Physics

The frozen condition of quantum coherence for atoms on stationary trajectory. (arXiv:1711.04653v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

The quantum coherence (QC) of two comoving atoms in an arbitrary stationary trajectory is investigated. We give a criteria under which QC can be frozen to a nonzero value. For static atoms in thermal bath or not, we find that only in the case of the superradiant or subradiant spontaneous emission rate of atom equaling zero can QC be frozen, which implies that the presence of thermal reservoir does not affect the frozen condition (FC) for atoms at rest. The results may provide a more efficient way to utilize QC in practical quantum technologies.

Categories: Journals, Physics

The de Broglie-Bohm weak interpretation. (arXiv:1711.04660v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We define the de Broglie-Bohm (dBB) weak interpretation as the dBB interpretation restricted to particles in unbound states whose wave function is defined in the three-dimensional physical space, and the dBB strong interpretation as the usual dBB interpretation applied to all wave functions, in particular to particles in bound states whose wave function is defined in a 3N-dimensional configuration space in which N is the number of particules. We show that the current criticisms of the dBB interpretation do not apply to this weak interpretation and that, furthermore, there are theoritical and experimental reasons to justify the weak dBB interpretation. Theoretically, the main reason concern the continuity existing for such particles between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics: we demonstrate in fact that the density and the phase of the wave function of a single-particle (or a set of identical particles without interaction), when the Planck constant tends to 0, converges to the density and the action of a set of unrecognizable prepared classical particles that satisfy the statistical Hamilton-Jacobi equations. As the Hamilton-Jacobi action pilots the particle in classical mechanics, this continuity naturally concurs with the weak dBB interpretation. Experimentally, we show that the measurement results of the main quantum experiments (Young's slits experiment, Stern and Gerlach, EPR-B) are compatible with the de Broglie-Bohm weak interpretation and everything takes place as if these unbounded particles had trajectories. In addition, we propose two potential solutions to complete the dBB weak interpretation.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Quantum walking in curved spacetime: discrete metric. (arXiv:1711.04662v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

A discrete-time quantum walk (QW) is essentially a unitary operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice. Some QWs have familiar physics PDEs as their continuum limit. Some slight generalization of QWs (allowing for prior encoding and larger neighbourhoods) even have the curved spacetime Dirac equation, as their continuum limit. In the $(1+1)-$dimensional massless case, this equation decouples as scalar transport equations with tunable speeds. We characterise and construct all those QWs that lead to scalar transport with tunable speeds. The local coin operator dictates that speed; we investigate whether a finite number of coins is enough to generate all speeds, and whether their arrangement can be controlled by background signals travelling at lightspeed. The interest of such a discretization is twofold : to allow for easier experimental implementations on the one hand, and to evaluate ways of quantizing the metric field, on the other.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Hierarchy of Genuine Multipartite Quantum Correlations. (arXiv:1711.04664v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Classifying states which exhibiting different statistical correlations is among the most important problems in quantum information science and quantum many-body physics. In bipartite case, there is a clear hierarchy of states with different correlations: total correlation (T) $\supsetneq$ discord (D) $\supsetneq$ entanglement (E) $\supsetneq$ steering (S) $\supsetneq$ Bell~nonlocality (NL). However, very little is known about genuine multipartite correlations (GM$\mathcal{C}$) for both conceptual and technical difficulties. In this work, we show that, for any $N$-partite qudit states, there also exist such a hierarchy: genuine multipartite total correlations (GMT) $\supseteq$ genuine multipartite discord (GMD) $\supseteq$ genuine multipartite entanglement (GME) $\supseteq$ genuine multipartite steering (GMS) $\supseteq$ genuine multipartite nonlocality (GMNL). Furthermore, by constructing precise states, we show that GMT, GME and GMS are inequivalent with each other, thus GMT $\supsetneq$ GME $\supsetneq$ GMS.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Spectroscopy of the $^2S_{1/2} \rightarrow\,^2P_{3/2}$ transition in Yb II: Isotope shifts, hyperfine splitting and branching ratios. (arXiv:1711.04667v1 [physics.atom-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We report on spectroscopic results on the $^2S_{1/2} \rightarrow\,^2P_{3/2}$ transition in single trapped Yb$^+$ ions. We measure the isotope shifts for all stable Yb$^+$ isotopes except $^{173}$Yb$^+$, as well as the hyperfine splitting of the $^2P_{3/2}$ state in $^{171}$Yb$^+$. Our results are in agreement with previous measurements but are a factor of 5-9 more precise. For the hyperfine constant $A\left(^2P_{3/2}\right) = 875.4(10)$ MHz our results also agree with previous measurements but deviate significantly from theoretical predictions. We present experimental results on the branching ratios for the decay of the $^2P_{3/2}$ state. We find branching fractions for the decay to the $^2D_{3/2}$ state and $^2D_{5/2}$ state of 0.17(1)% and 1.08(5)%, respectively, in rough agreement with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we measured the isotope shifts of the $^2F_{7/2} \rightarrow\,^1D\left[5/2\right]_{5/2}$ transition and determine the hyperfine structure constant for the $^1D\left[5/2\right]_{5/2}$ state in $^{171}$Yb$^+$ to be $A\left(^1D\left[5/2\right]_{5/2}\right) = -107(6)$ MHz.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Optical levitation of 10 nanogram spheres with nano-$g$ acceleration sensitivity. (arXiv:1711.04675v1 [physics.optics])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We demonstrate optical levitation of SiO$_2$ spheres with masses ranging from 0.1 to 30 nanograms. In high vacuum, we observe that the measured acceleration sensitivity improves for larger masses and obtain a sensitivity of $0.4 \times 10^{-6}\ g/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for a 12 ng sphere, more than an order of magnitude better than previously reported for optically levitated masses. In addition, these techniques permit long integration times and a mean acceleration of $(-0.7\pm2.4\,[stat] \pm 0.1\,[syst])\times ~ 10^{-9}\,g$ is measured in $1.4\times 10^4~$s. Spheres larger than 10~ng are found to lose mass in high vacuum where heating due to absorption of the trapping laser dominates radiative cooling. This absorption constrains the maximum size of spheres that can be levitated and allows a measurement of the absorption of the trapping light for the commercially available spheres tested here. Spheres consisting of material with lower absorption may allow larger objects to be optically levitated in high vacuum.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Quantum-mechanical description of optical beams. (arXiv:1711.04680v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Quantum mechanics of photons is derived from the theory of representations of the Poincar\'e group developed by Wigner. This theory places helicity as the most fundamental property; angular momentum and polarization are secondary characteristics. The properties of the beams of light are shown to be fully determined by the quantum states of the photons. Polarization of light beams is explained as the freedom to chose an arbitrary combination of the helicity states. Quantum mechanics of photons enables one to give a precise meaning to the concept of wave-particle duality.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Integer quantum Hall transition in a $\textit{fraction}$ of a Landau level. (arXiv:1711.04688v1 [cond-mat.dis-nn])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We investigate the quantum Hall problem in the lowest Landau level in two dimensions, in the presence of an arbitrary number of $\delta$-function potentials arranged in different geometric configurations. When the number of delta functions $N_\delta$ is smaller than the number of flux quanta through the system ($N_\phi$), there is a manifold of $(N_\phi-N_\delta)$ degenerate states at the original Landau level energy. We prove that the total Chern number of this set of states is +1 regardless of the number or position of the $\delta$ functions. Furthermore, we find numerically that, upon the addition of disorder, this subspace includes a quantum Hall transition which is (in a well-defined sense) $\textit{quantitatively}$ the same as that for the lowest Landau level without $\delta$-function impurities, but with a reduced number $N_\phi' \equiv N_\phi-N_\delta$ of magnetic flux quanta. We discuss the implications of these results for studies of the integer plateau transitions, as well as for the many-body problem in the presence of electron-electron interactions.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Post-Ehrenfest many-body quantum interferences in ultracold atoms far-out-of-equilibrium. (arXiv:1711.04693v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Far out-of-equilibrium many-body quantum dynamics in isolated systems necessarily generate interferences beyond an Ehrenfest time scale, where quantum and classical expectation values diverge. Of great recent interest is the role these interferences play in the spreading of quantum information across the many degrees of freedom, i.e.~scrambling. Ultracold atomic gases provide a promising setting to explore these phenomena. Theoretically speaking, the heavily-relied-upon truncated Wigner approximation leaves out these interferences. We develop a semiclassical theory which bridges classical and quantum concepts in many-body bosonic systems and properly incorporates such missing quantum effects. For mesoscopically populated Bose-Hubbard systems, it is shown that this theory captures post-Ehrenfest quantum interference phenomena very accurately, and contains relevant phase information to perform many-body spectroscopy with high precision.

Categories: Journals, Physics

A Small Quantum Computer is Needed to Optimize Fault-Tolerant Protocols. (arXiv:1711.04736v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

As far as we know, a useful quantum computer will require fault-tolerant gates, and existing schemes demand a prohibitively large space and time overhead. We argue that a first generation quantum computer will be very valuable to design, test, and optimize fault-tolerant protocols tailored to the noise processes of the hardware. Our argument is essentially a critical analysis of the current methods envisioned to optimize fault-tolerant schemes, which rely on hardware characterization, noise modelling, and numerical simulations. We show that, even within a very restricted set of noise models, error correction protocols depend strongly on the details of the noise model. Combined to the intrinsic difficulty of hardware characterization and of numerical simulations of fault-tolerant protocols, we arrive at the conclusion that the currently envisioned optimization cycle is of very limited scope. On the other hand, the direct characterization of a fault-tolerant scheme on a small quantum computer bypasses these difficulties, and could provide a bootstrapping path to full-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Next Generation Dynamical Mean Field Theory Simulations with the Adaptive Sampling Configuration Interaction Method. (arXiv:1711.04771v1 [cond-mat.str-el])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

In the pursuit of accurate descriptions of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems, dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) has been an invaluable tool for elucidating the spectral properties and quantum phases of both phenomenological models and ab initio descriptions of real materials. Key to the DMFT process is the self-consistent map of the original system into an Anderson impurity model, the ground state of which is computed using an impurity solver. The power of the method is thus limited by the complexity of the impurity model the solver can handle. Simulating realistic systems generally requires many correlated sites. By adapting the recently proposed adaptive sampling configuration interaction (ASCI) method as an impurity solver, we enable much more efficient zero temperature DMFT simulations. The key feature of the ASCI method is that it selects only the most relevant Hilbert space degrees of freedom to describe the ground state. This reduces the numerical complexity of the calculation, which will allow us to pursue future DMFT simulations with more correlated impurity sites than in previous works. In this Letter, we present the ASCI-DMFT method and use the one- and two-dimensional Hubbard models to exemplify its efficient convergence and timing properties. We show that the ASCI approach is several orders of magnitude faster than the current best published ground state DMFT simulations. Our approach can also be adapted for other embedding methods such as density matrix embedding theory and self-energy embedding theory.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Quantum Simulation of Electronic Structure with Linear Depth and Connectivity. (arXiv:1711.04789v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

As physical implementations of quantum architectures emerge, it is increasingly important to consider the cost of algorithms for practical connectivities between qubits. We show that by using an arrangement of gates that we term the fermionic swap network, we can simulate a Trotter step of the electronic structure Hamiltonian in exactly $N$ depth and with $N^2/2$ two-qubit entangling gates, and prepare arbitrary Slater determinants in at most $N/2$ depth, all assuming only a minimal, linearly connected architecture. We conjecture that no explicit Trotter step of the electronic structure Hamiltonian is possible with fewer entangling gates, even with arbitrary connectivities. These results represent significant practical improvements on the cost of all current proposed algorithms for both variational and phase estimation based simulation of quantum chemistry.

Categories: Journals, Physics

The iPEPS algorithm for ruby and triangle-honeycomb lattices. (arXiv:1711.04798v1 [cond-mat.str-el])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

The infinite Projected Entangled-Pair State (iPEPS) algorithm is one of the most efficient techniques for studying the ground-state properties of two-dimensional quantum lattice Hamiltonians in the thermodynamic limit. Here, we show how the algorithm can be adapted to explore nearest-neighbuor local Hamiltonians on the ruby and triangle-honeycomb lattices, using Corner Transfer Matrix (CTM) renormalization group for 2D tensor network contraction. Additionally, we show how the CTM method can be used to calculate the ground state fidelity per lattice site and the boundary density operator and entanglement entropy (EE) on an infinite cylinder. As a benchmark, we apply the iPEPS method to the ruby model with anisotropic interactions and explore the ground-state properties of the system. We further extract the phase diagram of the model in different regimes of the couplings by measuring two-point correlators, ground sate fidelity and EE on an infinite cylinder. Our phase diagram is in agreement with previous studies of the model by exact diagonalization.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Quantum information in quantum cognition. (arXiv:1711.04801v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Matthew Fisher recently postulated a mechanism by which quantum phenomena could influence cognition: Phosphorus nuclear spins may resist decoherence for long times. The spins would serve as biological qubits. The qubits may resist decoherence longer when in Posner molecules. We imagine that Fisher postulates correctly. How adroitly could biological systems process quantum information (QI)? We establish a framework for answering. Additionally, we apply biological qubits in quantum error correction, quantum communication, and quantum computation. First, we posit how the QI encoded by the spins transforms as Posner molecules form. The transformation points to a natural computational basis for qubits in Posner molecules. From the basis, we construct a quantum code that detects arbitrary single-qubit errors. Each molecule encodes one qutrit. Shifting from information storage to computation, we define the model of Posner quantum computation. To illustrate the model's quantum-communication ability, we show how it can teleport information incoherently: A state's weights are teleported; the coherences are not. The dephasing results from the entangling operation's simulation of a coarse-grained Bell measurement. Whether Posner quantum computation is universal remains an open question. However, the model's operations can efficiently prepare a Posner state usable as a resource in universal measurement-based quantum computation. The state results from deforming the Affleck-Lieb-Kennedy-Tasaki (AKLT) state and is a projected entangled-pair state (PEPS). Finally, we show that entanglement can affect molecular-binding rates (by 0.6% in an example). This work opens the door for the QI-theoretic analysis of biological qubits and Posner molecules.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Uniqueness of the joint measurement and the structure of the set of compatible quantum measurements. (arXiv:1711.04804v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We address the problem of characterising the compatible tuples of measurements that admit a unique joint measurement. We derive a uniqueness criterion based on the method of perturbations and apply it to show that extremal points of the set of compatible tuples admit a unique joint measurement, while all tuples that admit a unique joint measurement lie in the boundary of such a set. We also provide counter-examples showing that none of these properties are both necessary and sufficient, thus completely describing the relation between joint measurement uniqueness and the structure of the compatible set. As a by-product of our investigations, we completely characterise the extremal and boundary points of the set of general tuples of measurements and of the subset of compatible tuples.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Quantum Annealing Applied to De-Conflicting Optimal Trajectories for Air Traffic Management. (arXiv:1711.04889v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We present the mapping of a class of simplified air traffic management (ATM) problems (strategic conflict resolution) to quadratic unconstrained boolean optimization (QUBO) problems. The mapping is performed through an original representation of the conflict-resolution problem in terms of a conflict graph, where nodes of the graph represent flights and edges represent a potential conflict between flights. The representation allows a natural decomposition of a real world instance related to wind- optimal trajectories over the Atlantic ocean into smaller subproblems, that can be discretized and are amenable to be programmed in quantum annealers. In the study, we tested the new programming techniques and we benchmark the hardness of the instances using both classical solvers and the D-Wave 2X and D-Wave 2000Q quantum chip. The preliminary results show that for reasonable modeling choices the most challenging subproblems which are programmable in the current devices are solved to optimality with 99% of probability within a second of annealing time.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Rydberg-atom-based scheme of nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation. (arXiv:1711.04917v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation provides a means to perform fast and robust quantum gates. It has been implemented in various physical systems, such as trapped ions, nuclear magnetic resonance and superconducting circuits. Another system being adequate for implementation of nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation may be Rydberg atoms, since their internal states have very long coherence time and the Rydberg-mediated interaction facilitates the implementation of a two-qubit gate. Here, we propose a scheme of nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation based on Rydberg atoms, which combines the robustness of nonadiabatic geometric gates with the merits of Rydberg atoms.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Lattice Surgery on the Raussendorf Lattice. (arXiv:1711.04921v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

Lattice surgery is a method to perform quantum computation fault-tolerantly by using operations on boundary qubits between different patches of the planar code. This technique allows for universal planar-code computation without eliminating the intrinsic two-dimensional nearest-neighbor properties of the surface code that eases physical hardware implementations. Lattice-surgery approaches to algorithmic compilation and optimization have been demonstrated to be more resource efficient for resource-intensive components of a fault-tolerant algorithm, and consequently may be preferable over braid-based logic. Lattice surgery can be extended to the Raussendorf lattice, providing a measurement-based approach to the surface code. In this paper we describe how lattice surgery can be performed on the Raussendorf lattice and therefore give a viable alternative to computation using braiding in measurement based implementations of topological codes.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Operational effects of the UNOT gate on classical and quantum correlations. (arXiv:1711.04937v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

The NOT gate that flips a classical bit is ubiquitous in classical information processing. However its quantum analogue, the universal NOT (UNOT) gate that flips a quantum spin in any alignment into its antipodal counterpart is strictly forbidden. Here we explore the connection between this discrepancy and how UNOT gates affect classical and quantum correlations. We show that while a UNOT gate always preserves classical correlations between two spins, it can non-locally increase or decrease their shared discord in ways that allow violation of the data processing inequality. We experimentally illustrate this using a multi-level trapped \Yb ion that allows simulation of anti-unitary operations.

Categories: Journals, Physics

Spontaneous lateral atomic recoil force close to a photonic topological material. (arXiv:1711.04939v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-11-15 22:45

We investigate the quantum recoil force acting on an excited atom close to the surface of a nonreciprocal photonic topological insulator (PTI). The main atomic emission channel is the unidirectional surface-plasmon propagating at the PTI-vacuum interface, and we show that it enables a spontaneous lateral recoil force that scales at short distance as $1/d^4$, where $d$ is the atom-PTI separation. Remarkably, the sign of the recoil force is polarization and orientation-independent, and it occurs in a translation-invariant homogeneous system in thermal equilibrium. Surprisingly, the recoil force persists for very small values of the gyration pseudovector, which, for a biased plasma, corresponds to very low cyclotron frequencies. The ultra-strong recoil force is rooted on the quasi-hyperbolic dispersion of the surface-plasmons. We consider both an initially excited atom and a continuous pump scenario, the latter giving rise to a continuous lateral force whose direction can be changed at will by simply varying the orientation of the biasing magnetic field. Our predictions may be tested in experiments with cold Rydberg atoms and superconducting qubits.

Categories: Journals, Physics