Distributed quantum sensing of multiple phases with fewer photons.

Distributed quantum metrology has drawn intense interest as it outperforms the optimal classical counterparts in estimating multiple distributed parameters. However, most schemes so far have required entangled resources consisting of photon numbers equal to or more than the parameter numbers, which is a fairly demanding requirement as the number of nodes increases. Here, we present a distributed quantum sensing scenario in which quantum-enhanced sensitivity can be achieved with fewer photons than the number of parameters. As an experimental demonstration, using a two-photon entangled state, we estimate four phases distributed 3 km away from the central node, resulting in a 2.2 dB sensitivity enhancement from the standard quantum limit. Our results show that the Heisenberg scaling can be achieved even when using fewer photons than the number of parameters. We believe our scheme will open a pathway to perform large-scale distributed quantum sensing with currently available entangled sources.

Coherent Two-Photon LIDAR with Incoherent Light.

Coherent light detection and ranging (LIDAR) offers exceptional sensitivity and precision in measuring the distance of remote objects by employing first-order interference. However, the ranging capability of coherent LIDAR is principally constrained by the coherence time of the light source determined by the spectral bandwidth. Here, we introduce coherent two-photon LIDAR, which eliminates the range limitation of coherent LIDAR due to the coherence time. Our scheme capitalizes on the counterintuitive phenomenon of two-photon interference of thermal light, in which the second-order interference fringe remains impervious to the short coherence time of the light source determined by the spectral bandwidth. By combining this feature with transverse two-photon interference of thermal light, we demonstrate distance ranging beyond the coherence time without relying on time-domain interference fringes. Moreover, we show that our coherent two-photon LIDAR scheme is robust to turbulence and ambient noise. This work opens up novel applications of two-photon correlation in classical light.

Diminazene aceturate exacerbates renal fibrosis after unilateral ureteral obstruction in female mice.

BACKGROUND: Diminazene aceturate (DIZE), an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activator, exerts anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects in a variety of human chronic diseases. However, the role of DIZE in kidney fibrosis and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of DIZE on the progression of renal fibrosis after unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO), a well-established model of chronic kidney disease. METHODS: C57BL/6 female or male mice were subjected to right UUO. Mice received 15 mg/kg DIZE or vehicle (saline) daily. On the 7th day after UUO, kidneys were collected for analysis of renal fibrosis (α-smooth muscle actin, phosphorylated SMAD3, transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß, Masson's trichrome, and Sirius red staining), inflammation (macrophage infiltration, proinflammatory cytokines/ chemokines), apoptosis/necrotic cell death (TUNEL and periodic acid-Schiff staining), and ACE2 activity and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression. RESULTS: Treatment with DIZE exacerbated renal fibrosis by upregulating the profibrotic TGF-ß/SMAD3 pathway, proinflammatory cytokine/chemokines (interleukin [IL]-1ß, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, IL-6, and macrophage inflammatory protein-2) levels, M2 macrophage accumulation (CD206, IL-4, IL-10, and CX3CL1), and apoptotic/necrotic cell death in the obstructed kidneys of female mice but not male mice. However, DIZE treatment had no effect on ACE2 activity or mRNA expression. CONCLUSION: DIZE exacerbates UUO-induced renal fibrosis by aggravating tubular damage, apoptosis, and inflammation through independent of angiotensin (1-7), angiotensin II levels, and ACE2 expression/activity, rather than protecting against renal fibrosis after UUO. DIZE also has powerful effects on recruiting macrophages, including the M2-polarized subtype, in female UUO mice.

Heisenberg-Limited Metrology via Weak-Value Amplification without Using Entangled Resources.

Weak-value amplification (WVA) provides a way for amplified detection of a tiny physical signal at the expense of a lower detection probability. Despite this trade-off, due to its robustness against certain types of noise, WVA has advantages over conventional measurements in precision metrology. Moreover, it has been shown that WVA-based metrology can reach the Heisenberg limit using entangled resources, but preparing macroscopic entangled resources remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a novel WVA scheme based on iterative interactions, achieving the Heisenberg-limited precision scaling without resorting to entanglement. This indicates that the perceived advantages of the entanglement-assisted WVA are in fact due to iterative interactions between each particle of an entangled system and a meter, rather than coming from the entanglement itself. Our work opens a practical pathway for achieving the Heisenberg-limited WVA without using fragile and experimentally demanding entangled resources.

Dispersion cancellation in a quantum interferometer with independent single photons.

A key technique to perform proper quantum information processing is to get a high visibility quantum interference between independent single photons. One of the crucial elements that affects the quantum interference is a group velocity dispersion that occurs when single photons pass through a dispersive medium. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that an effect of group velocity dispersion on the two-photon interference can be cancelled if two independent single photons experience the same amount of pulse broadening. This dispersion cancellation effect can be applied to a multi-path linear interferometer with multiple independent single photons. As multi-path quantum interferometers are at the heart of quantum communication, photonic quantum computing, and boson sampling applications, our work should find wide applicability in quantum information science.

Observation of second-order interference beyond the coherence time with true thermal photons.

It has recently been shown that counter-intuitive Franson-like second-order interference can be observed with a pair of classically correlated pseudo thermal light beams and two separate unbalanced interferometers (UIs): the second-order interference visibility remains fixed at 1/3 even though the path length difference in each UI is increased significantly beyond the coherence length of the pseudo thermal light [Phys. Rev. Lett.119, 223603 (2017)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.119.223603]. However, as the pseudo thermal beam itself originated from a long-coherence laser (and by using a rotating ground disk), there exists the possibility of a classical theoretical model to account for second-order interference beyond the coherence time on the long coherence time of the original laser beam. In this work, we experimentally explore this counter-intuitive phenomenon with a true thermal photon source generated via quantum thermalization, i.e., obtaining a mixed state from a pure two-photon entangled state. This experiment not only demonstrates the unique second-order coherence properties of thermal light clearly but may also open up remote sensing applications based on such effects.

Universal Compressive Characterization of Quantum Dynamics.

Recent quantum technologies utilize complex multidimensional processes that govern the dynamics of quantum systems. We develop an adaptive diagonal-element-probing compression technique that feasibly characterizes any unknown quantum processes using much fewer measurements compared to conventional methods. This technique utilizes compressive projective measurements that are generalizable to an arbitrary number of subsystems. Both numerical analysis and experimental results with unitary gates demonstrate low measurement costs, of order O(d^{2}) for d-dimensional systems, and robustness against statistical noise. Our work potentially paves the way for a reliable and highly compressive characterization of general quantum devices.

Connection between BosonSampling with quantum and classical input states.

BosonSampling is a problem of sampling events according to the transition probabilities of indistinguishable photons in a linear optical network. Computational hardness of BosonSampling depends on photon-number statistics of the input light. BosonSampling with multi-photon Fock states at the input is believed to be classically intractable but there exists an efficient classical algorithm for classical input states. In this paper, we present a mathematical connection between BosonSampling with quantum and classical light inputs. Specifically, we show that the generating function of a transition probability for Fock-state BosonSampling (FBS) can be expressed as a transition probability of thermal-light inputs. The closed-form expression of a thermal-light transition probability allows all possible transition probabilities of FBS to be obtained by calculating a single matrix permanent. Moreover, the transition probability of FBS is shown to be expressed as an integral involving a Gaussian function multiplied by a Laguerre polynomial, resulting in a fast oscillating integrand. Our work sheds new light on computational hardness of FBS by identifying the mathematical connection between BosonSampling with quantum and classical light.

Generation of hyper-entangled photons in a hot atomic vapor.

A source of hyper-entangled photons plays a vital role in quantum information processing, owing to its high information capacity. In this Letter, we demonstrate a convenient method to generate polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) hyper-entangled photon pairs via spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in a hot $ ^{87}{\rm Rb} $87Rb atomic vapor. The polarization entanglement is achieved by coherently combining two SFWM paths with the aid of two beam displacers that constitute a phase self-stabilized interferometer, and OAM entanglement is realized by taking advantage of the OAM conservation condition during the SFWM process. Our hyper-entangled biphoton source possesses high brightness and high nonclassicality and may have broad applications in atom-photon-interaction-based quantum networks.

Periodic revival of frustrated two-photon creation via interference.

It has been known that suitably placed external mirrors can enhance and suppress emission of entangled photon pairs in spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), known as frustrated two-photon creation via interference. In this work, we report periodic revival of frustrated two-photon creation via interference with SPDC pumped by a continuous-wave (cw) multi-mode laser. As the mirrors are translated relative to the position of the SPDC source, the effect of frustrated two-photon creation via interference gradually dies off. However, as the mirrors are translated even further, the effect of frustrated two-photon creation via interference re-appears periodically. Our theoretical and numerical analyses show that this revival phenomenon is due to the nature of cw multi-mode pump laser. This work clearly demonstrates how the properties of the pump laser, in addition to suitably placed external mirrors, can be used to modify the process of spontaneous two-photon emission.

Publisher Correction: Direct quantum process tomography via measuring sequential weak values of incompatible observables.

In the original version of this Article, the penultimate sentence of the second paragraph of the "Schematic and theory" section of the Results originally incorrectly read as "For instance, choosing θA = π/4, 0, -π/8 and π/8 rotates the bases |0>, |1>, |+>, and |-> into |1>, thereby implementing the observableÂ=|0><0|, |1><1|, |+><+| and, respectively." In the corrected version, "|-><-|" has been added before ", respectively". This error has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Direct quantum process tomography via measuring sequential weak values of incompatible observables.

The weak value concept has enabled fundamental studies of quantum measurement and, recently, found potential applications in quantum and classical metrology. However, most weak value experiments reported to date do not require quantum mechanical descriptions, as they only exploit the classical wave nature of the physical systems. In this work, we demonstrate measurement of the sequential weak value of two incompatible observables by making use of two-photon quantum interference so that the results can only be explained quantum physically. We then demonstrate that the sequential weak value measurement can be used to perform direct quantum process tomography of a qubit channel. Our work not only demonstrates the quantum nature of weak values but also presents potential new applications of weak values in analyzing quantum channels and operations.

Second-Order Temporal Interference with Thermal Light: Interference beyond the Coherence Time.

We report the observation of a counterintuitive phenomenon in multipath correlation interferometry with thermal light. The intensity correlation between the outputs of two unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers (UMZIs) with two classically correlated beams of thermal light at the input exhibits genuine second-order interference with the visibility of 1/3. Surprisingly, the second-order interference does not degrade at all no matter how much the path length difference in each UMZI is increased beyond the coherence length of the thermal light. Moreover, the second-order interference is dependent on the difference of the UMZI phases. These results differ substantially from those of the entangled-photon Franson interferometer, which exhibits two-photon interference dependent on the sum of the UMZI phases and the interference vanishes as the path length difference in each UMZI exceeds the coherence length of the pump laser. Our work offers deeper insight into the interplay between interference and coherence in multiphoton interferometry.