arXiv subjects

Wolfgang Dür

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Dür.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Efficient entanglement purification protocols for d-level systems

We introduce entanglement purification protocols for d-level systems (qudits) with improved efficiency as compared to previous protocols. While we focus on protocols for bipartite systems, we also propose generalizations to multi-partite qudit systems. The schemes we introduce include recurrence protocols that operate on two copies, as well as hashing protocols that operate on large ensembles. We analyze properties of the protocols with respect to minimal required fidelity and yield, and study their performance in the presence of noise and imperfections. We determine error thresholds and study the dependence on local dimension. We find that our schemes do not only outperform previous approaches, but also show an improved robustness and better efficiency with increasing dimension. While error thresholds for different system sizes are not directly comparable, our results nevertheless suggest that quantum information processing using qudits, in particular for long-distance quantum communication, may offer an advantage over approaches based on qubit systems.

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arXiv2018

Macroscopic quantum states: measures, fragility and implementations

Large-scale quantum effects have always played an important role in the foundations of quantum theory. With recent experimental progress and the aspiration for quantum enhanced applications, the interest in macroscopic quantum effects has been reinforced. In this review, we critically analyze and discuss measures aiming to quantify various aspects of macroscopic quantumness. We survey recent results on the difficulties and prospects to create, maintain and detect macroscopic quantum states. The role of macroscopic quantum states in foundational questions as well as practical applications is outlined. Finally, we present past and on-going experimental advances aiming to generate and observe macroscopic quantum states.

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arXiv2017

Entanglement generation secure against general attacks

We present a security proof for establishing private entanglement by means of recurrence-type entanglement distillation protocols over noisy quantum channels. We consider protocols where the local devices are imperfect, and show that nonetheless a confidential quantum channel can be established, and used to e.g. perform distributed quantum computation in a secure manner. While our results are not fully device independent (which we argue to be unachievable in settings with quantum outputs), our proof holds for arbitrary channel noise and noisy local operations, and even in the case where the eavesdropper learns the noise. Our approach relies on non-trivial properties of distillation protocols which are used in conjunction with de-Finetti and post-selection-type techniques to reduce a general quantum attack in a non-asymptotic scenario to an i.i.d. setting. As a side result, we also provide entanglement distillation protocols for non-i.i.d. input states.

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arXiv2017

Quantum metrology with full and fast quantum control

We establish general limits on how precise a parameter, e.g. frequency or the strength of a magnetic field, can be estimated with the aid of full and fast quantum control. We consider uncorrelated noisy evolutions of N qubits and show that fast control allows to fully restore the Heisenberg scaling (~1/N^2) for all rank-one Pauli noise except dephasing. For all other types of noise the asymptotic quantum enhancement is unavoidably limited to a constant-factor improvement over the standard quantum limit (~1/N) even when allowing for the full power of fast control. The latter holds both in the single-shot and infinitely-many repetitions scenarios. However, even in this case allowing for fast quantum control helps to increase the improvement factor. Furthermore, for frequency estimation with finite resource we show how a parallel scheme utilizing any fixed number of entangled qubits but no fast quantum control can be outperformed by a simple, easily implementable, sequential scheme which only requires entanglement between one sensing and one auxiliary qubit.

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arXiv2017

Construction of optimal resources for concatenated quantum protocols

We consider the explicit construction of resource states for measurement-based quantum information processing. We concentrate on special-purpose resource states that are capable to perform a certain operation or task, where we consider unitary Clifford circuits as well as non-trace preserving completely positive maps, more specifically probabilistic operations including Clifford operations and Pauli measurements. We concentrate on $1 \to m$ and $m \to 1$ operations, i.e. operations that map one input qubit to $m$ output qubits or vice versa. Examples of such operations include encoding and decoding in quantum error correction, entanglement purification or entanglement swapping. We provide a general framework to construct optimal resource states for complex tasks that are combinations of these elementary building blocks. All resource states only contain input and output qubits, and are hence of minimal size. We obtain a stabilizer description of the resulting resource states, which we also translate into a circuit pattern to experimentally generate these states. In particular, we derive recurrence relations at the level of stabilizers as key analytical tool to generate explicit (graph-) descriptions of families of resource states. This allows us to explicitly construct resource states for encoding, decoding and syndrome readout for concatenated quantum error correction codes, code switchers, multiple rounds of entanglement purification, quantum repeaters and combinations thereof (such as resource states for entanglement purification of encoded states).

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arXiv2017

Flexible resources for quantum metrology

Quantum metrology offers a quadratic advantage over classical approaches to parameter estimation problems by utilizing entanglement and nonclassicality. However, the hurdle of actually implementing the necessary quantum probe states and measurements, which vary drastically for different metrological scenarios, is usually not taken into account. We show that for a wide range of tasks in metrology, 2D cluster states (a particular family of states useful for measurement-based quantum computation) can serve as flexible resources that allow one to efficiently prepare any required state for sensing, and perform appropriate (entangled) measurements using only single qubit operations. Crucially, the overhead in the number of qubits is less than quadratic, thus preserving the quantum scaling advantage. This is ensured by using a compression to a logarithmically sized space that contains all relevant information for sensing. We specifically demonstrate how our method can be used to obtain optimal scaling for phase and frequency estimation in local estimation problems, as well as for the Bayesian equivalents with Gaussian priors of varying widths. Furthermore, we show that in the paradigmatic case of local phase estimation 1D cluster states are sufficient for optimal state preparation and measurement.

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arXiv2016

Measurement based quantum communication with resource states generated by entanglement purification

We investigate measurement-based quantum communication with noisy resource states that are generated by entanglement purification. We consider the transmission of encoded information via noisy quantum channels using a measurement-based implementation of encoding, error correction and decoding. We show that such an approach offers advantages over direct transmission, gate-based error correction and measurement-based schemes with direct generation of resource states. We analyze the noise structure of resource states generated by entanglement purification and show that a local error model, i.e. noise acting independently on all qubits of the resource state, is a good approximation in general, and provides an exact description for $GHZ$-states. The latter are resources for a measurement-based implementation of error correction codes for bit-flip or phase flip errors. This provides a first link between the recently found very high thresholds for fault-tolerant measurement-based quantum information processing based on local error models for resource states, to error thresholds for gate based computational models.

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arXiv2016

Detecting large quantum Fisher information with finite measurement precision

We propose an experimentally accessible scheme to determine lower bounds on the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which ascertains multipartite entanglement or usefulness for quantum metrology. The scheme is based on comparing the measurement statistics of a state before and after a small unitary rotation. We argue that, in general, limited resolution of collective observables prevents the detection of large QFI. This can be overcome by performing an additional operation prior to the measurement. We illustrate the power of this protocol for present-day spin-squeezing experiments, where the same operation used for the preparation of the initial spin-squeezed state improves the lower bound on the QFI by two orders of magnitude. We also establish a connection to Leggett-Garg inequalities. We show how to simulate a variant of the inequalities with our protocol and demonstrate that a large QFI is necessary for their violation with coarse-grained detectors.

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arXiv2015

Algebraic metrology: Pretty good states and bounds

We investigate quantum metrology using a Lie algebraic approach for a class of Hamiltonians, including local and nearest-neighbor interaction Hamiltonians. Using this Lie algebraic formulation, we identify and construct highly symmetric states that admit Heisenberg scaling in precision in the absence of noise, and investigate their performance in the presence of noise. To this aim we perform a numerical scaling analysis, and derive upper bounds on the quantum Fisher information.

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arXiv2015

Heisenberg scaling in Gaussian quantum metrology

We address the issue of precisely estimating small parameters encoded in a general linear transformation of the modes of a bosonic quantum field. Such Bogoliubov transformations frequently appear in the context of quantum optics. We provide a set of instructions for computing the quantum Fisher information for arbitrary pure initial states. We show that the maximally achievable precision of estimation is inversely proportional to the squared average particle number and that such Heisenberg scaling requires non-classical, but not necessarily entangled states. Our method further allows us to quantify losses in precision arising from being able to monitor only finitely many modes, for which we identify a lower bound.

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arXiv2015

No-signaling bounds for quantum cloning and metrology

The impossibility of superluminal communication is a fundamental principle of physics. Here we show that this principle underpins the performance of several fundamental tasks in quantum information processing and quantum metrology. In particular, we derive tight no-signaling bounds for probabilistic cloning and super-replication that coincide with the corresponding optimal achievable fidelities and rates known. In the context of quantum metrology, we derive the Heisenberg limit from the no-signaling principle for certain scenarios including reference frame alignment and maximum likelihood state estimation. We elaborate on the equivalence of assymptotic phase-covariant cloning and phase estimation for different figures of merit.

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arXiv2014

Implementing quantum control for unknown subroutines

We present setups for the practical realization of adding control to unknown subroutines, supplementing the existing quantum optical scheme for black-box control with a counterpart for the quantum control of the ordering of sequences of operations. We also provide schemes to realize either task using trapped ions. These practical circumventions of recent no-go theorems are based on existing technologies. We argue that the possibility to add control to unknown operations in practice is a common feature of many physical systems. Based on the proposed implementations we discuss the apparent contradictions between theory and practice.

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arXiv2014

Demonstrating an element of measurement-based quantum error correction

In measurement-based quantum computing an algorithm is performed by measurements on highly-entangled resource states. To date, several implementations were demonstrated, all of them assuming perfect noise-free environments. Here we consider measurement-based information processing in the presence of noise and demonstrate quantum error detection. We implement the protocol using a four-qubit photonic cluster state, where we first encode a general qubit non-locally such that phase errors can be detected. We then read out the error syndrome and analyze the output states after decoding. Our demonstration shows a building block for measurement-based quantum computing which is crucial for realistic scenarios.

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arXiv2013

Certifiability criterion for large-scale quantum systems

Can one certify the preparation of a coherent, many-body quantum state by measurements with bounded accuracy in the presence of noise and decoherence? Here, we introduce a criterion to assess the fragility of large-scale quantum states which is based on the distinguishability of orthogonal states after the action of very small amounts of noise. States which do not pass this criterion are called asymptotically incertifiable. We show that, if a coherent quantum state is asymptotically incertifiable, there exists an incoherent mixture (with entropy at least log 2) which is experimentally indistinguishable from the initial state. The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states are examples of such asymptotically incertifiable states. More generally, we prove that any so-called macroscopic superposition state is asymptotically incertifiable. We also provide examples of quantum states that are experimentally indistinguishable from highly incoherent mixtures, i.e., with an almost-linear entropy in the number of qubits. Finally we show that all unique ground states of local gapped Hamiltonians (in any dimension) are certifiable.

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arXiv2013

Effective noise channels for encoded quantum systems

We investigate effective noise channels for encoded quantum systems with and without active error correction. Noise acting on physical qubits forming a logical qubit is thereby described as a logical noise channel acting on the logical qubits, which leads to a significant decrease of the effective system dimension. This provides us with a powerful tool to study entanglement features of encoded quantum systems. We demonstrate this framework by calculating lower bounds on the lifetime of distillable entanglement and the negativity for encoded multipartite qubit states with different encodings. At the same time, this approach leads to a simple understanding of the functioning of (concatenated) error correction codes.

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arXiv2013

Efficient quantum communication under collective noise

We introduce a new quantum communication protocol for the transmission of quantum information under collective noise. Our protocol utilizes a decoherence-free subspace in such a way that an optimal asymptotic transmission rate is achieved, while at the same time encoding and decoding operations can be efficiently implemented. The encoding and decoding circuit requires a number of elementary gates that scale linearly with the number of transmitted qudits, m. The logical depth of our encoding and decoding operations is constant and depends only on the channel in question. For channels described by an arbitrary discrete group G, i.e. with a discrete number, |G|, of possible noise operators, perfect transmission at a rate m/(m+r) is achieved with an overhead that scales at most as $\mathcal{O}(d^r)$ where the number of auxiliary qudits, r, depends solely on the group in question. Moreover, this overhead is independent of the number of transmitted qudits, m. For certain groups, e.g. cyclic groups, we find that the overhead scales only linearly with the number of group elements |G|.

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arXiv2012

Measures of macroscopicity for quantum spin systems

We investigate the notion of "macroscopicity" in the case of large quantum spin systems and provide two main results. First, we motivate the Fisher information as a measure for the macroscopicity of quantum states. Second, we compare the existing literature of this topic. We report on a hierarchy among the measures and we conclude that one should carefully distinguish between "macroscopic quantum states" and "macroscopic superpositions", which is a strict subclass of the former.

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arXiv2012

Purification to Locally Maximally Entangleable States

Locally maximally entangleable states (LMESs) constitute a large set of multipartite states, containing for instance all stabilizer states. LMESs are uniquely characterized by (2n-1) phases, where n denotes the number of qubits. We consider here those LMES whose phases are either 0 or π and present a multipartite entanglement purification protocol for arbitrary such states. In contrast to all previously known recurrence protocols this protocol uses a novel ingredient, which is required due to the quantum correlations contained in the various LMESs. We compare this scheme to previously known entanglement purification protocols and show that the direct purification performs better than previously known protocols.

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