QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

Research on optimal eavesdropping models under practical conditions will help to evaluate realistic risk when employing quantum key distribution (QKD) system for secure information transmission. Intuitively, fiber loss will lead to the optical energy leaking to the environment, rather than harvested by the eavesdropper, which also limits the eavesdropping ability while improving the QKD system performance in practical use. However, defining the optimal eavesdropping model in the presence of lossy fiber is difficult because the channel is beyond the control of legitimate partners and the leaked signal is undetectable. Here we investigate how the fiber loss influences the eavesdropping ability based on a teleportation-based collective attack model which requires two distant stations and a shared entanglement source. We find that if the distributed entanglement is limited due to the practical loss, the optimal attack occurs when the two teleportation stations are merged to one and placed close to the transmitter site, which performs similar to the entangling-cloning attack but with a reduced wiretapping ratio. Assuming Eve uses the best available hollow-core fiber, the secret key rate in the practical environment can be 20%~40% higher than that under ideal eavesdropping. While if the entanglement distillation technology is mature enough to provide high quality of distributed entanglement, the two teleportation stations should be distantly separated for better eavesdropping performance, where the eavesdropping can even approach the optimal collective attack. Under the current level of entanglement purification technology, the unavoidable fiber loss can still greatly limit the eavesdropping ability as well as enhance the secret key rate and transmission distance of the realistic system, which promotes the development of QKD systems in practical application scenarios.

We study the effects of acceleration in entanglement dynamics using the theory of open quantum systems. In this scenario we consider two atoms moving along different hyperbolic trajectories with different proper times. The generalized master equation is used for a pair of dipoles interacting with the electromagnetic field. We observe that the proper acceleration plays an essential role in the entanglement harvesting and sudden death phenomenom and we study how the polarization of the atoms affects this results.

Dual-unitary quantum circuits have recently attracted attention as an analytically tractable model of many-body quantum dynamics. Consisting of a 1+1D lattice of 2-qudit gates arranged in a 'brickwork' pattern, these models are defined by the constraint that each gate must remain unitary under swapping the roles of space and time. This dual-unitarity restricts the dynamics of local operators in these circuits: the support of any such operator must grow at the effective speed of light of the system, along one or both of the edges of a causal light cone set by the geometry of the circuit. Using this property, it is shown here that for 1+1D dual-unitary circuits the set of width-$w$ conserved densities (constructed from operators supported over $w$ consecutive sites) is in one-to-one correspondence with the set of width-$w$ solitons - operators which, up to a multiplicative phase, are simply spatially translated at the effective speed of light by the dual-unitary dynamics. A number of ways to construct these many-body solitons (explicitly in the case where the local Hilbert space dimension $d=2$) are then demonstrated: firstly, via a simple construction involving products of smaller, constituent solitons; and secondly, via a construction which cannot be understood as simply in terms of products of smaller solitons, but which does have a neat interpretation in terms of products of fermions under a Jordan-Wigner transformation. This provides partial progress towards a characterisation of the microscopic structure of complex many-body solitons (in dual-unitary circuits on qubits), whilst also establishing a link between fermionic models and dual-unitary circuits, advancing our understanding of what kinds of physics can be explored in this framework.

Recently, the concept of spread complexity, Krylov complexity for states, has been introduced as a measure of the complexity and chaoticity of quantum systems. In this paper, we study the spread complexity of the thermofield double state within \emph{integrable} systems that exhibit saddle-dominated scrambling. Specifically, we focus on the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model and the inverted harmonic oscillator as representative examples of quantum mechanical systems featuring saddle-dominated scrambling. Applying the Lanczos algorithm, our numerical investigation reveals that the spread complexity in these systems exhibits features reminiscent of \emph{chaotic} systems, displaying a distinctive ramp-peak-slope-plateau pattern. Our results indicate that, although spread complexity serves as a valuable probe, accurately diagnosing true quantum chaos generally necessitates additional physical input. We also explore the relationship between spread complexity, the spectral form factor, and the transition probability within the Krylov space. We provide analytical confirmation of our numerical results, validating the Ehrenfest theorem of complexity and identifying a distinct quadratic behavior in the early-time regime of spread complexity.

In this homage to Einstein's 144th birthday we propose a novel quantization prescription, where the paths of a path-integral are not random, but rather solutions of a geodesic equation in a random background. We show that this change of perspective can be made mathematically equivalent to the usual formulations of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. To conclude, we comment on conceptual issues, such as quantum gravity coupled to matter and the quantum equivalence principle.

We investigate the benefits of probabilistic non-Gaussian operations in phase estimation using difference-intensity and parity detection-based Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI). We consider an experimentally implementable model to perform three different non-Gaussian operations, namely photon subtraction (PS), photon addition (PA), and photon catalysis (PC) on a single-mode squeezed vacuum (SSV) state. In difference-intensity detection-based MZI, two PC operation is found to be the most optimal, while for parity detection-based MZI, two PA operation emerges as the most optimal process. We have also provided the corresponding squeezing and transmissivity parameters at best performance, making our study relevant for experimentalists. Further, we have derived the general expression of moment-generating function, which shall be useful in exploring other detection schemes such as homodyne detection and quadratic homodyne detection.

Fluctuation theorems are fundamental results in nonequilibrium thermodynamics beyond the linear response regime. Among these, the paradigmatic Tasaki-Crooks fluctuation theorem relates the statistics of the works done in a forward out-of-equilibrium quantum process and in a corresponding backward one. In particular, the initial states of the two processes are thermal states and thus incoherent in the energy basis. Here, we aim to investigate the role of initial quantum coherence in work fluctuation theorems. To do this, we formulate and examine the implications of a stronger fluctuation theorem, which reproduces the Tasaki-Crooks fluctuation theorem in the absence of initial quantum coherence.

This report is concerned with the efficiency of numerical methods for simulating quantum spin systems, with the aim to implement an improved method for simulation of a time-dependent Hamiltonian that displays chirped pulses at a high frequency.

Working in the density matrix formulation of quantum systems, we study evolution under the Liouville-von Neumann equation, presenting analysis of and benchmarking current numerical methods. The accuracy of existing techniques is assessed in the presence of chirped pulses.

We also discuss the Magnus expansion and detail how a truncation of it is used to solve differential equations. The results of this work are implemented in the Python package MagPy to provide a better error-to-cost ratio than current approaches allow for time-dependent Hamiltonians.

Leggett-Garg inequalities place bounds on the temporal correlations of a system based on the principles of macroscopic realism (MR) and noninvasive measurability (NM). Their conventional formulation relies on the ensemble-averaged products of observables measured at different instants of time. However, this expectation value based approach does not provide a clear definition of NM. A complete description that enables a precise understanding and captures all physically relevant features requires the study of probability distributions associated with noncommuting observables. In this article, we propose a scheme to describe the dynamics of generic $N$-level quantum systems via a probability vector representation of the Schr\"odinger equation and define a precise notion of NM for the probability distributions of noncommuting observables. This allows us to elucidate MR itself more clearly, eliminating any potential confusion. In addition, we introduce a measure to quantify violations of NM for arbitrary quantum states. For single-qubit systems, we pinpoint the pivotal relation that establishes a connection between the disturbance of observables incurred during a measurement and the resulting NM violation.

We theoretically study how the peculiar properties of the vacuum state of an ultra-strongly coupled system can affect basic light-matter interaction processes. In this unconventional electromagnetic environment, an additional emitter no longer couples to the bare cavity photons, but rather to the polariton modes emerging from the ultra-strong coupling, and the effective light-matter interaction strength is sensitive to the properties of the distorted vacuum state. Different interpretations of our predictions in terms of modified quantum fluctuations in the vacuum state and of radiative reaction in classical electromagnetism are critically discussed. Whereas our discussion is focused on the experimentally most relevant case of intersubband polaritons in semiconductor devices, our framework is fully general and applies to generic material systems.

Quantum scars are special eigenstates of many-body systems that evade thermalization. They were first discovered in the PXP model, a well-known effective description of Rydberg atom arrays. Despite significant theoretical efforts, the fundamental origin of PXP scars remains elusive. By investigating the discretized dynamics of the PXP model as a function of the Trotter step $\tau$, we uncover a remarkable correspondence between the zero- and two-particle eigenstates of the integrable Floquet-PXP cellular automaton at $\tau=\pi/2$ and the PXP many-body scars of the time-continuous limit. Specifically, we demonstrate that PXP scars are adiabatically connected to the eigenstates of the $\tau=\pi/2$ Floquet operator. Building on this result, we propose a protocol for achieving high-fidelity preparation of PXP scars in Rydberg atom experiments.

Thermalization of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is one of the most promising phenomena for understanding the strong interaction. The energy loss and momentum broadening at low momentum can be well described by a stochastic process with drag and diffusion terms. Recent advances in quantum computing, in particular quantum amplitude estimation (QAE), promise to provide a quadratic speed-up in simulating stochastic processes. We introduce and formalize an accelerated quantum circuit Monte-Carlo (aQCMC) framework to simulate heavy quark thermalization. With simplified drag and diffusion coefficients connected by Einstein's relation, we simulate the thermalization of a heavy quark in isotropic and anisotropic mediums using an ideal quantum simulator and compare that to thermal expectations.

We develop a novel framework for describing quantum fluctuations in field theory, with a focus on cosmological applications. Our method uniquely circumvents the use of operator/Hilbert-space formalism, instead relying on a systematic treatment of classical variables, quantum fluctuations, and an effective Hamiltonian. Our framework not only aligns with standard formalisms in flat and de Sitter spacetimes, which assumes no backreaction, demonstrated through the $\varphi^3$-model, but also adeptly handles time-dependent backreaction in more general cases. The uncertainty principle and spatial symmetry emerge as critical tools for selecting initial conditions and understanding effective potentials. We discover that modes inside the Hubble horizon \emph{do not} necessarily feel an initial Minkowski vacuum, as is commonly assumed. Our findings offer fresh insights into the early universe's quantum fluctuations and potential explanations to large-scale CMB anomalies.

Quantum gravity in 4D asymptotically flat spacetimes features spontaneous symmetry breaking due to soft radiation hair, intimately tied to the proliferation of IR divergences. A holographic description via a putative 2D CFT is expected free of such redundancies. In this series of two papers, we address this issue by initiating the study of Quantum Error Correction in Celestial CFT (CCFT). In Part I we construct a toy model with finite degrees of freedom by revisiting noncommutative geometry in Kleinian hyperk\"ahler spacetimes. The model obeys a Wick algebra that renormalizes in the radial direction and admits an isometric embedding \`a la Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill. The code subspace is composed of 2-qubit stabilizer states which are robust under soft spacetime fluctuations. Symmetries of the hyperk\"ahler space become discrete and translate into the Clifford group familiar from quantum computation. The construction is then embedded into the incidence relation of twistor space, paving the way for the CCFT regime addressed in upcoming work.

In this work, we have introduced two innovative quantum algorithms: the Direct Column Algorithm and the Quantum Backtracking Algorithm to solve N-Queens problem, which involves the arrangement of $N$ queens on an $N \times N$ chessboard such that they are not under attack from each other on the same row, column and diagonal. These algorithms utilizes Controlled W-states and dynamic circuits, to efficiently address this NP-Complete computational problem. The Direct Column Algorithm strategically reduces the search space, simplifying the solution process, even with exponential circuit complexity as the problem size grows, while Quantum Backtracking Algorithm emulates classical backtracking techniques within a quantum framework which allows the possibility of solving complex problems like satellite communication, routing and VLSI testing.

Secure multiparty computation (MPC) schemes allow two or more parties to conjointly compute a function on their private input sets while revealing nothing but the output. Existing state-of-the-art number-theoretic-based designs face the threat of attacks through quantum algorithms. In this context, we present secure MPC protocols that can withstand quantum attacks. We first present the design and analysis of an information-theoretic secure oblivious linear evaluation (OLE), namely ${\sf qOLE}$ in the quantum domain, and show that our ${\sf qOLE}$ is safe from external attacks. In addition, our scheme satisfies all the security requirements of a secure OLE. We further utilize ${\sf qOLE}$ as a building block to construct a quantum-safe multiparty private set intersection (MPSI) protocol.

Fast quantum gates are crucial not only for the contemporary era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices but also for the prospective development of practical fault-tolerant quantum computing systems. Leakage errors, which arise from data qubits jumping beyond the confines of the computational subspace, are the main challenges in realizing non-adiabatically driven, fast gates. In this letter, we propose and illustrate the usefulness of reinforcement learning (RL) to generate fast two-qubit gates in practical multi-level superconducting qubits. In particular, we show that the RL controller offers great effectiveness in finding piecewise constant gate pulse sequences autonomously that act on two transmon data qubits coupled by a tunable coupler to generate a controlled-Z (CZ) gate with 11 ns gate time and an error rate of $\sim 4\times 10^{-3}$, making it about five times faster than state-of-the-art implementations. Such gate pulse sequences exploit the leakage space judiciously by controlling the leakage dynamics into and out of the computational subspace at appropriate times during the gate application, making it extremely fast.

Quantum computers are expected to perform the full con-figuration interaction calculations with fewer computa-tional resources compared to classical ones, thanks to the use of the quantum phase estimation (QPE) algorithms. However, only limited number of the QPE-based quantum chemical calculations have been reported even on the numerical simulations on a classical computer, focusing on small molecules of up to five atoms. In this paper, we performed quantum chemical calculations of electronic ground and excited states on industrially important mole-cules using the iterative QPE algorithms. With the simula-tor based on a single-GPGPU, we observed the speedup compared to the ones based on multi-CPUs. We also con-firmed the feasibility of this method using a quantum simulator and evaluated the {\pi}-{\pi}* excitation energies of benzene and its mono-substituted derivatives. Our meth-od is easily applicable to other molecules and can be a standard approach for performing the QPE-based quan-tum chemical calculations of practical molecules.

Predicting solar panel power output is crucial for advancing the energy transition but is complicated by the variable and non-linear nature of solar energy. This is influenced by numerous meteorological factors, geographical positioning, and photovoltaic cell properties, posing significant challenges to forecasting accuracy and grid stability. Our study introduces a suite of solutions centered around hybrid quantum neural networks designed to tackle these complexities. The first proposed model, the Hybrid Quantum Long Short-Term Memory, surpasses all tested models by over 40% lower mean absolute and mean squared errors. The second proposed model, Hybrid Quantum Sequence-to-Sequence neural network, once trained, predicts photovoltaic power with 16% lower mean absolute error for arbitrary time intervals without the need for prior meteorological data, highlighting its versatility. Moreover, our hybrid models perform better even when trained on limited datasets, underlining their potential utility in data-scarce scenarios. These findings represent a stride towards resolving time series prediction challenges in energy power forecasting through hybrid quantum models, showcasing the transformative potential of quantum machine learning in catalyzing the renewable energy transition.

Recently there are more promising qubit technology such as Majorana fermions Rydberg atoms and Silicon quantum dot have yet to be developed for realizing a quantum computer than Superconductivity and Ion trap into the world The simulation of the quantum hardware of these qubits can only be done numerically However a classical numerical simulation is limited concerning available resources The method for simulation of quantum hardware by quantum hardware may be necessary In this paper we propose a novel method for optimizing time propagation from initial states to aimed given states of systems by the Born machine We call this method the Hamiltonian Engineering Born Machine HEBM We calculated the optimal Hamiltonians for propagation to Bars and Stripes distribution Gaussian distribution and Gibbs state for $H=-\Sum Z_j Z_{j+1}$ and revealed that they can be realized rapidly and accurately