analyzed qudit cat states and enable the complete reconstructions of their Wigner functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photon blockade, in analogy to Coulomb's or phonon blockades, is a phenomenon when a single photon in a nonlinear cavity blocks the transmission of a second photon. This effect can occur in Kerr-type systems driven by a laser due to strong nonlinear photon-photon interactions. We predict the occurrence of higher-order photon blockades where the transmission of more than two photons is effectively blocked by single- and two-photon states. This photon blockade can be achieved by tuning the frequency of the laser driving field to be equal to the sum of the Kerr nonlinearity and the cavity resonance frequency. We refer to this phenomenon as two-photon blockade or two-photon state truncation via nonlinear scissors, and can also be interpreted as photon-induced tunneling. We also show that, for a driving-field frequency fulfilling another resonance condition and for higher strengths of the driving field, even a three-photon blockade can occur but less clearly than in the case of single- and two-photon blockades. We demonstrate how various photon blockades can be identified by analyzing photon-number correlations, coherence and entropic properties, Wigner functions, and spectra of squeezing. We show that two- and three-photon blockades can, in principle, be observed in various cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamical systems for which the standard single-photon blockade was observed without the need of using higher-order driving interactions or Kerr media exhibiting higher-order nonlinear susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum correlation s may be measured by means of the distance from the state to the subclass of states Ω having well-defined classical properties. In particular, a geometric measure of asymmetric discord [Dakic et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105,190502 (2010)] was recently defined as the Hilbert-Schmidt distance from a given two-qubit state to the closest classical-quantum (CQ) correlated state. We analyze a geometric measure of symmetric discord defined as the Hilbert-Schmidt distance from a given state to the closest classical-classical (CC) correlated state. The optimal member of Ω is just a specially measured original state for both the CQ and CC discords. This implies that this measure is equal to the quantum deficit of postmeasurement purity. We discuss some general relations between the CC discords and explain why an analytical formula for the CC discord, contrary to the CQ discord, can hardly be found even for a general two-qubit state. Instead of such an exact formula, we find simple analytical-measurement-based upper bounds for the CC discord which, as we show, are tight and faithful in the case of two qubits and may serve as independent indicators of two-party quantum correlations. In particular, we propose an adaptive upper bound, which corresponds to the optimal states induced by single-party measurements: optimal measurement on one of the parties determines an optimal measurement on the other party. We discuss how to refine the adaptive upper bound by nonoptimal single-party measurements and by an iterative procedure which usually rapidly converges to the CC discord. We also raise the question of optimality of the symmetric measurements realizing the CC discord on symmetric states and give a partial answer for the qubit case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of phenomena exhibiting finite-time decay of quantum entanglement have recently attracted considerable attention. Such decay is often referred to as sudden vanishing (or sudden death) of entanglement, which can be followed by its sudden reappearance (or sudden rebirth). We analyze various finite-time decays (for dissipative systems) and analogous periodic vanishings (for unitary systems) of nonclassical correlations as described by violations of classical inequalities and the corresponding nonclassicality witnesses (or quantumness witnesses), which are not necessarily entanglement witnesses. We show that these sudden vanishings are universal phenomena and can be observed: (i) not only for two- or multimode but also for single-mode nonclassical fields, (ii) not solely for dissipative systems, and (iii) at evolution times which are usually different from those of sudden vanishings and reappearances of quantum entanglement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show how analogs of a large number of well-known nonlinear-optics phenomena can be realized with one or more two-level atoms coupled to one or more resonator modes. Through higher-order processes, where virtual photons are created and annihilated, an effective deterministic coupling between two states of such a system can be created. In this way, analogs of three-wave mixing, four-wave mixing, higher-harmonic and -subharmonic generation (i.e., up- and down-conversion), multiphoton absorption, parametric amplification, Raman and hyper-Raman scattering, the Kerr effect, and other nonlinear processes can be realized. In contrast to most conventional implementations of nonlinear optics, these analogs can reach unit efficiency, only use a minimal number of photons (they do not require any strong external drive), and do not require more than two atomic levels. The strength of the effective coupling in our proposed setups becomes weaker the more intermediate transition steps are needed. However, given the recent experimental progress in ultrastrong light-matter coupling and improvement of coherence times for engineered quantum systems, especially in the field of circuit quantum electrodynamics, we estimate that many of these nonlinear-optics analogs can be realized with currently available technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-photon devices at microwave frequencies are important for applications in quantum information processing and communication in the microwave regime. In this work we describe a proposal of a multioutput single-photon device. We consider two superconducting resonators coupled to a gap-tunable qubit via both its longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom. Thus, this qubit-resonator coupling differs from the coupling in standard circuit quantum-electrodynamic systems described by the Jaynes-Cummings model. We demonstrate that an effective quadratic coupling between one of the normal modes and the qubit can be induced and this induced second-order nonlinearity is much larger than that for conventional Kerr-type systems exhibiting photon blockade. Assuming that a coupled normal mode is resonantly driven, we observe that the output fields from the resonators exhibit strong sub-Poissonian photon-number statistics and photon antibunching. Contrary to previous studies on resonant photon blockade, the first-excited state of our device is a pure single-photon Fock state rather than a polariton state, i.e., a highly hybridized qubit-photon state. In addition, it is found that the optical state truncation caused by the strong qubit-induced nonlinearity can lead to an entanglement between the two resonators, even in their steady state under the Markov approximation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonon blockade is a purely quantum phenomenon, analogous to Coulomb and photon blockades, in which a single phonon in an anharmonic mechanical resonator can impede the excitation of a second phonon. We propose an experimental method to realize phonon blockade in a driven harmonic nanomechanical resonator coupled to a qubit, where the coupling is proportional to the second-order nonlinear susceptibility χ(2). This is in contrast to the standard realizations of phonon and photon blockade effects in Kerr-type χ(3) nonlinear systems. The nonlinear coupling strength can be adjusted conveniently by changing the coherent drive field. As an example, we apply this model to predict and describe phonon blockade in a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a Cooper-pair box (i.e., a charge qubit) with a linear longitudinal coupling. By obtaining the solutions of the steady state for this composite system, we give the conditions for observing strong antibunching and sub-Poissonian phonon-number statistics in this induced second-order nonlinear system. Besides using the qubit to produce phonon blockade states, the qubit itself can also be employed to detect blockade effects by measuring its states. Numerical simulations indicate that the robustness of the phonon blockade, and the sensitivity of detecting it, will benefit from this strong induced nonlinear coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single phonon in a nonlinear nanomechanical resonator (NAMR) can block the excitation of a second phonon [Phys. Rev. A 82, 032101 (2010)]. This intrinsically quantum effect is called phonon blockade, and is an analog of Coulomb blockade and photon blockade. Here we predict tunable multiphonon blockade in coupled nonlinear NAMRs, where nonlinearity is induced by two-level systems (TLSs) assuming dispersive (far off-resonance) interactions. Specifically, we derive an effective Kerr-type interaction in a hybrid system consisting of two nonlinearly interacting NAMRs coupled to two TLSs and driven by classical fields. The interaction between a given NAMR and a TLS is described by a Jaynes-Cummings-like model. We show that by properly tuning the frequency of the driving fields one can induce various types of phonon blockade, corresponding to the entangled phonon states of either two qubits, a qutrit and quartit, or two qudits. Thus, a k-phonon Fock state (with k = 1,2,3) can impede the excitation of more phonons in a given NAMR, which we interpret as a k-phonon blockade (or, equivalently, phonon tunneling). Our results can be explained in terms of resonant transitions in the Fock space and via phase-space interference using the s-parametrized Cahill-Glauber quasiprobability distributions including the Wigner function. We study the nonclassicality, entanglement, and dimensionality of the blockaded phonon states during both dynamics and in the stationary limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong photon-photon nonlinear interaction is a necessary condition for a photon blockade. Moreover, this nonlinearity can also result in a bistable behavior in the cavity field. We analyze the relation between the detecting field and the photon blockade in a superconducting circuit-QED system, and show that a photon blockade cannot occur when the detecting field is in the bistable regime. This photon blockade is the microwave-photonics analog of the Coulomb blockade. We further demonstrate that the photon transmission through such a system can be controlled (from photon blockade to transparency) by the detecting field. Numerical calculations show that our proposal is experimentally realizable with current technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity (or, equivalently, the Bures distance) is a basic concept of quantum communication and quantum information, which however is very difficult to measure efficiently without recourse to quantum tomography. Here we propose a direct experimental method to estimate the fidelity between two unknown two-qubit mixed states via the measurement of the upper and lower bounds of the fidelity, which are referred to as the superfidelity and subfidelity, respectively. Our method enables a direct measurement of the first- and second-order overlaps between two arbitrary two-qubit states. In particular, the method can be applied to measure the purity (or linear entropy) of a single two-qubit mixed state in a direct experiment. We also propose and critically compare several experimental strategies for measuring the sub- and superfidelities of polarization states of photons in various linear-optical setups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amplitude damping changes entangled pure states into usually less-entangled mixed states. We show, however, that even local amplitude damping of one or two qubits can result in mixed states more entangled than pure states if one compares the relative entropy of entanglement (REE) for a given degree of the Bell-Clauser-Horne- Shimony-Holt inequality violation (referred to as nonlocality). By applying Monte Carlo simulations, we find the maximally entangled mixed states and show that they are likely to be optimal by checking the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, which generalize the method of Lagrange multipliers for this nonlinear optimization problem. We show that the REE for mixed states can exceed that of pure states if the nonlocality is in the range (0,0.82) and the maximal difference between these REEs is 0.4. A former comparison [Phys. Rev. A 78,052308 (2008)] of the REE for a given negativity showed analogous property but the corresponding maximal difference in the REEs is one order smaller (i.e., 0.039) and the negativity range is (0,0.53) only. For appropriate comparison, we normalized the nonlocality measure to be equal to the standard entanglement measures, including the negativity, for arbitrary two-qubit pure states. We also analyze the influence of the phase-damping channel on the entanglement of the initially pure states. We show that the minimum of the REE for a given nonlocality can be achieved by this channel, contrary to the amplitude-damping channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heralded near-deterministic multiqubit controlled-phase gates with integrated error detection have recently been proposed by Borregaard et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 110502 (2015)]. This protocol is based on a single four-level atom (a heralding quartit) and N three-level atoms (operational qutrits) coupled to a single-resonator mode acting as a cavity bus. Here we generalize this method for two distant resonators without the cavity bus between the heralding and operational atoms. Specifically, we analyze the two-qubit controlled-Z gate and its multiqubit-controlled generalization (i.e., a Toffoli-like gate) acting on the two-lowest levels of N qutrits inside one resonator, with their successful actions being heralded by an auxiliary microwave-driven quartit inside the other resonator. Moreover, we propose a circuit-quantum-electrodynamics realization of the protocol with flux and phase qudits in linearly coupled transmission-line resonators with dissipation. These methods offer a quadratic fidelity improvement compared to cavity-assisted deterministic gates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study photon blockade and antibunching in the cavity of an optomechanical system in which the mechanical resonator is coupled to a two-level system (TLS). In particular, we analyze the effects of the coupling strength (to the mechanical mode), transition frequency, and decay rate of TLS on the photon blockade. The statistical properties of the cavity field are affected by the TLS. because the TLS changes the energy-level structure of the optomechanical system via dressed states formed by the TLS and the mechanical resonator. We find that the photon blockade and tunneling can be significantly changed by the transition frequency of the TLS and the coupling strength between the TLS and the mechanical resonator. Therefore, our study provides a method to tune the photon blockade and tunneling using a controllable TLS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonclassicality, entanglement, and dimensionality of a noisy twin beam are determined using a characteristic function of the beam written in the Fock basis. One-to-one correspondence between the negativity quantifying entanglement and the nonclassicality depth is revealed. Twin beams, which are either entangled or nonclassical (independent of their entanglement), are observed only for the limited degrees of noise, which degrades their quantumness. The dimensionality of the twin beam quantified by the participation ratio is compared with the dimensionality of entanglement determined from the negativity. Partitioning of the degrees of freedom of the twin beam into those related to entanglement and to noise is suggested. Both single-mode and multimode twin beams are analyzed. Weak nonclassicality based on integrated-intensity quasidistributions of multimode twin beams is studied. The relation of the model to the experimental twin beams is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting and quantifying quantum entanglement of a given unknown state poses problems that are fundamentally important for quantum information processing. Surprisingly, no direct (i.e., without quantum tomography) universal experimental implementation of a necessary and sufficient test of entanglement has been designed even for a general two-qubit state. Here we propose an experimental method for detecting a collective universal witness, which is a necessary and sufficient test of two-photon polarization entanglement. It allows us to detect entanglement for any two-qubit mixed state and to establish tight upper and lower bounds on its amount. A different element of this method is the sequential character of its main components, which allows us to obtain relatively complicated information about quantum correlations with the help of simple linear-optical elements. As such, this proposal realizes a universal two-qubit entanglement test within the present state of the art of quantum optics. We show the optimality of our setup with respect to the minimal number of measured quantities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a direct method to determine the negativity of an arbitrary two-qubit state in experiments. The method is derived by analyzing the relation between the purity, negativity, and a universal entanglement witness for two-qubit entanglement. We show how the negativity of a two-qubit state can be calculated from just three experimentally accessible moments of the partially transposed density matrix of a two-photon state. Moreover, we show that the negativity can be given as a function of only six invariants, which are linear combinations of nine invariants from the complete set of 21 fundamental and independent two-qubit invariants. We analyze the relation between these moments and the concurrence for some classes of two-qubit states (including the X states, as well as pure states affected by the amplitude-damping and phase-damping channels). We also discuss the possibility of using the universal entanglement witness as an entanglement measure for various classes of two-qubit states. Moreover, we analyze how noise affects the estimation of entanglement via this witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some optomechanical systems can be transparent to a probe field when a strong driving field is applied. These systems can provide an optomechanical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We study the transmission of a probe field through a hybrid optomechanical system consisting of a cavity and a mechanical resonator with a two-level system (qubit). The qubit might be an intrinsic defect inside the mechanical resonator, a superconducting artificial atom, or another two-level system. The mechanical resonator is coupled to the cavity field via radiation pressure and to the qubit via the Jaynes-Cummings interaction. We find that the dressed two-level system and mechanical phonon can form two sets of three-level systems. Thus, there are two transparency windows in the discussed system. We interpret this effect as an optomechanical analog of two-color EIT (or double EIT). We demonstrate how to switch between one and two EIT windows by changing the transition frequency of the qubit. We show that the absorption and dispersion of the system are mainly affected by the qubit-phonon coupling strength and the transition frequency of the qubit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the violation of Bell's inequality in the form given by Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt (CHSH) in two-qubit systems requires entanglement, but not vice versa, i.e., there are entangled states which do not violate the CHSH inequality. Here we compare some standard entanglement measures with violations of the CHSH inequality (as given by the Horodecki measure) for two-qubit states generated by Monte Carlo simulations. We describe states that have extremal entanglement according to the negativity, concurrence, and relative entropy of entanglement for a given value of the CHSH violation. We explicitly find these extremal states by applying the generalized method of Lagrange multipliers based on the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. The found minimal and maximal states define the range of entanglement accessible for any two-qubit states that violate the CHSH inequality by the same amount. We also find extremal states for the concurrence versus negativity by considering only such states which do not violate the CHSH inequality. Furthermore, we describe an experimentally efficient linear-optical method to determine the highest Horodecki degree of the CHSH violation for arbitrary mixed states of two polarization qubits. By assuming to have access simultaneously to two copies of the states, our method requires only six discrete measurement settings instead of nine settings, which are usually considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An arbitrary quantum-optical process (channel) can be completely characterized by probing it with coherent states using the recently developed coherent-state quantum process tomography (QPT) [Lobino et al., Science 322, 563 (2008)]. In general, precise QPT is possible if an infinite set of probes is available. Thus, realistic QPT of infinite-dimensional systems is approximate due to a finite experimentally feasible set of coherent states and its related energy-cutoff approximation. We show with explicit formulas that one can completely identify a quantum-optical Gaussian process just with a few different coherent states without approximations like the energy cutoff. For tomography of multimode processes, our method exponentially reduces the number of different test states, compared with existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first experimental implementation of a multifunctional device for the optimal cloning of one to two qubits. Previous implementations have always been designed to optimize the cloning procedure with respect to one single type of a priori information about the cloned state. In contrast, our "all-in-one" implementation is optimal for several prominent regimes such as universal cloning, phase-covariant cloning, and also the first ever realized mirror phase-covariant cloning, when the square of the expected value of Pauli's Z operator is known in advance. In all these regimes the experimental device yields clones with almost maximum achievable average fidelity (97.5% of theoretical limit). Our device has a wide range of possible applications in quantum information processing, especially in quantum communication. For instance, one can use it for incoherent and coherent attacks against a variety of cryptographic protocols, including the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol of quantum key distribution through the Pauli damping channels. It can be also applied as a state-dependent photon multiplier in practical quantum networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion is a well-known process in quantum nonlinear optics in which a photon incident on a nonlinear crystal spontaneously splits into two photons. Here we propose an analogous physical process where one excited atom directly transfers its excitation to a pair of spatially separated atoms with probability approaching 1. The interaction is mediated by the exchange of virtual rather than real photons. This nonlinear atomic process is coherent and reversible, so the pair of excited atoms can transfer the excitation back to the first one: the atomic analog of sum-frequency generation of light. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in ultrastrong circuit quantum electrodynamics. This approach can be extended to realize other nonlinear interatomic processes, such as four-atom mixing, and is an attractive architecture for the realization of quantum devices on a chip. We show that four-qubit mixing can efficiently implement quantum repetition codes and, thus, can be used for error-correction codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and experimentally implement an efficient procedure based on entanglement swapping to determine the Bell nonlocality measure of Horodecki et al. [Phys. Lett. A 200, 340 (1995)] and the fully entangled fraction of Bennett et al. [Phys. Rev. A 54, 3824 (1996)] of an arbitrary two-qubit polarization-encoded state. The nonlocality measure corresponds to the amount of the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) optimized over all measurement settings. By using simultaneously two copies of a given state, we measure directly only six parameters. This is an experimental determination of these quantities without quantum state tomography or continuous monitoring of all measurement bases in the usual CHSH inequality tests. We analyze how well the measured degrees of Bell nonlocality and other entanglement witnesses (including the fully entangled fraction and a nonlinear entropic witness) of an arbitrary two-qubit state can estimate its entanglement. In particular, we measure these witnesses and estimate the negativity of various two-qubit Werner states. Our approach could especially be useful for quantum communication protocols based on entanglement swapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of general nonclassical two-mode Gaussian states at a beam splitter is investigated. Single-mode nonclassicality as well as two-mode entanglement of both input and output states are analyzed suggesting their suitable quantifiers. These quantifiers are derived from local and global invariants of linear unitary two-mode transformations such that the sum of input (or output) local nonclassicality measures and entanglement measure gives a global invariant. This invariant quantifies the global nonclassicality resource. Mutual transformations of local nonclassicalities and entanglement induced by the beam splitter are analyzed considering incident noisy twin beams, single-mode noisy squeezed vacuum states, and states encompassing both squeezed states and twin beams. A rich tapestry of interesting nonclassical output states is predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal steering, which is a temporal analog of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering, refers to temporal quantum correlations between the initial and final state of a quantum system. Our analysis of temporal steering inequalities in relation to the average quantum bit error rates reveals the interplay between temporal steering and quantum cloning, which guarantees the security of quantum key distribution based on mutually unbiased bases against individual attacks. The key distributions analyzed here include the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol and the six-state 1998 protocol by Bruss. Moreover, we define a temporal steerable weight, which enables us to identify a kind of monogamy of temporal correlation that is essential to quantum cryptography and useful for analyzing various scenarios of quantum causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]