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A path for efficient classical simulation of the DQC1 circuit that estimates the trace of an implementable unitary under the zero discord condition [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 190502 (2010)] is presented. This result reinforces the status of non-classical correlations quantified by quantum discord and related measures as the key resource enabling exponential speedups in mixed state quantum computation.

We explore the flow of quantum correlations in cluster states defined on ladder type graphs as measurements are done on qubits located on the nodes of the cluster. We focus on three qubits at the end of the ladder and compute the non-classical correlations between two of the three qubits as measurements are done on the remaining qubits. We compute both the entanglement between the two qubits as well as the quantum discord between them after the measurements. We see that after all but three qubits are measured, the non-classical correlations developed between two of them show a trend of being stronger with the length of the ladder. It is also seen that measurements on to the basis states of operators belonging to the Clifford group do not produce such correlations or entanglement. The non-classical correlations produced depend only on the number, location and nature of preceding non-Clifford measurements. Our results not only throw light on the dynamics of quantum correlations while an algorithm proceeds step-by-step in the Measurement-based Based Quantum Computing (MBQC) model but it also reveals how the last two qubits, treated as an open quantum system, can have increasing entanglement or other non-classical correlations as its immediate environment is interrogated through random measurements.

Non-classical correlations generated within a quantum probe system when it interacts with a large, macroscopic system can signal the presence of quantum features in the latter. Theoretical models have considered how entanglement generated in photosynthetic bacteria can be probed using light that interacts with them. More recently, a tardigrade was entangled to a transmon qubit. We consider a detailed model including noise for such systems wherein a small quantum probe interacts with a large system in order to delineate the regimes with respect to coupling strengths and noise levels in which such signatures of quantumness in macroscopic systems can realistically be detected., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We implement a simulation of a quantum field theory in 1+1 space-time dimensions on a gate-based quantum computer using the light front formulation of the theory. The nonperturbative simulation of the Yukawa model field theory is verified on IBM's simulator and is also demonstrated on a small-scale IBM circuit-based quantum processor, on the cloud, using IBM Qiskit. The light front formulation allows for controlling the resource requirement and complexity of the computation with commensurate trade-offs in accuracy and detail by modulating a single parameter, namely the harmonic resolution. Qubit operators for the bosonic excitations were also created and were used along with the fermionic ones already available, to simulate the theory involving all of these particles. With the restriction on the number of logical qubits available on the existent gate-based Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices, the trotterization approximation is also used. We show that experimentally relevant quantities like cross-sections for various processes, survival probabilities of various states, etc. can be computed. We also explore the inaccuracies introduced by the bounds on achievable harmonic resolution and Trotter steps placed by the limited number of qubits and circuit depth supported by present-day NISQ devices.

We simulate the dynamics of systems with $N$ = 1-20 qubits coupled to a cavity in order to assess their potential for quantum metrology of a parameter in the open systems limit. The qubits and the cavity are both allowed to have losses and the system is studied under various coupling strength regimes. The focus is primarily on the coupling between the qubits using the quantum Fisher information as the measured parameter. Some results on estimating the qubit-cavity detuning parameter are also presented. We investigate the scaling of the uncertainty in the estimate of the qubit-cavity coupling with the number of qubits and for different initial states of the qubits that act as the quantum probe. As initial probe states, we consider Dicke states with varying excitation numbers, the GHZ state, and separable X-polarized states. It is shown that in the strong coupling regime, i.e., when the coupling between the qubits and the cavity is greater than the decay parameters of both the qubits and the cavity, Dicke states with a large excitation number can achieve the Heisenberg limit, with the precision scaling improving as the excitation number increases. A particularly intriguing finding of our study is that in the weak coupling regime, as well as in situations where either the qubit or cavity decay parameters exceed the coupling, the separable $X$-polarized state is the best in terms of scaling and is even able to achieve the Heisenberg limit in these lossy regimes for the range of $N$ considered.

Going beyond the standard quantum limit in noisy quantum metrology is an important and challenging task. Here we show how Dicke states can be used to surpass the standard quantum limit and achieve the Heisenberg limit in open quantum systems. The system we study has qubits symmetrically coupled to a resonator and our objective is to estimate the coupling between the qubits and the resonator. The time-dependent quantum Fisher information with respect to the coupling is studied for this open quantum system where the same decay rates are assumed on all qubits. We show that when the system is initialized to a Dicke state with an optimal excitation number one can go beyond the standard quantum limit and achieve the Heisenberg limit even for finite values of the decays on the qubit and the resonator, particularly when the qubits and resonator are strongly coupled. We compare our results against the highly entangled GHZ state and a completely separable state and show that the GHZ state performs quite poorly whereas under certain noise conditions the separable state is able to go beyond the standard quantum limit due to subsequent interactions with a resonator., Comment: 11 pages, 7 Figures, typos corrected and references added

We study the open quantum dynamics of a two-level particle detector that starts accelerating through Minkowski vacuum weakly coupled to a massless scalar field. We consider a detector with non-zero size and study its time evolution for the case where it is initially in inertial motion and subsequently a constant acceleration is switched on for a finite time. We study the dynamical maps that describe the evolution of such a system and show that the dynamics is not completely positive (NCP). The inertial motion prior to the acceleration can entangle the detector and field leading to the NCP dynamics. We examine the nature of the open dynamics during the accelerated phase as a function of the duration of prior inertial motion and the magnitude of the acceleration., Comment: 12 pages,5 figures

We study the time-dependent quantum Fisher information (QFI) in an open quantum system satisfying the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation. We also study the dynamics of the system from an effective non-Hermitian dynamics standpoint and use it to understand the scaling of the QFI when multiple probes are used. A focus of our work is how the QFI is maximized at certain times suggesting that the best precision in parameter estimation can be achieved by focusing on these times. The propagation of errors analysis allows us to confirm and better understand this idea. We also propose a parameter estimation procedure involving relatively low resource consuming measurements followed by higher resource consuming measurements and demonstrate it in simulation., Comment: 11 pages,8 Figures

The relation between genuine multipartite entanglement in the pure state of a collection of N qubits and the nonclassical correlations in its two-qubit subsystems is studied. Quantum discord is used as the quantifier of nonclassical correlations in the subsystem while the generalised geometric measure (GGM) [Phys. Rev. A. 81, 012308 (2010)] is used to quantify global entanglement in the N-qubit state. While no definite discernible dependence between the two can be found for randomly generated global states, for those with additional structure like weighted graph states we find that local discord is indicative of global multipartite entanglement. Global states that admit efficient classical descriptions like stabilizer states furnish an exception in which despite multipartite entanglement, nonclassical correlation is absent in two qubit subsystems. We discuss these results in the context of mixed state quantum computation where nonclassical correlation is considered a candidate resource that enables exponential speedup over classical computers., Comment: 12 Pages, 10 Figures

Constraint satisfiability problems, crucial to several applications, are solved on a quantum computer using Grover's search algorithm, leading to a quadratic improvement over the classical case. The solutions are obtained with high probability for several cases and are illustrated for the cases involving two variables for both 3- and 4-bit numbers. Methods are defined for inequality comparisons, and these are combined according to the form of the satisfiability formula, to form the oracle for the algorithm. The circuit is constructed using IBM Qiskit and is verified on an IBM simulator. It is further executed on one of the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) processors from IBM on the cloud. Noise levels in the processor at present are found to be too high for successful execution. Running the algorithm on the simulator with a custom noise model lets us identify the noise threshold for successful execution., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures

Nonlinear quantum metrology schemes can lead to faster than Heisenberg limited scalings for the measurement uncertainty. We study a Michelson interferometer embedded in a Kerr medium [Luis and Rivas, Phys. Rev. A 92, 022104 (2015)] that leads to non-linear, intensity dependent phase shifts corresponding to relative changes in the lengths of its two arms. The quantum Cramer-Rao bound on the minimum achievable measurement uncertainties is worked out and the requirements, in practice, to saturate the bound are investigated. The choice of input state of light into the interferometer and the read out strategy at the output end are discussed. The ideal, non-classical states of light that must be used to saturate the bound are found to be highly susceptible to photon loss noise. We identify optimal states at each noise level that are both resilient to noise and capable of giving the enhanced sensitivities and discuss practical implementations of the interferometry scheme using such states., Comment: This is the published version. This paper has 9 pages and 5 figures

Master equations describing open quantum dynamics are typically first order differential equations. When such dynamics brings the trajectories in state space of more than one initial state to the same point at finite instants in time, the generator of the corresponding master equation becomes singular. The first-order, time-local, homogeneous master equations then fail to describe the dynamics beyond the singular point. Retaining time-locality in the master equation necessitates a reformulation in terms of higher-order differential equations. We formulate a method to eliminate the divergent behavior of the generator by using a combination of higher-order derivatives of the generator with suitable weights and illustrate it with several examples. We also present a detailed study of the central spin model and we propose the average rate of information inflow in non-Markovian processes as a quantity that captures a different aspect of non-Markovian dynamics., Comment: This is the published version. This paper has 14 pages and 5 figures

We use differentiable programming and gradient descent to find unitary matrices that can be used in the period finding algorithm to extract period information from the state of a quantum computer post application of the oracle. The standard procedure is to use the inverse quantum Fourier transform. Our findings suggest that that this is not the only unitary matrix appropriate for the period finding algorithm, There exist several unitary matrices that can affect out the same transformation and they are significantly different from each other as well. These unitary matrices can be learned by an algorithm. Neural networks can be applied to differentiate such unitary matrices from randomly generated ones indicating that these unitaries do have characteristic features that cannot otherwise be discerned easily., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

Dynamics of open quantum systems depends on different types of initial correlations. On the one hand, when system and environment are both inherently multipartite, initial correlations between the parties of the composite environment make the dynamical map non-local, despite of local nature of the interaction between each party of the system and the environment. On the other hand, initial correlations between the open system and its environment prevents one from defining a completely positive dynamical map. Recently, dephasing dynamics of photons has been used in both of these frameworks - theoretically and experimentally - to demonstrate some fundamental and applicable aspects of open system dynamics and memory effects. However, the earlier studies in this context are often based solely on the concept of decoherence functions. Therefore, we still lack explicit master equation descriptions for dynamics induced by correlated composite initial environmental states. Also, a detailed understanding how initial system-environment correlations influence qubit dynamics in the photonic context is missing. In this paper, we derive generic master equations for the reduced dephasing dynamics of the two-photon polarization state when the bipartite environmental frequency degrees of freedom are initially correlated. We thereby show the explicit dependence of the operator form and the decay rates of the master equation on the initial frequency correlations and the influence of various types of frequency distributions. Furthermore, we use recently developed bath positive decomposition method to treat initially correlated polarization-frequency state of a photon, and demonstrate how this allows new insight and detailed information on how the contributions of different origin influence the photonic dephasing.

Quantum steering in a system consisting of a qubit coupled to a single-mode field is explored when classical-like measurements implemented by heterodyne detection schemes that collapse the state of the field on to a coherent state is considered. The quantum steering ellipsoid of the qubit is constructed to visualize the set of states on to which it can be steered using such measurements. In some cases, the steering set does not form an ellipsoid since only heterodyne detection is considered. Evolution of the steering ellipsoid corresponding to joint evolution of the qubit and field under the Jaynes-Cummins hamiltonian is also studied., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

Convex combinations of the completely positive (CP) as well as CP-divisible, continuous time dynamical maps arising from collision models are investigated. While the individual maps are both CP and Markovian we find that convex combinations remain CP but not necessarily Markovian. Examples of such combinations for qubit dynamical maps arising from collisional models are worked out and the invertibility, CP-divisibility, P-divisibility as well as Markovian properties of such maps are explored., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to OSID special volume in memory of Prof. E C G Sudarshan

A central qubit coupled to an Ising ring of $N$ qubits, operating close to a critical point is investigated as a potential precision quantum magnetometer for estimating an applied transverse magnetic field. We compute the Quantum Fisher information for the central, probe qubit with the Ising chain initialized in its ground state or in a thermal state. The non-unitary evolution of the central qubit due to its interaction with the surrounding Ising ring enhances the accuracy of the magnetic field measurement. Near the critical point of the ring, Heisenberg-like scaling of the precision in estimating the magnetic field is obtained when the ring is initialized in its ground state. However, for finite temperatures, the Heisenberg scaling is limited to lower ranges of $N$ values., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

Open quantum dynamics in a tripartite scenario including a system, its environment and a passive reference is shown to resolve several open questions regarding not completely positive (NCP) dynamical maps as valid descriptions of open quantum evolution. The steering states of the system and the environment with respect to the reference, reduced down to a dense, compact set of states of the system alone, provides a well defined domain of action for a bonafide dynamical map describing the open evolution of the system. The map is not restricted to being completely positive (CP) but it preserves the positivity of all states in its domain. NCP open dynamics corresponding to different initial configurations of the tripartite system are explored., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

Weak measurements done on a subsystem of a bipartite system having both classical and nonClassical correlations between its components can potentially reveal information about the other subsystem with minimal disturbance to the overall state. We use weak quantum discord and the fidelity between the initial bipartite state and the state after measurement to construct a cost function that accounts for both the amount of information revealed about the other system as well as the disturbance to the overall state. We investigate the behaviour of the cost function for families of two qubit states and show that there is an optimal choice that can be made for the strength of the weak measurement., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; shown existence and uniqueness of the cost function minimum in v3

The quantum Fisher information for a two-mode, Gaussian product state in an interferometer subject to photon loss is studied. We obtain the quantum Cramer-Rao bound on the achievable precision in phase estimation using such states. The scaling of the measurement precision with the mean photon number for such input product states is compared to the limited scaling for dual squeezed vacuum states and for dual squeezed, displaced vacuum states., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

We extend the definition of quantum discord as a quantifier of nonClassical correlations in a quantum state to the case where weak measurements are performed on subsystem $A$ of a bipartite system $AB$. The properties of weak discord are explored for several families of quantum states. We find that in many cases weak quantum discord is identical to normal discord and in general the values of the two are very close to each other. Weak quantum discord reduces to discord in the appropriate limits as well. We also discuss the implications of these observations on the interpretations of quantum discord., Comment: 8 Pages, 2 Figures

A protocol based on quantum error correction based characterization of quantum dynamics (QECCD) is developed for quantum process tomography on a two-qubit system interacting dissipatively with a vacuum bath. The method uses a 5-qubit quantum error correcting code that corrects arbitrary errors on the first two qubits, and also saturates the quantum Hamming bound. The dissipative interaction with a vacuum bath allows for both correlated and independent noise on the two-qubit system. We study the dependence of the degree of the correlation of the noise on evolution time and inter-qubit separation., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We show that the coupling between a qubit and a single mode cavity can be estimated from the process tomography data for the qubit alone. All the parameters of the coupling Hamiltonian between the qubit and the cavity mode can be obtained from observations on the qubit. We also show that the variance matrix and the photon number statistics of the single mode cavity can be reconstructed. Our results provide an alternate means of obtaining the coupling and reconstructing the state of the cavity mode in comparison with the techniques presently used., Comment: 5 Pages, 2 Figures

We show that the process matrix in the basis of tensor products of Pauli operators or SU(N) generators representing low rank and sparse dynamical maps will have only a few distinct entries which goes as $O(r^2)$ ($r$ is the rank)., Comment: Crucial errors in the manuscript

We investigate the role of quantum coherence in modulating the energy transfer rate between two independent energy donors and a single acceptor participating in an excitonic energy transfer process. The energy transfer rate depends explicitly on the nature of the initial coherent superposition state of the two donors and we connect it to the observed absorption profile of the acceptor and the stimulated emission profile of the energy donors. We consider simple models with mesoscopic environments interacting with the donors and the acceptor and compare the expression we obtained for the energy transfer rate with the results of numerical integration., Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures

Modeling the environment of a single qubit as an N dimensional quantum system, we show that the dynamics of the qubit alone, if measured in sufficient detail, can reveal the parameters of the qubit-environment coupling Hamiltonian. We show that data from quantum process tomography experiments can be used to get information about the environment that can be used to minimize its deleterious effects on the state of the qubit., Comment: 11 Pages, 1 figure

In the quantum metrology protocol described by Tacla et al. [Tacla et al., Phys. Rev. A 82, 053636 (2010)] where a two mode Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is used for parameter estimation, the measured quantity is to be obtained by doing a one parameter fit of the observed data to a theoretically expected signal. Here we look at different levels of approximation used to model the two mode BEC to see how the estimate improves when increasing level of detail is added to the theory while at the same time keeping the expected signal computable., Comment: 8 Pages, 7 figures, Typos corrected, 3 references added

Assuming that the parameter dependent evolution, as well as the measurements that are done for readout, of a quantum system that acts as the probe in a quantum limited measurement scheme are both fixed, we find the optimal initial states of the probe that will saturate the quantum Cramer-Rao bound. When the probe system is itself made of identical, elementary, two-level subsystems or qubits, we connect the optimal state of the N qubit probe to that of the one qubit probe. This is done for two different classes of dynamics for the probe qubits, one of which is entangling while the other is not. We study the limitations placed on the optimal initial state of the probe and the achievable measurement uncertainty by restrictions on the readout procedure that is applied on the probe qubits at the end of the measurement protocol., Comment: 10 Pages

We discuss models of computing that are beyond classical. The primary motivation is to unearth the cause of nonclassical advantages in computation. Completeness results from computational complexity theory lead to the identification of very disparate problems, and offer a kaleidoscopic view into the realm of quantum enhancements in computation. Emphasis is placed on the `power of one qubit' model, and the boundary between quantum and classical correlations as delineated by quantum discord. A recent result by Eastin on the role of this boundary in the efficient classical simulation of quantum computation is discussed. Perceived drawbacks in the interpretation of quantum discord as a relevant certificate of quantum enhancements are addressed., Comment: To be published in the Special Issue of the International Journal of Quantum Information on "Quantum Correlations: entanglement and beyond." 11 pages, 4 figures

A framework for categorizing entropic measures of nonclassical correlations in bipartite quantum states is presented. The measures are based on the difference between a quantum entropic quantity and the corresponding classical quantity obtained from measurements on the two systems. Three types of entropic quantities are used, and three different measurement strategies are applied to these quantities. Many of the resulting measures of nonclassical correlations have been proposed previously. Properties of the various measures are explored, and results of evaluating the measures for two-qubit quantum states are presented., Comment: 32 Pages, 6 Figures. Revised to match published version

We analyze a proposed experiment [Boixo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 040403 (2008)] for achieving sensitivity scaling better than $1/N$ in a nonlinear Ramsey interferometer that uses a two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $N$ atoms. We present numerical simulations that confirm the analytical predictions for the effect of the spreading of the BEC ground-state wave function on the ideal $1/N^{3/2}$ scaling. Numerical integration of the coupled, time-dependent, two-mode Gross-Pitaevskii equations allows us to study the several simplifying assumptions made in the initial analytic study of the proposal and to explore when they can be justified. In particular, we find that the two modes share the same spatial wave function for a length of time that is sufficient to run the metrology scheme., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Added references and minor changes to match published version

Atomic (qubit) and optical or microwave (modal) phase-estimation protocols are placed on the same footing in terms of quantum-circuit diagrams. Circuit equivalences are used to demonstrate the equivalence of protocols that achieve the Heisenberg limit by employing entangled superpositions of Fock states, such as N00N states. The key equivalences are those that disentangle a circuit so that phase information is written exclusively on a mode or modes or on a qubit. The Fock-state-superposition phase-estimation circuits are converted to use entangled coherent-state superpositions; the resulting protocols are more amenable to realization in the lab, particularly in a qubit/cavity setting at microwave frequencies., Comment: To appear in Optics Communications special issue in memory of Krzysztof Wodkiewicz

We discuss a quantum-metrology protocol designed to estimate a physical parameter in a Bose-Einstein condensate of N atoms, and we show that the measurement uncertainty can decrease faster than 1/N. The 1/N scaling is usually thought to be the best possible in any measurement scheme. From the perspective of quantum information theory, we outline the main idea that leads to a measurement uncertainty that scales better than 1/N. We examine in detail some potential problems and challenges that arise in implementing such a measurement protocol using a Bose-Einstein condensate. We discuss how some of these issues can be dealt with by using lower-dimensional condensates trapped in nonharmonic potentials., Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, updated references

Examples of repeatable procedures and maps are found in the open quantum dynamics of one qubit that interacts with another qubit. They show that a mathematical map that is repeatable can be made by a physical procedure that is not., Comment: 5 pages

A parameter whose coupling to a quantum probe of $n$ constituents includes all two-body interactions between the constituents can be measured with an uncertainty that scales as $1/n^{3/2}$, even when the constituents are initially unentangled. We devise a protocol that achieves the $1/n^{3/2}$ scaling without generating any entanglement among the constituents, and we suggest that the protocol might be implemented in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

A Markov approximation in open quantum dynamics can give unphysical results when a map acts on a state that is not in its domain. This is examined here in a simple example, an open quantum dynamics for one qubit in a system of two interacting qubits, for which the map domains have been described quite completely. A time interval is split into two parts and the map from the exact dynamics for the entire interval is replaced by the conjunction of that same map for both parts. If there is any correlation between the two qubits, unphysical results can appear as soon as the map conjunction is used, even for infinitesimal times. If the map is repeated an unlimited number of times, every state is at risk of being taken outside the bounds of physical meaning. Treatment by slippage of initial conditions is discussed., Comment: 3 pages

We study the performance of initial product states of n-body systems in generalized quantum metrology protocols that involve estimating an unknown coupling constant in a nonlinear k-body (k << n) Hamiltonian. We obtain the theoretical lower bound on the uncertainty in the estimate of the parameter. For arbitrary initial states, the lower bound scales as 1/n^k, and for initial product states, it scales as 1/n^(k-1/2). We show that the latter scaling can be achieved using simple, separable measurements. We analyze in detail the case of a quadratic Hamiltonian (k = 2), implementable with Bose-Einstein condensates. We formulate a simple model, based on the evolution of angular-momentum coherent states, which explains the O(n^(-3/2)) scaling for k = 2; the model shows that the entanglement generated by the quadratic Hamiltonian does not play a role in the enhanced sensitivity scaling. We show that phase decoherence does not affect the O(n^(-3/2)) sensitivity scaling for initial product states., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

We use quantum discord to characterize the correlations present in the quantum computational model DQC1, introduced by Knill and Laflamme [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5672 (1998)]. The model involves a collection of qubits in the completely mixed state coupled to a single control qubit that has nonzero purity. The initial state, operations, and measurements in the model all point to a natural bipartite split between the control qubit and the mixed ones. Although there is no entanglement between these two parts, we show that the quantum discord across this split is nonzero for typical instances of the DQC1 ciruit. Nonzero values of discord indicate the presence of nonclassical correlations. We propose quantum discord as figure of merit for characterizing the resources present in this computational model., Comment: 4 Pages, 1 Figure

Quantum properties of the probes used to estimate a classical parameter can be used to attain accuracies that beat the standard quantum limit. When qubits are used to construct a quantum probe, it is known that initializing $n$ qubits in an entangled "cat state," rather than in a separable state, can improve the measurement uncertainty by a factor of $1/\sqrt{n}$. We investigate how the measurement uncertainty is affected when the individual qubits in a probe are subjected to decoherence. In the face of such decoherence, we regard the rate $R$ at which qubits can be generated and the total duration $\tau$ of a measurement as fixed resources, and we determine the optimal use of entanglement among the qubits and the resulting optimal measurement uncertainty as functions of $R$ and $\tau$., Comment: 24 Pages, 3 Figures

Simple examples are constructed that show the entanglement of two qubits being both increased and decreased by interactions on just one of them. One of the two qubits interacts with a third qubit, a control, that is never entangled or correlated with either of the two entangled qubits and is never entangled, but becomes correlated, with the system of those two qubits. The two entangled qubits do not interact, but their state can change from maximally entangled to separable or from separable to maximally entangled. Similar changes for the two qubits are made with a swap operation between one of the qubits and a control; then there are compensating changes of entanglement that involve the control. When the entanglement increases, the map that describes the change of the state of the two entangled qubits is not completely positive. Combination of two independent interactions that individually give exponential decay of the entanglement can cause the entanglement to not decay exponentially but, instead, go to zero at a finite time., Comment: 6 Pages, new title, substantially revised

We expand the set of initial states of a system and its environment that are known to guarantee completely positive reduced dynamics for the system when the combined state evolves unitarily. We characterize the correlations in the initial state in terms of its quantum discord [H. Ollivier and W. H. Zurek, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 017901 (2001)]. We prove that initial states that have only classical correlations lead to completely positive reduced dynamics. The induced maps can be not completely positive when quantum correlations including, but not limited to, entanglement are present. We outline the implications of our results to quantum process tomography experiments., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

Entanglement measures constructed from two positive, but not completely positive maps on density operators are used as constraints in placing bounds on the entanglement of formation, the tangle, and the concurrence of 4 x N mixed states. The maps are the partial transpose map and the $\Phi$-map introduced by Breuer [H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 080501 (2006)]. The norm-based entanglement measures constructed from these two maps, called negativity and $\Phi$-negativity, respectively, lead to two sets of bounds on the entanglement of formation, the tangle, and the concurrence. We compare these bounds and identify the sets of 4 x N density operators for which the bounds from one constraint are better than the bounds from the other. In the process, we present a new derivation of the already known bound on the concurrence based on the negativity. We compute new bounds on the three measures of entanglement using both the constraints simultaneously. We demonstrate how such doubly constrained bounds can be constructed. We discuss extensions of our results to bipartite states of higher dimensions and with more than two constraints., Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures. v2 simplified and generalized derivation of main results; errors corrected

From the time dependence of states of one of them, the dynamics of two interacting qubits is determined to be one of two possibilities that differ only by a change of signs of parameters in the Hamiltonian. The only exception is a simple particular case where several parameters in the Hamiltonian are zero and one of the remaining nonzero parameters has no effect on the time dependence of states of the one qubit. The mean values that describe the initial state of the other qubit and of the correlations between the two qubits also are generally determined to within a change of signs by the time dependence of states of the one qubit, but with many more exceptions. An example demonstrates all the results. Feedback in the equations of motion that allows time dependence in a subsystem to determine the dynamics of the larger system can occur in both classical and quantum mechanics. The role of quantum mechanics here is just to identify qubits as the simplest objects to consider and specify the form that equations of motion for two interacting qubits can take., Comment: 6 pages with new and updated material

We derive bounds on the entanglement of formation of states of a 4xN bipartite system using two entanglement monotones constructed from operational separability criteria. The bounds are used simultaneously as constraints on the entanglement of formation. One monotone is the negativity, which is based on the Peres positive-partial-transpose criterion. For the other, we formulate a monotone based on a separability criterion introduced by Breuer (H.-P. Breuer, e-print quant-ph/0605036)., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

Simple examples are presented of Lorentz transformations that entangle the spins and momenta of two particles with positive mass and spin 1/2. They apply to indistinguishable particles, produce maximal entanglement from finite Lorentz transformations of states for finite momenta, and describe entanglement of spins produced together with entanglement of momenta. From the entanglements considered, no sum of entanglements is found to be unchanged., Comment: 5 Pages, 2 Figures, One new paragraph and reference added

We study two quantum versions of the Eddington clock-synchronization protocol in the presence of decoherence. The first protocol uses maximally entangled states to achieve the Heisenberg limit for clock synchronization. The second protocol achieves the limit without using entanglement. We show the equivalence of the two protocols under any single-qubit decoherence model that does not itself provide synchronization information., Comment: 12 Pages, 3 Figures

Lorentz transformations of spin density matrices for a particle with positive mass and spin 1/2 are described by maps of the kind used in open quantum dynamics. They show how the Lorentz transformations of the spin depend on the momentum. Since the spin and momentum generally are entangled, the maps generally are not completely positive and act in limited domains. States with two momentum values are considered, so the maps are for the spin qubit entangled with the qubit made from the two momentum values, and results from the open quantum dynamics of two coupled qubits can be applied. Inverse maps are used to show that every Lorentz transformation completely removes the spin polarization, and so completely removes the information, from a number of spin density matrices. The size of the spin polarization that is removed is calculated for particular cases., Comment: 7 Pages, 3 Figures

For systems described by finite matrices, an affine form is developed for the maps that describe evolution of density matrices for a quantum system that interacts with another. This is established directly from the Heisenberg picture. It separates elements that depend only on the dynamics from those that depend on the state of the two systems. While the equivalent linear map is generally not completely positive, the homogeneous part of the affine maps is, and is shown to be composed of multiplication operations that come simply from the Hamiltonian for the larger system. The inhomogeneous part is shown to be zero if and only if the map does not increase the trace of the square of any density matrix. Properties are worked out in detail for two-qubit examples., Comment: 10 pages, 3 Figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

The evolution of two qubits coupled by a general nonlocal interaction is studied in two distinct regimes. In the first regime the purity of the individual qubits is interchanged through the entanglement shared by the two. We illustrate how this can be a mechanism for decoherence. In the second regime, the interaction entangles two initially pure qubits. The dynamical maps for the reduced unitary evolution of both initially simply separable and not-simply-separable states are found. We outline a protocol for optimizing the entanglement generation subject to constraints., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Changed the format and added one whole section. Title slightly changed

The problem of constructing a necessary and sufficient condition for establishing the separability of continuous variable systems is revisited. Simon [R. Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2726 (2000)] pointed out that such a criterion may be constructed by drawing a parallel between the Peres' partial transpose criterion for finite dimensional systems and partial time reversal transformation for continuous variable systems. We generalize the partial time reversal transformation to a partial scaling transformation and re-examine the problem using a tomographic description of the continuous variable quantum system. The limits of applicability of the entanglement criteria obtained from partial scaling and partial time reversal are explored., Comment: Submitted for publication to Phys. Lett. A