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arXiv · 1502.00259

Optimal quantum operations at zero energy cost

Giulio Chiribella·Yuxiang Yang
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Abstract

Quantum technologies are developing powerful tools to generate and manipulate coherent superpositions of different energy levels. Envisaging a new generation of energy-efficient quantum devices, here we explore how coherence can be manipulated without exchanging energy with the surrounding environment. We start from the task of converting a coherent superposition of energy eigenstates into another. We identify the optimal energy-preserving operations, both in the deterministic and in the probabilistic scenario. We then design a recursive protocol, wherein a branching sequence of energy-preserving filters increases the probability of success while reaching maximum fidelity at each iteration. Building on the recursive protocol, we construct efficient approximations of the optimal fidelity-probability trade-off, by taking coherent superpositions of the different branches generated by probabilistic filtering. The benefits of this construction are illustrated in applications to quantum metrology, quantum cloning, coherent state amplification, and ancilla-driven computation. Finally, we extend our results to transitions where the input state is generally mixed and we apply our findings to the task of purifying quantum coherence.

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Giulio Chiribella, Yuxiang Yang. 2017-08-23. Optimal quantum operations at zero energy cost. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.96.022327

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