arXiv subjects

Andrew C. Doherty

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew C. Doherty.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Optimizing practical entanglement distillation

The goal of entanglement distillation is to turn a large number of weakly entangled states into a smaller number of highly entangled ones. Practical entanglement distillation schemes offer a tradeoff between the fidelity to the target state, and the probability of successful distillation. Exploiting such tradeoffs is of interest in the design of quantum repeater protocols. Here, we present a number of methods to assess and optimize entanglement distillation schemes. We start by giving a numerical method to compute upper bounds on the maximum achievable fidelity for a desired probability of success. We show that this method performs well for many known examples by comparing it to well-known distillation protocols. This allows us to show optimality for many well-known distillation protocols for specific states of interest. As an example, we analytically prove optimality of the distillation protocol utilized within the Extreme Photon Loss (EPL) entanglement generation scheme, even in the asymptotic limit. We proceed to present a numerical method that can improve an existing distillation scheme for a given input state, and we present an example for which this method finds an optimal distillation protocol. An implementation of our numerical methods is available as a Julia package.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Tensor Networks with a Twist: Anyon-permuting domain walls and defects in PEPS

We study the realization of anyon-permuting symmetries of topological phases on the lattice using tensor networks. Working on the virtual level of a projected entangled pair state, we find matrix product operators (MPOs) that realize all unitary topological symmetries for the toric and color codes. These operators act as domain walls that enact the symmetry transformation on anyons as they cross. By considering open boundary conditions for these domain wall MPOs, we show how to introduce symmetry twists and defect lines into the state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Spin of a multielectron quantum dot and its interaction with a neighboring electron

We investigate the spin of a multielectron GaAs quantum dot in a sequence of nine charge occupancies, by exchange coupling the multielectron dot to a neighboring two-electron double quantum dot. For all nine occupancies, we make use of a leakage spectroscopy technique to reconstruct the spectrum of spin states in the vicinity of the interdot charge transition between a single- and a multielectron quantum dot. In the same regime we also perform time-resolved measurements of coherent exchange oscillations between the single- and multielectron quantum dot. With these measurements, we identify distinct characteristics of the multielectron spin state, depending on whether the dot's occupancy is even or odd. For three out of four even occupancies we do not observe any exchange interaction with the single quantum dot, indicating a spin-0 ground state. For the one remaining even occupancy, we observe an exchange interaction that we associate with a spin-1 multielectron quantum dot ground state. For all five of the odd occupancies, we observe an exchange interaction associated with a spin-1/2 ground state. For three of these odd occupancies, we clearly demonstrate that the exchange interaction changes sign in the vicinity of the charge transition. For one of these, the exchange interaction is negative (i.e. triplet-preferring) beyond the interdot charge transition, consistent with the observed spin-1 for the next (even) occupancy. Our experimental results are interpreted through the use of a Hubbard model involving two orbitals of the multielectron quantum dot. Allowing for the spin correlation energy (i.e. including a term favoring Hund's rules) and different tunnel coupling to different orbitals, we qualitatively reproduce the measured exchange profiles for all occupancies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Long-range entanglement for spin qubits via quantum Hall edge modes

We propose and analyse a scheme for performing a long-range entangling gate for qubits encoded in electron spins trapped in semiconductor quantum dots. Our coupling makes use of an electrostatic interaction between the state-dependent charge configurations of a singlet-triplet qubit and the edge modes of a quantum Hall droplet. We show that distant singlet-triplet qubits can be selectively coupled, with gate times that can be much shorter than qubit dephasing times and faster than decoherence due to coupling to the edge modes. Based on parameters from recent experiments, we argue that fidelities above 99% could in principle be achieved for a two-qubit entangling gate taking as little as 20 ns.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Comparing Experiments to the Fault-Tolerance Threshold

Achieving error rates that meet or exceed the fault-tolerance threshold is a central goal for quantum computing experiments, and measuring these error rates using randomized benchmarking is now routine. However, direct comparison between measured error rates and thresholds is complicated by the fact that benchmarking estimates average error rates while thresholds reflect worst-case behavior when a gate is used as part of a large computation. These two measures of error can differ by orders of magnitude in the regime of interest. Here we facilitate comparison between the experimentally accessible average error rates and the worst-case quantities that arise in current threshold theorems by deriving relations between the two for a variety of physical noise sources. Our results indicate that it is coherent errors that lead to an enormous mismatch between average and worst case, and we quantify how well these errors must be controlled to ensure fair comparison between average error probabilities and fault-tolerance thresholds.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Symmetry-respecting real-space renormalization for the quantum Ashkin-Teller model

We use a simple real-space renormalization group approach to investigate the critical behavior of the quantum Ashkin-Teller model, a one-dimensional quantum spin chain possessing a line of criticality along which critical exponents vary continuously. This approach, which is based on exploiting the on-site symmetry of the model, has been shown to be surprisingly accurate for predicting some aspects of the critical behavior of the Ising model. Our investigation explores this approach in more generality, in a model where the critical behavior has a richer structure but which reduces to the simpler Ising case at a special point. We demonstrate that the correlation length critical exponent as predicted from this real-space renormalization group approach is in broad agreement with the corresponding results from conformal field theory along the line of criticality. Near the Ising special point, the error in the estimated critical exponent from this simple method is comparable to that of numerically-intensive simulations based on much more sophisticated methods, although the accuracy decreases away from the decoupled Ising model point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Characterisation of an exchange-based two-qubit gate for resonant exchange qubits

Resonant exchange qubits are a promising addition to the family of experimentally implemented encodings of single qubits using semiconductor quantum dots. We have shown previously that it ought to be straightforward to perform a CPHASE gate between two resonant exchange qubits with a single exchange pulse. This approach uses energy gaps to suppress leakage rather than conventional pulse sequences. In this paper we present analysis and simulations of our proposed two-qubit gate subject to charge and Overhauser field noise at levels observed in current experiments. Our main result is that we expect implementations of our two-qubit gate to achieve high fidelities, with errors at the percent level and gate times comparable to single-qubit operations. As such, exchange-coupled resonant exchange qubits remain an attractive approach for quantum computing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

MERA for Spin Chains with Continuously Varying Criticality

We use the multiscale entanglement renormalisation ansatz (MERA) to numerically investigate three critical quantum spin chains with Z_2 x Z_2 on-site symmetry: a staggered XXZ model, a transverse field cluster model, and the quantum Ashkin-Teller model. All three models possess a continuous one-parameter family of critical points. Along this critical line, the thermodynamic limit of these models is expected to be described by classes of c=1 conformal field theories (CFTs) of two possible types: the S^1 free boson and its Z_2-orbifold. Our numerics using MERA with explicitly enforced Z_2 x Z_2 symmetry allow us to extract conformal data for each model, with strong evidence supporting the identification of the staggered XXZ model and critical transverse field cluster model with the S^1 boson CFT, and the Ashkin-Teller model with the Z_2-orbifold boson CFT. Our first two models describe the phase transitions between symmetry protected topologically ordered phases and trivial phases, which lie outside the usual Landau-Ginsburg-Wilson paradigm of symmetry breaking. Our results show that a range of critical theories can arise at the boundary of a single symmetry protected phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Perturbative 2-body Parent Hamiltonians for Projected Entangled Pair States

We construct parent Hamiltonians involving only local 2-body interactions for a broad class of Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS). Making use of perturbation gadget techniques, we define a perturbative Hamiltonian acting on the virtual PEPS space with a finite order low energy effective Hamiltonian that is a gapped, frustration-free parent Hamiltonian for an encoded version of a desired PEPS. For topologically ordered PEPS, the ground space of the low energy effective Hamiltonian is shown to be in the same phase as the desired state to all orders of perturbation theory. An encoded parent Hamiltonian for the double semion string net ground state is explicitly constructed as a concrete example.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Exchange-based two-qubit gate for singlet-triplet qubits

We analyse a simple exchange-based two-qubit gate for singlet-triplet qubits in gate-defined semiconductor quantum dots that can be implemented in a single exchange pulse. Excitations from the logical subspace are suppressed by a magnetic field gradient that causes spin-flip transitions to be non-energy-conserving. We show that the use of adiabatic pulses greatly reduces leakage processes compared to square pulses. We also characterise the effect of charge noise on the entanglement fidelity of the gate both analytically and in simulations; demonstrating high entanglement fidelities for physically realistic experimental parameters. Specifically we find that it is possible to achieve fidelities and gate times that are comparable to single-qubit states using realistic magnetic field gradients.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

The Trotter Step Size Required for Accurate Quantum Simulation of Quantum Chemistry

The simulation of molecules is a widely anticipated application of quantum computers. However, recent studies \cite{WBCH13a,HWBT14a} have cast a shadow on this hope by revealing that the complexity in gate count of such simulations increases with the number of spin orbitals $N$ as $N^8$, which becomes prohibitive even for molecules of modest size $N\sim 100$. This study was partly based on a scaling analysis of the Trotter step required for an ensemble of random artificial molecules. Here, we revisit this analysis and find instead that the scaling is closer to $N^6$ in worst case for real model molecules we have studied, indicating that the random ensemble fails to accurately capture the statistical properties of real-world molecules. Actual scaling may be significantly better than this due to averaging effects. We then present an alternative simulation scheme and show that it can sometimes outperform existing schemes, but that this possibility depends crucially on the details of the simulated molecule. We obtain further improvements using a version of the coalescing scheme of \cite{WBCH13a}; this scheme is based on using different Trotter steps for different terms. The method we use to bound the complexity of simulating a given molecule is efficient, in contrast to the approach of \cite{WBCH13a,HWBT14a} which relied on exponentially costly classical exact simulation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Suppressing qubit dephasing using real-time Hamiltonian estimation

Unwanted interaction between a quantum system and its fluctuating environment leads to decoherence and is the primary obstacle to establishing a scalable quantum information processing architecture. Strategies such as environmental and materials engineering, quantum error correction and dynamical decoupling can mitigate decoherence, but generally increase experimental complexity. Here we improve coherence in a qubit using real-time Hamiltonian parameter estimation. Using a rapidly converging Bayesian approach, we precisely measure the splitting in a singlet-triplet spin qubit faster than the surrounding nuclear bath fluctuates. We continuously adjust qubit control parameters based on this information, thereby improving the inhomogenously broadened coherence time ($T_{2}^{*}$) from tens of nanoseconds to above 2 $μ$s and demonstrating the effectiveness of Hamiltonian estimation in reducing the effects of correlated noise in quantum systems. Because the technique demonstrated here is compatible with arbitrary qubit operations, it is a natural complement to quantum error correction and can be used to improve the performance of a wide variety of qubits in both metrological and quantum-information-processing applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Detuned Mechanical Parametric Amplification as a Quantum Non-Demolition Measurement

Recently it has been demonstrated that the combination of weak-continuous position detection with detuned parametric driving can lead to significant steady-state mechanical squeezing, far beyond the 3 dB limit normally associated with parametric driving. In this work, we show the close connection between this detuned scheme and quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement of a single mechanical quadrature. In particular, we show that applying an experimentally realistic detuned parametric drive to a cavity optomechanical system allows one to effectively realize a QND measurement despite being in the bad-cavity limit. In the limit of strong squeezing, we show that this scheme offers significant advantages over standard backaction evasion, not only by allowing operation in the weak measurement and low efficiency regimes, but also in terms of the purity of the mechanical state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Mechanical Entanglement via Detuned Parametric Amplification

We propose two schemes to generate entanglement between a pair of mechanical oscillators using parametric amplification. In contrast to existing parametric drive-based protocols, both schemes operate in the steady-state. Using a detuned parametric drive to maintain equilibrium and to couple orthogonal quadratures, our approach can be viewed as a two-mode extension of previous proposals for parametric squeezing. We find that robust steady-state entanglement is possible for matched oscillators with well-controlled coupling. In addition, one of the proposed schemes is robust to differences in the damping rates of the two oscillators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Topological Entanglement Entropy with a Twist

Defects in topologically ordered models have interesting properties that are reminiscent of the anyonic excitations of the models themselves. For example, dislocations in the toric code model are known as twists and possess properties that are analogous to Ising anyons. We strengthen this analogy by using the topological entanglement entropy as a diagnostic tool to identify properties of both defects and excitations in the toric code. Specifically, we show, through explicit calculation, that the toric code model including twists and dyon excitations has the same quantum dimensions, the same total quantum dimension, and the same fusion rules as an Ising anyon model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Tomography of a spin qubit in a double quantum dot

We investigate a range of methods to perform tomography in a solid-state qubit device, for which a priori initialization and measurement of the qubit is restricted to a single basis of the Bloch sphere. We explore and compare several methods to acquire precise descriptions of additional states and measurements, quantifying both stochastic and systematic errors, ultimately leading to a tomographically-complete set that can be subsequently used in process tomography. We focus in detail on the example of a spin qubit formed by the singlet-triplet subspace of two electron spins in a GaAs double quantum dot, although our approach is quite general.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

The hidden symmetry-breaking picture of symmetry-protected topological order

We generalize the hidden symmetry-breaking picture of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order developed by Kennedy and Tasaki in the context of the Haldane phase. Our generalization applies to a wide class of SPT phases in one-dimensional spin chains, protected by an on-site representation of a finite abelian group. This generalization takes the form of a non-local unitary map that relates local symmetry-respecting Hamiltonians in an SPT phase to local Hamiltonians in a symmetry-broken phase. Using this unitary, we establish a relation between the two-point correlation functions that characterize fully symmetry-broken phases with the string-order correlation functions that characterise the SPT phases, therefore establishing the perspective in these systems that SPT phases are characterised by hidden symmetry-breaking. Our generalization is also applied to systems with continuous symmetries, including SO(2k+1) and SU(k).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Microwave Absorption by a Mesoscopic Quantum Hall Droplet

We consider the absorption of microwaves by a quantum Hall droplet. We show that the number and velocities of charged edge modes can be directly measured from a droplet of known shape. In contrast to standard transport measurements, different edge equilibration regimes can be accessed in the same device. If there is a quantum point contact in the droplet, then quasiparticle properties, including braiding statistics, can be observed. Their effects are manifested as modulations of the microwave absorption spectrum that are, notably, first-order in the tunneling amplitude at the point contact.

cond-mat.str-el↗