arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Tobias J. Osborne.
What is the computational power of a quantum computer? We show that determining the output of a quantum computation is equivalent to counting the number of solutions to an easily computed set of polynomials defined over the finite field Z_2. This connection allows simple proofs to be given for two known relationships between quantum and classical complexity classes.
In this paper we isolate the combinatorial property responsible (at least in part) for the computational speedups recently observed in some quantum walk algorithms. We find that continuous-time quantum walks can exploit the covering space property of certain graphs. We demonstrate that a quantum walk on a graph Y which covers a smaller graph X can be equivalent to a quantum walk on the smaller graph X. This equivalence occurs only when the walk begins on certain initial states, fibre-constant states, which respect the graph covering space structure. We illustrate these observations with walks on Cayley graphs; we show that walks on fibre-constant initial states for Cayley graphs are equivalent to walks on the induced Schreier graph. We also consider the problem of constructing efficient gate sequences simulating the time evolution of a continuous-time quantum walk. For the case of the walk on the m-torus graph T^m on 2^n vertices we construct a gate sequence which uses O(\poly(n)) gates which is independent of the time t the walk is simulated for (and so the sequence can simulate the walk for exponential times). We argue that there exists a wide class of nontrivial operators based on quantum walks on graphs which can be measured efficiently. We introduce a new general class of computational problems, HiddenCover, which includes a variant of the general hidden subgroup problem as a subclass. We argue that quantum computers ought to be able to utilise covering space structures to efficiently solve HiddenCover problems.
In this paper we study the problem of calculating the convex hull of certain affine algebraic varieties. As we explain, the motivation for considering this problem is that certain pure-state measures of quantum entanglement, which we call polynomial entanglement measures, can be represented as affine algebraic varieties. We consider the evaluation of certain mixed-state extensions of these polynomial entanglement measures, namely convex and concave roofs. We show that the evaluation of a roof-based mixed-state extension is equivalent to calculating a hyperplane which is multiply tangent to the variety in a number of places equal to the number of terms in an optimal decomposition for the measure. In this way we provide an implicit representation of optimal decompositions for mixed-state entanglement measures based on the roof construction.
It has been recently suggested that the dynamics of a quantum spin system may provide a natural mechanism for transporting quantum information. We show that one dimensional rings of qubits with fixed (time-independent) interactions, constant around the ring, allow high fidelity communication of quantum states. We show that the problem of maximising the fidelity of the quantum communication is related to a classical problem in fourier wave analysis. By making use of this observation we find that if both communicating parties have access to limited numbers of qubits in the ring (a fraction that vanishes in the limit of large rings) it is possible to make the communication arbitrarily good.
What correlations are present in the ground state of a many-body Hamiltonian? We study the relationship between ground-state correlations, especially entanglement, and the energy gap between the ground and first excited states. We prove several general inequalities which show quantitatively that ground-state correlations between systems not directly coupled by the Hamiltonian necessarily imply a small energy gap.
The production of conditional quantum states and quantum operations based on the result of measurement is now seen as a key tool in quantum information and metrology. We propose a new type of photon number detector. It functions non-deterministically, but when successful, it has high fidelity. The detector, which makes use of an n-photon auxiliary Fock state and high efficiency Homodyne detection, allows a tunable tradeoff between fidelity and probability. By sacrificing probability of operation, an excellent approximation to a photon number detector is achieved.
What is the time-optimal way of using a set of control Hamiltonians to obtain a desired interaction? Vidal, Hammerer and Cirac [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 237902] have obtained a set of powerful results characterizing the time-optimal simulation of a two-qubit quantum gate using a fixed interaction Hamiltonian and fast local control over the individual qubits. How practically useful are these results? We prove that there are two-qubit Hamiltonians such that time-optimal simulation requires infinitely many steps of evolution, each infinitesimally small, and thus is physically impractical. A procedure is given to determine which two-qubit Hamiltonians have this property, and we show that almost all Hamiltonians do. Finally, we determine some bounds on the penalty that must be paid in the simulation time if the number of steps is fixed at a finite number, and show that the cost in simulation time is not too great.
What quantum states are possible energy eigenstates of a many-body Hamiltonian? Suppose the Hamiltonian is non-trivial, i.e., not a multiple of the identity, and L-local, in the sense of containing interaction terms involving at most L bodies, for some fixed L. We construct quantum states ψwhich are ``far away'' from all the eigenstates E of any non-trivial L-local Hamiltonian, in the sense that |ψ-E| is greater than some constant lower bound, independent of the form of the Hamiltonian.
How useful is a quantum dynamical operation for quantum information processing? Motivated by this question we investigate several strength measures quantifying the resources intrinsic to a quantum operation. We develop a general theory of such strength measures, based on axiomatic considerations independent of state-based resources. The power of this theory is demonstrated with applications to quantum communication complexity, quantum computational complexity, and entanglement generation by unitary operations.
Which gates are universal for quantum computation? Although it is well known that certain gates on two-level quantum systems (qubits), such as the controlled-not (CNOT), are universal when assisted by arbitrary one-qubit gates, it has only recently become clear precisely what class of two-qubit gates is universal in this sense. Here we present an elementary proof that any entangling two-qubit gate is universal for quantum computation, when assisted by one-qubit gates. A proof of this important result for systems of arbitrary finite dimension has been provided by J. L. and R. Brylinski [arXiv:quant-ph/0108062, 2001]; however, their proof relies upon a long argument using advanced mathematics. In contrast, our proof provides a simple constructive procedure which is close to optimal and experimentally practical [C. M. Dawson and A. Gilchrist, online implementation of the procedure described herein (2002), http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/gqc/].
We investigate the role of entanglement in quantum phase transitions, and show that the success of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) in understanding such phase transitions is due to the way it preserves entanglement under renormalization. We provide a reinterpretation of the DMRG in terms of the language and tools of quantum information science which allows us to rederive the DMRG in a physically transparent way. Motivated by our reinterpretation we suggest a modification of the DMRG which manifestly takes account of the entanglement in a quantum system. This modified renormalization scheme is shown,in certain special cases, to preserve more entanglement in a quantum system than traditional numerical renormalization methods.
In a recent paper, Rungta et. al. [Phys. Rev. A, 64, 042315, 2001] introduced a measure of mixed-state entanglement called the I-concurrence for arbitrary pairs of qudits. We find an exact formula for an entanglement measure closely related to the I-concurrence, the I-tangle, for all mixed states of two qudits having no more than two nonzero eigenvalues. We use this formula to provide a tight upper bound for the entanglement of formation for rank-2 mixed states of a qubit and a qudit.
What entanglement is present in naturally occurring physical systems at thermal equilibrium? Most such systems are intractable and it is desirable to study simple but realistic systems which can be solved. An example of such a system is the 1D infinite-lattice anisotropic XY model. This model is exactly solvable using the Jordan-Wigner transform, and it is possible to calculate the two-site reduced density matrix for all pairs of sites. Using the two-site density matrix, the entanglement of formation between any two sites is calculated for all parameter values and temperatures. We also study the entanglement in the transverse Ising model, a special case of the XY model, which exhibits a quantum phase transition. It is found that the next-nearest neighbour entanglement (though not the nearest-neighbour entanglement) is a maximum at the critical point. Furthermore, we show that the critical point in the transverse Ising model corresponds to a transition in the behaviour of the entanglement between a single site and the remainder of the lattice.
This paper demonstrates that how well a state performs as an input to Grover's search algorithm depends critically upon the entanglement present in that state; the more entanglement, the less well the algorithm performs. More precisely, suppose we take a pure state input, and prior to running the algorithm apply local unitary operations to each qubit in order to maximize the probability P_max that the search algorithm succeeds. We prove that, for pure states, P_max is an entanglement monotone, in the sense that P_max can never be decreased by local operations and classical communication.