Visually quantifying single-qubit quantum memory

Abstract

To store quantum information, quantum memory plays a central intermediate ingredient in a network. The minimal criterion for a reliable quantum memory is the maintenance of the entangled state, which can be described by the non-entanglement-breaking (non-EB) channel. In this work, we show that all single-qubit quantum memory can be quantified without trusting input state generation. In other words, we provide a semi-device-independent approach to quantify all single-qubit quantum memory. More specifically, we apply the concept of the two-qubit quantum steering ellipsoids to a single-qubit quantum channel and define the channel ellipsoids. An ellipsoid can be constructed by visualizing finite output states within the Bloch sphere. Since the Choi-Jamio{\l}kowski state of a channel can all be reconstructed from geometric data of the channel ellipsoid, a reliable quantum memory can be detected. Finally, we visually quantify the single-qubit quantum memory by observing the volume of the channel ellipsoid.