Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

Abstract: We numerically investigate a hybrid trapping architecture for 2D ion crystals using static electrode voltages and optical cavity fields for in-plane and out-of-plane confinements, respectively. By studying the stability of 2D crystals against 2D-3D structural phase transitions, we identify the necessary trapping parameters for ytterbium ions. Multiple equilibrium configurations for 2D crystals are possible, and we analyze their stability by estimating potential barriers between them. We find that scattering to anti-trapping states limits the trapping lifetime, which is consistent with recent experiments employing other optical trapping architectures. These 2D ion crystals offer an excellent platform for quantum simulation of frustrated spin systems, benefiting from their 2D triangular lattice structure and phonon-mediated spin-spin interactions. Quantum information processing with tens of ions is feasible in this scheme with current technologies.

Abstract: We use a floating tunable coupler to mediate interactions between qubits on separate chips to build a modular architecture. We demonstrate three different designs of multi-chip tunable couplers using vacuum gap capacitors or superconducting indium bump bonds to connect the coupler to a microwave line on a common substrate and then connect to the qubit on the next chip. We show that the zero-coupling condition between qubits on separate chips can be achieved in each design and that the relaxation rates for the coupler and qubits are not noticeably affected by the extra circuit elements. Finally, we demonstrate two-qubit gate operations with fidelity at the same level as qubits with a tunable coupler on a single chip. Using one or more indium bonds does not degrade qubit coherence or impact the performance of two-qubit gates.

Abstract: We study a mechanism by which nuclear hyperpolarization due to the polarization transfer from a microwave-pulse-controlled electron spin is suppressed. From analytical and numerical calculations of the unitary dynamics of multiple nuclear spins, we uncover that, combined with the formation of the dark state within a cluster of nuclei, coherent higher-order nuclear spin dynamics impose limits on the efficiency of the polarization transfer even in the absence of mundane depolarization processes such as nuclear spin diffusion and relaxation. Furthermore, we show that the influence of the dark state can be partly mitigated by introducing a disentangling operation. Our analysis is applied to the nuclear polarizations observed in $^{13}$C nuclei coupled with a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond [Science 374, 1474 (2021) by J. Randall et al.]. Our work sheds light on collective engineering of nuclear spins as well as future designs of pulsed dynamic nuclear polarization protocols.

Abstract: Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have useful properties for detecting both AC and DC magnetic fields with high sensitivity at nano-scale resolution. Vector detection of AC magnetic fields can be achieved by using NV centers having three different orientations. Here, we propose a method to achieve this by using NV centers of single orientation. In this method, a static magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the NV axis, leading to strong mixing of the $m_{s}=-1$ and $1$ electron spin states. As a result, all three electron spin transitions of the triplet ground state have non-zero dipole moments, with each transition coupling to a single component of the magnetic field. This can be used to measure both strength and orientation of the applied AC field. To validate the technique, we perform a proof of principle experiment using a subset of ensemble NV centers in diamond, all having the same orientation.

Abstract: A way is presented to design quantum wave functions that exhibit backflow, namely negative probability current despite having a strictly positive spectrum of momentum. These wave functions are derived from rational complex functions which are analytic in the upper half-plane and have zeros in the lower half-plane through which the backflowing behavior is controlled. In analogy, backflowing periodic wave functions are derived from rational complex functions which are analytic in the interior and have appropriately placed zeros or poles in the exterior of the unit circle. The concept is combined with a Pad\'e-type procedure to design wave functions of this type that approximate a desired profile along the interval of backflow.

Abstract: We first review the current state of the art of quantum computing for Earth observation and satellite images. There are the persisting challenges of profiting from quantum advantage, and finding the optimal sharing between high-performance computing (HPC) and quantum computing (QC), i.e. the HPC+QC paradigm, for computational EO problems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches. Secondly, we assess some quantum models transpiled into a Clifford+T universal gate set, where the Clifford+T quantum gate set sheds light on the quantum resources required for deploying quantum models either on an HPC system or several QCs. If the Clifford+T quantum gate set cannot be simulated efficiently on an HPC system then we can apply a quantum computer and its computational power over conventional computers. Our resulting quantum resource estimation demonstrates that Quantum Machine Learning (QML) models, which do not comprise a large number of T-gates, can be deployed on an HPC system during the training and validation process; otherwise, we can execute them on several QCs. Namely, QML models having a sufficient number of T-gates provide the quantum advantage if and only if they generalize on unseen data points better than their classical counterparts deployed on the HPC system, and they break the symmetry in their weights at each learning iteration like in conventional deep neural networks. As an initial innovation, we estimate the quantum resources required for some QML models. Secondly, we define the optimal sharing between an HPC+QC system for executing QML models for hyperspectral images (HSIs); HSIs are a specific dataset compared to multispectral images to be deployed on quantum computers due to the limited number of their input qubits, and the commonly used small number of labeled benchmark HSIs.

Abstract: Employing a recently developed approach to dynamically emergent quantum thermodynamics, we revisit the thermodynamic behavior of the quantum Otto cycle with a focus on memory effects and strong system-bath couplings. Our investigation is based on an exact treatment of non-Markovianity by means of an exact quantum master equation, modelling the dynamics through the Fano-Anderson model featuring a peaked environmental spectral density. By comparing the results to the standard Markovian case, we find that non-Markovian baths can induce work transfer to the system, and identify specific parameter regions which lead to enhanced work output and efficiency of the cycle. In particular, we demonstrate that these improvements arise when the cycle operates in a frequency interval which contains the peak of the spectral density. This can be understood from an analysis of the renormalized frequencies emerging through the system-baths couplings.

Abstract: Efficient methods for the simulation of quantum circuits on classic computers are crucial for their improvement and better understanding. Unfortunately, classic array-based simulation of quantum circuits suffers from the curse of dimensionality because the size of the arrays is exponential in the number of qubits. Starting from the observation that results of quantum circuits are often evaluated by means of quantum measurements that capture only a subpart of the entire quantum state, we introduce measurement-preserving reductions. The proposed technique complements existing approaches and can be closely aligned to model reduction approaches from systems biology and control engineering. By providing a publicly available prototype implementation, we demonstrate the applicability of the approach by obtaining substantial reductions of common quantum computing benchmarks.

Abstract: We present a theoretical study of the interaction between an atom characterized by a degenerate ground state and a reciprocal environment, such as a semiconductor nanoparticle, without the presence of external bias. Our analysis reveals that the combined influence of the electron's intrinsic spin magnetic moment on the environment and the chiral atomic dipolar transitions may lead to either the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry or the emergence of time-crystal-like states with remarkably long relaxation times. The different behavior is ruled by the handedness of the precession motion of the atom's spin vector, which is induced by virtual chiral-dipolar transitions. Specifically, when the relative orientation of the precession angular velocity and the electron spin vector is as in a spinning top, the system manifests time-crystal-like states. Conversely, with the opposite relative orientation, the system experiences spontaneous symmetry breaking of time-reversal symmetry. Our findings introduce a novel mechanism for the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in atomic systems, and unveil an exciting opportunity to engineer a nonreciprocal response at the nanoscale, exclusively driven by the quantum vacuum fluctuations.

Abstract: A limited number of qubits, high error rates, and limited qubit connectivity are major challenges for effective near-term quantum computations. Quantum circuit partitioning divides a quantum computation into a set of computations that include smaller-scale quantum (sub)circuits and classical postprocessing steps. These quantum subcircuits require fewer qubits, incur a smaller effort for satisfying qubit connectivity requirements, and typically incur less error. Thus, quantum circuit partitioning has the potential to enable quantum computations that would otherwise only be available on more matured hardware. However, partitioning quantum circuits generally incurs an exponential increase in quantum computing runtime by repeatedly executing quantum subcircuits. Previous work results in non-optimal subcircuit executions hereby limiting the scope of quantum circuit partitioning. In this work, we develop an optimal partitioning method based on recent advances in quantum circuit knitting. By considering wire cuts and gate cuts in conjunction with ancilla qubit insertions and classical communication, the developed method can determine a minimal cost quantum circuit partitioning. Compared to previous work, we demonstrate the developed method to reduce the overhead in quantum computing time by 73% on average for 56% of evaluated quantum circuits. Given a one hour runtime budget on a typical near-term quantum computer, the developed method could reduce the qubit requirement of the evaluated quantum circuits by 40% on average. These results highlight the ability of the developed method to extend the computational reach of near-term quantum computers by reducing the qubit requirement at a lower increase in quantum circuit executions.

Abstract: Negatively charged group IV defects in diamond show great potential as quantum network nodes due to their efficient spin-photon interface. However, reaching sufficiently long coherence times remains a challenge. In this work, we demonstrate coherent control of germanium-vacancy center (GeV) at millikelvin temperatures and extend its coherence time by several orders of magnitude to more than 20 ms. We model the magnetic and amplitude noise as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, reproducing the experimental results well. The utilized method paves the way to optimized coherence times of group IV defects in various experimental conditions and their successful applications in quantum technologies.

Abstract: We consider a class of games between two competing players that take turns acting on the same many-body quantum register. Each player can perform unitary operations on the register, and after each one of them acts on the register the energy is measured. Player A aims to maximize the energy while player B to minimize it. This class of zero-sum games has a clear second mover advantage if both players can entangle the same portion of the register. We show, however, that if the first player can entangle a larger number of qubits than the second player (which we refer to as having quantum advantage), then the second mover advantage can be significantly reduced. We study the game for different types of quantum advantage of player A versus player B and for different sizes of the register, in particular, scenarios in which absolutely maximally entangled states cannot be achieved. In this case, we also study the effectiveness of using random unitaries. Last, we consider mixed initial preparations of the register, in which case the player with a quantum advantage can rely on strategies stemming from the theory of ergotropy of quantum batteries.

Abstract: Clustering is one of the most important tools for analysis of large datasets, and perhaps the most popular clustering algorithm is Lloyd's iteration for $k$-means. This iteration takes $N$ vectors $v_1,\dots,v_N\in\mathbb{R}^d$ and outputs $k$ centroids $c_1,\dots,c_k\in\mathbb{R}^d$; these partition the vectors into clusters based on which centroid is closest to a particular vector. We present an overall improved version of the "$q$-means" algorithm, the quantum algorithm originally proposed by Kerenidis, Landman, Luongo, and Prakash (2019) which performs $\varepsilon$-$k$-means, an approximate version of $k$-means clustering. This algorithm does not rely on the quantum linear algebra primitives of prior work, instead only using its QRAM to prepare and measure simple states based on the current iteration's clusters. The time complexity is $O\big(\frac{k^{2}}{\varepsilon^2}(\sqrt{k}d + \log(Nd))\big)$ and maintains the polylogarithmic dependence on $N$ while improving the dependence on most of the other parameters. We also present a "dequantized" algorithm for $\varepsilon$-$k$-means which runs in $O\big(\frac{k^{2}}{\varepsilon^2}(kd + \log(Nd))\big)$ time. Notably, this classical algorithm matches the polylogarithmic dependence on $N$ attained by the quantum algorithms.

Abstract: In this paper we present a novel method to generate hard instances with planted solutions based on the public-private McEliece post-quantum cryptographic protocol. Unlike other planting methods rooted in the infinite-size statistical analysis, our cryptographic protocol generates instances which are all hard (in cryptographic terms), with the hardness tuned by the size of the private key, and with a guaranteed unique ground state. More importantly, because of the private-public key protocol, planted solutions cannot be easily recovered by a direct inspection of the planted instances without the knowledge of the private key used to generate them, therefore making our protocol suitable to test and evaluate quantum devices without the risk of "backdoors" being exploited.

Abstract: Space-time in quantum mechanics is about bridging Hilbert and configuration space. Thereby, an entirely new perspective is obtained by replacing the Newtonian space-time theater with the image of a presumably high-dimensional Hilbert space, through which space-time becomes an epiphenomenon construed by internal observers.

Abstract: Quantum computing, with its transformative computational potential, is gaining prominence in the technological landscape. As a new and exotic technology, quantum computers involve innumerable Intellectual Property (IP) in the form of fabrication recipe, control electronics and software techniques, to name a few. Furthermore, complexity of quantum systems necessitates extensive involvement of third party tools, equipment and services which could risk the IPs and the Quality of Service and enable other attack surfaces. This paper is a first attempt to explore the quantum computing ecosystem, from the fabrication of quantum processors to the development of specialized software tools and hardware components, from a security perspective. By investigating the publicly disclosed information from industry front runners like IBM, Google, Honeywell and more, we piece together various components of quantum computing supply chain. We also uncover some potential vulnerabilities and attack models and suggest defenses. We highlight the need to scrutinize the quantum computing supply chain further through the lens of security.

Abstract: A new framework is formulated to study entanglement dynamics in many-body quantum systems along with an associated geometric description. In this formulation, called the Quantum Correlation Transfer Function (QCTF), the system's wave function or density matrix is transformed into a new space of complex functions with isolated singularities. Accordingly, entanglement dynamics is encoded in specific residues of the QCTF, and importantly, the explicit evaluation of the system's time dependence is avoided. Notably, the QCTF formulation allows for various algebraic simplifications and approximations to address the normally encountered complications due to the exponential growth of the many-body Hilbert space with the number of bodies. These simplifications are facilitated through considering the patterns, in lieu of the elements, lying within the system's state. Consequently, a main finding of this paper is the exterior (Grassmannian) algebraic expression of many-body entanglement as the collective areas of regions in the Hilbert space spanned by pairs of projections of the wave function onto an arbitrary basis. This latter geometric measure is shown to be equivalent to the second-order Renyi entropy. Additionally, the geometric description of the QCTF shows that characterizing features of the reduced density matrix can be related to experimentally observable quantities. The QCTF-based geometric description offers the prospect of theoretically revealing aspects of many-body entanglement, by drawing on the vast scope of methods from geometry.

Abstract: Measurement models (MMs) stand at the highest structural level of quantum measurement theory. MMs can be employed to construct instruments which stand at the next level. An instrument is thought of as an apparatus that is used to measure observables and update states. Observables, which are still at the next level, are used to determine probabilities of quantum events. The main ingredient of an MM is an interaction channel $\nu$ between the system being measured and a probe system. For a general $\nu$, the measured observable $A$ need not have an explicit useful form. In this work we introduce a condition for $\nu$ called separability and in this case $A$ has an explicit form. Under the assumption that $\nu$ is separable, we study product MMs and conditioned MMs. We also consider the statistics of MMs and their uncertainty principle. Various concepts are illustrated using examples of L\"uders and Holevo instruments.

Abstract: In quantum phase estimation, the Heisenberg limit provides the ultimate accuracy over quasi-classical estimation procedures. However, realizing this limit hinges upon both the detection strategy employed for output measurements and the characteristics of the input states. This study delves into quantum phase estimation using $s$-spin coherent states superposition. Initially, we delve into the explicit formulation of spin coherent states for a spin $s=3/2$. Both the quantum Fisher information and the quantum Cramer-Rao bound are meticulously examined. We analytically show that the ultimate measurement precision of spin cat states approaches the Heisenberg limit, where uncertainty decreases inversely with the total particle number. Moreover, we investigate the phase sensitivity introduced through operators $e^{i\zeta{S}_{z}}$, $e^{i\zeta{S}_{x}}$ and $e^{i\zeta{S}_{y}}$, subsequently comparing the resultants findings. In closing, we provide a general analytical expression for the quantum Cramer-Rao boundary applied to these three parameter-generating operators, utilizing general $s$-spin coherent states. We remarked that attaining Heisenberg-limit precision requires the careful adjustment of insightful information about the geometry of $s$-spin cat states on the Bloch sphere. Additionally, as the number of $s$-spin increases, the Heisenberg limit decreases, and this reduction is inversely proportional to the $s$-spin number.