Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Nonlinear squeezing of superpositions of quadrature eigenstates

Vojtěch Kuchař and Petr Marek

  • Department of Optics, Palacký University, 17. listopadu 1192/12, 779 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic

Phys. Rev. A 112, 053706 – Published 7 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nlkq-2r7l

Abstract

We introduce a family of operators exploiting the symmetry of superpositions of quadrature eigenstates (SQEs) and demonstrate how the associated nonlinear squeezing, quantified by the expectation value of such operators, serves both as a witness of non-Gaussianity and as an indicator of the quality of SQE approximations. To establish the usefulness of this measure, we connect it to quantum state fidelity and evaluate its implications in breeding protocols. Finally, we construct optimal approximations of SQE states in truncated Fock spaces.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (74)

  1. M. A. Nielsen and I. L. Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012).
  2. W. Asavanant and A. Furusawa, Optical Quantum Computers: A Route to Practical Continuous Variable Quantum Information Processing (AIP, Melville, NY, 2022).
  3. J. E. Bourassa, R. N. Alexander, M. Vasmer, A. Patil, I. Tzitrin, T. Matsuura, D. Su, B. Q. Baragiola, S. Guha, G. Dauphinais, K. K. Sabapathy, N. C. Menicucci, and I. Dhand, Blueprint for a scalable photonic fault-tolerant quantum computer, Quantum 5, 392 (2021).
  4. M. V. Larsen, C. Chamberland, K. Noh, J. S. Neergaard-Nielsen, and U. L. Andersen, Fault-tolerant continuous-variable measurement-based quantum computation architecture, PRX Quantum 2, 030325 (2021).
  5. M. Gu, C. Weedbrook, N. C. Menicucci, T. C. Ralph, and P. van Loock, Quantum computing with continuous-variable clusters, Phys. Rev. A 79, 062318 (2009).
  6. E. E. B. Østergaard, N. Budinger, M. V. Larsen, P. van Loock, J. S. Neergaard-Nielsen, and U. L. Andersen, The octo-rail lattice: A four-dimensional cluster state design, arXiv:2502.19393.
  7. W. Asavanant, K. Fukui, A. Sakaguchi, and A. Furusawa, Switching-free time-domain optical quantum computation with quantum teleportation, Phys. Rev. A 107, 032412 (2023).
  8. Q. Zhuang, Z. Zhang, and J. H. Shapiro, Distributed quantum sensing using continuous-variable multipartite entanglement, Phys. Rev. A 97, 032329 (2018).
  9. X. Guo, C. R. Breum, J. Borregaard, S. Izumi, M. V. Larsen, T. Gehring, M. Christandl, J. S. Neergaard-Nielsen, and U. L. Andersen, Distributed quantum sensing in a continuous-variable entangled network, Nat. Phys. 16, 281 (2020).
  10. E. Polino, M. Valeri, N. Spagnolo, and F. Sciarrino, Photonic quantum metrology, AVS Quantum Sci. 2, 024703 (2020).
  11. S. Braunstein and P. van Loock, Quantum information with continuous variables, Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 513 (2005).
  12. C. Weedbrook, S. Pirandola, R. García-Patrón, N. J. Cerf, T. C. Ralph, J. H. Shapiro, and S. Lloyd, Gaussian quantum information, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 621 (2012).
  13. P. Jouguet, S. Kunz-Jacques, A. Leverrier, P. Grangier, and E. Diamanti, Experimental demonstration of long-distance continuous-variable quantum key distribution, Nat. Photon. 7, 378 (2013).
  14. A. A. E. Hajomer, I. Derkach, N. Jain, H.-M. Chin, U. L. Andersen, and T. Gehring, Long-distance continuous-variable quantum key distribution over 100-km fiber with local local oscillator, Sci. Adv. 10, eadi9474 (2024).
  15. Quantum State Estimation, edited by M. Paris and J. Rehácek, Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 649 (Springer, Berlin, 2004).
  16. L. Aolita, C. Gogolin, M. Kliesch, and J. Eisert, Reliable quantum certification of photonic state preparations, Nat. Commun. 6, 8498 (2015).
  17. U. Chabaud, G. Roeland, M. Walschaers, F. Grosshans, V. Parigi, D. Markham, and N. Treps, Certification of non-Gaussian states with operational measurements, PRX Quantum 2, 020333 (2021).
  18. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, A gravitational wave observatory operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit, Nat. Phys. 7, 962 (2011).
  19. L. Maccone and A. Riccardi, Squeezing metrology: A unified framework, Quantum 4, 292 (2020).
  20. A. Furusawa, J. L. Sørensen, S. L. Braunstein, C. A. Fuchs, H. J. Kimble, and E. S. Polzik, Unconditional quantum teleportation, Science 282, 706 (1998).
  21. J. Fiurášek, Gaussian transformations and distillation of entangled Gaussian states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 137904 (2002).
  22. H. Yonezawa and A. Furusawa, Continuous-variable quantum information processing with squeezed states of light, Opt. Spectrosc. 108, 288 (2010).
  23. J. Hastrup, K. Park, J. B. Brask, R. Filip, and U. L. Andersen, Measurement-free preparation of grid states, npj Quantum Inf. 7, 17 (2021).
  24. N. C. Menicucci, P. van Loock, M. Gu, C. Weedbrook, T. C. Ralph, and M. A. Nielsen, Universal quantum computation with continuous-variable cluster states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 110501 (2006).
  25. S. Yokoyama, R. Ukai, S. C. Armstrong, C. Sornphiphatphong, T. Kaji, S. Suzuki, J.-i. Yoshikawa, H. Yonezawa, N. C. Menicucci, and A. Furusawa, Ultra-large-scale continuous-variable cluster states multiplexed in the time domain, Nat. Photon. 7, 982 (2013).
  26. J. Niset, J. Fiurášek, and N. J. Cerf, No-go theorem for Gaussian quantum error correction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 120501 (2009).
  27. D. Gottesman, A. Kitaev, and J. Preskill, Encoding a qubit in an oscillator, Phys. Rev. A 64, 012310 (2001).
  28. A. L. Grimsmo, J. Combes, and B. Q. Baragiola, Quantum computing with rotation-symmetric bosonic codes, Phys. Rev. X 10, 011058 (2020).
  29. D. S. Schlegel, F. Minganti, and V. Savona, Quantum error correction using squeezed Schrödinger cat states, Phys. Rev. A 106, 022431 (2022).
  30. A. Joshi, K. Noh, and Y. Y. Gao, Quantum information processing with bosonic qubits in circuit QED, Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 033001 (2021).
  31. B. W. Walshe, B. Q. Baragiola, R. N. Alexander, and N. C. Menicucci, Continuous-variable gate teleportation and bosonic-code error correction, Phys. Rev. A 102, 062411 (2020).
  32. J. Hastrup, M. V. Larsen, J. S. Neergaard-Nielsen, N. C. Menicucci, and U. L. Andersen, Unsuitability of cubic phase gates for non-Clifford operations on Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states, Phys. Rev. A 103, 032409 (2021).
  33. S. Konno, W. Asavanant, K. Fukui, A. Sakaguchi, F. Hanamura, P. Marek, R. Filip, J. I. Yoshikawa, and A. Furusawa, Non-Clifford gate on optical qubits by nonlinear feedforward, Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 043026 (2021).
  34. J. Guillaud and M. Mirrahimi, Repetition cat qubits for fault-tolerant quantum computation, Phys. Rev. X 9, 041053 (2019).
  35. J. Hastrup and U. L. Andersen, All-optical cat-code quantum error correction, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 043065 (2022).
  36. F.-M. L. Régent, C. Berdou, Z. Leghtas, J. Guillaud, and M. Mirrahimi, High-performance repetition cat code using fast noisy operations, Quantum 7, 1198 (2023).
  37. J. Joo, W. J. Munro, and T. P. Spiller, Quantum metrology with entangled coherent states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 083601 (2011).
  38. A. Luis, Equivalence between macroscopic quantum superpositions and maximally entangled states: Application to phase-shift detection, Phys. Rev. A 64, 054102 (2001).
  39. H. M. Vasconcelos, L. Sanz, and S. Glancy, All-optical generation of states for “encoding a qubit in an oscillator”, Opt. Lett. 35, 3261 (2010).
  40. D. J. Weigand and B. M. Terhal, Generating grid states from Schrödinger-cat states without postselection, Phys. Rev. A 97, 022341 (2018).
  41. J. Hastrup and U. L. Andersen, Protocol for generating optical Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states with cavity QED, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 170503 (2022).
  42. A. Ourjoumtsev, H. Jeong, R. Tualle-Brouri, and P. Grangier, Generation of optical ‘Schrödinger cats’ from photon number states, Nature (London) 448, 784 (2007).
  43. K. Huang, H. Le Jeannic, J. Ruaudel, V. B. Verma, M. D. Shaw, F. Marsili, S. W. Nam, E. Wu, H. Zeng, Y.-C. Jeong, R. Filip, O. Morin, and J. Laurat, Optical synthesis of large-amplitude squeezed coherent-state superpositions with minimal resources, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 023602 (2015).
  44. J. Etesse, M. Bouillard, B. Kanseri, and R. Tualle-Brouri, Experimental generation of squeezed cat states with an operation allowing iterative growth, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 193602 (2015).
  45. D. V. Sychev, A. E. Ulanov, A. A. Pushkina, M. W. Richards, I. A. Fedorov, and A. I. Lvovsky, Enlargement of optical Schrödinger's cat states, Nat. Photon. 11, 379 (2017).
  46. V. Cotte, H. Simon, B. Pointard, and R. Tualle-Brouri, Experimental generation of coherent-state superpositions with a quantum memory, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 043170 (2022).
  47. M. Wang, M. Zhang, Z. Qin, Q. Zhang, L. Zeng, X. Su, C. Xie, and K. Peng, Experimental preparation and manipulation of squeezed cat states via an all-optical in-line squeezer, Laser Photon. Rev. 16, 2200336 (2022).
  48. Z. Bao, Z. Wang, Y. Wu, Y. Li, W. Cai, W. Wang, Y. Ma, T. Cai, X. Han, J. Wang, Y. Song, L. Sun, H. Zhang, and L. Duan, Experimental preparation of generalized cat states for itinerant microwave photons, Phys. Rev. A 105, 063717 (2022).
  49. R. Jozsa, Fidelity for mixed quantum states, J. Mod. Opt. 41, 2315 (1994).
  50. X. Wang, T. Hiroshima, A. Tomita, and M. Hayashi, Quantum information with Gaussian states, Phys. Rep. 448, 1 (2007).
  51. W. H. Zurek, Sub-planck structure in phase space and its relevance for quantum decoherence, Nature (London) 412, 712 (2001).
  52. M. Walschaers, Non-Gaussian quantum states and where to find them, PRX Quantum 2, 030204 (2021).
  53. K. Miyata, H. Ogawa, P. Marek, R. Filip, H. Yonezawa, J. I. Yoshikawa, and A. Furusawa, Implementation of a quantum cubic gate by an adaptive non-Gaussian measurement, Phys. Rev. A 93, 022301 (2016).
  54. Š. Bräuer, T. Opatrný, and P. Marek, Generalized squeezing as a witness, Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 033176 (2025).
  55. S. Konno, A. Sakaguchi, W. Asavanant, H. Ogawa, M. Kobayashi, P. Marek, R. Filip, J. I. Yoshikawa, and A. Furusawa, Nonlinear squeezing for measurement-based non-Gaussian operations in time domain, Phys. Rev. Appl. 15, 024024 (2021).
  56. V. Kala, R. Filip, and P. Marek, Cubic nonlinear squeezing and its decoherence, Opt. Express 30, 31456 (2022).
  57. P. Marek, R. Filip, H. Ogawa, A. Sakaguchi, S. Takeda, J. I. Yoshikawa, and A. Furusawa, General implementation of arbitrary nonlinear quadrature phase gates, Phys. Rev. A 97, 022329 (2018).
  58. Š. Bräuer and P. Marek, Generation of quantum states with nonlinear squeezing by Kerr nonlinearity, Opt. Express 29, 22648 (2021).
  59. V. Kala, J. Fadrný, M. Neset, J. Bílek, P. Marek, and M. Ježek, Genuine continuous quantumness, arXiv:2503.07574.
  60. P. Marek, Ground state nature and nonlinear squeezing of Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 210601 (2024).
  61. H. Aghaee Rad, T. Ainsworth, R. N. Alexander, B. Altieri, M. F. Askarani, R. Baby, L. Banchi, B. Q. Baragiola, J. E. Bourassa et al., Scaling and networking a modular photonic quantum computer, Nature (London) 638, 912 (2025).
  62. M. Endo, R. He, T. Sonoyama, K. Takahashi, T. Kashiwazaki, T. Umeki, S. Takasu, K. Hattori, D. Fukuda, K. Fukui, K. Takase, W. Asavanant, P. Marek, R. Filip, and A. Furusawa, Non-Gaussian quantum state generation by multi-photon subtraction at the telecommunication wavelength, Opt. Express 31, 12865 (2023).
  63. S. Konno, W. Asavanant, F. Hanamura, H. Nagayoshi, K. Fukui, A. Sakaguchi, R. Ide, F. China, M. Yabuno, S. Miki, H. Terai, K. Takase, M. Endo, P. Marek, R. Filip, P. Van Loock, and A. Furusawa, Logical states for fault-tolerant quantum computation with propagating light, Science 383, 289 (2024).
  64. Š. Bräuer, J. Provazník, V. Kala, and P. Marek, Catability as a metric for evaluating superposed coherent states, arXiv:2505.19723.
  65. R. Filip, P. Marek, and U. L. Andersen, Measurement-induced continuous-variable quantum interactions, Phys. Rev. A 71, 042308 (2005).
  66. M. Dakna, T. Anhut, T. Opatrný, L. Knöll, and D.-G. Welsch, Generating Schrödinger-cat-like states by means of conditional measurements on a beam splitter, Phys. Rev. A 55, 3184 (1997).
  67. J. Provazník, R. Filip, and P. Marek, Taming numerical errors in simulations of continuous variable non-Gaussian state preparation, Sci. Rep. 12, 16574 (2022).
  68. A. Jahan, K. L. Edwards, and M. Bahraminasab, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: for Supporting the Selection of Engineering Materials in Product Design, 2nd ed. (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 2016).
  69. K. Deb, A. Pratap, S. Agarwal, and T. Meyarivan, A fast and elitist multiobjective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II, IEEE Transact. Evolution. Comput. 6, 182 (2002).
  70. J. Blank and K. Deb, Pymoo: Multi-objective optimization in python, IEEE Access 8, 89497 (2020).
  71. V. Kuchař, GitHub - kuchar-one/fopaff—github.Com, https://github.com/kuchar-one/fopaff.
  72. L. García-Álvarez, A. Ferraro, and G. Ferrini, From the Bloch sphere to phase-space representations with the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill encoding, in International Symposium on Mathematics, Quantum Theory, and Cryptography, Mathematics for Industry, edited by T. Takagi, M. Wakayama, K. Tanaka, N. Kunihiro, K. Kimoto, and Y. Ikematsu (Springer, Singapore, 2021), Vol. 33, pp. 79–92.
  73. U. Chabaud, D. Markham, and F. Grosshans, Stellar representation of non-Gaussian quantum states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 063605 (2020).
  74. V. Kuchař and P. Marek, Data for “Nonlinear squeezing of superpositions of quadrature eigenstates” [Data set], Zenodo (2025), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15704165.

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation