Thomas C. Fraser’s research while affiliated with University of Waterloo and other places

A standard approach to quantifying resources is to determine which operations on the resources are freely available, and to deduce the partial order over resources that is induced by the relation of convertibility under the free operations. If the resource of interest is the nonclassicality of the correlations embodied in a quantum state, i.e., e n t a n g l e m e n t , then the common assumption is that the appropriate choice of free operations is Local Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC). We here advocate for the study of a different choice of free operations, namely, Local Operations and Shared Randomness (LOSR), and demonstrate its utility in understanding the interplay between the entanglement of states and the nonlocality of the correlations in Bell experiments. Specifically, we show that the LOSR paradigm (i) provides a resolution of the anomalies of nonlocality , wherein partially entangled states exhibit more nonlocality than maximally entangled states, (ii) entails new notions of genuine multipartite entanglement and nonlocality that are free of the pathological features of the conventional notions, and (iii) makes possible a resource-theoretic account of the self-testing of entangled states which generalizes and simplifies prior results. Along the way, we derive some fundamental results concerning the necessary and sufficient conditions for convertibility between pure entangled states under LOSR and highlight some of their consequences, such as the impossibility of catalysis for bipartite pure states. The resource-theoretic perspective also clarifies why it is neither surprising nor problematic that there are mixed entangled states which do not violate any Bell inequality. Our results motivate the study of LOSR-entanglement as a new branch of entanglement theory.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.029901

Within the field of causal inference, it is desirable to learn the structure of causal relationships holding between a system of variables from the correlations that these variables exhibit; a sub-problem of which is to certify whether or not a given causal hypothesis is compatible with the observed correlations. A particularly challenging setting for assessing causal compatibility is in the presence of partial information; i.e. when some of the variables are hidden/latent. This paper introduces the possible worlds framework as a method for deciding causal compatibility in this difficult setting. We define a graphical object called a possible worlds diagram, which compactly depicts the set of all possible observations. From this construction, we demonstrate explicitly, using several examples, how to prove causal incompatibility. In fact, we use these constructions to prove causal incompatibility where no other techniques have been able to. Moreover, we prove that the possible worlds framework can be adapted to provide a complete solution to the possibilistic causal compatibility problem. Even more, we also discuss how to exploit graphical symmetries and cross-world consistency constraints in order to implement a hierarchy of necessary compatibility tests that we prove converges to sufficiency.

A standard approach to quantifying resources is to determine which operations on the resources are freely available and to deduce the ordering relation among the resources that these operations induce. If the resource of interest is the nonclassicality of the correlations embodied in a quantum state, that is, entanglement, then it is typically presumed that the appropriate choice of free operations is local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We here argue that, in spite of the near-universal endorsement of the LOCC paradigm by the quantum information community, this is the wrong choice for one of the most prominent applications of entanglement theory, namely, the study of Bell scenarios. The nonclassicality of correlations in such scenarios, we argue, should be quantified instead by local operations and shared randomness (LOSR). We support this thesis by showing that various perverse features of the interplay between entanglement and nonlocality are merely an artifact of the use of LOCC-entanglement and that the interplay between LOSR-entanglement and nonlocality is natural and intuitive. Specifically, we show that the LOSR paradigm (i) provides a resolution of the "anomaly of nonlocality", wherein partially entangled states exhibit more nonlocality than maximally entangled states, (ii) entails a notion of genuine multipartite entanglement that is distinct from the conventional one and which is free of several of its pathological features, and (iii) makes possible a resource-theoretic account of the self-testing of entangled states which simplifies and generalizes prior results. Along the way, we derive some fundamental results concerning the necessary and sufficient conditions for convertibility between pure entangled states under LOSR and highlight some of their consequences, such as the impossibility of catalysis for bipartite pure states.

The objective of causal inference is to learn the network of causal relationships holding between a system of variables from the correlations that these variables exhibit; a sub-problem of which is to certify whether or not a given causal hypothesis is compatible with the observed correlations. A particularly challenging setting for causal inference is in the presence of partial information; i.e. when some of the variables are hidden/latent. In this present work, we introduce the possible worlds framework as a method for deciding causal compatibility in this difficult setting. We define a graphical object called an possible worlds diagram, which compactly depicts the set of all possible observations. From this construction, we demonstrate explicitly, using several examples, how to prove causal incompatibility. In fact, we use these constructions to prove causal incompatibility where no other techniques have been able to. Moreover, we prove that the possible worlds framework can be adapted to provide a complete solution to the possibilistic causal compatibility problem. Even more, we also discuss how to exploit graphical symmetries and cross-world consistency constraints in order to implement a hierarchy of necessary compatibility tests that we prove converges to sufficiency.

It has long been recognized that certain quantum correlations are incompatible with particular assumption about classical causal structure. Given a causal structure of unknown classicality, the presence of such correlations certifies the non-classical nature of the causal structure in a device independent fashion. In structures where all parties share a common resource, these non-classical correlations are also known as non-local correlations. Any constraint satisfied by all correlations which are classically compatible with a given causal structure defines a causal compatibility criterion. Such criteria were recently derived for the Triangle structure (arXiv:1609.00672) in the form of polynomial inequalities, begging the question: do any of those inequalities admit violation by quantum correlations? Numerical investigation suggests not, and we further conjecture that the set of correlations admitted by the classical Triangle structure is equivalent to the set of correlations admitted by its quantum generalization whenever the three observable variables are binary. Our main contribution in this work, however, is the derivation of new causal compatibility inequalities for the Triangle structure which do admit quantum violation. This provides the first robust-to-noise witness of quantum correlations in the Triangle structure. We conclude by considering the possibility of quantum resources potentially qualitatively different from those known previously.

It has long been recognized that certain quantum correlations are incompatible with particular assumption about classical causal structure. Given a causal structure of unknown classicality, the presence of such correlations certifies the nonclassical nature of the causal structure in a device-independent fashion. In structures where all parties share a common resource, these nonclassical correlations are also known as nonlocal correlations. Any constraint satisfied by all correlations which are classically compatible with a given causal structure defines a causal compatibility criterion. Such criteria were recently derived for the Triangle structure (E. Wolfe et al., arXiv:1609.00672) in the form of polynomial inequalities, begging the question of whether any of those inequalities admit violation by quantum correlations. Numerical investigation suggests that they do not, and we further conjecture that the set of correlations admitted by the classical Triangle structure is equivalent to the set of correlations admitted by its quantum generalization whenever the three observable variables are binary. Our main contribution in this work, however, is the derivation of new causal compatibility inequalities for the Triangle structure which do admit quantum violation. This provides a robust-to-noise witness of quantum correlations in the Triangle structure. We conclude by considering the possibility of quantum resources potentially qualitatively different from those known previously.