Search

Nontrivial spectral properties of non-Hermitian systems can give rise to intriguing effects that lack counterparts in Hermitian systems. For instance, when dynamically varying system parameters along a path enclosing an exceptional point (EP), chiral mode conversion occurs. A recent study [Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 113802 (2024)] demonstrates the achievability of pure adiabatic state transfer by specifically selecting a trajectory in the system parameter space where the corresponding evolution operator exhibits a real spectrum while winding around an EP. However, considering the impact of nonadiabatic transitions reveals the fragility of intended adiabatic state transfer. In this work, we propose a scheme for achieving robust and rapid adiabatic state transfer in time-modulated two-level non-Hermitian systems by appropriately modulating system Hamiltonian and time-evolution trajectory. Numerical simulations confirm that complete adiabatic transfer can always be achieved even under nonadiabatic conditions after one period for different initialized adiabatic states, and the scheme remains insensitive to moderate fluctuations in control parameters. Therefore, this scheme offers alternative approaches for quantum-state engineering in non-Hermitian systems., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The environment-induced dissipation of an open system, once thought as a nuisance, can actually lead to emergence of many intriguing phenomena that are absent in an isolated system. Among these, Weyl exceptional rings (WER), extended from point-like singularities, are particularly interesting. Theoretically, a WER was predicted to carry a topological charge with a nonzero Chern number, but it has not been measured so far. We here investigate this topology in a circuit, where the WER is synthesized with a superconducting qubit controllably coupled to a decaying resonator. The high flexibility of the system enables us to characterize its eigenvectors on different manifolds of parameter space. We extract both the quantized Berry phase and Chern number from these eigenvectors. Furthermore, we demonstrate a topological transition triggered by shrinking the size of the manifold$-$a unique feature of the WER., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures

The rich structure of transverse spatial modes of structured light has facilitated their extensive applications in quantum information and optical communication. The Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes, which carry a well-defined orbital angular momentum (OAM), consist of a complete orthogonal basis describing the transverse spatial modes of light. The application of OAM in free-space optical communication is restricted due to the experimentally limited OAM numbers and the complex OAM recognition methods. Here, we present a novel method that uses the advanced deep learning technique for LG modes recognition. By discretizing the spatial modes of structured light, we turn the OAM state regression into classification. A proof-of-principle experiment is also performed, showing that our method effectively categorizes OAM states with small training samples and high accuracy. By assigning each category a classical information, we further apply our approach to an image transmission task, demonstrating the ability to encode large data with low OAM number. This work opens up a new avenue for achieving high-capacity optical communication with low OAM number based on structured light., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

In the last few years, much attention has been paid to exceptional surfaces (ESs) owing to various important physical phenomena and potential applications. However, high-order ESs in pseudo-Hermitian systems have not been reported until now. Here, we study the high-order ES in a pseudo-Hermitian superconducting (SC) circuit system. In our proposal, the SC circuit system is composed of three circularly coupled SC cavities, where the gain and loss are balanced. According to the eigenvalue properties of the pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian, we derive the general pseudo-Hermitian conditions for the ternary SC system. In the special pseudo-Hermitian case with parity-time symmetry, all third-order exceptional points (EP3s) of the SC system form a third-order exceptional line in the parameter space. Under the general pseudo-Hermitian conditions, more EP3s are found, and all EP3s are located on a surface, i.e., a third-order exceptional surface is constructed. Moreover, we also investigate the eigenvalues of the pseudo-Hermitian SC circuit around EP3s. Our work opens up a door for exploring high-order ESs and related applications in pseudo-Hermitian systems., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Owing to the presence of exceptional points (EPs), non-Hermitian (NH) systems can display intriguing topological phenomena without Hermitian analogs. However, experimental characteristics of exceptional topological invariants have been restricted to second-order EPs (EP2s) in classical or semiclassical systems. We here propose an NH multi-qubit model with higher-order EPs, each of which is underlain by a multifold-degenerate multipartite entangled eigenstate. We implement the three-qubit model by controllably coupling a superconducting qubit to two microwave resonators, one serving as a Hermitian photonic qubit while the other as an NH qubit. We experimentally quantify the topological invariant for an EP3, by mapping out the complex eigenspectra along a loop surrounding this EP3 in the parameter space. The nonclassicality of the realized topology is manifested by the observed quantum correlations in the corresponding eigenstates. Our results extend research of exceptional topology to fully quantum-mechanical models with multi-partite entangled eigenstates. We further demonstrate the non-reciprocal transmission of a single photon, during which the photon is nonlocally shared by three individual elements.

Motivated by recent realizations of two-dimensional (2D) superconducting-qubit lattices, we propose a protocol to simulate Hofstadter butterfly with synthetic gauge fields in superconducting circuits. Based on the existing 2D superconducting-qubit lattices, we construct a generalized Hofstadter model on zigzag lattices, which has a fractal energy spectrum similar to the original Hofstadter butterfly. By periodically modulating the resonant frequencies of qubits, we engineer a synthetic gauge field to mimic the generalized Hofstadter Hamiltonian. A spectroscopic method is used to demonstrate the Hofstadter butterfly from the time evolutions of experimental observables. We numerically simulate the dynamics of the system with realistic parameters, and the results show a butterfly spectrum clearly. Our proposal provides a promising way to realize the Hofstadter butterfly on the latest 2D superconducting-qubit lattices and will stimulate the quantum simulation of novel properties induced by magnetic fields in superconducting circuits.

Instantaneous two-party quantum computation is a computation process with bipartite input and output, in which there are initial shared entanglement, and the nonlocal interactions are limited to simultaneous classical communication in both directions. It is almost equivalent to the problem of instantaneous measurements, and is related to some topics in quantum foundations and position-based quantum cryptography. In the first part of this work, we show that a particular simplified subprocedure, known as a garden-hose gadget, cannot significantly reduce the entanglement cost in instantaneous two-party quantum computation. In the second part, we show that any unitary circuit consisting of layers of Clifford gates and T gates can be implemented using a circuit with measurements (or a unitary circuit) of depth proportional to the T-depth of the original circuit. This result has some similarity with and also some difference from a result in measurement-based quantum computation. It is of limited use since interesting quantum algorithms often require a high ratio of T gates, but still we discuss its extensions and applications., Comment: 6 pages. Revised Sec. 3 and the last part of Sec. 4

We propose a simple method to realize a hybrid controlled-controlled-Z (CCZ) gate with two photonic qubits simultaneously controlling a superconducting (SC) target qubit, by employing two microwave cavities coupled to a SC ququart (a four-level quantum system). In this proposal, each control qubit is a photonic qubit, which is encoded by two arbitrary orthogonal eigenstates (with eigenvalues 1 and -1, respectively) of the photon-number parity operator. Since the two arbitrary encoding states can take various quantum states, this proposal can be applied to realize the hybrid CCZ gate, for which the two control photonic qubits can have various encodings. The gate realization is quite simple because only a basic operation is needed. During the gate operation, the higher energy intermediate levels of the ququart are not occupied, and, thus, decoherence from these levels is greatly suppressed. We further discuss how to apply this gate to generate a hybrid Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state of a SC qubit and two photonic qubits, which takes a general form. As an example, our numerical simulation demonstrates that high-fidelity generation of a cat-cat-spin hybrid GHZ state is feasible within current circuit QED technology. This proposal is quite general, which can be applied to realize the hybrid CCZ gate as well as to prepare various hybrid GHZ states of a matter qubit and two photonic qubits in other physical systems, such as two microwave or optical cavities coupled to a four-level natural or artificial atom., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

In recent years, quantum state engineering and quantum information processing using microwave fields and photons have received increasing attention. In addition, multiqubit gates play an important role in quantum information processing. In this work, we propose to encode a photonic qubit via two arbitrary orthogonal eigenstates (with eigenvalues 1 and -1, respectively) of the photon-number parity operator. With such encoding, we then present a single-step method to realize a multi-target-qubit controlled-phase gate with one photonic qubit simultaneously controlling n-1 target photonic qubits, by employing n microwave cavities coupled to one superconducting flux qutrit. This proposal can be applied not only to implement nonhybrid multi-target-qubit controlled-phase gates using photonic qubits with various encodings, but also to realize hybrid multi-target-qubit controlled-phase gates using photonic qubits with different encodings. The gate realization requires only a single-step operation. The gate operation time does not increase with the number of target qubits. Because the qutrit remains in the ground state during the entire operation, decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. As an application, we show how to apply this gate to generate a multicavity Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state with general expression. Depending on the specific encodings, we further discuss the preparation of several nonhybrid and hybrid GHZ entangled states of multiple cavities. We numerically investigate the circuit-QED experimental feasibility of creating a three-cavity spin-coherent hybrid GHZ state. This proposal can be extended to accomplish the same tasks in a wide range of physical systems, such as multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a three-level natural or artificial atom., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

XOR oblivious transfer is a universal cryptographic primitive that can be related to linear polynomial evaluation. We firstly introduce some bipartite quantum protocols for XOR oblivious transfer, which are not secure if one party cheats, and some of them can be combined with a classical XOR homomorphic encryption scheme for evaluation of linear polynomials modulo 2 with hybrid security. We then introduce a general protocol using modified versions of the XOR oblivious transfer protocols to evaluate linear polynomials modulo 2 with partial information-theoretic security. When combined with the ability to perform arbitrary quantum computation, this would lead to deterministic interactive two-party computation which is quite secure in the information-theoretic sense when the allowed set of inputs is large. For the task of classical function evaluation, although the quantum computation approach is still usable, we also discuss purely classical post-processing methods based on the proposed linear polynomial evaluation protocols., Comment: 9 pages. Added the current Protocols 2 and 3, and removed the previous Section IV since it is no longer needed

High-dimensional quantum systems offer many advantages over low-dimensional quantum systems. Meanwhile, unitary transformations on quantum states are important parts in various quantum information tasks, whereas they become technically infeasible as the dimensionality increases. The photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM), which is inherit in the transverse spatial mode of photons, offers a natural carrier to encode information in high-dimensional spaces. However, it's even more challenging to realize arbitrary unitary transformations on the photonic OAM states. Here, by combining the path and OAM degrees of freedom of a single photon, an efficient scheme to realize arbitrary unitary transformations on the path-OAM coupled quantum states is proposed. The proposal reduces the number of required interferometers by approximately one quarter compared with previous works, while maintaining the symmetric structure. It is shown that by using OAM-to-path interfaces, this scheme can be utilized to realize arbitrary unitary transformations on the OAM states of photons. This work facilitates the development of high-dimension quantum state transformations, and opens a new door to the manipulation of the photonic OAM states., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

We show how to generate Bell states and $N$-partite $W$ states of long-distance superconducting (SC) qubits in a SC waveguide quantum electrodynamical (QED) system, where SC qubits are coupled to an open microwave transmission line. In the two-qubit case, the Bell state of two long-distance qubits can be a dark state of the system by choosing appropriate system parameters. If one proper microwave pulse drives one of two qubits, the two qubits will evolve from their ground states to a Bell state. Further, we extend this scheme to the multi-qubit case. We show that $W$ states of $N$ long-distance qubits can also be generated. Because both the Bell and $W$ states are decoupled from the waveguide (i.e., dark states of the system), they are steady and have very long lifetimes in the ideal case without decoherence of qubits. In contrast to the ideal case, the presence of decoherence of qubits limits the lifetimes of the Bell and $W$ states. Our study provides a novel scheme for generating Bell states and $N$-partite $W$ states in SC waveguide QED, which can be used to entangle long-distance nodes in waveguide quantum networks., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

We propose a mechanism to engineer an $n$-photon blockade in a nonlinear cavity with an $n$-photon parametric drive $\lambda(\hat{a}^{\dag n}+\hat{a}^n)$. When an $n$-photon-excitation resonance condition is satisfied, the presence of n photons in the cavity suppresses the absorption of the subsequent photons. To confirm the validity of this proposal, we study the n-photon blockade in an atom-cavity system, a Kerr-nonlinear resonator, and two-coupled Kerr nonlinear resonators. Our results demonstrate that $n$-photon bunching and $(n+1)$-photon antibunching can be simultaneously obtained in these systems. This effect is due both to the anharmonic energy ladder and to the nature of the $n$-photon drive. To show the importance of the drive, we compare the results of the $n$-photon drive with a coherent (one-photon) drive, proving the enhancement of antibunching in the parametric-drive case. This proposal is general and can be applied to realize the $n$-photon blockade in other nonlinear systems.

An arbitrary lossless transformation in high-dimensional quantum space can be decomposed into elementary operations which are easy to implement, and an effective decomposition algorithm is important for constructing high-dimensional systems. Here, we present two optimized architectures to effectively realize an arbitrary unitary transformation by using the photonic path and polarization based on the existing decomposition algorithm. In the first architecture, the number of required interferometers is reduced by half compared with previous works. In the second architecture, by using the high-dimensional X gate, all the elementary operations are transferred to the operations which act locally on the photonic polarization in the same path. Such an architecture could be of significance in polarization-based applications. Both architectures maintain the symmetric layout. Our work facilitates the optical implementation of high-dimensional transformations and could have potential applications in high-dimensional quantum computation and quantum communication., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Nonorthogonal quantum state discrimination (QSD) plays an important role in quantum information and quantum communication. In addition, compared to Hermitian quantum systems, parity-time-($\mathcal{PT}$-)symmetric non-Hermitian quantum systems exhibit novel phenomena and have attracted considerable attention. Here, we experimentally demonstrate QSD in a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric system (i.e., $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric QSD), by having quantum states evolve under a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian in a lossy linear optical setup. We observe that two initially nonorthogonal states can rapidly evolve into orthogonal states, and the required evolution time can even be vanishing provided the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian become sufficiently large. We also observe that the cost of such a discrimination is a dissipation of quantum states into the environment. Furthermore, by comparing $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric QSD with optimal strategies in Hermitian systems, we find that at the critical value, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric QSD is equivalent to the optimal unambiguous state discrimination in Hermitian systems. We also extend the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric QSD to the case of discriminating three nonorthogonal states. The QSD in a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric system opens a new door for quantum state discrimination, which has important applications in quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum communication., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, comments are welcome

Wave-particle duality relations are fundamental for quantum physics. Previous experimental studies of duality relations mainly focus on the quadratic relation $D^2+V^2\leq1$, based on symmetric beam interference, while a linear form of the duality relation, predicated earlier theoretically, has never been experimentally tested. In addition, the difference between the quadratic form and the linear form has not been explored yet. In this work, with a designed asymmetric beam interference and by utilizing the polarization degree of freedom of the photon as a which-way detector, we experimentally confirm both forms of the duality relations. The results show that more path information is obtained in the quadratic case. Our findings reveal the difference between the two duality relations and have fundamental implications in better understanding these important duality relations., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, comments are welcome

We show that a continuous-variable (CV) qudit can be constructed using quasiorthogonal cat states of a bosonic mode, when the phase encoded in each cat state is chosen appropriately. With the constructed CV qudit and the discrete-variable (DV) qudit encoded with Fock states, we propose an approach to generate the hybrid maximally entangled state of a CV qudit and a DV qudit by using two microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. This proposal relies on the initial preparation of a superposition of Fock states of one cavity and the initial preparation of a cat state of the other cavity. After the initial state of each cavity is prepared, this proposal requires only two basic operations, i.e., the first operation employs the dispersive coupling of both cavities with the qutrit while the second operation uses the dispersive coupling of only one cavity with the qutrit. The entangled state production is deterministic and the operation time decreases as the dimensional size of each qudit increases. In addition, during the entire operation, the coupler qutrit remains in the ground state and thus decoherence from the qutrit is significantly reduced. As an example, we further discuss the experimental feasibility for generating the hybrid maximally entangled state of a DV qutrit and a CV qutrit based on circuit QED. This proposal is universal and can be extended to accomplish the same task, by using two microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial three-level atom., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures

Hybrid quantum gates have recently drawn considerable attention. They play significant roles in connecting quantum information processors with qubits of different encoding and have important applications in the transmission of quantum states between a quantum processor and a quantum memory. In this work, we propose a single-step implementation of a multi-target-qubit controlled-NOT gate with one superconducting (SC) qubit simultaneously controlling $n$ target cat-state qubits. In this proposal, the gate is implemented with $n$ microwave cavities coupled to a three-level SC qutrit. The two logic states of the control SC qubit are represented by the two lowest levels of the qutrit, while the two logic states of each target cat-state qubit are represented by two quasi-orthogonal cat states of a microwave cavity. This proposal operates essentially through the dispersive coupling of each cavity with the qutrit. The gate realization is quite simple because it requires only a single-step operation. There is no need of applying a classical pulse or performing a measurement. The gate operation time is independent of the number of target qubits, thus it does not increase as the number of target qubits increases. Moreover, because the third higher energy level of the qutrit is not occupied during the gate operation, decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. As an application of this hybrid multi-target-qubit gate, we further discuss the generation of a hybrid Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state of SC qubits and cat-state qubits. As an example, we numerically analyze the experimental feasibility of generating a hybrid GHZ state of one SC qubit and three cat-state qubits within present circuit QED technology., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures

Compared with a qubit, a qudit (i.e., $d$-level or $d$-state quantum system) provides a larger Hilbert space to store and process information. On the other hand, qudit-based hybrid quantum computing usually requires performing hybrid quantum gates with qudits different in their nature or in their encoding format. In this work, we consider the qutrit case, i.e., the case for a qudit with $d$=3. We propose a simple method to realize a hybrid quantum controlled-SUM gate with one superconducting (SC) qutrit and a cat-state qutrit. This gate plus single-qutrit gates form a universal set of ternary logic gates for quantum computing with qutrits. Our proposal is based on circuit QED and operates essentially by employing a SC ququart (a four-level quantum system) dispersively coupled to a microwave cavity. The gate implementation is quite simple because it only requires a single basic operation. Neither classical pulse nor measurement is needed. The auxiliary higher energy level of the SC ququart is virtually excited during the gate operation, thus decoherence from this level is greatly suppressed. As an application of this gate, we discuss the generation of a hybrid maximally-entangled state of one SC qutrit and one cat-state qutrit. We further analyze the experimental feasibility of creating such hybrid entangled state in circuit QED. This proposal is quite general and can be extended to accomplish the same task in a wide range of physical system, such as a four-level natural or artificial atom coupled to an optical or microwave cavity., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

In the past years, many efforts have been made to study various noteworthy phenomena in both parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) and anti-parity-time ($\mathcal{APT}$) symmetric systems. However, entanglement dynamics in $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric systems has not previously been investigated in both theory and experiments. Here, we investigate the entanglement evolution of two qubits in an $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric system. In the $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric unbroken regime, our theoretical simulations demonstrate the periodic oscillations of entanglement when each qubit evolves identically, while the nonperiodic oscillations of entanglement when each qubit evolves differently. In particular, when each qubit evolves near the exceptional point in the $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric unbroken regime, there exist entanglement sudden vanishing and revival. Moreover, our simulations demonstrate rapid decay and delayed death of entanglement provided one qubit evolves in the $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric broken regime. In this work, we also perform an experiment with a linear optical setup. The experimental results agree well with our theoretical simulation results. Our findings reveal novel phenomena of entanglement evolution in the $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric system and opens a new direction for future studies on the dynamics of quantum entanglement in multiqubit $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric systems or other non-Hermitian quantum systems., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures

Quantum walks have wide applications in quantum information, such as universal quantum computation, so it is important to explore properties of quantum walks thoroughly. We propose a novel method to implement discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) using only a single qubit, in which both coin and walker are encoded in the two-dimensional state space of a single qubit, operations are realized using single-qubit gates only, and high-dimensional final states of DTQWs can be obtained naturally. With this "one-qubit" approach, DTQW experiments can be realized much more easily, compared with previous methods, in most quantum systems and all properties based on quantum states of DTQWs (such as quantum correlation and coherence) can be investigated. By this approach, we experimentally implement one-particle and two-particle DTQWs with seven steps using single photons. Furthermore, we systematically investigate quantum correlations and coherence (based on the full state of the coin and walker) of the DTQW systems with different initial states of the coin, which have not been obtained and studied in DTQW experiments. As an application, we also study the assisted distillation of quantum coherence using the full state of the two-particle DTQW from the experiment. The maximal increase in distillable coherence for high-dimensional mixed states is investigated for the first time by obtaining its upper and lower bounds. Our work opens a new door to implement DTQW experiments and to better explore properties of quantum walks., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures

Very recently, dissipative coupling was discovered, which develops and broadens methods for controlling and utilizing light-matter interactions. Here, we propose a scheme to generate the tripartite $W$ state in a dissipatively coupled system, where one qubit and two resonators simultaneously interact with a common reservoir. With appropriate parameters, we find the $W$ state is a dark state of the system. By driving the qubit, the dissipatively coupled system will evolve from the ground state to the tripartite $W$ state. Because the initial state is the ground state of the system and no measurement is required, our scheme is easy to implement in experiments. Moreover, the $W$ state decouples from the common reservoir and thus has a very long lifetime. This scheme is applicable to a wide class of dissipatively coupled systems, and we specifically illustrate how to prepare the $W$ state in a hybrid qubit-photon-magnon system by using this scheme., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We propose an efficient scheme to implement a multiplex-controlled phase gate with multiple photonic qubits simultaneously controlling one target photonic qubit based on circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). For convenience, we denote this multiqubit gate as MCP gate. The gate is realized by using a two-level coupler to couple multiple cavities. The coupler here is a superconducting qubit. This scheme is simple because the gate implementation requires only \textit{one step} of operation. In addition, this scheme is quite general because the two logic states of each photonic qubit can be encoded with a vacuum state and an arbitrary non-vacuum state (e.g., a Fock state, a superposition of Fock states, a cat state, or a coherent state, etc.) which is orthogonal or quasi-orthogonal to the vacuum state. The scheme has some additional advantages: Because only two levels of the coupler are used, i.e., no auxiliary levels are utilized, decoherence from higher energy levels of the coupler is avoided; the gate operation time does not depend on the number of qubits; and the gate is implemented deterministically because no measurement is applied. As an example, we numerically analyze the circuit-QED based experimental feasibility of implementing a three-qubit MCP gate with photonic qubits each encoded via a vacuum state and a cat state. The scheme can be applied to accomplish the same task in a wide range of physical system, which consists of multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a two-level coupler such as a natural or artificial atom., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Frontiers of Physics

Quantum entanglement between an interfering particle and a detector for acquiring the which-path information plays a central role for enforcing Bohr's complementarity principle. However, the quantitative relation between this entanglement and the fringe visibility remains untouched upon for an initial mixed state. Here we find an equality for quantifying this relation. Our equality characterizes how well the interference pattern can be preserved when an interfering particle, initially carrying a definite amount of coherence, is entangled, to a certain degree, with a which-path detector. This equality provides a connection between entanglement and interference in the unified framework of coherence, revealing the quantitative entanglement-interference complementarity. We experimentally demonstrate this relation with a superconducting circuit, where a resonator serves as a which-path detector for an interfering qubit. The measured fringe visibility of the qubit's Ramsey signal and the qubit-resonator entanglement exhibit a complementary relation, in well agreement with the theoretical prediction., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

Non-Hermitian parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) and anti-parity-time ($\mathcal{APT}$)-symmetric systems exhibit novel quantum properties and have attracted increasing interest. Although many counterintuitive phenomena in $\mathcal{PT}$- and $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric systems were previously studied, coherence flow has been rarely investigated. Here, we experimentally demonstrate single-qubit coherence flow in $\mathcal{PT}$- and $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric systems using an optical setup. In the symmetry unbroken regime, we observe different periodic oscillations of coherence. Particularly, we observe two complete coherence backflows in one period in the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric system, while only one backflow in the $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric system. Moreover, in the symmetry broken regime, we observe the phenomenon of stable value of coherence flow. We derive the analytic proofs of these phenomena and show that most experimental data agree with theoretical results within one standard deviation. This work opens avenues for future study on the dynamics of coherence in $\mathcal{PT}$- and $\mathcal{APT}$-symmetric systems., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures

One-time tables are a class of two-party correlations that can help achieve information-theoretically secure two-party (interactive) classical or quantum computation. In this work we propose a bipartite quantum protocol for generating a simple type of one-time tables (the correlation in the Popescu-Rohrlich nonlocal box) with partial security. We then show that by running many instances of the first protocol and performing checks on some of them, asymptotically information-theoretically secure generation of one-time tables can be achieved. The first protocol is adapted from a protocol for semi-honest quantum oblivious transfer, with some changes so that no entangled state needs to be prepared, and the communication involves only one qutrit in each direction. We show that some information tradeoffs in the first protocol are similar to that in the semi-honest oblivious transfer protocol. We also obtain two types of inequalities about guessing probabilities in some protocols for generating one-time tables, from a single type of inequality about guessing probabilities in semi-honest quantum oblivious transfer protocols., Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure. Replaced Prop. 6, and minor revisions in the proof of Theorem 7

We present a way to transfer maximally- or partially-entangled states of n single-photon-state (SPS) qubits onto n coherent-state (CS) qubits, by employing 2n microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. The two logic states of a SPS qubit here are represented by the vacuum state and the single-photon state of a cavity, while the two logic states of a CS qubit are encoded with two coherent states of a cavity. Because of using only one superconducting qutrit as the coupler, the circuit architecture is significantly simplified. The operation time for the state transfer does not increase with the increasing of the number of qubits. When the dissipation of the system is negligible, the quantum state can be transferred in a deterministic way since no measurement is required. Furthermore, the higher-energy intermediate level of the coupler qutrit is not excited during the entire operation and thus decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. As a specific example, we numerically demonstrate that the high-fidelity transfer of a Bell state of two SPS qubits onto two CS qubits is achievable within the present-day circuit QED technology. Finally, it is worthy to note that when the dissipation is negligible, entangled states of n CS qubits can be transferred back onto n SPS qubits by performing reverse operations. This proposal is quite general and can be extended to accomplish the same task, by employing a natural or artificial atom to couple 2n microwave or optical cavities., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Frontiers of Physics

We propose a method for transferring quantum entangled states of two photonic cat-state qubits (cqubits) from two microwave cavities to the other two microwave cavities. This proposal is realized by using four microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. Because of using four cavities with different frequencies, the inter-cavity crosstalk is significantly reduced. Since only one coupler qutrit is used, the circuit resources is minimized. The entanglement transfer is completed with a single-step operation only, thus this proposal is quite simple. The third energy level of the coupler qutrit is not populated during the state transfer, therefore decoherence from the higher energy level is greatly suppressed. Our numerical simulations show that high-fidelity transfer of two-cqubit entangled states from two transmission line resonators to the other two transmission line resonators is feasible with current circuit QED technology. This proposal is universal and can be applied to accomplish the same task in a wide range of physical systems, such as four microwave or optical cavities, which are coupled to a natural or artificial three-level atom., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures

Provided that cavities are initially in a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state, we show that GHZ states of N-group qubits distributed in N cavities can be created via a 3-step operation. The GHZ states of the N-group qubits are generated by using N-group qutrits placed in the N cavities. Here, "qutrit" refers to a three-level quantum system with the two lowest levels representing a qubit while the third level acting as an intermediate state necessary for the GHZ state creation. This proposal does not depend on the architecture of the cavity-based quantum network and the way for coupling the cavities. The operation time is independent of the number of qubits. The GHZ states are prepared deterministically because no measurement on the states of qutrits or cavities is needed. In addition, the third energy level of the qutrits during the entire operation is virtually excited and thus decoherence from higher energy levels is greatly suppressed. This proposal is quite general and can in principle be applied to create GHZ states of many qubits using different types of physical qutrits (e.g., atoms, quantum dots, NV centers, various superconducting qutrits, etc.) distributed in multiple cavities. As a specific example, we further discuss the experimental feasibility of preparing a GHZ state of four-group transmon qubits (each group consisting of three qubits) distributed in four one-dimensional transmission line resonators arranged in an array., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures

We experimentally investigate problems of one-shot coherence distillation [Regula, Fang, Wang, and Adesso, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 010401 (2018)]. Based on a set of optical devices, we design a type of strictly incoherent operation (SIO), which is applicable in high-dimensional cases and can be applied to accomplish the transformations from higher-dimensional states to lower-dimensional states. Furthermore, a relatively complete process of the one-shot coherence distillation is experimentally demonstrated for three- and four-dimensional input states. Experimental data reveal an interesting result: higher coherence distillation rates (but defective) can be reached by tolerating a larger error. Our finding paves a fresh way in the experimental investigation of quantum coherence conversions through various incoherent operations., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

We propose a single-step implementation of a muti-target-qubit controlled phase gate with one cat-state qubit (\textit{cqubit}) simultaneously controlling $n-1$ target \textit{cqubits}. The two logic states of a \textit{cqubit} are represented by two orthogonal cat states of a single cavity mode. In this proposal, the gate is implemented with $n$ microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting transmon qutrit. Because the qutrit remains in the ground state during the gate operation, decoherence caused due to the qutrit's energy relaxation and dephasing is greatly suppressed. The gate implementation is quite simple because only a single-step operation is needed and neither classical pulse nor measurement is required. Numerical simulations demonstrate that high-fidelity realization of a controlled phase gate with one cqubit simultaneously controlling two target cqubits is feasible with present circuit QED technology. This proposal can be extended to a wide range of physical systems to realize the proposed gate, such as multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial three-level atom., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1910.08226, arXiv:1806.04559, arXiv:1706.07083. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1910.08542

We present a novel method to realize a multi-target-qubit controlled phase gate with one microwave photonic qubit simultaneously controlling $n-1$ target microwave photonic qubits. This gate is implemented with $n$ microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. Each cavity hosts a microwave photonic qubit, whose two logic states are represented by the vacuum state and the single photon state of a single cavity mode, respectively. During the gate operation, the qutrit remains in the ground state and thus decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. This proposal requires only a single-step operation and thus the gate implementation is quite simple. The gate operation time is independent of the number of the qubits. In addition, this proposal does not need applying classical pulse or any measurement. Numerical simulations demonstrate that high-fidelity realization of a controlled phase gate with one microwave photonic qubit simultaneously controlling two target microwave photonic qubits is feasible with current circuit QED technology. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to implement the proposed gate in a wide range of physical systems, such as multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial $\Lambda$-type three-level atom., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.07083, arXiv:1910.08240

Hybrid qubits have recently drawn intensive attention in quantum computing. We here propose a method to implement a universal controlled-phase gate of two hybrid qubits via two three-dimensional (3D) microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. For the gate considered here, the control qubit is a microwave photonic qubit (particle-like qubit), whose two logic states are encoded by the vacuum state and the single-photon state of a cavity, while the target qubit is a cat-state qubit (wave-like qubit), whose two logic states are encoded by the two orthogonal cat states of the other cavity. During the gate operation, the qutrit remains in the ground state; therefore decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. The gate realization is quite simple, because only a single basic operation is employed and neither classical pulse nor measurement is used. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that with current circuit QED technology, this gate can be realized with a high fidelity. The generality of this proposal allows to implement the proposed gate in a wide range of physical systems, such as two 1D or 3D microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial three-level atom. Finally, this proposal can be applied to create a novel entangled state between a particle-like photonic qubit and a wave-like cat-state qubit., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

We present an efficient method to generate a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state of three cat-state qubits (cqubits) via circuit QED. The GHZ state is prepared with three microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting transmon qutrit. Because the qutrit remains in the ground state during the operation, decoherence caused by the energy relaxation and dephasing of the qutrit is greatly suppressed. The GHZ state is created deterministically because no measurement is involved. Numerical simulations show that high-fidelity generation of a three-cqubit GHZ state is feasible with present circuit QED technology. This proposal can be easily extended to create a $N$-cqubit GHZ state ($N\geq 3$), with $N$ microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial three-level atom., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

Quantum homomorphic encryption (QHE) is an encryption method that allows quantum computation to be performed on one party's private data with the program provided by another party, without revealing much information about the data nor the program to the opposite party. We propose a framework for (interactive) QHE based on the universal circuit approach. It contains a subprocedure of calculating a classical linear polynomial, which can be implemented with quantum or classical methods; apart from the subprocedure, the framework has low requirement on the quantum capabilities of the party who provides the circuit. We illustrate the subprocedure using a quite simple classical protocol with some privacy tradeoff. For a special case of such protocol, we obtain a scheme similar to blind quantum computation but with the output on a different party. Another way of implementing the subprocedure is to use a recently studied quantum check-based protocol, which has low requirement on the quantum capabilities of both parties. The subprocedure could also be implemented with a classical additive homomorphic encryption scheme. We demonstrate some key steps of the outer part of the framework in a quantum optics experiment., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Comments are welcome

Implementation of discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) with superconducting qubits is difficult since on-chip superconducting qubits cannot hop between lattice sites. We propose an efficient protocol for the implementation of DTQW in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED), in which only $N+1$ qutrits and $N$ assistant cavities are needed for an $N$-step DTQW. The operation of each DTQW step is very quick because only resonant processes are adopted. The numerical simulations show that high-similarity DTQW with the number of step up to $20$ is feasible with present-day circuit QED technique. This protocol can help to study properties and applications of large-step DTQW in experiments, which is important for the development of quantum computation and quantum simulation in circuit QED., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We present a way to create entangled states of two superconducting transmon qutrits based on circuit QED. Here, a qutrit refers to a three-level quantum system. Since only resonant interaction is employed, the entanglement creation can be completed within a short time. The degree of entanglement for the prepared entangled state can be controlled by varying the weight factors of the initial state of one qutrit, which allows the prepared entangled state to change from a partially entangled state to a maximally entangled state. Because a single cavity is used, only resonant interaction is employed, and none of identical qutrit-cavity coupling constant, measurement, and auxiliary qutrit is needed, this proposal is easy to implement in experiments. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to prepare a two-qutrit partially or maximally entangled state with two natural or artificial atoms of a ladder-type level structure, coupled to an optical or microwave cavity., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1806.04559

We present a way to realize a multiplex-controlled phase gate of n-1 control qubits simultaneously controlling one target qubit, with n qubits distributed in n different cavities. This multiqubit gate is implemented by using n qutrits (three-level natural or artificial atoms) placed in n different cavities, which are coupled to an auxiliary qutrit. Here, the two logic states of a qubit are represented by the two lowest levels of a qutrit placed in a cavity. We show that this n-qubit controlled phase gate can be realized using only 2n+2 basic operations, i.e., the number of required basic operations only increases linearly with the number n of qubits. Since each basic operation employs the qutrit-cavity or qutrit-pulse resonant interaction, the gate can be fast implemented when the number of qubits is not large. Numerical simulations show that a three-qubit controlled phase gate, which is executed on three qubits distributed in three different cavities, can be high-fidelity implemented by using a circuit QED system. This proposal is quite general and can be applied to a wide range of physical systems, with atoms, NV centers, quantum dots, or various superconducting qutrits distributed in different cavities. Finally, this method can be applied to implement a multiqubit controlled phase gate with atoms using a cavity. A detailed discussion on implementing a three-qubit controlled phase gate with atoms and one cavity is presented., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. A

The preparation of initial superposition states of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) are necessary for the study and applications of DTQWs. In linear optics, it is easy to prepare initial superposition states of the coin, which are always encoded by polarization states; while the preparation of superposition states of the walker is challenging. Based on a novel encoding method, we here propose a DTQW protocol in linear optics which enables the preparation of arbitrary initial superposition states of the walker and the coin. With this protocol, we report an experimental demonstration of DTQW with the walker initially in superposition states, by using only passive linear-optical elements. The effects of the walker's different initial superposition states on the spread speed of the DTQW and on the entanglement between the coin and the walker are also experimentally investigated, which have not been reported before. When the walker starts with superposition states, we show that the properties of DTQW are very different from those of DTQW starting with a single position. Our findings reveal different properties of DTQW and paves an avenue to study DTQW with arbitrary initial states. Moreover, the encoding method enables one to encode an arbitrary high-dimensional quantum state using a single physical qubit and may be adopted to implement other quantum information tasks., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted in npj Quantum Information

Cat-state qubits (qubits encoded with cat states) have recently drawn intensive attention due to their enhanced life times with quantum error correction. We here propose a method to implement a universal controlled-phase gate of two cat-state qubits, via two microwave resonators coupled to a superconducting transmon qutrit. During the gate operation, the qutrit remains in the ground state; thus decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. This proposal requires only two basic operations and neither classical pulse nor measurement is needed; therefore the gate realization is simple. Numerical simulations show that high-fidelity implementation of this gate is feasible with current circuit QED technology. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to implement the proposed gate with two microwave resonators or two optical cavities coupled to a single three-level natural or artificial atom., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Characterizing the dynamics of open systems usually starts with a perturbative theory and involves various approximations, such as the Born, Markov and rotating-wave approximation (RWA). However, the approximation approaches could introduce more or less incompleteness in describing the bath behaviors. Here, we consider a quantum channel, which is modeled by a qubit (a two-level system) interacting with a bosonic bath. Unlike the traditional works, we experimentally simulate the system-bath interaction without applying the Born, Markov, and rotating-wave approximations. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental simulation of the quantum channels without any approximations mentioned above, by using linear optical devices. The results are quite useful and interesting, which not only reveal the effect of the counter-rotating terms but also present a more accurate picture of the quantum channel dynamics. Besides, we experimentally investigate the dynamics of the quantum temporal steering (TS), i.e., a temporal analogue of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering. The experimental and theoretical results are in good agreement and show that the counter-rotating terms significantly influence the TS dynamics. When one monogamously associates TS with the security of the cryptographic protocols (e.g., BB84), our experimental tests reveal that the channels based on RWA will provide exaggerated security durations, while they are actually insecure in non-RWA channel cases. This implies that doing RWA may result in a risk for the security of quantum key distribution. Our findings are expected to have useful applications in secure quantum communications and future interesting TS studies., Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures

To generate a NOON state with a large photon number $N$, the number of operational steps could be large and the fidelity will decrease rapidly with $N$. Here we propose a method to generate a new type of quantum entangled states, $(|NN00\rangle+|00NN\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$ called "double NOON" states, with a setup of two superconducting flux qutrits and five circuit cavities. This scheme operates essentially by employing a two-photon process, i.e., two photons are simultaneously and separately emitted into two cavities when each coupler qutrit is initially in a higher-energy excited state. As a consequence, the "double" NOON state creation needs only $N$+2 operational steps. One application of double NOON states is to get a phase error of $1/(2N)$ in phase measurement. In comparison, to achieve the same error, a normal NOON state of the form $(|2N,0\rangle+|0,2N\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$ is needed, which requires at least $2N$ operational steps to prepare by using the existing schemes. Our numerical simulation demonstrates that high-fidelity generation of the double NOON states with $N\leq 10$ even for the imperfect devices is feasible with the present circuit QED technique., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. A

We propose a way for transferring Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states from $n$ qubits in one cavity onto another $n$ qubits in the other cavity. It is shown that $n$-qubit GHZ states $\alpha \left\vert 00...0\right\rangle +\beta \left\vert 11...1\right\rangle $ with arbitrary degree of entanglement can be transferred deterministically. Both of the GHZ state transfer and the operation time are not dependent on the number of qubits, and there is no need of measurement. This proposal is quite general and can be applied to accomplish the same task for a wide range of physical qubits. Furthermore, note that the $n$-qubit GHZ state $\alpha \left\vert 00...0\right\rangle +\beta \left\vert 11...1\right\rangle $ is a quantum-secret-sharing code for encoding a single-qubit arbitrary pure state $\alpha \left\vert 0\right\rangle +\beta \left\vert 1\right\rangle $. Thus, this work also provides a way to transfer quantum secret sharing from $n$ qubits in one cavity to another $n$ qubits in the other cavity., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

Different from the previous works on generating entangled states, this work is focused on how to transfer the prepared entangled states onto memory qubits for protecting them against decoherence. We here consider a physical system consisting of $n$ operation qubits and $2n$ memory qubits placed in a cavity or coupled to a resonator. A method is presented for transferring $n$-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states from the operation qubits (i.e., information processing cells) onto the memory qubits (i.e., information memory elements with long decoherence time). The transferred GHZ states are encoded in a decoherence-free subspace against collective dephasing, and thus can be immune from decoherence induced by a dephasing environment. In addition, the state transfer procedure has nothing to do with the number of qubits, the operation time does not increase with the number of qubits, and no measurement is needed for the state transfer. This proposal can be applied to a wide range of hybrid qubits such as natural atoms and artificial atoms (e.g., various solid-state qubits)., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Quantum Inf Process. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1702.00895

The realization of cross-Kerr nonlinearity is an important task for many applications in quantum information processing. In this work, we propose a method for realizing cross-Kerr nonlinearity interaction between two superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators coupled by a three-level superconducting flux qutrit (coupler). By employing the qutrit-resonator dispersive interaction, we derive an effective Hamiltonian involving two-photon number operators and a coupler operator. This Hamiltonian can be used to describe a cross-Kerr nonlinearity interaction between two resonators when the coupler is in the ground state. Because the coupler is unexcited during the entire process, the effect of coupler decoherence can be greatly minimized. More importantly, compared with the previous proposals, our proposal does not require classical pulses. Furthermore, due to use of only a three-level qutrit, the experimental setup is much simplified when compared with previous proposals requiring a four-level artificial atomic systems. Based on our Hamiltonian, we implement a two-resonator qubits controlled-phase gate and generate a two-resonator entangled coherent state. Numerical simulation shows that the high-fidelity implementation of the phase gate and creation of the entangled coherent state are feasible with current circuit QED technology., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

A qudit ($d$-level quantum systems) has a large Hilbert space and thus can be used to achieve many quantum information and communication tasks. Here, we propose a method to transfer arbitrary $d$-dimensional quantum states (known or unknown) between two superconducting qudits coupled to a single cavity. The state transfer can be performed fast because of employing resonant interactions only. In addition, quantum states can be deterministically transferred without measurement. Numerical simulations show that high-fidelity transfer of quantum states between two superconducting transmon qudits ($d\leq5$) is feasible with current circuit QED technology. This proposal is quite general and can be applied to accomplish the same task with various superconducting qudits, quantum dots, or natural atoms coupled to a cavity or resonator., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Compared with a qubit, a qutrit (i.e., three-level quantum system) has a larger Hilbert space and thus can be used to encode more information in quantum information processing and communication. Here, we propose a scheme to transfer an arbitrary quantum state between two flux qutrits coupled to two resonators. This scheme is simple because it only requires two basic operations. The state-transfer operation can be performed fast because of using resonant interactions only. Numerical simulations show that high-fidelity transfer of quantum states between the two qutrits is feasible with current circuit-QED technology. This scheme is quite general and can be applied to accomplish the same task for other solid-state qutrits coupled to resonators., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We propose a method to entangle two distant vibrating microsize mirrors (i.e., mechanical oscillators) in a cavity optomechanical system. In this scheme, we discuss both the resonant and large-detuning conditions, and show that the entanglement of two mechanical oscillators can be achieved with the assistance of a two-level atom and cavity-radiation pressure. In the resonant case, the operation time is relatively short, which is desirable to minimize the effects of decoherence. While in the large-detuning case, the cavity is only virtually excited during the interaction. Therefore, the decay of the cavity is effectively suppressed, which makes the efficient decoherence time of the cavity to be greatly prolonged. Thus, we observe that this virtual-photon process of microscopic objects may induce the entanglement of macroscopic objects. Moreover, in both cases, the generation of entanglement is deterministic and no measurements on the atom and the cavity are required. These are experimentally important. Finally, the decoherence effect and the experimental feasibility of the proposal are briefly discussed., Comment: Some authors have disputed with the paper's signature

We propose a method to achieve strong coupling between a spin ensemble and a large Josephson junctions (LJJ). Then, the strong coupling between two spin ensembles can be induced by a LJJ. A non-adiabatic holonomic single-qubit quantum gates is realized. Moreover, with the dispersive interaction between the spin ensembles and the LJJ, the high-fidelity two-qubit phase gate can be implemented with two spin ensembles within an operation time 0.41 ns and $\pi$ phase-swap gate can be realized within an operation time 103.11 ns with a high fidelity greater than 99%.