Quantum secret sharing is a protocol for secure communication between several parties in a way that messages can be retrieved only by collaboration of all of the parties. Naturally entangled states have been used for sharing such secret keys. Since entangled states are very hard to prepare and are very fragile, there have been some attempts to remove entanglement from these protocols. Here we review some of the recent protocols which are not based on entangled states and present also our recent results on non-entangled quantum secret sharing in arbitrary dimensions.

Quantum simulators are certain quantum systems which emulate the behavior of another system with higher controllability and precision. They are the first step towards realization of universal quantum computers. So far, cold atoms and ions have been predominantly exploited for serving as quantum simulators thanks to their high controllability and long coherence times. Nevertheless, any solid state effects cannot be easily simulated by such systems, take spin-orbit interaction as an example. Therefore, having a solid state based quantum simulator is very desirable. We propose quantum dot arrays and electronic Wigner crystals in 1D quantum wires for serving as quantum simulators. In particular, we focus on realization of the ground state of the Heisenberg spin chain in realistic experimental conditions. Furthermore, we provide an effective method for the certification of our quantum simulator via singlet-triplet measurements. As an application for the quantum simulator, we propose both quantum dot arrays and Wigner crystals in quantum wires for transferring quantum information across long distances through their non-equilibrium dynamics.