Publication - Quantum superposition of causal structures as a universal resource for local implementation of nonlocal quantum operations

15 February 2023

Physical Review A 107, 022613 (2023). Link to publication.

Spatial separation restricts the set of locally implementable quantum operations on distributed multipartite quantum systems. We propose that indefinite causal structure arising due to quantum superposition of different space-time geometries can be used as an independent universal resource for local implementation of any quantum operation on spatially distributed quantum systems. Consequently, all such quantum tasks that are not accomplishable by local operations and classical communication (LOCC) only also become locally accomplishable. We show that exploiting indefinite causal structure as the sole resource, it is possible to perfectly teleport the state of one agent's subsystem to the other distant laboratory in such a way that the agent at the distant laboratory can have access to the whole initially shared state in his or her laboratory and can perform any global quantum operation on the joint state locally. We further find that, after the teleportation process, the resource—indefinite causal structure of the space-time does not get consumed. Hence, after implementing the desired quantum operation the state of the first agent's subsystem can be teleported back to its previous laboratory using the same resource. We show that this two-way teleportation is not always necessary for locally executing all nonlocal quantum tasks that are not realizable by LOCC only. Without invoking any kind of teleportation, we present a protocol for perfect local discrimination of the set of four Bell states that exploits indefinite causal structure as the sole resource. As immediate upshots, we present some more examples of such nonlocal tasks as local discrimination of the set of states exhibiting “quantum nonlocality without entanglement” and activation of bound entangled states that are also achievable by our proposed protocol incorporating indefinite causal structure as a resource.