Nicolas Brunner | LIP6 - Équipe QI

Catalytic Activation of Bell Nonlocality

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The correlations of certain entangled states can be perfectly simulated classically via a local model. Hence such states are termed Bell local, as they cannot lead to Bell inequality violation. Here, we show that Bell nonlocality can nevertheless be activated for certain Bell-local states via a catalytic process. Specifically, we present a protocol where a Bell-local state, combined with a catalyst, is transformed into a Bell-nonlocal state while the catalyst is returned exactly in its initial state. Importantly, this transformation is deterministic and based only on local operations. Moreover, this procedure is possible even when the state of the catalyst is itself Bell local, demonstrating a new form of superactivation of Bell nonlocality, as well as an interesting form of quantum catalysis. On the technical level, our main tool is a formal connection between catalytic activation and many-copy activation, which is of independent interest.

The power of quantum catalytic local operations

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A key result in entanglement theory is that the addition of a catalyst dramatically enlarges the set of possible state transformations via local operations and classical communication (LOCC). However, it remains unclear what is the interplay between classical communication and quantum catalysis. Here our aim is to disentangle the effect of the catalyst from that of classical communication. To do so, we explore a class of state transformations termed catalytic local operations (CLO) and compare it to LOCC and to stochastic LOCC augmented by bounded quantum communication. We show that these classes are incomparable and capture different facets of quantum state transformations.

Quantum nonlocality in presence of strong measurement dependence

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It is well known that the effect of quantum nonlocality, as witnessed by violation of a Bell inequality, can be observed even when relaxing the assumption of measurement independence, i.e. allowing for the source to be partially correlated with the choices of measurement settings. But what is the minimal amount of measurement independence needed for observing quantum nonlocality? Here we explore this question and consider models with strong measurement-dependent locality, where measurement choices can be perfectly determined in almost all rounds of the Bell test. Yet, we show that quantum nonlocality can still be observed in this scenario, which we conjecture is minimal within the framework we use. We also discuss potential applications in randomness amplification.

Self-testing nonlocality without entanglement

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Quantum theory allows for nonlocality without entanglement. Notably, there exist bipartite quantum measurements consisting of only product eigenstates, yet they cannot be implemented via local quantum operations and classical communication. In the present work, we show that a measurement exhibiting nonlocality without entanglement can be certified in a device-independent manner. Specifically, we consider a simple quantum network and construct a self-testing procedure. This result also demonstrates that genuine network quantum nonlocality can be obtained using only non-entangled measurements. From a more general perspective, our work establishes a connection between the effect of nonlocality without entanglement and the area of Bell nonlocality.

Semi-device-independent Certification of Causal Nonseparability with Trusted Quantum Inputs

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

While the standard formulation of quantum theory assumes a fixed background causal structure, one can relax this assumption within the so-called process matrix framework. Remarkably, some processes, termed causally nonseparable, are incompatible with a definite causal order. We explore a form of certification of causal nonseparability in a semi-device-independent scenario where the involved parties receive trusted quantum inputs, but whose operations are otherwise uncharacterised. Defining the notion of causally nonseparable distributed measurements, we show that certain causally nonseparable processes which cannot violate any causal inequality, such as the canonical example of the quantum switch, can generate noncausal correlations in such a scenario. Moreover, by further imposing some natural structure to the untrusted operations, we show that all bipartite causally nonseparable process matrices can be certified with trusted quantum inputs.

Genuine network quantum nonlocality and self-testing

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The network structure offers in principle the possibility for novel forms of quantum nonlocal correlations, that are proper to networks and cannot be traced back to standard quantum Bell nonlocality. Here we define a notion of genuine network quantum nonlocality. Our approach is operational and views standard quantum nonlocality as a resource for producing correlations in networks. We show several examples of correlations that are genuine network nonlocal, considering the so-called bilocality network of entanglement swapping. In particular, we present an example of quantum self-testing which relies on the network structure; the considered correlations are non-bilocal, but are local according to the usual definition of Bell locality.

Network Quantum Steering

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The development of large-scale quantum networks promises to bring a multitude of technological applications as well as shed light on foundational topics, such as quantum nonlocality. It is particularly interesting to consider scenarios where sources within the network are statistically independent, which leads to so-called network nonlocality, even when parties perform fixed measurements. Here we promote certain parties to be trusted and introduce the notion of network steering and network local hidden state (NLHS) models within this paradigm of independent sources. In one direction, we show how results from Bell nonlocality and quantum steering can be used to demonstrate network steering. We further show that it is a genuinely novel effect, by exhibiting unsteerable states that nevertheless demonstrate network steering, based upon entanglement swapping, yielding a form of activation. On the other hand, we provide no-go results for network steering in a large class of scenarios, by explicitly constructing NLHS models.

Device-Independent Quantification of Quantum Resources

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000