# Top arXiv papers

• Recently, increased computational power and data availability, as well as algorithmic advances, have led machine learning techniques to impressive results in regression, classification, data-generation and reinforcement learning tasks. Despite these successes, the proximity to the physical limits of chip fabrication alongside the increasing size of datasets are motivating a growing number of researchers to explore the possibility of harnessing the power of quantum computation to speed-up classical machine learning algorithms. Here we review the literature in quantum machine learning and discuss perspectives for a mixed readership of classical machine learning and quantum computation experts. Particular emphasis will be placed on clarifying the limitations of quantum algorithms, how they compare with their best classical counterparts and why quantum resources are expected to provide advantages for learning problems. Learning in the presence of noise and certain computationally hard problems in machine learning are identified as promising directions for the field. Practical questions, like how to upload classical data into quantum form, will also be addressed.
• Tensor network methods are taking a central role in modern quantum physics and beyond. They can provide an efficient approximation to certain classes of quantum states, and the associated graphical language makes it easy to describe and pictorially reason about quantum circuits, channels, protocols, open systems and more. Our goal is to explain tensor networks and some associated methods as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Beginning with the key definitions, the graphical tensor network language is presented through examples. We then provide an introduction to matrix product states. We conclude the tutorial with tensor contractions evaluating combinatorial counting problems. The first one counts the number of solutions for Boolean formulae, whereas the second is Penrose's tensor contraction algorithm, returning the number of $3$-edge-colorings of $3$-regular planar graphs.
• Quantum versions of de Finetti's theorem are powerful tools, yielding conceptually important insights into the security of key distribution protocols or tomography schemes and allowing to bound the error made by mean-field approaches. Such theorems link the symmetry of a quantum state under the exchange of subsystems to negligible quantum correlations and are well understood and established in the context of distinguishable particles. In this work, we derive a de Finetti theorem for finite sized Majorana fermionic systems. It is shown, much reflecting the spirit of other quantum de Finetti theorems, that a state which is invariant under certain permutations of modes looses most of its anti-symmetric character and is locally well described by a mode separable state. We discuss the structure of the resulting mode separable states and establish in specific instances a quantitative link to the quality of Hartree-Fock approximation of quantum systems. We hint at a link to generalized Pauli principles for one-body reduced density operators. Finally, building upon the obtained de Finetti theorem, we generalize and extend the applicability of Hudson's fermionic central limit theorem.
• The canonical form of Matrix Product States (MPS) and the associated fundamental theorem, which relates different MPS representations of a state, are the theoretical framework underlying many of the analytical results derived through MPS, such as the classification of symmetry-protected phases in one dimension. Yet, the canonical form is only defined for MPS without non-trivial periods, and thus cannot fully capture paradigmatic states such as the antiferromagnet. Here, we introduce a new standard form for MPS, the irreducible form, which is defined for arbitrary MPS, including periodic states, and show that any tensor can be transformed into a tensor in irreducible form describing the same MPS. We then prove a fundamental theorem for MPS in irreducible form: If two tensors in irreducible form give rise to the same MPS, then they must be related by a similarity transform, together with a matrix of phases. We provide two applications of this result: an equivalence between the refinement properties of a state and the divisibility properties of its transfer matrix, and a more general characterisation of tensors that give rise to matrix product states with symmetries.
• We determine which translationally invariant matrix product states have a continuum limit, that is, which can be considered as discretized versions of states defined in the continuum. To do this, we analyse a fine-graining renormalization procedure in real space, characterise the set of limiting states of its flow, and find that it strictly contains the set of continuous matrix product states. We also analyse which states have a continuum limit after a finite number of a coarse-graining renormalization steps. We give several examples of states with and without the different kinds of continuum limits.
• The early Gottesman, Kitaev, and Preskill (GKP) proposal for encoding a qubit in an oscillator has recently been followed by cat- and binomial-code proposals. Numerically optimized codes have also been proposed, and we introduce new codes of this type here. These codes have yet to be compared using the same error model; we provide such a comparison by determining the entanglement fidelity of all codes with respect to the bosonic pure-loss channel (i.e., photon loss) after the optimal recovery operation. We then compare achievable communication rates of the combined encoding-error-recovery channel by calculating the channel's hashing bound for each code. Cat and binomial codes perform similarly, with binomial codes outperforming cat codes at small loss probabilities. Despite not being designed to protect against the pure-loss channel, GKP codes significantly outperform all other codes for most values of the loss probability. We show that the performance of GKP and some binomial codes increases monotonically with increasing average photon number of the codes. In order to corroborate our numerical evidence of the cat/binomial/GKP order of performance occurring at small loss probabilities, we analytically evaluate the quantum error-correction conditions of those codes. For GKP codes, we find an essential singularity in the entanglement fidelity in the limit of vanishing loss probability. In addition to comparing the codes, we draw parallels between binomial codes and discrete-variable systems. First, we characterize one- and two-mode binomial as well as multi-qubit permutation-invariant codes in terms of spin-coherent states. Such a characterization allows us to introduce check operators and error-correction procedures for binomial codes. Second, we introduce a generalization of spin-coherent states, extending our characterization to qudit binomial codes and yielding a new multi-qudit code.
• We consider a general resource theory that allows the use of free resource as a catalyst. We show that the amount of resource' contained in a given state, in the asymptotic scenario, is equal to the regularized relative entropy of resource of that state, which then yields a straightforward operational meaning to this quantity. Such an answer has been long sought for in any resource theory since the usefulness of a state in information-processing tasks is directly related to the amount of resource the state possesses in the beginning. While we need to place a few assumptions in our resource theoretical framework, it is still general enough and includes quantum resource theory of entanglement, coherence, asymmetry, non-uniformity, purity, contextuality, stabilizer computation and the classical resource theory of randomness extraction as special cases. Since our resource theoretic framework includes entanglement theory, our result also implies that the amount of noise one has to inject locally in order to erase all entanglement contained in an entangled state is equal to the regularized relative entropy of entanglement, resolving an open question posted in [Groisman et al., Phys. Rev. A. 72: 032317, 2005]. On the way to prove the main result, we also quantify the amount of resource contained in a state in the one-shot setting (where one only has a single copy of the state), in terms of the smooth max-relative entropy. Our one-shot result employs a recently developed technique of convex-split lemma.
• It is universally accepted that the quantum no-cloning theorem was not officially discovered until 1982. I show here that an article published in 1970 [J. L. Park, Foundations of Physics, 1, 23-33 (1970)] contained an explicit proof of the theorem. Park's demonstration has been overlooked until now and the paper remains virtually unknown. Reasons and implications of this fact are analyzed in the light of existing explanations concerning the genesis of the theorem.
• We present a computationally secure classical homomorphic encryption scheme for quantum circuits. The scheme allows a classical server to blindly delegate a quantum computation to a quantum server; the server is able to run the computation without learning about the computation itself. This result relies on post-quantum classical cryptographic tools, including sub-exponentially secure indistinguishability obfuscation and pseudorandom function families, as well as classical homomorphic encryption and learning with errors.
• Aug 02 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1708.00360v1
We show that the minimal rate of noise needed to catalytically erase the entanglement in a bipartite quantum state is given by the regularized relative entropy of entanglement. This offers a solution to the central open question raised in [Groisman et al., PRA 72, 032317 (2005)] and complements their main result that the minimal rate of noise needed to erase all correlations is given by the quantum mutual information.
• A quantum simulator is a restricted class of quantum computer that controls the interactions between quantum bits in a way that can be mapped to certain difficult quantum many-body problems. As more control is exerted over larger numbers of qubits, the simulator can tackle a wider range of problems, with the ultimate limit being a universal quantum computer that can solve general classes of hard problems. We use a quantum simulator composed of up to 53 qubits to study a non-equilibrium phase transition in the transverse field Ising model of magnetism, in a regime where conventional statistical mechanics does not apply. The qubits are represented by trapped ion spins that can be prepared in a variety of initial pure states. We apply a global long-range Ising interaction with controllable strength and range, and measure each individual qubit with near 99% efficiency. This allows the single-shot measurement of arbitrary many-body correlations for the direct probing of the dynamical phase transition and the uncovering of computationally intractable features that rely on the long-range interactions and high connectivity between the qubits.
• Aug 02 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1708.00265v1
The concept of randomness plays an important role in many disciplines. On one hand, the question of whether random processes exist is fundamental for our understanding of nature. On the other hand, randomness is a resource for cryptography, algorithms and simulations. Standard methods for generating randomness rely on assumptions on the devices that are difficult to meet in practice. However, quantum technologies allow for new methods for generating certified randomness. These methods are known as device-independent because do not rely on any modeling of the devices. Here we review the efforts and challenges to design device-independent randomness generators.
• We consider a family of multivariate trace inequalities recently derived by Sutter, Berta and Tomamichel. These inequalities generalize the Golden-Thompson inequality and Lieb's three-matrix inequality to an arbitrary number of matrices in a way that features complex matrix powers. We show that their inequalities can be rewritten as an $n$-matrix generalization of Lieb's original three-matrix inequality. The complex matrix powers are replaced by resolvents and appropriate maximally entangled states. We expect that the technically advantageous properties of resolvents, in particular for perturbation theory, can be of use in applications of the $n$-matrix inequalities, e.g., for analyzing the rotated Petz recovery map in quantum information theory.
• What is the structure of general quantum processes on composite systems that respect a global or local symmetry principle? How does the irreversible use of quantum resources behave under such symmetry principles? Here we develop an information-theoretic framework to address these questions and show that every symmetric quantum process on a system has an essentially unique decomposition in terms of the flow of symmetry-breaking degrees of freedom between each subsystem and its environment. The decomposition has a natural causal structure that can be represented diagrammatically and makes explicit gauge degrees of freedom between subsystems. Our framework also provides a novel quantum information perspective on lattice gauge theories and a method to gauge general quantum processes beyond Lagrangian formulations. This procedure admits a simple resource-theoretic interpretation, and thus offers a natural context in which features such as information flow and entanglement in gauge theories could be studied. The framework also provides a flexible toolkit with which to analyse the structure of general quantum processes. As an application, we make use of a polar decomposition' for quantum processes to discuss incompatibility in the use of quantum resources and to provide a novel perspective in terms of the geometry induced on the orbit of a local process under a symmetry action.
• What does it mean for one quantum process to be more disordered than another? Here we provide a precise answer to this question in terms of a quantum-mechanical generalization of majorization. The framework admits a complete description in terms of single-shot entropies, and provides a range of significant applications. These include applications to the comparison of quantum statistical models and quantum channels, to the resource theory of asymmetry, and to quantum thermodynamics. In particular, within quantum thermodynamics, we apply our results to provide the first complete set of of necessary and sufficient conditions for arbitrary quantum state transformation under thermodynamic processes, and which rigorously accounts for quantum-mechanical properties, such as coherence. Our framework of generalized thermal processes extends thermal operations, and is based on natural physical principles, namely, energy conservation, the existence of equilibrium states, and the requirement that quantum coherence be accounted for thermodynamically. In the zero coherence case we recover thermo-majorization while in the asymptotic coherence regime we obtain a constraint that takes the form of a Page-Wootters clock condition.
• In this paper we introduce a general fault-tolerant quantum error correction protocol using flag circuits for measuring stabilizers of arbitrary distance codes. Flag circuits use extra ancilla qubits to signal when errors resulting from $v$ faults in the circuit have weight greater than $v$. The flag error correction protocol is applicable to stabilizer codes of arbitrary distance which satisfy a set of conditions and uses fewer qubits than other schemes such as Shor, Steane and Knill error correction. We give examples of infinite code families which satisfy these conditions and analyze the behaviour of distance-three and -five examples numerically. Requiring fewer resources than Shor error correction, flag error correction could potentially be used in low-overhead fault-tolerant error correction protocols using low density parity check quantum codes of large code length.
• Jul 27 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1707.08456v1
Deterministic port-based teleportation (dPBT) protocol is a scheme where a quantum state is guaranteed to be transferred to another system without unitary correction. We characterize the best achievable performance of the dPBT when both the resource state and the measurement is optimized. Surprisingly, the best possible fidelity for an arbitrary number of ports and dimension of the teleported state is given by the largest eigenvalue of a particular matrix -- Teleportation Matrix. It encodes the relationship between a certain set of Young diagrams and emerges as the the optimal solution to the relevant semidefinite program.
• Performing entangling gates between physical qubits is necessary for building a large-scale universal quantum computer, but in some physical implementations - for example, those that are based on linear optics or networks of ion traps - entangling gates can only be implemented probabilistically. In this work, we study the fault-tolerant performance of a topological cluster state scheme with local non-deterministic entanglement generation, where failed entangling gates (which correspond to bonds on the lattice representation of the cluster state) lead to a defective three-dimensional lattice with missing bonds. We present two approaches for dealing with missing bonds; the first is a non-adaptive scheme that requires no additional quantum processing, and the second is an adaptive scheme in which qubits can be measured in an alternative basis to effectively remove them from the lattice, hence eliminating their damaging effect and leading to better threshold performance. We find that a fault-tolerance threshold can still be observed with a bond-loss rate of 6.5% for the non-adaptive scheme, and a bond-loss rate as high as 14.5% for the adaptive scheme.
• In this work, we investigate the possibility of compressing a quantum system to one of smaller dimension in a way that preserves the measurement statistics of a given set of observables. In this process, we allow for an arbitrary amount of classical side information. We find that the latter can be bounded, which implies that the minimal compression dimension is stable in the sense that it cannot be decreased by allowing for small errors. Various bounds on the minimal compression dimension are proven and an SDP-based algorithm for its computation is provided. The results are based on two independent approaches: an operator algebraic method using a fixed point result by Arveson and an algebro-geometric method that relies on irreducible polynomials and Bézout's theorem. The latter approach allows lifting the results from the single copy level to the case of multiple copies and from completely positive to merely positive maps.
• When two players achieve a superclassical score at a nonlocal game, their outputs must contain intrinsic randomness. This fact has many useful implications for quantum cryptography. Recently it has been observed (C. Miller, Y. Shi, Quant. Inf. & Comp. 17, pp. 0595-0610, 2017) that such scores also imply the existence of local randomness -- that is, randomness known to one player but not to the other. This has potential implications for cryptographic tasks between two cooperating but mistrustful players. In the current paper we bring this notion toward practical realization, by offering a near-optimal bound on local randomness for the CHSH game, and also proving the security of a cryptographic application of local randomness (single-bit certified deletion).
• We present the first security analysis of conference key agreement (CKA) in the most adversarial model of device independence (DI). Our protocol can be implemented by any experimental setup that is capable of performing Bell tests (specifically, the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) inequality), and security can in principle be obtained for any violation of the MABK inequality that detects genuine multipartite entanglement among the $N$ parties involved in the protocol. As our main tool, we derive a direct physical connection between the $N$-partite MABK inequality and the CHSH inequality, showing that certain violations of the MABK inequality correspond to a violation of the CHSH inequality between one of the parties and the other $N-1$. We compare the asymptotic key rate for DICKA to the case where the parties use $N-1$ DIQKD protocols in order to generate a common key. We show that for some regime of noise the DICKA protocol leads to better rates.
• Matrix Product States (MPS) are a particular type of one dimensional tensor network states, that have been applied to the study of numerous quantum many body problems. One of their key features is the possibility to describe and encode symmetries on the level of a single building block (tensor), and hence they provide a natural playground for the study of symmetric systems. In particular, recent works have proposed to use MPS (and higher dimensional tensor networks) for the study of systems with local symmetry that appear in the context of gauge theories. In this work we classify MPS which exhibit local invariance under arbitrary gauge groups. We study the respective tensors and their structure, revealing known constructions that follow known gauging procedures, as well as different, other types of possible gauge invariant states.
• Surface codes can protect quantum information stored in qubits from local errors as long as the per-operation error rate is below a certain threshold. Imperfect control is a main source of errors that make the threshold a challenging task. By harnessing quantum holonomy, here we propose a method to suppress the errors caused by imperfect control in surface codes. In our scheme, the holonomic gates are built via auxiliary qubits rather than the auxiliary levels in multi-level systems used in conventional holonomic quantum computation. The key advantage of our scheme is that the auxiliary qubits are in their ground state before and after each gate operation, so they are not involved in the operation cycles of surface codes. This provides a new and advantageous way to implement surface codes for fault-tolerant quantum computation.
• We demonstrate the existence of a finite temperature threshold for a 1D stabilizer code under an error correcting protocol that requires only a fraction of the syndrome measurements. Below the threshold temperature, encoded states have exponentially long lifetimes, as demonstrated by numerical and analytical arguments. We sketch how this algorithm generalizes to higher dimensional stabilizer codes with string-like excitations, like the toric code.
• Jul 27 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1707.08218v1
Maximum-entropy ensembles are key primitives in statistical mechanics from which thermodynamic properties can be derived. Over the decades, several approaches have been put forward in order to justify from minimal assumptions the use of these ensembles in statistical descriptions. However, there is still no full consensus on the precise reasoning justifying the use of such ensembles. In this work, we provide a new approach to derive maximum-entropy ensembles taking a strictly operational perspective. We investigate the set of possible transitions that a system can undergo together with an environment, when one only has partial information about both the system and its environment. The set of all these allowed transitions encodes thermodynamic laws and limitations on thermodynamic tasks as particular cases. Our main result is that the set of allowed transitions coincides with the one possible if both system and environment were assigned the maximum entropy state compatible with the partial information. This justifies the overwhelming success of such ensembles and provides a derivation without relying on considerations of typicality or information-theoretic measures.
• Aug 11 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1708.03215v1
We propose a method for stably removing known noise from measurements of a quantum state. The problem is cast to a linear inverse problem by using a quantum Fischer information metric as figure of merit. This requires the ability to compute the adjoint of the noise channel with respect to the metric, which can be done analytically when the metric is evaluated at a gaussian (quasi-free) state. This approach can be applied effectively to n-point functions of a quantum field theory. For translation invariant noise, this yields a stable deconvolution method on the first moments of the field which differs from what one would obtain from a purely classical analysis.
• Sampling from the output distribution of chaotic quantum evolutions, and of pseudo-random universal quantum circuits in particular, has been proposed as a prominent milestone for near-term quantum supremacy. The same paper notes that chaotic distributions are very sensitive to noise, and under quite general noise models converge to the uniform distribution over bit-strings exponentially in the number of gates. On the one hand, for increasing number of gates, it suffices to choose bit-strings at random to approximate the noisy distribution with fixed statistical distance. On the other hand, cross-entropy benchmarking can be used to gauge the fidelity of an experiment, and the distance to the uniform distribution. We estimate that state-of-the-art classical supercomputers would fail to simulate high-fidelity chaotic quantum circuits with approximately fifty qubits and depth forty. A recent interesting paper proposed a different approximation algorithm to a noisy distribution, extending previous results on the Fourier analysis of commuting quantum circuits. Using the statistical properties of the Porter-Thomas distribution, we show that this new approximation algorithm does not improve random guessing, in polynomial time. Therefore, it confirms previous results and does not represent an additional challenge to the suggested failure stated above.
• Simulating high-weight Hamiltonians can convert local noise on the original Hamiltonian into undesirable nonlocal noise on the simulated Hamiltonian. Here we show how starting from two-local Hamiltonian in the presence of non-Markovian noise, a desired computation can be simulated as well as protected using fast pulses, while maintaining an energy gap against the errors created in the process.
• This paper defines the amortized entanglement of a quantum channel as the largest difference in entanglement between the output and the input of the channel, where entanglement is quantified by an arbitrary entanglement measure. We prove that the amortized entanglement of a channel obeys several desirable properties, and we also consider special cases such as the amortized relative entropy of entanglement and the amortized Rains relative entropy. Of especial interest is a uniform continuity bound for these latter two special cases of amortized entanglement, in which the deviation between the amortized entanglement of two channels is bounded from above by a simple function of the diamond norm of their difference and the output dimension of the channels. We then define approximately teleportation- and positive-partial-transpose-simulable (PPT-simulable) channels as those that are close in diamond norm to a channel which is either exactly teleportation- or PPT-simulable, respectively. These results then lead to single-letter upper bounds on the secret-key-agreement and PPT-assisted quantum capacities of channels that are approximately teleportation- or PPT-simulable, respectively. Finally, we generalize many of the concepts in the paper to the setting of general resource theories, defining the amortized resourcefulness of a channel and the notion of $\nu$-freely-simulable channels, connecting these concepts in an operational way as well.
• Color-code quantum computation seamlessly combines Majorana-based hardware with topological error correction. Specifically, as Clifford gates are transversal in two-dimensional color codes, they enable the use of the Majoranas' nonabelian statistics for gate operations at the code level. Here, we discuss the implementation of color codes in arrays of Majorana nanowires that avoid branched networks such as T-junctions, thereby simplifying their realization. We show that, in such implementations, nonabelian statistics can be exploited without ever performing physical braiding operations. Physical braiding operations are replaced by Majorana tracking, an entirely software-based protocol which appropriately updates the Majoranas involved in the color-code stabilizer measurements. This approach minimizes the required hardware operations for single-qubit Clifford gates. For Clifford completeness, we combine color codes with surface codes, and use color-to-surface-code lattice surgery for long-range multi-target CNOT gates which have a time overhead that grows only logarithmically with the physical distance separating control and target qubits. With the addition of magic state distillation, our architecture describes a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer in systems such as networks of tetrons, hexons, or Majorana box qubits, but can also be applied to non-topological qubit platforms.
• Relativistic protocols have been proposed to overcome some impossibility results in classical and quantum cryptography. In such a setting, one takes the location of honest players into account, and uses the fact that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light to limit the abilities of dishonest agents. For example, various relativistic bit commitment protocols have been proposed. Although it has been shown that bit commitment is sufficient to construct oblivious transfer and thus multiparty computation, composing specific relativistic protocols in this way is known to be insecure. A composable framework is required to perform such a modular security analysis of construction schemes, but no known frameworks can handle models of computation in Minkowski space. By instantiating the systems model from the Abstract Cryptography framework with causal boxes, we obtain such a composable framework, in which messages are assigned a location in Minkowski space (or superpositions thereof). This allows us to analyze relativistic protocols, and derive novel possibility and impossibility results. We show that (1) coin flipping can be constructed from the primitive channel with delay, (2) biased coin flipping, bit commitment and channel with delay are all impossible without further assumptions, and (3) it is impossible to improve a channel with delay. This implies in particular non-composability of all proposed relativistic bit commitment protocols, as well as non-composability of (quantum, but non-relativistic) biased coin flipping protocols.
• Topological qubits based on $SU(N)$-symmetric valence-bond solid models are constructed. A logical topological qubit is the ground subspace with two-fold degeneracy, which is due to the spontaneous breaking of a global parity symmetry. A logical $Z$-rotation by angle $\frac{2\pi}{N}$, for any integer $N > 2$, is provided by a global twist operation, which is of topological nature and protected by the energy gap. A general concatenation scheme with standard quantum error-correction codes is also proposed, which can lead to better codes. Generic error-correction properties of symmetry-protected topological order are also demonstrated.
• Aug 01 2017 quant-ph arXiv:1707.09403v1
We present an algorithm for manipulating quantum information via a sequence of projective measurements. We frame this manipulation in the language of stabilizer codes: a quantum computation approach in which errors are prevented and corrected in part by repeatedly measuring redundant degrees of freedom. We show how to construct a set of projective measurements which will map between two arbitrary stabilizer codes. We show that this process preserves all quantum information. It can be used to implement Clifford gates, braid extrinsic defects, or move between codes in which different operations are natural.
• We demonstrate a method for general linear optical networks that allows one to factorize any SU($n$) matrix in terms of two SU($n-1)$ blocks coupled by an SU(2) entangling beam splitter. The process can be recursively continued in an efficient way, ending in a tidy arrangement of SU(2) transformations. The method hinges only on a linear relationship between input and output states, and can thus be applied to a variety of scenarios, such as microwaves, acoustics, and quantum fields.
• We present an example of a Thermal Operation for a system of $d>1$ energy levels, which cannot be performed without an instant access to the whole energy space. Pursuing the question about the decomposability of global Thermal Operations into convex combinations of processes acting non-trivially on smaller subspaces, we investigate the set of Thermal Operations for transitions within the subspace of states diagonal in the energy basis. For 3 level systems, we determine the set of extremal points of these operations and connect it with thermo-majorization criterion. In particular, we show that the structure of the set depends on temperature. Finally, we show the connection between a low temperature realization in 3 level systems of the non-decomposable operation introduced in the beginning with higher temperature extremal points.
• In this paper we consider some well-known facts in syntax from a physics perspective, which allows us to establish some remarkable equivalences. Specifically, we observe that the operation MERGE put forward by N. Chomsky in 1995 can be interpreted as a physical information coarse-graining. Thus, MERGE in linguistics entails information renormalization in physics, according to different time scales. We make this point mathematically formal in terms of language models, i.e., probability distributions over word sequences, widely used in natural language processing as well as other ambits. In this setting, MERGE corresponds to a 3-index probability tensor implementing a coarse-graining, akin to a probabilistic context-free grammar. The probability vectors of meaningful sentences are naturally given by tensor networks (TN) that are mostly loop-free, such as Tree Tensor Networks and Matrix Product States. These structures have short-ranged correlations in the syntactic distance by construction and, because of the peculiarities of human language, they are extremely efficient to manipulate computationally. We also propose how to obtain such language models from probability distributions of certain TN quantum states, which we show to be efficiently preparable by a quantum computer. Moreover, using tools from quantum information and entanglement theory, we use these quantum states to prove classical lower bounds on the perplexity of the probability distribution for a set of words in a sentence. Implications of these results are discussed in the ambits of theoretical and computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, programming languages, RNA and protein sequencing, quantum many-body systems, and beyond.
• We develop a unified approach to classical, quantum and post-quantum steering. The framework is based on uncharacterised (black-box) parties performing quantum measurements on their share of a (possibly unphysical) quantum state, and its starting point is the characterisation of general no-signalling assemblages via non-positive local hidden-state models. By developing a connection to entanglement witnesses, this formalism allows for new definitions of families of assemblages, in particular via (i) non-decomposable positive maps and (ii) unextendible product bases. The former proves to be useful for constructing post-quantum assemblages with the built-in feature of yielding only quantum correlations in Bell experiments, while the latter always gives certifiably post-quantum assemblages. Finally, our framework is equipped with an inherent quantifier of post-quantum steering, which we call the negativity of post-quantum steering. We postulate that post-quantum steering should not increase under one-way quantum operations from the steered parties to the steering parties, and we show that, in this sense, the negativity of post-quantum steering is a convex post-quantum-steering monotone.
• Algebraic number theory relates SIC-POVMs in dimension $d>3$ to those in dimension $d(d-2)$. We define a SIC in dimension $d(d-2)$ to be aligned to a SIC in dimension $d$ if and only if the squares of the overlap phases in dimension $d$ appear as a subset of the overlap phases in dimension $d(d-2)$ in a specified way. We give 19 (mostly numerical) examples of aligned SICs. We conjecture that given any SIC in dimension $d$ there exists an aligned SIC in dimension $d(d-2)$. In all our examples the aligned SIC has lower dimensional equiangular tight frames embedded in it. If $d$ is odd so that a natural tensor product structure exists, we prove that the individual vectors in the aligned SIC have a very special entanglement structure, and the existence of the embedded tight frames follows as a theorem. If $d-2$ is an odd prime number we prove that a complete set of mutually unbiased bases can be obtained by reducing an aligned SIC to this dimension.
• Thermodynamic irreversibility is well characterized by the entropy production arising from non-equilibrium quantum processes. We show that the entropy production of a quantum system undergoing open-system dynamics can be formally split into a term that only depends on population unbalances, and one that is underpinned by quantum coherences. The population unbalances are found to contribute to both an entropy flux and an entropy production rate. The decoherence, on the other hand, contributes only to the entropy production rate. This allows us to identify a genuine quantum contribution to the entropy production in non-equilibrium quantum processes. We make use of such a division to address the open-system dynamics of a spin $J$ particle, which we describe in phase space through a spin-coherent representation.
• Motivated by recent studies of holographic complexity, we examine the question of circuit complexity in quantum field theory. We provide a quantum circuit model for the preparation of Gaussian states, in particular the ground state, in a free scalar field theory for general dimensions. Applying the geometric approach of Nielsen to this quantum circuit model, the complexity of the state becomes the length of the shortest geodesic in the space of circuits. We compare the complexity of the ground state of the free scalar field to the analogous results from holographic complexity, and find some surprising similarities.
• To realize long-distance quantum communication and quantum network, it is required to have multiplexed quantum memory with many memory cells. Each memory cell needs to be individually addressable and independently accessible. Here we report an experiment that realizes a multiplexed DLCZ-type quantum memory with 225 individually accessible memory cells in a macroscopic atomic ensemble. As a key element for quantum repeaters, we demonstrate that entanglement with flying optical qubits can be stored into any neighboring memory cells and read out after a programmable time with high fidelity. Experimental realization of a multiplexed quantum memory with many individually accessible memory cells and programmable control of its addressing and readout makes an important step for its application in quantum information technology.
• We discuss the connection between the incompatibility of quantum measurements, as captured by the notion of joint measurability, and the violation of Bell inequalities. Specifically, we present explicitly a given a set of non jointly measurable POVMs $\mathcal{M}_A$ with the following property. Considering a bipartite Bell test where Alice uses $\mathcal{M}_A$, then for any possible shared entangled state $\rho$ and any set of (possibly infinitely many) POVMs $\mathcal{N}_B$ performed by Bob, the resulting statistics admits a local model, and can thus never violate any Bell inequality. This shows that quantum measurement incompatibility does not imply Bell nonlocality in general.
• We examine the task of privacy amplification from information-theoretic and coding-theoretic points of view. In the former, we give a one-shot characterization of the optimal rate of privacy amplification against classical adversaries in terms of the optimal type-II error in asymmetric hypothesis testing. The converse bound turns out to be tighter than previous bounds based on smooth min-entropy [Watanabe and Hayashi, ISIT 2013; arXiv:1211.5252 [cs.IT]]. In the latter, we show that protocols for privacy amplification based on linear codes can be easily repurposed for channel simulation. Combined with known relations between channel simulation and lossy source coding, this implies that privacy amplification can be understood as a basic primitive for both channel simulation and lossy compression. Applied to symmetric channels or lossy compression settings, our construction leads to protocols of optimal rate in the asymptotic i.i.d. limit. Finally, appealing to the notion of channel duality recently detailed by us in [arXiv:1701.05583 [quant-ph]], we show that linear error-correcting codes for symmetric channels with quantum output can be transformed into linear lossy source coding schemes for classical variables arising from the dual channel. This explains a "curious duality" in these problems for the (self-dual) erasure channel observed by Martinian and Yedidia [Allerton 2003; arXiv:cs/0408008] and partly anticipates recent results on optimal lossy compression by polar and low- density generator matrix codes.
• In the summer of 2016, physicists gathered in Torun, Poland for the 48th annual Symposium on Mathematical Physics. This Symposium was special; it celebrated the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation, which is widely used in quantum physics and quantum chemistry. This article forms part of a Special Volume of the journal Open Systems & Information Dynamics arising from that conference; and it aims to celebrate a related discovery -- also by Sudarshan -- that of Quantum Maps (which had their 55th anniversary in the same year). Nowadays, much like the master equation, quantum maps are ubiquitous in physics and chemistry. Their importance in quantum information and related fields cannot be overstated. In this manuscript, we motivate quantum maps from a tomographic perspective, and derive their well-known representations. We then dive into the murky world beyond these maps, where recent research has yielded their generalisation to non-Markovian quantum processes.
• In this work, we demonstrate a new way to perform classical multiparty computing amongst parties with limited computational resources. Our method harnesses quantum resources to increase the computational power of the individual parties. We show how a set of clients restricted to linear classical processing are able to jointly compute a non-linear multivariable function that lies beyond their individual capabilities. The clients are only allowed to perform classical XOR gates and single-qubit gates on quantum states. We also examine the type of security that can be achieved in this limited setting. Finally, we provide a proof-of-concept implementation using photonic qubits, that allows four clients to compute a specific example of a multiparty function, the pairwise AND.
• With qubit measurement and control fidelities above the threshold of fault-tolerance, much attention is moving towards the daunting task of scaling up the number of physical qubits to the large numbers needed for fault tolerant quantum computing. Here, quantum dot based spin qubits may offer significant advantages due to their potential for high densities, all-electrical operation, and integration onto an industrial platform. In this system, the initialisation, readout, single- and two-qubit gates have been demonstrated in various qubit representations. However, as seen with other small scale quantum computer demonstrations, combining these elements leads to new challenges involving qubit crosstalk, state leakage, calibration, and control hardware which provide invaluable insight towards scaling up. Here we address these challenges and demonstrate a programmable two-qubit quantum processor in silicon by performing both the Deutsch-Josza and the Grover search algorithms. In addition, we characterise the entanglement in our processor through quantum state tomography of Bell states measuring state fidelities between 85-89% and concurrences between 73-80%. These results pave the way for larger scale quantum computers using spins confined to quantum dots.
• Superconducting circuits rank among the most interesting architectures for the implementation of quantum information processing devices. The recently proposed 0-$\pi$ qubit [Brooks et al., Phys. Rev. A ${\bf 87}$, 52306 (2013)] promises increased protection from spontaneous relaxation and dephasing. In practice, this ideal behavior is only realized if the parameter dispersion among nominally identical circuit elements vanishes. In this paper we present a theoretical study of the more realistic scenario of slight variations in circuit elements. We discuss how the coupling to a spurious, low-energy mode affects the coherence properties of the 0-$\pi$ device, investigate the relevant decoherence channels, and present estimates for achievable coherence times in multiple parameter regimes.
• We investigate notions of complexity of states in continuous quantum-many body systems. We focus on Gaussian states which include ground states of free quantum field theories and their approximations encountered in the context of the continuous version of Multiscale Entanglement Renormalization Ansatz. Our proposal for quantifying state complexity is based on the Fubini-Study metric. It leads to counting the number of applications of each gate (infinitesimal generator) in the transformation, subject to a state-dependent metric. We minimize the defined complexity with respect to momentum preserving quadratic generators which form $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$ algebras. On the manifold of Gaussian states generated by these operations the Fubini-Study metric factorizes into hyperbolic planes with minimal complexity circuits reducing to known geodesics. Despite working with quantum field theories far outside the regime where Einstein gravity duals exist, we find striking similarities between our results and holographic complexity proposals.
• We introduce an infinite family of quantifiers of quantum correlations beyond entanglement which vanish on both classical-quantum and quantum-classical states and are in one-to-one correspondence with the quantum Fisher informations. More specifically, these quantifiers are defined as the maximum local quantum covariances over pairs of local observables with the same fixed equispaced spectrum. We show that these quantifiers are entanglement monotones when restricted to pure states of qubit-qudit systems. We also analytically evaluate these quantifiers for two-qubit systems and discuss their behaviour under local commutativity preserving channels. We finally provide a physical interpretation for the quantifier corresponding to the average of the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson informations.

Māris Ozols Aug 03 2017 09:34 UTC

If I'm not mistaken, what you describe here is equivalent to the [QR decomposition][1]. The matrices $R_{ij}$ that act non-trivially only in a two-dimensional subspace are known as [Givens rotations][2]. The fact that any $n \times n$ unitary can be decomposed as a sequence of Givens rotations is ex

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gae Jul 26 2017 21:19 UTC

For those interested in the literature on teleportation simulation of quantum channels, a detailed and *comprehensive* review is provided in Supplementary Note 8 of https://images.nature.com/original/nature-assets/ncomms/2017/170426/ncomms15043/extref/ncomms15043-s1.pdf
The note describes well the t

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Maciej Malinowski Jul 26 2017 15:56 UTC

In what sense is the ground state for large detuning ordered and antiferromagnetic? I understand that there is symmetry breaking, but other than that, what is the fundamental difference between ground states for large negative and large positive detunings? It seems to be they both exhibit some order

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Stefano Pirandola Jul 26 2017 15:28 UTC

The performance of the memory assisted MDI-QKD with "quasi-EPR" sources is remarkable. It improves the key rate by 5 orders of magnitude over the PLOB bound at about 600 km (take a look at Figure 4).

Māris Ozols Jul 26 2017 11:07 UTC

Conway's list still has four other \$1000 problems left:

https://oeis.org/A248380/a248380.pdf

SHUAI ZHANG Jul 26 2017 00:20 UTC

I am still working on improving this survey. If you have any suggestions, questions or find any mistakes, please do not hesitate to contact me: shuai.zhang@student.unsw.edu.au.

Alvaro M. Alhambra Jul 24 2017 16:10 UTC

This paper has just been updated and we thought it would be a good
idea to advertise it here. It was originally submitted a year ago, and
it has now been essentially rewritten, with two new authors added.

We have fixed some of the original results and now we:
-Show how some fundamental theorem

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Steve Flammia Jul 21 2017 13:43 UTC

Actually, there is even earlier work that shows this result. In [arXiv:1109.6887][1], Magesan, Gambetta, and Emerson showed that for any Pauli channel the diamond distance to the identity is equal to the trace distance between the associated Choi states. They prefer to phrase their results in terms

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Stefano Pirandola Jul 21 2017 09:43 UTC

This is very interesting. In my reading list!