Continuous-variable entanglement distillation over a pure loss channel with multiple quantum scissors

Abstract

Entanglement distillation is a key primitive for distributing high-quality entanglement between remote locations. Probabilistic noiseless linear amplification based on the quantum scissors is a candidate for entanglement distillation from noisy continuous-variable (CV) entangled states. Being a non-Gaussian operation, the quantum scissors is challenging to analyze. We present a derivation of the non-Gaussian state heralded by multiple quantum scissors in a pure loss channel with two-mode squeezed vacuum input. We choose the reverse coherent information (RCI), a proven lower bound on the distillable entanglement of a quantum state under one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC), as our figure of merit. We evaluate a Gaussian lower bound on the RCI of the heralded state. We show that it can exceed the unlimited two-way LOCC-assisted direct transmission entanglement distillation capacity of the pure loss channel. The optimal heralded Gaussian RCI with two quantum scissors is found to be significantly more than that with a single quantum scissors, albeit at the cost of decreased success probability. Our results fortify the possibility of a quantum repeater scheme for CV quantum states using the quantum scissors.