Is entanglement a unique resource in quantum illumination?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether entanglement is the sole resource behind quantum illumination's advantage, concluding that other quantum resources also contribute to the observed benefits.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that squeezing operations, beyond entanglement, play a role in quantum illumination's performance.

Findings

Entanglement is not the only resource responsible for quantum advantage.

Squeezing operations contribute to the quantum illumination performance.

Quantum advantage can be achieved without entanglement alone.

Abstract

It is well-known that quantum illumination with a two-mode squeezed vacuum state as an initial entangled bipartite state achieves $6$ dB quantum advantage in the error probability compared to classical coherent-state illumination. Is entanglement the only resource responsible for the quantum advantage? We explore this question by making use of squeezing operations. Finally, we conclude that the answer to the question is negative.