## Physics

### Characterization of solvable spin models via graph invariants. (arXiv:2003.05465v2 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 14:45

Exactly solvable models are essential in physics. For many-body spin-1/2 systems, an important class of such models consists of those that can be mapped to free fermions hopping on a graph. We provide a complete characterization of models which can be solved this way. Specifically, we reduce the problem of recognizing such spin models to the graph-theoretic problem of recognizing line graphs, which has been solved optimally. A corollary of our result is a complete set of constant-sized commutation structures that constitute the obstructions to a free-fermion solution. We find that symmetries are tightly constrained in these models. Pauli symmetries correspond to either: (i) cycles on the fermion hopping graph, (ii) the fermion parity operator, or (iii) logically encoded qubits. Clifford symmetries within one of these symmetry sectors, with three exceptions, must be symmetries of the free-fermion model itself. We demonstrate how several exact free-fermion solutions from the literature fit into our formalism and give an explicit example of a new model previously unknown to be solvable by free fermions.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Programmable two-qubit gates in capacitively coupled flopping-mode spin qubits. (arXiv:2003.02137v3 [cond-mat.mes-hall] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 14:45

Recent achievements in the field of gate defined semiconductor quantum dots reinforce the concept of a spin-based quantum computer consisting of nodes of locally connected qubits which communicate with each other via superconducting circuit resonator photons. In this work we theoretically demonstrate a versatile set of quantum gates between adjacent spin qubits defined in semiconductor quantum dots situated within the same node of such a spin-based quantum computer. The electric dipole acquired by the spin of an electron that moves across a double quantum dot potential in a magnetic field gradient has enabled strong coupling to resonator photons and low-power spin control. Here we show that this flopping-mode spin qubit also provides with the tunability to program multiple two-qubit gates. Since the capacitive coupling between these qubits brings about additional dephasing, we calculate the estimated infidelity of different two-qubit gates in the most immediate possible experimental realizations.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Phase estimation algorithm for the multibeam optical metrology. (arXiv:1811.03466v3 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 14:45

Unitary Fourier transform lies at the core of the multitudinous computational and metrological algorithms. Here we show experimentally how the unitary Fourier transform-based phase estimation protocol, used namely in quantum metrology, can be translated into the classical linear optical framework. The developed setup made of beam splitters, mirrors and phase shifters demonstrates how the classical coherence, similarly to the quantum coherence, poses a resource for obtaining information about the measurable physical quantities. Our study opens route to the reliable implementation of the small-scale unitary algorithms on path-encoded qudits, thus establishing an easily accessible platform for unitary computation.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Probing the Universality of Topological Defect Formation in a Quantum Annealer: Kibble-Zurek Mechanism and Beyond. (arXiv:2001.11637v3 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 14:45

The number of topological defects created in a system driven through a quantum phase transition exhibits a power-law scaling with the driving time. This universal scaling law is the key prediction of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM), and testing it using a hardware-based quantum simulator is a coveted goal of quantum information science. Here we provide such a test using quantum annealing. Specifically, we report on extensive experimental tests of topological defect formation via the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model on two different D-Wave quantum annealing devices. We find that the quantum simulator results can indeed be explained by the KZM for open-system quantum dynamics with phase-flip errors, with certain quantitative deviations from the theory likely caused by factors such as random control errors and transient effects. In addition, we probe physics beyond the KZM by identifying signatures of universality in the distribution and cumulants of the number of kinks and their decay, and again find agreement with the quantum simulator results. This implies that the theoretical predictions of the generalized KZM theory, which assumes isolation from the environment, applies beyond its original scope to an open system. We support this result by extensive numerical computations. To check whether an alternative, classical interpretation of these results is possible, we used the spin-vector Monte Carlo model, a candidate classical description of the D-Wave device. We find that the degree of agreement with the experimental data from the D-Wave annealing devices is better for the KZM, a quantum theory, than for the classical spin-vector Monte Carlo model, thus favoring a quantum description of the device. Our work provides an experimental test of quantum critical dynamics in an open quantum system, and paves the way to new directions in quantum simulation experiments.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### On the quasi-position representation in theories with a minimal length. (arXiv:2005.12258v1 [gr-qc] CROSS LISTED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 14:45

Quantum mechanical models with a minimal length are often described by modifying the commutation relation between position and momentum. Although this represents a small complication when described in momentum space, at least formally, the (quasi-)position representation acquires numerous issues, source of misunderstandings. In this work, we review these issues, clarifying some of the aspects of minimal length models, with particular reference to the representation of the position operator.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Cold-Atom Temporally Multiplexed Quantum Memory with Cavity-Enhanced Noise Suppression

Author(s): Lukas Heller, Pau Farrera, Georg Heinze, and Hugues de Riedmatten

Future quantum repeater architectures, capable of efficiently distributing information encoded in quantum states of light over large distances, will benefit from multiplexed photonic quantum memories. In this work we demonstrate a temporally multiplexed quantum repeater node in a laser-cooled cloud ...

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 210504] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Trend: Entering the Nickel Age of Superconductivity

APS Physics - Thu, 2020-05-28 12:00

Author(s): Michael R. Norman

After a 30-year quest, researchers found a nickel-based analog of copper oxide superconductors. The discovery motivates the search for other nickelates and should provide new insights into the origin of high-temperature superconductivity.

[Physics 13, 85] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Physics

PRA: Quantum information - Thu, 2020-05-28 12:00

Author(s): Kazuhiro Seki, Tomonori Shirakawa, and Seiji Yunoki

We propose a scheme to restore spatial symmetry of Hamiltonian in the variational-quantum-eigensolver (VQE) algorithm for which the quantum circuit structures used usually break the Hamiltonian symmetry. The symmetry-adapted VQE scheme introduced here simply applies the projection operator, which is...

[Phys. Rev. A 101, 052340] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Quantum walks of interacting Mott-insulator defects with three-body interactions

PRA: Quantum information - Thu, 2020-05-28 12:00

Author(s): Suman Mondal and Tapan Mishra

Quantum walks of interacting particles may display nontrivial features due to the interplay between the statistical nature and the many-body interactions associated with them. We analyze the quantum walk of interacting defects on top of a uniform bosonic Mott insulator at unit filling in a one-dimen...

[Phys. Rev. A 101, 052341] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Selective acoustic control of photon-mediated qubit-qubit interactions

PRA: Quantum information - Thu, 2020-05-28 12:00

Author(s): Tomáš Neuman, Matthew Trusheim, and Prineha Narang

Quantum technologies such as quantum sensing, quantum imaging, quantum communications, and quantum computing rely on the ability to actively manipulate the quantum state of light and matter. Quantum emitters, such as color centers trapped in solids, are a useful platform for the realization of eleme...

[Phys. Rev. A 101, 052342] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Local-dimension-invariant qudit stabilizer codes

PRA: Quantum information - Thu, 2020-05-28 12:00

Author(s): Lane G. Gunderman

Protection of quantum information from noise is a massive challenge. One avenue people have begun to explore is reducing the number of particles needing to be protected from noise and instead use systems with more states, so-called qudit quantum computers. These systems will require codes which util...

[Phys. Rev. A 101, 052343] Published Thu May 28, 2020

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Gravitational Decoherence of Dark Matter. (arXiv:2005.12287v1 [gr-qc])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

Decoherence describes the tendency of quantum sub-systems to dynamically lose their quantum character. This happens when the quantum sub-system of interest interacts and becomes entangled with an environment that is traced out. For ordinary macroscopic systems, electromagnetic and other interactions cause rapid decoherence. However, dark matter (DM) may have the unique possibility of exhibiting naturally prolonged macroscopic quantum properties due to its weak coupling to its environment, particularly if it only interacts gravitationally. In this work, we compute the rate of decoherence for light DM in the galaxy, where a local density has its mass, size, and location in a quantum superposition. The decoherence is via the gravitational interaction of the DM overdensity with its environment, provided by ordinary matter. We focus on relatively robust configurations: DM perturbations that involve an overdensity followed by an underdensity, with no monopole, such that it is only observable at relatively close distances. We use non-relativistic scattering theory with a Newtonian potential generated by the overdensity to determine how a probe particle scatters off of it and thereby becomes entangled. As an application, we consider light scalar DM, including axions. In the galactic halo, we use diffuse hydrogen as the environment, while near the earth, we use air as the environment. For an overdensity whose size is the typical DM de Broglie wavelength, we find that the decoherence rate in the halo is higher than the present Hubble rate for DM masses $m_a \lesssim 5 \times 10^{-7}$eV and in earth based experiments it is higher than the classical field coherence rate for $m_a \lesssim 10^{-6}$eV. When spreading of the states occurs, the rates can become much faster, as we quantify. Also, we establish that DM BECs decohere very rapidly and so are very well described by classical field theory.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Thermalization in QCD: theoretical approaches, phenomenological applications, and interdisciplinary connections. (arXiv:2005.12299v1 [hep-th])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

Heavy-ion collisions at BNL's Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provide strong evidence for the formation of a quark-gluon plasma, with temperatures extracted from relativistic viscous hydrodynamic simulations shown to be well above the transition temperature from hadron matter. How the strongly correlated quark-gluon matter forms in a heavy-ion collision, its properties off-equilibrium, and the thermalization process in the plasma, are outstanding problems in QCD. We review here the theoretical progress in this field in weak coupling QCD effective field theories and in strong coupling holographic approaches based on gauge-gravity duality. We outline the interdisciplinary connections of different stages of the thermalization process to non-equilibrium dynamics in other systems across energy scales ranging from inflationary cosmology, to strong field QED, to ultracold atomic gases, with emphasis on the universal dynamics of non-thermal and of hydrodynamic attractors. We survey measurements in heavy-ion collisions that are sensitive to the early non-equilibrium stages of the collision and discuss the potential for future measurements. We summarize the current state-of-the art in thermalization studies and identify promising avenues for further progress.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Ballistic vs diffusive low-frequency scaling in the XXZ and a locally perturbed XXZ chain. (arXiv:2005.12309v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

We study the matrix elements of local operators in the eigenstates of the integrable XXZ chain and of the quantum chaotic model obtained by locally perturbing the XXZ chain with a magnetic impurity. We show that the low-frequency behavior of the variances of the off-diagonal matrix elements can be starkly different depending on the operator. In the integrable model we find that, as the frequency $\omega\rightarrow0$, the variances are either nonvanishing (generic behavior) or vanishing (for a special class of operators). In the quantum chaotic model, on the other hand, we find the variances to be nonvanishing as $\omega\rightarrow0$ and to indicate diffusive dynamics. We highlight which properties of the matrix elements of local operators are different between the integrable and quantum chaotic models independently of the specific operator selected.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Quantum Circuits for Functionally Controlled NOT Gates. (arXiv:2005.12310v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

We generalize quantum circuits for the Toffoli gate presented by Selinger and Jones for functionally controlled NOT gates, i.e., $X$ gates controlled by arbitrary $n$-variable Boolean functions. Our constructions target the gate set consisting of Clifford gates and single qubit rotations by arbitrary angles. Our constructions use the Walsh-Hadamard spectrum of Boolean functions and build on the work by Schuch and Siewert and Welch et al. We present quantum circuits for the case where the target qubit is in an arbitrary state as well as the special case where the target is in a known state. Additionally, we present constructions that require no auxiliary qubits and constructions that have a rotation depth of 1.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Lack of a genuine time crystal in a chiral soliton model. (arXiv:2005.12313v1 [cond-mat.quant-gas])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

In a recent publication [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 124}, 178902] \"Ohberg and Wright claim that in a chiral soliton model it is possible to realize a genuine time crystal which corresponds to a periodic evolution of an inhomogeneous probability density in the lowest energy state. We show that this result is incorrect and present a solution which possesses lower energy with the corresponding probability density that does not reveal any motion. It implies that the authors' conclusion that a genuine time crystal can exist in the system they consider is not true.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Robust Control of Unstable Non-linear Quantum Systems. (arXiv:2005.12321v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

Adiabatic passage is a standard tool for achieving robust transfer in quantum systems. We show that, in the context of driven nonlinear Hamiltonian systems, adiabatic passage becomes highly non-robust when the target is unstable. We show this result for a generic (1:2) resonance, for which the complete transfer corresponds to a hyperbolic fixed point in the classical phase space featuring an adiabatic connectivity strongly sensitive to small perturbations of the model. By inverse engineering, we devise high-fidelity and robust partially non-adiabatic trajectories. They localize at the approach of the target near the stable manifold of the separatrix, which drives the dynamics towards the target in a robust way. These results can be applicable to atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensate conversion and to nonlinear optics.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Upper bounds on device-independent quantum key distribution rates and a revised Peres conjecture. (arXiv:2005.12325v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

Device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) is one of the most challenging tasks in quantum cryptography. The protocols and their security are based on the existence of Bell inequalities and the ability to violate them by measuring entangled states. We study the entanglement needed for DIQKD protocols in two different ways. Our first contribution is the derivation of upper bounds on the key rates of CHSH-based DIQKD protocols in terms of the violation of the inequality; this sets an upper limit on the possible DI key extraction rate from states with a given violation. Our upper bound improves on the previously known bound of Kaur et al. Our second contribution is the initiation of the study of the role of bound entangled states in DIQKD. We present a revised Peres conjecture stating that such states cannot be used as a resource for DIQKD. We give a first piece of evidence for the conjecture by showing that the bound entangled state found by Vertesi and Brunner, even though it can certify DI randomness, cannot be used to produce a key using protocols analogous to the well-studied CHSH-based DIQKD protocol.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Decoherence scaling transition in the dynamics of quantum information scrambling. (arXiv:2005.12361v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

Reliable processing of quantum information for developing quantum technologies requires precise control of out-of-equilibrium many-body systems. This is a highly challenging task as the fragility of quantum states to external perturbations increases with the system-size. Here, we report on a series of experimental quantum simulations that allow to quantify the sensitivity of a controlled Hamiltonian evolution to perturbations that drive the system away from the targeted evolution. Based on out-of-time order correlations, we demonstrate that the decay-rate of the process fidelity increases with the effective number $K$ of correlated qubits as $K^{\alpha}$. As a function of the perturbation strength, we observed a sharp decoherence scaling transition of the exponent $\alpha$ between two distinct dynamical regimes. In the limiting case below the critical perturbation strength, there is not inherent limit to the number of qubits that can be controlled with high fidelity. This may indicate that reliable control of large quantum systems might be possible if the perturbation can be kept below this critical threshold.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Persistent many-body quantum echoes. (arXiv:2005.12382v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2020-05-27 13:52

We consider quantum many-body systems evolving under a time-independent Hamiltonian $H$ from a nonequilibrium initial state at time $t=0$ towards a close-to-equilibrium state at time $t=\tau$. Subsequently, this state is slightly perturbed and finally propagated for another time period $\tau$ under the inverted Hamiltonian $-H$. The entire procedure may also be viewed as an imperfect time inversion or "echo dynamics". We unravel a remarkable persistence of such dynamics with respect to the observable deviations of the time-dependent expectation values from the equilibrium expectation value: For most perturbations, the deviations in the final state are essentially independent of the inversion time point $\tau$. Our quantitative analytical predictions compare very well with exact numerical results.

Categories: Journals, Physics