Indefinite Causal Order in a Quantum Switch.

Publisher:
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Citation:
Phys Rev Lett, 2018, 121, (9), pp. 090503
Issue Date:
2018-08-31
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Quantum mechanics allows events to happen with no definite causal order: this can be verified by measuring a causal witness, in the same way that an entanglement witness verifies entanglement. Here, we realize a photonic quantum switch, where two operations A[over ^] and B[over ^] act in a quantum superposition of their two possible orders. The operations are on the transverse spatial mode of the photons; polarization coherently controls their order. Our implementation ensures that the operations cannot be distinguished by spatial or temporal position-further it allows qudit encoding in the target. We confirm our quantum switch has no definite causal order by constructing a causal witness and measuring its value to be 18 standard deviations beyond the definite-order bound.
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