Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

A novel non-Gaussianity measure based on the Wigner relative entropy

Presenting Author: Andrew Pizzimenti, College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
Contributing Author(s): Andrew Pizzimenti, Prajit Dhara, Sijie Cheng, Zacharie Van Herstraeten, Christos Gagatsos

The enhanced phase-space characteristics of non-Gaussian states of light, albeit necessary for universal quantum computing, render their understanding and production challenging. In attempts to circumvent these difficulties, several works have introduced non-Gaussianity measures, i.e., quantities that assign a real number to states depending on their non-Gaussian content (Genoni et al., 2007, 2008). Based on the Wigner entropy (Van Herstraeten & Cerf, 2021), we introduce a new measure μ[W], which is the Wigner relative entropy between an arbitrary N-mode state and its Gaussian associate defined as μ[W]= ∫ dNq dNp W(q, p) [ln W(q, p) - lnWG(q, p)]. Here, W(q, p) and WG(q, p) are the Wigner functions of the state and its Gaussian associate respectively. Our measure can be complex-valued, and we interpret its imaginary part as the negative volume of the Wigner quasi-probability distribution, while its real part provides information on other intrinsic properties of the state. We provide evidence that μ[W] is a valid non-Gaussianity measure, demonstrate its usefulness in representing states more perceptibly, and discuss its relevance to non-Gaussian state generation.

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm)