Work Extraction Processes from Noisy Quantum Batteries: The Role of Nonlocal Resources.

We demonstrate an asymmetry between the beneficial effects one can obtain using nonlocal operations and nonlocal states to mitigate the detrimental effects of environmental noise in the work extraction process from quantum battery models. Specifically, we show that using nonlocal recovery operations after the noise action can, in general, increase the amount of work one can recover from the battery even with separable (i.e.

Restoring Quantum Communication Efficiency over High Loss Optical Fibers.

In the absence of quantum repeaters, quantum communication proved to be nearly impossible across optical fibers longer than ≳20  km due to the drop of transmissivity below the critical threshold of 1/2. However, if the signals fed into the fiber are separated by a sufficiently short time interval, memory effects must be taken into account. In this Letter, we show that by properly accounting for these effects it is possible to devise schemes that enable unassisted quantum communication across arbitrarily long optical fibers at a fixed positive qubit transmission rate.

Quantum Energy Lines and the Optimal Output Ergotropy Problem.

We study the transferring of useful energy (work) along a transmission line that allows for partial preservation of quantum coherence. As a figure of merit we adopt the maximum values that ergotropy, total ergotropy, and nonequilibrium free energy attain at the output of the line for an assigned input energy threshold. For phase-invariant bosonic Gaussian channel (BGC) models, we show that coherent inputs are optimal.

Estimating Quantum and Private Capacities of Gaussian Channels via Degradable Extensions.

We present upper bounds on the quantum and private capacity of single-mode, phase-insensitive bosonic Gaussian channels based on degradable extensions. Our findings are state of the art in the following parameter regions: low temperature and high transmissivity for the thermal attenuator, low temperature for additive Gaussian noise, high temperature and intermediate amplification for the thermal amplifier.

Bosonic Quantum Communication across Arbitrarily High Loss Channels.

A general attenuator Φ_{λ,σ} is a bosonic quantum channel that acts by combining the input with a fixed environment state σ in a beam splitter of transmissivity λ. If σ is a thermal state, the resulting channel is a thermal attenuator, whose quantum capacity vanishes for λ≤1/2. We study the quantum capacity of these objects for generic σ, proving a number of unexpected results.

Quantum Flags and New Bounds on the Quantum Capacity of the Depolarizing Channel.

A new upper bound for the quantum capacity of the d-dimensional depolarizing channels is presented. Our derivation makes use of a flagged extension of the map where the receiver obtains a copy of a state σ_{0} whenever the messages are transmitted without errors, and a copy of a state σ_{1}, when instead the original state gets fully depolarized. By varying the overlap between the flag states, the resulting transformation nicely interpolates between the depolarizing map (when σ_{0}=σ_{1}), and the d-dimensional erasure channel (when σ_{0} and σ_{1} have orthogonal support).

Geometric Phase through Spatial Potential Engineering.

We propose a spatial analog of the Berry's phase mechanism for the coherent manipulation of states of nonrelativistic massive particles moving in a two-dimensional landscape. In our construction the temporal modulation of the system Hamiltonian is replaced by a modulation of the confining potential along the transverse direction of the particle propagation. By properly tuning the model parameters the resulting scattering input-output relations exhibit a Wilczek-Zee non-Abelian phase shift contribution that is intrinsically geometrical, hence insensitive to the specific details of the potential landscape.

Author Correction: All-optical implementation of collision-based evolutions of open quantum systems.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Two-parameter Hong-Ou-Mandel dip.

A modification of the standard Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer is proposed which allows one to replicate the celebrated coincidence dip in the case of two-independent delay parameters. In the ideal case where such delays are sufficiently stable with respect to the mean wavelength of the pump source, properly symmetrized input bi-photon states allow one to pinpoint their values through the identification of a zero in the coincidence counts, a feature that cannot be simulated by semiclassical inputs having the same spectral properties. Besides, in the presence of fluctuating parameters the zero in the coincidences is washed away: still the bi-photon state permits to recover the values of parameters with a visibility which is higher than the one allowed by semiclassical sources.

Optimal Probabilistic Work Extraction beyond the Free Energy Difference with a Single-Electron Device.

We experimentally realize protocols that allow us to extract work beyond the free energy difference from a single-electron transistor at the single thermodynamic trajectory level. With two carefully designed out-of-equilibrium driving cycles featuring kicks of the control parameter, we demonstrate work extraction up to large fractions of k_{B}T or with probabilities substantially greater than 1/2, despite the zero free energy difference over the cycle. Our results are explained in the framework of nonequilibrium fluctuation relations.

All-optical implementation of collision-based evolutions of open quantum systems.

We present a new optical scheme enabling the implementation of highly stable and configurable non-Markovian dynamics. Here one photon qubit can circulate in a multipass bulk geometry consisting of two concatenated Sagnac interferometers to simulate the so called collisional model, where the system interacts at discrete times with a vacuum environment. We show the optical features of our apparatus and three different implementations of it, replicating a pure Markovian scenario and two non-Markovian ones, where we quantify the information backflow by tracking the evolution of the initial entanglement between the system photon and an ancillary one.

Extractable Work, the Role of Correlations, and Asymptotic Freedom in Quantum Batteries.

We investigate a quantum battery made of N two-level systems, which is charged by an optical mode via an energy-conserving interaction. We quantify the fraction of energy stored in the battery that can be extracted in order to perform thermodynamic work. We first demonstrate that this quantity is highly reduced by the presence of correlations between the charger and the battery or between the subsystems composing the battery.

Author Correction: Narrow bounds for the quantum capacity of thermal attenuators.

The original version of this Article contained an error in Equation (40). The numerator of the fraction inside the logarithm was missing an overall minus sign. This has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Geometrical Bounds on Irreversibility in Open Quantum Systems.

The Clausius inequality has deep implications for reversibility and the arrow of time. Quantum theory is able to extend this result for closed systems by inspecting the trajectory of the density matrix on its manifold. Here we show that this approach can provide an upper and lower bound to the irreversible entropy production for open quantum systems as well.

Narrow bounds for the quantum capacity of thermal attenuators.

Thermal attenuator channels model the decoherence of quantum systems interacting with a thermal bath, e.g., a two-level system subject to thermal noise and an electromagnetic signal traveling through a fiber or in free-space.

Erratum: Optimal Continuous Variable Quantum Teleportation with Limited Resources [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 120503 (2017)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.

Optimal Continuous Variable Quantum Teleportation with Limited Resources.

Given a certain amount of entanglement available as a resource, what is the most efficient way to accomplish a quantum task? We address this question in the relevant case of continuous variable quantum teleportation protocols implemented using two-mode Gaussian states with a limited degree of entanglement and energy. We first characterize the class of single-mode phase-insensitive Gaussian channels that can be simulated via a Braunstein-Kimble protocol with nonunit gain and minimum shared entanglement, showing that infinite energy is not necessary apart from the special case of the quantum limited attenuator. We also find that apart from the identity, all phase-insensitive Gaussian channels can be simulated through a two-mode squeezed state with finite energy, albeit with a larger entanglement.

Slow Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Open Quantum Systems.

We develop a perturbation theory of quantum (and classical) master equations with slowly varying parameters, applicable to systems which are externally controlled on a time scale much longer than their characteristic relaxation time. We apply this technique to the analysis of finite-time isothermal processes in which, differently from quasistatic transformations, the state of the system is not able to continuously relax to the equilibrium ensemble. Our approach allows one to formally evaluate perturbations up to arbitrary order to the work and heat exchange associated with an arbitrary process.

Gaussian States Minimize the Output Entropy of One-Mode Quantum Gaussian Channels.

We prove the long-standing conjecture stating that Gaussian thermal input states minimize the output von Neumann entropy of one-mode phase-covariant quantum Gaussian channels among all the input states with a given entropy. Phase-covariant quantum Gaussian channels model the attenuation and the noise that affect any electromagnetic signal in the quantum regime. Our result is crucial to prove the converse theorems for both the triple trade-off region and the capacity region for broadcast communication of the Gaussian quantum-limited amplifier.

Modulated phases of graphene quantum Hall polariton fluids.

There is a growing experimental interest in coupling cavity photons to the cyclotron resonance excitations of electron liquids in high-mobility semiconductor quantum wells or graphene sheets. These media offer unique platforms to carry out fundamental studies of exciton-polariton condensation and cavity quantum electrodynamics in a regime, in which electron-electron interactions are expected to play a pivotal role. Here, focusing on graphene, we present a theoretical study of the impact of electron-electron interactions on a quantum Hall polariton fluid, that is a fluid of magneto-excitons resonantly coupled to cavity photons.

Local quantum thermal susceptibility.

Thermodynamics relies on the possibility to describe systems composed of a large number of constituents in terms of few macroscopic variables. Its foundations are rooted into the paradigm of statistical mechanics, where thermal properties originate from averaging procedures which smoothen out local details. While undoubtedly successful, elegant and formally correct, this approach carries over an operational problem, namely determining the precision at which such variables are inferred, when technical/practical limitations restrict our capabilities to local probing.

Optimal processes for probabilistic work extraction beyond the second law.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, for every transformation performed on a system which is in contact with an environment of fixed temperature, the average extracted work is bounded by the decrease of the free energy of the system. However, in a single realization of a generic process, the extracted work is subject to statistical fluctuations which may allow for probabilistic violations of the previous bound. We are interested in enhancing this effect, i.

Experiments testing macroscopic quantum superpositions must be slow.

We consider a thought experiment where the preparation of a macroscopically massive or charged particle in a quantum superposition and the associated dynamics of a distant test particle apparently allow for superluminal communication. We give a solution to the paradox which is based on the following fundamental principle: any local experiment, discriminating a coherent superposition from an incoherent statistical mixture, necessarily requires a minimum time proportional to the mass (or charge) of the system. For a charged particle, we consider two examples of such experiments, and show that they are both consistent with the previous limitation.

Necessity of Eigenstate Thermalization.

Under the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), quantum-quenched systems equilibrate towards canonical, thermal ensembles. While at first glance the ETH might seem a very strong hypothesis, we show that it is indeed not only sufficient but also necessary for thermalization. More specifically, we consider systems coupled to baths with well-defined macroscopic temperature and show that whenever all product states thermalize then the ETH must hold.