QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

We demonstrate low-excitation transport and separation of two-ion crystals consisting of one beryllium and one calcium ion, with a high mass ratio of $4.4$. The full separation involves transport of the mixed-species chain, splitting each ion into separate potential wells, and then transport of each ion prior to detection. We find the high mass ratio makes the protocol sensitive to mode crossings between axial and radial modes, as well as to uncontrolled radial electric fields that induce mass-dependent twists of the ion chain. By controlling these stages, we achieve excitation as low as $\bar{n}=1.40 \pm 0.08$ phonons for the calcium ion and $\bar{n}=1.44 \pm 0.09$ phonons for the beryllium ion. Separation and transport of mixed-species chains are key elements of the QCCD architecture, and may also be applicable to quantum-logic-based spectroscopy of exotic species.

Optical illumination of quantum-dot qubit devices at cryogenic temperatures, while not well studied, is often used to recover operating conditions after undesired shocking events or charge injection. Here, we demonstrate systematic threshold voltage shifts in a dopant-free, Si/SiGe field effect transistor using a near infrared (780 nm) laser diode. We find that illumination under an applied gate voltage can be used to set a specific, stable, and reproducible threshold voltage that, over a wide range in gate bias, is equal to that gate bias. Outside this range, the threshold voltage can still be tuned, although the resulting threshold voltage is no longer equal to the applied gate bias during illumination. We present a simple and intuitive model that provides a mechanism for the tunability in gate bias. The model presented also explains why cryogenic illumination is successful at resetting quantum dot qubit devices after undesired charging events.

Monitored quantum systems undergo Measurement-induced Phase Transitions (MiPTs) stemming from the interplay between measurements and unitary dynamics. When the detector readout is post-selected to match a given value, the dynamics is generated by a Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian with MiPTs characterized by different universal features. Here, we derive a partial post-selected stochastic Schr\"odinger equation based on a microscopic description of continuous weak measurement. This formalism connects the monitored and post-selected dynamics to a broader family of stochastic evolution. We apply the formalism to a chain of free fermions subject to partial post-selected monitoring of local fermion parities. Within a 2-replica approach, we obtained an effective bosonized Hamiltonian in the strong post-selected limit. Using a renormalization group analysis, we find that the universality of the non-Hermitian MiPT is stable against a finite (weak) amount of stochasticity. We further show that the passage to the monitored universality occurs abruptly at finite partial post-selection, which we confirm from the numerical finite size scaling of the MiPT. Our approach establishes a way to study MiPTs for arbitrary subsets of quantum trajectories and provides a potential route to tackle the experimental post-selected problem.

The semidirect discrete logarithm problem (SDLP) is the following analogue of the standard discrete logarithm problem in the semidirect product semigroup $G\rtimes \mathrm{End}(G)$ for a finite semigroup $G$. Given $g\in G, \sigma\in \mathrm{End}(G)$, and $h=\prod_{i=0}^{t-1}\sigma^i(g)$ for some integer $t$, the SDLP$(G,\sigma)$, for $g$ and $h$, asks to determine $t$. As Shor's algorithm crucially depends on commutativity, it is believed not to be applicable to the SDLP. Previously, the best known algorithm for the SDLP was based on Kuperberg's subexponential time quantum algorithm. Still, the problem plays a central role in the security of certain proposed cryptosystems in the family of \textit{semidirect product key exchange}. This includes a recently proposed signature protocol called SPDH-Sign. In this paper, we show that the SDLP is even easier in some important special cases. Specifically, for a finite group $G$, we describe quantum algorithms for the SDLP in $G\rtimes \mathrm{Aut}(G)$ for the following two classes of instances: the first one is when $G$ is solvable and the second is when $G$ is a matrix group and a power of $\sigma$ with a polynomially small exponent is an inner automorphism of $G$. We further extend the results to groups composed of factors from these classes. A consequence is that SPDH-Sign and similar cryptosystems whose security assumption is based on the presumed hardness of the SDLP in the cases described above are insecure against quantum attacks. The quantum ingredients we rely on are not new: these are Shor's factoring and discrete logarithm algorithms and well-known generalizations.

In the curved spacetime of a black hole, quantum physics gives rise to distinctive effects such as Hawking radiation. Here, we present a scheme for an analogue quantum simulation of (1 + 1)- dimensional black holes using ultracold atoms in a locally Floquet-driven 1D optical lattice. We show how the effective dynamics of the driven system can generate a position-dependent tunnelling profile that encodes the curved geometry of the black hole. Moreover, we provide a simple and robust scheme to determine the Hawking temperature of the simulated black hole based solely on on-site atom population measurements. Finally, we show how this scheme can be directly applied to simulate (2 + 1)D black holes by utilising 2D optical lattices. By incorporating the effect of atom-atom interactions, our simulator can probe the scrambling of quantum information which is a fundamental property of black holes.

The overhead of quantum error correction (QEC) poses a major bottleneck for realizing fault-tolerant computation. To reduce this overhead, we exploit the idea of erasure qubits, relying on an efficient conversion of the dominant noise into erasures at known locations. We start by introducing a formalism for QEC schemes with erasure qubits and express the corresponding decoding problem as a matching problem. Then, we propose and optimize QEC schemes based on erasure qubits and the recently-introduced Floquet codes. Our schemes are well-suited for superconducting circuits, being compatible with planar layouts. We numerically estimate the memory thresholds for the circuit noise model that includes spreading (via entangling operations) and imperfect detection of erasures. Our results demonstrate that, despite being slightly more complex, QEC schemes based on erasure qubits can significantly outperform standard approaches.

Photoelectric detectors cover a wide frequency spectrum spanning from the far ultraviolet to the infrared light with high sensitivity, large quantum efficiency and low dark current. The equivalent photoelectric detection of microwave frequency photons has remained elusive due to inherent differences between microwave photon energy and the interband transition energies exploited in standard photoelectric detectors. Here we present the realization of a near-ideal microwave photon to electron converter at a frequency typical of circuit quantum electrodynamics. These unique properties are enabled by the use of a high kinetic inductance disordered superconductor, granular aluminium, to enhance the light-matter interaction. This experiment constitutes an important proof of concept regarding low energy microwave photon to electron conversion unveiling new possibilities such as the detection of single microwave photons using charge detection. It finds significance in quantum research openning doors to a wide array of applications, from quantum-enhanced sensing to exploring the fundamental properties of quantum states.

Spectral statistics such as the level spacing statistics and spectral form factor (SFF) are widely expected to accurately identify ``ergodicity'', including the presence of underlying macroscopic symmetries, in generic quantum systems ranging from quantized chaotic maps to interacting many-body systems. By studying various quantizations of maximally chaotic maps that break a discrete classical symmetry upon quantization, we demonstrate that this approach can be misleading and fail to detect macroscopic symmetries. Notably, the same classical map can exhibit signatures of different random matrix symmetry classes in short-range spectral statistics depending on the quantization. While the long-range spectral statistics encoded in the early time ramp of the SFF are more robust and correctly identify macroscopic symmetries in several common quantizations, we also demonstrate analytically and numerically that the presence of Berry-like phases in the quantization leads to spectral anomalies, which break this correspondence. Finally, we provide numerical evidence that long-range spectral rigidity remains directly correlated with ergodicity in the quantum dynamical sense of visiting a complete orthonormal basis.

Generalized measurements, also called positive operator-valued measures (POVMs), can offer advantages over projective measurements in various quantum information tasks. Here, we realize a generalized measurement of one and two superconducting qubits with high fidelity and in a single experimental setting. To do so, we propose a hybrid method, the "Naimark-terminated binary tree," based on a hybridization of Naimark's dilation and binary tree techniques that leverages emerging hardware capabilities for mid-circuit measurements and feed-forward control. Furthermore, we showcase a highly effective use of approximate compiling to enhance POVM fidelity in noisy conditions. We argue that our hybrid method scales better toward larger system sizes than its constituent methods and demonstrate its advantage by performing detector tomography of symmetric, informationally complete POVM (SIC-POVM). Detector fidelity is further improved through a composite error mitigation strategy that incorporates twirling and a newly devised conditional readout error mitigation. Looking forward, we expect improvements in approximate compilation and hardware noise for dynamic circuits to enable generalized measurements of larger multi-qubit POVMs on superconducting qubits.

Quantum processors are now able to run quantum circuits that are infeasible to simulate classically, creating a need for benchmarks that assess a quantum processor's rate of errors when running these circuits. Here, we introduce a general technique for creating efficient benchmarks from any set of quantum computations, specified by unitary circuits. Our benchmarks assess the integrated performance of a quantum processor's classical compilation algorithms and its low-level quantum operations. Unlike existing "full-stack benchmarks", our benchmarks do not require classical simulations of quantum circuits, and they use only efficient classical computations. We use our method to create randomized circuit benchmarks, including a computationally efficient version of the quantum volume benchmark, and an algorithm-based benchmark that uses Hamiltonian simulation circuits. We perform these benchmarks on IBM Q devices and in simulations, and we compare their results to the results of existing benchmarking methods.

QBism has long recognized quantum states, POVM elements, Kraus operators, and even unitary operations to be cut from the same cloth: They all express aspects of an agent's personal belief system concerning the consequences (for her) of actions she might take on her external world. Such action-consequence pairs have conventionally been called "quantum measurements." The calculus of quantum theory is then viewed as an empirically motivated addition to Bayesian decision theory when brought to this notion of measurement. This radical approach has allowed QBism to eliminate the conceptual problems that plague other interpretations of quantum mechanics. However, one issue has remained elusive: If a QBist agent does not believe in the existence of an ontic (agent-independent) dynamical variable evolving over time, why would there be any constraints on her quantum state assignment in the absence of performing a measurement? Why would she introduce unitary or open-system quantum dynamics at all? Here, we present a representation theorem based on van Fraassen's reflection principle to answer these questions. Simply put, an agent's assignment of quantum dynamics represents her belief that a measurement action she is contemplating would not change her current odds for future gambles. A corollary to this approach is that one can make sense of "open-system dynamics" without ever introducing an "environment with a measurement record" as is common in decoherence accounts of quantum measurement. Instead, the QBist understanding of decoherence rests entirely on an agent's beliefs about the system of interest (not system plus environment) and her judgments about measurements she might perform on that system.

The physics of doped Mott insulators is at the heart of strongly correlated materials and is believed to constitute an essential ingredient for high-temperature superconductivity. In systems with higher SU(N) spin symmetries, even richer magnetic ground states appear at a filling of one particle per site compared to the case of SU(2) spins, but their fate upon doping remains largely unexplored. Here we address this question by studying a single hole in the SU(3) $t$-$J$ model, whose undoped ground state features long-range, diagonal spin stripes. By analyzing both ground state and dynamical properties utilizing the density matrix renormalization group, we establish the appearence of magnetic polarons consisting of chargons and flavor defects, whose dynamics is constrained to a single effective dimension along the ordered diagonal. We semi-analytically describe the system using geometric string theory, where paths of hole motion are the fundamental degrees of freedom. With recent advances in the realization and control of SU(N) Fermi-Hubbard models with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, our results can directly be observed in quantum gas microscopes with single-site resolution. Our work suggests the appearance of intricate ground states at finite doping constituted by emergent, coupled Luttinger liquids along diagonals, and is a first step towards exploring a wealth of physics in doped SU(N) Fermi-Hubbard models on various geometries.

Quantum measurements are a fundamental component of quantum computing. However, on modern-day quantum computers, measurements can be more error prone than quantum gates, and are susceptible to non-unital errors as well as non-local correlations due to measurement crosstalk. While readout errors can be mitigated in post-processing, it is inefficient in the number of qubits due to a combinatorially-large number of possible states that need to be characterized. In this work, we show that measurement errors can be tailored into a simple stochastic error model using randomized compiling, enabling the efficient mitigation of readout errors via quasi-probability distributions reconstructed from the measurement of a single preparation state in an exponentially large confusion matrix. We demonstrate the scalability and power of this approach by correcting readout errors without the need for any matrix inversion on a large number of different preparation states applied to a register of a eight superconducting transmon qubits. Moreover, we show that this method can be extended to measurement in the single-shot limit using quasi-probabilistic error cancellation, and demonstrate the correction of mid-circuit measurement errors on an ancilla qubit used to detect and actively correct bit-flip errors on an entangled memory qubit. Our approach paves the way for performing an assumption-free correction of readout errors on large numbers of qubits, and offers a strategy for correcting readout errors in adaptive circuits in which the results of mid-circuit measurements are used to perform conditional operations on non-local qubits in real time.

We present a novel quantum high-dimensional linear regression algorithm with an $\ell_1$-penalty based on the classical LARS (Least Angle Regression) pathwise algorithm. Similarly to available classical numerical algorithms for Lasso, our quantum algorithm provides the full regularisation path as the penalty term varies, but quadratically faster per iteration under specific conditions. A quadratic speedup on the number of features/predictors $d$ is possible by using the simple quantum minimum-finding subroutine from D\"urr and Hoyer (arXiv'96) in order to obtain the joining time at each iteration. We then improve upon this simple quantum algorithm and obtain a quadratic speedup both in the number of features $d$ and the number of observations $n$ by using the recent approximate quantum minimum-finding subroutine from Chen and de Wolf (ICALP'23). As one of our main contributions, we construct a quantum unitary based on quantum amplitude estimation to approximately compute the joining times to be searched over by the approximate quantum minimum finding. Since the joining times are no longer exactly computed, it is no longer clear that the resulting approximate quantum algorithm obtains a good solution. As our second main contribution, we prove, via an approximate version of the KKT conditions and a duality gap, that the LARS algorithm (and therefore our quantum algorithm) is robust to errors. This means that it still outputs a path that minimises the Lasso cost function up to a small error if the joining times are only approximately computed. Finally, in the model where the observations are generated by an underlying linear model with an unknown coefficient vector, we prove bounds on the difference between the unknown coefficient vector and the approximate Lasso solution, which generalises known results about convergence rates in classical statistical learning theory analysis.

Solving combinatorial optimization problems using variational quantum algorithms to be executed on near-term quantum devices has gained a lot of attraction in recent years. Currently, most works have focused on single-objective problems. In contrast, many real-world problems need to consider multiple conflicting objectives simultaneously, which is not well studied using variation quantum algorithms. In multi-objective optimization, one seeks the optimal trade-offs among conflicting objectives - the well-known Pareto set/front. We present a variational quantum multiple-objective optimization (QMOO) algorithm, which allows us to solve multi-objective optimization problems using NISQ computers. At the core of the algorithm is a variational quantum circuit (VQC) tuned to produce a quantum state which is a superposition of Pareto-optimal solutions, solving the original multi-objective optimization problem. The VQC achieves this by incorporating all cost Hamiltonians representing the classical objective functions. We retrieve a set of solutions from the quantum state prepared by the VQC, and utilize the widely-applied hypervolume indicator to determine the quality of it as approximation to the Pareto-front. The variational parameters of the VQC are tuning by maximizing the hypervolume indicator. As many realistic problems are integer optimization problems we formulate the whole scheme for qudit quantum systems. We show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on several benchmark problems with up to five objectives.

Many-body entanglement unveils additional aspects of quantum matter and offers insights into strongly correlated physics. While ground-state entanglement has received much attention in the past decade, the study of mixed-state quantum entanglement using negativity in interacting fermionic systems remains unexplored. We demonstrate that the partially transposed density matrix of interacting fermions, similar to the reduced density matrix, can be expressed as a weighted sum of Gaussian states describing free fermions, enabling the calculation of rank-$n$ R\'{e}nyi negativity within the determinantal quantum Monte Carlo framework. We conduct the first calculation of rank-two R\'{e}nyi negativity for the half-filled Hubbard model and the spinless $t$-$V$ model and find that the area law coefficient of the R\'{e}nyi negativity has a singularity at the finite-temperature transition point. Our work contributes to the calculation of entanglement and sets the stage for future studies on quantum entanglement in various fermionic many-body mixed states.

The relation between d-wave superconductivity and stripes is fundamental to the understanding of ordered phases in cuprates. While experimentally both phases are found in close proximity, numerical studies on the related Fermi-Hubbard model have long been investigating whether stripes precede, compete or coexist with superconductivity. Such stripes are characterised by interleaved charge and spin density wave ordering where fluctuating lines of dopants separate domains of opposite antiferromagnetic order. Here we show first signatures of stripes in a cold-atom Fermi-Hubbard quantum simulator. By engineering a mixed-dimensional system, we increase their typical energy scales to the spin exchange energy, enabling us to access the interesting crossover temperature regime where stripes begin to form. We observe extended, attractive correlations between hole dopants and find an increased probability to form larger structures akin to stripes. In the spin sector, we study correlation functions up to third order and find results consistent with stripe formation. These higher-order correlation measurements pave the way towards an improved microscopic understanding of the emergent properties of stripes and their relation to other competing phases. More generally, our approach has direct relevance for newly discovered high-temperature superconducting materials in which mixed dimensions play an essential role.

We consider the problem of understanding the basic features displayed by quantum systems described by parametric oscillators whose time-dependent frequency parameter $\omega(t)$ varies continuously during evolution so to realise quenching protocols of different types. To this scope we focus on the case where $\omega(t)^2$ behaves like a Morse potential, up to possible sign reversion and translations in the $(t,\omega^2)$ plane. We derive closed form solution for the time-dependent amplitude of quasi-normal modes, which is the very fundamental dynamical object entering the description of both classical and quantum parametric oscillators, and highlight its significant characteristics for distinctive cases arising based on the driving specifics. After doing so, we provide an insight on the way quantum states evolve by paying attention on the position-momentum Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the statistical aspects implied by second-order correlation functions over number-type states.

Using the nascent concept of quantum spin-transfer torque [A. Zholud et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 119}, 257201 (2017); M. D. Petrovi\'{c} {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. X {\bf 11}, 021062 (2021)], we demonstrate that a current pulse can be harnessed to entangle quantum localized spins of two spatially separated ferromagnets (FMs) which are initially unentangled. The envisaged setup comprises a spin-polarizer (FM$_p$) and a spin-analyzer (FM$_a$) FM layers separated by normal metal (NM) spacer. The injection of a current pulse into the device leads to a time-dependent superposition of many-body states characterized by a high degree of entanglement between the spin degrees of freedom of the two distant FM layers. The non-equilibrium dynamics are due to the transfer of spin angular momentum from itinerant electrons to the localized spins via a quantum spin-torque mechanism that remains active even for {\em collinear but antiparallel} arrangements of the FM$_p$ and FM$_a$ magnetizations (a situation in which the conventional spin-torque is absent). We quantify the mixed-state entanglement generated between the FM layers by tracking the time-evolution of the full density matrix and analyzing the build-up of the mutual logarithmic negativity over time. The effect of decoherence and dissipation in the FM layers due to coupling to bosonic baths at finite temperature, the use of multi-electron current pulses and the dependence on the number of spins are also considered in an effort to ascertain the robustness of our predictions under realistic conditions. Finally, we propose a ``current-pump/X-ray-probe'' scheme, utilizing ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy, that can witness nonequilibrium and transient entanglement of the FM layers by extracting its time-dependent quantum Fisher information.

We demonstrate the robustness of the recently established Floquet-assisted superradiant phase of the parametrically driven dissipative Dicke model, inspired by light-induced dynamics in graphene. In particular, we show the robustness of this state against key imperfections and argue for the feasibility of utilizing it for laser operation. We consider the effect of a finite linewidth of the driving field, modelled via phase diffusion. We find that the linewidth of the light field in the cavity narrows drastically across the FSP transition, reminiscent of a line narrowing at the laser transition. We then demonstrate that the FSP is robust against inhomogeneous broadening, while displaying a reduction of light intensity. We show that the depleted population inversion of near-resonant Floquet states leads to hole burning in the inhomogeneously broadened Floquet spectra. Finally, we show that the FSP is robust against dissipation processes, with coefficients up to values that are experimentally available. We conclude that the FSP presents a robust mechanism that is capable of realistic laser operation.