Nesta tese de doutoramento nós tivemos como principal objetivo desenvolver novos métodos para proteção da informação e computação quântica. Começamos, de forma introdutória, ilustrando os conceitos básicos e fundamentais da teoria da informação e computação quântica, como os bits quânticos (qubits), o operador densidade, o emaranhamento e as operações lógicas quânticas. Na seqüência, apresentamos os formalismos utilizados para tratar sistemas abertos, ou seja, sujeitos a erros, além das principais técnicas existentes a fim de proteger a informação quântica, como os códigos de correção de erros, os subespaços livres de erros e o desacoplamento dinâmico. Finalmente, baseando-nos na técnica de desacoplamento dinâmico, introduzimos um esquema de proteção para operações lógicas quânticas e o emaranhamentos entre qubits utilizando campos de alta freqüência. Ilustramos em detalhes a proteção da operação lógica quântica de Hadamard e do emaranhamento entre dois qubits, além de apresentarmos as principais diferenças e vantagens de nosso método quando comparado às técnicas tradicionais de desacoplamento dinâmico. / The main objective of this thesis is the development of a new procedure for quantum information and computation protection. We begin by briefly illustrating the basic concepts of quantum information and computation theory, such as quantum bits (qubits), density matrix operator, entanglement, and quantum logical operations. Subsequently, we present the formalism utilized to treat quantum open systems, i.e., systems subjected to errors, and the main strategies to protect quantum information, such as quantum error correction codes, decoherence-free subspaces, and dynamical decoupling. Finally, based on the dynamical decoupling strategies, we introduce a procedure to protect quantum logical operations and entanglement utilizing high-frequency continuous fields. We illustrate, in details, the protection of a Hadamard quantum gate and of entanglement between two qubits, and present the differences and advantages of our procedure when compared with traditional techniques of dynamical decoupling.

Recentemente, uma quantidade de informação/computação quântica chamada complexidade computacional tem adquirido mais e mais importância no estudo de buracos negros.Resumidamente, complexidade mede a dificuldade de alguma tarefa. No contexto de mecânica quântica (ou mesmo para estados em uma CFT), qualquer estado tem uma complexidade associada, uma vez que o processo de preparar algum estado, usando operações unitárias, é uma tarefa por sí só. Propostas holográficas para o cálculo de complexidade tem sido desenvolvidas nos anos recentes. Há duas delas que estão mais desenvolvidas: as conjecturas complexidade=volume e complexidade=ação. No contexto da correspondência AdS/CFT é sabido que o buraco negro de Schwarzschild em AdS é dual à um estado térmico que descreve duas CFTs emaranhadas. Para esse caso em específico, a conjectura complexidade=volume iguala a complexidade do estado que descreve esse par de CFTs emaranhadas com o volume da máxima superfície de codimensão um no espaço-tempo dual. Por outro lado, a conjectura complexidade=ação iguala a complexidade da borda com a ação gravitacional calculada sobre uma região do espaço-tempo conhecida como Wheeler-DeWitt patch. O objetivo dessa tese é proporcionar os requisitos necessários para entender as conjecturas relacionadas com complexidade, monstrando alguns resultados importantes proporcionados pelos cálculos holográficos no lado gravitacional. / In recent years, a quantity from quantum information/computation called computational complexity has been acquiring more and more importance in the study of black holes. Briefly, complexity measures the hardness of some task. In the context of quantum mechanics (or even for states in a CFT), any state has an associated complexity, once the process of to preparing some state, using unitary operations, is a task by itself. Holographic proposals for the computation of complexity have been developed in recent years. There are two of them that are more developed: the complexity=volume and complexity=action conjectures. In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, it is known that the two sided AdS-Schwarzschild black hole is dual to some thermal state that describes two entangled CFTs. For this specific case, the complexity=volume conjecture equates the complexity of the state that describes this pair of entangled CFTs with the volume of the maximal codimension-one surface in the dual space-time. On the other hand, the complexity=action conjecture equates the boundary complexity with the gravitational action evaluated on a region of space-time known as the Wheeler-DeWitt patch. The goal of this thesis is to provide the necessary requisites to understand the conjectures related to complexity, showing some important results provided by holographic computations on the gravitational side.

Shik, Hoi Yin = 自旋模型中量子相變與量子糾纏的研究 / 石海燕. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-96). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Shik, Hoi Yin = Zi xuan mo xing zhong liang zi xiang bian yu liang zi jiu chan de yan jiu / Shi Haiyan.

The quantum description of light offers a unique set of optical effects that has led to promising applications beyond those described by classical physics. Although well-defined quantum states of light do not persist in typical classical environments, phenomena such as entanglement often enhance optical approaches to communication, measurement, and sensing. With the emergence of new tasks in classical and quantum optical technology, new tools are required that must be specifically engineered including the generation of quantum states. This thesis is concerned with three principle tasks in engineering and implementing entangled photonic states. First, the use of frequency anti-correlated and polarization entangled two-photon states generated during spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) to precisely evaluate optical delays with quantum interferometry is demonstrated in a realistic commercially available optical telecommunication device. Second, the study of correlated orbital angular momentum (OAM) states for efficient object identification is presented. Finally, experimental efforts towards the development of sources for entangled weak coherent states are discussed. The generation of broadband entangled states leading to well-defined second order interference patterns is a necessary step for the application of low coherence quantum interferometry as a metrological device. The flexibility of non-uniformly chirped periodically poled nonlinear crystals offers a rich set of tools for precise state engineering. The experimental evaluation of a broadband source of polarization entanglement is presented. In addition, design considerations for applications that require optimized quantum interference features are discussed along with a numerical investigation of the limits of quantum interferometry with even order dispersion cancellation. We present an experimental demonstration of correlated OAM sensing exploiting the two-dimensional and correlated nature of states produced during SPDC projected onto the OAM basis. Efficient object recognition through the identification of azimuthal symmetries of arbitrary objects is achieved by observing the full two-photon joint OAM spectrum and focusing on non-conserved OAM components not found in the natural OAM spectrum of SPDC. Finally, quantum key distribution (QKD) is currently the most successful quantum optical application; however, a limiting trade off between the achievable rates and distances confines the approach to niche applications. The generation of entangled coherent states has been proposed to transition QKD into a new regime that would set aside single photons and two-photon entangled states for higher intensity coherent pulses. The key technical limitation that has prohibited the demonstration of such states is a reliable source of single-photon cross phase modulation. The plausibility and experimental efforts towards creating such an environment in a solid state device is presented.

A compressão nas flutuações da diferença de intensidades dos feixes sinal e complementar gerados por um OPO acima do limiar foi medida já há algum tempo e constituiu um dos principais interesses nestes sistemas. Emaranhamento entre esses feixes, entretanto, ainda não foi experimentalmente demonstrado em circunstâncias normais de operação acima do limiar (feixes não-degenerados em frequência). Usando um critério de não-separabilidade entre sistemas contínuos, buscamos verificar se a variância de um par de operadores tipo EPR, a diferençaa de intensidades e a soma das fases de sinal e complementar, pode violar uma desigualdade suficiente para caracterizar emaranhamento. Após um estudo teórico, verificamos que isto pode de fato ocorrer numa região de parâmetros experimentalmente acessível. A medida não foi realizada até hoje devido à dificuldade em se medir quadratura fase, o que, neste caso, exigiria o uso de osciladores locais em frequências distintas. Motivados por isso, propomos uma montagem experimental que utiliza cavidades óticas para projetar ruído de fase em ruído de intensidade, tornando dessa forma acessível a medida de anticorrelação de fase entre sinal e complementar. Realizamos nossa proposta em caráter preliminar, obtendo resultados encorajadores, embora não conclusivos, que indicam a existência de emaranhamento. / Squeezing in the intensity difference of signal and idler beams generated by an OPO operating above threshold was observed some time ago and presented one of the major attraction of this system. Entanglement between the macroscopic fields, however, has not yet been demonstrated in normal operation conditions above threshold (non-degenerate beams). Using a non-separability criterion for continuous variables, we investigate whether the variances of a pair of EPR-like operators, difference of intensities and sum of phases of signal and idler, can violate a Bell-type inequality and hence characterize entanglement. After a theoretical study, we verified that entanglement can occur in an experimentally accessible region of parameters. This measurement was not performed to date owing to the difficulty of measuring the phase quadratures, which usually requires the use of local oscillators with slightly different frequencies. Motivated by this, we propose an experimental setup that uses optical cavities to rotate the noise ellipse of each beam, projecting phase noise into intensity noise, thus allowing the experimental access to the phase quadratures. We preliminarly implemented our proposal and obtained promising although not conclusive results, that indicate entanglement.

Desde o surgimento da mecânica quântica no início do século XX, ela vem sendo alvo de diversos estudos e suas característcas fazem com que a mesma seja descrita de forma totalmente diferente da teoria clássica. Com o aprofundamento em suas áreas, surgiram novos conceitos e a compreensão sobre a teoria da informação e computação quântica foi radicalmente mudada devido a uma propriedade básica da mecânica quântica, o emaranhamento. Assim, a popularização da ideia do computador quântico trouxe consigo uma série de pesquisas relacionadas a informação quântica e suas aplicações no mundo real. Nesta dissertação apresentamos um estudo sobre a construção de um critério de emaranhamento geral, no qual podemos aplicá-lo a quaisquer sistemas possuindo um Hamiltoniano descrito por cadeias de spins, seja ele bipartido ou multipartido. Esse critério é baseado na covariância de um observável geral que pode ou não possuir termos de interações entre os spins. Entretanto, esse critério pode ser facilmente reduzido a variância, uma vez que esta é muito mais adequada para a aplicação em sistemas físicos. Desta maneira, podemos utilizar a susceptibilidade magnética e o calor específico como testemunhas de emaranhamento para o critério, em razão da sua facilidade de medidas experimentais. / Since the advent of quantum mechanics in the early twentieth century, it has been the subject of several studies and their features cause it to be described quite differently from classical theory. With the deepening in their fields, there were new concepts and understanding about information theory and quantum computing has been radically changed due to a basic property of quantum mechanics, the entanglement. Thus, the popularization of the idea of the quantum computer has brought a lot of research related to quantum information and its applications in the real world. In this thesis we present a study about a construction of a general criterion of entanglement, in which we can apply it to any system having a Hamiltonian described by spin chains, either bipartite or multipartite. This criterion is based on general observables covariance that may or may not possess terms of interactions between spins. However, this criterion can be easily reduced to the variance, since this is more suitable for use in physical systems. In this way, we can use the magnetic susceptibility and the specific heat as witnesses of entanglement for the criterion, because of their ease of experimental measurements.

In this thesis we investigate geometric and topological structures in the context of entanglement and quantum computation. A parallel transport condition is introduced in the context of Franson interferometry based on the maximization of two-particle coincidence intensity. The dependence on correlations is investigated and it is found that the holonomy group is in general non-Abelian, but Abelian for uncorrelated systems. It is found that this framework contains a parallel transport condition developed by Levay in the case of two-qubit systems undergoing local SU(2) evolutions. Global phase factors of topological origin, resulting from cyclic local SU(2) evolution, called topological phases, are investigated in the context of multi-qubit systems. These phases originate from the topological structure of the local SU(2)-orbits and are an attribute of most entangled multi-qubit systems. The relation between topological phases and SLOCC-invariant polynomials is discussed. A general method to find the values of the topological phases in an n-qubit system is described. A non-adiabatic generalization of holonomic quantum computation is developed in which high-speed universal quantum gates can be realized by using non-Abelian geometric phases. It is shown how a set of non-adiabatic holonomic one- and two-qubit gates can be implemented by utilizing transitions in a generic three-level Λ configuration. The robustness of the proposed scheme to different sources of error is investigated through numerical simulation. It is found that the gates can be made robust to a variety of errors if the operation time of the gate can be made sufficiently short. This scheme opens up for universal holonomic quantum computation on qubits characterized by short coherence times.

For any communication, the conveyed information must be carried by some physical system. If this system is a quantum system rather than a classical one, its behavior will be governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Hence, the properties of quantum mechanics, such as superpositions and entanglement, are accessible, opening up new possibilities for transferring information. The exploration of these possibilities constitutes the field of quantum communication. The key ingredient in quantum communication is the qubit, a bit that can be in any superposition of 0 and 1, and that is carried by a quantum state. One possible physical realization of these quantum states is to use single photons. Hence, to explore the possibilities of optical quantum communication, photonic quantum states must be generated, transmitted, characterized, and detected with high precision. This thesis begins with the first of these steps: the implementation of single-photon sources generating photonic qubits. The sources are based on photon-pair generation in nonlinear crystals, and designed to be compatible with fiber optical communication systems. To ensure such a compatibility and to create a high-quality source, a theoretical analysis is made, optimizing the coupling of the photons into optical fibers. Based on the theoretical analysis, a heralded single-photon source and a two-crystal source of entangled photons-pairs are experimentally implemented. The source of entangled photons is further developed into a compact source with a narrow bandwidth compatible with standard telecommunication wavelength-division multiplexers, and even further developed to a more stable one-crystal source. The sources are to be used for quantum communication in general and quantum cryptography in particular. Specifically, a heralded single-photon source is implemented and then used for a full test of a decoy-state quantum cryptography protocol. / QC 20100914

In this thesis, motivated by modelling polymers, the topological entanglement complexity of systems of two self-avoiding polygons (2SAPs), stretched polygons and systems of self-avoiding walks (SSAWs) in a tubular sublattice of Z3 are investigated. In particular, knotting and linking probabilities are used to measure a polygonfs selfentanglement and its entanglement with other polygons respectively. For the case of 2SAPs, it is established that the homological linking probability goes to one at least as fast as 1-O(n^(-1/2)) and that the topological linking probability goes to one exponentially rapidly as n, the size of the 2SAP, goes to infinity. For the case of stretched polygons, used to model ring polymers under the influence of an external force f, it is shown that, no matter the strength or direction of the external force, the knotting probability goes to one exponentially as n, the size of the polygon, goes to infinity. Associating a two-component link to each stretched polygon, it is also proved that the topological linking probability goes to unity exponentially fast as n→∞. Furthermore, a set of entangled chains confined to a tube is modelled by a system of self- and mutually avoiding walks (SSAW). It is shown that there exists a positive number γ such that the probability that an SSAW of size n has entanglement complexity (EC), as defined in this thesis, greater than γn approaches one exponentially as n→∞. It is also established that EC of an SSAW is bounded above by a linear function of its size. Using a transfer-matrix approach, the asymptotic form of the free energy for the SSAW model is also obtained and the average edge-density for span m SSAWs is proved to approach a constant as m→∞. Hence, it is shown that EC is a ggoodh measure of entanglement complexity for dense polymer systems modelled by SSAWs, in particular, because EC increases linearly with system size, as the size of the system goes to infinity.

In this thesis, I study bipartite discord between A and B in terms of the structure formed by the bipartite and tripartite entanglement found in the purified system ABC. I find that discord manifests itself only when there is both tripartite and bipartite entanglement present in the purification. This allows one to understand the asymmetry of quantum discord, D(A|B) ≠ D(B|A) in terms of entanglement monogamy. For the cases where AB has rank two and for two-mode Gaussian states, I find that discord also necessarily appears whenever there is tripartite and bipartite entanglement in ABC. As a result of this, some light is shed on a counter-intuitive property of Gaussian states: the presence of classical correlations necessarily requires the presence of quantum discord. Finally, these results are found to be closely linked to the protocol for remote activation of entanglement by a third party.