The recently introduced quantum gravity-induced entanglement of masses (QGEM) protocol aims to test the quantum nature of gravity by witnessing the entanglement produced by the virtual exchange of a graviton between two spatially superposed masses. Shortly after the original proposal, further improvements upon the experiment were suggested, including the addition of a third mass, showing that three-qubit setups can be more resilient to higher rates of decoherence caused by the interaction of the system with the environment. In this work, we investigate the type of tripartite entanglement generated in these three-qubit QGEM experiments when considering the effects of decoherence. We show that the gravitational interaction between the qubits is able to generate genuine tripartite entanglement between them, studying the corresponding parameter spaces and comparing the performance of the possible experimental configurations of the three qubits at allowing for the detection of genuine entanglement via an entanglement witness.

We study the dynamics of quantum entanglement between two harmonically trapped electrons interacting via the electromagnetic force. Starting from two-mode Gaussian states at thermal equilibrium, we make use of the covariance matrix formalism in order to compute the logarithmic negativity of the evolved state as a quantitative measure of entanglement. We analyze two initial configurations: thermal single-mode and two-mode squeezed states, and describe the time evolution of entanglement in the system for different values of squeezing and temperature, while identifying the parameter regimes accessible to current and near-future single-electron trap experiments.

Entanglement is solely a quantum property and it can be extremely helpful to test the physics beyond the Standard Model in tabletop experiments with the advent of future quantum technologies. In this work, we provide an entanglement-based partial positive transpose witness for Yukawa-type potentials in the infrared regime between pairs of neutral/charged particles in a spatial quantum superposition. The entanglement is created by the interaction beyond the Standard Model such as axionlike particle or physics motivated by string theory such as extra dimensions in the context of gravity. We will study the constrained couplings in a few different models along with the decoherence rate to show what parameters can be searched for in near-future entanglement-driven experiments for the search of new physics.

We demonstrate the existence of genuine tripartite non-Gaussian entanglement in a quantum gravitational system formed by a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to a single frequency of a quantized gravitational wave. For this purpose, we introduce a new entanglement witness, well-suited for the graviton-matter interaction Hamiltonian analysed here. We show that the witness is non-zero for the three-mode states generated by the Hamiltonian when the system starts in the ground state, thus proving the generation of genuine multipartite quantum entanglement at the most fundamental level of theoretical graviton-matter interactions.

We propose an analog quantum simulation for studying the collapse and bounce of a star from infinity. In this spacetime, which encompasses both a black hole and a white hole, we place a massless scalar field that propagates at the speed of light, which is modified by the curvature. We simulate this system using an SQUID array, in which we can alter the propagation of light using an external magnetic field. We consider both infalling and outfalling radiation, giving rise to two different scenarios: downstream and upstream radiation. We compute the magnetic flux profile required by the simulation in both cases and find out that the former is more experimentally suitable.

We use digital quantum computing to simulate the creation of particles in a dynamic spacetime. We consider a system consisting of a minimally coupled massive quantum scalar field in a spacetime undergoing homogeneous and isotropic expansion, transitioning from one stationary state to another through a brief inflationary period. We simulate two vibration modes, positive and negative for a given field momentum, by devising a quantum circuit that implements the time evolution. With this circuit, we study the number of particles created after the universe expands at a given rate, both by simulating the circuit and by actual experimental implementation on IBM quantum computers, consisting of hundreds of quantum gates. We find that state-of-the-art error mitigation techniques are useful to improve the estimation of the number of particles and the fidelity of the state.

We report the digital quantum simulation of a hamiltonian involved in the generation of quantum entanglement by gravitational means. In particular, we focus on a pair of quantum harmonic oscillators, whose interaction via a quantum gravitational field generates single-mode squeezing in both modes at the same time, a non-standard process in quantum optics. We perform a boson-qubit mapping and a digital gate decomposition specific for IBM quantum devices. We use error mitigation and post-selection to achieve high-fidelity, accessing a parameter regime out of direct experimental reach.

We introduce a qubit-based version of the quantum switch, consisting of a variation of the Fermi problem. Two qubits start in a superposition state in which one qubit is excited and the other is in the ground state. However, it is not defined which is the excited qubit. Then, after some time, if a photon is detected, we know that it must have experienced an emission by one atom and then an absorption and re-emission by the other one, but the ordering of the emission events by both qubits is undefined. While it is tempting to refer to this scenario as one with indefinite causality or a superposition of causal orders, we show that there is still a precise notion of causality: the probability of excitation of each atom is totally independent of the other one when the times are short enough to prevent photon exchange.

We propose an analogue quantum simulator of a 1 + 1D spacetime containing non-causal curves, in particular null geodesics going back in time, by means of a dc-SQUID array embedded on an open superconducting transmission line. This is achieved by mimicking the spatial dependence of the metric with the propagation speed of the electromagnetic field in the simulator, which can be modulated by an external magnetic flux. We show that it is possible to simulate a spacetime region containing non-causal null geodesics, but not a full spacetime containing a chronological horizon separating regions with non-causal null geodesics and regions without them. This is in agreement with a recent suggestion of an analogue-gravity chronology protection mechanism by Barceló et al.

We propose quantum simulations of 1 + 1D radial sections of different black hole spacetimes (Schwarzschild, Reissner–Nordstrøm, Kerr and Kerr–Newman), by means of a dc-SQUID array embedded on an open transmission line. This was achieved by reproducing the spatiotemporal dependence of 1 + 1D sections of the spacetime metric with the propagation speed of the electromagnetic field in the simulator, which can be modulated by an external magnetic flux. We show that the generation of event horizons—and therefore Hawking radiation—in the simulator could be achieved for non-rotating black holes, although we discuss limitations related to fluctuations of the quantum phase. In the case of rotating black holes, it seems that the simulation of ergospheres is beyond reach.

We present results on the digital quantum simulations of beam-splitter and squeezing interactions. The bosonic hamiltonians are mapped to qubits and then digitalized in order to implement them in the IBM quantum devices. We use error mitigation and post-selection to achieve high-fidelity digital quantum simulations of single-mode and two-mode interactions, as evidenced –where possible– by full tomography of the resulting states. We achieve fidelities above 90 % in the case of single-mode squeezing with low squeezing values and ranging from 60 % to 90 % for large squeezing and in the more complex two-mode interactions.

We provide a recipe for the digitalization of linear and nonlinear quantum optics in networks of superconducting qubits. By combining digital techniques with boson-qubit mappings we address relevant problems which are typically considered in analog simulators, such as the dynamical Casimir effect or molecular force fields, including nonlinearities. In this way, the benefits of digitalization are extended in principle to a new realm of physical problems. We present preliminary examples launched in IBM Q 5 Tenerife.

Received 19 October 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.049904©2020 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasEntanglement detectionQuantum entanglementQuantum Information

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) has been a key enabling technology in exploring quantum phenomena and their applications for decades. For instance, traditional SPDC, which splits a high-energy pump photon into two lower-energy photons, is a common way to produce entangled photon pairs. Since the early realizations of SPDC, researchers have thought to generalize it to higher order, e.g., to produce entangled photon triplets. However, directly generating photon triplets through a single SPDC process has remained elusive. Here, using a flux-pumped superconducting parametric cavity, we demonstrate direct three-photon SPDC, with photon triplets generated in a single cavity mode or split between multiple modes. With strong pumping, the states can be quite bright, with flux densities exceeding 60 photons per second per hertz. The observed states are strongly non-Gaussian, which has important implications for potential applications. In the single-mode case, we observe a triangular star-shaped distribution of quadrature voltages, indicative of the long-predicted "star state." The observed state shows strong third-order correlations, as expected for a state generated by a cubic Hamiltonian. By pumping at the sum frequency of multiple modes, we observe strong three-body correlations between multiple modes, strikingly, in the absence of second-order correlations. We further analyze the third-order correlations under mode transformations by the symplectic symmetry group, showing that the observed transformation properties serve to "fingerprint" the specific cubic Hamiltonian that generates them. The observed non-Gaussian, third-order correlations represent an important step forward in quantum optics and may have a strong impact on quantum communication with microwave fields as well as continuous-variable quantum computation.

In principe, General Relativity seems to allow the existence of closed timelike curves (CTC). However, when quantum effects are considered, it is likely that their existence is prevented by some kind of chronological protection mechanism, as Hawking conjectured. Confirming or refuting the conjecture would require a full quantum theory of gravity. Meanwhile, the use of simulations could shed some light on this issue. We propose simulations of CTCs in a quantum system as well as in a classical one. In the quantum simulation, some restrictions appear that are not present in the classical setup, which could be interpreted as an analogue of a chronology protection mechanism.

We propose an experimental setup to test the effect of curved spacetime upon the extraction of entanglement from the quantum field vacuum to a pair of two-level systems. We consider two superconducting qubits coupled to a dc-SQUID array embedded into an open microwave transmission line, where an external bias can emulate a spacetime containing a traversable wormhole. We find that the amount of vacuum entanglement that can be extracted by the qubits depends on the wormhole parameters. At some distances qubits which would be in a separable state in flat spacetime would become entangled due to the analogue wormhole background.

We explore the interplay between acceleration radiation and the dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) in the field of superconducting quantum technologies, analyzing the generation of entanglement between two qubits by means of the DCE in several states of qubit motion. We show that the correlated absorption and emission of photons is crucial for entanglement, which in some cases can be linked to the notion of simultaneity in special relativity.

We analyse DCE-entanglement between two superconducting qubits in several states of qubit motion. We show that correlated absorption and emission of photons is crucial, which can be linked to the special-relativity notion of simultaneity.