General relativity is a background-independent theory of a dynamical classical spacetime geometry. Quantum theory is formulated in a classical spacetime, as an intrinsically probabilistic, contextual theory of non-classical, interfering probabilities, with a fixed Born rule for computing those probabilities. We argue that the quantum nature of spacetime, which includes a non-commutative dual companion to the (observed) classical spacetime, is the reason behind an intrinsically probabilistic and contextual nature of quantum theory, with the fixed Born rule. In quantum gravity, we claim, quantum theory is gravitized into a background-independent structure with dynamical and contextual quantum probabilities. This proposal implies intrinsic triple and higher-order interference in the context of massive quantum probes, which sheds light on string theory and the observed vacuum energy as well as the masses of elementary particles. less

The standard cosmological model is challenged by an ever-growing collection of observations, which invites (and stimulates) inquiry into possible additions and/or alterations. One such alteration comes from letting cosmic isotropy -- as demanded by the cosmological principle -- go, whilst maintaining only homogeneity. This study concerns Bianchi models, a class of anisotropic, homogeneous spacetimes, and in particular their perturbations. Knowledge of their properties under perturbations (such as allowed wavemodes) aids in understanding cosmological signatures of such universes, e.g. CMBs, and thus allows for comparsion to observation and the theory of the standard model. This study develops linear perturbation theory of general Bianchi models, by working in a frame such that metric components depend solely on (cosmic) time. Perturbation equations in the Newtonian gauge, but for arbitrary metric, are derived for energy density $ρ$, (relativistic) pressure $p$, momentum density $q$, and anisotropic stress $π$, for the case of scalar and pure tensor perturbations. For the former, the equations for density and pressure are combined to yield the equivalent of the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation for Bianchi models. For a specific choice of metric and fluid flow $u$, the Friedmann equations for Bianchi models are also formulated, as this knowledge is necessary to fully formulate the perturbation equations. Finally, the obtained results are applied to the formulations of density contrasts in an Einstein-de Sitter universe and a Bianchi I universe. less

Quantum Signal Processing (QSP) and Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT) provide an efficient framework for implementing polynomials of block-encoded matrices, and thus offer a systematic approach to quantum algorithm design. However, despite a number of recent advances, important limitations remain. In particular, QSP can only transform unitary matrices, by applying a polynomial to their eigenvalues, while QSVT is a singular-value transformation and thus one can only obtain the polynomial of Hermitian matrices. As a consequence, these techniques do not directly apply to an arbitrary non-Hermitian matrix that is not diagonalizable. In this work, we propose a simple yet powerful method to extend these ideas to arbitrary square matrices by acting on their eigenvalues. To this end, we introduce the notion of an $n$-regular block encoding, namely, a block encoding whose $k$-th power reproduces the $k$-th power of the encoded matrix for every $0 < k < n$. We show that applying QSP to any unitary with this property is equivalent to applying a polynomial of degree at most $n$ to the block-encoded matrix, independently of its internal structure. Moreover, we provide a simple construction that transforms any block encoding into an $n$-regular one using only $O(\log n)$ ancillary qubits and operations. Finally, we show that this construction induces the desired transformation on the eigenvalues associated with the Jordan normal form of the matrix. less

Recent advancements in neutral atom platforms have enabled exploration of early fault-tolerant (FT) architectures for applications with quantum advantage, such as quantum dynamics simulations. An efficient fault-tolerant architecture has both spatially efficient quantum error correction codes (low qubit overhead), and efficient methodologies (transversal based gates, extractor based gates, etc.) for logical computation, to minimize overall execution time. Achieving the right balance between space and time can be critical for enabling early FT demonstrations of quantum advantage. In this work, we identify bottlenecks in existing spatially efficient schemes, which tend to be very serial, and do not take advantage of unutilized space. We introduce a teleportation-based scheme that leverages the reconfigurable connectivity of neutral atoms to parallelize logical operations. Our approach achieves up to \textbf{$\mathbf{\sim 3 \times}$ speedup} over extractor architectures at no extra space cost and achieves the best spacetime performance among other viable architectures before accounting for external \textit{resource-states}. To rigorously evaluate performance, we construct explicit quantum advantage benchmarks and \textit{simulate} compilation to a fault-tolerant instruction set, including low-level gate scheduling and shuttling patterns, and resource-state nondeterminism. We find that our speedups still apply and report exact space-time cost along with success probabilities, identifying architectures capable of achieving quantum advantage \textbf{with as little as $\mathbf{11,495}$ atoms and a runtime of $\mathbf{\sim 15}$ hours}. less

As quantum computing matures into a practical paradigm, the need for secure and private quantum computation on untrusted hardware becomes increasingly urgent. While classical fully homomorphic encryption has enabled computation over encrypted data in untrusted environments, a fully homomorphic and practically implementable quantum counterpart remains elusive. In this work, we propose a universal quantum homomorphic encryption (QHE) framework developed from the Quantum One-Time Pad (QOTP) scheme. Our approach (QOTPH) maintains information-theoretic security and supports a broad class of quantum operations on encrypted quantum states through a systematic set of homomorphic gate decompositions and key update rules. By leveraging the symmetric structure of QOTP and exploiting the transformation properties of quantum gates under Pauli encryption, we enable non-interactive homomorphic evaluation of arbitrary circuits expressible in the Clifford+T gate set, as well as controlled and parameterized operations relevant to variational quantum algorithms and delegated computation. We provide a formal specification of the proposed encryption model, detail its implementation procedure, and report the results obtained from both simulated environments and real quantum processors. Experimental validation demonstrates the correctness of the homomorphic operations and the preservation of key secrecy under circuit-level noise and real-device constraints. This work takes a step toward bridging the gap between theoretical quantum homomorphic encryption and practical realization on near-term quantum hardware, offering a scalable and symmetric cryptographic primitive for privacy-preserving quantum computation. less

We propose a fault-tolerant quantum computer architecture for trapped-ion devices, which we call the walking cat architecture. Our blueprint includes a compiler, a detailed description of all the quantum error-correction protocols, a micro-architecture, a sufficiently fast decoder, and thorough simulations. The backbone of the architecture is a cat factory, producing cat states distributed throughout the machine, which are consumed to perform logical operations. The walking cat architecture is based entirely on a modern quantum error-correction approach called low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We identify promising instances of the walking cat architecture, such as (1) a simple architecture based on a single LDPC code, (2) a fast architecture based on fast logical gates relying on a [[70, 6, 9]] code, equipped with Clifford-frame tracking for any 6-qubit Clifford gate, and (3) a dense architecture based on a [[102, 22, 9]]] code encoding 22 logical qubits per memory block. Our dense architecture provides a design with 110 logical qubits executing about one million T gates per day using only 2,514 physical qubits. We estimate that the quantum Hamiltonian simulation of a Heisenberg model on 100 sites can be executed within one month with 10,000 physical qubits, including all shots required to achieve chemical accuracy, suggesting that such a device could enter the regime of classically intractable physics simulations. Our design relies on hardware components that have been experimentally demonstrated on small devices. We emphasize simplicity over hypothetical performance to facilitate the practical realization of this machine. Based on this approach, we believe that a fault-tolerant quantum computer with hundreds of logical qubits capable of running millions of logical gates can be built in the near term, providing a platform to explore a broad range of applications. less

Standard quantum mechanics employs complex Hilbert spaces, but whether complex numbers are fundamental or merely convenient has long been debated. For decades, real-valued equivalents were considered mathematically possible but cumbersome. However, a landmark 2021 result claimed that any quantum theory based on real numbers is experimentally falsifiable via network Bell experiments. Yet, it remains an open question whether this falsification applies to all real-valued theories. Here we show that this conclusion rests on an incomplete real formulation, and we present a rigorous real-valued framework that perfectly reproduces all predictions of standard quantum mechanics, i.e. standard quantum mechanics. We demonstrate that the standard real tensor product ($\otimes_{\mathbb{R}}$) used in previous no-go theorems is algebraically incompatible with the rich structure of standard quantum mechanics. We present a real framework based on \ka space and prove that it is exactly isomorphic to standard quantum mechanics via an explicit bijection $γ$. The isomorphism extends to composite systems through a symplectic composition rule $\otimes^{\ks}$ that replaces the Kronecker product. Consequently, our formulation achieves the maximal $\mathrm{CHSH}_{3}$ violation of $6\sqrt{2}$ using purely real variables, directly contradicting previous falsification claims. These results demonstrate that complex numbers are not fundamentally required by nature; rather, they encode a deeper real geometric structure that governs quantum interference and entanglement, settling this long debate. less

We show that the LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA (LVK) verification of Hawking area law carries profound consequences for quantum gravity if such a law is postulated to hold exactly. The observed mergers can be produced in local Stelle gravity and in nonlocal quantum-gravity theories with entire or fractional form factors either by (i) singular Ricci-flat black holes or (ii) possibly regular classical black holes under very restrictive conditions: absence of $R^2$ and (Riemann)${}^2$ terms in the action, absence of extra real poles in the graviton propagator, and positivity of its spectral representation. To date, this is the strongest simplification of the ambiguities of this class of theories. We also prove that the classical standard black-hole entropy-area law holds as a consequence of Hawking area law, and provide a rigorous realization of Barrow's fractal black holes otherwise. less

Black-hole ringdown offers a clean probe of strong gravity, but one of its most accurate tools--Leaver's continued-fraction method--requires a three-term recurrence relation. Beyond general relativity, and more generally in non-Kerr spacetimes, Frobenius expansions of the perturbation equations generically produce higher-order recurrence relations and, often, couplings among the series coefficients, obstructing a direct application of Leaver's method. Here we develop a general reduction scheme that maps arbitrary scalar and matrix $N$-term recurrence relations to a three-term form, thereby extending continued fractions to a broad class of perturbation problems in modified gravity. As an application, we compute the quasinormal-mode spectrum of slowly-rotating black holes in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity, where the polar sector yields a 16-term, decoupled, scalar recurrence relation, and the axial sector yields a 12-term, coupled, matrix recurrence relation. After applying our reduction scheme, both systems can be solved with continued fractions. For the fundamental $(\ell,m)=(2,2)$ mode, our results agree well with independent calculations based on eigenvalue-perturbation and metric/spectral methods across the parameter range studied. This framework provides a robust and practical route to precision ringdown calculations beyond the standard three-term setting and supports tests of gravity with current and future gravitational-wave observations. less

We analyze the properties of foliations in presence of non-metricity, deriving the generalized Gauss-Codazzi relations in full generality. These results are employed to study the teleparallel framework of non-metric geometry, obtaining constraints on the extrinsic and intrinsic tensors. In particular, an extrinsic symmetric two-tensor plays the role of the extrinsic curvature in Riemannian geometry, whereas no other geometric object can induce new dynamical degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we analyze the variational principle in presence of non-metricity, obtaining the boundary terms for the well-posed and well-defined Cauchy problem. Finally, we exploit the previous results to construct the Hamiltonian of the symmetric teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity, providing a proof that this theory shares the same number of degrees of freedom with its Riemannian counterpart. less