ExpandQISE: Track 1: Harnessing a scalable platform to demonstrate multipartite quantum effects under strict conditions

University Of New Orleans, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

Non-technical Abstract: Quantum entanglement is a fascinating phenomenon whereby quantum particles can be separated by great distances and demonstrate correlations that go beyond what is possible with classical physics. Entanglement holds great promise to revolutionize communication in network settings where multiple separated users will someday possess and share entangled quantum particles: the "quantum internet" of the future. The objective of this project is to harness a novel experimental platform being built in Boulder, Colorado to demonstrate entangled effects such as entangled measurements and multi-party entangled states. Through a partnership with the University of New Orleans, this work will serve as a training platform to build expertise among undergraduate and graduate students, providing a critical boost to the emergence of a quantum-trained workforce capable of tackling the problems of tomorrow. Technical Abstract: This project’s approach to quantum networking is based on heralded path-entangled photonic states. Heralded entangled states generated by multiple parties can be used to create genuine multipartite entanglement through appropriate measurements and operations at a central node. Heralding avoids post-selection analysis, which becomes necessary when attempting to witness multipartite entanglement by interfering multiple sources that generate entangled particle pairs only probabilistically, such as in spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The heralded setup is thus well suited for the central scientific problem of this project: to definitively demonstrate, with minimal auxiliary assumptions, multi-party entangled effects that go beyond two-party entanglement alone, such as entangled measurements and multi-party entangled states. This project supports research on how to best measure and characterize the resulting multipartite correlations, and how to perform careful statistical analysis to test constraints whose violation indicate the presence of more sophisticated entangled states and measurements, extending methods that were developed for first generation of 2-party Bell experiments. This project is jointly funded by The Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (MPS/OMA), the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Technology Frontiers Program (TIP/TF). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.