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Strong local passivity is a property of multipartite quantum systems from which it is impossible to extract energy locally. Surprisingly, if the strong local passive state displays entanglement, it could be possible to locally activate energy density by adding classical communication between different partitions of the system, through so-called "quantum energy teleportation" protocols. Here, we report both the first experimental observation of local activation of energy density on an entangled state and the first realization of a quantum energy teleportation protocol using nuclear magnetic resonance on a bipartite quantum system., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

State preparation and measurement errors are commonly regarded as indistinguishable. The problem of distinguishing state preparation (SPAM) errors from measurement errors is important to the field of characterizing quantum processors. In this work, we propose a method to separately characterize SPAM errors using a novel type of algorithmic cooling protocol called measurement-based algorithmic cooling (MBAC). MBAC assumes the ability to perform (potentially imperfect) projective measurements on individual qubits, which is available on many modern quantum processors. We demonstrate that MBAC can significantly reduce state preparation error under realistic assumptions, with a small overhead that can be upper bounded by measurable quantities. Thus, MBAC can be a valuable tool not only for benchmarking near-term quantum processors, but also for improving the performance of quantum processors in an algorithmic manner., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

Correctly characterizing state preparation and measurement (SPAM) processes is a necessary step towards building reliable quantum processing units (QPUs). In this work, we discuss the subtleties behind separately measuring SPAM errors. We propose a protocol that can separately estimate SPAM errors, in the case where quantum gates are ideal. In the case where the quantum gates are imperfect, we derive bounds on the estimated SPAM error rates, based on gate error measures which can be estimated independently of SPAM processes. Our method shows that the gauge ambiguity in characterizing SPAM operations can be resolved, by assuming that there exists one qubit whose initial state is uncorrelated with other qubits in a QPU. We test the protocol on a publicly available five-qubit QPU and demonstrate its validity by comparing our results with simulations., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted journal version. Expanded with clearer formatting, more detailed calculations in the appendix, new data with a different presentation, and computer simulations

Quantum simulation has shown its irreplaceable role in many fields, where it is difficult for classical computers to do much. On a four-qubit Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) quantum simulator, we experimentally simulate the spin-network states by simulating quantum spacetime tetrahedra. The fidelities of our experimentally prepared quantum tetrahedra are all above 95%. We then use the quantum tetradedra prepared by the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to simulate a spinfoam vertex amplitude, which displays the local dynamics of quantum spacetime. By measuring the geometric properties on the corresponding quantum tetrahedra and simulating their interaction, our experiment serves as a basic module that represents the Feynman diagram vertex in the spinfoam formulation of Loop Quantum Gravity(LQG). This is an initial attempt to study LQG by quantum information processing. Quantum simulation is a crucial tool in areas where classical computers are inefficient. In this work, the authors use a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance quantum simulator to simulate the local dynamics of quantum spacetime as an attempt to exploit quantum information to study loop quantum gravity.

The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model incorporates rich physics, ranging from exotic non-Fermi liquid states without quasiparticle excitations, to holographic duality and quantum chaos. However, its experimental realization remains a daunting challenge due to various unnatural ingredients of the SYK Hamiltonian such as its strong randomness and fully nonlocal fermion interaction. At present, constructing such a nonlocal Hamiltonian and exploring its dynamics is best through digital quantum simulation, where state-of-the-art techniques can already handle a moderate number of qubits. Here we demonstrate a first step towards simulation of the SYK model on a nuclear-spin-chain simulator. We observed the fermion paring instability of the non-Fermi liquid state and the chaotic-nonchaotic transition at simulated temperatures, as was predicted by previous theories. As the realization of the SYK model in practice, our experiment opens a new avenue towards investigating the key features of non-Fermi liquid states, as well as the quantum chaotic systems and the AdS/CFT duality., Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures. Comments are welcome

Macroscopic realism (MR) is the notion that a time-evolving system possesses definite properties, irrespective of past or future measurements. Quantum-mechanical theories can, however, produce violations of MR. Most research to date has focused on a single set of conditions for MR, the Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGIs), and on a single data set, the standard data set, which consists of single-time averages and second-order correlators of a dichotomic variable $Q$ for three times. However, if such conditions are all satisfied, then where is the quantum behavior? In this paper we provide an answer to this question by considering expanded data sets obtained from finer-grained measurements and MR conditions on those sets. We consider three different situations in which there are violations of MR that go undetected by the standard LGIs. First, we explore higher-order LGIs on a data set involving third- and fourth-order correlators, using spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ and spin-1 systems. Second, we explore the pentagon inequalities and a data set consisting of all possible averages and second-order correlators for measurements of $Q$ at five times. Third, we explore the LGIs for a trichotomic variable and measurements made with a trichotomic operator to again identify violations for a spin-1 system beyond those seen with a single dichotomic variable. We also explore the regimes in which combinations of two and three-time LGIs can be satisfied and violated in a spin-1 system, extending recent work. We discuss the possible experimental implementation of all the above results.

Quantum metrology plays a fundamental role in many scientific areas. However, the complexity of engineering entangled probes and the external noise raise technological barriers for realizing the expected precision of the to-be-estimated parameter with given resources. Here, we address this problem by introducing adjustable controls into the encoding process and then utilizing a hybrid quantum-classical approach to automatically optimize the controls online. Our scheme does not require any complex or intractable off-line design, and it can inherently correct certain unitary errors during the learning procedure. We also report the first experimental demonstration of this promising scheme for the task of finding optimal probes for frequency estimation on a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) processor. The proposed scheme paves the way to experimentally auto-search optimal protocol for improving the metrology precision., 10 pages, 3 figures

Most quantum processors requires pulse sequences for controlling quantum states. Here, we present an alternative algorithm for computing an optimal pulse sequence in order to perform a specific task, being an implementation of a quantum gate or a quantum state preparation. In our method, we reduced drastically the number of parameters to be fitted, by using a limited number of functions as the modulations for the amplitude and phase of the radio-frequency pulses, and employed approximations to make the algorithm fast and scalable. We demonstrate the success of the proposed algorithm, by performing several real experiments for 4, 7 and 12 quantum bits systems using NMR. In addition, we have also shown the efficiency of the algorithm, finding pulses for controlling with good fidelity the quantum states of spins in a fictional square bi-dimensional lattices containing 16, 36 and 100 qubits., Comment: 12 pages and 9 figures

Macroscopic realism (MR) is the view that a system may possess definite properties at any time independent of past or future measurements, and may be tested experimentally using the Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGIs). In this work we advance the study of LGIs in two ways using experiments carried out on a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. Firstly, we addresses the fact that the LGIs are only necessary conditions for MR but not sufficient ones. We implement a recently-proposed test of necessary and sufficient conditions for MR which consists of a combination of the original four three-time LGIs augmented with a set of twelve two-time LGIs. We explore different regimes in which the two- and three-time LGIs may each be satisfied or violated. Secondly, we implement a recent proposal for a measurement protocol which determines the temporal correlation functions in an approximately non-invasive manner. It employs a measurement of the velocity of a dichotomic variable $Q$, continuous in time, from which a possible sign change of $Q$ may be determined in a single measurement of an ancilla coupled to the velocity. This protocol involves a significantly different set of assumptions to the traditional ideal negative measurement protocol and a comparison with the latter is carried out.

Quantum pseudorandomness, also known as unitary designs, comprise a powerful resource for quantum computation and quantum engineering. While it is known in theory that pseudorandom unitary operators can be constructed efficiently, realizing these objects in realistic physical systems can be a challenging task. In this work, we study quantum pseudorandomness generation on a 12-spin nuclear magnetic resonance system. The experimental process is based on the recently proposed design Hamiltonian approach, which has the merit of being significantly more efficient than previous protocols. By applying random refocusing sequences to the experimental system we create a design Hamiltonian the dynamics of which quickly forms unitary designs. We then use multiple-quantum techniques to measure spreading of quantum coherences over system's degrees of freedom, and so to probe the growth of quantum pseudorandomness. The measured multiple-quantum coherence spectra indicate that substantial quantum pseudorandomness have been achieved., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

We study quasi-exact quantum error correcting codes and quantum computation with them. A quasi-exact code is an approximate code such that it contains a finite number of scaling parameters, the tuning of which can flow it to corresponding exact codes, serving as its fixed points. The computation with a quasi-exact code cannot realize any logical gate to arbitrary accuracy. To overcome this, the notion of quasi-exact universality is proposed, which makes quasi-exact quantum computation a feasible model especially for executing moderate-size algorithms. We find that the incompatibility between universality and transversality of the set of logical gates does not persist in the quasi-exact scenario. A class of covariant quasi-exact codes is defined which proves to support transversal and quasi-exact universal set of logical gates for $SU(d)$. This work opens the possibility of quantum computation with quasi-exact universality, transversality, and fault tolerance.

Quantum optimal control can play a crucial role in realizing a set of universal quantum logic gates with error rates below the threshold required for fault tolerance. Open-loop quantum optimal control relies on accurate modeling of the quantum system under control and does not scale efficiently with system size. These problems can be avoided in closed-loop quantum optimal control, which utilizes feedback from the system to improve control fidelity. In this paper, two gradient-based closed-loop quantum optimal control algorithms, the hybrid quantum-classical approach (HQCA) described by Li et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 150503 (2017)] and the finite-difference (FD) method, are experimentally investigated and compared to the open-loop quantum optimal control utilizing the gradient ascent method. We employ a solid-state ensemble of coupled electron-nuclear spins serving as a two-qubit system. Specific single-qubit and two-qubit state preparation gates are optimized using the closed-loop and open-loop methods. The experimental results demonstrate the implemented closed-loop quantum control outperforms the open-loop control in our system. Furthermore, simulations reveal that HQCA is more robust than the FD method to gradient noise which originates from measurement noise in this experimental setting. On the other hand, the FD method is more robust to control field distortions coming from nonideal hardware.

We present a scheme to describe the dynamics of accelerating discrete-time quantum walk for one- and two-particle in position space. We show the effect of acceleration in enhancing the entanglement between the particle and position space in one-particle quantum walk and in generation of entanglement between the two unentangled particle in two-particle quantum walk. By introducing the disorder in the form of phase operator we study the transition from localization to delocalization as a function of acceleration. These inter-winding connection between acceleration, entanglement generation and localization along with well established connection of quantum walks with Dirac equation can be used to probe further in the direction of understanding the connection between acceleration, mass and entanglement in relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Expansion of operational tools for quantum simulations and for modelling quantum dynamics of accelerated particle using quantum walks is an other direction where these results can play an important role., Comment: 16 Pages, 22 Figures. Published version

We discuss the effects of a gauge freedom in representing quantum information processing devices, and its implications for characterizing these devices. We demonstrate with experimentally relevant examples that there exists equally valid descriptions of the same experiment which distribute errors differently among objects in a gate-set, leading to different error rates. Consequently, it can be misleading to attach a concrete operational meaning to figures of merit for individual gate-set elements. We propose an alternative operational figure of merit for a gate-set, the mean variation error, and a protocol for measuring this figure., Comment: Fixed some typos, mostly in the example of section 1 and in appendix A

Accurate and efficient control of quantum systems is one of the central challenges for quantum information processing. Current state-of-the-art experiments rarely go beyond 10 qubits and in most cases demonstrate only limited control. Here we demonstrate control of a 12-qubit system, and show that the system can be employed as a quantum processor to optimize its own control sequence by using measurement-based feedback control (MQFC). The final product is a control sequence for a complex 12-qubit task: preparation of a 12-coherent state. The control sequence is about 10% more accurate than the one generated by the standard (classical) technique, showing that MQFC can correct for unknown imperfections. Apart from demonstrating a high level of control over a relatively large system, our results show that even at the 12-qubit level, a quantum processor can be a useful lab instrument. As an extension of our work, we propose a method for combining the MQFC technique with a twirling protocol, to optimize the control sequence that produces a desired Clifford gate., The published version in npj Quantum Information

We propose a method for increasing purity of interacting quantum systems that takes advantage of correlations present due to the internal interaction. In particular we show that by using the system's quantum correlations one can achieve cooling beyond established limits of previous conventional algorithmic cooling proposals which assume no interaction., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. RevTeX 4.1

Quantum simulation promises to have wide applications in many fields where problems are hard to model with classical computers. Various quantum devices of different platforms have been built to tackle the problems in, say, quantum chemistry, condensed matter physics, and high-energy physics. Here, we report an experiment towards the simulation of quantum gravity by simulating the holographic entanglement entropy. On a six-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator, we demonstrate a key result of Anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory(\adscft) correspondence---the Ryu-Takayanagi formula is demonstrated by measuring the relevant entanglement entropies on the perfect tensor state. The fidelity of our experimentally prepared the six-qubit state is 85.0\% via full state tomography and reaches 93.7\% if the signal-decay due to decoherence is taken into account. Our experiment serves as the basic module of simulating more complex tensor network states that exploring \adscft correspondence. As the initial experimental attempt to study \adscft via quantum information processing, our work opens up new avenues exploring quantum gravity phenomena on quantum simulators., To appear in NPJ quantum information. All comments are welcome!

Quantum error correction is instrumental in protecting quantum systems from noise in quantum computing and communication settings. Pauli channels can be efficiently simulated and threshold values for Pauli error rates under a variety of error-correcting codes have been obtained. However, realistic quantum systems can undergo noise processes that differ significantly from Pauli noise. In this paper, we present an efficient hard decoding algorithm for optimizing thresholds and lowering failure rates of an error-correcting code under general completely positive and trace-preserving (i.e., Markovian) noise. We use our hard decoding algorithm to study the performance of several error-correcting codes under various non-Pauli noise models by computing threshold values and failure rates for these codes. We compare the performance of our hard decoding algorithm to decoders optimized for depolarizing noise and show improvements in thresholds and reductions in failure rates by several orders of magnitude. Our hard decoding algorithm can also be adapted to take advantage of a code's non-Pauli transversal gates to further suppress noise. For example, we show that using the transversal gates of the 5-qubit code allows arbitrary rotations around certain axes to be perfectly corrected. Furthermore, we show that Pauli twirling can increase or decrease the threshold depending upon the code properties. Lastly, we show that even if the physical noise model differs slightly from the hypothesized noise model used to determine an optimized decoder, failure rates can still be reduced by applying our hard decoding algorithm., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. v2 updated following journal specifications. Comments welcome!

An algorithm that initializes a quantum register to a state with a specified energy range is given, corresponding to a quantum implementation of the celebrated Feit-Fleck method. This is performed by introducing a nondeterministic quantum implementation of a standard spectral filtering procedure combined with an apodization technique, allowing for accurate state initialization. It is shown that the implementation requires only two ancilla qubits. A lower bound for the total probability of success of this algorithm is derived, showing that this scheme can be realized using a finite, relatively low number of trials. Assuming the time evolution can be performed efficiently and using a trial state polynomially close to the desired states, it is demonstrated that the number of operations required scales polynomially with the number of qubits. Tradeoffs between accuracy and performance are demonstrated in a simple example: the harmonic oscillator. This algorithm would be useful for the initialization phase of the simulation of quantum systems on digital quantum computers., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, revised version

We analyze the resource overhead of recently proposed methods for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation using concatenated codes. Namely, we examine the concatenation of the 7-qubit Steane code with the 15-qubit Reed-Muller code, which allows for the construction of the 49 and 105-qubit codes that do not require the need for magic state distillation for universality. We compute a lower bound for the adversarial noise threshold of the 105-qubit code and find it to be $8.33\times 10^{-6}.$ We obtain a depolarizing noise threshold for the 49-qubit code of $9.69\times 10^{-4}$ which is competitive with the 105-qubit threshold result of $1.28\times 10^{-3}$. We then provide lower bounds on the resource requirements of the 49 and 105-qubit codes and compare them with the surface code implementation of a logical $T$ gate using magic state distillation. For the sampled input error rates and noise model, we find that the surface code achieves a smaller overhead compared to our concatenated schemes., 25 pages, 17 figures; in v2, some content has been moved to an appendix, a few tables have been restructured and the the title has been updated to conform to journal specifications. v3 fixes minor typos in Figs. 1 & 6

We study the dynamics of discrete-time quantum walk using quantum coin operations, $\hat{C}(\theta_1)$ and $\hat{C}(\theta_2)$ in time-dependent periodic sequence. For the two-period quantum walk with the parameters $\theta_1$ and $\theta_2$ in the coin operations we show that the standard deviation [$\sigma_{\theta_1, \theta_2} (t)$] is the same as the minimum of standard deviation obtained from one of the one-period quantum walks with coin operations $\theta_1$ or $\theta_2$, $\sigma_{\theta_1, \theta_2}(t) = \min \{\sigma_{\theta_1}(t), \sigma_{\theta_2}(t) \}$. Our numerical result is analytically corroborated using the dispersion relation obtained from the continuum limit of the dynamics. Using the dispersion relation for one- and two-period quantum walks, we present the bounds on the dynamics of three- and higher period quantum walks. We also show that the bounds for the two-period quantum walk will hold good for the split-step quantum walk which is also defined using two coin operators using $\theta_1$ and $\theta_2$. Unlike the previous known connection of discrete-time quantum walks with the massless Dirac equation where coin parameter $\theta=0$, here we show the recovery of the massless Dirac equation with non-zero $\theta$ parameters contributing to the intriguing interference in the dynamics in a totally non-relativistic situation. We also present the effect of periodic sequence on the entanglement between coin and position space., Comment: 10 Pages, 9 figures, Published version

Quantum correlations are critical to our understanding of nature, with far-reaching technological and fundamental impact. These often manifest as violations of Bell's inequalities, bounds derived from the assumptions of locality and realism, concepts integral to classical physics. Many tests of Bell's inequalities have studied pairs of correlated particles; however, the immense interest in multi-particle quantum correlations is driving the experimental frontier to test systems beyond just pairs. All experimental violations of Bell's inequalities to date require supplementary assumptions, opening the results to one or more loopholes, the closing of which is one of the most important challenges in quantum science. Individual loopholes have been closed in experiments with pairs of particles and a very recent result closed the detection loophole in a six ion experiment. No experiment thus far has closed the locality loopholes with three or more particles. Here, we distribute three-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entangled states using optical fibre and free-space links to independent measurement stations. The measured correlations constitute a test of Mermin's inequality while closing both the locality and related freedom-of-choice loopholes due to our experimental configuration and timing. We measured a Mermin parameter of 2.77 +/- 0.08, violating the inequality bound of 2 by over 9 standard deviations, with minimum tolerances for the locality and freedom-of-choice loopholes of 264 +/- 28 ns and 304 +/- 25 ns, respectively. These results represent a significant advance towards definitive tests of the foundations of quantum mechanics and practical multi-party quantum communications protocols., 13 pages, 8 figures

A quantum algorithm that solves the time-dependent Dirac equation on a digital quantum computer is developed and analyzed. The time evolution is performed by an operator splitting decomposition technique that allows for a mapping of the Dirac operator to a quantum walk supplemented by unitary rotation steps in spinor space. Every step of the splitting method is decomposed into sets of quantum gates. It is demonstrated that the algorithm has an exponential speedup over the implementation of the same numerical scheme on a classical computer, as long as certain conditions are satisfied. Finally, an explicit decomposition of this algorithm into elementary gates from a universal set is carried out to determine the resource requirements. It is shown that a proof-of-principle calculation may be possible with actual quantum technologies., 18 pages, 11 figures

Topological orders can be used as media for topological quantum computing --- a promising quantum computation model due to its invulnerability against local errors. Conversely, a quantum simulator, often regarded as a quantum computing device for special purposes, also offers a way of characterizing topological orders. Here, we show how to identify distinct topological orders via measuring their modular $S$ and $T$ matrices. In particular, we employ a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator to study the properties of three topologically ordered matter phases described by the string-net model with two string types, including the $\Z_2$ toric code, doubled semion, and doubled Fibonacci. The third one, non-Abelian Fibonacci order is notably expected to be the simplest candidate for universal topological quantum computing. Our experiment serves as the basic module, built on which one can simulate braiding of non-Abelian anyons and ultimately topological quantum computation via the braiding, and thus provides a new approach of investigating topological orders using quantum computers., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

Superposition, arguably the most fundamental property of quantum mechanics, lies at the heart of quantum information science. However, how to create the superposition of any two unknown pure states remains as a daunting challenge. Recently, it is proved that such a quantum protocol does not exist if the two input states are completely unknown, whereas a probabilistic protocol is still available with some prior knowledge about the input states [M. Oszmaniec \emph{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 110403 (2016)]. The knowledge is that both of the two input states have nonzero overlaps with some given referential state. In this work, we experimentally realize the probabilistic protocol of superposing two pure states in a three-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance system. We demonstrate the feasibility of the protocol by preparing a families of input states, and the average fidelity between the prepared state and expected superposition state is over 99%. Moreover, we experimentally illustrate the limitation of the protocol that it is likely to fail or yields very low fidelity, if the nonzero overlaps are approaching zero. Our experimental implementation can be extended to more complex situations and other quantum systems., 6 pages, 7 figures

Quantum state tomography via local measurements is an efficient tool for characterizing quantum states. However it requires that the original global state be uniquely determined (UD) by its local reduced density matrices (RDMs). In this work we demonstrate for the first time a class of states that are UD by their RDMs under the assumption that the global state is pure, but fail to be UD in the absence of that assumption. This discovery allows us to classify quantum states according to their UD properties, with the requirement that each class be treated distinctly in the practice of simplifying quantum state tomography. Additionally we experimentally test the feasibility and stability of performing quantum state tomography via the measurement of local RDMs for each class. These theoretical and experimental results advance the project of performing efficient and accurate quantum state tomography in practice., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. All comments are welcome!

Quantum error correction and fault-tolerance make it possible to perform quantum computations in the presence of imprecision and imperfections of realistic devices. An important question is to find the noise rate at which errors can be arbitrarily suppressed. By concatenating the 7-qubit Steane and 15-qubit Reed-Muller codes, the 105-qubit code enables a universal set of fault-tolerant gates despite not all of them being transversal. Importantly, the CNOT gate remains transversal in both codes, and as such has increased error protection relative to the other single qubit logical gates. We show that while the level-1 pseudo-threshold for the concatenated scheme is limited by the logical Hadamard, the error suppression of the logical CNOT gates allows for the asymptotic threshold to increase by orders of magnitude at higher levels. We establish a lower bound of $1.28~\times~10^{-3}$ for the asymptotic threshold of this code which is competitive with known concatenated models and does not rely on ancillary magic state preparation for universal computation., 10 pages, 7 figures. Comments welcome!

To exploit a given physical system for quantum information processing, it is critical to understand the different types of noise affecting quantum control. Distinguishing coherent and incoherent errors is extremely useful as they can be reduced in different ways. Coherent errors are generally easier to reduce at the hardware level, e.g. by improving calibration, whereas some sources of incoherent errors, e.g. T2* processes, can be reduced by engineering robust pulses. In this work, we illustrate how purity benchmarking and randomized benchmarking can be used together to distinguish between coherent and incoherent errors and to quantify the reduction in both of them due to using optimal control pulses and accounting for the transfer function in an electron spin resonance system. We also prove that purity benchmarking provides bounds on the optimal fidelity and diamond norm that can be achieved by correcting the coherent errors through improving calibration., 14 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in PRL

Entanglement, one of the central mysteries of quantum mechanics, plays an essential role in numerous applications of quantum information theory. A natural question of both theoretical and experimental importance is whether universal entanglement detection is possible without full state tomography. In this work, we prove a no-go theorem that rules out this possibility for any non-adaptive schemes that employ single-copy measurements only. We also examine in detail a previously implemented experiment, which claimed to detect entanglement of two-qubit states via adaptive single-copy measurements without full state tomography. By performing the experiment and analyzing the data, we demonstrate that the information gathered is indeed sufficient to reconstruct the state. These results reveal a fundamental limit for single-copy measurements in entanglement detection, and provides a general framework to study the detection of other interesting properties of quantum states, such as the positivity of partial transpose and the $k$-symmetric extendibility., 10 pages, 7 figures, plus 5 pages of supplementary information

Spin systems controlled and probed by magnetic resonance have been valuable for testing the ideas of quantum control and quantum error correction. This paper introduces an X-band pulsed electron spin resonance spectrometer designed for high-fidelity coherent control of electron spins, including a loop-gap resonator for sub-millimeter sized samples with a control bandwidth ~ 40 MHz. Universal control is achieved by a single-sideband upconversion technique with an I-Q modulator and a 1.2 GS/s arbitrary waveform generator. A single qubit randomized benchmarking protocol quantifies the average errors of Clifford gates implemented by simple Gaussian pulses, using a sample of gamma-irradiated quartz. Improvements in unitary gate fidelity are achieved through phase transient correction and hardware optimization. A preparation pulse sequence that selects spin packets in a narrowed distribution of static fields confirms that inhomogeneous dephasing (1/T2*) is the dominant source of gate error. The best average fidelity over the Clifford gates obtained here is 99.2%, which serves as a benchmark to compare with other technologies., 14 pages, 12 figures. Updated version. Accepted for publication in Journal of Magnetic Resonance

Universal quantum computation requires the implementation of arbitrary control operations on the quantum register. In most cases, this is achieved by external control fields acting selectively on each qubit to drive single-qubit operations. In combination with a drift Hamiltonian containing interactions between the qubits, this allows the implementation of any required gate operation. Here, we demonstrate an alternative scheme that does not require local control for all qubits: we implement one- and two-qubit gate operations on a set of target qubits indirectly, through a combination of gates on directly controlled actuator qubits with a drift Hamiltonian that couples actuator and target qubits. Experiments are performed on nuclear spins, using radio-frequency pulses as gate operations and magnetic-dipole couplings for the drift Hamiltonian.

The ability to perform quantum error correction is a significant hurdle for scalable quantum information processing. A key requirement for multiple-round quantum error correction is the ability to dynamically extract entropy from ancilla qubits. Heat-bath algorithmic cooling is a method that uses quantum logic operations to move entropy from one subsystem to another, and permits cooling of a spin qubit below the closed system (Shannon) bound. Gamma-irradiated, $^{13}$C-labeled malonic acid provides up to 5 spin qubits: 1 spin-half electron and 4 spin-half nuclei. The nuclei are strongly hyperfine coupled to the electron and can be controlled either by exploiting the anisotropic part of the hyperfine interaction or by using pulsed electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) techniques. The electron connects the nuclei to a heat-bath with a much colder effective temperature determined by the electron's thermal spin polarization. By accurately determining the full spin Hamiltonian and performing realistic algorithmic simulations, we show that an experimental demonstration of heat-bath algorithmic cooling beyond the Shannon bound is feasible in both 3-qubit and 5-qubit variants of this spin system. Similar techniques could be useful for polarizing nuclei in molecular or crystalline systems that allow for non-equilibrium optical polarization of the electron spin., Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, published in Quantum Information Processing, Springer (2015)

We generalize a recently discovered example of a private quantum subsystem to find private subsystems for Abelian subgroups of the $n$-qubit Pauli group, which exist in the absence of private subspaces. In doing so, we also connect these quantum privacy investigations with the theory of quasiorthogonal operator algebras through the use of tools from group theory and operator theory., Comment: 16 pages

Controlled preparation of highly pure quantum states is at the core of practical applications of quantum information science, from the state initialization of most quantum algorithms to a reliable supply of ancilla qubits that satisfy the fault-tolerance threshold for quantum error correction. Heat-bath algorithmic cooling has been shown to purify qubits by controlled redistribution of entropy and multiple contact with a bath, not only for ensemble implementations but also for technologies with strong but imperfect measurements. However, an implicit restriction about the interaction with the bath has been assumed in previous work. In this paper, we show that better purification can be achieved by removing that restriction. More concretely, we include correlations between the system and the bath, and we take advantage of these correlations to pump entropy out of the system into the bath. We introduce a tool for cooling algorithms, which we call "state-reset", obtained when the coupling to the environment is generalized from individual-qubits relaxation to correlated-qubit relaxation. We present improved cooling algorithms which lead to an increase of purity beyond all the previous work, and relate our results to the Nuclear Overhauser Effect.

Pure quantum states play a central role in applications of quantum information, both as initial states for many algorithms and as resources for quantum error correction. Preparation of highly pure states that satisfy the threshold for quantum error correction remains a challenge, not only for ensemble implementations like NMR or ESR but also for other technologies. Heat-Bath Algorithmic Cooling is a method to increase the purity of set of qubits coupled to a bath. We investigated the achievable polarization by analyzing the state when no more entropy can be extracted. In particular we give an analytic form for the maximum polarization of the purified qubit and corresponding state of the whole system for the case when the initial state of the qubits is totally mixed. It is however possible to reach higher polarization while starting with other states with higher polarization, thus our result provides an achievable lower bound. We also give an upper bound of the number of steps needed to get a certain required polarization., 11 pages, 7 figures

Precisely characterizing and controlling realistic open quantum systems is one of the most challenging and exciting frontiers in quantum sciences and technologies. In this Letter, we present methods of approximately computing reachable sets for coherently controlled dissipative systems, which is very useful for assessing control performances. We apply this to a two-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance spin system and implement some tasks of quantum control in open systems at a near optimal performance in view of purity: e.g., increasing polarization and preparing pseudo-pure states. Our work shows interesting and promising applications of environment-assisted quantum dynamics., Extensively revised and improved version. 13 pages. All comments are welcome. Includes Supplemental Material

Quantum gates in experiment are inherently prone to errors that need to be characterized before they can be corrected. Full characterization via quantum process tomography is impractical and often unnecessary. For most practical purposes, it is enough to estimate more general quantities such as the average fidelity. Here we use a unitary 2-design and twirling protocol for efficiently estimating the average fidelity of Clifford gates, to certify a 7-qubit entangling gate in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum processor. Compared with more than $10^8$ experiments required by full process tomography, we conducted 1656 experiments to satisfy a statistical confidence level of 99%. The average fidelity of this Clifford gate in experiment is 55.1%, and rises to 87.5% if the infidelity due to decoherence is removed. The entire protocol of certifying Clifford gates is efficient and scalable, and can easily be extended to any general quantum information processor with minor modifications., 5 pages, 2 figures

Given its importance to many other areas of physics, from condensed matter physics to thermodynamics, time-reversal symmetry has had relatively little influence on quantum information science. Here we develop a network-based picture of time-reversal theory, classifying Hamiltonians and quantum circuits as time-symmetric or not in terms of the elements and geometries of their underlying networks. Many of the typical circuits of quantum information science are found to exhibit time-asymmetry. Moreover, we show that time-asymmetry in circuits can be controlled using local gates only, and can simulate time-asymmetry in Hamiltonian evolution. We experimentally implement a fundamental example in which controlled time-reversal asymmetry in a palindromic quantum circuit leads to near-perfect transport. Our results pave the way for using time-symmetry breaking to control coherent transport, and imply that time-asymmetry represents an omnipresent yet poorly understood effect in quantum information science., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX 4.1 - published version

We propose a method for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation using concatenated quantum error correcting codes. Namely, other than computational basis state preparation as required by the DiVincenzo criteria [1], our scheme requires no special ancillary state preparation to achieve universality, as opposed to schemes such as magic state distillation. The concatenation scheme exploits the transversal properties of two different codes, combining them to provide a means to protect against low-weight arbitrary errors. We give the required properties of the error correcting codes to ensure universal fault-tolerance and discuss a particular example using the 7-qubit Steane and 15-qubit Reed-Muller codes. We believe that optimizing the codes used in such a scheme could provide a useful alternative to state distillation schemes that exhibit high overhead costs., 5 pages, 3 figures

This paper addresses and expands on the contents of the recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 030502 (2013)] discussing private quantum subsystems. Here we prove several previously presented results, including a condition for a given random unitary channel to not have a private subspace (although this does not mean that private communication cannot occur, as was previously demonstrated via private subsystems) and algebraic conditions that characterize when a general quantum subsystem or subspace code is private for a quantum channel. These conditions can be regarded as the private analog of the Knill-Laflamme conditions for quantum error correction, and we explore how the conditions simplify in some special cases. The bridge between quantum cryptography and quantum error correction provided by complementary quantum channels motivates the study of a new, more general definition of quantum error-correcting code, and we initiate this study here. We also consider the concept of complementarity for the general notion of a private quantum subsystem.

Quantum error correction protects quantum information against environmental noise. When using qubits, a measure of quality of a code is the maximum number of errors that it is able to correct. We show that a suitable notion of ``number of errors'' e makes sense for any system in the presence of arbitrary environmental interactions. In fact, the notion is directly related to the lowest order in time with which uncorrectable errors are introduced, and this in turn is derived from a grading of the algebra generated by the interaction operators. As a result, e-error-correcting codes are effective at protecting quantum information without requiring the usual assumptions of independence and lack of correlation. We prove the existence of large codes for both quantum and classical information. By viewing error-correcting codes as subsystems, we relate codes to irreducible representations of certain operator algebras and show that noiseless subsystems are infinite-distance error-correcting codes. An explicit example involving collective interactions is discussed., 6 pages

In bulk quantum computation one can manipulate a large number of indistinguishable quantum computers by parallel unitary operations and measure expectation values of certain observables with limited sensitivity. The initial state of each computer in the ensemble is known but not pure. Methods for obtaining effective pure input states by a series of manipulations have been described by Gershenfeld and Chuang (logical labeling) and Cory et al. (spatial averaging) for the case of quantum computation with nuclear magnetic resonance. We give a different technique called temporal averaging. This method is based on classical randomization, requires no ancilla qubits and can be implemented in nuclear magnetic resonance without using gradient fields. We introduce several temporal averaging algorithms suitable for both high temperature and low temperature bulk quantum computing and analyze the signal to noise behavior of each., Comment: 24 pages in LaTex, 14 figures, the paper is also avalaible at http://qso.lanl.gov/qc/

The ability to post-select the outcomes of an experiment is a useful theoretical concept and experimental tool. In the context of weak measurements post-selection can lead to surprising results such as complex weak values outside the range of eigenvalues. Usually post-selection is realized by a projective measurement, which is hard to implement in ensemble systems such as NMR. We demonstrate the first experiment of a weak measurement with post-selection on an NMR quantum information processor. Our setup is used for measuring complex weak values and weak values outside the range of eigenvalues. The scheme for overcoming the problem of post-selection in an ensemble quantum computer is general and can be applied to any circuit-based implementation. This experiment paves the way for studying and exploiting post-selection and weak measurements in systems where projective measurements are hard to realize experimentally., Similar to published version. Video abstract at http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/16/5/053015

Cryptography's importance in our everyday lives continues to grow in our increasingly digital world. Oblivious transfer (OT) has long been a fundamental and important cryptographic primitive since it is known that general two-party cryptographic tasks can be built from this basic building block. Here we show the experimental implementation of a 1-2 random oblivious transfer (ROT) protocol by performing measurements on polarization-entangled photon pairs in a modified entangled quantum key distribution system, followed by all of the necessary classical post-processing including one-way error correction. We successfully exchange a 1,366 bits ROT string in ~3 min and include a full security analysis under the noisy storage model, accounting for all experimental error rates and finite size effects. This demonstrates the feasibility of using today's quantum technologies to implement secure two-party protocols., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

Using simple physical arguments we investigate the capabilities of a quantum computer based on cold trapped ions. From the limitations imposed on such a device by spontaneous decay, laser phase coherence, ion heating and other sources of error, we derive a bound between the number of laser interactions and the number of ions that may be used. The largest number which may be factored using a variety of species of ion is determined., 5 pages in RevTex, 2 figures, the paper is also avalaible at http://qso.lanl.gov/qc/

Anyons have exotic statistical properties, fractional statistics, differing from Bosons and Fermions. They can be created as excitations of some Hamiltonian models. Here we present an experimental demonstration of anyonic fractional statistics by simulating a version of the Kitaev spin lattice model proposed by Han et al[Phys. Rev.Lett. 98, 150404 (2007)] using an NMR quantum information processor. We use a 7-qubit system to prepare a 6-qubit pseudopure state to implement the ground state preparation and realize anyonic manipulations, including creation, braiding and anyon fusion. A $\pi/2\times 2$ phase difference between the states with and without anyon braiding, which is equivalent to two successive particle exchanges, is observed. This is different from the $\pi\times 2$ and $2\pi \times 2$ phases for Fermions and Bosons after two successive particle exchanges, and is consistent with the fractional statistics of anyons., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We investigate the most general notion of a private quantum code, which involves the encoding of qubits into quantum subsystems and subspaces. We contribute to the structure theory for private quantum codes by deriving testable conditions for private quantum subsystems in terms of Kraus operators for channels; establishing an analogue of the Knill-Laflamme conditions in this setting. For a large class of naturally arising quantum channels, we show that private subsystems can exist even in the absence of private subspaces. In doing so, we also discover the first examples of private subsystems that are not complemented by operator quantum error correcting codes; implying that the complementarity of private codes and quantum error correcting codes fails for the general notion of private quantum subsystem., 5 pages, 1 figure

Large-scale universal quantum computing requires the implementation of quantum error correction (QEC). While the implementation of QEC has already been demonstrated for quantum memories, reliable quantum computing requires also the application of nontrivial logical gate operations to the encoded qubits. Here, we present examples of such operations by implementing, in addition to the identity operation, the NOT and the Hadamard gate to a logical qubit encoded in a five qubit system that allows correction of arbitrary single-qubit errors. We perform quantum process tomography of the encoded gate operations, demonstrate the successful correction of all possible single-qubit errors, and measure the fidelity of the encoded logical gate operations.

We describe an efficient DQC1-algorithm to quantify the amount of Geometric Quantum Discord present in the output state of a DQC1 computation. DQC1 is a model of computation that utilizes separable states to solve a problem with no known efficient classical algorithm and is known to contain quantum correlations as measured by the discord. For the general case of a (1+n)-qubit DQC1-state we provide an analytical expression for the Geometric Quantum Discord and find that its typical (and maximum) value decreases exponentially with n. This is in contrast to the standard Quantum Discord whose value for typical DQC1-states is known to be independent of n. We experimentally demonstrate the proposed algorithm on a four-qubit liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor. In the special case of a two-qubit DQC1 model, we also provide an expression for the Quantum Discord that only requires the outcome of the DQC1 algorithm., Editorial changes (most notably, the title) made to more accurately reflect the published version

The Born rule is at the foundation of quantum mechanics and transforms our classical way of understanding probabilities by predicting that interference occurs between pairs of independent paths of a single object. One consequence of the Born rule is that three way (or three paths) quantum interference does not exist. In order to test the consistency of the Born rule, we examine detection probabilities in three path intereference using an ensemble of spin-1/2 quantum registers in liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance (LSNMR). As a measure of the consistency, we evaluate the ratio of three way interference to two way interference. Our experiment bounded the ratio to the order of $10^{-3} \pm 10^{-3}$, and hence it is consistent with Born's rule., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; Improved presentation of figures 1 and 4, changes made in section 2 to better describe the experiment, minor changes throughout, and added several references