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We present a generic study on the information-theoretic security of multi-setting device-independent quantum key distribution protocols, i.e., ones that involve more than two measurements (or inputs) for each party to perform, and yield dichotomic results (or outputs). The approach we develop, when applied in protocols with either symmetric or asymmetric Bell experiments, yields nontrivial upper bounds on the secure key rates, along with the detection efficiencies required upon the measuring devices. The results imply that increasing the number of measurements may lower the detection efficiency required by the security criterion. The improvement, however, depends on (i) the choice of multi-setting Bell inequalities chosen to be tested in a protocol, and (ii) either a symmetric or asymmetric Bell experiment is considered. Our results serve as an advance toward the quest for evaluating security and reducing efficiency requirement of applying device-independent quantum key distribution in scenarios without heralding., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables; major changes according to comments; accepted in New journal of Physics

Given a communication system using quantum key distribution, the receiver can be seen as one who tries to guess the sender's information just as potential eavesdroppers do. The receiver-eavesdropper similarity thus implies a simple relation in terms of guessing probability and correctness of sifted keys, related with the distance-based, information-theoretic security. The tolerable regions of error rates determined by such a guessing-probability-based relation are shown to be close to those determined by security criteria. Thus, an alternative perspective on applying guessing probability in analyzing quantum key distribution issues is here provided. Examples of two specific protocols are illustrated. Our results contribute to evaluating an important element in communication study, and may provide useful reference for the security analysis of quantum key distribution protocols., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; accepted in New Journal of Physics

The quantum open-system simulation is an important category of quantum simulation. By simulating the thermalisation process at the zero temperature, we can solve the ground-state problem of quantum systems. To realise the open-system evolution on the quantum computer, we need to encode the environment using qubits. However, usually the environment is much larger than the system, i.e. numerous qubits are required if the environment is directly encoded. In this paper, we propose a way to simulate open-system dynamics by reproducing reservoir correlation functions using a minimised Hilbert space. In this way, we only need a small number of qubits to represent the environment. To simulate the $n$-th-order expansion of the time-convolutionless master equation by reproducing up to $n$-time correlation functions, the number of qubits representing the environment is $\sim \lfloor \frac{n}{2} \rfloor \log_2(N_\omega N_\beta)$. Here, $N_\omega$ is the number of frequencies in the discretised environment spectrum, and $N_\beta$ is the number of terms in the system-environment interaction. By reproducing two-time correlation functions, i.e. taking $n = 2$, we can simulate the Markovian quantum master equation. In our algorithm, the environment on the quantum computer could be even smaller than the system., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

Since the pillars of quantum theory were established, it was already noted that quantum physics may allow certain correlations defying any local realistic picture of nature, as first recognized by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen. These quantum correlations, now termed quantum nonlocality and tested by violation of Bell's inequality that consists of statistical correlations fulfilling local realism, have found loophole-free experimental confirmation. A more striking way to demonstrate the conflict exists, and can be extended to the multipartite scenario. Here we report experimental confirmation of such a striking way, the multipartite generalized Hardy's paradoxes, in which no inequality is used and the conflict is stronger than that within just two parties. The paradoxes we are considering here belong to a general framework [S.-H. Jiang \emph{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 050403 (2018)], including previously known multipartite extensions of Hardy's original paradox as special cases. The conflict shown here is stronger than in previous multipartite Hardy's paradox. Thus, the demonstration of Hardy-typed quantum nonlocality becomes sharper than ever., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, and 2 tables

For the Abner Shimony (AS) inequalities, the simplest unified forms of directions attaining the maximum quantum violation are investigated. Based on these directions, a family of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering inequalities is derived from the AS inequalities in a systematic manner. For these inequalities, the local hidden state (LHS) bounds are strictly less than the local hidden variable (LHV) bounds. This means that the EPR steering is a form of quantum nonlocality strictly weaker than Bell-nonlocality.

It is known that the linear n-setting steering inequalities introduced in Ref. [Nature Phys. 6, 845 (2010)] are very efficient inequalities in detecting steerability of the Werner states by using optimal measurement axes. Here, we construct chained steering inequalities that have improved visibility for the Werner states under a finite number of settings. Specifically, the threshold values of quantum violation of our inequalities for the n=4,6,10 settings are lower than those of the linear steering inequalities. Furthermore, for almost all generalized Werner states, the chained steering inequalities always have improved visibility in comparison with the linear steering inequalities., Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, Accepted by the International Journal of Quantum Information

It was known that a free, nonrelativistic particle in a superposition of positive momenta can, in certain cases, bear a negative probability current --- hence termed quantum backflow. Here, it is shown that more variations can be brought about for a free Dirac particle, particularly when negative-energy solutions are taken into account. Since any Dirac particle can be understood as an antiparticle that acts oppositely (and vice versa), quantum backflow is found to arise in the superposition (i) of a well-defined momentum but different signs of energies, or more remarkably (ii) of different signs of both momenta and energies. Neither of these cases has counterpart in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. A generalization by using the field-theoretic formalism is also presented and discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

The Jaynes-Cummings model is solved with the raising and lowering (shift) operators by using the matrix-diagonalizing technique. Bell nonlocality is also found present ubiquitously in the excitations states of the model., Comment: 5 pages

Here we present the most general framework for $n$-particle Hardy's paradoxes, which include Hardy's original one and Cereceda's extension as special cases. Remarkably, for any $n\ge 3$ we demonstrate that there always exist generalized paradoxes (with the success probability as high as $1/2^{n-1}$) that are stronger than the previous ones in showing the conflict of quantum mechanics with local realism. An experimental proposal to observe the stronger paradox is also presented for the case of three qubits. Furthermore, from these paradoxes we can construct the most general Hardy's inequalities, which enable us to detect Bell's nonlocality for more quantum states., Comment: 6+4 pages, 2 figures. Revised version. Accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett

We propose an improved bound for the difference between phase and bit error rate in measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with uncharacterized qubits. We show by simulations that the bound considerably increases the final key rates., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

General tradeoff relations present in nonlocal correlations of bipartite systems are studied, regardless of any specific quantum states and measuring directions. Extensions to multipartite scenarios are possible and very promising. Tsirelson's bound can be derived out in particular. The close connection with uncertainty relations is also presented and discussed., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; substantial revisions following the referee's comments; accepted in Annals of Physics

Quantum coherence as the fundamental characteristic of quantum physics, provides the valuable resource for quantum computation in exceeding the power of classical algorithms. The exploration of quantum coherence in relativistic systems is of significance from both the fundamental points of view and practical applications. We investigate the quantum coherence of two free modes of scalar and Dirac fields as detected by two relatively accelerated observers by resorting to the relative entropy of coherence. We show that the relative entropy of coherence monotonically decreases when acceleration goes up, as a consequence of the Unruh effect. Specifically, the initial states with parameters $\alpha=b$ and $\alpha=\sqrt{1-b^2}$ have the same initial relative entropy coherence at $a=0$ (with $a$ the acceleration), but degrade along two different trajectories. The relative entropy of coherence reaches vanishing value in the scalar field in the infinite acceleration limit, but non-vanishing value in the Dirac field. This suggests that in the Dirac field, the bipartite state possesses quantum coherence to some extent with the variation of the relative acceleration, and may lead to potential applications in quantum computation performed by observers in motion relatively., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt-type noncontextuality inequality and the Svetlichny inequality are derived from the Alicki-Van Ryn quantumness witness. Thus a connection between quantumness and quantum contextuality, and that between quantumness and genuine multipartite nonlocality, are established., Comment: 4 pages. Accpeted in Chin. Phys. Lett

A new theory-independent noncontextuality inequality is presented [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 110403 (2015)] based on Kochen-Specker (KS) set without imposing the assumption of determinism. By proposing novel noncontextuality inequalities, we show that such result can be generalized from KS set to the noncontextuality inequalities not only for state-independent but also for state-dependent scenario. The YO-13 ray and $n$ cycle ray are considered as examples., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Published version

Quatum nonlocality as a valuable resource is of vital importance in quantum information processing. The characterization of the resource has been extensively investigated mainly for pure states, while relatively less is know for mixed states. Here we prove the existence of the optimal GHZ paradox by using a novel and simple method to extract an optimal state that can saturate the tradeoff relation between quantum nonlocality and the state purity. In this paradox, the logical inequality which is formulated by the GHZ-typed event probabilities can be violated maximally by the optimal state for any fixed amount of purity (or mixedness). Moreover, the optimal state can be described as a standard GHZ state suffering flipped color noise. The maximal amount of noise that the optimal state can resist is 50%. We suggest our result to be a step toward deeper understanding of the role played by the AVN proof of quantum nonlocality as a useful physical resource., Comment: 6 pages. Accepted in Scientific Reports (2015)

In quantum theory, no-go theorems are important as they rule out the existence of a particular physical model under consideration. For instance, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) theorem serves as a no-go theorem for the nonexistence of local hidden variable models by presenting a full contradiction for the multipartite GHZ states. However, the elegant GHZ argument for Bell's nonlocality does not go through for bipartite Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state. Recent study on quantum nonlocality has shown that the more precise description of EPR's original scenario is "steering", i.e., the nonexistence of local hidden state models. Here, we present a simple GHZ-like contradiction for any bipartite pure entangled state, thus proving a no-go theorem for the nonexistence of local hidden state models in the EPR paradox. This also indicates that the very simple steering paradox presented here is indeed the closest form to the original spirit of the EPR paradox., Comment: 9 pages. Revised version for Scientific Reports

We present a study of quantum contextuality of three-dimensional mixed states for the Klyachko-Can-Binicio\u{g}lu-Shumovsky (KCBS) and the Kurzy\'{n}ski-Kaszlikowski (KK) noncontextuality inequalities. For any class of states whose eigenvalues are arranged in decreasing order, a universal set of measurements always exists for the KK inequality, whereas none does for the KCBS inequality. This difference can be reflected from the spectral distribution of the overall measurement matrix. Our results would facilitate the error analysis for experimental setups, and our spectral method in the paper combined with graph theory could be useful in future studies on quantum contextuality., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We present a generalized set of complex rays for a qutrit in terms of parameter $q=e^{i2\pi/k}$, a $k$-th root of unity. Remarkably, when $k=2,3$, the set reduces to two well known state-independent contextuality (SIC) sets: the Yu-Oh set and the Bengtsson-Blanchfield-Cabello set. Based on the Ramanathan-Horodecki criterion and the violation of a noncontextuality inequality, we have proven that the sets with $k=3m$ and $k=4$ are SIC, while the set with $k=5$ is not. Our generalized set of rays will theoretically enrich the study of SIC proof, and experimentally stimulate the novel application to quantum information processing., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; revised version

Quantum theory has the intriguing feature that is inconsistent with noncontextual hidden variable models, for which the outcome of a measurement does not depend on which other compatible measurements are being performed concurrently. While various proofs of such contextual behavior of quantum systems have been established, relatively little is known concerning the possibility to demonstrate this intriguing feature for indistinguishable particles. Here, we show in a simple and systematic manner that with projective measurements alone, it is possible to demonstrate quantum contextuality for such systems of arbitrary Hilbert space dimensions, including those corresponding to a qubit. Our demonstration is applicable to a single fermion as well as multiple fermions, and thus also a composite boson formed from an even number of fermions. In addition, our approach gives a clear demonstration of the intimate connection between complementarity and contextuality, two seemingly unrelated aspects of quantum theory., Comment: 9 pages, no figure; Major changes; More changes. Accepted in Scientific Reports

Hardy's paradox is of fundamental importance in quantum information theory. So far, there have been two types of its extensions into higher dimensions: in the first type the maximum probability of nonlocal events is roughly $9\%$ and remains the same as the dimension changes (dimension-independent), while in the second type the probability becomes larger as the dimension increases, reaching approximately $40\%$ in the infinite limit. Here, we (i) give an alternative proof of the first type, (ii) study the situation in which the maximum probability of nonlocal events can also be dimension-independent in the second type, and (iii) conjecture how the situation could be changed in order that (ii) still holds., Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Homogenization proposed in [Y.-C Wu and M. \.Zukowski, Phys. Rev. A 85, 022119 (2012)] is a procedure to transform a tight Bell inequality with partial correlations into a full-correlation form that is also tight. In this paper, we check the homogenizations of two families of $n$-partite Bell inequalities: the Hardy inequality and the tight Bell inequality without quantum violation. For Hardy's inequalities, their homogenizations bear stronger quantum violation for the maximally entangled state; the tight Bell inequalities without quantum violation give the boundary of quantum and supra-quantum, but their homogenizations do not have the similar properties. We find their homogenization are violated by the maximally entangled state. Numerically computation shows the the domains of quantum violation of homogenized Hardy's inequalities for the generalized GHZ states are smaller than those of Hardy's inequalities., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

We study the relation between the maximal violation of Svetlichny's inequality and the mixedness of quantum states and obtain the optimal state (i.e., maximally nonlocal mixed states, or MNMS, for each value of linear entropy) to beat the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt and the Svetlichny games. For the two-qubit and three-qubit MNMS, we showed that these states are also the most tolerant state against white noise, and thus serve as valuable quantum resources for such games. In particular, the quantum prediction of the MNMS decreases as the linear entropy increases, and then ceases to be nonlocal when the linear entropy reaches the critical points ${2}/{3}$ and ${9}/{14}$ for the two- and three-qubit cases, respectively. The MNMS are related to classical errors in experimental preparation of maximally entangled states., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; minor changes; accepted in Physical Review A

We demonstrate here that for a given mixed multi-qubit state if there are at least two observers for whom mutual Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is possible, i.e. each observer is able to steer the other qubits into two different pure states by spontaneous collapses due to von Neumann type measurements on his/her qubit, then nonexistence of local realistic models is fully equivalent to quantum entanglement (this is not so without this condition). This result leads to an enhanced version of Gisin's theorem (originally: all pure entangled states violate local realism). Local realism is violated by all mixed states with the above steering property. The new class of states allows one e.g. to perform three party secret sharing with just pairs of entangled qubits, instead of three qubit entanglements (which are currently available with low fidelity). This significantly increases the feasibility of having high performance versions of such protocols. Finally, we discuss some possible applications., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

In comparison with entanglement and Bell nonlocality, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is a newly emerged research topic and in its incipient stage. Although Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering has been explored via violations of steering inequalities both theoretically and experimentally, the known inequalities in the literatures are far from well-developed. As a result, it is not yet possible to observe Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering for some steerable mixed states. Recently, a simple approach was presented to identify Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering based on all-versus-nothing argument, offering a strong condition to witness the steerability of a family of two-qubit (pure or mixed) entangled states. In this work, we show that the all-versus-nothing proof of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering can be tested by measuring the projective probabilities. Through the bound of probabilities imposed by local-hidden-state model, the proposed test shows that steering can be detected by the all-versus-nothing argument experimentally even in the presence of imprecision and errors. Our test can be implemented in many physical systems and we discuss the possible realizations of our scheme with non-Abelian anyons and trapped ions., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by Scientific Reports

Hardy's proof is considered the simplest proof of nonlocality. Here we introduce an equally simple proof that (i) has Hardy's as a particular case, (ii) shows that the probability of nonlocal events grows with the dimension of the local systems, and (iii) is always equivalent to the violation of a tight Bell inequality., Comment: REVTeX4, 5 pages, 1 figure. Typo in Eq. (17) corrected. Ref. [5] completed

We show that Bogoliubov's quasiparticle in superfluid $^3He-B$ undergoes the Zitterbewegung, as a free relativistic Dirac's electron does. The expectation value of position, as well as spin, of the quasiparticle is obtained and compared with that of the Dirac's electron. In particular, the Zitterbewegung of Bogoliubov's quasiparticle has a frequency approximately $10^5$ lower than that of an electron, rendering a more promising experimental observation., Comment: four pages, no fig

We perform numerical tests on quantum nonlocality of two-level quantum systems (qubits) observed by a uniformly moving observer. Under a suitable momentum setting, the quantum nonlocality of two-qubit nonmaximally entangled states could be weakened drastically by the Lorentz transformation allowing for the existence of local-hidden-variable models, whereas three-qubit genuinely entangled states are robust. In particular, the generalized GHZ state remains nonlocal under arbitrary Wigner rotation and the generalized W state could admit local-hidden-variable models within a rather narrow range of parameters., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; Minor changes, accepted by PRA

Product states do not violate Bell inequalities. In this work, we investigate the quantumness of product states by violating a certain classical algebraic models. Thus even for product states, statistical predictions of quantum mechanics and classical theories do not agree. An experiment protocol is proposed to reveal the quantumness., Comment: 2 pages. A draft. A reference is corrected

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is a form of quantum nonlocality intermediate between entanglement and Bell nonlocality. Although Schr\"odinger already mooted the idea in 1935, steering still defies a complete understanding. In analogy to "all-versus-nothing" proofs of Bell nonlocality, here we present a proof of steering without inequalities rendering the detection of correlations leading to a violation of steering inequalities unnecessary. We show that, given any two-qubit entangled state, the existence of certain projective measurement by Alice so that Bob's normalized conditional states can be regarded as two different pure states provides a criterion for Alice-to-Bob steerability. A steering inequality equivalent to the all-versus-nothing proof is also obtained. Our result clearly demonstrates that there exist many quantum states which do not violate any previously known steering inequality but are indeed steerable. Our method offers advantages over the existing methods for experimentally testing steerability, and sheds new light on the asymmetric steering problem., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted in Sci. Rep

The quantum predictions for a single nonrelativistic spin-1/2 particle can be reproduced by noncontextual hidden variables. Here we show that quantum contextuality for a relativistic electron moving in a Coulomb potential naturally emerges if relativistic effects are taken into account. The contextuality can be identified through the violation of noncontextuality inequalities. We also discuss quantum contextuality for the free Dirac electron as well as the relativistic Dirac oscillator., Comment: REVTeX4, 5 pages

We investigate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering and its criticality in quantum phase transition. It is found that the EPR steerability function of the ground state of XY spin chain exhibits nonanalytic feature in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition by showing that its derivative with respect to anisotropy parameter diverges at the critical point. We then verify the universality of the critical phenomena of the EPR steerability function in the system. We also use two-qubit EPR-steering inequality to explore the relation between EPR steering and quantum phase transition., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We propose a sufficient criterion ${S}=\lambda_1+\lambda_2-(\lambda_1-\lambda_2)^2<0$ to detect Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering for arbitrary two-qubit density matrix $\rho_{AB}$. Here $\lambda_1,\lambda_2$ are respectively the minimal and the second minimal eigenvalues of $\rho^{T_B}_{AB}$, which is the partial transpose of $\rho_{AB}$. By investigating several typical two-qubit states such as the isotropic state, Bell-diagonal state, maximally entangled mixed state, etc., we show this criterion works efficiently and can make reasonable predictions for steerability. We also present a mixed state of which steerability always exists, and compare the result with the violation of steering inequalities., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure. 3 figures are added. Comments are welcome

We investigate the connection between quantum no-cloning theorem and Bell's theorem. Designing some Bell's inequalities, we show that quantum no-cloning theorem can always be certified by Bell's theorem, and this fact in turn reflects that our physical world is essentially nonlocal., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

By use of Reid's criterion and entropic criterion, we investigate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering for some entangled continuous variable wavefunctions. We find that not all of the entangled states violate Reid's EPR inequality and the entropic inequality, this in turn suggests that both criteria are not necessary and sufficient conditions to detect the EPR steering., Comment: Four pages, two figures, some references are added

Bell's inequality is established based on local realism. The violation of Bell's inequality by quantum mechanics implies either locality or realism or both are untenable. Leggett's inequality is derived based on nonlocal realism. The violation of Leggett's inequality implies that quantum mechanics is neither local realistic nor nonlocal realistic. The incompatibility of nonlocal realism and quantum mechanics has been urrently confirmed by photon experiments. In our work, we propose to test Leggett's inequality using the Aharonov-Casher effect. In our scheme, four entangled particles emitted from two sources manifest a two-qubit-typed correlation that may result in the violation of the Leggett inequality, while satisfying the no-signaling condition for spacelike separation. Our scheme is tolerant to some local inaccuracies due to the topological nature of the Aharonov-Casher phase. The experimental implementation of our scheme can be possibly realized by a calcium atomic polarization interferometer experiment., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by Scientific Reports

We derive a set of Bell-type inequalities for arbitrarily high-dimensional systems, based on the assumption of partial separability in the hybrid local-nonlocal hidden variable model. Partially entangled states would not violate the inequalities, and thus upon violation, these Bell-type inequalities are sufficient conditions to detect the full $N$-particle entanglement and validity of the hybrid local-nonlocal hidden variable description., Comment: 6 pages