Chapter 2

Entanglement
What are the allowable quantum states of systems of several particles? The answer to this is enshrined in the addendum to the rst postulate of quantum mechanics: the superposition principle. In this chapter we will consider a special case, systems of two qubits. In keeping with our philosophy, we will rst approach this subject naively, without the formalism of the formal postulate. This will facilitate an intuitive understanding of the phenomenon of quantum entanglement a phenomenon which is responsible for much of the quantum weirdness that makes quantum mechanics so counter-intuitive and fascinating.

2.1

Two qubits

Now let us examine a system of two qubits. Consider the two electrons in two hydrogen atoms, each regarded as a 2-state quantum system: Since each electron can be in either of the ground or excited state, classically the two electrons are in one of four states 00, 01, 10, or 11 and represent 2 bits of classical information. By the superposition principle, the quantum state of the two electrons can be any linear combination of these four classical states: | i = 00 |00i + 01 |01i + 10 |10i + 11 |11i , P where ij C, ij |ij |2 = 1. Of course, this is just Dirac notation for the unit vector in C4 : 00 01 10 11 19

20

CHAPTER 2. ENTANGLEMENT

Measurement
As in the case of a single qubit, even though the state of two qubits is specied by four complex numbers, most of this information is not accessible by measurement. In fact, a measurement of a two qubit system can only reveal two bits of information. The probability that the outcome of the measurement is the two bit string x {0, 1}2 is |x |2 . Moreover, following the measurement the state of the two qubits is |xi. i.e. if the rst bit of x is j and the second bit k , then following the measurement, the state of the rst qubit is |j i and the state of the second is |k i. An interesting question comes up here: what if we measure just the rst qubit? What is the probability that the outcome is 0? This is simple. It is exactly the same as it would have been if we had measured both qubits: Pr {1st bit = 0} = Pr {00} + Pr {01} = |00 | 2 + |01 | 2 . Ok, but how does this partial measurement disturb the state of the system? The answer is obtained by an elegant generalization of our previous rule for obtaining the new state after a measurement. The new superposition is obtained by crossing out all those terms of | i that are inconsistent with the outcome of the measurement (i.e. those whose rst bit is 1). Of course, the sum of the squared amplitudes is no longer 1, so we must renormalize to obtain a unit vector: 00 |00i + 01 |01i |new i = q |00 |2 + |01 |2

Entanglement
Suppose the rst qubit is in the state 3/5 |0i +4/5 |1i and the second qubit is in the state 1/ / 2 |1i, then the joint state is (3/5 |0i + 2 |0i 1 of the two qubits 4/5 |1i)(1/ 2 |0i1/ 2 |1i) = 3/5 2 |00i3/5 2 |01i+4/5 2 |10i4/5 2 |11i Can every state of two qubits be decomposed in this way? Our classical intuition would suggest that the answer is obviously armative. After all each of the two qubits must be in some state |0i + |1i, and so the state of the two qubits must be the product. In fact, there are states such as 1 | + i = (|00i + |11i) which cannot be decomposed in this way as a state 2 of the rst qubit and that of the second qubit. Can you see why? Such a state is called an entangled state. When the two qubits are entangled, we cannot determine the state of each qubit separately. The state of the qubits has as much to do with the relationship of the two qubits as it does with their individual states.

2.1. TWO QUBITS

21

If the rst (resp. second) qubit of |+ i is measured then the outcome is 0 with probability 1/2 and 1 with probability 1/2. However if the outcome is 0, then a measurement of the second qubit results in 0 with certainty. This is true no matter how large the spatial separation between the two particles. The state |+ i, which is one of the Bell basis states, has a property which is even more strange and wonderful. The particular correlation between the measurement outcomes on the two qubits holds true no matter which rotated the two qubits are measured in, where |0i = basis a rotated basis | v i , v |v i + v and |1i = |v i + v . This can bee seen as, 1 + = (|00i + |11i) 2 E E 1 = |v i + v |v i + v 2 E E 1 |v i + v |v i + v 2 E 1 2 = + 2 |vv i + 2 + 2 v v 2 1 = |vv i + |v v i 2

EPR Paradox:
Everyone has heard Einsteins famous quote God does not play dice with the Universe. The quote is a summary of the following passage from Einsteins 1926 letter to Max Born: Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice. Even to the end of his life, Einstein held on to the view that quantum physics is an incomplete theory and that some day we would learn a more complete and satisfactory theory that describes nature. In what sense did Einstein consider quantum mechanics to be incomplete? To understand this better, let us imagine that we were formulating a theory that would explain the act of ipping a coin. A simple model of a coin ip is that its outcome is random heads 50% of the time, and tails 50% of the time. This model seems to be in perfect accordance with our experience with ipping a coin, but it is incomplete. A more complete theory would say that if we were able to determine the initial conditions of the coin with perfect

22

CHAPTER 2. ENTANGLEMENT

accuracy (position, momentum), then we could solve Newtons equations to determine the eventual outcome of the coin ip with certainty. The coin ip amplies our lack of knowledge about the initial conditions, and makes the outcome seem completely random. In the same way, Einstein believed that the randomness in the outcome of quantum measurements reected our lack of knowledge about additional degrees of freedom of the quantum system. Einstein sharpened this line of reasoning in a paper he wrote with Podolsky and Rosen in 1935, where they introduced the famous Bell states. Recall that 1 for Bell state (|00i + |11i), when you measure rst qubit, the second qubit 2 is determined. However, if two qubits are far apart, then the second qubit must have had a determined state in some time interval before measurement, since the speed of light is nite. By the rotational symmetry of the Bell state, which we saw earlier, this fact holds in every basis. This appears analogous to the coin ipping example. EPR therefore suggested that there is a more complete theory where God does not throw dice. Until his death in 1955, Einstein tried to formulate a more complete local hidden variable theory that would describe the predictions of quantum mechanics, but without resorting to probabilistic outcomes. But in 1964, almost three decades after the EPR paper, John Bell showed that properties of Bell (EPR) states were not merely fodder for a philosophical discussion, but had veriable consequences: local hidden variables are not the answer. He showed that there is a particular experiment that could be performed on two qubits entangled in a Bell state such no local hidden variable theory 1 could possibly match the outcome predicted by quantum mechanics. The Bell experiment has been performed to increasing accuracy, originally by Aspect, and the results have always been consistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics and inconsistent with local hidden variable theories.

2.2

Bells Thought Experiment

Bell considered the following experiment: let us assume that two particles are produced in the Bell state |+ i in a laboratory, and the y in opposite directions to two distant laboratories. Upon arrival, each of the two qubits is subject to one of two measurements. The decision about which of the two experiments is to be performed at each lab is made randomly at the last moment, so that speed of light considerations rule out information about the choice at one lab being transmitted to the other. The measurements are cleverly chosen
We will describe what we mean by a local hidden variable theory below after we start describing the actual experiment
1

2.2. BELLS THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

23

to distinguish between the predictions of quantum mechanics and any local hidden variable theory. Concretely, the experiment measures the correlation between the outcomes of the two experiments. The choice of measurements is such that any classical hidden variable theory predicts that the correlation between the two outcomes can be at most 0.75, whereas quantum mechanics predicts that the correlation is cos2 /8 0.85. Thus the experiment allows us to distinguish between the predictions of quantum mechanics and any local hidden variable theory! We now describe the experiment in more detail. The two experimenters A and B (for Alice and Bob) each receives one qubit of a Bell state |+ i, and measures it in one of two bases depending upon the value of a random bit rA and rB respectively. Denote by a and b respectively the outcomes of the measurements. We are interested in the highest achievable correlation between the two quantities rA rB and a + b(mod2). We will see below that there is a particular choice of bases for the quantum measurements made by A and B such that P [rA rB = a + b(mod2)] = cos2 /8 .85. Before we do so, let us see why no classical hidden variable theory allows a correlation of over 0.75. i.e. P [rA rB = a + b(mod2)] 0.75. We can no longer postpone a discussion about what a local hidden variable theory is. Let us do so in the context of the Bell experiment. In a local hidden variable theory, when the Bell state was created, the two particles might share an arbitrary amount of classical information, x. This information could help them coordinate their responses to any measurements they are subjected to in the future. By design, the Bell experiment selects the random bits rA an rB only after the two particles are too far apart to exchange any further information before they are measured. Thus we are in the setting, where A and B share some arbitrary classical information x, and are given as input independent, random bits xA an xB as input, and must output bits a and b respectively to maximize their chance of achieving rA rB = a + b(mod2). It can be shown that the shared information x is of no use in increasing this correlation, and indeed, the best they can do is to always output a = b = 0. This gives P [rA rB = a + b(mod2)] .75. Let us now describe the quantum measurements that achieve greater correlation. They are remarkably simple to describe: if rA = 0, then Alice measures in the standard |0i / |1i basis. if rA = 1, then Alice measures in the /4 basis (i.e. standard basis rotated by /4). if rB = 0, then Bob measures in the /8 basis.

24

CHAPTER 2. ENTANGLEMENT if rB = 1, then Bob measures in the /8 basis.

The analysis of the success probability of this experiment is also beautifully simple. We will show that in each of the four cases rA = rB = 0, etc, the success probability P [rA rB = a + b(mod2)] = cos2 /8. We rst note that if Alice and Bob measure in bases that make an angle with each other, then the chance that their measurement outcomes are the same (bit) is exactly cos2 . This follows from the rotational invariance of |+ i and the following observation: if the rst qubit is measured in the standard basis, then the outcome is outcome is an unbiased bit. Moreover the state of the second qubit is exactly equal to the outcome of the measurement |0i if the measurement outcome is 0, say. But now if the second qubit is measured in a basis rotated by , then the probability that the outcome is also 0 is exactly cos2 . Now observe that in three of the four cases, where xA xB = 0, Alice and Bob measure in bases that make an angle of /8 with each other. By our observation above, P [a + b 0 mod 2] = P [a = b] = cos2 /8. In the last case xA xB = 1, and they measure in bases that make an angle of 3 /8 with each other. So, P [a + b 0 mod 2] = P [a 6= b] = cos2 3 /8 = sin2 ( /2 3 /8) = sin2 /8. Therefore, P [a + b 1 mod 2] = 1 sin2 /8 = cos2 /8. So in each of the four cases, the chance that Alice and Bob succeed is cos2 /8 .85