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Wednesday 8 October

Quantum Physics

Software Framework for Optically Accessible Quantum Memory Using Group-IV Color Centers in Diamond

In the rapidly evolving field of quantum technology, the precise and detailed description of quantum components is not just a necessity but the foundation for advancing research, development, and applications. Optically accessible quantum memories are key building blocks for devices such as quantum repeaters and two-factor authentication. The memory we describe here is based on a tin-vacancy color center coupled to a highly efficient cavity. It leverages state-dependent reflection from the cavity and implements high-fidelity fractional single qubit gates via a train of optical $\pi/8$ pulses. We also describe its operation under microwave control, further extending our analysis. Our primary contribution in this work is the integration of this device model into a standardized software framework for quantum memory architectures.
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All authors Yannick Strocka, Mohamed Belhassen, Tim Schröder, Gregor Pieplow

Quantum Physics

Modular interface for efficient optical readout of diamond quantum memory at cryogenic temperatures via single-mode optical fibers

Efficient quantum devices across various physical systems have been rapidly developed for entanglement-based quantum repeaters and spin-photon conversion; however, far less attention has been paid to standardizing platforms through quantum memory optical interfaces. We present a modular interface for color centers in diamond that is structurally isolated from device-and temperature-related variation. Despite a more than 100-fold reduction in confocal volume, we achieve highly efficient photon collection through single-mode optical fibers, including zero-phonon line spectroscopy, at both room and cryogenic temperatures. These results establish a standardized minimal NV-center-based platform and pave the way for construction of scalable quantum infrastructure.
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All authors Akira Kamimaki, Yuhei Sekiguchi, Daisuke Ito, Taichi Fujiwara, Toshiharu Makino, Hiromitsu Kato, Hideo Kosaka

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Noninteracting tight-binding models for Fock parafermions

We model $p$-state Fock parafermions on a lattice in one dimension (with occupation per orbital of $0,1 , \ldots ,p-1$). For $p$ a composite number, they may be mapped to $q_m$-state parafermions where $q_m$ are the prime factors of $p$. For a Hamiltonian with a single-particle spectrum, the parafermions decompose into $q_m$-state parafermions. When $p$ is a power of two, the decomposition is into fermions. We use this to construct a parafermionic Hamiltonian for $p=4$ with a single-particle spectrum using a fermionic tight-binding model which is bilinear in creation and annihilation operators. The single-particle levels may be determined by diagonalizing a square matrix whose order scales linearly with system size, and they are the same as those of the fermionic model. We show that the intermediate statistics of the thermodynamic distribution function for the occupation numbers (known as Gentile statistics) are consistent with the mapping to fermions, and we provide an example calculation of the internal energy and heat capacity for a simple linear chain.
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Quantum Physics

Computational complexity of the homology problem with orientable filtration: MA-completeness

We show the existence of an MA-complete homology problem for a certain subclass of simplicial complexes. The problem is defined through a new concept of orientability of simplicial complexes that we call a "uniform orientable filtration", which is related to sign-problem freeness in homology. The containment in MA is achieved through the design of new, higher-order random walks on simplicial complexes associated with the filtration. For the MA-hardness, we design a new gadget with which we can reduce from an MA-hard stoquastic satisfiability problem. Therefore, our result provides the first natural MA-complete problem for higher-order random walks on simplicial complexes, combining the concepts of topology, persistent homology, and quantum computing.
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All authors Ryu Hayakawa, Casper Gyurik, Mahtab Yaghubi Rad, Vedran Dunjko

Quantum Physics

Realistic Threat Models for Fiber and Free-Space Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

Future global quantum communication networks, or quantum Internet, will realize high-rate secure communication and entanglement distribution for large-scale users over long distances. Continuous variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) provides a powerful setting for secure quantum communications, thanks to the use of room-temperature off-the-shelf optical devices and the potential to reach high rates. However, the achievable performance of CV-QKD protocols is fundamentally limited by the fact that they appear to be fragile to both loss and noise. In this study, we provide a general framework for analyzing the composable finite-size security of CV-QKD with Gaussian-modulated coherent-state protocol (GMCS) under various levels of trust for the loss and noise experienced by the users of the protocol. Our work is comprehensive of several practical scenarios, encompassing both active and passive eavesdropping configurations, with both wired (i.e., fiber-based) and wireless (i.e., free-space and satellite-based) quantum communication channels. Our numerical results evaluate the robustness of the GMCS protocol under varying levels of trust and demonstrate that it is difficult for a practical protocol to remain robust against untrusted loss at the transmitter. In the wireless case, we analyze a scenario with a sun-synchronous satellite, showing that its key distribution rate, even with the worst level of trust, can outperform a ground chain of ideal quantum repeaters. Our results indicate that, when it comes to engineering and optimizing quantum-safe networks, it is essential to mitigate the shortcomings caused by critical trade-offs between rate performance, trust level, system noise, and communication distance.
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Quantum Physics

Unitary Quantum Cellular Automata for Density Classification

We investigate the density classification task (DCT) – determining the majority bit in a one-dimensional binary lattice – within a quantum cellular automaton (CA) framework. While there is no one-dimensional two-state, radius $r \geq 1$, deterministic CA with periodic boundary conditions that solves the DCT perfectly, we explore whether a unitary quantum model can succeed. We employ the Partitioned Unitary Quantum Cellular Automaton (PUQCA), a number-conserving model, and, via evolutionary search, find solutions to the DCT where the success condition is stipulated in terms of measurement probabilities rather than convergence to fixed-point configurations. Finally, we identify a classically simulable regime of the PUQCA in which we find rules that solve the DCT at fixed system sizes and analyze their performance.
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All authors Pedro C. S. Costa, Yuval R. Sanders, Pedro Paulo Balbi, Gavin K. Brennen

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cs.LG

Fisher Information, Training and Bias in Fourier Regression Models

Motivated by the growing interest in quantum machine learning, in particular quantum neural networks (QNNs), we study how recently introduced evaluation metrics based on the Fisher information matrix (FIM) are effective for predicting their training and prediction performance. We exploit the equivalence between a broad class of QNNs and Fourier models, and study the interplay between the effective dimension and the bias of a model towards a given task, investigating how these affect the model's training and performance. We show that for a model that is completely agnostic, or unbiased, towards the function to be learned, a higher effective dimension likely results in a better trainability and performance. On the other hand, for models that are biased towards the function to be learned a lower effective dimension is likely beneficial during training. To obtain these results, we derive an analytical expression of the FIM for Fourier models and identify the features controlling a model's effective dimension. This allows us to construct models with tunable effective dimension and bias, and to compare their training. We furthermore introduce a tensor network representation of the considered Fourier models, which could be a tool of independent interest for the analysis of QNN models. Overall, these findings provide an explicit example of the interplay between geometrical properties, model-task alignment and training, which are relevant for the broader machine learning community.
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Quantum Physics

Physics-Informed Optimisation of Conveyor Mode Spin Qubit Transport

Scalable quantum information processing in spin-based architectures necessitates the a bility to reliably shuttle quantum states across extended device regions with minimal decoherence. In this work, we present a physics-informed algorithm for optimizing electrostatic bias equences that enable conveyor-mode electron transport in silicon-based quantum dot devices. Our approach combines self-consistent Poisson and Schrodinger solvers to maintain a constant ground state energy and enable near-constant velocity shuttling, with potential applicability to both single-electron and hole transport. We validate the algorithm across three representative technologies: Fully-Depleted Silicon on Insulator (FD-SOI), Silicon Metal-Oxide-Seminconductor (SiMOS) and Silicon-Germanium Heterostracture (Si/SiGe), highlighting key limitations and material-specific effects that influence transport fidelity. Our findings underscore the impact of gate geometry, dielectric interfaces, and quantum dot size on the stability of shuttling operations, and offer pathways toward improving coherence preservation in large-scale quantum systems.
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Quantum Physics

Expressive and Scalable Quantum Fusion for Multimodal Learning

The aim of this paper is to introduce a quantum fusion mechanism for multimodal learning and to establish its theoretical and empirical potential. The proposed method, called the Quantum Fusion Layer (QFL), replaces classical fusion schemes with a hybrid quantum-classical procedure that uses parameterized quantum circuits to learn entangled feature interactions without requiring exponential parameter growth. Supported by quantum signal processing principles, the quantum component efficiently represents high-order polynomial interactions across modalities with linear parameter scaling, and we provide a separation example between QFL and low-rank tensor-based methods that highlights potential quantum query advantages. In simulation, QFL consistently outperforms strong classical baselines on small but diverse multimodal tasks, with particularly marked improvements in high-modality regimes. These results suggest that QFL offers a fundamentally new and scalable approach to multimodal fusion that merits deeper exploration on larger systems.
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All authors Tuyen Nguyen, Trong Nghia Hoang, Phi Le Nguyen, Hai L. Vu, Truong Cong Thang

Quantum Physics

Local energy assignment for two interacting quantum thermal reservoirs

Understanding how to assign internal energy, heat, and work in quantum systems beyond weak coupling remains a central problem in quantum thermodynamics, particularly as the difference between competing definitions becomes increasingly relevant. We identify two common sets of definitions for first-law quantities that are used to describe the thermodynamics of quantum systems coupled to thermal environments. Both are conceptually non-symmetric, treating one part of the bipartition (the "system") differently from the other (the "bath"). We analyze these in a setting where such roles are not easily assigned - two large (but finite) sets of thermal harmonic oscillators interacting with each other. We further compare them with a third set of definitions based on a local, conceptually symmetric open-system approach ("minimal dissipation") and discuss their quantitative and structural differences. In particular, we observe that all three sets of definitions differ substantially even when the two subsystems are weakly coupled and far detuned, and that the minimal dissipation approach features distinct work peaks that increase with the coupling strength.
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Quantum Physics

Quantum Sparse Recovery and Quantum Orthogonal Matching Pursuit

We study quantum sparse recovery in non-orthogonal, overcomplete dictionaries: given coherent quantum access to a state and a dictionary of vectors, the goal is to reconstruct the state up to $\ell_2$ error using as few vectors as possible. We first show that the general recovery problem is NP-hard, ruling out efficient exact algorithms in full generality. To overcome this, we introduce Quantum Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (QOMP), the first quantum analogue of the classical OMP greedy algorithm. QOMP combines quantum subroutines for inner product estimation, maximum finding, and block-encoded projections with an error-resetting design that avoids iteration-to-iteration error accumulation. Under standard mutual incoherence and well-conditioned sparsity assumptions, QOMP provably recovers the exact support of a $K$-sparse state in polynomial time. As an application, we give the first framework for sparse quantum tomography with non-orthogonal dictionaries in $\ell_2$ norm, achieving query complexity $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{N}/\epsilon)$ in favorable regimes and reducing tomography to estimating only $K$ coefficients instead of $N$ amplitudes. In particular, for pure-state tomography with $m=O(N)$ dictionary vectors and sparsity $K=\widetilde{O}(1)$ on a well-conditioned subdictionary, this circumvents the $\widetilde{\Omega}(N/\epsilon)$ lower bound that holds in the dense, orthonormal-dictionary setting, without contradiction, by leveraging sparsity together with non-orthogonality. Beyond tomography, we analyze QOMP in the QRAM model, where it yields polynomial speedups over classical OMP implementations, and provide a quantum algorithm to estimate the mutual incoherence of a dictionary of $m$ vectors in $O(m/\epsilon)$ queries, improving over both deterministic and quantum-inspired classical methods.
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Quantum Physics

The Knowledge Complexity of Quantum Problems

Foundational results in theoretical computer science have established that everything provable, is provable in zero knowledge. However, this assertion fundamentally assumes a classical interpretation of computation and many interesting physical statements that one can hope to prove are not characterized. In this work, we consider decision problems, where the problem instance itself is specified by a (pure) quantum state. We discuss several motivating examples for this notion and, as our main technical result, we show that every quantum problem that is provable with an interactive protocol, is also provable in zero-knowledge. Our protocol achieves unconditional soundness and computational zero-knowledge, under standard assumptions in cryptography. In addition, we show how our techniques yield a protocol for the Uhlmann transformation problem that achieves a meaningful notion of zero-knowledge, also in the presence of a malicious verifier.
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Quantum Physics

Optimizing LOCC Protocols on Product Stiefel Manifold

Characterizing the operational limits of Local Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC) is a central problem in distributed quantum information, yet remains computationally intractable due to the non-convex geometry of the LOCC set. We introduce a geometric framework that embeds the physical constraints of fixed-round LOCC protocols onto the product Stiefel manifold, converting a constrained protocol-design problem into unconstrained Riemannian optimization. We demonstrate this framework through entanglement distillation: by directly optimizing finite-copy LOCC protocols, we discover achievable protocols whose fidelities match positive partial transpose (PPT) upper bounds to within numerical precision, and we provide numerical evidence for both the operational advantage of adaptive communication rounds and the super-additivity of coherent information under two-way processing. These results establish Riemannian manifold optimization as a practical tool for probing the physical limits of future quantum networks.
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Quantum Physics

Nonlinear photonic architecture for fault-tolerant quantum computing

We propose a novel architecture for fault-tolerant quantum computing that incorporates strong single-photon nonlinearities into a photonic GHZ-measurement-based architecture. The nonlinearities substantially reduce resource overheads compared to conventional linear-optics-based architectures, which require significant redundancy to accommodate probabilistic photon generation and probabilistic entangling operations. By removing linear-optical failure modes, our nonlinear architecture can also tolerate much higher optical losses than linear approaches, with a baseline loss tolerance of $\sim$12% using a 32-photon resource state and a foliated surface code. Nonlinear photonic architectures provide a route to dramatically improving practical implementations of fault-tolerant quantum computing.
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Quantum Physics

On the emergence of quantum Darwinism and pointer states for non-commuting evolutions

Quantum systems achieve objectivity by redundantly encoding information about themselves into the surrounding environment, through a mechanism known as quantum Darwinism. When this happens, observes measure the environment and infer the system to be in one of its pointer states. We study the emergence of objectivity whenever the Hamiltonian of the system and the interaction Hamiltonian between system and environment do not commute, a condition which is thought to be incompatible with the presence of pointer states. We show that, not only non-commuting evolutions allow for the emergence of objective states, but it is possible to give a more relaxed definition of pointer states, that is always well defined whenever there is redundancy of information, and coincides with the usual one for commuting evolutions.
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Quantum Physics

Mirrored Entanglement Witnesses for Multipartite and High-Dimensional Quantum Systems

Entanglement witnesses (EWs) are a versatile tool to detect entangled states and characterize related properties of entanglement in quantum information theory. A witness $W$ corresponds to an observable satisfying $\mathrm{tr}[W\sigma_{\mathrm{sep}}]\geq 0$ for all separable states $\sigma_{\mathrm{sep}}$; entangled states are detected once the inequality is violated. Recently, mirrored EWs have been introduced by showing that there exist non-trivial upper bounds to EWs, \begin{eqnarray} u_W\geq \mathrm{tr}[W\sigma_{\mathrm{sep}}]\geq 0. \nonumber \end{eqnarray} An upper bound to a witness $W$ signifies the existence of the other one $M$, called a mirrored EW, such that $W+M = u_W I \otimes I$. The framework of mirrored EWs shows that a single EW can be even more useful, as it can detect a larger set of entangled states by lower and upper bounds. In this work, we develop and investigate mirrored EWs for multipartite qubit states and also for high-dimensional systems, to find the efficiency and effectiveness of mirrored EWs in detecting entangled states. We provide mirrored EWs for $n$-partite GHZ states, graph states such as two-colorable states, and tripartite bound entangled states. We also show that optimal EWs can be reflected with each other. For bipartite systems, we present mirrored EWs for existing optimal EWs and also construct a mirrored pair of optimal EWs in dimension three. Finally, we generalize mirrored EWs such that a pair of EWs can be connected by another EW, i.e., $W+M =K$ is also an EW. Our results enhance the capability of EWs to detect a larger set of entangled states in multipartite and high-dimensional quantum systems.
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All authors Jiheon Seong, Anindita Bera, Beatrix C. Hiesmayr, Dariusz Chruscinski, Joonwoo Bae

Quantum Physics

Randomized Quantum Singular Value Transformation

We introduce the first randomized algorithms for Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT), a unifying framework for many quantum algorithms. Standard implementations of QSVT rely on block encodings of the Hamiltonian, which are costly to construct, requiring a logarithmic number of ancilla qubits, intricate multi-qubit control, and circuit depth scaling linearly with the number of Hamiltonian terms. In contrast, our algorithms use only a single ancilla qubit and entirely avoid block encodings. We develop two methods: (i) a direct randomization of QSVT, where block encodings are replaced by importance sampling, and (ii) an approach that integrates qDRIFT into the generalized quantum signal processing framework, with the dependence on precision exponentially improved through classical extrapolation. Both algorithms achieve gate complexity independent of the number of Hamiltonian terms, a hallmark of randomized methods, while incurring only quadratic dependence on the degree of the target polynomial. We identify natural parameter regimes where our methods outperform even standard QSVT, making them promising for early fault-tolerant quantum devices. We also establish a fundamental lower bound showing that the quadratic dependence on the polynomial degree is optimal within this framework. We apply our framework to two fundamental tasks: solving quantum linear systems and estimating ground-state properties of Hamiltonians, obtaining polynomial advantages over prior randomized algorithms. Finally, we benchmark our ground-state property estimation algorithm on electronic structure Hamiltonians and the transverse-field Ising model with long-range interactions. In both cases, our approach outperforms prior work by several orders of magnitude in circuit depth, establishing randomized QSVT as a practical and resource-efficient alternative for early fault-tolerant quantum devices.
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All authors Xinzhao Wang, Yuxin Zhang, Soumyabrata Hazra, Tongyang Li, Changpeng Shao, Shantanav Chakraborty

Quantum Physics

Reconquering Bell sampling on qudits: stabilizer learning and testing, quantum pseudorandomness bounds, and more

Bell sampling is a simple yet powerful tool based on measuring two copies of a quantum state in the Bell basis, and has found applications in a plethora of problems related to stabiliser states and measures of magic. However, it was not known how to generalise the procedure from qubits to $d$-level systems – qudits – for all dimensions $d > 2$ in a useful way. Indeed, a prior work of the authors (arXiv'24) showed that the natural extension of Bell sampling to arbitrary dimensions fails to provide meaningful information about the quantum states being measured. In this paper, we overcome the difficulties encountered in previous works and develop a useful generalisation of Bell sampling to qudits of all $d\geq 2$. At the heart of our primitive is a new unitary, based on Lagrange's four-square theorem, that maps four copies of any stabiliser state $|\mathcal{S}\rangle$ to four copies of its complex conjugate $|\mathcal{S}^\ast\rangle$ (up to some Pauli operator), which may be of independent interest. We then demonstrate the utility of our new Bell sampling technique by lifting several known results from qubits to qudits for any $d\geq 2$: 1. Learning stabiliser states in $O(n^3)$ time with $O(n)$ samples; 2. Solving the Hidden Stabiliser Group Problem in $\tilde{O}(n^3/\varepsilon)$ time with $\tilde{O}(n/\varepsilon)$ samples; 3. Testing whether $|\psi\rangle$ has stabiliser size at least $d^t$ or is $\varepsilon$-far from all such states in $\tilde{O}(n^3/\varepsilon)$ time with $\tilde{O}(n/\varepsilon)$ samples; 4. Clifford circuits with at most $n/2$ single-qudit non-Clifford gates cannot prepare pseudorandom states; 5. Testing whether $|\psi\rangle$ has stabiliser fidelity at least $1-\varepsilon_1$ or at most $1-\varepsilon_2$ with $O(d^2\varepsilon_2/(\varepsilon_2-\varepsilon_1)^2)$ samples if $\varepsilon_1 = O(\varepsilon_2/d^{2})$.
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All authors Jonathan Allcock, Joao F. Doriguello, Gábor Ivanyos, Miklos Santha

Quantum Physics

A Quantum Linear Systems Pathway for Solving Differential Equations

We present a systematic pathway for solving differential equations within the quantum linear systems framework by combining block encoding with Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT). The approach is demonstrated on a complex tridiagonal linear system and extended to problems in computational fluid dynamics: the heat equation with mixed boundary conditions and Carleman-linearized nonlinear Burgers' equation. Our scaling analysis of the heat equation identifies regimes where classical computation remains feasible and estimates circuit depths required to achieve potential quantum advantage. We further evaluate post-selection success probabilities for the presented examples and provide hardware resource estimates for block encoding and QSVT circuits in terms of two-qubit gate depth, evaluated on IBM superconducting processors with heavy-hex and square lattice topologies. These results highlight both the practical limitations of current hardware and key directions for depth reduction and scalable quantum linear solvers.
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Quantum Physics

Quantum Computing Methods for Malware Detection

In this paper, we explore the potential of quantum computing in enhancing malware detection through the application of Quantum Machine Learning (QML). Our main objective is to investigate the performance of the Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) algorithm compared to SVM. A publicly available dataset containing raw binaries of Portable Executable (PE) files was used for the classification. The QSVM algorithm, incorporating quantum kernels through different feature maps, was implemented and evaluated on a local simulator within the Qiskit SDK and IBM quantum computers. Experimental results from simulators and quantum hardware provide insights into the behavior and performance of quantum computers, especially in handling large-scale computations for malware detection tasks. The work summarizes the practical experience with using quantum hardware via the Qiskit interfaces. We describe in detail the critical issues encountered, as well as the fixes that had to be developed and applied to the base code of the Qiskit Machine Learning library. These issues include missing transpilation of the circuits submitted to IBM Quantum systems and exceeding the maximum job size limit due to the submission of all the circuits in one job.
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Quantum Physics

Near-Asymptotically-Good Quantum Codes with Transversal CCZ Gates and Sublinear-Weight Parity-Checks

It is a major challenge to construct good quantum codes supporting fault-tolerant (e.g. transversal) non-Clifford gates with low-weight parity-check measurements. In this paper, we construct the first known quantum codes with linear dimension and distance supporting transversal non-Clifford gates that have sublinear locality (i.e. parity-check weight). Specifically, we construct codes with transversal $CCZ$ gates that have dimension and distance $\Theta(N)$ and locality $O(\sqrt{N})$, where $N$ denotes the block length. We furthermore design an efficient decoding algorithm for these codes. The alphabet size of these codes is $q=\Theta(\sqrt{N})$, but it can be reduced to a constant (e.g. $q=2$) while incurring a polylogarithmic loss in other parameters. We also show how to decrease the locality to $O(N^{1/3})$, albeit with a larger alphabet size and slightly lower distance. We construct these codes as products of classical codes with appropriate algebraic structure. While our quantum codes are subsystem codes with non-commuting gauge operators, we show they nevertheless permit error correction from noisy syndrome measurements. As byproducts, we prove multiple technical results of independent interest. In particular, our efficient decoder can be viewed as a new multivariate generalization of Prony's method for reconstructing a function from partial access to its Fourier transform. Meanwhile, our distance analysis involves new connections to the classical study of maximally recoverable codes. Our results on product codes also resolve a conjecture of Bravyi & Hastings (2014) in the large-alphabet regime, by providing a new construction of quantum codes with dimension and distance $\Theta(N)$ and locality $N^\epsilon$ for arbitrary $\epsilon>0$.
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Quantum Physics

On the complexity of estimating ground state entanglement and free energy

Understanding the entanglement structure of local Hamiltonian ground spaces is a physically motivated problem, with applications ranging from tensor network design to quantum error-correcting codes. To this end, we study the complexity of estimating ground state entanglement, and more generally entropy estimation for low energy states and Gibbs states. We find, in particular, that the classes qq-QAM [Kobayashi, le Gall, Nishimura, SICOMP 2019] (a quantum analogue of public-coin AM) and QMA(2) (QMA with unentangled proofs) play a crucial role for such problems, showing: (1) Detecting a high-entanglement ground state is qq-QAM-complete, (2) computing an additive error approximation to the Helmholtz free energy (equivalently, a multiplicative error approximation to the partition function) is in qq-QAM, (3) detecting a low-entanglement ground state is QMA(2)-hard, and (4) detecting low energy states which are close to product states can range from QMA-complete to QMA(2)-complete. Our results make progress on an open question of [Bravyi, Chowdhury, Gosset and Wocjan, Nature Physics 2022] on free energy, and yield the first QMA(2)-complete Hamiltonian problem using local Hamiltonians (cf. the sparse QMA(2)-complete Hamiltonian problem of [Chailloux, Sattath, CCC 2012]).
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Quantum Physics

Breaking the Treewidth Barrier in Quantum Circuit Simulation with Decision Diagrams

Classical simulation of quantum circuits is a critical tool for validating quantum hardware and probing the boundary between classical and quantum computational power. Existing state-of-the-art methods, notably tensor network approaches, have computational costs governed by the treewidth of the underlying circuit graph, making circuits with large treewidth intractable. This work rigorously analyzes FeynmanDD, a decision diagram-based simulation method proposed in CAV 2025 by a subset of the authors, and shows that the size of the multi-terminal decision diagram used in FeynmanDD is exponential in the linear rank-width of the circuit graph. As linear rank-width can be substantially smaller than treewidth and is at most larger than the treewidth by a logarithmic factor, our analysis demonstrates that FeynmanDD outperforms all tensor network-based methods for certain circuit families. We also show that the method remains efficient if we use the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm to expand arbitrary single-qubit gates to sequences of Hadamard and T gates, essentially removing the gate-set restriction posed by the method.
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All authors Bin Cheng, Ziyuan Wang, Ruixuan Deng, Jianxin Chen, Zhengfeng Ji

Quantum Physics

Theoretical Guarantees of Variational Quantum Algorithm with Guiding States

Machine learning provides a powerful framework for predicting ground-state properties across families of quantum many-body problems, enabling amortized inference and reducing the cost of repeated simulations. Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) are promising candidates for implementing such learnable solvers on quantum computers, yet rigorous guarantees for convergence and generalization remain scarce. Motivated by the fact that standard quantum phase estimation (QPE) provides provable performance when given a guiding state with non-trivial overlap with the ground state, we introduce a variational quantum algorithm with guiding states aiming towards predicting ground-state properties of quantum many-body systems. We then develop a proof technique-the linearization trick-that maps the training dynamics of the algorithm to those of a kernel model. This connection yields theoretical guarantees on both convergence and generalization for the VQA under the guiding state assumption. Our analysis shows that guiding states facilitate convergence, suppress finite-size error terms, and ensure stability across system dimensions. Finally, we validate our findings with numerical experiments on 2D random Heisenberg models.
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Quantum Physics

Constant-Overhead Addressable Gates via Single-Shot Code Switching

It is a major challenge to perform addressable and parallel logical operations on constant-rate quantum LDPC (qLDPC) codes. Indeed, the overhead of targeting specific logical qubits represents a crucial bottleneck in many quantum fault-tolerance schemes. We introduce fault-tolerant protocols for performing various addressable as well as parallel logical operations with constant space-time overhead, on a family of constant-rate and polynomial-distance qLDPC codes. Specifically, we construct gadgets for a large class of permutations of logical qubits. We apply these logical permutations to construct gadgets for applying a targeted Hadamard (or $CNOT$) gate on any chosen logical qubit (pair). We also construct gadgets for preparing logical code states, and for applying Hadamard gates on all logical qubits in a codeblock. All of our gadgets use constant quantum space-time overhead along with polynomially bounded classical computation. Prior protocols for such operations required larger overhead, or else relied on codes with certain symmetries that lack known asymptotic constructions. Our codes are given by tensor products of classical codes constructed from lossless expander graphs. Our core technical contribution is a constant-overhead code-switching procedure between 2- and 3-dimensional product codes, which generalizes Bombin's dimensional jump (arXiv:1412.5079). We prove that all of our gadgets exhibit a constant threshold under locally stochastic noise. Along the way, we develop a small-set flip decoder for high-dimensional product codes from lossless expanders. Our techniques yield additional interesting consequences, such as single-shot state preparation of 2-dimensional product codes with constant space-time overhead. We also propose a method for performing parallel non-Clifford gates by extending our techniques to codes supporting transversal application of such gates.
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Quantum Physics

Fast-forwardable Lindbladians imply quantum phase estimation

Quantum phase estimation (QPE) and Lindbladian dynamics are both foundational in quantum information science and central to quantum algorithm design. In this work, we bridge these two concepts: certain simple Lindbladian processes can be adapted to perform QPE-type tasks. However, unlike QPE, which achieves Heisenberg-limit scaling, these Lindbladian evolutions are restricted to standard quantum limit complexity. This indicates that, different from Hamiltonian dynamics, the natural dissipative evolution speed of such Lindbladians does not saturate the fundamental quantum limit, thereby suggesting the potential for quadratic fast-forwarding. We confirm this by presenting a quantum algorithm that simulates these Lindbladians for time $t$ within an error $\varepsilon$ using $\mathcal{O}\left(\sqrt{t\log(\varepsilon^{-1})}\right)$ cost, whose mechanism is fundamentally different from the fast-forwarding examples of Hamiltonian dynamics. As a bonus, this fast-forwarded simulation naturally serves as a new Heisenberg-limit QPE algorithm. Therefore, our work explicitly bridges the standard quantum limit-Heisenberg limit transition to the fast-forwarding of dissipative dynamics. We also adopt our fast-forwarding algorithm for efficient Gibbs state preparation and demonstrate the counter-intuitive implication: the allowance of a quadratically accelerated decoherence effect under arbitrary Pauli noise.
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All authors Zhong-Xia Shang, Naixu Guo, Patrick Rebentrost, Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Tongyang Li, Qi Zhao

Quantum Physics

Advantages of Global Entanglement-Distillation Policies in Quantum Repeater Chains

Quantum repeaters are essential for achieving long-distance quantum communication due to photon loss, which grows exponentially with the channel distance. Current quantum repeater generations use entanglement distillation protocols, where the decision of when to perform distillation depends on either local or global knowledge. Recent approaches for quantum repeaters, such as Mantri et al. (arXiv:2409.06152), consider using deterministic local decision policies for entanglement distillation. We ask whether global deterministic policies outperform local ones in terms of communication rate. We simulate equidistant repeater chains, assisted by two-way classical communication, and compare local and global policies for distillation decisions, spanning large distances and varying network and hardware parameters. Our findings show that global deterministic policies consistently outperform these local ones, and in some cases, determine whether secret communication is possible. For large repeater chains ($N>512$), global policies improve SKR by two orders of magnitude. These results suggest that local distillation decisions in quantum repeater chains may not be optimal, and may inform future protocol design.
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Quantum Physics

Continuous measurement-based holonomic quantum computation

We propose a scheme to generate holonomies using the Quantum Zeno effect, enabling logical unitary operations on quantum stabilizer codes purely through measurements. The quantum error-correcting code space is adiabatically rotated by measuring a succession of rotated stabilizer generators. When the rotation is sufficiently slow, the state remains confined to the instantaneous code space by the Zeno effect; otherwise, measurement-induced jumps can occur into a rotated orthogonal subspace. If the rotation completes a closed loop, the code state is transformed by a holonomy: a logical unitary transformation. We analytically derive the sequence of rotated stabilizer generators that produce a desired holonomy, and find the total time required to implement this procedure with a given success probability. If a measurement moves the state to the orthogonal subspace, we present a method to alter the path of the rotated observables to return the state either to the original code or the original error space with the desired holonomy; in the latter case, the holonomy is emulated. Finally, we establish conditions on the code and the measured observables that preserve the correctability of a given error set. When a code fails to meet the error-correcting conditions, our protocol can be applicable by augmenting the code with ancilla qubits.
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Quantum Physics

State preparation and symmetries

We demonstrate the importance of symmetries in Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithms to prepare the ground or specific low-lying states of quantum Hamiltonians. We examine two spin problems, one with random all-to-all couplings inspired by neutrino flavor evolution in supernovae, and the standard Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian on a $4 \times 3$ lattice. The neutrino Hamiltonian has the total spin $J$ and third component $J_{\rm{z}}$ as its only symmetries. The Heisenberg model has these symmetries plus translational invariance and reflection symmetry. We demonstrate that the convergence of variational methods is dramatically improved by keeping all symmetries. In both cases a nearly exact solution can be obtained in cases where standard unconstrained variational algorithms fail. Since variational algorithms can use standard Trotter steps as part of the optimization, allowing additional correlations that obey all the symmetries of the Hamiltonian will speed convergence of variational algorithms. This will lead to faster convergence than standard projection algorithms.
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All authors Ivana Miháliková, Joseph Carlson, Duff Neill, Ionel Stetcu

Quantum Physics

Layer codes as partially self-correcting quantum memories

We investigate layer codes, a family of three-dimensional stabilizer codes that can achieve optimal scaling of code parameters and a polynomial energy barrier, as candidates for self-correcting quantum memories. First, we introduce two decoding algorithms for layer codes with provable guarantees for local stochastic and adversarial noise, respectively. We then prove that layer codes constitute partially self-correcting quantum memories which outperform previously analyzed models such as the cubic code and the welded solid code. Notably, we argue that partial self-correction without the requirement of efficient decoding is more common than expected, as it arises solely from a diverging energy barrier. This draws a sharp distinction between partially self-correcting systems and partially self-correcting memories. Another novel aspect of our work is an analysis of layer codes constructed from random Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes. We show that these random layer codes have optimal scaling (up to logarithmic corrections) of code parameters and a polynomial energy barrier. Finally, we present numerical studies of their memory times and report behavior consistent with partial self-correction.
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All authors Shouzhen Gu, Libor Caha, Shin Ho Choe, Zhiyang He, Aleksander Kubica, Eugene Tang