Nonclassical Preparation of Quantum Remote States

Remote state preparation (RSP) enables a sender to remotely prepare the quantum state of a receiver without sending the state itself. Recently, it has been recognized that quantum discord is a necessary resource for RSP. Here, we theoretically and experimentally investigate whether RSP can outperform dynamic classical remote state preparation processes. We show that such classical processes can describe certain RSPs powered by quantum discord. Rather, we argue that a new kind of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering for dynamical processes, called quantum process steering, is the resource required for performing nonclassical RSP. We show how to measure quantum process steering by experimentally realizing nonclassical RSP of photonic quantum systems. Moreover, we demonstrate the transition from classical to quantum RSP. Our results also have applications in realizing genuine quantum RSP for quantum-enabled engineering.