Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - GQCOP (Genuine Quantumness in Cooperative Phenomena)

Teaser

The proposed research programme addresses issues of fundamental and technological importance in quantum information science and its interplay with complexity. The main aim of this project is to provide a new paradigmatic foundation for the characterisation of quantumness in...

Summary

The proposed research programme addresses issues of fundamental and technological importance in quantum information science and its interplay with complexity. The main aim of this project is to provide a new paradigmatic foundation for the characterisation of quantumness in cooperative phenomena and to develop novel platforms for its practical utilisation in quantum technology applications.

To reach its main goal, this programme will target five specific objectives:
O1. Constructing a quantitative theory of quantumness in composite systems;
O2. Benchmarking genuine quantumness in information and communication protocols;
O3. Devising practical solutions for quantum-enhanced metrology in noisy conditions;
O4. Developing quantum thermal engineering for refrigerators and heat engines;
O5. Establishing a cybernetics framework for regulative phenomena in the quantum domain.

This project is deeply driven by the scientific curiosity to explore the ultimate range of applicability of quantum mechanics. Along the route to satisfying such curiosity, this project will fulfill a crucial two-fold mission. On the fundamental side, it will lead to a radically new level of understanding of quantumness, in its various manifestations, and the functional role it plays for natural and artificial complex systems traditionally confined to a classical domain of investigation. On the practical side, it will deliver novel concrete recipes for communication, sensing and cooling technologies in realistic conditions, rigorously assessing in which ways and to which extent these can be enhanced by engineering and harnessing quantumness.

Along with a skillful team which this grant will allow to assemble, benefitting from the vivid research environment at Nottingham, and mainly thanks to his creativity, broad mathematical and physical preparation and relevant inter-disciplinary expertise, the applicant is in a unique position to accomplish this timely and ambitious mission.

Work performed

In the first 18 months of the project, the PI and his team (PDRAs Dr Luis Correa, Dr Marco Cianciaruso, and Dr Ioannis Kogias; and PhD student Mr Bartosz Regula and Mr Carmine Napoli) delivered important advances on several objectives of the project. The work resulted in more than 30 international peer-reviewed publications (see list attached) including 1 Nature, 1 Nature npj Quantum Information, 1 Physical Review X, and 12 Physical Review Letters and more than 20 invited talks (see list attached).
Some of the key results obtained are listed as follows.

Objective O1:
• Accessible methods to detect and quantify quantum correlations and quantum coherence [2, 4, 6, 14, 15, 16, 22]
• General results on the monogamy of quantum correlations including steering and entanglement in multipartite systems [1, 9, 10, 12]
• Development of the resource theory of quantum coherence and its interplay with entanglement theory [14, 15, 17, 27, 30]

Objective O2
• Identification of fundamental quantum resources for secure teleportation [23]

Objective O3
• Investigation of practical schemes and resources for noisy quantum metrology [7, 11, 20]

Objective O4
• Optimal schemes for thermometry with individual quantum probes [5, 28]

Objective O5
• Elucidation of the role of quantum correlations for information-theoretic regulative processes and feedback control schemes [19, 25, 26]

Final results

The research conducted in the reporting period has reached substantially beyond the state of the art, in particular in the characterisation and applications of quantum correlations. The contributions to the resource theory of quantum coherence have been far more substantial than originally planned in the proposal, eventually resulting in the definition of the first bona fide and operational measure of quantum coherence (robustness of coherence). The insights acquired in the context of the grant have consolidated the PI’s team into a position of leading expertise in quantum correlations and coherence. This has also led to two review articles, one already published on quantum correlations [2], and another under review in Reviews of Modern Physics on quantum coherence [arXiv:1609.02439]. The research conducted so far bears a clear potential impact for the delivery of novel efficient quantum technologies exploiting quantum correlations and coherence as a resource, in particular in the context of quantum discrimination and metrology. These are expected to revolutionise information processing and communication as well as many commercial sectors in the next decade. From a more fundamental perspective, the conducted research is shedding novel light onto the quantum-classical border, which is at the core of modern physics.

Website & more info

More info: http://quantumcorrelations.weebly.com.