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A macroscopic energy barrier is a necessary condition for self-correcting quantum memory. In this paper, we prove tight bounds on the energy barrier applicable to any quantum code obtained from the hypergraph product of two classical codes. If the underlying classical codes are low-density parity-check codes (LDPC), the energy barrier of the quantum code is shown to be the minimum energy barrier of the underlying classical codes (and their transposes) up to an additive $O(1)$ constant.

Characterising the performance of noisy quantum circuits is central to the production of prototype quantum computers and can enable improved quantum error correction that exploits noise biases identified in a quantum device. We describe an implementation of averaged circuit eigenvalue sampling (ACES), a general framework for the scalable noise characterisation of quantum circuits. ACES is capable of simultaneously estimating the Pauli error probabilities of all gates in a Clifford circuit, and captures averaged spatial correlations between gates implemented simultaneously in the circuit. By rigorously analysing the performance of ACES experiments, we derive a figure of merit for their expected performance, allowing us to optimise ACES experimental designs and improve the precision to which we estimate noise given fixed experimental resources. Since the syndrome extraction circuits of quantum error correcting codes are representative components of a fault-tolerant architecture, we demonstrate the scalability and performance of our ACES protocol through circuit-level numerical simulations of the entire noise characterisation procedure for the syndrome extraction circuit of a distance 25 surface code with over 1000 qubits. Our results indicate that detailed noise characterisation methods are scalable to near-term quantum devices. We release our code in the form of the Julia package AveragedCircuitEigenvalueSampling.jl., Comment: 15 pages + 15 page appendix, 22 figures, comments welcome

The Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code is an exciting route to fault-tolerant quantum computing since Gaussian resources and GKP Pauli-eigenstate preparation are sufficient to achieve universal quantum computing. In this work, we provide a practical proposal to perform Clifford gates and state read-out in GKP codes implemented with active error correction in superconducting circuits. We present a method of performing Clifford circuits without physically implementing any single-qubit gates, reducing the potential for them to spread errors in the system. In superconducting circuits, all the required two-qubit gates can be implemented with a single piece of hardware. We analyze the error-spreading properties of GKP Clifford gates and describe how a modification in the decoder following the implementation of each gate can reduce the gate infidelity by multiple orders of magnitude. Moreover, we develop a simple analytical technique to estimate the effect of loss and dephasing on GKP codes that matches well with numerics. Finally, we consider the effect of homodyne measurement inefficiencies on logical state read-out and present a scheme that implements a measurement with a $0.1\%$ error rate in $630$ ns assuming an efficiency of just~$75\%$., Comment: 41 pages, 19 figures, corrected typos

Rotation symmetric bosonic codes are an attractive encoding for qubits into oscillator degrees of freedom, particularly in superconducting qubit experiments. While these codes can tolerate considerable loss and dephasing, they will need to be combined with higher level codes to achieve large-scale devices. We investigate concatenating these codes with the planar code in a measurement-based scheme for fault-tolerant quantum computation. We focus on binomial codes as the base level encoding, and estimate break-even points for such encodings under loss for various types of measurement protocol. These codes are more resistant to photon loss errors, but require both higher mean photon numbers and higher phase resolution for gate operations and measurements. We find that it is necessary to implement adaptive phase measurements, maximum likelihood quantum state inference, and weighted minimum weight decoding to obtain good performance for a planar code using binomial code qubits.

We describe a protocol for the universal control of non-ideal $\pi$-periodic superconducting qubits. Our proposal relies on a $\pi$-SQUID: a superconducting loop formed by two $\pi$-periodic circuit elements, with an external magnetic flux threading the circuit. The system exhibits an extensive sweet spot around half-flux where residual $2\pi$-periodic Cooper pair tunneling is highly suppressed. We demonstrate that universal single-qubit operations can be realised by tuning the flux adiabatically and diabatically within this broad sweet spot. We also assess how residual $2\pi$-periodicity in $\pi$-SQUIDs impacts holonomic phase gates., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Haah's cubic code is the prototypical type-II fracton topological order. It instantiates the no string-like operator property that underlies the favorable scaling of its code distance and logical energy barrier. Previously, the cubic code was only explored in translation-invariant systems on infinite and periodic lattices. In these settings, the code distance scales superlinearly with the linear system size, while the number of logical qubits within the degenerate ground space exhibits a complicated functional dependence that undergoes large fluctuations within a linear envelope. Here, we extend the cubic code to systems with open boundary conditions and crystal lattice defects. We characterize the condensation of topological excitations in the vicinity of these boundaries and defects, finding that their inclusion can introduce local string-like operators and enhance the mobility of otherwise fractonic excitations. Despite this, we use these boundaries and defects to define new encodings where the number of logical qubits scales linearly without fluctuations, and the code distance scales superlinearly, with the linear system size. These include a subsystem encoding with open boundary conditions and a subspace encoding using lattice defects., Comment: 27 pages, 28 figures

The algebraic tools used to study topological phases of matter are not clearly suited to studying processes in which the bulk energy gap closes, such as phase transitions. We describe an elementary two edge thought experiment which reveals the effect of an anyon condensation phase transition on the robust edge properties of a sample, bypassing a limitation of the algebraic description. In particular, the two edge construction allows some edge degrees of freedom to be tracked through the transition, despite the bulk gap closing. The two edge model demonstrates that bulk anyon condensation induces symmetry breaking in the edge model. Further, the construction recovers the expected result that the number of chiral current carrying modes at the edge cannot change through anyon condensation. We illustrate the construction through detailed analysis of anyon condensation transitions in an achiral phase, the toric code, and in chiral phases, the Kitaev spin liquids., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; (v2) additional references; (v3) explained relation to previous results, minor clarifications; (v4) additional references

The Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code may be used to overcome noise in continuous variable quantum systems. However, preparing GKP states remains experimentally challenging. We propose a method for preparing GKP states by engineering a time-periodic Hamiltonian whose Floquet states are GKP states. This Hamiltonian may be realized in a superconducting circuit comprising a SQUID shunted by a superinductor and a capacitor, with a characteristic impedance twice the resistance quantum. The GKP Floquet states can be prepared by adiabatically tuning the frequency of the external magnetic flux drive. We predict that highly squeezed $>11.9$ dB ($10.8$ dB) GKP magic states can be prepared on a microsecond timescale, given a quality factor of $10^6$ ($10^5$) and flux noise at typical rates., Comment: Includes main text and supplementary material

The Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) error correcting code encodes a finite dimensional logical space in one or more bosonic modes, and has recently been demonstrated in trapped ions and superconducting microwave cavities. In this work we introduce a new subsystem decomposition for GKP codes that we call the stabilizer subsystem decomposition, analogous to the usual approach to quantum stabilizer codes. The decomposition has the defining property that a partial trace over the non-logical stabilizer subsystem is equivalent to an ideal decoding of the logical state. We describe how to decompose arbitrary states across the subsystem decomposition using a set of transformations that move between the decompositions of different GKP codes. Besides providing a convenient theoretical view on GKP codes, such a decomposition is also of practical use. We use the stabilizer subsystem decomposition to efficiently simulate noise acting on single-mode GKP codes, and in contrast to more conventional Fock basis simulations, we are able to to consider essentially arbitrarily large photon numbers for realistic noise channels such as loss and dephasing., Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, 1 table; referee feedback implemented

Motivated by several approaches to quantum gravity, there is a considerable literature on generalised uncertainty principles particularly through modification of the canonical position-momentum commutation relations. Some of these modified relations are also consistent with general principles that may be supposed of any physical theory. Such modified commutators have significant observable consequences. Here we study the noisy behaviour of an optomechanical system assuming a certain commonly studied modified commutator. From recent observations of radiation pressure noise in tabletop optomechanical experiments as well as the position noise spectrum of Advanced LIGO we derive bounds on the modified commutator. We find how such experiments can be adjusted to provide significant improvements in such bounds, potentially surpassing those from sub-atomic measurements., Comment: 16+11 pages, 5 figures. Journal version

We study solutions to the quantum trajectory evolution of $N$-mode open quantum systems possessing a time-independent Hamiltonian, linear Heisenberg-picture dynamics, and Gaussian measurement noise. In terms of the mode annihilation and creation operators, a system will have linear Heisenberg-picture dynamics under two conditions. First, the Hamiltonian must be quadratic. Second, the Lindblad operators describing the coupling to the environment (including those corresponding to the measurement) must be linear. In cases where we can solve the $2N$-degree polynomials that arise in our calculations, we provide an analytical solution for initial states that are arbitrary (i.e. they are not required to have Gaussian Wigner functions). The solution takes the form of an evolution operator, with the measurement-result dependence captured in $2N$ stochastic integrals over these classical random signals. The solutions also allow the POVM, which generates the probabilities of obtaining measurement outcomes, to be determined. To illustrate our results, we solve some single-mode example systems, with the POVMs being of practical relevance to the inference of an initial state, via quantum state tomography. Our key tool is the representation of mixed states of quantum mechanical oscillators as state vectors rather than state matrices (albeit in a larger Hilbert space). Together with methods from Lie algebra, this allows a more straightforward manipulation of the exponential operators comprising the system evolution than is possible in the original Hilbert space., Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure, changed title

We propose a protocol for quantum state tomography of nonclassical states in optomechanical systems. Using a parametric drive, the procedure overcomes the challenges of weak optomechanical coupling, poor detection efficiency, and thermal noise to enable high efficiency homodyne measurement. Our analysis is based on the analytic description of the generalized measurement that is performed when optomechanical position measurement competes with thermal noise and a parametric drive. The proposed experimental procedure is numerically simulated in realistic parameter regimes, which allows us to show that tomographic reconstruction of otherwise unverifiable nonclassical states is made possible., Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, comments welcome. Published version

The Heisenberg exchange interaction between neighboring quantum dots allows precise voltage control over spin dynamics, due to the ability to precisely control the overlap of orbital wavefunctions by gate electrodes. This allows the study of fundamental electronic phenomena and finds applications in quantum information processing. Although spin-based quantum circuits based on short-range exchange interactions are possible, the development of scalable, longer-range coupling schemes constitutes a critical challenge within the spin-qubit community. Approaches based on capacitative coupling and cavity-mediated interactions effectively couple spin qubits to the charge degree of freedom, making them susceptible to electrically-induced decoherence. The alternative is to extend the range of the Heisenberg exchange interaction by means of a quantum mediator. Here, we show that a multielectron quantum dot with 50-100 electrons serves as an excellent mediator, preserving speed and coherence of the resulting spin-spin coupling while providing several functionalities that are of practical importance. These include speed (mediated two-qubit rates up to several gigahertz), distance (of order of a micrometer), voltage control, possibility of sweet spot operation (reducing susceptibility to charge noise), and reversal of the interaction sign (useful for dynamical decoupling from noise)., Comment: 6 pages including 4 figures, plus 8 supplementary pages including 5 supplementary figures

We compare the performance of quantum error correcting codes when memory errors are unitary with the more familiar case of dephasing noise. For a wide range of codes we analytically compute the effective logical channel that results when the error correction steps are performed noiselessly. Our examples include the entire family of repetition codes, the 5-qubit, Steane, Shor, and surface codes. When errors are measured in terms of the diamond norm, we find that the error correction is typically much more effective for unitary errors than for dephasing. We observe this behavior for a wide range of codes after a single level of encoding, and in the thresholds of concatenated codes using hard decoders. We show that this holds with great generality by proving a bound on the performance of any stabilizer code when the noise at the physical level is unitary. By comparing the diamond norm error $D'_\diamond$ of the logical qubit with the same quantity at the physical level $D_\diamond$, we show that $D'_\diamond \le c D^d_\diamond $ where $d$ is the distance of the code and $c$ is constant that depends on the code but not on the error. This bound compares very favorably to the performance of error correction for dephasing noise and other Pauli channels, where an error correcting code of odd distance $d$ will exhibit a scaling $D'_\diamond \sim D_\diamond^{(d+1)/2}$., Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures. See also related work by Beale, Wallman, Gutierrez, Brown, and Laflamme

The goal of entanglement distillation is to turn a large number of weakly entangled states into a smaller number of highly entangled ones. Practical entanglement distillation schemes offer a tradeoff between the fidelity to the target state, and the probability of successful distillation. Exploiting such tradeoffs is of interest in the design of quantum repeater protocols. Here, we present a number of methods to assess and optimize entanglement distillation schemes. We start by giving a numerical method to compute upper bounds on the maximum achievable fidelity for a desired probability of success. We show that this method performs well for many known examples by comparing it to well-known distillation protocols. This allows us to show optimality for many well-known distillation protocols for specific states of interest. As an example, we analytically prove optimality of the distillation protocol utilized within the Extreme Photon Loss (EPL) entanglement generation scheme, even in the asymptotic limit. We proceed to present a numerical method that can improve an existing distillation scheme for a given input state, and we present an example for which this method finds an optimal distillation protocol. An implementation of our numerical methods is available as a Julia package., Comment: 15+21 pages, 13 figures. v2: "realistic operations (RO)" renamed to "measure and exchange (MX) operations", published version

Fast, high-fidelity single and two-qubit gates are essential to building a viable quantum information processor, but achieving both in the same system has proved challenging for spin qubits. We propose and analyze an approach to perform a long-distance two-qubit controlled phase (CPHASE) gate between two singlet-triplet qubits using an electromagnetic resonator to mediate their interaction. The qubits couple longitudinally to the resonator, and by driving the qubits near the resonator's frequency they can be made to acquire a state-dependent geometric phase that leads to a CPHASE gate independent of the initial state of the resonator. Using high impedance resonators enables gate times of order 10 ns while maintaining long coherence times. Simulations show average gate fidelities of over 96% using currently achievable experimental parameters and over 99% using state-of-the-art resonator technology. After optimizing the gate fidelity in terms of parameters tuneable in-situ, we find it takes a simple power-law form in terms of the resonator's impedance and quality and the qubits' noise bath., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures

We investigate the spin of a multielectron GaAs quantum dot in a sequence of nine charge occupancies, by exchange coupling the multielectron dot to a neighboring two-electron double quantum dot. For all nine occupancies, we make use of a leakage spectroscopy technique to reconstruct the spectrum of spin states in the vicinity of the interdot charge transition between a single- and a multielectron quantum dot. In the same regime we also perform time-resolved measurements of coherent exchange oscillations between the single- and multielectron quantum dot. With these measurements, we identify distinct characteristics of the multielectron spin state, depending on whether the dot's occupancy is even or odd. For three out of four even occupancies we do not observe any exchange interaction with the single quantum dot, indicating a spin-0 ground state. For the one remaining even occupancy, we observe an exchange interaction that we associate with a spin-1 multielectron quantum dot ground state. For all five of the odd occupancies, we observe an exchange interaction associated with a spin-1/2 ground state. For three of these odd occupancies, we clearly demonstrate that the exchange interaction changes sign in the vicinity of the charge transition. For one of these, the exchange interaction is negative (i.e. triplet-preferring) beyond the interdot charge transition, consistent with the observed spin-1 for the next (even) occupancy. Our experimental results are interpreted through the use of a Hubbard model involving two orbitals of the multielectron quantum dot. Allowing for the spin correlation energy (i.e. including a term favoring Hund's rules) and different tunnel coupling to different orbitals, we qualitatively reproduce the measured exchange profiles for all occupancies., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables

We study the realization of anyon-permuting symmetries of topological phases on the lattice using tensor networks. Working on the virtual level of a projected entangled pair state, we find matrix product operators (MPOs) that realize all unitary topological symmetries for the toric and color codes. These operators act as domain walls that enact the symmetry transformation on anyons as they cross. By considering open boundary conditions for these domain wall MPOs, we show how to introduce symmetry twists and defect lines into the state., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 appendices, v2 published version

We propose and analyse a scheme for performing a long-range entangling gate for qubits encoded in electron spins trapped in semiconductor quantum dots. Our coupling makes use of an electrostatic interaction between the state-dependent charge configurations of a singlet-triplet qubit and the edge modes of a quantum Hall droplet. We show that distant singlet-triplet qubits can be selectively coupled, with gate times that can be much shorter than qubit dephasing times and faster than decoherence due to coupling to the edge modes. Based on parameters from recent experiments, we argue that fidelities above 99% could in principle be achieved for a two-qubit entangling gate taking as little as 20 ns., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, comments welcome; v2 published version

Circulators are non-reciprocal circuit elements integral to technologies including radar systems, microwave communication transceivers, and the readout of quantum information devices. Their non-reciprocity arises from the interference of microwaves over the centimetre-scale of the signal wavelength in the presence of bulky magnetic media that break time-reversal symmetry. Here we realize a completely passive on-chip microwave circulator with size one-thousandth the wavelength by exploiting the chiral, slow-light response of a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall regime. For an integrated GaAs device with 330 um diameter and 1 GHz centre frequency, a non-reciprocity of 25 dB is observed over a 50 MHz bandwidth. Furthermore, the direction of circulation can be selected dynamically by varying the magnetic field, an aspect that may enable reconfigurable passive routing of microwave signals on-chip.

Achieving error rates that meet or exceed the fault-tolerance threshold is a central goal for quantum computing experiments, and measuring these error rates using randomized benchmarking is now routine. However, direct comparison between measured error rates and thresholds is complicated by the fact that benchmarking estimates average error rates while thresholds reflect worst-case behavior when a gate is used as part of a large computation. These two measures of error can differ by orders of magnitude in the regime of interest. Here we facilitate comparison between the experimentally accessible average error rates and the worst-case quantities that arise in current threshold theorems by deriving relations between the two for a variety of physical noise sources. Our results indicate that it is coherent errors that lead to an enormous mismatch between average and worst case, and we quantify how well these errors must be controlled to ensure fair comparison between average error probabilities and fault-tolerance thresholds., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 13 page appendix

Resonant exchange qubits are a promising addition to the family of experimentally implemented encodings of single qubits using semiconductor quantum dots. We have shown previously that it ought to be straightforward to perform a CPHASE gate between two resonant exchange qubits with a single exchange pulse. This approach uses energy gaps to suppress leakage rather than conventional pulse sequences. In this paper we present analysis and simulations of our proposed two-qubit gate subject to charge and Overhauser field noise at levels observed in current experiments. Our main result is that we expect implementations of our two-qubit gate to achieve high fidelities, with errors at the percent level and gate times comparable to single-qubit operations. As such, exchange-coupled resonant exchange qubits remain an attractive approach for quantum computing., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures + 4 pages of supp. mat., 1 figure, comments welcome

We use a simple real-space renormalization group approach to investigate the critical behavior of the quantum Ashkin-Teller model, a one-dimensional quantum spin chain possessing a line of criticality along which critical exponents vary continuously. This approach, which is based on exploiting the on-site symmetry of the model, has been shown to be surprisingly accurate for predicting some aspects of the critical behavior of the Ising model. Our investigation explores this approach in more generality, in a model where the critical behavior has a richer structure but which reduces to the simpler Ising case at a special point. We demonstrate that the correlation length critical exponent as predicted from this real-space renormalization group approach is in broad agreement with the corresponding results from conformal field theory along the line of criticality. Near the Ising special point, the error in the estimated critical exponent from this simple method is comparable to that of numerically-intensive simulations based on much more sophisticated methods, although the accuracy decreases away from the decoupled Ising model point., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, comments welcome; v2 fixed an error in the analytic expression against which we compare our numerical results, added new references; v3 published version

We demonstrate the long range strong coupling of magnetostatic modes in spatially separated ferromagnets mediated by a microwave frequency cavity. Two spheres of yttrium iron garnet are embedded in the cavity and their magnetostatic modes probed using a dispersive measurement technique. We find they are strongly coupled to each other even when detuned from the cavity modes. We investigate the dependence of the magnet-magnet coupling on the cavity detuning $\Delta$, and find a $1/\Delta$ dependence also characteristic of cavity-coupled superconducting qubits. Dark states of the coupled magnetostatic modes of the system are observed, and ascribed to mismatches between the symmetries of the modes and the drive field., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate the dispersive measurement of ferromagnetic resonance in a yttrium iron garnet sphere embedded within a microwave cavity. The reduction in the longitudinal magnetization at resonance is measured as a frequency shift in the cavity mode coupled to the sphere. This measurement is a result of the intrinsic non-linearity in magnetization dynamics, indicating a promising route towards experiments in magnon cavity quantum electro-dynamics., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We use the multiscale entanglement renormalisation ansatz (MERA) to numerically investigate three critical quantum spin chains with Z_2 x Z_2 on-site symmetry: a staggered XXZ model, a transverse field cluster model, and the quantum Ashkin-Teller model. All three models possess a continuous one-parameter family of critical points. Along this critical line, the thermodynamic limit of these models is expected to be described by classes of c=1 conformal field theories (CFTs) of two possible types: the S^1 free boson and its Z_2-orbifold. Our numerics using MERA with explicitly enforced Z_2 x Z_2 symmetry allow us to extract conformal data for each model, with strong evidence supporting the identification of the staggered XXZ model and critical transverse field cluster model with the S^1 boson CFT, and the Ashkin-Teller model with the Z_2-orbifold boson CFT. Our first two models describe the phase transitions between symmetry protected topologically ordered phases and trivial phases, which lie outside the usual Landau-Ginsburg-Wilson paradigm of symmetry breaking. Our results show that a range of critical theories can arise at the boundary of a single symmetry protected phase., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, comments welcome; v2 published version