Highlights for the Virtual Institute of Quantum Computation

16th Jan 2012

We consider whether or not Hamiltonians which are sums of commuting projectors have "trivial" ground states which can be constructed by a local quantum circuit of bounded depth and range acting on a product state. While the toric code only has nontrivial ground states, commuting projector Hamiltonians which are sums of two-body interactions have trivial ground states.


14th Dec 2011

A big open question in the quantum information theory concerns feasibility of a self-correcting quantum memory. A quantum state recorded in such memory can be stored reliably for a macroscopic time without need for active error correction if the memory is put in contact with a cold enough thermal bath. In this paper we derive a rigorous lower bound on the memory time $T_{mem}$ of the 3D Cubic Code model which was recently conjectured to have a self-correcting behavior.


7th Oct 2011

The von Neumann architecture for a classical computer comprises a central processing unit and a memory holding instructions and data. We demonstrate a quantum central processing unit that exchanges data with a quantum random-access memory integrated on a chip, with instructions stored on a classical computer. We test our quantum machine by executing codes that involve seven quantum elements: Two superconducting qubits coupled through a quantum bus, two quantum memories, and two zeroing registers.


7th Apr 2011

We present a quantum algorithm to prepare injective PEPS on a quantum computer, a class of open tensor networks representing quantum states. The run-time of our algorithm scales polynomially with the inverse of the minimum condition number of the PEPS projectors and, essentially, with the inverse of the spectral gap of the PEPS' parent Hamiltonian.


28th Jan 2011

This highlight contains a small video and the accompanying poster displaying what is know as the AQUTE Flagchip, the wondrous box containing the state-of-the-art atomic chips that has been displayed in several ICT events (the last one having been ICT 2010 Digitally Driven in Brussels). Enjoy!


11th Jan 2011

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are a versatile tool to investigate fundamental properties of quantum many body systems. In particular, the high degree of control of experimental parameters has allowed the study of many interesting phenomena such as quantum phase transitions and quantum spin dynamics. Here we demonstrate how such control can be extended down to the most fundamental level of a single spin at a specific site of an optical lattice.


14th Nov 2010

We give new evidence that quantum computers -- moreover, rudimentary quantum computers built entirely out of linear-optical elements -- cannot be efficiently simulated by classical computers. In particular, we define a model of computation in which identical photons are generated, sent through a linear-optical network, then nonadaptively measured to count the number of photons in each mode. This model is not known or believed to be universal for quantum computation, and indeed, we discuss the prospects for realizing the model using current technology.


18th Oct 2010

A central problem in quantum computation is to understand which quantum circuits are useful for exponential speed-ups over classical computation. We address this question in the setting of query complexity and show that for almost any sufficiently long quantum circuit one can construct a black-box problem which is solved by the circuit with a constant number of quantum queries, but which requires exponentially many classical queries, even if the classical machine has the ability to postselect. We prove the result in two steps.


4th Oct 2010

The original motivation to build a quantum computer came from Feynman who envisaged a machine capable of simulating generic quantum mechanical systems, a task that is believed to be intractable for classical computers. Such a machine would have a wide range of applications in the simulation of many-body quantum physics, including condensed matter physics, chemistry, and high energy physics.


30th Sep 2010

We report the creation of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with up to 14 qubits. By investigating the coherence of up to 8 ions over time, we observe a decay proportional to the square of the number of qubits. The observed decay agrees with a theoretical model which assumes a system affected by correlated, Gaussian phase noise. This model holds for the majority of current experimental systems developed towards quantum computation and quantum metrology.


27th Sep 2010

Strong coupling between a microwave photon and electron spins, which could enable a long-lived quantum memory element for superconducting qubits, is possible using a large ensemble of spins. This represents an inefficient use of resources unless multiple photons, or qubits, can be orthogonally stored and retrieved. Here we employ holographic techniques to realize a coherent memory using a pulsed magnetic field gradient and demonstrate the storage and retrieval of up to 100 weak 10 GHz coherent excitations in collective states of an electron spin ensemble.


20th Aug 2010

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeed in recording single-atom resolved images of a highly correlated quantum gas.


9th May 2010

We consider quantum computations comprising only commuting gates, known as IQP computations, and provide compelling evidence that the task of sampling their output probability distributions is unlikely to be achievable by any efficient classical means. More specifically we introduce the class post-IQP of languages decided with bounded error by uniform families of IQP circuits with post-selection, and prove first that post-IQP equals the classical class PP.


25th Apr 2010

Traditionally, quantum entanglement has played a central role in foundational discussions of quantum mechanics. The measurement of correlations between entangled particles can exhibit results at odds with classical behavior. These discrepancies increase exponentially with the number of entangled particles. When entanglement is extended from just two quantum bits (qubits) to three, the incompatibilities between classical and quantum correlation properties can change from a violation of inequalities involving statistical averages to sign differences in deterministic observations.


24th Apr 2010

Entanglement is one of the key resources required for quantum computation, so experimentally creating and measuring entangled states is of crucial importance in the various physical implementations of a quantum computer. In superconducting qubits, two-qubit entangled states have been demonstrated and used to show violations of Bell's Inequality and to implement simple quantum algorithms.