arXiv subjects

Nicolai Friis

Publications and source records attributed to Nicolai Friis.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

On the role of entanglement in qudit-based circuit compression

Gate-based universal quantum computation is formulated in terms of two types of operations: local single-qubit gates, which are typically easily implementable, and two-qubit entangling gates, whose faithful implementation remains one of the major experimental challenges since it requires controlled interactions between individual systems. To make the most of quantum hardware it is crucial to process information in the most efficient way. One promising avenue is to use higher-dimensional systems, qudits, as the fundamental units of quantum information, in order to replace a fraction of the qubit-entangling gates with qudit-local gates. Here, we show how the complexity of multi-qubit circuits can be lowered significantly by employing qudit encodings, which we quantify by considering exemplary circuits with exactly known (multi-qubit) gate complexity. We discuss general principles for circuit compression, derive upper and lower bounds on the achievable advantage, and highlight the key role played by entanglement and the available gate set. Explicit experimental schemes for photonic as well as for trapped-ion implementations are provided and demonstrate a significant expected gain in circuit performance for both platforms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Landauer vs. Nernst: What is the True Cost of Cooling a Quantum System?

Thermodynamics connects our knowledge of the world to our capability to manipulate and thus to control it. This crucial role of control is exemplified by the third law of thermodynamics, Nernst's unattainability principle, which states that infinite resources are required to cool a system to absolute zero temperature. But what are these resources and how should they be utilized? And how does this relate to Landauer's principle that famously connects information and thermodynamics? We answer these questions by providing a framework for identifying the resources that enable the creation of pure quantum states. We show that perfect cooling is possible with Landauer energy cost given infinite time or control complexity. However, such optimal protocols require complex unitaries generated by an external work source. Restricting to unitaries that can be run solely via a heat engine, we derive a novel Carnot-Landauer limit, along with protocols for its saturation. This generalizes Landauer's principle to a fully thermodynamic setting, leading to a unification with the third law and emphasizes the importance of control in quantum thermodynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Metrology-assisted entanglement distribution in noisy quantum networks

We consider the distribution of high-dimensional entangled states to multiple parties via noisy channels and the subsequent probabilistic conversion of these states to desired target states using stochastic local operations and classical communication. We show that such state-conversion protocols can be enhanced by embedded channel-estimation routines at no additional cost in terms of the number of copies of the distributed states. The defining characteristic of our strategy is the use of those copies for which the conversion was unsuccessful for the estimation of the noise, thus allowing one to counteract its detrimental effect on the successfully converted copies. Although this idea generalizes to various more complex situations, we focus on the realistic scenario, where only finitely many copies are distributed and where the parties are not required to process multiple copies simultaneously. In particular, we investigate the performance of so-called one-successful-branch protocols, applied sequentially to single copies and an adaptive Bayesian estimation strategy. Finally, we compare our strategy to more general but less easily practically implementable strategies involving distillation and the use of quantum memories to process multiple copies simultaneously.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Activation of genuine multipartite entanglement: Beyond the single-copy paradigm of entanglement characterisation

Entanglement shared among multiple parties presents complex challenges for the characterisation of different types of entanglement. One of the most fundamental insights is the fact that some mixed states can feature entanglement across every possible cut of a multipartite system yet can be produced via a mixture of states separable with respect to different partitions. To distinguish states that genuinely cannot be produced from mixing such partition-separable states, the term genuine multipartite entanglement was coined. All these considerations originate in a paradigm where only a single copy of the state is distributed and locally acted upon. In contrast, advances in quantum technologies prompt the question of how this picture changes when multiple copies of the same state become locally accessible. Here we show that multiple copies unlock genuine multipartite entanglement from partially separable states, i.e., mixtures of the partition-separable states, even from undistillable ensembles, and even more than two copies can be required to observe this effect. With these findings, we characterise the notion of genuine multipartite entanglement in the paradigm of multiple copies and conjecture a strict hierarchy of activatable states and an asymptotic collapse of the hierarchy.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Entanglement quantification in atomic ensembles

Entanglement measures quantify nonclassical correlations present in a quantum system, but can be extremely difficult to calculate, even more so, when information on its state is limited. Here, we consider broad families of entanglement criteria that are based on variances of arbitrary operators and analytically derive the lower bounds these criteria provide for two relevant entanglement measures: the best separable approximation (BSA) and the generalized robustness (GR). This yields a practical method for quantifying entanglement in realistic experimental situations, in particular, when only few measurements of simple observables are available. As a concrete application of this method, we quantify bipartite and multipartite entanglement in spin-squeezed Bose-Einstein condensates of $\sim 500$ atoms, by lower bounding the BSA and the GR only from measurements of first and second moments of the collective spin operator.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Autonomous Temporal Probability Concentration: Clockworks and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

According to thermodynamics, the inevitable increase of entropy allows the past to be distinguished from the future. From this perspective, any clock must incorporate an irreversible process that allows this flow of entropy to be tracked. In addition, an integral part of a clock is a clockwork, that is, a system whose purpose is to temporally concentrate the irreversible events that drive this entropic flow, thereby increasing the accuracy of the resulting clock ticks compared to counting purely random equilibration events. In this article, we formalise the task of autonomous temporal probability concentration as the inherent goal of any clockwork based on thermal gradients. Within this framework, we show that a perfect clockwork can be approximated arbitrarily well by increasing its complexity. Furthermore, we combine such an idealised clockwork model, comprised of many qubits, with an irreversible decay mechanism to showcase the ultimate thermodynamic limits to the measurement of time.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Bayesian parameter estimation using Gaussian states and measurements

Bayesian analysis is a framework for parameter estimation that applies even in uncertainty regimes where the commonly used local (frequentist) analysis based on the Cramér-Rao bound is not well defined. In particular, it applies when no initial information about the parameter value is available, e.g., when few measurements are performed. Here, we consider three paradigmatic estimation schemes in continuous-variable quantum metrology (estimation of displacements, phases, and squeezing strengths) and analyse them from the Bayesian perspective. For each of these scenarios, we investigate the precision achievable with single-mode Gaussian states under homodyne and heterodyne detection. This allows us to identify Bayesian estimation strategies that combine good performance with the potential for straightforward experimental realization in terms of Gaussian states and measurements. Our results provide practical solutions for reaching uncertainties where local estimation techniques apply, thus bridging the gap to regimes where asymptotically optimal strategies can be employed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental quantum speed-up in reinforcement learning agents

Increasing demand for algorithms that can learn quickly and efficiently has led to a surge of development within the field of artificial intelligence (AI). An important paradigm within AI is reinforcement learning (RL), where agents interact with environments by exchanging signals via a communication channel. Agents can learn by updating their behaviour based on obtained feedback. The crucial question for practical applications is how fast agents can learn to respond correctly. An essential figure of merit is therefore the learning time. While various works have made use of quantum mechanics to speed up the agent's decision-making process, a reduction in learning time has not been demonstrated yet. Here we present a RL experiment where the learning of an agent is boosted by utilizing a quantum communication channel with the environment. We further show that the combination with classical communication enables the evaluation of such an improvement, and additionally allows for optimal control of the learning progress. This novel scenario is therefore demonstrated by considering hybrid agents, that alternate between rounds of quantum and classical communication. We implement this learning protocol on a compact and fully tunable integrated nanophotonic processor. The device interfaces with telecom-wavelength photons and features a fast active feedback mechanism, allowing us to demonstrate the agent's systematic quantum advantage in a setup that could be readily integrated within future large-scale quantum communication networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

High-Dimensional Pixel Entanglement: Efficient Generation and Certification

Photons offer the potential to carry large amounts of information in their spectral, spatial, and polarisation degrees of freedom. While state-of-the-art classical communication systems routinely aim to maximize this information-carrying capacity via wavelength and spatial-mode division multiplexing, quantum systems based on multi-mode entanglement usually suffer from low state quality, long measurement times, and limited encoding capacity. At the same time, entanglement certification methods often rely on assumptions that compromise security. Here we show the certification of photonic high-dimensional entanglement in the transverse position-momentum degree-of-freedom with a record quality, measurement speed, and entanglement dimensionality, without making any assumptions about the state or channels. Using a tailored macro-pixel basis, precise spatial-mode measurements, and a modified entanglement witness, we demonstrate state fidelities of up to 94.4% in a 19-dimensional state-space, entanglement in up to 55 local dimensions, and an entanglement-of-formation of up to 4 ebits. Furthermore, our measurement times show an improvement of more than two orders of magnitude over previous state-of-the-art demonstrations. Our results pave the way for noise-robust quantum networks that saturate the information-carrying capacity of single photons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Entangling logical qubits with lattice surgery

Future quantum computers will require quantum error correction for faithful operation. The correction capabilities come with an overhead for performing fault-tolerant logical operations on the encoded qubits. One of the most resource efficient ways to implement logical operations is lattice surgery, where groups of physical qubits, arranged on lattices, can be merged and split to realize entangling gates and teleport logical information. Here, we report on the experimental realization of lattice surgery between two topologically encoded qubits in a 10-qubit ion trap quantum information processor. In particular, we demonstrate entanglement between two logical qubits and we implement logical state teleportation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Teleporting quantum information encoded in fermionic modes

Quantum teleportation is considered a basic primitive in many quantum information processing tasks and has been experimentally confirmed in various photonic and matter-based setups. Here, we consider teleportation of quantum information encoded in modes of a fermionic field. In fermionic systems, superselection rules lead to a more differentiated picture of entanglement and teleportation. In particular, one is forced to distinguish between single-mode entanglement swapping, and qubit teleportation with or without authentication via Bell inequality violation, as we discuss here in detail. We focus on systems subject to parity superselection where the particle number is not fixed, and contrast them with systems constrained by particle number superselection which are relevant for possible practical implementations. Finally, we analyze the consequences for the operational interpretation of fermionic mode entanglement and examine the usefulness of so-called mixed maximally entangled states for teleportation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Optimizing Quantum Error Correction Codes with Reinforcement Learning

Quantum error correction is widely thought to be the key to fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, determining the most suited encoding for unknown error channels or specific laboratory setups is highly challenging. Here, we present a reinforcement learning framework for optimizing and fault-tolerantly adapting quantum error correction codes. We consider a reinforcement learning agent tasked with modifying a family of surface code quantum memories until a desired logical error rate is reached. Using efficient simulations with about 70 data qubits with arbitrary connectivity, we demonstrate that such a reinforcement learning agent can determine near-optimal solutions, in terms of the number of data qubits, for various error models of interest. Moreover, we show that agents trained on one setting are able to successfully transfer their experience to different settings. This ability for transfer learning showcases the inherent strengths of reinforcement learning and the applicability of our approach for optimization from off-line simulations to on-line laboratory settings.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Ideal Projective Measurements Have Infinite Resource Costs

We show that it is impossible to perform ideal projective measurements on quantum systems using finite resources. We identify three fundamental features of ideal projective measurements and show that when limited by finite resources only one of these features can be salvaged. Our framework is general enough to accommodate any system and measuring device (pointer) models, but for illustration we use an explicit model of an $N$-particle pointer. For a pointer that perfectly reproduces the statistics of the system, we provide tight analytic expressions for the energy cost of performing the measurement. This cost may be broken down into two parts. First, the cost of preparing the pointer in a suitable state, and second, the cost of a global interaction between the system and pointer in order to correlate them. Our results show that, even under the assumption that the interaction can be controlled perfectly, achieving perfect correlation is infinitely expensive. We provide protocols for achieving optimal correlation given finite resources for the most general system and pointer Hamiltonians, phrasing our results as fundamental bounds in terms of the dimensions of these systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Work estimation and work fluctuations in the presence of non-ideal measurements

From the perspective of quantum thermodynamics, realisable measurements cost work and result in measurement devices that are not perfectly correlated with the measured systems. We investigate the consequences for the estimation of work in non-equilibrium processes and for the fundamental structure of the work fluctuations when one assumes that the measurements are non-ideal. We show that obtaining work estimates and their statistical moments at finite work cost implies an imperfection of the estimates themselves: more accurate estimates incur higher costs. Our results provide a qualitative relation between the cost of obtaining information about work and the trustworthiness of this information. Moreover, we show that Jarzynski's equality can be maintained exactly at the expense of a correction that depends only on the system's energy scale, while the more general fluctuation relation due to Crooks no longer holds when the cost of the work estimation procedure is finite. We show that precise links between dissipation and irreversibility can be extended to the non-ideal situation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Thermodynamically optimal creation of correlations

Correlations lie at the heart of almost all scientific predictions. It is therefore of interest to ask whether there exist general limitations to the amount of correlations that can be created at a finite amount of invested energy. Within quantum thermodynamics such limitations can be derived from first principles. In particular, it can be shown that establishing correlations between initially uncorrelated systems in a thermal background has an energetic cost. This cost, which depends on the system dimension and the details of the energy-level structure, can be bounded from below but whether these bounds are achievable is an open question. Here, we put forward a framework for studying the process of optimally correlating identical (thermal) quantum systems. The framework is based on decompositions into subspaces that each support only states with diagonal (classical) marginals. Using methods from stochastic majorisation theory, we show that the creation of correlations at minimal energy cost is possible for all pairs of three- and four-dimensional quantum systems. For higher dimensions we provide sufficient conditions for the existence of such optimally correlating operations, which we conjecture to exist in all dimensions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Entanglement Certification $-$ From Theory to Experiment

Entanglement is an important resource that allows quantum technologies to go beyond the classically possible. There are many ways quantum systems can be entangled, ranging from the archetypal two-qubit case to more exotic scenarios of entanglement in high dimensions or between many parties. Consequently, a plethora of entanglement quantifiers and classifiers exist, corresponding to different operational paradigms and mathematical techniques. However, for most quantum systems, exactly quantifying the amount of entanglement is extremely demanding, if at all possible. This is further exacerbated by the difficulty of experimentally controlling and measuring complex quantum states. Consequently, there are various approaches for experimentally detecting and certifying entanglement when exact quantification is not an option, with a particular focus on practically implementable methods and resource efficiency. The applicability and performance of these methods strongly depends on the assumptions one is willing to make regarding the involved quantum states and measurements, in short, on the available prior information about the quantum system. In this review we discuss the most commonly used paradigmatic quantifiers of entanglement. For these, we survey state-of-the-art detection and certification methods, including their respective underlying assumptions, from both a theoretical and experimental point of view.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Trade-off Between Work and Correlations in Quantum Thermodynamics

Quantum thermodynamics and quantum information are two frameworks for employing quantum mechanical systems for practical tasks, exploiting genuine quantum features to obtain advantages with respect to classical implementations. While appearing disconnected at first, the main resources of these frameworks, work and correlations, have a complicated yet interesting relationship that we examine here. We review the role of correlations in quantum thermodynamics, with a particular focus on the conversion of work into correlations. We provide new insights into the fundamental work cost of correlations and the existence of optimally correlating unitaries, and discuss relevant open problems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Measurements in two bases are sufficient for certifying high-dimensional entanglement

High-dimensional encoding of quantum information provides a promising method of transcending current limitations in quantum communication. One of the central challenges in the pursuit of such an approach is the certification of high-dimensional entanglement. In particular, it is desirable to do so without resorting to inefficient full state tomography. Here, we show how carefully constructed measurements in two bases (one of which is not orthonormal) can be used to faithfully and efficiently certify bipartite high-dimensional states and their entanglement for any physical platform. To showcase the practicality of this approach under realistic conditions, we put it to the test for photons entangled in their orbital angular momentum. In our experimental setup, we are able to verify 9-dimensional entanglement for a pair of photons on a 11-dimensional subspace each, at present the highest amount certified without any assumptions on the state.

quant-ph↗