The quantum Zeno effect (QZE) is the phenomenon in which the unitary evolution of a quantum state is suppressed, e.g., due to frequent measurements. Here, we investigate the use of the QZE in a class of communication complexity problems (CCPs). Quantum entanglement is known to solve certain CCPs beyond classical constraints. However, recent developments have yielded CCPs for which superclassical results can be obtained using only communication of a single d-level quantum state (qudit) as a resource. In the class of CCPs considered here, we show quantum reduction of complexity in three ways: using (i) entanglement and the QZE, (ii) a single qudit and the QZE, and (iii) a single qudit. We have performed a proof of concept experimental demonstrations of three party CCP protocol based on single-qubit communication with and without QZE.

The only known qubit states that produce maximal quantum violation of a tight Bell inequality with maximally incompatible local measurements are Bell states, Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, and a recently identified three-qubit state called vertical bar S >. Here we report the results of an experiment for preparing vertical bar S > and testing the maximum quantum violation of the corresponding tripartite Bell inequality. Using a heralded source of three entangled photons and three tunable polarization-dependent filters, we experimentally prepare vertical bar S > with 0.924 fidelity. Using maximally incompatible measurements for the three parties, we observe a value of T-26 = 7.30 +/- 0.06, which clearly violates the tight Bell inequality T-26 <= 5. In addition, we show that our setup allows preparing multipartite states that were inaccessible with previous methods and are useful for quantum information and metrology.

Unsharp measurements are increasingly important for foundational insights in quantum theory and quantum information applications. Here, we report an experimental implementation of unsharp qubit measurements in a sequential communication protocol, based on a quantum random access code. The protocol involves three parties; the first party prepares a qubit system, the second party performs operations that return both a classical and quantum outcome, and the latter is measured by the third party. We demonstrate a nearly optimal sequential quantum random access code that outperforms both the best possible classical protocol and any quantum protocol that utilizes only projective measurements. Furthermore, while only assuming that the involved devices operate on qubits and that detected events constitute a fair sample, we demonstrate the noise-robust characterization of unsharp measurements based on the sequential quantum random access code. We apply this characterization towards quantifying the degree of incompatibility of two sequential pairs of quantum measurements.