arXiv subjects

Shane Mansfield

Publications and source records attributed to Shane Mansfield.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Closing Bell: Boxing black box simulations in the resource theory of contextuality

This chapter contains an exposition of the sheaf-theoretic framework for contextuality emphasising resource-theoretic aspects, as well as some original results on this topic. In particular, we consider functions that transform empirical models on a scenario S to empirical models on another scenario T, and characterise those that are induced by classical procedures between S and T corresponding to 'free' operations in the (non-adaptive) resource theory of contextuality. We construct a new 'hom' scenario built from S and T, whose empirical models induce such functions. Our characterisation then boils down to being induced by a non-contextual model. We also show that this construction on scenarios provides a closed structure on the category of measurement scenarios.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic

This volume contains the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2023). The aim of the QPL conference series is to bring together academic and industry researchers working on mathematical foundations of quantum computation, quantum physics, and related areas. The main focus is on the use of algebraic and categorical structures, formal languages, type systems, semantic methods, as well as other mathematical and computer scientific techniques applicable to the study of physical systems, physical processes, and their composition.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Generalised Winograd Schema and its Contextuality

Ambiguities in natural language give rise to probability distributions over interpretations. The distributions are often over multiple ambiguous words at a time; a multiplicity which makes them a suitable topic for sheaf-theoretic models of quantum contextuality. Previous research showed that different quantitative measures of contextuality correlate well with Psycholinguistic research on lexical ambiguities. In this work, we focus on coreference ambiguities and investigate the Winograd Schema Challenge (WSC), a test proposed by Levesque in 2011 to evaluate the intelligence of machines. The WSC consists of a collection of multiple-choice questions that require disambiguating pronouns in sentences structured according to the Winograd schema, in a way that makes it difficult for machines to determine the correct referents but remains intuitive for human comprehension. In this study, we propose an approach that analogously models the Winograd schema as an experiment in quantum physics. However, we argue that the original Winograd Schema is inherently too simplistic to facilitate contextuality. We introduce a novel mechanism for generalising the schema, rendering it analogous to a Bell-CHSH measurement scenario. We report an instance of this generalised schema, complemented by the human judgements we gathered via a crowdsourcing platform. The resulting model violates the Bell-CHSH inequality by 0.192, thus exhibiting contextuality in a coreference resolution setting.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Solving graph problems with single-photons and linear optics

An important challenge for current and near-term quantum devices is finding useful tasks that can be preformed on them. We first show how to efficiently encode a bounded $n \times n$ matrix $A$ into a linear optical circuit with $2n$ modes. We then apply this encoding to the case where $A$ is a matrix containing information about a graph $G$. We show that a photonic quantum processor consisting of single-photon sources, a linear optical circuit encoding $A$, and single-photon detectors can solve a range of graph problems including finding the number of perfect matchings of bipartite graphs, computing permanental polynomials, determining whether two graphs are isomorphic, and the $k$-densest subgraph problem. We also propose pre-processing methods to boost the probabilities of observing the relevant detection events and thus improve performance. Finally we present both numerical simulations and implementations on Quandela's Ascella photonic quantum processor to validate our findings.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Strong Simulation of Linear Optical Processes

In this paper, we provide an algorithm and general framework for the simulation of photons passing through linear optical interferometers. Given $n$ photons at the input of an $m$-mode interferometer, our algorithm computes the probabilities of all possible output states with time complexity $O\left({n\binom{n+m-1}{m-1}}\right)$, linear in the number of output states $\binom{n+m-1}{m-1}$. It outperforms the permanent-based method by an exponential factor, and for the restricted problem of computing the probability for one given output it improves the time complexity over the state-of-the-art for the permanent of matrices with multiple rows or columns, with a tradeoff in the memory usage. Our algorithm also has additional versatility by virtue of its use of memorisation -- the storing of intermediate results -- which is advantageous in situations where several input states may be of interest. Additionally it allows for hybrid simulations, in which outputs are sampled from output states whose probability exceeds a given threshold, or from a restricted set of states. We consider a concrete, optimised implementation, and we benchmark the efficiency of our approach compared to existing tools.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

A general-purpose single-photon-based quantum computing platform

Quantum computing aims at exploiting quantum phenomena to efficiently perform computations that are unfeasible even for the most powerful classical supercomputers. Among the promising technological approaches, photonic quantum computing offers the advantages of low decoherence, information processing with modest cryogenic requirements, and native integration with classical and quantum networks. To date, quantum computing demonstrations with light have implemented specific tasks with specialized hardware, notably Gaussian Boson Sampling which permitted quantum computational advantage to be reached. Here we report a first user-ready general-purpose quantum computing prototype based on single photons. The device comprises a high-efficiency quantum-dot single-photon source feeding a universal linear optical network on a reconfigurable chip for which hardware errors are compensated by a machine-learned transpilation process. Our full software stack allows remote control of the device to perform computations via logic gates or direct photonic operations. For gate-based computation we benchmark one-, two- and three-qubit gates with state-of-the art fidelities of $99.6\pm0.1 \%$, $93.8\pm0.6 \%$ and $86\pm1.2 \%$ respectively. We also implement a variational quantum eigensolver, which we use to calculate the energy levels of the hydrogen molecule with high accuracy. For photon native computation, we implement a classifier algorithm using a $3$-photon-based quantum neural network and report a first $6$-photon Boson Sampling demonstration on a universal reconfigurable integrated circuit. Finally, we report on a first heralded 3-photon entanglement generation, a key milestone toward measurement-based quantum computing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Perceval: A Software Platform for Discrete Variable Photonic Quantum Computing

We introduce Perceval, an open-source software platform for simulating and interfacing with discrete-variable photonic quantum computers, and describe its main features and components. Its Python front-end allows photonic circuits to be composed from basic photonic building blocks like photon sources, beam splitters, phase-shifters and detectors. A variety of computational back-ends are available and optimised for different use-cases. These use state-of-the-art simulation techniques covering both weak simulation, or sampling, and strong simulation. We give examples of Perceval in action by reproducing a variety of photonic experiments and simulating photonic implementations of a range of quantum algorithms, from Grover's and Shor's to examples of quantum machine learning. Perceval is intended to be a useful toolkit for experimentalists wishing to easily model, design, simulate, or optimise a discrete-variable photonic experiment, for theoreticians wishing to design algorithms and applications for discrete-variable photonic quantum computing platforms, and for application designers wishing to evaluate algorithms on available state-of-the-art photonic quantum computers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

A Complete Equational Theory for Quantum Circuits

We introduce the first complete equational theory for quantum circuits. More precisely, we introduce a set of circuit equations that we prove to be sound and complete: two circuits represent the same unitary map if and only if they can be transformed one into the other using the equations. The proof is based on the properties of multi-controlled gates -- that are defined using elementary gates -- together with an encoding of quantum circuits into linear optical circuits, which have been proved to have a complete axiomatisation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

A Model of Anaphoric Ambiguities using Sheaf Theoretic Quantum-like Contextuality and BERT

Ambiguities of natural language do not preclude us from using it and context helps in getting ideas across. They, nonetheless, pose a key challenge to the development of competent machines to understand natural language and use it as humans do. Contextuality is an unparalleled phenomenon in quantum mechanics, where different mathematical formalisms have been put forwards to understand and reason about it. In this paper, we construct a schema for anaphoric ambiguities that exhibits quantum-like contextuality. We use a recently developed criterion of sheaf-theoretic contextuality that is applicable to signalling models. We then take advantage of the neural word embedding engine BERT to instantiate the schema to natural language examples and extract probability distributions for the instances. As a result, plenty of sheaf-contextual examples were discovered in the natural language corpora BERT utilises. Our hope is that these examples will pave the way for future research and for finding ways to extend applications of quantum computing to natural language processing.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2022

LOv-Calculus: A Graphical Language for Linear Optical Quantum Circuits

We introduce the LOv-calculus, a graphical language for reasoning about linear optical quantum circuits with so-called vacuum state auxiliary inputs. We present the axiomatics of the language and prove its soundness and completeness: two LOv-circuits represent the same quantum process if and only if one can be transformed into the other with the rules of the LOv-calculus. We give a confluent and terminating rewrite system to rewrite any polarisation-preserving LOv-circuit into a unique triangular normal form, inspired by the universal decomposition of Reck et al. (1994) for linear optical quantum circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Continuous-variable nonlocality and contextuality

Contextuality is a non-classical behaviour that can be exhibited by quantum systems. It is increasingly studied for its relationship to quantum-over-classical advantages in informatic tasks. To date, it has largely been studied in discrete-variable scenarios, where observables take values in discrete and usually finite sets. Practically, on the other hand, continuous-variable scenarios offer some of the most promising candidates for implementing quantum computations and informatic protocols. Here we set out a framework for treating contextuality in continuous-variable scenarios. It is shown that the Fine--Abramsky--Brandenburger theorem extends to this setting, an important consequence of which is that Bell nonlocality can be viewed as a special case of contextuality, as in the discrete case. The contextual fraction, a quantifiable measure of contextuality that bears a precise relationship to Bell inequality violations and quantum advantages, is also defined in this setting. It is shown to be a non-increasing monotone with respect to classical operations that include binning to discretise data. Finally, we consider how the contextual fraction can be formulated as an infinite linear program. Through Lasserre relaxations, we are able to express this infinite linear program as a hierarchy of semi-definite programs that allow to calculate the contextual fraction with increasing accuracy.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Assessing the quality of near-term photonic quantum devices

For near-term quantum devices, an important challenge is to develop efficient methods to certify that noise levels are low enough to allow potentially useful applications to be carried out. We present such a method tailored to photonic quantum devices consisting of single photon sources coupled to linear optical circuits coupled to photon detectors. It uses the output statistics of BosonSampling experiments with input size $n$ ($n$ input photons in the ideal case). We propose a series of benchmark tests targetting two main sources of noise, namely photon loss and distinguishability. Our method results in a single-number metric, the Photonic Quality Factor, defined as the largest number of input photons for which the output statistics pass all tests. We provide strong evidence that passing all tests implies that our experiments are not efficiently classically simulable, by showing how several existing classical algorithms for efficiently simulating noisy BosonSampling fail the tests. Finally we show that BosonSampling experiments with average photon loss rate per mode scaling as $o(1)$ and average fidelity of $ (1-o(\frac{1}{n^6}))^2$ between any two single photon states is sufficient to keep passing our tests. Unsurprisingly, our results highlight that scaling in a manner that avoids efficient classical simulability will at some point necessarily require error correction and mitigation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Proceedings 17th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic

This volume contains the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2020), which was held June 2-6, 2020. Quantum Physics and Logic is an annual conference that brings together researchers working on mathematical foundations of quantum physics, quantum computing, and related areas, with a focus on structural perspectives and the use of logical tools, ordered algebraic and category-theoretic structures, formal languages, semantical methods, and other computer science techniques applied to the study of physical behavior in general. Work that applies structures and methods inspired by quantum theory to other fields (including computer science) is also welcome.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Advantage in Information Retrieval

Random access codes have provided many examples of quantum advantage in communication, but concern only one kind of information retrieval task. We introduce a related task - the Torpedo Game - and show that it admits greater quantum advantage than the comparable random access code. Perfect quantum strategies involving prepare-and-measure protocols with experimentally accessible three-level systems emerge via analysis in terms of the discrete Wigner function. The example is leveraged to an operational advantage in a pacifist version of the strategy game Battleship. We pinpoint a characteristic of quantum systems that enables quantum advantage in any bounded-memory information retrieval task. While preparation contextuality has previously been linked to advantages in random access coding we focus here on a different characteristic called sequential contextuality. It is shown not only to be necessary and sufficient for quantum advantage, but also to quantify the degree of advantage. Our perfect qutrit strategy for the Torpedo Game entails the strongest type of inconsistency with non-contextual hidden variables, revealing logical paradoxes with respect to those assumptions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Tsirelson's bound and Landauer's principle in a single-system game

We introduce a simple single-system game inspired by the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) game. For qubit systems subjected to unitary gates and projective measurements, we prove that any strategy in our game can be mapped to a strategy in the CHSH game, which implies that Tsirelson's bound also holds in our setting. More generally, we show that the optimal success probability depends on the reversible or irreversible character of the gates, the quantum or classical nature of the system and the system dimension. We analyse the bounds obtained in light of Landauer's principle, showing the entropic costs of the erasure associated with the game. This shows a connection between the reversibility in fundamental operations embodied by Landauer's principle and Tsirelson's bound, that arises from the restricted physics of a unitarily-evolving single-qubit system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

A comonadic view of simulation and quantum resources

We study simulation and quantum resources in the setting of the sheaf-theoretic approach to contextuality and non-locality. Resources are viewed behaviourally, as empirical models. In earlier work, a notion of morphism for these empirical models was proposed and studied. We generalize and simplify the earlier approach, by starting with a very simple notion of morphism, and then extending it to a more useful one by passing to a co-Kleisli category with respect to a comonad of measurement protocols. We show that these morphisms capture notions of simulation between empirical models obtained via `free' operations in a resource theory of contextuality, including the type of classical control used in measurement-based quantum computation schemes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantum Advantage from Sequential-Transformation Contextuality

We introduce a notion of contextuality for transformations in sequential contexts, distinct from the Bell-Kochen-Specker and Spekkens notions of contextuality. Within a transformation-based model for quantum computation we show that strong sequential-transformation contextuality is necessary and sufficient for deterministic computation of non-linear functions if classical components are restricted to mod2-linearity and matching constraints apply to any underlying ontology. For probabilistic computation, sequential-transformation contextuality is necessary and sufficient for advantage in this task and the degree of advantage quantifiably relates to the degree of contextuality.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Minimum quantum resources for strong non-locality

We analyse the minimum quantum resources needed to realise strong non-locality, as exemplified e.g. by the classical GHZ construction. It was already known that no two-qubit system, with any finite number of local measurements, can realise strong non-locality. For three-qubit systems, we show that strong non-locality can only be realised in the GHZ SLOCC class, and with equatorial measurements. However, we show that in this class there is an infinite family of states which are pairwise non-LU-equivalent that realise strong non-locality with finitely many measurements. These states have decreasing entanglement between one qubit and the other two, necessitating an increasing number of local measurements on the latter.

quant-ph↗