Nonlocality activation in a photonic quantum network.

Bell nonlocality refers to correlations between two distant, entangled particles that challenge classical notions of local causality. Beyond its foundational significance, nonlocality is crucial for device-independent technologies like quantum key distribution and randomness generation. Nonlocality quickly deteriorates in the presence of noise, and restoring nonlocal correlations requires additional resources. These often come in the form of many instances of the input state and joint measurements, incurring a significant resource overhead. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that single copies of Bell-local states, incapable of violating any standard Bell inequality, can give rise to nonlocality after being embedded into a quantum network of multiple parties. We subject the initial entangled state to a quantum channel that broadcasts part of the state to two independent receivers and certify the nonlocality in the resulting network by violating a tailored Bell-like inequality. We obtain these results without making any assumptions about the prepared states, the quantum channel, or the validity of quantum theory. Our findings have fundamental implications for nonlocality and enable the practical use of nonlocal correlations in real-world applications, even in scenarios dominated by noise.

Quantum channel correction outperforming direct transmission.

Long-distance optical quantum channels are necessarily lossy, leading to errors in transmitted quantum information, entanglement degradation and, ultimately, poor protocol performance. Quantum states carrying information in the channel can be probabilistically amplified to compensate for loss, but are destroyed when amplification fails. Quantum correction of the channel itself is therefore required, but break-even performance-where arbitrary states can be better transmitted through a corrected channel than an uncorrected one-has so far remained out of reach. Here we perform distillation by heralded amplification to improve a noisy entanglement channel. We subsequently employ entanglement swapping to demonstrate that arbitrary quantum information transmission is unconditionally improved-i.e., without relying on postselection or post-processing of data-compared to the uncorrected channel. In this way, it represents realization of a genuine quantum relay. Our channel correction for single-mode quantum states will find use in quantum repeater, communication and metrology applications.

Experimental Low-Latency Device-Independent Quantum Randomness.

Applications of randomness such as private key generation and public randomness beacons require small blocks of certified random bits on demand. Device-independent quantum random number generators can produce such random bits, but existing quantum-proof protocols and loophole-free implementations suffer from high latency, requiring many hours to produce any random bits. We demonstrate device-independent quantum randomness generation from a loophole-free Bell test with a more efficient quantum-proof protocol, obtaining multiple blocks of 512 random bits with an average experiment time of less than 5 min per block and with a certified error bounded by 2^{-64}≈5.42×10^{-20}.

Conclusive Experimental Demonstration of One-Way Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is a quantum phenomenon wherein one party influences, or steers, the state of a distant party's particle beyond what could be achieved with a separable state, by making measurements on one-half of an entangled state. This type of quantum nonlocality stands out through its asymmetric setting and even allows for cases where one party can steer the other but where the reverse is not true. A series of experiments have demonstrated one-way steering in the past, but all were based on significant limiting assumptions. These consisted either of restrictions on the type of allowed measurements or of assumptions about the quantum state at hand, by mapping to a specific family of states and analyzing the ideal target state rather than the real experimental state. Here, we present the first experimental demonstration of one-way steering free of such assumptions. We achieve this using a new sufficient condition for nonsteerability and, although not required by our analysis, using a novel source of extremely high-quality photonic Werner states.

Experimentally generated randomness certified by the impossibility of superluminal signals.

From dice to modern electronic circuits, there have been many attempts to build better devices to generate random numbers. Randomness is fundamental to security and cryptographic systems and to safeguarding privacy. A key challenge with random-number generators is that it is hard to ensure that their outputs are unpredictable1-3. For a random-number generator based on a physical process, such as a noisy classical system or an elementary quantum measurement, a detailed model that describes the underlying physics is necessary to assert unpredictability. Imperfections in the model compromise the integrity of the device. However, it is possible to exploit the phenomenon of quantum non-locality with a loophole-free Bell test to build a random-number generator that can produce output that is unpredictable to any adversary that is limited only by general physical principles, such as special relativity1-11. With recent technological developments, it is now possible to carry out such a loophole-free Bell test12-14,22. Here we present certified randomness obtained from a photonic Bell experiment and extract 1,024 random bits that are uniformly distributed to within 10-12. These random bits could not have been predicted according to any physical theory that prohibits faster-than-light (superluminal) signalling and that allows independent measurement choices. To certify and quantify the randomness, we describe a protocol that is optimized for devices that are characterized by a low per-trial violation of Bell inequalities. Future random-number generators based on loophole-free Bell tests may have a role in increasing the security and trust of our cryptographic systems and infrastructure.

Heralded quantum steering over a high-loss channel.

Entanglement is the key resource for many long-range quantum information tasks, including secure communication and fundamental tests of quantum physics. These tasks require robust verification of shared entanglement, but performing it over long distances is presently technologically intractable because the loss through an optical fiber or free-space channel opens up a detection loophole. We design and experimentally demonstrate a scheme that verifies entanglement in the presence of at least 14.8 ± 0.1 dB of added loss, equivalent to approximately 80 km of telecommunication fiber. Our protocol relies on entanglement swapping to herald the presence of a photon after the lossy channel, enabling event-ready implementation of quantum steering. This result overcomes the key barrier in device-independent communication under realistic high-loss scenarios and in the realization of a quantum repeater.

Discorrelated quantum states.

The statistical properties of photons are fundamental to investigating quantum mechanical phenomena using light. In multiphoton, two-mode systems, correlations may exist between outcomes of measurements made on each mode which exhibit useful properties. Correlation in this sense can be thought of as increasing the probability of a particular outcome of a measurement on one subsystem given a measurement on a correlated subsystem. Here, we show a statistical property we call "discorrelation", in which the probability of a particular outcome of one subsystem is reduced to zero, given a measurement on a discorrelated subsystem. We show how such a state can be constructed using readily available building blocks of quantum optics, namely coherent states, single photons, beam splitters and projective measurement. We present a variety of discorrelated states, show that they are entangled, and study their sensitivity to loss.

Efficient and pure femtosecond-pulse-length source of polarization-entangled photons.

We present a source of polarization entangled photon pairs based on spontaneous parametric downconversion engineered for frequency uncorrelated telecom photon generation. Our source provides photon pairs that display, simultaneously, the key properties for high-performance quantum information and fundamental quantum science tasks. Specifically, the source provides for high heralding efficiency, high quantum state purity and high entangled state fidelity at the same time. Among different tests we apply to our source we observe almost perfect non-classical interference between photons from independent sources with a visibility of (100 ± 5)%.

Significant-Loophole-Free Test of Bell's Theorem with Entangled Photons.

Local realism is the worldview in which physical properties of objects exist independently of measurement and where physical influences cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Bell's theorem states that this worldview is incompatible with the predictions of quantum mechanics, as is expressed in Bell's inequalities. Previous experiments convincingly supported the quantum predictions. Yet, every experiment requires assumptions that provide loopholes for a local realist explanation. Here, we report a Bell test that closes the most significant of these loopholes simultaneously. Using a well-optimized source of entangled photons, rapid setting generation, and highly efficient superconducting detectors, we observe a violation of a Bell inequality with high statistical significance. The purely statistical probability of our results to occur under local realism does not exceed 3.74×10^{-31}, corresponding to an 11.5 standard deviation effect.

Strong Loophole-Free Test of Local Realism.

We present a loophole-free violation of local realism using entangled photon pairs. We ensure that all relevant events in our Bell test are spacelike separated by placing the parties far enough apart and by using fast random number generators and high-speed polarization measurements. A high-quality polarization-entangled source of photons, combined with high-efficiency, low-noise, single-photon detectors, allows us to make measurements without requiring any fair-sampling assumptions. Using a hypothesis test, we compute p values as small as 5.9×10^{-9} for our Bell violation while maintaining the spacelike separation of our events. We estimate the degree to which a local realistic system could predict our measurement choices. Accounting for this predictability, our smallest adjusted p value is 2.3×10^{-7}. We therefore reject the hypothesis that local realism governs our experiment.

Time-resolved double-slit interference pattern measurement with entangled photons.

The double-slit experiment strikingly demonstrates the wave-particle duality of quantum objects. In this famous experiment, particles pass one-by-one through a pair of slits and are detected on a distant screen. A distinct wave-like pattern emerges after many discrete particle impacts as if each particle is passing through both slits and interfering with itself. Here we present a temporally- and spatially-resolved measurement of the double-slit interference pattern using single photons. We send single photons through a birefringent double-slit apparatus and use a linear array of single-photon detectors to observe the developing interference pattern. The analysis of the buildup allows us to compare quantum mechanics and the corpuscular model, which aims to explain the mystery of single-particle interference. Finally, we send one photon from an entangled pair through our double-slit setup and show the dependence of the resulting interference pattern on the twin photon's measured state. Our results provide new insight into the dynamics of the buildup process in the double-slit experiment, and can be used as a valuable resource in quantum information applications.

Generating polarization-entangled photon pairs using cross-spliced birefringent fibers.

We demonstrate a novel polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on standard birefringent polarization-maintaining optical fiber. The source consists of two stretches of fiber spliced together with perpendicular polarization axes, and has the potential to be fully fiber-based, with all bulk optics replaced with in-fiber equivalents. By modelling the temporal walk-off in the fibers, we implement compensation necessary for the photon creation processes in the two stretches of fiber to be indistinguishable. Our source subsequently produces a high quality entangled state having (92.2 ± 0.2) % fidelity with a maximally entangled Bell state.

Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental test of consistency.

Closed timelike curves (CTCs) are trajectories in spacetime that effectively travel backwards in time: a test particle following a CTC can interact with its former self in the past. A widely accepted quantum theory of CTCs was proposed by Deutsch. Here we analyze an alternative quantum formulation of CTCs based on teleportation and postselection, and show that it is inequivalent to Deutsch's. The predictions or retrodictions of our theory can be simulated experimentally: we report the results of an experiment illustrating how in our particular theory the "grandfather paradox" is resolved.