arXiv subjects

Kishor Bharti

Publications and source records attributed to Kishor Bharti.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2026

Hierarchical quantum decoders

Decoders are a critical component of fault-tolerant quantum computing. They must identify errors based on syndrome measurements to correct quantum states. While finding the optimal correction is NP-hard and thus extremely difficult, approximate decoders with faster runtime often rely on uncontrolled heuristics. In this work, we propose a family of hierarchical quantum decoders with a tunable trade-off between speed and accuracy while retaining guarantees of optimality. We use the Lasserre Sum-of-Squares (SOS) hierarchy from optimization theory to relax the decoding problem. This approach creates a sequence of Semidefinite Programs (SDPs). Lower levels of the hierarchy are faster but approximate, while higher levels are slower but more accurate. We demonstrate that even low levels of this hierarchy significantly outperform standard Linear Programming relaxations. Our results on rotated surface codes and honeycomb color codes show that the SOS decoder approaches the performance of exact decoding. We find that Levels 2 and 3 of our hierarchy perform nearly as well as the exact solver. We analyze the convergence using rank-loop criteria and compare the method against other relaxation schemes. This work bridges the gap between fast heuristics and rigorous optimal decoding.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Cubature Codes

Bosonic codes utilize the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of harmonic oscillators to encode quantum information, offering a hardware-efficient approach to quantum error correction. Designing these codes requires precise geometric arrangements of quantum states in the phase space. Here, we introduce Quantum Cubature Codes (QCCs), a powerful and generalized framework for constructing bosonic codes based on superpositions of coherent states. This formalism utilizes cubature formulas from multivariate approximation theory, which connect the continuous geometry of the phase space to discrete, weighted point sets, ensuring the conditions for error correction are met. We demonstrate that this framework provides a unifying perspective, revealing that well-established codes, such as cat codes and the recently proposed quantum spherical codes (QSCs), are specific instances of QCCs corresponding to uniform weights on a single energy shell. The QCC formalism unlocks a vast new design space, encompassing non-uniform superpositions and multi-shell configurations. We leverage this framework to discover several new families of codes derived from Euclidean designs, allowing for greater geometric separation between logical states, which correlates with improved performance under photon loss. Numerical simulations under a pure-loss channel show that our multi-shell QCCs can outperform their single-shell counterparts by maximizing geometric separation with optimal energy at fixed pure-loss rate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum heuristics for linear optimization over large separable operators

Optimizing over separable quantum objects is challenging for two key reasons: determining separability is NP-hard, and the dimensionality of the problem grows exponentially with the number of qubits. We address both challenges by introducing a heuristic algorithm that leverages a quantum co-processor to significantly reduce the problem's dimensionality. We then numerically demonstrate that see-saw-type optimization performs well in lower-dimensional settings. A notable feature of our approach is that it yields feasible solutions, not just bounds on the optimal value, in contrast to many outer-approximation-based methods. We apply our method to the problem of finding separable states with minimal energy for a given Hamiltonian and use this to define an entanglement measure for its ground space. Finally, we demonstrate how our approach can approximate the separable ground energy of Hamiltonians up to 28 qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Error Correction in Adversarial Regimes

In adversarial settings, where attackers can deliberately and strategically corrupt quantum data, standard quantum error correction reaches its limits. It can only correct up to half the code distance and must output a unique answer. Quantum list decoding offers a promising alternative. By allowing the decoder to output a short list of possible errors, it becomes possible to tolerate far more errors, even under worst-case noise. But two fundamental questions remain: which quantum codes support list decoding, and can we design decoding schemes that are secure against efficient, computationally bounded adversaries? In this work, we answer both. To identify which codes are list-decodable, we provide a generalized version of the Knill-Laflamme conditions. Then, using tools from quantum cryptography, we build an unambiguous list decoding protocol based on pseudorandom unitaries. Our scheme is secure against any quantum polynomial-time adversary, even across multiple decoding attempts, in contrast to previous schemes. Our approach connects coding theory with complexity-based quantum cryptography, paving the way for secure quantum information processing in adversarial settings.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Approximate Dynamical Quantum Error-Correcting Codes

Quantum error correction plays a critical role in enabling fault-tolerant quantum computing by protecting fragile quantum information from noise. While general-purpose quantum error correction codes are designed to address a wide range of noise types, they often require substantial resources, making them impractical for near-term quantum devices. Approximate quantum error correction provides an alternative by tailoring codes to specific noise environments, reducing resource demands while still maintaining noise-robustness. Dynamical codes, including Floquet codes, introduce a dynamic approach to quantum error correction, employing time-dependent operations to stabilize logical qubits. In this work, we combine the flexibility of dynamical codes with the versatility of approximate quantum error correction to offer a promising avenue for addressing dominant noise in quantum systems. We construct several approximate dynamical codes using the recently developed strategic code framework. As a special case, we recover the approximate static codes widely studied in the existing literature. By analyzing these approximate dynamical codes through semidefinite programming, we establish the uniqueness and robustness of the optimal encoding, decoding, and check measurements. We also develop a temporal Petz recovery map suited to approximate dynamical codes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Fault-tolerant hyperbolic Floquet quantum error correcting codes

A central goal in quantum error correction is to reduce the overhead of fault-tolerant quantum computing by increasing noise thresholds and reducing the number of physical qubits required to sustain a logical qubit. We introduce a potential path towards this goal based on a family of dynamically generated quantum error correcting codes that we call "hyperbolic Floquet codes.'' These codes are defined by a specific sequence of non-commuting two-body measurements arranged periodically in time that stabilize a topological code on a hyperbolic manifold with negative curvature. We focus on a family of lattices for $n$ qubits that, according to our prescription that defines the code, provably achieve a finite encoding rate $(1/8+2/n)$ while still requiring only two-body measurements. Similar to hyperbolic surface codes, the distance of the code at each time-step scales at most logarithmically in $n$. The family of lattices we choose indicates that this scaling is achievable in practice. We develop and benchmark an efficient matching-based decoder that provides evidence of a threshold near 0.1% in a phenomenological noise model and 0.25% in an entangling measurements noise model. Utilizing weight-two check operators and a qubit connectivity of 3, one of our hyperbolic Floquet codes uses 400 physical qubits to encode 52 logical qubits with a code distance of 8, i.e., it is a $[[400,52,8]]$ code. At small error rates, comparable logical error suppression to this code requires 5x as many physical qubits (1924) when using the honeycomb Floquet code with the same noise model and decoder.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Policy Gradient in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space

Parametrised quantum circuits offer expressive and data-efficient representations for machine learning. Due to quantum states residing in a high-dimensional Hilbert space, parametrised quantum circuits have a natural interpretation in terms of kernel methods. The representation of quantum circuits in terms of quantum kernels has been studied widely in quantum supervised learning, but has been overlooked in the context of quantum RL. This paper proposes the use of kernel policies and quantum policy gradient algorithms for quantum-accessible environments. After discussing the properties of such policies and a demonstration of classical policy gradient on a coherent policy in a quantum environment, we propose parametric and non-parametric policy gradient and actor-critic algorithms with quantum kernel policies in quantum environments. This approach, implemented with both numerical and analytical quantum policy gradient techniques, allows exploiting the many advantages of kernel methods, including data-driven forms for functions (and their gradients) as well as tunable expressiveness. The proposed approach is suitable for vector-valued action spaces and each of the formulations demonstrates a quadratic reduction in query complexity compared to their classical counterparts. We propose actor-critic algorithms based on stochastic policy gradient, deterministic policy gradient, and natural policy gradient, and demonstrate additional query complexity reductions compared to quantum policy gradient algorithms under favourable conditions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Pseudorandom unitaries are neither real nor sparse nor noise-robust

Pseudorandom quantum states (PRSs) and pseudorandom unitaries (PRUs) possess the dual nature of being efficiently constructible while appearing completely random to any efficient quantum algorithm. In this study, we establish fundamental bounds on pseudorandomness. We show that PRSs and PRUs exist only when the probability that an error occurs is negligible, ruling out their generation on noisy intermediate-scale and early fault-tolerant quantum computers. Further, we show that PRUs need imaginarity while PRS do not have this restriction. This implies that quantum randomness requires in general a complex-valued formalism of quantum mechanics, while for random quantum states real numbers suffice. Additionally, we derive lower bounds on the coherence of PRSs and PRUs, ruling out the existence of sparse PRUs and PRSs. We also show that the notions of PRS, PRUs and pseudorandom scramblers (PRSSs) are distinct in terms of resource requirements. We introduce the concept of pseudoresources, where states which contain a low amount of a given resource masquerade as high-resource states. We define pseudocoherence, pseudopurity and pseudoimaginarity, and identify three distinct types of pseudoresources in terms of their masquerading capabilities. Our work also establishes rigorous bounds on the efficiency of property testing, demonstrating the exponential complexity in distinguishing real quantum states from imaginary ones, in contrast to the efficient measurability of unitary imaginarity. Further, we show an exponential advantage in imaginarity testing when having access to the complex conjugate of the state. Lastly, we show that the transformation from a complex to a real model of quantum computation is inefficient, in contrast to the reverse process, which is efficient. Our results establish fundamental limits on property testing and provide valuable insights into quantum pseudorandomness.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Near-Term Pseudorandom and Pseudoresource Quantum States

A pseudorandom quantum state (PRS) is an ensemble of quantum states indistinguishable from Haar-random states to observers with efficient quantum computers. It allows one to substitute the costly Haar-random state with efficiently preparable PRS as a resource for cryptographic protocols, while also finding applications in quantum learning theory, black hole physics, many-body thermalization, quantum foundations, and quantum chaos. All existing constructions of PRS equate the notion of efficiency to quantum computers which runtime is bounded by a polynomial in its input size. In this work, we relax the notion of efficiency for PRS with respect to observers with near-term quantum computers implementing algorithms with runtime that scales slower than polynomial-time. We introduce the $\mathbf{T}$-PRS which is indistinguishable to quantum algorithms with runtime $\mathbf{T}(n)$ that grows slower than polynomials in the input size $n$. We give a set of reasonable conditions that a $\mathbf{T}$-PRS must satisfy and give two constructions by using quantum-secure pseudorandom functions and pseudorandom functions. For $\mathbf{T}(n)$ being linearithmic, linear, polylogarithmic, and logarithmic function, we characterize the amount of quantum resources a $\mathbf{T}$-PRS must possess, particularly on its coherence, entanglement, and magic. Our quantum resource characterization applies generally to any two state ensembles that are indistinguishable to observers with computational power $\mathbf{T}(n)$, giving a general necessary condition of whether a low-resource ensemble can mimic a high-resource ensemble, forming a $\mathbf{T}$-pseudoresource pair. We demonstate how the necessary amount of resource decreases as the observer's computational power is more restricted, giving a $\mathbf{T}$-pseudoresource pair with larger resource gap for more computationally limited observers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Resource-Efficient Hybrid Quantum-Classical Simulation Algorithm

Digital quantum computers promise exponential speedups in performing quantum time-evolution, providing an opportunity to simulate quantum dynamics of complex systems in physics and chemistry. However, the task of extracting desired quantum properties at intermediate time steps remains a computational bottleneck due to wavefunction collapse and no-fast-forwarding theorem. Despite significant progress towards building a Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer (FTQC), there is still a need for resource-efficient quantum simulators. Here, we propose a hybrid simulator that enables classical computers to leverage FTQC devices and quantum time propagators to overcome this bottleneck, so as to efficiently simulate the quantum dynamics of large systems initialized in an unknown superposition of a few system eigenstates. It features no optimization subroutines and avoids barren plateau issues, while consuming fewer quantum resources compared to standard methods when many time steps are required.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Multivariate Bicycle Codes

Quantum error correction suppresses noise in quantum systems to allow for high-precision computations. In this work, we introduce Multivariate Bicycle (MB) Quantum Low-Density Parity-Check (QLDPC) codes, via an extension of the framework developed by Bravyi et al. [Nature, 627, 778-782 (2024)] and particularly focus on Trivariate Bicycle (TB) codes. Unlike the weight-6 codes proposed in their study, we offer concrete examples of weight-5 TB-QLDPC codes which promise to be more amenable to near-term experimental setups. We show that TB-QLDPC codes up to weight-6 have a bi-planar structure and often posses a two-dimensional toric layout. Under circuit level noise, we find substantially better encoding rates than comparable surface codes while offering similar error suppression capabilities. For example, we can encode $4$ logical qubits with distance $5$ into $60$ physical qubits using weight-5 check measurements of circuit depth 7, while a surface code with these parameters requires $200$ physical qubits. The high encoding rate and compact layout make our codes highly suitable candidates for near-term hardware implementations, paving the way for a realizable quantum error correction protocol.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Pseudorandom density matrices

Pseudorandom states (PRSs) are state ensembles that cannot be efficiently distinguished from Haar random states. However, the definition of PRSs has been limited to pure states and lacks robustness against noise. Here, we introduce pseudorandom density matrices (PRDMs), ensembles of $n$-qubit states that are computationally indistinguishable from the generalized Hilbert-Schmidt ensemble (GHSE), which is constructed from $(n+m)$-qubit Haar random states with $m$ qubits traced out. For $m=0$, PRDMs are equivalent to PRSs, whereas for $m=ω(\log n)$, PRDMs are computationally indistinguishable from the maximally mixed state. PRDMs with $m=ω(\log n)$ are robust to unital noise channels and separated in terms of security from PRS. PRDMs disguise valuable quantum resources, possessing near-maximal entanglement, magic and coherence, while being computationally indistinguishable from resource-free states. PRDMs exhibit a pseudoresource gap of $Θ(n)$ vs $0$, surpassing previously found gaps. We also render EFI pairs, a fundamental cryptographic primitive, robust to strong mixed unitary noise. Our work has major implications on quantum resource theory: We show that entanglement, magic and coherence cannot be efficiently tested, and that black-box resource distillation requires a superpolynomial number of copies. We also establish lower bounds on the purity needed for efficient testing and black-box distillation. Finally, we introduce memoryless PRSs, a noise-robust notion of PRS which are indistinguishable to Haar random states for efficient algorithms without quantum memory, as well as noise-robust quantum money. Our work provides a comprehensive framework of pseudorandomness for mixed states, which yields powerful quantum cryptographic primitives and fundamental bounds on quantum resource theories.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Simple Construction of Qudit Floquet Codes on a Family of Lattices

Dynamical quantum error-correcting codes (QECC) offer wider possibilities in how one can protect logical quantum information from noise and perform fault-tolerant quantum computation compared to static QECCs. A family of dynamical QECCs called the ``Floquet codes'' consists of a periodic sequence of two-body measurements that enables error-correction on many-body systems, relaxing hardware implementation requirements and improving error-correction reliability. Existing results on Floquet codes has been focused on qubits, two-level quantum systems, with very little attention given on higher dimensional quantum systems, or qudits. We bridge this gap by proposing a simple, yet general construction of qudit Floquet codes based on a simple set of conditions on the sequence two-body measurements defining the code. Moreover, this construction applies to a large family of configurations of qudits on the vertices of a three-colorable lattice which connectivity represented by the edges. We show that this construction includes the existing constructions of both qubit and qudit Floquet codes as special cases. In addition, any qudit Floquet code obtained by our construction achieves a rate of encoded logical qudits over physical qudits approaching $\frac{1}{2}$ as the number of physical qudits in total and on the faces of the lattice grows larger, as opposed to vanishing rate in existing qudit Floquet code constructions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Pseudorandom quantum authentication

We introduce the pseudorandom quantum authentication scheme (PQAS), an efficient method for encrypting quantum states that relies solely on the existence of pseudorandom unitaries (PRUs). The scheme guarantees that for any eavesdropper with quantum polynomial-time (QPT) computational power, the encrypted states are indistinguishable from the maximally mixed state. Furthermore, the receiver can verify that the state has not been tampered with and recover the original state with asymptotically unit fidelity. Our scheme is cost-effective, requiring only polylogarithmic circuit depth and a single shared key to encrypt a polynomial number of states. Notably, the PQAS can potentially exist even without quantum-secure one-way functions, requiring fundamentally weaker computational assumptions than semantic classical cryptography. Additionally, PQAS is secure against attacks that plague protocols based on QPT indistinguishability from Haar random states, such as chosen-plaintext attacks (CPAs) and attacks that reveal meta-information such as quantum resources. We relate the amount of meta-information that is leaked to quantum pseudoresources, giving the concept a practical meaning. As an application, we construct important cryptographic primitives, such as verifiable pseudorandom density matrices (VPRDMs), which are QPT-indistinguishable from random mixed states while being efficiently verifiable via a secret key, as well as verifiable noise-robust EFI pairs and one-way state generators (OWSGs). Our results establish a new paradigm of quantum information processing with weaker computational assumptions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Certifying Temporal Correlations

Self-testing has been established as a major approach for quantum device certification based on experimental statistics under minimal assumptions. However, despite more than 20 years of research effort most of the self-testing protocols are restricted to spatial scenarios (Bell scenarios), without any temporal generalisations known. Under the scenario of sequential measurements performed on a single quantum system, we build upon previous works which used semi-definite programming (SDP) based methods to bound sequential measurement inequalities. For such SDPs, we show that the optimiser matrix is unique and moreover this uniqueness is robust to small deviations from the quantum bound. Further, we consider a generalised scenario in presence of quantum channels and draw analogies in the structure of Bell and sequential inequalities using the pseudo-density matrix formalism. These analogies allow us to show a practical use of maximal violations of sequential inequalities in the form of certification of quantum channels up to isometries.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

A computational test of quantum contextuality, and even simpler proofs of quantumness

Bell non-locality is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics whereby measurements performed on "spatially separated" quantum systems can exhibit correlations that cannot be understood as revealing predetermined values. This is a special case of the more general phenomenon of "quantum contextuality", which says that such correlations can occur even when the measurements are not necessarily on separate quantum systems, but are merely "compatible" (i.e. commuting). Crucially, while any non-local game yields an experiment that demonstrates quantum advantage by leveraging the "spatial separation" of two or more devices (and in fact several such demonstrations have been conducted successfully in recent years), the same is not true for quantum contextuality: finding the contextuality analogue of such an experiment is arguably one of the central open questions in the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this work, we show that an arbitrary contextuality game can be compiled into an operational "test of contextuality" involving a single quantum device, by only making the assumption that the device is computationally bounded. Our work is inspired by the recent work of Kalai et al. (STOC '23) that converts any non-local game into a classical test of quantum advantage with a single device. The central idea in their work is to use cryptography to enforce spatial separation within subsystems of a single quantum device. Our work can be seen as using cryptography to enforce "temporal separation", i.e. to restrict communication between sequential measurements. Beyond contextuality, we employ our ideas to design a "proof of quantumness" that, to the best of our knowledge, is arguably even simpler than the ones proposed in the literature so far.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Local contextuality-based self-tests are sufficient for randomness expansion secure against quantum adversaries

In quantum cryptography, secure randomness expansion involves using a short private string of random bits to generate a longer one, even in the presence of an adversary who may have access to quantum resources. In this work, we demonstrate that local contextuality-based self-tests are sufficient to construct a randomness expansion protocol that is secure against computationally unbounded quantum adversaries. Our protocol is based on self-testing from non-contextuality inequalities and we prove that our scheme asymptotically produces secure random numbers which are $\mathcal{O}(m\sqrtε)$-close to uniformly distributed and private, where $ε$ is the robustness parameter of the self-test and $m$ is the length of the generated random bit string. Our protocol is semi-device-independent in the sense that it inherits any assumptions necessary for the underlying self-test.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Teleportation with Embezzling Catalysts

Quantum teleportation is the process of transferring quantum information using classical communication and pre-shared entanglement. This process can benefit from the use of catalysts, which are ancillary entangled states that can enhance teleportation without being consumed. While chemical catalysts undergoing deactivation invariably exhibit inferior performance compared to those unaffected by deactivation, quantum catalysts, termed embezzling catalysts, that are subject to deactivation, may surprisingly outperform their non-deactivating counterparts. In this work, we present teleportation protocols with embezzling catalyst that can achieve arbitrarily high fidelity, namely the teleported state can be made arbitrarily close to the original state, with finite-dimensional embezzling catalysts. We show that some embezzling catalysts are universal, meaning that they can improve the teleportation fidelity for any pre-shared entanglement. We also explore methods to reduce the dimension of catalysts without increasing catalyst consumption, an essential step towards realizing quantum catalysis in practice.

quant-ph↗