Related papers: Binary projective measurement via linear optics an…
Laser light is widely used for communication and sensing applications, so the optimal discrimination of coherent states--the quantum states of light emitted by a laser--has immense practical importance. However, quantum mechanics imposes a…
Retrieving the vast amount of information carried by a photon is an enduring challenge in quantum metrology science and quantum photonics research. The transverse spatial state of a photon is a convenient high-dimensional quantum system for…
With the example of a Stern-Gerlach measurement on a spin-1/2 atom, we show that a superposition of both paths may be observed compatibly with properties attributed to state collapse - for example, the singleness (or mutual exclusivity) of…
We consider the problem of designing a measurement to minimize the probability of a detection error when distinguishing between a collection of possibly non-orthogonal mixed quantum states. We show that if the quantum state ensemble…
Symmetric informationally complete measurements are both important building blocks in many quantum information protocols and the seminal example of a generalised, non-orthogonal, quantum measurement. In higher-dimensional systems, these…
We consider one copy of a quantum system prepared in one of two orthogonal pure states, entangled or otherwise, and distributed between any number of parties. We demonstrate that it is possible to identify which of these two states the…
A linear optical probabilistic scheme for the optimal cloning of a pair of orthogonally-polarized photons is devised, based on single- and two-photon interferences. It consists in a partial symmetrization device, realized with a modified…
Projective measurements are a powerful tool for manipulating quantum states. In particular, a set of qubits can be entangled by measurement of a joint property such as qubit parity. These joint measurements do not require a direct…
A core principle of quantum theory is that non-orthogonal quantum states cannot be perfectly distinguished with single-shot measurements. However, it is possible to exclude a subset of non-orthogonal states without error in certain…
We construct a linear optics measurement process to determine the entanglement measure, named \emph{I-concurrence}, of a set of $4 \times 4$ dimensional two-photon entangled pure states produced in the optical parametric down conversion…
Photon-number measurements are a fundamental technique for the discrimination and characterization of quantum states of light. Beyond the abilities of state-of-the-art devices, we present measurements with an array of 100 avalanche…
Quantum states and measurements exhibit wave-like --- continuous, or particle-like --- discrete, character. Hybrid discrete-continuous photonic systems are key to investigating fundamental quantum phenomena, generating superpositions of…
We discuss the uniqueness of quantum states compatible with given results for measuring a set of observables. For a given pure state, we consider two different types of uniqueness: (1) no other pure state is compatible with the same…
Strategies to optimally discriminate between quantum states are critical in quantum technologies. We present an experimental demonstration of minimum error discrimination between entangled states, encoded in the polarization of pairs of…
Probabilistic quantum state transformations can be characterized by the degree of state separation they provide. This, in turn, sets limits on the success rate of these transformations. We consider optimum state separation of two known pure…
We show that the geometric phase between any two states, including orthogonal states, can be computed and measured using the notion of projective measurement, and we show that a topological number can be extracted in the geometric phase…
We investigate quantum measurement strategies capable of discriminating two coherent states probabilistically with significantly smaller error probabilities than can be obtained using non- probabilistic state discrimination. We apply a…
Despite well-established no-go theorems on a perfect linear optical Bell state analyzer, we find a numerical trend that appears to approach a near-perfect measurement if we incorporate eight or more un-entangled ancilla photons into our…
A method for the determination of absolute quantum detection efficiency is suggested based on the measurement of photocount statistics of twin beams. The measured histograms of joint signal-idler photocount statistics allow to eliminate an…
This thesis is concerned with retrodiction and measurement in quantum optics. The latter of these two concepts is studied in particular form with a general optical multiport device, consisting of an arbitrary array of beam-splitters and…