arXiv subjects

Andrew Steane

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Steane.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Unlocking vacuum entanglement

The structure of entanglement in the ground state of the harmonic chain is studied. A class of two-mode squeezed states, useful for this purpose, is identified. The entanglement of the local modes at the ends of the chain, after tracing out the centre, rapidly falls to zero as the length of the chain increases. However, if the central modes are measured, and the result communicated to systems interacting with the outer modes, the latter exhibit greatly enhanced entanglement, including in conditions where none was otherwise available. These ideas can be demonstrated in experiments in trapped ions, among other systems. The extension to the continuous case yields enhanced entanglement extracted from the vacuum state of a bosonic quantum field.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

The extended Wigner's friend, many- and single-worlds and reasoning from observation

The concept of an isolated system, and Frauchiger and Renner's extended `Wigner's friend' scenario are discussed. It is argued that: (i) it is questionable whether the approximation of the isolated system is valid when measurement-like processes are involved; (ii) one may infer, from Frauchiger and Renner's thought-experiment, and similar thought-experiments, that any interpretation of quantum theory involving *subjective collapse* fails; (iii) this does not distinguish single-world from many-world (relative-state) interpretations of quantum theory; (iv) reasoning from observations has to take into account the possible quantum-erasure of those observations if it is to be valid reasoning; (v) a single-world interpretation is valid if certain kinds of outcome are not quantum-erased in the future.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Distance-critical and distance-redundant graphs

If a vertex in a graph can be deleted without affecting distances among the other vertices, we shall say it is distance-redundant. Graphs with all, some or no such vertices are discussed. (The latter class was termed distance-critical by Erd\H{o}s and Howorka).

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Gravitational bremsstrahlung from Yukawa and nucleon collisions

We obtain the gravitational emission from particles scattering via the Yukawa interaction, presenting both classical and approximate quantum results. We also estimate the contribution from the tensor part of the internucleon interaction. This emission is the main source of a very-high frequency component to the stochastic background in the Solar System and in neutron stars. The emission from the Sun (allowing for Debye screening) and from a typical neutron star are obtained. The gravitational wave luminosity of the Sun is $41 \pm 10$ MW.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Electromagnetic self-force for axially symmetric charge on a spherical shell

We obtain the fields and electromagnetic self-force of a charge distributed on the surface of a sphere undergoing rigid motion at constant proper acceleration, where the charge distribution has axial symmetry about the direction of motion. A closed-form expression for the self-force is given in terms of the multipole moments of the charge distribution. Applications to the electrodynamics of a dipole, and to electromagnetic self-force near a horizon (in spacetime) are discussed.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2016

On determining absolute entropy without quantum theory or the Third Law of thermodynamics

We employ classical thermodynamics to gain information about absolute entropy, without recourse to statistical methods, quantum mechanics or the Third Law of thermodynamics. The Gibbs-Duhem equation yields various simple methods to determine the absolute entropy of a fluid. We also study the entropy of an ideal gas and the ionization of a plasma in thermal equilibrium. A single measurement of the degree of ionization can be used to determine an unknown constant in the entropy equation, and thus determine the absolute entropy of a gas. It follows from all these examples that the value of entropy at absolute zero temperature does not need to be assigned by postulate, but can be deduced empirically.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Unruh effect and macroscopic quantum interference

We investigate the influence of Unruh radiation on matter-wave interferometry experiments using neutral objects modeled as dielectric spheres. The Unruh effect leads to a loss of coherence through momentum diffusion. This is a fundamental source of decoherence that affects all objects having electromagnetic interactions. However, the effect is not large enough to prevent the observation of interference for objects of any size, even when the path separation is larger than the size of the object. When the acceleration in the interferometer arms is large, inertial tidal forces will disrupt the material integrity of the interfering objects before the Unruh decoherence of the centre of mass motion is sufficient to prevent observable interference.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Self-force of a rigid ideal fluid, and a charged sphere in hyperbolic motion

We present two results in the treatment of self-force of accelerating bodies. If the total force on an extended rigid object is calculated from the change of momentum summed over planes of simultaneity of successive rest frames, then we show that an ideal fluid, moving rigidly, exerts no net force on its boundary. Under this same definition of total force, we find the electromagnetic self-force for a spherical charged shell of proper radius R accelerating with constant proper acceleration g is (2 e^2 g/R)[ 1/12 - \sum_{n=0}^\infinity (g R)^{2n} ((2n-3)(2n-1)(2n+1)^2)^{-1} ].

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2004

Further quantum-gate methods using selective displacement of trapped ions

We consider quantum gates for trapped ions using state-selective displacement of the ions. We generalize earlier work in order to treat arbitrary separations between the traps. This requires the impact of anharmonicity arising from the Coulomb interaction to be estimated. We show that its effects are always small enough to allow high fidelity. In particular, the method can be applied to two ions in the same trap. We also show that gates between non-neighbour ions, and hence a Toffoli (three-qubit controlled-NOT) gate, can be achieved. We discuss how the gate can be applied to logical qubits encoded in the decoherence-free-subspace {|01>,|10>}, where each pair of ions stores a single qubit. We also suggest alternatives to the spin-echo method to suppress unwanted terms in the evolution.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1997

Quantum Computing

The subject of quantum computing brings together ideas from classical information theory, computer science, and quantum physics. This review aims to summarise not just quantum computing, but the whole subject of quantum information theory. It turns out that information theory and quantum mechanics fit together very well. In order to explain their relationship, the review begins with an introduction to classical information theory and computer science, including Shannon's theorem, error correcting codes, Turing machines and computational complexity. The principles of quantum mechanics are then outlined, and the EPR experiment described. The EPR-Bell correlations, and quantum entanglement in general, form the essential new ingredient which distinguishes quantum from classical information theory, and, arguably, quantum from classical physics. Basic quantum information ideas are described, including key distribution, teleportation, data compression, quantum error correction, the universal quantum computer and quantum algorithms. The common theme of all these ideas is the use of quantum entanglement as a computational resource. Experimental methods for small quantum processors are briefly sketched, concentrating on ion traps, high Q cavities, and NMR. The review concludes with an outline of the main features of quantum information physics, and avenues for future research.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1997

Space, time, parallelism and noise requirements for reliable quantum computing

Quantum error correction methods use processing power to combat noise. The noise level which can be tolerated in a fault-tolerant method is therefore a function of the computational resources available, especially the size of computer and degree of parallelism. I present an analysis of error correction with block codes, made fault-tolerant through the use of prepared ancilla blocks. The preparation and verification of the ancillas is described in detail. It is shown that the ancillas need only be verified against a small set of errors. This, combined with previously known advantages, makes this `ancilla factory' the best method to apply error correction, whether in concatenated or block coding. I then consider the resources required to achieve $2 \times 10^{10}$ computational steps reliably in a computer of 2150 logical qubits, finding that the simplest $[[n,1,d]]$ block codes can tolerate more noise with smaller overheads than the $7^L$-bit concatenated code. The scaling is such that block codes remain the better choice for all computations one is likely to contemplate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Active stabilisation, quantum computation and quantum state synthesis

Active stabilisation of a quantum system is the active suppression of noise (such as decoherence) in the system, without disrupting its unitary evolution. Quantum error correction suggests the possibility of achieving this, but only if the recovery network can suppress more noise than it introduces. A general method of constructing such networks is proposed, which gives a substantial improvement over previous fault tolerant designs. The construction permits quantum error correction to be understood as essentially quantum state synthesis. An approximate analysis implies that algorithms involving very many computational steps on a quantum computer can thus be made possible.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Quantum Reed-Muller Codes

A set of quantum error correcting codes based on classical Reed-Muller codes is described. The codes have parameters [[n,k,d]] = [[2^r, 2^r - C(r,t) - 2 sum_{i=0}^{t-1} C(r,i), 2^t + 2^{t-1} ]].

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Simple Quantum Error Correcting Codes

Methods of finding good quantum error correcting codes are discussed, and many example codes are presented. The recipe C_2^{\perp} \subseteq C_1, where C_1 and C_2 are classical codes, is used to obtain codes for up to 16 information qubits with correction of small numbers of errors. The results are tabulated. More efficient codes are obtained by allowing C_1 to have reduced distance, and introducing sign changes among the code words in a systematic manner. This systematic approach leads to single-error correcting codes for 3, 4 and 5 information qubits with block lengths of 8, 10 and 11 qubits respectively.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Multiple Particle Interference and Quantum Error Correction

The concept of multiple particle interference is discussed, using insights provided by the classical theory of error correcting codes. This leads to a discussion of error correction in a quantum communication channel or a quantum computer. Methods of error correction in the quantum regime are presented, and their limitations assessed. A quantum channel can recover from arbitrary decoherence of x qubits if K bits of quantum information are encoded using n quantum bits, where K/n can be greater than 1-2 H(2x/n), but must be less than 1 - 2 H(x/n). This implies exponential reduction of decoherence with only a polynomial increase in the computing resources required. Therefore quantum computation can be made free of errors in the presence of physically realistic levels of decoherence. The methods also allow isolation of quantum communication from noise and evesdropping (quantum privacy amplification).

quant-ph↗