Publicações

In this work, we establish a connection between nonlinear electronic spectroscopy and the protocol for the non-disturbance condition, the non-fullfilment of which is a witness of nonclassicality and can be related to the presence of coherence. Our approach permits us to express the nonclassicality witness condition in terms of common observables in the context of electronic spectroscopy experiments, such as the induced polarization. In this way, we provide the theoretical framework allowing one to infer nonclassicality from the detected signals in these experiments.

Quantum resources can improve communication complexity problems (CCPs) beyond their classical constraints. One quantum approach is to share entanglement and create correlations violating a Bell inequality, which can then assist classical communication. A second approach is to resort solely to the preparation, transmission, and measurement of a single quantum system, in other words, quantum communication. Here, we show the advantages of the latter over the former in high-dimensional Hilbert space. We focus on a family of CCPs, based on facet Bell inequalities, study the advantage of high-dimensional quantum communication, and realize such quantum communication strategies using up to ten-dimensional systems. The experiment demonstrates, for growing dimension, an increasing advantage over quantum strategies based on Bell inequality violation. For sufficiently high dimensions, quantum communication also surpasses the limitations of the postquantum Bell correlations obeying only locality in the macroscopic limit. We find that the advantages are tied to the use of measurements that are not rank-one projective, and provide an experimental semi-device-independent falsification of such measurements in Hilbert space dimension six.

We propose a resource theory of the quantum invasiveness of general quantum operations, i.e., those defined by quantum channels in Leggett-Garg scenarios. We are able to compare the resource-theoretic framework of quantum invasiveness to the resource theory of coherence. We also show that the Fisher information is a quantifier of quantum invasiveness. This result allows us to establish a direct connection between the concept of quantum invasiveness and quantum metrology, by exploring the utility of the definition of quantum invasiveness in the context of metrological protocols.

We show how the dispersive regime of the Jaynes-Cummings model may serve as a valuable tool to the study of open quantum systems. We employ it in a bottom-up approach to build an environment that preserves qubit energy and induces varied coherence dynamics. We then present the derivation of a compact expression for the qubit coherence, applied here to the case of a finite number of thermally populated modes in the environment. We also discuss how the model parameters can be adjusted to facilitate the production of short-time monotonic decay (STMD) of the qubit coherence. Our results provide a broadly applicable platform for the investigation of energy-conserving open system dynamics which is fully within the grasp of current quantum technologies.

The working substance fueling a quantum heat engine may contain coherence in its energy basis, depending on the dynamics of the engine cycle. In some models of quantum Otto heat engines, energy coherence has been associated with entropy production and quantum friction. We considered a quantum Otto heat engine operating at finite time. Coherence is generated and the working substance does not reach thermal equilibrium after interacting with the hot heat reservoir, leaving the working substance in a state with residual energy coherence. We observe an interferencelike effect between the residual coherence (after the incomplete thermalization) and the coherence generated in the subsequent finite-time stroke. We introduce analytical expressions highlighting the role of coherence and examine how this dynamical interference effect influences the engine performance. Additionally, in this scenario in which coherence is present along the cycle, we argue that the careful tuning of the cycle parameters may exploit this interference effect and make coherence acts like a dynamical quantum lubricant. To illustrate this, we numerically consider an experimentally feasible example and compare the engine performance to the performance of a similar engine where the residual coherence is completely erased, ruling out the dynamical interference effect.

Heat spontaneously flows from hot to cold in standard thermodynamics. However, the latter theory presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of heat flow for two quantum correlated spins-1/2, initially prepared in local thermal states at different effective temperatures, employing a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup. We observe a spontaneous energy flow from the cold to the hot system. This process is enabled by a trade off between correlations and entropy that we quantify with information-theoretical quantities. These results highlight the subtle interplay of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and information theory. They further provide a mechanism to control heat on the microscale.