arXiv subjects

Alexander Pitchford

Publications and source records attributed to Alexander Pitchford.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

QuTiP 5: The Quantum Toolbox in Python

QuTiP, the Quantum Toolbox in Python, has been at the forefront of open-source quantum software for the past 13 years. It is used as a research, teaching, and industrial tool, and has been downloaded millions of times by users around the world. Here we introduce the latest developments in QuTiP v5, which are set to have a large impact on the future of QuTiP and enable it to be a modern, continuously developed and popular tool for another decade and more. We summarize the code design and fundamental data layer changes as well as efficiency improvements, new solvers, applications to quantum circuits with QuTiP-QIP, and new quantum control tools with QuTiP-QOC. Additional flexibility in the data layer underlying all ``quantum objects'' in QuTiP allows us to harness the power of state-of-the-art data formats and packages like JAX, CuPy, and more. We explain these new features with a series of both well-known and new examples. The code for these examples is available in a static form on GitHub and as continuously updated and documented notebooks in the qutip-tutorials package.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Bayesian optimization of non-classical optomechanical correlations

Nonclassical correlations provide a resource for many applications in quantum technology as well as providing strong evidence that a system is indeed operating in the quantum regime. Optomechanical systems can be arranged to generate nonclassical correlations (such as quantum entanglement) between the mechanical mode and a mode of travelling light. Here we propose automated optimization of the production of quantum correlations in such a system, beyond what can be achieved through analytical methods, by applying Bayesian optimization to the control parameters. A two-mode optomechanical squeezing experiment is simulated using a detailed theoretical model of the system and the measurable outputs fed to the Bayesian optimization process. This then modifies the controllable parameters in order to maximize the non-classical two-mode squeezing and its detection, independently of the inner workings of the model. We focus on a levitated nano-sphere system, but the techniques described are broadly applicable in optomechanical experiments, and also more widely, especially where no detailed theoretical treatment is available. We find that in the experimentally relevant thermal regimes, the ability to vary and optimize a broad array of control parameters provides access to large values of two-mode squeezing that would otherwise be difficult or intractable to discover via analytical or trial and error methods. In particular we observe that modulation of the driving frequency around the resonant sideband allows for stronger nonclassical correlations. We also observe that our optimization approach finds parameters that allow significant squeezing in the high temperature regime. This extends the range of experimental setups in which non-classical correlations could be generated beyond the region of high quantum cooperativity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

QuTiP-BoFiN: A bosonic and fermionic numerical hierarchical-equations-of-motion library with applications in light-harvesting, quantum control, and single-molecule electronics

The "hierarchical equations of motion" (HEOM) method is a powerful exact numerical approach to solve the dynamics and find the steady-state of a quantum system coupled to a non-Markovian and non-perturbative environment. Originally developed in the context of physical chemistry, it has also been extended and applied to problems in solid-state physics, optics, single-molecule electronics, and biological physics. Here we present a numerical library in Python, integrated with the powerful QuTiP platform, which implements the HEOM for both bosonic and fermionic environments. We demonstrate its utility with a series of examples. For the bosonic case, we include demonstrations of fitting arbitrary spectral densities, and an example of the dynamics of energy transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson photosynthetic complex, showing how a suitable non-Markovian environment can protect against pure dephasing. We also demonstrate how the HEOM can be used to benchmark different strategies for dynamical decoupling of a spin from its environment, and show that the Uhrig pulse-spacing scheme is less optimal than equally spaced pulses when the environment's spectral density is very broad. For the fermionic case, we present an integrable single-impurity example, used as a benchmark of the code, and a more complex example of an impurity strongly coupled to a single vibronic mode, with applications to single-molecule electronics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Pulse-level noisy quantum circuits with QuTiP

The study of the impact of noise on quantum circuits is especially relevant to guide the progress of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computing. In this paper, we address the pulse-level simulation of noisy quantum circuits with the Quantum Toolbox in Python (QuTiP). We introduce new tools in qutip-qip, QuTiP's quantum information processing package. These tools simulate quantum circuits at the pulse level, leveraging QuTiP's quantum dynamics solvers and control optimization features. We show how quantum circuits can be compiled on simulated processors, with control pulses acting on a target Hamiltonian that describes the unitary evolution of the physical qubits. Various types of noise can be introduced based on the physical model, e.g., by simulating the Lindblad density-matrix dynamics or Monte Carlo quantum trajectories. In particular, the user can define environment-induced decoherence at the processor level and include noise simulation at the level of control pulses. We illustrate how the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is compiled and executed on a superconducting-qubit-based processor, on a spin-chain-based processor and using control optimization algorithms. We also show how to easily reproduce experimental results on cross-talk noise in an ion-based processor, and how a Ramsey experiment can be modeled with Lindblad dynamics. Finally, we illustrate how to integrate these features with other software frameworks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

In situ upgrade of quantum simulators to universal computers

Quantum simulators, machines that can replicate the dynamics of quantum systems, are being built as useful devices and are seen as a stepping stone to universal quantum computers. A key difference between the two is that computers have the ability to perform the logic gates that make up algorithms. We propose a method for learning how to construct these gates efficiently by using the simulator to perform optimal control on itself. This bypasses two major problems of purely classical approaches to the control problem: the need to have an accurate model of the system, and a classical computer more powerful than the quantum one to carry out the required simulations. Strong evidence that the scheme scales polynomially in the number of qubits, for systems of up to 9 qubits with Ising interactions, is presented from numerical simulations carried out in different topologies. This suggests that this in situ approach is a practical way of upgrading quantum simulators to computers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Fast microwave-driven three-qubit gates for cavity-coupled superconducting qubits

Although single and two-qubit gates are sufficient for universal quantum computation, single-shot three-qubit gates greatly simplify quantum error correction schemes and algorithms. We design fast, high-fidelity three-qubit entangling gates based on microwave pulses for transmon qubits coupled through a superconducting resonator. We show that when interqubit frequency differences are comparable to single-qubit anharmonicities, errors occur primarily through a single unwanted transition. This feature enables the design of fast three-qubit gates based on simple analytical pulse shapes that are engineered to minimize such errors. We show that a three-qubit ccz gate can be performed in 260 ns with fidelities exceeding $99.38\%$, or $99.99\%$ with numerical optimization.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

The reachable set of single-mode unstable quadratic Hamiltonians

The question of open-loop control in the Gaussian regime may be cast by asking which Gaussian unitary transformations are reachable by turning on and off a given set of quadratic Hamiltonians. For compact groups, including finite dimensional unitary groups, the well known Lie algebra rank criterion provides a sufficient and necessary condition for the reachable set to cover the whole group. Because of the non-compact nature of the symplectic group, which corresponds to Gaussian unitary transformations, this criterion turns out to be still necessary but not sufficient for Gaussian systems. If the control Hamiltonians are unstable, in a sense made rigorous in the main text, the peculiar situation may arise where the rank criterion is satisfied and yet not all symplectic transformations are reachable. Here, we address this situation for one degree of freedom and study the properties of the reachable set under unstable control Hamiltonians. First, we provide a partial analytical characterisation of the reachable set and prove that no orthogonal (`energy-preserving' or `passive' in the literature) symplectic operations may be reached with such controls. Then, we apply numerical optimal control algorithms to demonstrate a complete characterisation of the set in specific cases.

quant-ph↗