Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

Abstract: Optical beat-note detection with two beams at different frequencies is a key sensing technology for various spatial/temporal measurements. However, its sensitivity is inherently susceptible to shot noise due to the extra shot-noise contamination from the image band known as the 3-dB noise penalty, as well as the unavoidable optical power constraints at detectors. Here, we propose a method to remove shot noise from all relevant bands including the extra noise by using squeezed light. We also demonstrate beyond-3-dB noise reduction experimentally. Our work should boost the sensitivity of various spatial/temporal measurements beyond the current limitations.

Abstract: Superconducting strip single-photon detectors offer excellent photon detection performance and are indispensable tools for cutting-edge optical science and technologies, including photonic quantum computation and quantum networks. Ultra-wide superconducting strips with widths of tens of micrometers are desirable to achieve high polarization-independent detection efficiency using a simple straight strip. However, biasing the ultra-wide strip with sufficient superconducting current to make it sensitive to infrared photons is challenging. The main difficulty is maldistribution of the superconducting current in the strip, which generates excessive intrinsic dark counts. Here, we present a novel superconducting wide strip photon detector (SWSPD) with a high critical current bank (HCCB) structure. This HCCB structure enables suppression of the intrinsic dark counts and sufficient superconducting current biasing of the wide strip. We have experimentally demonstrated a polarization-independent system detection efficiency of ~78% for 1550 nm wavelength photons and a system dark count rate of ~80 cps using a 20-${\mu}$m-wide SWSPD with the HCCB structure. Additionally, fast jitter of 29.8 ps was achieved. The photolithographically manufacturable ultra-wide SWSPD with high efficiency, low dark count, and fast temporal resolution paves the way toward the development of large-scale optical quantum technologies, which will require enormous numbers of ultimate-performance single-photon detectors.

Abstract: Quantum computers are the next evolution of computing hardware. Quantum devices are being exposed through the same familiar cloud platforms used for classical computers, and enabling seamless execution of hybrid applications that combine quantum and classical components. Quantum devices vary in features, e.g., number of qubits, quantum volume, CLOPS, noise profile, queuing delays and resource cost. So, it may be useful to split hybrid workloads with either large quantum circuits or large number of quantum circuits, into smaller units. In this paper, we profile two workload splitting techniques on IBM's Quantum Cloud: (1) Circuit parallelization, to split one large circuit into multiple smaller ones, and (2) Data parallelization to split a large number of circuits run on one hardware to smaller batches of circuits run on different hardware. These can improve the utilization of heterogenous quantum hardware, but involve trade-offs. We evaluate these techniques on two key algorithmic classes: Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM), and measure the impact on circuit execution times, pre- and post-processing overhead, and quality of the result relative to a baseline without parallelization. Results are obtained on real hardware and complemented by simulations. We see that (1) VQE with circuit cutting is ~39\% better in ground state estimation than the uncut version, and (2) QSVM that combines data parallelization with reduced feature set yields upto 3x improvement in quantum workload execution time and reduces quantum resource use by 3x, while providing comparable accuracy. Error mitigation can improve the accuracy by ~7\% and resource foot-print by ~4\% compared to the best case among the considered scenarios.

Abstract: In the present paper, we have studied the higher as well as the lower-order nonclassicalities of photon-added-then-subtracted and photon-subtracted-then-added thermal and even coherent states. Different criteria such as Mandel's function ($Q_M^{(l)}$), higher-order antibunching ($d_h^{(l-1)}$), sub-Poissonian photon statistics ($D_h^{(l-1)}$), higher-order squeezing ($S^{(l)}$), Husimi function ($Q$), Agarwal-Tara criteria ($A_3$) and Klyshko's condition ($B(m)$) are used to witness the nonclassical feature of these states. Many of these conditions established that the considered states are highly nonclassical. It is also realized that the non-Gaussian photon-addition-then-subtraction operation is preferred over the photon-subtraction-then-addition for developing nonclassicality.

Abstract: The application of quantum annealing to the optimization of continuous-variable functions is a relatively unexplored area of research. We test the performance of quantum annealing applied to a one-dimensional continuous-variable function with a rugged energy landscape. After domain-wall encoding to map a continuous variable to discrete Ising variables, we first benchmark the performance of the real hardware, the D-Wave 2000Q, against several state-of-the-art classical optimization algorithms designed for continuous-variable problems to find that the D-Wave 2000Q matches the classical algorithms in a limited domain of computation time. Beyond this domain, the classical global optimization algorithms outperform the quantum device. Next, we examine several optimization algorithms that are applicable to the Ising formulation of the problem, such as the TEBD (time-evolving block decimation) to simulate ideal coherent quantum annealing, simulated annealing, simulated quantum annealing, and spin-vector Monte Carlo. The data show that TEBD's coherent quantum annealing achieves far better results than the other approaches, in particular demonstrating the effectiveness of coherent tunneling. From these two types of benchmarks, we conclude that the hardware realization of quantum annealing has the potential to significantly outperform the best classical algorithms if thermal noise and other imperfections are sufficiently suppressed and the device operates coherently, as demonstrated in recent short-time quantum simulations.

Abstract: Modular quantum computing architectures are a promising alternative to monolithic QPU (Quantum Processing Unit) designs for scaling up quantum devices. They refer to a set of interconnected QPUs or cores consisting of tightly coupled quantum bits that can communicate via quantum-coherent and classical links. In multi-core architectures, it is crucial to minimize the amount of communication between cores when executing an algorithm. Therefore, mapping a quantum circuit onto a modular architecture involves finding an optimal assignment of logical qubits (qubits in the quantum circuit) to different cores with the aim to minimize the number of expensive inter-core operations while adhering to given hardware constraints. In this paper, we propose for the first time a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) technique to encode the problem and the solution for both qubit allocation and inter-core communication costs in binary decision variables. To this end, the quantum circuit is split into slices, and qubit assignment is formulated as a graph partitioning problem for each circuit slice. The costly inter-core communication is reduced by penalizing inter-core qubit communications. The final solution is obtained by minimizing the overall cost across all circuit slices. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we conduct a detailed analysis using a representative set of benchmarks having a high number of qubits on two different multi-core architectures. Our method showed promising results and performed exceptionally well with very dense and highly-parallelized circuits that require on average 0.78 inter-core communications per two-qubit gate.

Abstract: Quantum coherence is a fundamental feature of quantum physics and plays a significant role in quantum information processing. By generalizing the resource theory of coherence from von Neumann measurements to positive operator-valued measures (POVMs), POVM-based coherence measures have been proposed with respect to the relative entropy of coherence, the $l_1$ norm of coherence, the robustness of coherence and the Tsallis relative entropy of coherence. We derive analytically the lower and upper bounds on these POVM-based coherence of an arbitrary given superposed pure state in terms of the POVM-based coherence of the states in superposition. Our results can be used to estimate range of quantum coherence of superposed states. Detailed examples are presented to verify our analytical bounds.

Abstract: Collapse of the wave function appears to violate the quantum superposition principle as well as deterministic evolution. Objective collapse models propose a dynamical explanation for this phenomenon, by making a stochastic non-unitary and norm-preserving modification to the Schr\"odinger equation. In the present article we ask how a quantum system evolves under a {\it deterministic} and non-unitary but norm-preserving evolution? We show using a simple two-qubit model that under suitable conditions, quantum linear superposition is broken, with the system predictably driven to one or the other alternatives. If this deterministic dynamics is coarse-grained and observed over a lower time resolution, the outcomes appear random while obeying the Born probability rule. Our analysis hence throws light on the distinct roles of non-unitarity and of stochasticity in objective collapse models.

Abstract: Schr\"odinger operators often display singularities at the origin, the Coulomb problem in atomic physics or the various matter coupling terms in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker problem being prominent examples. For various applications it would be desirable to have at one's disposal an explicit basis spanning a dense and invariant domain for such types of Schr\"odinger operators, for instance stationary perturbation theory or the Raleigh-Ritz method. Here we make the observation, that not only a such basis can indeed be provided but that in addition relevant matrix elements and inner products can be computed analytically in closed form, thus providing the required data e.g. for an analytical Gram-Schmid orthonormalisation.

Abstract: We use electronic microwave control methods to implement addressed single-qubit gates with high speed and fidelity, for $^{43}\text{Ca}^{+}$ hyperfine ''atomic clock'' qubits in a cryogenic (100K) surface trap. For a single qubit, we benchmark an error of $1.5$ $\times$ $10^{-6}$ per Clifford gate (implemented using $600~\text{ns}$ $\pi/2$-pulses). For two qubits in the same trap zone (ion separation $5~\mu\text{m}$), we use a spatial microwave field gradient, combined with an efficient 4-pulse scheme, to implement independent addressed gates. Parallel randomized benchmarking on both qubits yields an average error $3.4$ $\times$ $10^{-5}$ per logical gate.

Abstract: A new approach towards quantum theory is proposed in this paper. The basis is taken to be conceptual variables, physical variables that may be accessible or inaccessible, i.e., it may be possible or impossible for an actor to assign numerical values to them. In an epistemic process, the accessible variables are just ideal observations connected to an actor or to some communicating actors. Group actions are defined on these variables, and group representation theory is the basis for developing the Hilbert space formalism. Operators corresponding to accessible conceptual variables are derived, and in the discrete case it is argued that the possible physical values are the eigenvalues of these operators. The interpretation of quantum states (or eigenvector spaces) implied by this approach is as focused questions to nature together with sharp answers to those questions. The questions may be complementary in the sense defined by Bohr. The focus of the paper is the proposed foundation of quantum theory. It is shown here that the groups and transformation needed in this approach can be constructed explicitly in the case where the accessible variables are finite-dimensional. This simplifies the theory considerably. It is my view that the discussion on the interpretation of quantum mechanics should come after a thorough treatment of the foundation issue. The interpretation proposed here may be called a general epistemic interpretation of quantum theory. It is similar in some respects to QBism, can also be seen as a concrete implementation of aspects of Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics, and has a relationship to several other interpretations. It is proposed that quantum state vectors should be limited to vectors that are eigenvectors of some physically meaningful operator. Consequences of this are sketched for some so-called quantum paradoxes.

Abstract: Although the role of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) g-tensor and hyperfine coupling tensor in the EPR effective spin Hamiltonian is discussed extensively in many textbooks, certain aspects of the theory are missing. In this text we will cover those gaps and thus provide a comprehensive theory about the existence of principal axes of the EPR tensors. However, an important observation is that both g- and a-tensors have two sets of principal axes -- one in the real and one in the fictitious spin space -- and, in fact, are not tensors. Moreover, we present arguments based on the group theory why only eigenvalues of the G-tensor, $\mb{G} = \mb{g}\mb{g}^{\!\mathsf{T}}$, and the sign of the determinant of the g-tensor are observable quantities (an analogical situation also holds for the hyperfine coupling tensor). We keep the number of assumptions to a minimum and thus the theory is applicable in the framework of the Dirac--Coulomb--Breit Hamiltonian and for any spatial symmetry of the system.

Abstract: Quantum errors subject to noisy environments remain a major obstacle to advancing quantum information technology. Solutions to this issue include robust quantum control at the pulse level and error correction or mitigation techniques at the circuit level. We develop a geometric method to unify the treatments of noises at both levels to understand noisy dynamics and reduce errors. We illustrate the error's random walk in the geometric space to explain how coherent noises are tailored into stochastic Pauli errors by randomized compiling. We obtain analytical formulas for the noise parameters and show how robust quantum control techniques can further improve circuit fidelity. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach using numerical simulations, showcasing its potential for advancing quantum information processing.

Abstract: In an entanglement distribution network, the function of a quantum switch is to generate elementary entanglement with its clients followed by entanglement swapping to distribute end-to-end entanglement of sufficiently high fidelity between clients. The threshold on entanglement fidelity is any quality-of-service requirement specified by the clients as dictated by the application they run on the network. We consider a discrete-time model for a quantum switch that attempts generation of fresh elementary entanglement with clients in each time step in the form of maximally entangled qubit pairs, or Bell pairs, which succeed probabilistically; the successfully generated Bell pairs are stored in noisy quantum memories until they can be swapped. We focus on establishing the value of entanglement distillation of the stored Bell pairs prior to entanglement swapping in presence of their inevitable aging, i.e., decoherence: For a simple instance of a switch with two clients, exponential decay of entanglement fidelity, and a well-known probabilistic but heralded two-to-one distillation protocol, given a threshold end-to-end entanglement fidelity, we use the Markov Decision Processes framework to identify the optimal action policy - to wait, to distill, or to swap that maximizes throughput. We compare the switch's performance under the optimal distillation-enabled policy with that excluding distillation. Simulations of the two policies demonstrate the improvements that are possible in principle via optimal use of distillation with respect to average throughput, average fidelity, and jitter of end-to-end entanglement, as functions of fidelity threshold. Our model thus helps capture the role of entanglement distillation in mitigating the effects of decoherence in a quantum switch in an entanglement distribution network, adding to the growing literature on quantum switches.

Abstract: Quantum optomechanical systems enable the study of fundamental questions on quantum nature of massive objects. For that a strong coupling between light and mechanical motion is required, which presents a challenge for massive objects. In particular large interferometric sensors with low frequency oscillators are difficult to bring into quantum regime. Here we propose a modification of the Michelson-Sagnac interferometer, which allows to boost the optomechanical coupling strength. This is done by unbalancing the central beam-splitter of the interferometer, allowing to balance two types of optomechanical coupling present in the system: dissipative and dispersive. We analyse two different configurations, when the optomechanical cavity is formed by the mirror for the laser pump field (power-recycling), and by the mirror for the signal field (signal-recycling). We show that the imbalance of the beam splitter allows to dramatically increase the optical cooling of the test mass motion. We also formulate the conditions for observing quantum radiation-pressure noise and ponderomotive squeezing. Our configuration can serve as the basis for more complex modifications of the interferometer that would utilize the enhanced coupling strength. This will allow to efficiently reach quantum state of large test masses, opening the way to studying fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics and experimental search for quantum gravity.

Abstract: Realizing a sensitive photon-number-dependent phase shift on a light beam is required both in classical and quantum photonics. It may lead to new applications for classical and quantum photonics machine learning or pave the way for realizing photon-photon gate operations. Non-linear phase-shifts require efficient light-matter interaction, and recently quantum dots coupled to nanophotonic devices have enabled near-deterministic single-photon coupling. We experimentally realize an optical phase shift of $0.19 \pi \pm 0.03$ radians ($\approx 34$ degrees) using a weak coherent state interacting with a single quantum dot in a planar nanophotonic waveguide. The phase shift is probed by interferometric measurements of the light scattered from the quantum dot in the waveguide. The nonlinear process is sensitive at the single-photon level and can be made compatible with scalable photonic integrated circuitry. The work may open new prospects for realizing high-efficiency optical switching or be applied for proof-of-concept quantum machine learning or quantum simulation demonstrations.

Abstract: Entanglement is a crucial quantum resource with broad applications in quantum information science. For harnessing entanglement in practice, it is a prerequisite to certify the entanglement of a given quantum state. However, the certification process itself destroys the entanglement, thereby precluding further exploitation of the entanglement. Resolving this conflict, here we present a protocol that certifies the entanglement of a quantum state without complete destruction, and then, probabilistically recovers the original entanglement to provide useful entanglement for further quantum applications. We experimentally demonstrate this protocol in a photonic quantum system, and highlight its usefulness for selecting high-quality entanglement from a realistic entanglement source. Moreover, our study reveals various tradeoff relations among the physical quantities involved in the protocol. Our results show how entanglement certification can be made compatible with subsequent quantum applications, and more importantly, be beneficial to sort entanglement for better performance in quantum technologies.

Abstract: We study the use of von Neumann entropy constraints for obtaining lower bounds on the ground energy of quantum many-body systems. Known methods for obtaining certificates on the ground energy typically use consistency of local observables and are expressed as semidefinite programming relaxations. The local marginals defined by such a relaxation do not necessarily satisfy entropy inequalities that follow from the existence of a global state. Here, we propose to add such entropy constraints that lead to tighter convex relaxations for the ground energy problem. We give analytical and numerical results illustrating the advantages of such entropy constraints. We also show limitations of the entropy constraints we construct: they are implied by doubling the number of sites in the relaxation and as a result they can at best lead to a quadratic improvement in terms of the matrix sizes of the variables. We explain the relation to a method for approximating the free energy known as the Markov Entropy Decomposition method.

Abstract: We assess the analysis made by Bohr in 1935 of the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox/theorem. We explicitly describe Bohr's gedanken experiment involving a double-slit moving diaphragm interacting with two independent particles and show that the analysis provided by Bohr was flawed. We propose a different protocol correcting Bohr's version that confirms EPR dilemma: Quantum mechanics is either incomplete or non-local.

Abstract: Parameter estimation is an indispensable task in various applications of quantum information processing. To predict parameters in the post-processing stage, it is inherent to first perceive the quantum state with a measurement protocol and store the information acquired. In this work, we propose a general framework for constructing classical approximations of arbitrary quantum states with quantum reservoir networks. A key advantage of our method is that only a single local measurement setting is required for estimating arbitrary parameters, while most of the previous methods need exponentially increasing number of measurement settings. To estimate $M$ parameters simultaneously, the size of the classical approximation scales as $\ln M$. Moreover, this estimation scheme is extendable to higher-dimensional as well as hybrid systems, which makes it exceptionally generic. Both linear and nonlinear functions can be estimated efficiently by our scheme, and we support our theoretical findings with extensive numerical simulations.

Abstract: We discuss quantum two-block codes, a large class of CSS codes constructed from two commuting square matrices.Interesting families of such codes are generalized-bicycle (GB) codes and two-block group-algebra (2BGA) codes, where a cyclic group is replaced with an arbitrary finite group, generally non-abelian. We present code construction and give several expressions for code dimension, applicable depending on whether the constituent group is cyclic, abelian, or non-abelian. This gives a simple criterion for an essentially non-abelian 2BGA code guaranteed not to be permutation-equivalent to such a code based on an abelian group. We also give a lower bound on the distance which, in particular, applies to the case when a 2BGA code reduces to a hypergraph-product code constructed from a pair of classical group codes.

Abstract: Emerging quantum hardware provides new possibilities for quantum simulation. While much of the research has focused on simulating closed quantum systems, the real-world quantum systems are mostly open. Therefore, it is essential to develop quantum algorithms that can effectively simulate open quantum systems. Here we present an adaptive variational quantum algorithm for simulating open quantum system dynamics described by the Lindblad equation. The algorithm is designed to build resource-efficient ansatze through the dynamical addition of operators by maintaining the simulation accuracy. We validate the effectiveness of our algorithm on both noiseless simulators and IBM quantum processors and observe good quantitative and qualitative agreement with the exact solution. We also investigate the scaling of the required resources with system size and accuracy and find polynomial behavior. Our results demonstrate that near-future quantum processors are capable of simulating open quantum systems.

Abstract: The efficient computation of observables beyond the total energy is a key challenge and opportunity for fault-tolerant quantum computing approaches in quantum chemistry. Here we consider the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) components of the interaction energy as a prototypical example of such an observable. We provide a guide for calculating this observable on a fault-tolerant quantum computer while optimizing the required computational resources. Specifically, we present a quantum algorithm that estimates interaction energies at the first-order SAPT level with a Heisenberg-limited scaling. To this end, we exploit a high-order tensor factorization and block encoding technique that efficiently represents each SAPT observable. To quantify the computational cost of our methodology, we provide resource estimates in terms of the required number of logical qubits and Toffoli gates to execute our algorithm for a range of benchmark molecules, also taking into account the cost of the eigenstate preparation and the cost of block encoding the SAPT observables. Finally, we perform the resource estimation for a heme and artemisinin complex as a representative large-scale system encountered in drug design, highlighting our algorithm's performance in this new benchmark study and discussing possible bottlenecks that may be improved in future work.

Abstract: We exhibit a $ ((7,2,3)) $ nonadditive quantum error correcting code whose single qubit transversal gate set is $2I$, the binary icosahedral group. No code has ever been demonstrated with this property. The group $2I$ has intrinsic interest as a maximal subgroup of $SU(2)$. But more importantly, $ 2I $ together with a certain involution forms the most efficient single-qubit universal gate set.

Abstract: We present a class of exactly solvable 2D models whose ground states violate conventional beliefs about entanglement scaling in quantum matter. These beliefs are (i) that area law entanglement scaling originates from local correlations proximate to the boundary of the entanglement cut, and (ii) that ground state entanglement in 2D Hamiltonians cannot violate area law scaling by more than a multiplicative logarithmic factor. We explicitly present two classes of models defined by local, translation-invariant Hamiltonians, whose ground states can be exactly written as weighted superpositions of framed loop configurations. The first class of models exhibits area-law scaling, but of an intrinsically nonlocal origin so that the topological entanglement entropy scales with subsystem sizes. The second class of models has a rich ground state phase diagram that includes a phase exhibiting volume law entanglement.