arXiv subjects

Rhea Alexander

Publications and source records attributed to Rhea Alexander.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Amplitude-amplified coherence detection and estimation

The detection and characterization of quantum coherence is of fundamental importance both in the foundations of quantum theory as well as for the rapidly developing field of quantum technologies, where coherence has been linked to quantum advantage. Typical approaches for detecting coherence employ {\it coherence witnesses} -- observable quantities whose expectation value can be used to certify the presence of coherence. By design, coherence witnesses are only able to detect coherence for some, but not all, possible states of a quantum system. In this work we construct protocols capable of detecting the presence of coherence in an {\it unknown} pure quantum state $|\psi\rangle$. Having access to $m$ copies of an unknown pure state $|\psi\rangle$ we show that the sample complexity of any experimental procedure for detecting coherence with constant probability of success $\ge 2/3$ is $\Theta(c(|\psi\rangle)^{-1})$, where $c(|\psi\rangle)$ is the geometric measure of coherence of $|\psi\rangle$. However, assuming access to the unitary $U_\psi$ which prepares the unknown state $|\psi\rangle$, and its inverse $U_\psi^\dagger$, we devise a coherence detecting protocol that employs amplitude-amplification {\it a la} Grover, and uses a quadratically smaller number $O(c(|\psi\rangle)^{-1/2})$ of samples. Furthermore, by augmenting amplitude amplification with phase estimation we obtain an experimental estimation of upper bounds on the geometric measure of coherence within additive error $\varepsilon$ with a sample complexity that scales as $O(1/\varepsilon)$ as compared to the $O(1/\varepsilon^2)$ sample complexity of Monte Carlo estimation methods. The average number of samples needed in our amplitude estimation protocol provides a new operational interpretation for the geometric measure of coherence. Finally, we also derive bounds on the amount of noise our protocols are able to tolerate.

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arXiv2025

A new approximate Eastin-Knill theorem

Transversal encoded gatesets are highly desirable for fault tolerant quantum computing. However, a quantum error correcting code which exactly corrects for local erasure noise and supports a universal set of transversal gates is ruled out by the Eastin-Knill theorem. Here we provide a new approximate Eastin-Knill theorem for the single-shot regime when we allow for some probability of error in the decoding. In particular, we show that a quantum error correcting code can support a universal set of transversal gates and approximately correct for local erasure if and only if the conditional min-entropy of the Choi state of the encoding and noise channel is upper bounded by a simple function of the worst-case error probability. Our no-go theorem can be computed by solving a semidefinite program, and, in the spirit of the original Eastin-Knill theorem, is formulated in terms of a condition that is both necessary and sufficient, ensuring achievability whenever it is passed. As an example, we find that with $n=100$ physical qutrits we can encode $k=1$ logical qubit in the $W$-state code, which admits a universal transversal set of gates and corrects for single subsystem erasure with error probability of $\varepsilon = 0.005$. To establish our no-go result, we leverage tools from the resource theory of asymmetry, where, in the single-shot regime, a single (output state-dependent) resource monotone governs all state purifications.

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arXiv2022

General entropic constraints on CSS codes within magic distillation protocols

Magic states are fundamental building blocks on the road to fault-tolerant quantum computing. CSS codes play a crucial role in the construction of magic distillation protocols. Previous work has cast quantum computing with magic states for odd dimension $d$ within a phase space setting in which universal quantum computing is described by the statistical mechanics of quasiprobability distributions. Here we extend this framework to the important $d=2$ qubit case and show that we can exploit common structures in CSS circuits to obtain distillation bounds capable of out-performing previous monotone bounds in regimes of practical interest. Moreover, in the case of CSS code projections, we arrive at a novel cut-off result on the code length $n$ of the CSS code in terms of parameters characterising a desired distillation, which implies that for fixed target error rate and acceptance probability, one needs only consider CSS codes below a threshold number of qubits. These entropic constraints are not due simply to the data-processing inequality but rely explicitly on the stochastic representation of such protocols.

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arXiv2021

Infinitesimal reference frames suffice to determine the asymmetry properties of a quantum system

Symmetry principles are fundamental in physics, and while they are well understood within Lagrangian mechanics, their impact on quantum channels has a range of open questions. The theory of asymmetry grew out of information-theoretic work on entanglement and quantum reference frames, and allows us to quantify the degree to which a quantum system encodes coordinates of a symmetry group. Recently, a complete set of entropic conditions was found for asymmetry in terms of correlations relative to infinitely many quantum reference frames. However, these conditions are difficult to use in practice and their physical implications unclear. In the present theoretical work, we show that this set of conditions has extensive redundancy, and one can restrict to reference frames forming any closed surface in the state space that has the maximally mixed state in its interior. This in turn implies that asymmetry can be reduced to just a single entropic condition evaluated at the maximally mixed state. Contrary to intuition, this shows that we do not need macroscopic, classical reference frames to determine the asymmetry properties of a quantum system, but instead infinitesimally small frames suffice. Building on this analysis, we provide simple, closed conditions to estimate the minimal depolarization needed to make a given quantum state accessible under channels covariant with any given symmetry group.

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arXiv2019

The geometry of passivity for quantum systems and a novel elementary derivation of the Gibbs state

Passivity is a fundamental concept that constitutes a necessary condition for any quantum system to attain thermodynamic equilibrium, and for a notion of temperature to emerge. While extensive work has been done that exploits this, the transition from passivity at a single-shot level to the completely passive Gibbs state is technically clear but lacks a good over-arching intuition. Here, we re-formulate passivity for quantum systems in purely geometric terms. This description makes the emergence of the Gibbs state from passive states entirely transparent. Beyond clarifying existing results, it also provides novel analysis for non-equilibrium quantum systems. We show that, to every passive state, one can associate a simple convex shape in a 2-dimensional plane, and that the area of this shape measures the degree to which the system deviates from the manifold of equilibrium states. This provides a novel geometric measure of athermality with relations to both ergotropy and $\beta$-athermality.

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