arXiv subjects

Steven T. Flammia

Publications and source records attributed to Steven T. Flammia.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Direct Fidelity Estimation from Few Pauli Measurements

We describe a simple method for certifying that an experimental device prepares a desired quantum state rho. Our method is applicable to any pure state rho, and it provides an estimate of the fidelity between rho and the actual (arbitrary) state in the lab, up to a constant additive error. The method requires measuring only a constant number of Pauli expectation values, selected at random according to an importance-weighting rule. Our method is faster than full tomography by a factor of d, the dimension of the state space, and extends easily and naturally to quantum channels.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Graphical calculus for Gaussian pure states

We provide a unified graphical calculus for all Gaussian pure states, including graph transformation rules for all local and semi-local Gaussian unitary operations, as well as local quadrature measurements. We then use this graphical calculus to analyze continuous-variable (CV) cluster states, the essential resource for one-way quantum computing with CV systems. Current graphical approaches to CV cluster states are only valid in the unphysical limit of infinite squeezing, and the associated graph transformation rules only apply when the initial and final states are of this form. Our formalism applies to all Gaussian pure states and subsumes these rules in a natural way. In addition, the term "CV graph state" currently has several inequivalent definitions in use. Using this formalism we provide a single unifying definition that encompasses all of them. We provide many examples of how the formalism may be used in the context of CV cluster states: defining the "closest" CV cluster state to a given Gaussian pure state and quantifying the error in the approximation due to finite squeezing; analyzing the optimality of certain methods of generating CV cluster states; drawing connections between this new graphical formalism and bosonic Hamiltonians with Gaussian ground states, including those useful for CV one-way quantum computing; and deriving a graphical measure of bipartite entanglement for certain classes of CV cluster states. We mention other possible applications of this formalism and conclude with a brief note on fault tolerance in CV one-way quantum computing.

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arXiv2011

Efficient quantum state tomography

Quantum state tomography, the ability to deduce the state of a quantum system from measured data, is the gold standard for verification and benchmarking of quantum devices. It has been realized in systems with few components, but for larger systems it becomes infeasible because the number of quantum measurements and the amount of computation required to process them grows exponentially in the system size. Here we show that we can do exponentially better than direct state tomography for a wide range of quantum states, in particular those that are well approximated by a matrix product state ansatz. We present two schemes for tomography in 1-D quantum systems and touch on generalizations. One scheme requires unitary operations on a constant number of subsystems, while the other requires only local measurements together with more elaborate post-processing. Both schemes rely only on a linear number of experimental operations and classical postprocessing that is polynomial in the system size. A further strength of the methods is that the accuracy of the reconstructed states can be rigorously certified without any a priori assumptions.

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arXiv2010

Entangling the optical frequency comb: simultaneous generation of multiple 2x2 and 2x3 continuous-variable cluster states in a single optical parametric oscillator

We report on our research effort to generate large-scale multipartite optical-mode entanglement using as few physical resources as possible. We have previously shown that cluster- and GHZ-type N-partite continuous-variable entanglement can be obtained in an optical resonator that contains a suitably designed second-order nonlinear optical medium, pumped by at most O(N^2) fields. In this paper, we show that the frequency comb of such a resonator can be entangled into an arbitrary number of independent 2x2 and 2x3 continuous-variable cluster states by a single optical parametric oscillator pumped by just a few optical modes.

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arXiv2010

Quantum state tomography via compressed sensing

We establish methods for quantum state tomography based on compressed sensing. These methods are specialized for quantum states that are fairly pure, and they offer a significant performance improvement on large quantum systems. In particular, they are able to reconstruct an unknown density matrix of dimension d and rank r using O(rd log^2 d) measurement settings, compared to standard methods that require d^2 settings. Our methods have several features that make them amenable to experimental implementation: they require only simple Pauli measurements, use fast convex optimization, are stable against noise, and can be applied to states that are only approximately low-rank. The acquired data can be used to certify that the state is indeed close to pure, so no a priori assumptions are needed. We present both theoretical bounds and numerical simulations.

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arXiv2010

Heralded Polynomial-Time Quantum State Tomography

We describe an algorithm for quantum state tomography that converges in polynomial time to an estimate, together with a rigorous error bound on the fidelity between the estimate and the true state. The result suggests that state tomography on large quantum systems may be much more feasible than the exponential size of state space suggests. In many situations, the correctness of the state estimate can be certified from the data alone, with no a priori assumptions on the form of the measured state.

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arXiv2010

Adiabatic Cluster State Quantum Computing

Models of quantum computation are important because they change the physical requirements for achieving universal quantum computation (QC). For example, one-way QC requires the preparation of an entangled "cluster" state followed by adaptive measurement on this state, a set of requirements which is different from the standard quantum circuit model. Here we introduce a model based on one-way QC but without measurements (except for the final readout), instead using adiabatic deformation of a Hamiltonian whose initial ground state is the cluster state. This opens the possibility to use the copious results from one-way QC to build more feasible adiabatic schemes.

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arXiv2010

Topological Entanglement Renyi Entropy and Reduced Density Matrix Structure

We generalize the topological entanglement entropy to a family of topological Renyi entropies parametrized by a parameter alpha, in an attempt to find new invariants for distinguishing topologically ordered phases. We show that, surprisingly, all topological Renyi entropies are the same, independent of alpha for all non-chiral topological phases. This independence shows that topologically ordered ground-state wavefunctions have reduced density matrices with a certain simple structure, and no additional universal information can be extracted from the entanglement spectrum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

The Lie Algebraic Significance of Symmetric Informationally Complete Measurements

Examples of symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measures (SIC-POVMs) have been constructed in every dimension less than or equal to 67. However, it remains an open question whether they exist in all finite dimensions. A SIC-POVM is usually thought of as a highly symmetric structure in quantum state space. However, its elements can equally well be regarded as a basis for the Lie algebra gl(d,C). In this paper we examine the resulting structure constants, which are calculated from the traces of the triple products of the SIC-POVM elements and which, it turns out, characterize the SIC-POVM up to unitary equivalence. We show that the structure constants have numerous remarkable properties. In particular we show that the existence of a SIC-POVM in dimension d is equivalent to the existence of a certain structure in the adjoint representation of gl(d,C). We hope that transforming the problem in this way, from a question about quantum state space to a question about Lie algebras, may help to make the existence problem tractable.

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arXiv2009

Random unitary maps for quantum state reconstruction

We study the possibility of performing quantum state reconstruction from a measurement record that is obtained as a sequence of expectation values of a Hermitian operator evolving under repeated application of a single random unitary map, U_0. We show that while this single-parameter orbit in operator space is not informationally complete, it can be used to yield surprisingly high-fidelity reconstruction. For a d-dimensional Hilbert space with the initial observable in su(d), the measurement record lacks information about a matrix subspace of dimension > d-2 out of the total dimension d^2-1. We determine the conditions on U_0 such that the bound is saturated, and show they are achieved by almost all pseudorandom unitary matrices. When we further impose the constraint that the physical density matrix must be positive, we obtain even higher fidelity than that predicted from the missing subspace. With prior knowledge that the state is pure, the reconstruction will be perfect (in the limit of vanishing noise) and for arbitrary mixed states, the fidelity is over 0.96, even for small d, and reaching F > 0.99 for d > 9. We also study the implementation of this protocol based on the relationship between random matrices and quantum chaos. We show that the Floquet operator of the quantum kicked top provides a means of generating the required type of measurement record, with implications on the relationship between quantum chaos and information gain.

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arXiv2009

Adiabatic Gate Teleportation

The difficulty in producing precisely timed and controlled quantum gates is a significant source of error in many physical implementations of quantum computers. Here we introduce a simple universal primitive, adiabatic gate teleportation, which is robust to timing errors and many control errors and maintains a constant energy gap throughout the computation above a degenerate ground state space. Notably this construction allows for geometric robustness based upon the control of two independent qubit interactions. Further, our piecewise adiabatic evolution easily relates to the quantum circuit model, enabling the use of standard methods from fault-tolerance theory for establishing thresholds.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

The Optical Frequency Comb as a One-Way Quantum Computer

In the one-way model of quantum computing, quantum algorithms are implemented using only measurements on an entangled initial state. Much of the hard work is done up-front when creating this universal resource, known as a cluster state, on which the measurements are made. Here we detail a new proposal for a scalable method of creating cluster states using only a single multimode optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The method generates a continuous-variable cluster state that is universal for quantum computation and encoded in the quadratures of the optical frequency comb of the OPO. This work expands on the presentation in Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130501 (2008).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Weighing matrices and optical quantum computing

Quantum computation in the one-way model requires the preparation of certain resource states known as cluster states. We describe how the construction of continuous-variable cluster states for optical quantum computing relate to the existence of certain families of matrices. The relevant matrices are known as weighing matrices, with a few additional constraints. We prove some results regarding the structure of these matrices, and their associated graphs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

One-Way Quantum Computing in the Optical Frequency Comb

One-way quantum computing allows any quantum algorithm to be implemented easily using just measurements. The difficult part is creating the universal resource, a cluster state, on which the measurements are made. We propose a radically new approach: a scalable method that uses a single, multimode optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The method is very efficient and generates a continuous-variable cluster state, universal for quantum computation, with quantum information encoded in the quadratures of the optical frequency comb of the OPO.

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arXiv2008

Quantum Metrology: Dynamics vs. Entanglement

A parameter whose coupling to a quantum probe of $n$ constituents includes all two-body interactions between the constituents can be measured with an uncertainty that scales as $1/n^{3/2}$, even when the constituents are initially unentangled. We devise a protocol that achieves the $1/n^{3/2}$ scaling without generating any entanglement among the constituents, and we suggest that the protocol might be implemented in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Phase transition of computational power in the resource states for one-way quantum computation

We study how heralded qubit losses during the preparation of a two-dimensional cluster state, a universal resource state for one-way quantum computation, affect its computational power. Above the percolation threshold we present a polynomial-time algorithm that concentrates a universal cluster state, using resources that scale optimally in the size of the original lattice. On the other hand, below the percolation threshold, we show that single qubit measurements on the faulty lattice can be efficiently simulated classically. We observe a phase transition at the threshold when the amount of entanglement in the faulty lattice directly relevant to the computational power changes exponentially.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quantum-limited metrology with product states

We study the performance of initial product states of n-body systems in generalized quantum metrology protocols that involve estimating an unknown coupling constant in a nonlinear k-body (k << n) Hamiltonian. We obtain the theoretical lower bound on the uncertainty in the estimate of the parameter. For arbitrary initial states, the lower bound scales as 1/n^k, and for initial product states, it scales as 1/n^(k-1/2). We show that the latter scaling can be achieved using simple, separable measurements. We analyze in detail the case of a quadratic Hamiltonian (k = 2), implementable with Bose-Einstein condensates. We formulate a simple model, based on the evolution of angular-momentum coherent states, which explains the O(n^(-3/2)) scaling for k = 2; the model shows that the entanglement generated by the quadratic Hamiltonian does not play a role in the enhanced sensitivity scaling. We show that phase decoherence does not affect the O(n^(-3/2)) sensitivity scaling for initial product states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Constrained bounds on measures of entanglement

Entanglement measures constructed from two positive, but not completely positive maps on density operators are used as constraints in placing bounds on the entanglement of formation, the tangle, and the concurrence of 4 x N mixed states. The maps are the partial transpose map and the $Φ$-map introduced by Breuer [H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 080501 (2006)]. The norm-based entanglement measures constructed from these two maps, called negativity and $Φ$-negativity, respectively, lead to two sets of bounds on the entanglement of formation, the tangle, and the concurrence. We compare these bounds and identify the sets of 4 x N density operators for which the bounds from one constraint are better than the bounds from the other. In the process, we present a new derivation of the already known bound on the concurrence based on the negativity. We compute new bounds on the three measures of entanglement using both the constraints simultaneously. We demonstrate how such doubly constrained bounds can be constructed. We discuss extensions of our results to bipartite states of higher dimensions and with more than two constraints.

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