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K. B. Whaley

Publications and source records attributed to K. B. Whaley.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Full protection of superconducting qubit systems from coupling errors

Solid state qubits realized in superconducting circuits are potentially extremely scalable. However, strong decoherence may be transferred to the qubits by various elements of the circuits that couple individual qubits, particularly when coupling is implemented over long distances. We propose here an encoding that provides full protection against errors originating from these coupling elements, for a chain of superconducting qubits with a nearest neighbor anisotropic XY-interaction. The encoding is also seen to provide partial protection against errors deriving from general electronic noise.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Entangling flux qubits with a bipolar dynamic inductance

We propose a scheme to implement variable coupling between two flux qubits using the screening current response of a dc Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID). The coupling strength is adjusted by the current bias applied to the SQUID and can be varied continuously from positive to negative values, allowing cancellation of the direct mutual inductance between the qubits. We show that this variable coupling scheme permits efficient realization of universal quantum logic. The same SQUID can be used to determine the flux states of the qubits.

quant-ph↗

Roton-Rotation Coupling of Acetylene in $^4$He

Rotational absorption spectra of acetylene in superfluid $^4$He are calculated using a combined correlated basis function-diffusion Monte Carlo method (CBF/DMC) as well as a numerically exact path integral correlation function approach (PICF). Both approaches predict anomalously large distortion constants in addition to reduced rotational constants, and the higher rotational excitations are seen to be accompanied by an additional peak and absorption band. The CBF analysis shows that these phenomena are due to strong coupling of the higher rotational states with the roton and maxon excitations of $^4$He, and the assocated divergence of the helium density of states in this region.

cond-mat.other↗

An Explicit Universal Gate-set for Exchange-Only Quantum Computation

A single physical interaction might not be universal for quantum computation in general. It has been shown, however, that in some cases it can generate universal quantum computation over a subspace. For example, by encoding logical qubits into arrays of multiple physical qubits, a single isotropic or anisotropic exchange interaction can generate a universal logical gate-set. Recently, encoded universality for the exchange interaction was explicitly demonstrated on three-qubit arrays, the smallest nontrivial encoding. We now present the exact specification of a discrete universal logical gate-set on four-qubit arrays. We show how to implement the single qubit operations exactly with at most 3 nearest neighbor exchange operations and how to generate the encoded controlled-not with 29 parallel nearest neighbor exchange interactions or 54 serial gates, obtained from extensive numerical optimization using genetic algorithms and Nelder-Mead searches. Our gate-sequences are immediately applicable to implementations of quantum circuits with the exchange interaction.

quant-ph↗

Quantum Rotation of HCN and DCN in Helium-4

We present calculations of rotational absorption spectra of the molecules HCN and DCN in superfluid helium-4, using a combination of the Diffusion Monte Carlo method for ground state properties and an analytic many-body method (Correlated Basis Function theory) for the excited states. Our results agree with the experimentally determined effective moment of inertia which has been obtained from the $J=0\to 1$ spectral transition. The correlated basis function analysis shows that, unlike heavy rotors such as OCS, the J=2 and higher rotational excitations of HCN and DCN have high enough energy to strongly couple to rotons, leading to large shifts of the lines and accordingly to anomalous large spectroscopic distortion constants, to the emergence of roton-maxon bands, and to secondary peaks in the absorption spectra for J=2 and J=3.

cond-mat↗

Comparison of Rotational Energies and Rigidity of OCS-paraH_2 and OCS-4He complexes

We analyze the nature of the rotational energy level structure of the OCS-He and OCS-H_2 complexes with a comparison of exact calculations to several differentdynamical approximations. We compare with the clamped coordinate quasiadiabatic approximation that introduces an effective potential for each asymmetric rotor level, with an effective rotation Hamiltonian constructed from ground state averages of the inverse of the inertial matrix, and investigate the usefulness of the Eckart condition to decouple rotations and vibrations of these weakly bound complexes between linear OCS and 4He or H_2. Comparison with exact results allows an assessment of the accuracies of the different approximate methods and indicates which approaches are suitable for larger clusters of OCS with 4He and with H_2. We find the OCS-H_2 complex is considerably more rigid than the OCS-4He complex, suggesting that semi-rigid models are useful for analysis of larger clusters of H_2 with OCS.

physics.atm-clus↗

OCS in small para-hydrogen clusters: energetics and structure with N=1-8 complexed hydrogen molecules

We determine the structure and energetics of complexes of the linear OCS molecule with small numbers of para-hydrogen molecules, N=1-8, using zero temperature quantum Monte Carlo methods. Ground state calculations are carried out with importance-sampled rigid body diffusion Monte Carlo (IS-RBDMC) and excited state calculations with the projection operator imaginary time spectral evolution (POITSE) methodology. The ground states are found to be highly structured, with a gradual build up of two axial rings as N increases to 8. Analysis of the azimuthal density correlations around the OCS molecule shows that these rings are quite delocalized for small N values, but become strongly localized for N \geq 5 . Excited state calculations are made for a range of total cluster angular momentum values and the rotational energy levels fitted to obtain effective rotational and distortion constants of the complexed OCS molecule as a function of cluster size N. Detailed analysis of these spectroscopic constants indicates that the complexes of OCS with para-hydrogen have an unusually rich variation in dynamical behavior, with sizes N=1-2 showing near rigid behavior, sizes N=3-4 showing extremely floppy behavior, and the larger sizes N=5-8 showing more rigid behavior again. The large values of the distortion constant D obtained for N=3-4 are rationalized in terms of the coupling between the OCS rotations and the "breathing" mode of the first, partially filled ring of para-hydrogen molecules.

physics.atm-clus↗

Perfect initialization of a quantum computer of neutral atoms in an optical lattice of large lattice constant

We propose a scheme for the initialization of a quantum computer based on neutral atoms trapped in an optical lattice with large lattice constant. Our focus is the development of a compacting scheme to prepare a perfect optical lattice of simple orthorhombic structure with unit occupancy. Compacting is accomplished by sequential application of two types of operations: a flip operator that changes the internal state of the atoms, and a shift operator that moves them along the lattice principal axis. We propose physical mechanisms for realization of these operations and we study the effects of motional heating of the atoms. We carry out an analysis of the complexity of the compacting scheme and show that it scales linearly with the number of lattice sites per row of the lattice, thus showing good scaling behavior with the size of the quantum computer.

quant-ph↗

Transition from molecular complex to quantum solvation in OCS(He)_N

We present quantum calculations of the rotational energy levels and spectroscopic rotational constants of the linear OCS molecule in variable size clusters of 4He, using spectral evolution quantum Monte Carlo methods that allow excited states to be accessed without nodal constraints. The rotational constants of OCS are found to decrease monotonically from the gas phase value as the number of helium atoms increases to N=6, after which the average constant increases to saturation at a value in excellent agreement with experimental measurements made on significantly larger clusters (N>1000). The minimum is shown to indicate a transition from a molecular complex to a quantum solvated molecule, with the former characterized by floppy but near rigid behavior, while the latter is characterized by non-zero permutation exchanges and a smaller extent of rigid coupling.

cond-mat↗

Determinisitic Optical Fock State Generation

We present a scheme for the deterministic generation of N-photon Fock states from N three-level atoms in a high-finesse optical cavity. The method applies an external laser pulsethat generates an $N$-photon output state while adiabatically keeping the atom-cavity system within a subspace of optically dark states. We present analytical estimates of the error due to amplitude leakage from these dark states for general N, and compare it with explicit results of numerical simulations for N \leq 5. The method is shown to provide a robust source of N-photon states under a variety of experimental conditions and is suitable for experimental implementation using a cloud of cold atoms magnetically trapped in a cavity. The resulting N-photon states have potential applications in fundamental studies of non-classical states and in quantum information processing.

quant-ph↗

Coherence-Preserving Quantum Bits

Real quantum systems couple to their environment and lose their intrinsic quantum nature through the process known as decoherence. Here we present a method for minimizing decoherence by making it energetically unfavorable. We present a Hamiltonian made up solely of two-body interactions between four two-level systems (qubits) which has a two-fold degenerate ground state. This degenerate ground state has the property that any decoherence process acting on an individual physical qubit must supply energy from the bath to the system. Quantum information can be encoded into the degeneracy of the ground state and such coherence-preserving qubits will then be robust to local decoherence at low bath temperatures. We show how this quantum information can be universally manipulated and indicate how this approach may be applied to a quantum dot quantum computer.

quant-ph↗

Scalable Ion Trap Quantum Computation with Pairwise Interactions Only

Universal ion trap computation on Decoherence Free Subspaces (DFS) using only two qubit operations is presented. The DFS is constructed for the collective dephasing model. Encoded single and two-qubit logical operations are implemented via the Sorensen-Molmer interaction. Alternation of the effective Hamiltonians for two particular phase configurations of control fields approximates an anisotropic exchange interaction. This is universal over suitable encodings of one logical qubit into three physical qubits which are also DFS under collective decoherence.

quant-ph↗

Universal Quantum Computation with the Exchange Interaction

Experimental implementations of quantum computer architectures are now being investigated in many different physical settings. The full set of requirements that must be met to make quantum computing a reality in the laboratory [1] is daunting, involving capabilities well beyond the present state of the art. In this report we develop a significant simplification of these requirements that can be applied in many recent solid-state approaches, using quantum dots [2], and using donor-atom nuclear spins [3] or electron spins [4]. In these approaches, the basic two-qubit quantum gate is generated by a tunable Heisenberg interaction (the Hamiltonian is $H_{ij}=J(t){\vec S}_i\cdot{\vec S}_j$ between spins $i$ and $j$), while the one-qubit gates require the control of a local Zeeman field. Compared to the Heisenberg operation, the one-qubit operations are significantly slower and require substantially greater materials and device complexity, which may also contribute to increasing the decoherence rate. Here we introduce an explicit scheme in which the Heisenberg interaction alone suffices to exactly implement any quantum computer circuit, at a price of a factor of three in additional qubits and about a factor of ten in additional two-qubit operations. Even at this cost, the ability to eliminate the complexity of one-qubit operations should accelerate progress towards these solid-state implementations of quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

Exact gate-sequences for universal quantum computation using the XY-interaction alone

In a previous publication [1] we showed that it is possible to implement universal quantum computation with the anisotropic XY-Heisenberg exchange acting as a single interaction. To achieve this we used encodings of the states of the computation into a larger Hilbert space. This proof is non- constructive, however, and did not explicitly give the trade-offs in time that are required to implement encoded single qubit operations and encoded two-qubit gates. Here we explicitly give the gate-sequences needed to simulate these operations on encoded qubits and qutrits (three-level systems) and analyze the trade-offs involved. We also propose a possible layout for the qubits in a triangular arrangement.

quant-ph↗

Encoded Universality from a Single Physical Interaction

We present a theoretical analysis of the paradigm of encoded universality, using a Lie algebraic analysis to derive specific conditions under which physical interactions can provide universality. We discuss the significance of the tensor product structure in the quantum circuit model and use this to define the conjoining of encoded qudits. The construction of encoded gates between conjoined qudits is discussed in detail. We illustrate the general procedures with several examples from exchange-only quantum computation. In particular, we extend our earlier results showing universality with the isotropic exchange interaction to the derivation of encoded universality with the anisotropic exchange interaction, i.e., to the XY model. In this case the minimal encoding for universality is into qutrits rather than into qubits as was the case for isotropic (Heisenberg) exchange. We also address issues of fault-tolerance, leakage and correction of encoded qudits.

quant-ph↗

Quantum Computing with Quantum Dots on Linear Supports

Motivated by the recently demonstrated ability to attach quantum dots to polymers at well defined locations, we propose a condensed phase analog of the ion trap quantum computer: a scheme for quantum computation using chemically assembled semiconductor nanocrystals attached to a linear support. The linear support is either a molecular string (e.g., DNA) or a nanoscale rod. The phonon modes of the linear support are used as a quantum information bus between the dots. Our scheme offers greater flexibiliy in optimizing material parameters than the ion trap method but has additional complications. We discuss the relevant physical parameters, provide a detailed feasibility study, and suggest materials for which quantum computation may be possible with this approach. We find that Si is a potentially promising quantum dot material, already allowing 5-10 qubits quantum computer to operate with an error threshold of 10^-3.

quant-ph↗

Encoded Universality in Physical Implementations of a Quantum Computer

We revisit the question of universality in quantum computing and propose a new paradigm. Instead of forcing a physical system to enact a predetermined set of universal gates (e.g., single-qubit operations and CNOT), we focus on the intrinsic ability of a system to act as a universal quantum computer using only its naturally available interactions. A key element of this approach is the realization that the fungible nature of quantum information allows for universal manipulations using quantum information encoded in a subspace of the full system Hilbert space, as an alternative to using physical qubits directly. Starting with the interactions intrinsic to the physical system, we show how to determine the possible universality resulting from these interactions over an encoded subspace. We outline a general Lie-algebraic framework which can be used to find the encoding for universality and give several examples relevant to solid-state quantum computing.

quant-ph↗

Decoherence-Free Subspaces for Multiple-Qubit Errors: (I) Characterization

Coherence in an open quantum system is degraded through its interaction with a bath. This decoherence can be avoided by restricting the dynamics of the system to special decoherence-free subspaces. These subspaces are usually constructed under the assumption of spatially symmetric system-bath coupling. Here we show that decoherence-free subspaces may appear without spatial symmetry. Instead, we consider a model of system-bath interactions in which to first order only multiple-qubit coupling to the bath is present, with single-qubit system-bath coupling absent. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the appearance of decoherence-free states in this model, and give a number of examples. In a sequel paper we show how to perform universal and fault tolerant quantum computation on the decoherence-free subspaces considered in this paper.

quant-ph↗