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Dynamical decoupling operations have been shown to reduce errors in quantum information processing. Leakage from an encoded subspace to the rest of the system space is a particularly serious problem for which leakage elimination operators (LEO) were introduced. These are a particular type of decoupling which are designed to eliminate such leakage errors. Here, we provide an analysis of non-ideal pulses, rather than the well-understood ideal pulses or bang-bang controls. We show that under realistic conditions for experiments these controls will provide protection from errors. Furthermore, we find that the effect of LEOs depends exclusively on the integral of the pulse sequence in the time domain with proper ratio of pulse duration time and its period. When these two key parameters are chosen within certain bounds, leakage errors of the open system (exemplified by a three-level system for the nitrogen-vacancy centers under external magnetic field) would be dramatically decreased. The results are illustrated by the fidelity dynamics of LEO sequences, ranging from regular rectangular pulses, random pulses and even disordered (noisy) pulses.

Majorana fermions (MFs) are exotic particles that are their own anti-particles. Recently, the search for the MFs occurring as quasi-particle excitations in solid-state systems has attracted widespread interest, because of their fundamental importance in fundamental physics and potential applications in topological quantum computation based on solid-state devices. Here we study the quantum correlations between two spatially separate quantum dots induced by a pair of MFs emerging at the two ends of a semiconductor nanowire, in order to develop a new method for probing the MFs. We find that without the tunnel coupling between these paired MFs, quantum entanglement cannot be induced from an unentangled (i.e., product) state, but quantum discord is observed due to the intrinsic nonlocal correlations of the paired MFs. This finding reveals that quantum discord can indeed demonstrate the intrinsic non-locality of the MFs formed in the nanowire. Also, quantum discord can be employed to discriminate the MFs from the regular fermions. Furthermore, we propose an experimental setup to measure the onset of quantum discord due to the nonlocal correlations. Our approach provides a new, and experimentally accessible, method to study the Majorana bound states by probing their intrinsic non-locality signature., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

A wide class of exact master equations for a multiple qubit system can be explicitly constructed by using the corresponding exact non-Markovian quantum state diffusion equations. These exact master equations arise naturally from the quantum decoherence dynamics of qubit system as a quantum memory coupled to a collective colored noisy source. The exact master equations are also important in optimal quantum control, quantum dissipation and quantum thermodynamics. In this paper, we show that the exact non-Markovian master equation for a dissipative N-qubit system can be derived explicitly from the statistical average of the corresponding non-Markovian quantum trajectories. We illustrated our general formulation by an explicit construction of a three-qubit system coupled to a non-Markovian bosonic environment. This multiple qubit master equation offers an accurate time evolution of quantum systems in various domains, and paves a way to investigate the memory effect of an open system in a non-Markovian regime without any approximation.

We numerically investigate the encoding and retrieval processes for a quantum memory realized in a semiconductor quantum dot, by focusing on the effect of inhomogeneously polarized nuclear spins whose polarization depends on the local hyperfine coupling strength. We find that the performance of the quantum memory is significantly improved by the inhomogeneous nuclear polarization, as compared to the homogeneous one. Moreover, the narrower the nuclear polarization distribution is, the better the performance of the quantum memory is. We ascribe the performance improvement to the full harnessing of the highly polarized and strongly coupled nuclear spins, by carefully studying the entropy change of individual nuclear spins during encoding process. Our results shed new light on the implementation of a quantum memory in a quantum dot.

Proposals for quantum information processing often require the development of new quantum tech- nologies. However, here we build quantum memory by ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices with existing state-of-the-art technology. Under a parabolic external field, we demonstrate that an arbitrary initial state at an end of the optical lattices can time-evolve and revive, with very high fidelity, at predictable discrete time intervals. Physically, the parabolic field, can catalyze a breathing pattern. The initial state is memorized by the pattern and can be retrieved at any of the revival time moments. In comparison with usual time-independent memory, we call this a dynamical memory. Furthermore, we show that the high fidelity of the quantum state at revival time moments is fault-tolerant against the fabrication defects and even time-dependent noise.

We establish for the first time an exact stochastic dynamical equation for an open quantum systems coupled to correlated noises. We rigorously investigate the nonequilibrium dynamics of a qubit system under the influence of two strongly correlated non-Markovian baths by exactly solving the stochastic Schr\"{o}dinger equation of an open quantum system. We show that the quantum dynamics of the qubit system is profoundly modulated by the mutual correlation between baths and the bath memory times through dissipation and fluctuation. We report a new physical effect on generating large values of the inner-correlation and entanglement of the distant two qubits arising from the strong bath correlation for a class of super-radiation states., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Realization of robust coherent quantum phase slips represents a significant experimental challenge. Here we propose a new design consisting of multiple nanowire junctions to realize a phase-slip flux qubit. It admits good tunability provided by gate voltages applied on superconducting islands separating nanowire junctions. In addition, the gates and junctions can be identical or distinct to each other leading to symmetric and asymmetric setups. We find that the asymmetry can improve the performance of the proposed device, compared with the symmetric case. In particular, it can enhance the effective rate of collective quantum phase slips. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to couple two such devices via a mutual inductance. This is potentially useful for quantum gate operations. Our investigation on how symmetry in multiple nanowire junctions affects the device performance should be useful for the application of phase-slip flux qubits in quantum information processing and quantum metrology., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

We develop a systematic and efficient approach for numerically solving the non-Markovian quantum state diffusion equations for open quantum systems coupled to an environment up to arbitrary orders of noises or coupling strengths. As an important application, we consider a real-time simulation of a spin-boson model in a strong coupling regime that is difficult to deal with using conventional methods. We show that the non-Markovian stochastic Schr\"{o}dinger equation can be efficiently implemented as a real--time simulation for this model, so as to give an accurate description of spin-boson dynamics beyond the rotating-wave approximation.

We study a hybrid quantum system consisting of spin ensembles and superconducting flux qubits, where each spin ensemble is realized using the nitrogen-vacancy centers in a diamond crystal and the nearest-neighbor spin ensembles are effectively coupled via a flux qubit.We show that the coupling strengths between flux qubits and spin ensembles can reach the strong and even ultrastrong coupling regimes by either engineering the hybrid structure in advance or tuning the excitation frequencies of spin ensembles via external magnetic fields. When extending the hybrid structure to an array with equal coupling strengths, we find that in the strong-coupling regime, the hybrid array is reduced to a tight-binding model of a one-dimensional bosonic lattice. In the ultrastrong-coupling regime, it exhibits quasiparticle excitations separated from the ground state by an energy gap. Moreover, these quasiparticle excitations and the ground state are stable under a certain condition that is tunable via the external magnetic field. This may provide an experimentally accessible method to probe the instability of the system., Comment: 8 pages,3 figures

A spin-orbit qubit is a hybrid qubit that contains both orbital and spin degrees of freedom of an electron in a quantum dot. Here we study the exchange coupling between two spin-orbit qubits in a nanowire double quantum dot (DQD) with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that while the total tunneling in the DQD is irrelevant to the SOC, both the spin-conserved and spin-flipped tunnelings are SOC dependent and can compete with each other in the strong SOC regime. Moreover, the Coulomb repulsion between electrons can combine with the SOC-dependent tunnelings to yield an anisotropic exchange coupling between the two spin-orbit qubits. Also, we give an explicit physical mechanism for this anisotropic exchange coupling., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Analog quantum simulators can be used to study quantum correlation in novel many-body systems by emulating the Hamiltonian of these systems. One essential question in quantum simulation is to probe the properties of an emulated many-body system. Here we present a circuit QED scheme for probing such properties by measuring the spectrum of a superconducting resonator coupled to a quantum simulator. We first study a general framework of this approach, and show that the spectrum of the resonator is directly related to the correlation function of the coupling operator between the resonator and the simulator. We then apply this scheme to a simulator of the transverse field Ising model implemented with superconducting qubits, where the resonance peaks in the resonator spectrum correspond to the frequencies of the elementary excitations. The effects of resonator damping, qubit decoherence, and resonator backaction are also discussed. This setup can be used to probe a broad range of many-body models., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, published version

We propose an approach for probing Majorana bound states (MBSs) in a nanowire via counting statistics of a nearby charge detector in the form of a single-electron transistor (SET). We consider the impacts on the counting statistics by both the local coupling between the detector and an adjacent MBS at one end of a nanowire and the nonlocal coupling to the MBS at the other end. We show that the Fano factor and the skewness of the SET current are minimized for a symmetric SET configuration in the absence of the MBSs or when coupled to a fermionic state. However, the minimum points of operation are shifted appreciably in the presence of the MBSs to asymmetric SET configurations with a higher tunnel rate at the drain than at the source. This feature persists even when varying the nonlocal coupling and the pairing energy between the two MBSs. We expect that these MBS-induced shifts can be measured experimentally with available technologies and can serve as important signatures of the MBSs., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We study the microwave absorption of a driven three-level quantum system, which is realized by a superconducting flux quantum circuit (SFQC), with a magnetic driving field applied to the two upper levels. The interaction between the three-level system and its environment is studied within the Born-Markov approximation, and we take into account the effects of the driving field on the damping rates of the three-level system. We study the linear response of the driven three-level SFQC to a weak probe field. The linear magnetic susceptibility of the SFQC can be changed by both the driving field and the bias magnetic flux. When the bias magnetic flux is at the optimal point, the transition from the ground state to the second excited state is forbidden and the three-level SFQC has a ladder-type transition. Thus, the SFQC responds to the probe field like natural atoms with ladder-type transitions. However, when the bias magnetic flux deviates from the optimal point, the three-level SFQC has a cyclic transition, thus it responds to the probe field like a combination of natural atoms with ladder-type transitions and natural atoms with $\Lambda$-type transitions. In particular, we provide detailed discussions on the conditions for realizing electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting in three-level SFQCs., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures

Spin-orbit qubit (SOQ) is the dressed spin by the orbital degree of freedom through a strong spin-orbit coupling. We show that Coulomb interaction between two electrons in quantum dots located separately in two nanowires can efficiently induce quantum entanglement between two SOQs. The physical mechanism to achieve such quantum entanglement is based on the feasibility of the SOQ responding to the external electric field via an intrinsic electric dipole spin resonance., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We study one-loop photon (Pi) and neutrino (Sigma) self-energies in a U(1) covariant gauge-theory on d-dimensional noncommutative spaces determined by a antisymmetric-constant tensor theta^{mu nu}. For the general fermion-photon (S_f) and photon self-interaction (S_g) the closed form results reveal self-energies besetting with all kind of pathological terms: the UV divergence, the quadratic UV/IR mixing terms as well as a logarithmic IR divergent term of the type ln(mu^2(theta p)^2). In addition, the photon-loop produces new tensor structures satisfying transversality condition by themselves. We show that the photon self-energy in four-dimensional Euclidean spacetime can be reduced to two finite terms by imposing a specific full rank of theta^{mu nu} and setting deformation parameters (kappa_f,kappa_g)=(0,3). In this case the neutrino two-point function vanishes. Thus for a specific point (0,3) in the parameter-space (kappa_f,kappa_g), a covariant theta-exact approach is able to produce a divergence-free result for one-loop quantum corrections, having also well-defined both the commutative limit as well as the pointlike limit of an extended object. While in two-dimensional space the photon self-energy is finite for arbitrary (kappa_f,kappa_g) combinations, the neutrino self-energy still contains an superficial IR divergence., Comment: D-dimensional photon-loop contribution added to the photon self-energy; version to appear in JHEP, 29 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

The adiabatic theorem addresses the dynamics of a target instantaneous eigenstate of a time-dependent Hamiltonian. We use a Feshbach P-Q partitioning technique to derive a closed one-component integro-differential equation. The resultant equation properly traces the footprint of the target eigenstate. The physical significance of the derived dynamical equation is illustrated by both general analysis and concrete examples. Surprisingly, we find an anomalous phenomenon showing that a dephasing white noise can enhance and even induce adiabaticity. This new phenomenon may naturally occur in many physical systems. We also show that white noises can also shorten the total duration of dynamic processes such as adiabatic quantum computing., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

A semiconductor nanowire quantum dot with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can be used to achieve a spin-orbit qubit. In contrast to a spin qubit, the spin-orbit qubit can respond to an external ac electric field, an effect called electric-dipole spin resonance. Here we develop a theory that can apply in the strong SOC regime. We find that there is an optimal SOC strength \eta_{opt}=\sqrt{2}/2, where the Rabi frequency induced by the ac electric field becomes maximal. Also, we show that both the level spacing and the Rabi frequency of the spin-orbit qubit have periodic responses to the direction of the external static magnetic field. These responses can be used to determine the SOC in the nanowire., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + Supplementary Material

A phase-slip flux qubit, exactly dual to a charge qubit, is composed of a superconducting loop interrupted by a phase-slip junction. Here we propose a tunable phase-slip flux qubit by replacing the phase-slip junction with a charge-related superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) consisting of two phase-slip junctions connected in series with a superconducting island. This charge-SQUID acts as an effective phase-slip junction controlled by the applied gate voltage and can be used to tune the energy-level splitting of the qubit. Also, we show that a large inductance inserted in the loop can reduce the inductance energy and consequently suppress the dominating flux noise of the phase-slip flux qubit. This enhanced phase-slip flux qubit is exactly dual to a transmon qubit.

We propose how to realize high-fidelity quantum storage using a hybrid quantum architecture including two coupled flux qubits and a nitrogen-vacancy center ensemble (NVE). One of the flux qubits is considered as the quantum computing processor and the NVE serves as the quantum memory. By separating the computing and memory units, the influence of the quantum computing process on the quantum memory can be effectively eliminated, and hence the quantum storage of an arbitrary quantum state of the computing qubit could be achieved with high fidelity. Furthermore the present proposal is robust with respect to fluctuations of the system parameters, and it is experimentally feasibile with currently available technology., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

We propose an experimentally realizable hybrid quantum circuit for achieving a strong coupling between a spin ensemble and a transmission-line resonator via a superconducting flux qubit used as a data bus. The resulting coupling can be used to transfer quantum information between the spin ensemble and the resonator. In particular, in contrast to the direct coupling without a data bus, our approach requires far less spins to achieve a strong coupling between the spin ensemble and the resonator (e.g., three to four orders of magnitude less). This proposed hybrid quantum circuit could enable a long-time quantum memory when storing information in the spin ensemble, and allows the possibility to explore nonlinear effects in the ultrastrong-coupling regime., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

Full counting statistics of electron transport is of fundamental importance for a deeper understanding of the underlying physical processes in quantum transport in nanoscale devices. The backaction effect from a detector on the nanoscale devices is also essential due to its inevitable presence in experiments. Here we investigate the backaction of a charge detector in the form of a quantum point contact (QPC) on the counting statistics of a biased double quantum dot (DQD). We show that this inevitable QPC-induced backaction can have profound effects on the counting statistics under certain conditions, e.g., changing the shot noise from being sub-Poissonian to super-Poissonian, and changing the skewness from being positive to negative. Also, we show that both Fano factor and skewness can be either enhanced or suppressed by increasing the energy difference between two single-dot levels of the DQD under the detector-induced backaction., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures; comments are welcome

Kitaev model has both Abelian and non-Abelian anyonic excitations. It can act as a starting point for topological quantum computation. However, this model Hamiltonian is difficult to implement in natural condensed matter systems. Here we propose a quantum simulation scheme by constructing the Kitaev model Hamiltonian in a lattice of coupled cavities with embadded $\Lambda$-type three-level atoms. In this scheme, several parameters are tunable, for example, via external laser fields. Importantly, our scheme is based on currently existing technologies and it provides a feasible way of realizing the Kitaev model to explore topological excitations., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

We study the confidence and backaction of state reconstruction based on a continuous weak measurement and the quantum filter equation. As a physical example we use the traditional model of a double quantum dot being continuously monitored by a quantum point contact. We examine the confidence of the estimate of a state constructed from the measurement record, and the effect of backaction of that measurement on that state. Finally, in the case of general measurements we show that using the relative entropy as a measure of confidence allows us to define the lower bound on the confidence as a type of quantum discord., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We study controllable exchange coupling between two singlet-triplet qubits. We start from the original second quantized Hamiltonian of a quadruple quantum dot system and obtain the effective spin-spin interaction between the two qubits using the projection operator method. Under a strong uniform external magnetic field and an inhomogeneous local micro-magnetic field, the effective interqubit coupling is of the Ising type, and the coupling strength can be expressed in terms of quantum dot parameters. Finally, we discuss how to generate various two-qubit operations using this controllable coupling, such as entanglement generation, and controlled-NOT gate., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We propose an approach for achieving ground-state cooling of a nanomechanical resonator (NAMR) capacitively coupled to a triple quantum dot (TQD). This TQD is an electronic analog of a three-level atom in $\Lambda$ configuration which allows an electron to enter it via lower-energy states and to exit only from a higher-energy state. By tuning the degeneracy of the two lower-energy states in the TQD, an electron can be trapped in a dark state caused by destructive quantum interference between the two tunneling pathways to the higher-energy state. Therefore, ground-state cooling of an NAMR can be achieved when electrons absorb readily and repeatedly energy quanta from the NAMR for excitations., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Hybrid quantum circuits combine two or more physical systems, with the goal of harnessing the advantages and strengths of the different systems in order to better explore new phenomena and potentially bring about novel quantum technologies. This article presents a brief overview of the progress achieved so far in the field of hybrid circuits involving atoms, spins and solid-state devices (including superconducting and nanomechanical systems). How these circuits combine elements from atomic physics, quantum optics, condensed matter physics, and nanoscience is discussed, and different possible approaches for integrating various systems into a single circuit are presented. In particular, hybrid quantum circuits can be fabricated on a chip, facilitating their future scalability, which is crucial for building future quantum technologies, including quantum detectors, simulators, and computers., Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables

In this paper, the non-Markovian quantum dynamics of a coupled $N$-cavity model is studied based on the quantum state diffusion (QSD) approach. The time-local Di\'{o}si-Gisin-Strunz equation and the corresponding exact master equation are derived for the model consisting of a coupled cavity array. The resulting QSD equation serves as a stochastic solution to a genuine $N$-partite continuous-variable (CV) system. Several non-Markovian effects are studied in two interesting examples -- two-cavity and three-cavity, under different boundary conditions. We have shown that the environment-memory can facilitate the cat-like state transfer from one cavity to another in the case of a strongly non-Markovian environment., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

Non-Markovian quantum state diffusion (NMQSD) provides a powerful approach to the dynamics of an open quantum system in bosonic environments. Here we develop an NMQSD method to study the open quantum system in fermionic environments. This problem involves anticommutative noise functions (i.e., Grassmann variables) that are intrinsically different from the noise functions of bosonic baths. We obtain the NMQSD equation for quantum states of the system and the non-Markovian master equation. Moreover, we apply this NMQSD method to single and double quantum-dot systems., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

Current dynamical control based on the bang-bang control mechanism involving various types of pulse sequences is essentially a perturbative theory. This paper presents a non-perturbative dynamical control approach based on the exact stochastic Schr\"odinger equation. We report our findings on the pulse parameter regions in which the effective dynamical control can be exercised. The onset of the effective control zones reflects the non-perturbative feature of our approach. The non-perturbative methods offer possible new implementations when several different parameter regions are available., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Superconducting circuits based on Josephson junctions exhibit macroscopic quantum coherence and can behave like artificial atoms. Recent technological advances have made it possible to implement atomic-physics and quantum-optics experiments on a chip using these artificial atoms. This review presents a brief overview of the progress achieved so far in this rapidly advancing field. We not only discuss phenomena analogous to those in atomic physics and quantum optics with natural atoms, but also highlight those not occurring in natural atoms. In addition, we summarize several prospective directions in this emerging interdisciplinary field., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 3 boxes with additional 2 figures. See also: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7353/full/nature10122.html

An open quantum system with multiple levels coupled to a bosonic environment at zero temperature is investigated systematically using the non-Markovian quantum-state-diffusion (QSD) method [W. T. Strunz, L. Di\'osi, and N. Gisin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1801 (1999)]. We have established exact time-local QSD equations for a set of interesting multilevel open systems, including high-spin systems, multiple-transition atomic models, and multilevel atomic models driven by time-dependent external fields. These exact QSD equations have paved the way to evaluate the dynamics of open multilevel atomic systems in the general non-Markovian regimes without any approximation., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

It remains a challenge to independently manipulate the magnetic dipolar and the spin-exchange interactions, which are entangled in many spin systems, particularly in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates. For this purpose, we put forward a sequence of rf pulses and the periodic dynamical decoupling sequence of optical Feshbach resonance pulses to control the dipolar and the spin-exchange interactions, respectively. Our analytic results and the numerical simulations demonstrate that either of the two interactions can be suppressed to make the other dominate the spin dynamics; furthermore, both of the interactions can be simultaneously suppressed to realize spinor-condensate-based magnetometers with a higher sensitivity. This manipulation method may find its wide applications in magnetic resonance and spintronics., Comment: To be published in PRA (5pages, 5 figures,)

Dynamics of a state of interest coupled to a non-Markovian environment is studied for the first time by concatenating the non-Markovian quantum state diffusion (QSD) equation and the Feshbach projection operator partitioning technique. An exact one-dimensional stochastic master equation is derived as a general tool for controlling an arbitrary component of the system. We show that the exact one-dimensional stochastic master equation can be efficiently solved beyond the widely adapted second-order master equations. The generality and applicability of this hybrid approach is justified and exemplified by several coherence control problems concerning quantum state protection against leakage and decoherence., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures