arXiv subjects

Mehdi Mhalla

Publications and source records attributed to Mehdi Mhalla.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Classical and Quantum Query Complexity of Boolean Functions under Indefinite Causal Order

Computational models typically assume that operations are applied in a fixed sequential order. In recent years several works have looked at relaxing this assumption, considering computations without any fixed causal structure and showing that such ''causally indefinite'' computations can provide advantages in various tasks. Recently, the quantum query complexity of Boolean functions has been used as a tool to probe their computational power in a standard complexity theoretic framework, but no separation in exact query complexity has thus-far been found. In this paper, we investigate this problem starting with the simpler and fully classical notion of deterministic query complexity of Boolean functions, and using classical-deterministic processes -- which may exhibit causal indefiniteness -- as a generalised computational framework. We first show that the standard polynomial and certificate lower bounds of deterministic query complexity also hold in such generalised models. Then, we formulate a Boolean function for which causal indefiniteness permits a reduction in query complexity and show that this advantage can be amplified into a polynomial separation. Finally, with the insights gained in the classical-deterministic setting, we give a Boolean function whose quantum query complexity is reduced by causally indefinite computations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

A blindness property of the Min-Sum decoding for the toric code

Kitaev's toric code is one of the most prominent models for fault-tolerant quantum computation, currently regarded as the leading solution for connectivity constrained quantum technologies. Significant effort has been recently devoted to improving the error correction performance of the toric code under message-passing decoding, a class of low-complexity, iterative decoding algorithms that play a central role in both theory and practice of classical low-density parity-check codes. Here, we provide a theoretical analysis of the toric code under min-sum (MS) decoding, a message-passing decoding algorithm known to solve the maximum-likelihood decoding problem in a localized manner, for codes defined by acyclic graphs. Our analysis reveals an intrinsic limitation of the toric code, which confines the propagation of local information during the message-passing process. We show that if the unsatisfied checks of an error syndrome are at distance greater or equal to 5 from each other, then the MS decoding is locally blind: the qubits in the direct neighborhood of an unsatisfied check are never aware of any other unsatisfied checks, except their direct neighbor. Moreover, we show that degeneracy is not the only cause of decoding failures for errors of weight at least 4, that is, the MS non-degenerate decoding radius is equal to 3, for any toric code of distance greater or equal to 9. Finally, complementing our theoretical analysis, we present a pre-processing method of practical relevance. The proposed method, referred to as stabiliser-blowup, has linear complexity and allows correcting all (degenerate) errors of weight up to 3, providing quadratic improvement in the logical error rate performance, as compared to MS only.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Vertex-minor universal graphs for generating entangled quantum subsystems

We study the notion of $k$-stabilizer universal quantum state, that is, an $n$-qubit quantum state, such that it is possible to induce any stabilizer state on any $k$ qubits, by using only local operations and classical communications. These states generalize the notion of $k$-pairable states introduced by Bravyi et al., and can be studied from a combinatorial perspective using graph states and $k$-vertex-minor universal graphs. First, we demonstrate the existence of $k$-stabilizer universal graph states that are optimal in size with $n=\Theta(k^2)$ qubits. We also provide parameters for which a random graph state on $\Theta(k^2)$ qubits is $k$-stabilizer universal with high probability. Our second contribution consists of two explicit constructions of $k$-stabilizer universal graph states on $n = O(k^4)$ qubits. Both rely upon the incidence graph of the projective plane over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. This provides a major improvement over the previously known explicit construction of $k$-pairable graph states with $n = O(2^{3k})$, bringing forth a new and potentially powerful family of multipartite quantum resources.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Check-Agnosia based Post-Processor for Message-Passing Decoding of Quantum LDPC Codes

The inherent degeneracy of quantum low-density parity-check codes poses a challenge to their decoding, as it significantly degrades the error-correction performance of classical message-passing decoders. To improve their performance, a post-processing algorithm is usually employed. To narrow the gap between algorithmic solutions and hardware limitations, we introduce a new post-processing algorithm with a hardware-friendly orientation, providing error correction performance competitive to the state-of-the-art techniques. The proposed post-processing, referred to as check-agnosia, is inspired by stabilizer-inactivation, while considerably reducing the required hardware resources, and providing enough flexibility to allow different message-passing schedules and hardware architectures. We carry out a detailed analysis for a set of Pareto architectures with different tradeoffs between latency and power consumption, derived from the results of implemented designs on an FPGA board. We show that latency values close to one microsecond can be obtained on the FPGA board, and provide evidence that much lower latency values can be obtained for ASIC implementations. In the process, we also demonstrate the practical implications of the recently introduced t-covering layers and random-order layered scheduling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Small k-pairable states

A $k$-pairable $n$-qubit state is a resource state that allows Local Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC) protocols to generate EPR-pairs among any $k$-disjoint pairs of the $n$ qubits. Bravyi et al. introduced a family of $k$-pairable $n$-qubit states, where $n$ grows exponentially with $k$. Our primary contribution is to establish the existence of 'small' pairable quantum states. Specifically, we present a family of $k$-pairable $n$-qubit graph states, where $n$ is polynomial in $k$, namely $n=O(k^3\ln^3k)$. Our construction relies on probabilistic methods. Furthermore, we provide an upper bound on the pairability of any arbitrary quantum state based on the support of any local unitary transformation that has the shared state as a fixed point. This lower bound implies that the pairability of a graph state is at most half of the minimum degree up to local complementation of the underlying graph, i.e., $k(|G \rangle)\le \lceil \delta_{loc}(G)/2\rceil$. We also investigate the related combinatorial problem of $k$-vertex-minor-universality: a graph $G$ is $k$-vertex-minor-universal if any graph on any $k$ of its vertices is a vertex-minor of $G$. When a graph is $2k$-vertex-minor-universal, the corresponding graph state is $k$-pairable. More precisely, one can create not only EPR-pairs but also any stabilizer state on any $2k$ qubits through local operations and classical communication. We establish the existence of $k$-vertex-minor-universal graphs of order $O(k^4 \ln k)$. Finally, we explore a natural extension of pairability in the presence of errors or malicious parties and show that vertex-minor-universality ensures a robust form of pairability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Layered Decoding of Quantum LDPC Codes

We address the problem of performing message-passing-based decoding of quantum LDPC codes under hardware latency limitations. We propose a novel way to do layered decoding that suits quantum constraints and outperforms flooded scheduling, the usual scheduling on parallel architectures. A generic construction is given to construct layers of hypergraph product codes. In the process, we introduce two new notions, t-covering layers which is a generalization of the usual layer decomposition, and a new scheduling called random order scheduling. Numerical simulations show that the random ordering is of independent interest as it helps relieve the high error floor typical of message-passing decoders on quantum codes for both layered and serial decoding without the need for post-processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Factory-based Fault-tolerant Preparation of Quantum Polar Codes Encoding One logical Qubit

A fault-tolerant way to prepare logical code-states of Q1 codes, i.e., quantum polar codes encoding one qubit, has been recently proposed. The fault tolerance therein is guaranteed by an error detection gadget, where if an error is detected during the preparation, one discards entirely the preparation. Due to error detection, the preparation is probabilistic, and its success rate, referred to as the preparation rate, decreases rapidly with the code-length, preventing the preparation of code-states of large code-lengths. In this paper, to improve the preparation rate, we consider a factory preparation of Q1 code-states, where one attempts to prepare several copies of Q1 code-states in parallel. Using an extra scheduling step, we can avoid discarding the preparation entirely, every time an error is detected, hence, achieving an increased preparation rate in turn. We further provide a theoretical method to estimate preparation and logical error rates of Q1 codes, prepared using factory preparation, which is shown to tightly fit the Monte-Carlo simulation based numerical results. Therefore, our theoretical method is useful for providing estimates for large code-lengths, where Monte-Carlo simulations are practically not feasible. Our numerical results, for a circuit-level depolarizing noise model, indicate that the preparation rate increases significantly, especially for large code-length N. For example, for N = 256, it increases from 0.02\% to 27\% for a practically interesting physical error rate of p = 10^{-3}. Remarkably, a Q1 code with N = 256 achieves logical error rates around 10^{-11} and 10^{-15} for p = 10^{-3} and p = 3 x 10^{-4}, respectively. This corresponds to an improvement of about three orders of magnitude compared to a surface code with similar code-length and minimum distance, thus showing the promise of the proposed scheme for large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Quantum Query Complexity of Boolean Functions under Indefinite Causal Order

The standard model of quantum circuits assumes operations are applied in a fixed sequential "causal" order. In recent years, the possibility of relaxing this constraint to obtain causally indefinite computations has received significant attention. The quantum switch, for example, uses a quantum system to coherently control the order of operations. Several ad hoc computational and information-theoretical advantages have been demonstrated, raising questions as to whether advantages can be obtained in a more unified complexity theoretic framework. In this paper, we approach this problem by studying the query complexity of Boolean functions under general higher order quantum computations. To this end, we generalise the framework of query complexity from quantum circuits to quantum supermaps to compare different models on an equal footing. We show that the recently introduced class of quantum circuits with quantum control of causal order cannot lead to any reduction in query complexity, and that any potential advantage arising from causally indefinite supermaps can be bounded by the polynomial method, as is the case with quantum circuits. Nevertheless, we find some functions for which the minimum error with which they can be computed using two queries is strictly lower when exploiting causally indefinite supermaps.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

A formalization of the CHSH inequality and Tsirelson's upper-bound in Isabelle/HOL

We present a formalization of several fundamental notions and results from Quantum Information theory, including density matrices and projective measurements, along with the proof that the local hidden-variable hypothesis advocated by Einstein to model quantum mechanics cannot hold. The proof of the latter result is based on the so-called CHSH inequality, and it is the violation of this inequality that was experimentally evidenced by Aspect who earned the Nobel Prize in 2022 for his work. We also formalize various results related to the violation of the CHSH inequality, such as Tsirelson's bound which permits to obtain the maximum violation of this inequality in a quantum setting.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Improving social welfare in non-cooperative games with different types of quantum resources

We investigate what quantum advantages can be obtained in multipartite non-cooperative games by studying how different types of quantum resources can lead to new Nash equilibria and improve social welfare -- a measure of the quality of an equilibrium. Two different quantum settings are analysed: a first, in which players are given direct access to an entangled quantum state, and a second, which we introduce here, in which they are only given classical advice obtained from quantum devices. For a given game $G$, these two settings give rise to different equilibria characterised by the sets of equilibrium correlations $Q_\textrm{corr}(G)$ and $Q(G)$, respectively. We show that $Q(G)\subseteq Q_\textrm{corr}(G)$, and by exploiting the self-testing property of some correlations, that the inclusion is strict for some games $G$. We make use of SDP optimisation techniques to study how these quantum resources can improve social welfare, obtaining upper and lower bounds on the social welfare reachable in each setting. We investigate, for several games involving conflicting interests, how the social welfare depends on the bias of the game and improve upon a separation that was previously obtained using pseudo-telepathic solutions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Fault-Tolerant Preparation of Quantum Polar Codes Encoding One Logical Qubit

This paper explores a new approach to fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC), relying on quantum polar codes. We consider quantum polar codes of Calderbank-Shor-Steane type, encoding one logical qubit, which we refer to as $\mathcal{Q}_1$ codes. First, we show that a subfamily of $\mathcal{Q}_1$ codes is equivalent to the well-known family of Shor codes. Moreover, we show that $\mathcal{Q}_1$ codes significantly outperform Shor codes, of the same length and minimum distance. Second, we consider the fault-tolerant preparation of $\mathcal{Q}_1$ code states. We give a recursive procedure to prepare a $\mathcal{Q}_1$ code state, based on two-qubit Pauli measurements only. The procedure is not by itself fault-tolerant, however, the measurement operations therein provide redundant classical bits, which can be advantageously used for error detection. Fault-tolerance is then achieved by combining the proposed recursive procedure with an error detection method. Finally, we consider the fault-tolerant error correction of $\mathcal{Q}_1$ codes. We use Steane error correction, which incorporates the proposed fault-tolerant code state preparation procedure. We provide numerical estimates of the logical error rates for $\mathcal{Q}_1$ and Shor codes of length $16$ and $64$ qubits, assuming a circuit-level depolarizing noise model. Remarkably, the $\mathcal{Q}_1$ code of length $64$ qubits achieves a logical error rate very close to $10^{-6}$ for the physical error rate $p = 10^{-3}$, therefore, demonstrating the potential of the proposed polar codes based approach to FTQC.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Shadow Pauli Flow: Characterising Determinism in MBQCs involving Pauli Measurements

We introduce a new characterisation of determinism in Measurement-Based Quantum Computing (MBQC). The one-way model consists in performing local measurements over a large entangled state represented by a graph. The ability to perform an overall deterministic computation requires a correction strategy because of the non-determinism of each measurement. The existence of such a correction strategy depends on the underlying open graph, which is a description of the resource state together with the basis of the performed measurements. GFlow is a well-known graphical characterisation of robust determinism in MBQC when every measurement is performed in some specific planes of the Bloch sphere. While Pauli measurements are ubiquitous in MBQC, GFlow fails to be necessary for determinism when a measurement-based quantum computation involves Pauli measurements. Pauli Flow was designed as a generalisation of GFlow to handle MBQC with Pauli measurements, and guarantees robust determinism, however, it has been shown more recently that it fails to be a necessary condition. Our contribution is twofold. First, we demonstrate that Pauli flow is actually necessary for robust determinism in a weaker sense: given an open graph, i.e. a resource state, a deterministic computation can be driven iff it has a Pauli flow. However, the Pauli flows do not reflect all the possible correction strategies over a particular resource state, and properties like measurement order or computational depth are not necessarily reflected by a Pauli flow. Thus, to characterise determinism in full generality, we introduce a further extension called Shadow Pauli Flow that we prove necessary and sufficient for robust determinism: An MBQC is robustly deterministic if and only if its correction strategy is consistent with a Shadow Pauli flow. Furthermore, we show that Shadow Pauli flow can be computed in polynomial time.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Stabilizer Inactivation for Message-Passing Decoding of Quantum LDPC Codes

We propose a post-processing method for message-passing (MP) decoding of CSS quantum LDPC codes, called stabilizer-inactivation (SI). It relies on inactivating a set of qubits, supporting a check in the dual code, and then running the MP decoding again. This allows MP decoding to converge outside the inactivated set of qubits, while the error on these is determined by solving a small, constant size, linear system. Compared to the state of the art post-processing method based on ordered statistics decoding (OSD), we show through numerical simulations that MP-SI outperforms MP-OSD for different quantum LDPC code constructions, different MP decoding algorithms, and different MP scheduling strategies, while having a significantly reduced complexity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

A Superposition-Based Calculus for Quantum Diagrammatic Reasoning and Beyond

We introduce a class of rooted graphs which allows one to encode various kinds of classical or quantum circuits. We then follow a set-theoretic approach to define rewrite systems over the considered graphs and propose a new complete Superposition callculus which handles sets of formulas consisting of equations or disequations over these graphs.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Quantum projective measurements and the CHSH inequality in Isabelle/HOL

We present a formalization in Isabelle/HOL of quantum projective measurements, a class of measurements involving orthogonal projectors that is frequently used in quantum computing. We also formalize the CHSH inequality, a result that holds on arbitrary probability spaces, which can used to disprove the existence of a local hidden-variable theory for quantum mechanics.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Coherent control and distinguishability of quantum channels via PBS-diagrams

We introduce a graphical language for coherent control of general quantum channels inspired by practical quantum optical setups involving polarising beam splitters (PBS). As standard completely positive trace preserving maps are known not to be appropriate to represent coherently controlled quantum channels, we propose to instead use purified channels, an extension of Stinespring's dilation. We characterise the observational equivalence of purified channels in various coherent-control contexts, paving the way towards a faithful representation of quantum channels under coherent control.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Quantum Polarization of Qudit Channels

We provide a generalization of quantum polar codes to quantum channels with qudit-input, achieving the symmetric coherent information of the channel. Our scheme relies on a channel combining and splitting construction, where a two-qudit unitary randomly chosen from a unitary 2-design is used to combine two instances of a qudit-input channel. The inputs to the synthesized bad channels are frozen by sharing EPR pairs between the sender and the receiver, so our scheme is entanglement assisted. Using the fact that the generalized two-qudit Clifford group forms a unitary 2-design, we conclude that the channel combining operation can be chosen from this set. Moreover, we show that polarization also happens for a much smaller subset of two-qudit Cliffords, which is not a unitary 2-design. Finally, we show how to decode the proposed quantum polar codes on Pauli qudit channels.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Multilevel Polarization for Quantum Channels

Recently, a purely quantum version of polar codes has been proposed in [1] based on a quantum channel combining and splitting procedure, where a randomly chosen two-qubit Clifford unitary acts as channel combining operation. Here, we consider the quantum polar code construction using the same channel combining and splitting procedure as in [1], but with a fixed two-qubit Clifford unitary. For the family of Pauli channels, we show that polarization happens in multi-levels, where synthesized quantum virtual channels tend to become completely noisy, half-noisy, or noiseless. Further, we present a quantum polar code exploiting the multilevel nature of polarization, and provide an efficient decoding for this code. We show that half-noisy channels can be frozen by fixing their inputs in either the amplitude or the phase basis, which allows reducing the number of preshared EPR pairs compared to the construction in [1]. We provide an upper bound on the number of preshared EPR pairs, which is an equality in the case of the quantum erasure channel. To improve the speed of polarization, we propose an alternative construction, which again polarizes in multi-levels, and the previous upper bound on the number of preshared EPR pairs also holds. For a quantum erasure channel, we confirm by numerical analysis that the multilevel polarization happens relatively faster for the alternative construction.

quant-ph↗