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We present a single-photon based device-independent quantum key distribution scheme secure even against no-signaling eavesdropping, which covers quantum attacks, as well as ones beyond laws of physics but still obeying the rules for spatially separated events. The operational scheme is inspired by the Tan-Walls-Collett (1991) interferometric setup, which used the entangled state of two exit modes of a 50-50 beamsplitter resulting from a single photon entering one of its input ports, and weak homodyne measurements at two spatially separated measurement stations. The physics and non-classically of such an arrangement has been understood only recently. Our protocol links basic features of the first two emblematic protocols, BB84 and Ekert91, namely the random bits of the cryptographic key are obtained by measurements on single photon, while the security is positively tested if one observes a violation of a specific Bell inequality. The security analysis presented here is based on a decomposition of the correlations into extremal points of a no-signaling polytope which allows for identification of the optimal strategy for any eavesdropping constrained only by the no-signalling principle. For this strategy, the key rate is calculated, which is then connected with the violation of a specific Clauser-Horne inequality. We also adapt this analysis to propose a self-testing quantum random number generator., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

The quantum dense coding (DC) protocol, which has no security feature, deals with the transmission of classical information encoded in a quantum state by using shared entanglement between a single sender and a single receiver. Its appropriate variant has been established as a quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme for shared two-qubit maximally entangled states, with the security proof utilizing the uncertainty relation of complementary observables and the Shor-Preskill entanglement purification scheme. We present the DC-based QKD protocol for higher dimensional systems and report the lower bounds on secret key rate, when the shared state is a two-qudit maximally entangled state, and mixtures of maximally entangled states with different ranks. The analysis also includes the impact of noisy channels on the secure key rates, before and after encoding. In both the noiseless and the noisy scenarios, we demonstrate that the key rate as well as the robustness of the protocol against noise increases with the dimension. Further, we prove that the set of useless states in the DC-based QKD protocol is convex and compact., Comment: v1:11 pages, 3 figures; v2: close to published version

Mutual information between local stress and local non-affine deformation is proposed as a collective field variable quantifying the {\em local softness} of soft materials. The liquid-solid transition in a simple liquid is considered as a generic example of mechanical transformation through varying correlation between stress and deformation at the microscopic level. Probing through this new measure, a liquid appears as a spatially heterogeneous medium of interacting interconnected regions of varying softness. In contrast, the soft regions shrink to isolated spots in the background of a negligible mean softness in the case of solids. In this view, the thermodynamic transition becomes purely geometric while keeping the essential mechanical information intact. Besides offering a general framework for understanding the mechanics of materials, this new approach can complement recent machine learning efforts by assigning physical meaning to their findings. Further, this collective variable can be used on the fly during material characterization as both of its ingredient variables are experimentally accessible.

Two typical morphology of two-dimensional aggregates are considered: compact crystalline clusters and string-like non-compact conformations. Simulated trajectories of both types of aggregates are analysed with fine spatial resolution. While the long-time geometry of such trajectories appears to be statistically identical for two conformations, the self-overlap statistics reveal two distinct short-time {\em pre-caging} mechanisms. While the time-scale is directly proportional with length-scale for particles in a compact aggregates, an inverse relationship holds for non-compact clusters. These short length-fast time relationship of particle localization might hold the key to the structure-function relationship of aggregate forming systems and other non-equilibrium soft materials.

Better versions of separability conditions for four mode optical fields, i.e. two beams with two modes of mutually orthogonal polarization are given. Our conditions involve variances. Their meaning is intuitive and their implementation is feasible. Namely, if for a given quantum state the spread of the data around its mean value is smaller than the minimal spread predicted for the set of separable states, then the given state is entangled. Our conditions are formulated for standard quantum Stokes observables and normalized Stokes observables and result to be more efficient that the previous conditions for four mode optical fields involving variances. We test our conditions for bright squeezed vacuum with (and without) induced non-gaussianity obtained by addition or subtraction of photons. Also we propose a practical experimental scheme of how to generate such states for an event-ready experiment., Comment: 11 + 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Comments are welcome

We present a framework of a multimode dense coding network with multiple senders and a single receiver using continuous variable systems. The protocol is scalable to arbitrary numbers of modes with the encoding being displacements while the decoding involves homodyne measurements of the modes after they are combined in a pairwise manner by a sequence of beam splitters, thereby exhibiting its potentiality to implement in laboratories with currently available resources. We compute the closed form expression of the dense coding capacity for the cases of two and three senders that involve sharing of three- and four-mode states respectively. The dense coding capacity is calculated with the constraint of fixed average energy transmission when the modes of the sender are transferred to the receiver after the encoding operation. In both the cases, we demonstrate the quantum advantage of the protocol using paradigmatic classes of three- and four-mode states. The quantum advantage increases with the increase in the amount of energy that is allowed to be transmitted from the senders to the receiver., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

In a quantum illumination (QI) protocol, the task is to detect the presence of the target which is typically modelled by a partially reflecting beam splitter. We analyze the performance of QI when the target absorbs part of the light that falls on it, thereby making the scenario more realistic. We present an optical setup that models a target with these characteristics and explore its detectability in the quantum domain in terms of the Chernoff bound (CB). For an idler-free setup, we use the coherent state for QI while the two mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) state is employed in the signal-idler scheme. In both the cases, we report an absorption-induced enhancement of the detection efficiency indicated by a lowering of CB with increasing amounts of absorption. Interestingly, we show that in the presence of absorption, a more intense thermal background can lead to target detection with enhanced efficiency. Moreover, we observe that the quantum advantage persists even for finite amounts of absorption. However, we find that the quantum advantage offered by TMSV decreases monotonically with absorption, and becomes vanishingly small in the high absorption regime. We also demonstrate the optimality of both the coherent and the TMSV states in their respective setups (idler-free and signal-idler) in the limit of low reflectivity and absorption., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

Bell nonclassicality of a single photon superposition in two modes, often referred to as `nonlocality of a single photon', is one of the most striking nonclassical phenomena discussed in the context of foundations of quantum physics. Here we show how to robustly violate local realism within the weak-field homodyne measurement scheme for \textit{any} superposition of one photon with vacuum. Our modification of the previously proposed setups involves tunable beamsplitters at the measurement stations, and the local oscillator fields significantly varying between the settings, optimally being {\it on} or {\it off}. As photon number resolving measurements are now feasible, we advocate for the use of the Clauser-Horne Bell inequalities for detection events using precisely defined numbers of photons. We find a condition for optimal measurement settings for the maximal violation of the Clauser-Horne inequality with weak-field homodyne detection, which states that the reflectivity of the local beamsplitter must be equal to the strength of the local oscillator field. We show that this condition holds not only for the vacuum-one-photon qubit input state, but also for the superposition of a photon pair with vacuum, which suggests its generality as a property of weak-field homodyne detection with photon-number resolution. Our findings suggest a possible path to employ such scenarios in device-independent quantum protocols., Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures. Comments are welcome

We comment on the purported violation of local realism, by a single photon induced correlations between homodyne detectors, which one can find in: New J. Phys. 10, 113024 (2008), [arXiv:0807.0109]. The claim is erroneous, due to a calculational mistake. As the result is the basis of other claims in the paper, they are unsubstantiated., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

Entangled states, like the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, are known to give quantum advantage in the illumination protocol, a method to detect a weakly reflecting target submerged in a thermal background. We use non-Gaussian photon-added and -subtracted states, affected by local Gaussian noise on top of the omnipresent thermal noise, as probes in the illumination protocol. Based on the difference between the Chernoff bounds obtained with the coherent state and the non-Gaussian state having equal signal strengths, whose positive values denote quantum advantage in illumination, we highlight the hierarchy among non-Gaussian states, which is compatible with correlations per unit signal strength, although the Gaussian states offer the best performance. Interestingly, such hierarchy is different when comparisons are made using the Chernoff bounds. The entire analysis is performed in the presence of different imperfect apparatus like faulty twin-beam generator, imperfect photon addition (subtraction) as well as with noisy non-Gaussian probe states., Comment: v1: 17 pages, 12 figures v2: Close to published version

We investigate the security of generalized quantum multiple-access channels. We provide the formula for the achievable rate region of secure communication in the scenario of two senders and a single receiver. We explicitly specify a protocol for secure communication in this scenario, which employs superdense coding. The protocol is based on the distribution of a tripartite GHZ state. It allows for both symmetric and asymmetric key distribution whereby one of the senders can have twice the capacity of the other sender. We prove the security of the protocol against general quantum attacks, analyze different strategies of the eavesdropper and compute the key rate for a range of noisy quantum channels., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures. Comments are welcome

Variation of positional information, measured by the two-body excess entropy $\mathsf{S}_\mathrm{2}$, is studied across the liquid-solid equilibrium transition in a simple two-dimensional system. Analysis reveals a master relation between $\mathsf{S}_\mathrm{2}$ and the freezing temperature $T_{\mathrm{f}}$, from which a scaling law is extracted: $-\mathsf{S}_\mathrm{2}\sim |T_{\mathrm{f}} - T| ^{-1/3}$. Theoretical and practical implications of the observed universality are discussed.

The cellular milieu is teeming with biochemical nano-machines whose activity is a strong source of correlated non-thermal fluctuations termed active noise. Essential elements of this circuitry are enzymes, catalysts that speed up the rate of metabolic reactions by orders of magnitude, thereby making life possible. Here, we examine the possibility that active noise in the cell, or in vitro, affects enzymatic catalytic rate by accelerating or decelerating the crossing rate of energy barriers during the reaction. Considering hydrodynamic perturbations induced by biochemical activity as a source of active noise, we evaluate their impact on the enzymatic cycle using a combination of analytic and numerical methods. Our estimates show that the fast component of the active noise spectrum enhances the rate of enzymes, while reactions remain practically unaffected by the slow noise spectrum. Revisiting the physics of barrier crossing under the influence of active hydrodynamic fluctuations suggests that the biochemical activity of macromolecules such as enzymes is coupled to active noise. Thus, we propose that enzymatic catalysis is a collective, many-body process in which enzymes may affect each other's activity via long-range hydrodynamic interaction, with potential impact on biochemical networks in living and artificial systems alike.

Non-existence of a local hidden variables (LHV) model for a phenomenon benchmarks its use in device-independent quantum protocols. Nowadays photon-number resolving weak-field homodyne measurements allow realization of emblematic gedanken experiments. Alas, claims that we can have no LHV models for such experiments on (a) excitation of a pair of spatial modes by a single photon, and (b) two spatial modes in a weakly squeezed vacuum state, involving constant local oscillator strengths, are unfounded. For (a) an exact LHV model resolves the dispute on the "non-locality of a single photon" in its original formulation. It is measurements with local oscillators on or off that do not have LHV models., Comment: 5 + 5 pages, 1 figure. Results partially overlap with arXiv:2102.03254. Comments are welcome

Measurement-based quantum correlation mimics several characteristics of multipartite quantum correlations and at the same time, it reduces the parent system to a smaller subsystem. On the other hand, genuine multipartite entanglement measures can capture certain features of a multisite composite system that are inaccessible via bipartite quantum correlation quantifiers. We merge these two concepts by introducing localizable genuine multimode entanglement for continuous variable systems, both for Gaussian and non-Gaussian multimode parent states. We report a compact form of localizable generalized geometric measure for multimode Gaussian states when Gaussian measurements are performed in some of the modes. We show that non-Gaussian measurements can concentrate more genuine multimode entanglement compared to the Gaussian ones. For non-Gaussian states with non-Gaussian measurements, we find that although four-mode squeezed vacuum state has permutation symmetry with respect to the exchange of first and third modes as well as the second and the fourth modes, the symmetry can be broken by performing measurements in one of the modes in case of addition while for subtraction, such symmetry is preserved, thereby providing a method for distinguishing multimode photon-added and -subtracted states via localizations., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

We reconsider the all-optical homodyne-measurement based experimental schemes that aim to reveal Bell nonclassicality of a single photon, often termed `nonlocality'. We focus on the schemes put forward by Tan, Walls and Collett (TWC, 1991) and Hardy (1994). In the light of our previous work the Tan, Walls and Collett setup can be described by a precise local hidden variable model, hence the claimed nonclassicality of this proposal is apparent, whereas the nonclassicality proof proposed by Hardy is impeccable. In this work we resolve the following problem: which feature of the Hardy's approach is crucial for its successful confirmation of nonclassicality. The scheme of Hardy differs from the Tan, Walls and Collett setup in two aspects. (i) It introduces a superposition of a single photon excitation with vacuum as the initial state of one of the input modes of a 50-50 beamsplitter, which creates the superposition state of two separable (exit) modes under investigation. (ii) In the final measurements Hardy's proposal utilises a varying strengths of the local oscillator fields, whereas in the TWC case they are constant. In fact the local oscillators in Hardy's scheme are either on or off (the local setting is specified by the presence or absence of the local auxiliary field). We show that it is the varying strength of the local oscillators, from setting to setting, which is the crucial feature enabling violation of local realism in the Hardy setup, whereas it is not necessary to use initial superposition of a single photon excitation with vacuum as the initial state of the input mode. Neither one needs to operate in the fully on/off detection scheme. Despite the failure of the Tan, Walls and Collett scheme in proving Bell nonclassicality, we show that their scheme can serve as an entanglement indicator., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. Comments are welcome

We investigate the interferometric scheme put forward by Tan, Walls and Collett [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 66}, 256 (1991)] that aims to reveal Bell non-classicality of a single photon. By providing a local hidden variable model that reproduces their results, we decisively refute this claim. In particular, this means that the scheme cannot be used in device-independent protocols., Comment: 3 + 2 pages, 1 figure. Comments are welcome

Genuine multimode entanglement in continuous variable systems can be quantified by exploring the geometry of the state-space, namely via the generalized geometric measure (GGM) which is defined as the shortest distance of a given multimode state from a nongenunely multimode entangled state. For multimode Gaussian states, we derive a closed form expression of GGM in terms of the symplectic invariants of the reduced states. Following that prescription, the characteristics of GGM for typical three- and four-mode Gaussian states are investigated. In the non-Gaussian paradigm, we compute GGM for photon-added as well as -subtracted states having three- and four-modes and find that both addition and subtraction of photons lead to enhancement of the genuine multimode entanglement content of the state compared to its Gaussian counterpart. Our analysis reveals that when an initial three-mode vacuum state is evolved according to an interacting Hamiltonian, photon addition is more beneficial in increasing GGM compared to photon subtraction while the picture is opposite for four-mode case. Specifically, subtracting photons from four-mode squeezed vacuum states almost always results in higher multimode entanglement content than that of photon addition with both single as well as multimode and constrained as well as unconstrained operations. Furthermore, we observe a novel freezing feature of GGM during some specific cases of photon subtraction with respect to the number of photons subtracted., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, close to the published version

We initiate a systematic study to provide upper bounds on device-independent key, secure against a non-signaling adversary (NSDI). We employ the idea of "squashing" on the secrecy monotones and show that squashed secrecy monotones are the upper bounds on the NSDI key. Our technique for obtaining upper bounds is based on the non-signaling analog of quantum purification: the complete extension. As an important instance of an upper bound, we construct a measure of nonlocality called "squashed nonlocality". Using this bound, we identify numerically a certain domain of two binary inputs and two binary outputs non-local devices for which the squashed nonlocality is zero. Therefore one can not distill secure-key from these non-local devices via a considered (standard) class of operations. Showing a connection of our approach to [New J. Phys., 8:126, 2006] we provide, to our knowledge, the tightest known upper bound in the (3,2,2,2) scenario. Moreover, we formulate a security condition, equivalent to known ones, for the considered class of protocols. To achieve this, we introduce a non-signaling norm that constitutes an analogy to the trace norm used in the security condition of the quantum key distribution., Comment: 19 + 43 pages, 9 figures

Deriving quantum mechanics from information-theoretic postulates is a recent research direction taken, in part, with the view of finding a beyond-quantum theory; once the postulates are clear, we can consider modifications to them. A key postulate is the purification postulate, which we propose to replace by a more generally applicable postulate that we call the complete extension postulate (CEP), i.e., the existence of an extension of a physical system from which one can generate any other extension. This new concept leads to a plethora of open questions and research directions in the study of general theories satisfying the CEP (which may include a theory that hyper-decoheres to quantum theory). For example, we show that the CEP implies the impossibility of bit-commitment. This is exemplified by a case study of the theory of non-signalling behaviors which we show satisfies the CEP. We moreover show that in certain cases the complete extension will not be pure, highlighting the key divergence from the purification postulate., Comment: 29 + 42 pages, 9 figures and 2 tables

Violation of Bell inequality is a prominent detection method for quantum correlations present in composite quantum systems, both in finite and infinite dimensions. We investigate the consequence on the violation of local realism based on pseduospin operators when photons are added or subtracted in a single mode or in both the modes of the two-mode squeezed states of light in presence of noise. In the noiseless situation, we show that for addition (subtraction) of photons in a single mode, there is an overall enhancement in the maximal violation, although we observe an interplay between monotonicity and non-monotonicity in the violation of Bell inequality depending on the squeezing strength. Moreover, we report that for low squeezing or low number of photons added or subtracted, subtraction in both the modes can lead to higher violation of local realism than that in the case of addition. For any choice of parameters, such ordering is not seen if one compares their entanglement contents. In the event of a faulty twin-beam generator, we obtain a lower-than-expected squeezing in the state. In such a case, or in imperfect photon addition (subtraction), or under local noise, we find that the violation of local realism by the noise-affected two-mode squeezed states always decreases. Interestingly however, we notice that photon addition (subtraction) can in general help to conquer the ill-effects of noise by enhancing the violation of local realism or by transforming non-violating states to violating ones, thereby acting as an activating agent., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures

A generic aggregate forming system in two dimensions (2D) is studied using canonical ensemble constant temperature molecular dynamics simulation. The aggregates form due to the competition between short range attraction and long range repulsion of pair-wise interactions. Choosing the appropriate set of interaction parameters, we focus on characterising the collective dynamics in two specific morphologies, {\it viz.} compact and string-like aggregates. We focus on the temporal evolution of the mobility of an individual particle and the dynamic change in its nearest neighbourhood, measured in terms of the Debye-Waller factor ($\bar{u}_i^2$) and the non-affine parameter ($\chi$), respectively (defined in the text), and their interrelation over several lengths of observation time $\tau_w$. The distribution for both measures are found to follow the relation: $P(x;\tau_w) \sim \tau_w^{-\gamma}x$ for the measured quantity $x$. The exponent $\gamma$ is equal to $2$ and $1$ respectively, for the compact and string-like morphologies following the ideal fractal dimension of these aggregates. A functional dependence between these two observables is determined from a detailed statistical analysis of their joint and conditional distributions. The results obtained can readily be used and verified by experiments on aggregate forming systems such as globular proteins, nanoparticle self-assembly etc. Further, the insights gained from this study might be useful to understand the evolution of collective dynamics in diverse glass-forming systems.

Nonclassicality of temporal correlations pertaining to noncommutative sequential measurements is defined through the violation of macrorealistic inequalities, known as Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGI). We investigate the energy cost of the process associated with the Leggett-Garg test in the context of noiseless and Markovian noise for arbitrary initial states. We prove that in noiseless and in certain noisy scenarios, the maximal violations of LGI under the energy constraint occurs when the average energy of the process is equal to the negative of the energy of the initial state. Such a dependence of LGI on the choice of the initial state is not seen in the unconstrained case. Moreover, we find that in the presence of a moderate amount of Markovian noise, the amount of violation of LGI remains almost unaltered with a suitable choice of the evolution and dephasing operators in the neighborhood of the maximal violation line, thereby showing the robustness of temporal correlations under environmental effects., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, close to published version

Quantum states can be efficiently transferred over a long distance if the entire quantum channel can be divided into several small blocks. We consider a scenario in which each block consists of two copies of a multiparty state -- one is used for distributing an arbitrary quantum state to multiple parties while the other channel is required to concentrate it back to a single party. Both in noiseless and local noisy scenarios, we find one-shot quantum capacities of these channels in terms of fidelity, when the initial shared states in each block are the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and the generalized W states. We also consider a situation where optimal local measurements transform multipartite states to bipartite ones which can then be used as single-path channels for quantum state transmission in each segment. We show that in some parameter ranges, the former protocol provides strictly better fidelities than that of the latter, thereby establishing the importance of distributing and concentrating arbitrary quantum states via multipartite entangled states in long distance quantum communication, over the local measurement based protocol. Moreover, we show that in presence of bit flip or bit-phase flip noise, shared generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states possess an inherent noise detection and correction mechanism, leading to the same fidelity as in the noiseless case. We consider further noise models also, which do not enjoy the same mechanism. In addition to the fidelity based advantages, the multipath scheme is shown to be useful when one considers a situation in which the completion of the teleportation needs to be delayed. We also find the efficiencies of a quantum channel when a quantum state is transferred over long distances and the entire channel is divided into several small blocks., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures

Three structural populations with distinct average mobility are identified within an equilibrium two-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluid simulated via molecular dynamics at a constant temperature and varying density. Quantifying the structure of the immediate neighborhood of particles by a tessellation allows us to identify three distinct structural states by the shapes of the tessellation cells. Irrespective of dynamic particle exchange among these populations, each is observed to maintain their own thermodynamic and average dynamic properties across the liquid-solid transition. We expect these findings to be valuable for better understanding the structural basis of dynamical heterogeneity in complex fluids defined in terms of local mobility fluctuations., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

We investigate the local structural fluctuations of a model equilibrium fluid with an aim of better understanding the structural basis of locally heterogeneous dynamics identified in recent simulations and experimental studies of glass-forming liquids and other strongly interacting particle systems, such as, lipid membranes, dusty plasmas, interfacial dynamics of crystals, internal dynamics of proteins, etc. In particular, we study a two-dimensional single component Lennard-Jones over a range of densities and constant temperature covering both the liquid and crystalline phase by molecular dynamics simulation. We identify three distinct structural classes of particles by examining the immediate neighborhood of individual particles based on a solid-angle based tessellation technique. In particular, the area distribution of the neighborhoods reveals cages having hexagonal, pentagonal and square symmetries. Pentagonal cells appear to be predominant motif in the liquid phase, while the solid phase is dominated by hexagonal cells, as in the case of the perfect crystal. Examining the spatial organization of particles belonging to each structural class separately shows that finite-size clusters formed by particles of hexagonal and pentagonal population found within liquids and solids, respectively, grow in a complementary way as a function of density and both particle populations percolate within liquid-crystal coexistence regime. Interestingly, the populations of particles with different local structures, defined by the arrangement of neighboring particles, are found to maintain different diffusivity computed from the velocity autocorrelation of constituent particles for all densities studied. Our analysis provides a new approach for analyzing and a possible framework for understanding the structural changes in soft materials., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Revised text

We report all phases and corresponding critical lines of the quantum anisotropic transverse XY model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction along with uniform and alternating transverse magnetic fields (ATXY) by using appropriately chosen order parameters. We prove that when DM interaction is weaker than the anisotropy parameter, it has no effect at all on the zero-temperature states of the XY model with uniform transverse magnetic field which is not the case for the ATXY model. However, when DM interaction is stronger than the anisotropy parameter, we show appearance of a new gapless phase - a chiral phase - in the XY model with uniform as well as alternating field. We further report that first derivatives of nearest neighbor two-site entanglement with respect to magnetic fields can detect all the critical lines present in the system. We also observe that the factorization surface at zero-temperature present in this model without DM interaction becomes a volume on the introduction of the later. We find that DM interaction can generate bipartite entanglement sustainable at large times, leading to a proof of ergodic nature of bipartite entanglement in this system, and can induce a transition from non-monotonicity of entanglement with temperature to a monotonic one., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures

We consider the scenario of deterministic classical information transmission between multiple senders and a single receiver, when they a priori share a multipartite quantum state -- an attempt towards building a deterministic dense coding network. Specifically, we prove that in the case of two or three senders and a single receiver, generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (gGHZ) states are not beneficial for sending classical information deterministically beyond the classical limit, except when the shared state is the GHZ state itself. On the other hand, three- and four-qubit generalized W (gW) states with specific parameters as well as the four-qubit Dicke states can provide a quantum advantage of sending the information in deterministic dense coding. Interestingly however, numerical simulations in the three-qubit scenario reveal that the percentage of states from the GHZ-class that are deterministic dense codeable is higher than that of states from the W-class., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, close to published version

There exist zero-temperature states in quantum many-body systems that are fully factorized, thereby possessing vanishing entanglement, and hence being of no use as resource in quantum information processing tasks. Such states can become useful for quantum protocols when the temperature of the system is increased, and when the system is allowed to evolve under either the influence of an external environment, or a closed unitary evolution driven by its own Hamiltonian due to a sudden change in the system parameters. Using the one-dimensional anisotropic XY model in a uniform and an alternating transverse magnetic field, we show that entanglement of the thermal states, corresponding to the factorization points in the space of the system parameters, revives once or twice with increasing temperature. We also study the closed unitary evolution of the quantum spin chain driven out of equilibrium when the external magnetic fields are turned off, and show that considerable entanglement is generated during the dynamics, when the initial state has vanishing entanglement. Interestingly, we find that creation of entanglement for a pair of spins is possible when the system is made open to an external heat bath, interacting through that spin-pair having a repetitive quantum interaction., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, close to published version

We review concepts and methods associated with quantum discord and related topics. We also describe their possible connections with other aspects of quantum information and beyond, including quantum communication, quantum computation, many-body physics, and open quantum dynamics. Quantum discord in the multiparty regime and its applications are also discussed., Comment: 65 pages, 20 figures, Review

We show that bipartite entanglement in a one-dimensional quantum spin model undergoing time-evolution under local Markovian environments can be frozen over time. We demonstrate this by using a number of paradigmatic quantum spin models in one dimension, including the anisotropic XY model in the presence of a uniform and an alternating transverse magnetic field (ATXY), the XXZ model, the XYZ model, and the $J_1-J_2$ model involving the next-nearest-neighbor interactions. We show that the length of the freezing interval, for a chosen pair of nearest-neighbor spins, may remain independent of the length of the spin-chain, for example, in paramagnetic phases of the ATXY model, indicating a scale-invariance. Such freezing of entanglement is found to be robust against a change in the environment temperature, presence of disorder in the system, and whether the noise is dissipative, or not dissipative. Moreover, we connect the freezing of entanglement with the propagation of information through a quantum many-body system, as considered in the Lieb-Robinson theorem. We demonstrate that the variation of the freezing duration exhibits a quadratic behavior against the distance of the nearest-neighbor spin-pair from the noise-source, obtained from exact numerical simulations, in contrast to the linear one as predicted by the Lieb-Robinson theorem., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, close to published version

The monogamy relation for quantum correlations is not satisfied by all measures for all multiparty quantum states. We prove that an arbitrary quantum state which is nonmonogamous for negativity will become monogamous if a finite number of copies of the same state is provided. We refer this as activation of nonmonogamous states. We also show that multiple copies of a state satisfy monogamy for negativity if it does so for a single copy. The results are true for all quantum states of an arbitrary number of parties. Moreover, we find that two different three-qubit pure states which individually violate monogamy relation for negativity, taken together can satisfy the three-party monogamy relation. This holds for almost all three-qubit pure states while it is true for all three-qubit pure states when a four-party monogamy relation is used to check for their activation. We finally connect monogamy of negativity with genuine multipartite entanglement., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the static and dynamical patterns of entanglement in an anisotropic XY model with an alternating transverse magnetic field, which is equivalent to a two-component one-dimensional Fermi gas on a lattice, a system realizable with current technology. Apart from the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases, the model possesses a dimer phase which is not present in the transverse XY model. At zero temperature, we find that the first derivative of bipartite entanglement can detect all the three phases. We analytically show that the model has a "factorization line" on the plane of system parameters, in which the zero temperature state is separable. Along with investigating the effect of temperature on entanglement in a phase plane, we also report a non-monotonic behavior of entanglement with respect to temperature in the anti-ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases, which is surprisingly absent in the dimer phase. Since the time dynamics of entanglement in a realizable physical system plays an important role in quantum information processing tasks, the evolutions of entanglement at small as well as large time are examined. Consideration of large time behavior of entanglement helps us to prove that in this model, entanglement is always ergodic. We observe that other quantum correlation measures can qualitatively show similar features in zero and finite temperatures. However, unlike nearest-neighbor entanglement, the nearest-neighbor information theoretic measures can be both ergodic as well as non-ergodic, depending on the system parameters., Comment: 20 Pages, 13 Figures, 2 Tables, Published version

Violation of a Bell inequality guarantees the existence of quantum correlations in a quantum state. A pure bipartite quantum state, having nonvanishing quantum correlation, always violates a Bell inequality. Such correspondence is absent for multipartite pure quantum states. For a shared multipartite quantum state, we establish a connection between the monogamy of Bell inequality violation and genuine multi-site entanglement as well as monogamy-based multiparty quantum correlation measures. We find that generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states and another single-parameter family states which we refer to as the "special Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger" states have the status of extremal states in such relations., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We show that the frequency distribution of the first significant digits of the numbers in the data sets generated from a large class of measures of quantum correlations, which are either entanglement measures, or belong to the information-theoretic paradigm, exhibit a universal behaviour. In particular, for Haar uniformly simulated arbitrary two-qubit states, we find that the first-digit distribution corresponding to a collection of chosen computable quantum correlation quantifiers tend to follow the first-digit law, known as the Benford's law, when the rank of the states increases. Considering a two-qubit state which is obtained from a system governed by paradigmatic spin Hamiltonians, namely, the XY model in a transverse field, and the XXZ model, we show that entanglement as well as information theoretic measures violate the Benford's law. We quantitatively discuss the violation of the Benford's law by using a violation parameter, and demonstrate that the violation parameter can signal quantum phase transitions occurring in these models. We also comment on the universality of the statistics of first significant digits corresponding to appropriate measures of quantum correlations in the case of multipartite systems as well as systems in higher dimensions., Comment: v1: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; v2: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, new results added, extended version of the published paper

Computing entanglement of an arbitrary bipartite or multipartite mixed state is in general not an easy task as it usually involves complex optimization. Here we show that exploiting symmetries of certain mixed states, we can compute a genuine multiparty entanglement measure, the generalized geometric measure for these classes of mixed states. The chosen states have different ranks and consist of an arbitrary number of parties., Comment: v2: New results in higher dimensions added, other results unchanged

We investigate the entanglement patterns of photon-added and -subtracted four-mode squeezed vacuum states. Entanglements in different scenarios are analyzed by varying the number of photons added or subtracted in certain modes, which are referred to as the "player" modes, the others being "spectators." We find that the photon-subtracted state can give us higher entanglement than the photon-added state which is in contrast of the two-mode situation. We also study the logarithmic negativity of the two-mode reduced density matrix obtained from the four-mode state which again shows that the state after photon subtraction can possess higher entanglement than that of the photon-added state, and we then compare it to that of the two-mode squeezed vacuum state. Moreover, we examine the non-Gaussianity of the photon-added and -subtracted states to find that the rich features provided by entanglement cannot be captured by the measure of non-classicality., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures

Two-dimensional (2D) particulate aggregates formed due to competing interactions exhibit a range of non-equilibrium steady state morphologies from finite-size compact crystalline structures to non-compact string-like conformations. We report a transition in heterogeneous microscopic dynamics across this morphological hierarchy as a function of decreasing long-range repulsion relative to short-range attraction at a constant {\it low} density and temperature. Following a very slow cooling protocol to form steady state aggregates, we show that geometric frustration inherent to competing interactions assures non-ergodicity of the system, which in turn results in long-time sub diffusive relaxation of the same. Analysing individual particle trajectories generated by molecular dynamics, we identify {\it caging} dynamics of particles in compact clusters in contrast to the {\it bonding} scenario for non-compact ones. Finally, by monitoring temperature dependence, we present a generic relation between diffusivity and structural randomness of the aggregates, irrespective of their thermodynamic equilibrium., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

We address the issue of reducing the resource required to compute information-theoretic quantum correlation measures like quantum discord and quantum work deficit in two qubits and higher dimensional systems. We show that determination of the quantum correlation measure is possible even if we utilize a restricted set of local measurements. We find that the determination allows us to obtain a closed form of quantum discord and quantum work deficit for several classes of states, with a low error. We show that the computational error caused by the constraint over the complete set of local measurements reduces fast with an increase in the size of the restricted set, implying usefulness of constrained optimization, especially with the increase of dimensions. We perform quantitative analysis to investigate how the error scales with the system size, taking into account a set of plausible constructions of the constrained set. Carrying out a comparative study, we show that the resource required to optimize quantum work deficit is usually higher than that required for quantum discord. We also demonstrate that minimization of quantum discord and quantum work deficit is easier in the case of two-qubit mixed states of fixed ranks and with positive partial transpose in comparison to the corresponding states having non-positive partial transpose. Applying the methodology to quantum spin models, we show that the constrained optimization can be used with advantage in analyzing such systems in quantum information-theoretic language. For bound entangled states, we show that the error is significantly low when the measurements correspond to the spin observables along the three Cartesian coordinates, and thereby we obtain expressions of quantum discord and quantum work deficit for these bound entangled states., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables

A dimensionless parameter $\Lambda$ is proposed to describe a hierarchy of morphologies in two-dimensional (2D) aggregates formed due to varying competition between short-range attraction and long-range repul- sion. Structural transitions from finite non-compact to compact to percolated structures are observed in the configurations simulated by molecular dynamics at a constant temperature and density. Configurational randomness across the transition, measured by the two-body excess entropy $S_2$, exhibits data collapse with the average potential energy $\bar{\mathcal{E}}$ of the systems. Independent master curves are presented among $S_2$, the reduced second virial coefficient $B_2^*$ and $\Lambda$, justifying this minimal description. This work lays out a coherent basis for the study of 2D aggregate morphologies relevant to diverse nano- and bio-processes., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures (Final revised and accepted version) in Soft Matter 2015

We investigate the effect of noisy channels in a classical information transfer through a multipartite state which acts as a substrate for the distributed quantum dense coding protocol between several senders and two receivers. The situation is qualitatively different from the case with one or more senders and a single receiver. We obtain an upper bound on the multipartite capacity which is tightened in case of the covariant noisy channel. We also establish a relation between the genuine multipartite entanglement of the shared state and the capacity of distributed dense coding using that state, both in the noiseless and the noisy scenarios. Specifically, we find that in the case of multiple senders and two receivers, the corresponding generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states possess higher dense coding capacities as compared to a significant fraction of pure states having the same multipartite entanglement., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX4-1

Distilling highly entangled quantum states from weaker ones is a process that is crucial for efficient and long-distance quantum communication, and has implications for several other quantum information protocols. We introduce the notion of distillation under limited resources, and specifically focus on the energy constraint. The corresponding protocol, which we call the canonical distillation of entanglement, naturally leads to the set of canonically distillable states. We show that for non-interacting Hamiltonians, almost no states are canonically distillable, while the situation can be drastically different for interacting ones. Several paradigmatic Hamiltonians are considered for bipartite as well as multipartite canonical distillability. The results have potential applications for practical quantum communication devices., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, Including supplementary material and extended references

A highly entangled bipartite quantum state is more advantageous for the quantum dense coding protocol than states with low entanglement. Such a correspondence, however, does not exist even for pure quantum states in the multipartite domain. We establish a connection between the multiparty capacity of classical information transmission in quantum dense coding and several multipartite quantum correlation measures of the shared state, used in the dense coding protocol. In particular, we show that for the noiseless channel, if multipartite quantum correlations of an arbitrary multipartite state of arbitrary number of qubits is the same as that of the corresponding generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, then the multipartite dense coding capability of former is the same or better than that of the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. Interestingly, in a noisy channel scenario, where we consider both uncorrelated and correlated noise models, the relative abilities of the quantum channels to transfer classical information can get inverted by administering a sufficient amount of noise. When the shared state is an arbitrary multipartite mixed state, we also establish a link between the classical capacity for the noiseless case and multipartite quantum correlation measures., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX4-1

A crystalline solid exhibits thermally induced localised {\em non-affine} droplets in the absence of external stress. Here we show that upon an imposed shear, the size of these droplets grow until they percolate at a critical strain, well {\em below} the value at which the solid begins to yield. This critical point does not manifest in bulk thermodynamic or mechanical properties, but is {\em hidden} and reveals itself in the onset of inhomogeneities in elastic moduli, marked changes in the appearance and local properties of non-affine droplets and a sudden enhancement in defect pair concentration. Slow relaxation of stress and an-elasticity appear as observable dynamical consequences of this hidden criticality. Our results may be directly verified in colloidal crystals with video microscopy techniques but are expected to have more general validity., Comment: Submission contains manuscript (10 pages) and supplementary information (4 pages) in the same file. Revised manuscript contains new figures and text

We show, using molecular dynamics simulations, that a two-dimensional Lennard-Jones solid is subject to droplet fluctuations characterized by {\em non-affine} deviations from local crystallinity. The fraction of particles in these droplets increases as the mean density of the solid decreases and approaches $\approx 20$% of the total number in the vicinity of the fluid-solid phase boundary. We monitor the geometry, local equation of state, density correlations and van Hove functions of these droplets and show that some of these droplets are fluid-like and compact, while some are glassy and string-like. We provide evidence that these non-affine heterogeneities should be interpreted as being droplet fluctuations from nearby, metastable minima., Comment: Majorly revised and elaborated with larger figures

We study structural transitions in a system of interacting particles arranged as a crystalline bilayer, as a function of the density $\rho$ and the distance $d$ between the layers. As $d$ is decreased a sequence of transitions involving triangular, rhombic, square and centered rectangular lattices is observed. The sequence of phases and the order of transitions depends on the nature of interactions., Comment: 11 pages,6 figures