arXiv subjects

Thilo Scharnhorst

Publications and source records attributed to Thilo Scharnhorst.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Optimal cloning of mixed states

We consider the problem of approximate cloning of quantum states: given $n$ copies of an unknown state $ρ\in \mathbb{C}^{d \times d}$, prepare an $(n+k)$-copy state with high fidelity to $ρ^{\otimes (n+k)}$. Werner's pure state cloner is the optimal channel for the pure state case, and shows that $n = Θ(kd/\varepsilon)$ copies are necessary and sufficient to clone $k$ additional copies of an unknown pure state to fidelity $1-\varepsilon$. The random purification channel gives a straightforward extension of Werner's cloner to mixed state inputs: given $n$ copies of a mixed state, randomly purify your input, apply Werner's channel in the larger Hilbert space, and then trace out the auxiliary registers. This gives a mixed state cloner using $n = O(krd/\varepsilon)$ copies to clone rank-$r$ states. Can one do any better? We show that the answer is no: one must use $n = Ω(krd/\varepsilon)$ copies. We prove our lower bound by studying the special case of projector cloning, in which the input state $ρ$ is promised to be of the form $P/r$, where $P$ is a rank-$r$ orthogonal projector. As a further application of our techniques, we consider the closely related problem of approximate transposition of quantum states, where one seeks to convert $ρ^{\otimes n}$ to a $k$-copy state with high fidelity to $(ρ^T)^{\otimes k}$. Here, we again show $n = Θ(krd/\varepsilon)$ copies are necessary and sufficient for this task.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Optimal schedule of multi-channel quantum Zeno dragging with application to solving the k-SAT problem

Quantum Zeno dragging enables the preparation of common eigenstates of a set of observables by frequent measurement and adiabatic-like modulation of the measurement basis. In this work, we present a deeper analysis of multi-channel Zeno dragging using generalized measurements, i.e. simultaneously measuring a set of non-commuting observables that vary slowly in time, to drag the state towards a target subspace. For concreteness, we will focus on a measurement-driven approach to solving k-SAT problems as examples. We first compute some analytical upper bounds on the convergence time, including the effect of finite measurement time resolution. We then apply optimal control theory to obtain the optimal dragging schedule that lower bounds the convergence time, for low-dimensional settings. This study provides a theoretical foundation for multi-channel Zeno dragging and its optimization, and also serves as a guide for designing optimal dragging schedules for quantum information tasks including measurement-driven quantum algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Towards Heisenberg Scaling: Measurement-Efficient Non-Orthogonal Quantum Eigensolver

The Non-Orthogonal Quantum Eigensolver (NOQE) provides an accurate framework for electronic-structure calculations, but the estimation of its Hamiltonian and overlap matrix elements relies on sampling and requires $O(1/\varepsilon^2)$ circuit repetitions to achieve additive precision $\varepsilon$. Here, we reformulate this matrix-element estimation step as a collection of amplitude-estimation tasks and integrate iterative quantum amplitude estimation into the NOQE workflow. The resulting protocol achieves near-Heisenberg query complexity $O(1/\varepsilon)$ for these estimation tasks, by replacing incoherent statistical averaging with coherent amplitude amplification. We present explicit circuit constructions and the corresponding implementation procedure. Numerical simulations for the electronic states of the hydrogen molecule show that the proposed method reaches chemical accuracy with substantially fewer total queries than the original sampling-based protocol. Overall, this work provides a measurement-efficient route to high-precision energy estimation and illustrates how sampling-limited quantum algorithms can be systematically reformulated to leverage quantum coherence and achieve lower measurement costs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Nonasymptotic bounds for quantum purity amplification

In quantum purity amplification, one is given $n$ copies of a noisy quantum state $ρ\in \mathbb{C}^{d \times d}$ and asked to prepare $k$ copies of its principal eigenstate $|v_d\rangle$. Several prior works have derived information-theoretically optimal algorithms for this problem, but the bounds they prove are only shown in the asymptotic regime as the number of samples $n$ tends to infinity. In this paper, we establish the following nonasymptotic guarantee: if $ρ$'s eigenvalues are sorted $p_1 \leq \cdots \leq p_d$ and $p_{d-1} < p_d$, then \begin{equation*} n = O\Big(k + \frac{k}δ \cdot \frac{1-p_d}{(p_d-p_{d-1})^2}\Big) \end{equation*} copies suffice to output a state with fidelity at least $1-δ$ with $|v_d^{\otimes k}\rangle$. Our bound holds for arbitrary spectra, and is independent of the dimension $d$. In the case of depolarizing noise, our finite-sample guarantee matches the optimal asymptotic scaling. Our proof is based on the combinatorics of random Young diagrams.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Optimal lower bounds for quantum state tomography

We show that $n = Ω(rd/\varepsilon^2)$ copies are necessary to learn a rank $r$ mixed state $ρ\in \mathbb{C}^{d \times d}$ up to error $\varepsilon$ in trace distance. This matches the upper bound of $n = O(rd/\varepsilon^2)$ from prior work, and therefore settles the sample complexity of mixed state tomography. We prove this lower bound by studying a special case of full state tomography that we refer to as projector tomography, in which $ρ$ is promised to be of the form $ρ= P/r$, where $P \in \mathbb{C}^{d \times d}$ is a rank $r$ projector. A key technical ingredient in our proof, which may be of independent interest, is a reduction which converts any algorithm for projector tomography which learns to error $\varepsilon$ in trace distance to an algorithm which learns to error $O(\varepsilon)$ in the more stringent Bures distance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

On the quantum mechanics of entropic forces

It was conjectured thirty years ago that gravity could arise from the entropic re-arrangement of information. In this paper, we offer a set of microscopic quantum models which realize this idea in detail. In particular, we suggest a simple mechanism by which Newton's law of gravity arises from extremization of the free energy of a collection of qubits or oscillators, rather than from the exchange of virtual quanta of a fundamental field. We give both a local and non-local version of the construction, and show how to distinguish a range of these entropic models from ordinary perturbative quantum gravity using existing observations and near-term experiments.

hep-th↗