SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Clara Wassner

Publications and source records attributed to Clara Wassner.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

An operational continuum limit of quantum combs

Quantum combs are powerful conceptual tools for capturing multi-time processes in quantum information theory, constituting the most general quantum mechanical process. But, despite their causal nature, they lack a meaningful physical connection to time -- and are, by and large, arguably incompatible with it without extra structure. The subclass of quantum combs which assumes an underlying process is described by the so-called process tensor framework, which has been successfully used to study and characterise non-Markovian open quantum systems. But, although process tensors are motivated by an underlying dynamics, it is not a priori clear how to connect them to a continuous process tensor object mathematically -- leaving an uncomfortable conceptual gap. In this work, we take a decisive step toward remedying this situation. We introduce a fully continuous process tensor framework by showing how the discrete multi-partite Choi matrix becomes a vector in bosonic Fock space, which is intrinsically and rigorously defined in the continuum. With this equipped, we lay out the core structural elements of this framework and its properties. This translation allows for an information-theoretic treatment of multi-time correlations in the continuum via the analysis of their continuous matrix product state representatives. Our work closes a gap in the quantum information literature, and opens up the opportunity for the application of many-body physics insights to our understanding of quantum stochastic processes in the continuum.

quant-ph

On the complex zeros of the wavefunction

The Schr\"odinger wavefunction is ubiquitous in quantum mechanics, quantum chemistry, and bosonic quantum information theory. Its zero-set for fermionic systems is well-studied and central for determining chemical properties, yet for bosonic systems the zero-set is less understood, especially in the context of characterizing non-classicality. Here we study the zeros of such wavefunctions and give them a novel information-theoretic interpretation. Our main technical result is showing that the wavefunction of most bosonic quantum systems can be extended to a holomorphic function over the complex plane, allowing the application of powerful techniques from complex analysis. As a consequence, we prove a version of Hudson's theorem for the wavefunction and characterize Gaussian dynamics as classical motion of the wavefunction zeros. Our findings suggest that the non-Gaussianity of quantum optical states can be detected by measuring a single quadrature of the electromagnetic field, which we demonstrate in a companion paper [arXiv:2507.23005]. More generally, our results show that the non-Gaussian features of bosonic quantum systems are encoded in the zeros of their wavefunction.

quant-ph

Detecting quantum non-Gaussianity with a single quadrature

Full reconstruction of quantum states from measurement samples is often a prohibitively complex task, both in terms of the experimental setup and the scaling of the sample size with the system. This motivates the relatively easier task of certifying application-specific quantities using measurements that are not tomographically complete, i.e. that provide only partial information about the state related to the application of interest. Here, we focus on simplifying the measurements needed to certify non-Gaussianity in bosonic systems, a resource related to quantum advantage in various information processing tasks. We show that the statistics of a single quadrature measurement, corresponding to standard homodyne detection in quantum optics, can witness arbitrary degrees of non-Gaussianity as quantified by stellar rank. Our results are based on a version of Hudson's theorem for wavefunctions, proved in a companion paper [arXiv:2507.23468], revealing that the zeros in a homodyne distribution are signatures of quantum non-Gaussianity and higher stellar ranks. The validity of our witnesses is supported by a technical result showing that sets of states with bounded energy and finite stellar rank are compact. We provide an analysis of sample complexity, noise robustness, and experimental prospects. Our work drastically simplifies the setup required to detect quantum non-Gaussianity in bosonic quantum states.

quant-ph

Holonomic quantum computation: a scalable adiabatic architecture

Holonomic quantum computation exploits the geometric evolution of eigenspaces of a degenerate Hamiltonian to implement unitary evolution of computational states. In this work we introduce a framework for performing scalable quantum computation in atom experiments through a universal set of fully holonomic adiabatic gates. Through a detailed differential geometric analysis, we elucidate the geometric nature of these gates and their inherent robustness against classical control errors and other noise sources. The concepts that we introduce here are expected to be widely applicable to the understanding and design of error robustness in generic holonomic protocols. To underscore the practical feasibility of our approach, we contextualize our gate design within recent advancements in Rydberg-based quantum computing and simulation.

quant-ph

Typical thermalization of low-entanglement states

Proving thermalization from the unitary evolution of a closed quantum system is one of the oldest questions that is still nowadays only partially resolved. Several efforts have led to various formulations of what is called the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, which leads to thermalization under certain conditions on the initial states. These conditions, however, are sensitive to the precise formulation of the hypothesis. In this work, we focus on the important case of low entanglement initial states, which are operationally accessible in many natural physical settings, including experimental schemes for testing thermalization and for quantum simulation. We prove thermalization of these states under precise conditions that have operational significance. More specifically, motivated by arguments of unavoidable finite resolution, we define a random energy smoothing on local Hamiltonians that leads to local thermalization when the initial state has low entanglement. Finally we show that such a transformation affects neither the Gibbs state locally nor, under generic smoothness conditions on the spectrum, the short-time dynamics.

quant-ph