Experimental test of entangled histories

Jordan Cotler; Lu Ming Duan; Pan Yu Hou; Frank Wilczek; Da Xu; Zhang Qi Yin; Chong Zu

doi:10.1016/j.aop.2017.09.004

Experimental test of entangled histories

Jordan Cotler^*, Lu Ming Duan, Pan Yu Hou, Frank Wilczek, Da Xu, Zhang Qi Yin, Chong Zu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Entangled histories arise when a system partially decoheres in such a way that its past cannot be described by a sequence of states, but rather a superposition of sequences of states. Such entangled histories have not been previously observed. We propose and demonstrate the first experimental scheme to create entangled history states of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) type. In our experiment, the polarization states of a single photon at three different times are prepared as a GHZ entangled history state. We define a GHZ functional which attains a maximum value 1 on the ideal GHZ entangled history state and is bounded above by 1∕16 for any three-time history state lacking tripartite entanglement. We have measured the GHZ functional on a state we have prepared experimentally, yielding a value of 0.656±0.005, clearly demonstrating the contribution of entangled histories.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	334-347
Number of pages	14
Journal	Annals of Physics
Volume	387
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2017.09.004
Publication status	Published - Dec 2017
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Consistent histories
Many worlds
Temporal entanglement

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10.1016/j.aop.2017.09.004

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Cotler, J., Duan, L. M., Hou, P. Y., Wilczek, F., Xu, D., Yin, Z. Q., & Zu, C. (2017). Experimental test of entangled histories. Annals of Physics, 387, 334-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2017.09.004

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abstract = "Entangled histories arise when a system partially decoheres in such a way that its past cannot be described by a sequence of states, but rather a superposition of sequences of states. Such entangled histories have not been previously observed. We propose and demonstrate the first experimental scheme to create entangled history states of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) type. In our experiment, the polarization states of a single photon at three different times are prepared as a GHZ entangled history state. We define a GHZ functional which attains a maximum value 1 on the ideal GHZ entangled history state and is bounded above by 1∕16 for any three-time history state lacking tripartite entanglement. We have measured the GHZ functional on a state we have prepared experimentally, yielding a value of 0.656±0.005, clearly demonstrating the contribution of entangled histories.",

keywords = "Consistent histories, Many worlds, Temporal entanglement",

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AU - Cotler, Jordan

AU - Duan, Lu Ming

AU - Hou, Pan Yu

AU - Wilczek, Frank

AU - Xu, Da

AU - Yin, Zhang Qi

AU - Zu, Chong

PY - 2017/12

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N2 - Entangled histories arise when a system partially decoheres in such a way that its past cannot be described by a sequence of states, but rather a superposition of sequences of states. Such entangled histories have not been previously observed. We propose and demonstrate the first experimental scheme to create entangled history states of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) type. In our experiment, the polarization states of a single photon at three different times are prepared as a GHZ entangled history state. We define a GHZ functional which attains a maximum value 1 on the ideal GHZ entangled history state and is bounded above by 1∕16 for any three-time history state lacking tripartite entanglement. We have measured the GHZ functional on a state we have prepared experimentally, yielding a value of 0.656±0.005, clearly demonstrating the contribution of entangled histories.

AB - Entangled histories arise when a system partially decoheres in such a way that its past cannot be described by a sequence of states, but rather a superposition of sequences of states. Such entangled histories have not been previously observed. We propose and demonstrate the first experimental scheme to create entangled history states of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) type. In our experiment, the polarization states of a single photon at three different times are prepared as a GHZ entangled history state. We define a GHZ functional which attains a maximum value 1 on the ideal GHZ entangled history state and is bounded above by 1∕16 for any three-time history state lacking tripartite entanglement. We have measured the GHZ functional on a state we have prepared experimentally, yielding a value of 0.656±0.005, clearly demonstrating the contribution of entangled histories.

KW - Consistent histories

KW - Many worlds

KW - Temporal entanglement

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SN - 0003-4916

VL - 387

SP - 334

EP - 347

JO - Annals of Physics

JF - Annals of Physics

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Experimental test of entangled histories

Abstract

Keywords

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