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Thursday 5 March

Quantum Physics

Local strategies are pretty good at computing Boolean properties of quantum sequences

Quantum memory is a scarce and costly resource, yet little is known about which learning tasks remain feasible under severe memory constraints. We study the problem of computing global properties of quantum sequences when quantum systems must be measured individually, without storing or jointly processing them. In our setting, a bit string $x \in \{0,1\}^n$ is encoded into an $n$-qubit product state $|\psi_{x_1}\rangle \otimes \cdots \otimes |\psi_{x_n}\rangle$, and the goal is to infer $f(x) \in \{0,1\}$ from measurements of this quantum encoding. We consider a simple local strategy, which we call the greedy strategy, that applies the same optimal single-system measurement independently to each subsystem and then infers $f(x)$ from the outcomes. Our main result gives a complete characterization of when the greedy strategy is optimal: it achieves the same maximum success probability as an unrestricted global measurement if and only if the target Boolean function is affine (in all but finitely many cases). We establish a universal performance guarantee for general Boolean functions, showing that the success probability of the greedy strategy is always at least the square of the optimal global success probability, in direct analogy with the Barnum-Knill bound for the pretty good measurement. These results demonstrate that even under extreme memory constraints, simple local measurement strategies can remain provably competitive for learning global properties of quantum sequences.
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All authors Tathagata Gupta, Ankith Mohan, Shayeef Murshid, Vincent Russo, Jamie Sikora, Alice Zheng

Quantum Physics

Measurement Induced Asymmetric Entanglement in a Deconfined Quantum Critical Ground State

In this work, we numerically study the effect of weak measurement on deconfined quantum critical point(DQCP). Particularly, we consider the ground state of an one-dimensional spin $1/2$ system with next-nearest-neighbour exchange interactions($K$), which shows analogues phase transition to DQCP in the thermodynamic limit. This system is in the ferromagnetic phase below the critical exchange interaction $K_c$ and in the valance bond solid phase above $K_c$. The weak measurement is carried out by coupling a secondary ancilla system to the critical system via unitary interactions and later measuring the ancilla spins projectively. We numerically calculate entanglement entropy,correlation length, and order parameters of leading post-measurement states using uniform matrix product state representation of the quantum many-body state in the thermodynamic limit. We report asymmetric restructuring of entanglement of the post measurement states across the phase boundary under weak measurements. Especially, the trajectory $\left(\downarrow \downarrow\right)$ describing a uniform measurement outcome given the all ancilla spins initiated in the same $\left(\downarrow \right)$ state, shows anomalous entanglement when increasing the strength of weak measurement. The bipartite entanglement entropy strongly increases when $K<K_c$ whereas it weakly decreases when $K>K_c$. We argue with numerical evidences that observed asymmetry in entanglement would lead to a weak first order phase boundary in the thermodynamic limit. We also discuss important aspects in experimental observation of measurement induced effects linked to the strength of weak measurement and probability of post-measurement states.
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Quantum Physics

Extreme Quantum Cognition Machines for Deliberative Decision Making

We introduce Extreme Quantum Cognition Machines, a class of quantum learning architectures for deliberative decision making designed to operate under coarse-grained, ambiguous, and potentially contradictory information. Inspired by the quantum cognition paradigm, Extreme Quantum Cognition Machines are closely related to quantum extreme learning and quantum reservoir computing, where fixed quantum dynamics generates a nonlinear feature map and learning is confined to a linear readout. A dynamical attention mechanism, implemented through an input-dependent interaction term in the Hamiltonian, modulates the quantum evolution and biases the resulting feature embedding toward task-relevant correlations. The approach is validated on linguistic classification tasks, which serve as paradigmatic examples of deliberative inference. Hardware-compatible quantum implementations of the proposed framework are discussed, together with potential applications in symbolic inference, sequence analysis, anomaly detection, and automatic diagnosis, with direct relevance to domains such as biology, forensics, and cybersecurity.
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Quantum Physics

Constant-depth magic state cultivation with Clifford measurements by gauging

Magic states are a scarce resource for two-dimensional qubit stabilizer codes. Magic state cultivation was recently proposed to reduce the cost of magic state preparation by measuring the transversal Clifford operator of the color code. Cultivation achieves $\sim 10^{-9}$ logical error rates for the $d=5$ color code, with substantially lower space-time overhead than magic state distillation. However, due to the $\mathcal{O}(d)$ depth of the Clifford measurement circuit, magic state cultivation becomes impractical for $d>5$. Here, we perform logical $XS^\dagger$ measurements on the color code by gauging a transversal Clifford gate, resulting in a constant-depth logical measurement circuit. We employ repeated gauging measurements with post-selection rather than performing error correction on the Clifford stabilizer code that emerges during the gauging protocol, thus gaining simplicity at the cost of scalability. Our protocol requires a regular square grid connectivity and yields logical error rates comparable to magic state cultivation. The $d=7$ version of our protocol gives access to the $10^{-12}$ logical error rate regime at $0.05\%$ physical error rate while retaining more than $1\%$ of the shots after the equivalent of the cultivation stage.
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Quantum Physics

Optimal Decoding with the Worm

We propose a new decoder for "matchable” qLDPC codes that uses a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm - called the worm algorithm - to approximately compute the probabilities of logical error classes given a syndrome. The algorithm hence performs (approximate) optimal decoding, and we expect it to be computationally efficient in certain settings. The algorithm is applicable to decoding random errors for the surface code, the honeycomb Floquet code, and hyperbolic surface codes with constant rate, in all cases with and without measurement errors. The efficiency of the decoder hinges on the mixing time of the underlying Markov chain. We give a rigorous mixing time guarantee in terms of a quantity that we call the defect susceptibility. We connect this quantity to the notion of disorder operators in statistical mechanics and use this to argue (non-rigorously) that the algorithm is efficient for typical errors in the entire decodable phase. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of the worm decoder numerically by applying it to the surface code with measurement errors as well as a family of hyperbolic surface codes. For most codes, the matchability condition restricts direct application of our decoder to noise models with independent bit-flip, phase-flip, and measurement errors. However, our decoder returns soft information which makes it useful also in heuristic "correlated decoding” schemes which work beyond this simple setting. We demonstrate this by simulating decoding of the surface code under depolarizing noise, and we find that the threshold for "correlated worm decoding” is substantially higher than for both minimum-weight perfect matching and for correlated matching.
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Quantum Physics

Interleaved Benchmarking with Single-Qubit References

Cross-entropy benchmarking (XEB) with single-qubit reference sequences is widely used to characterize multi-qubit gates in large-scale quantum processors, despite the lack of a rigorous theoretical justification. Here we show that the commonly employed additive single-qubit errors approximation underlying this approach breaks down and leads to a systematic overestimation of gate fidelities. We derive an analytical expression for the joint decay of simultaneous single-qubit reference sequences, identify when interleaved circuits generate sufficient randomization for the standard depolarizing approximation, and obtain a refined expression for the interleaved gate fidelity estimation. Experiments on a superconducting quantum processor validate the theory and demonstrate that fidelities obtained using XEB with single-qubit references agree with those extracted from standard interleaved randomized benchmarking (IRB), while achieving higher precision due to reduced reference-sequence errors. Our results establish theoretical foundation for interleaved benchmarking protocols employing single-qubit reference sequences and show that, with appropriate post-processing, they provide a simple and accurate alternative to multi-qubit Clifford reference circuits.
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All authors Ilya A. Simakov, Arina V. Zotova, Tatyana A. Chudakova, Alena S. Kazmina, Artyom M. Polyanskiy, Nikolay N. Abramov, Mikhail A. Tarkhov, Alexander M. Mumlyakov, Igor V. Trofimov, Nikita Yu. Rudenko, Maxim V. Chichkov, Vladimir I. Chichkov, Grigoriy S. Mazhorin

Quantum Physics

All You Need is Amplifier: Spectral Imposters Without Pulse Shaping

Quantum tracking control encodes the desired dynamics into a tailored driving field; here, we let the system find its own way there. We propose a real-time feedback control framework in which a proportional controller continuously corrects a simple transform-limited field based on the instantaneous mismatch between two systems' responses - producing the required control on the fly, without prior waveform design. The framework is demonstrated on two distinct examples: a single-active-electron atom, where hydrogen is driven to mimic argon's strong-field optical emission, and a Fermi-Hubbard chain, where a weakly interacting lattice reproduces the transport dynamics of a Mott-insulating reference. By shifting the control paradigm from predesigned inputs to adaptive response tracking, this approach establishes closed-loop feedback as a broadly applicable route to programmable quantum dynamics.
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Quantum Physics

Recursive Magic State Distillation on the Surface Code

I reduce the cost to prepare magic states with lattice surgery operations on the surface code by using a recursive implementation of 15-to-1 magic state distillation. On a rotated surface code with distance $d$, $|T\rangle$ preparation requires a $d$-by-$3 d$ grid of data qubits for up to $15 d$ error correction cycles, and $|CCZ\rangle$ preparation requires a $3 d$-by-$2 d$ grid for up to $10.5 d$ cycles. However, a significantly lower physical error threshold than that of the underlying surface code is required to match the error probability of the output magic state with the logical error rate of the output surface code at large code distances.
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Quantum Physics

Generalized matching decoders for 2D topological translationally-invariant codes

Two-dimensional topological translationally-invariant (TTI) quantum codes, such as the toric code (TC) and bivariate bicycle (BB) codes, are promising candidates for fault-tolerant quantum computation. For such codes to be practically relevant, their decoders must successfully correct the most likely errors while remaining computationally efficient. For the TC, graph-matching decoders satisfy both requirements and, additionally, admit provable performance guarantees. Given the equivalence between TTI codes and (multiple copies of) the TC, one may then ask whether TTI codes also admit analogous graph-matching decoders. In this work, we develop a graph-matching approach to decoding general TTI codes. Intuitively, our approach coarse-grains the TTI code to obtain an effective description of the syndrome in terms of TC excitations, which can then be removed using graph-matching techniques. We prove that our decoders correct errors of weight up to a constant fraction of the code distance and achieve nonzero code-capacity and circuit-level thresholds in the specified noise models. We further numerically study a variant optimized for practically relevant BB codes and observe performance comparable to that of belief propagation with ordered statistics decoding (BP-OSD). We also study the code-capacity threshold for the hexagonal color code as a proof of concept. Our results indicate that graph-matching decoders are a viable approach to decoding BB codes and other TTI codes.
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All authors Shi Jie Samuel Tan, Ian Gill, Eric Huang, Pengyu Liu, Chen Zhao, Hossein Dehghani, Aleksander Kubica, Hengyun Zhou, Arpit Dua

Quantum Physics

QGPU: Parallel logic in quantum LDPC codes

Quantum error correction is critical to the design and manufacture of scalable quantum computing systems. Recently, there has been growing interest in quantum low-density parity-check codes as a resource-efficient alternative to surface codes. Their adoption is hindered by the difficulty of compiling fault-tolerant logical operations. A key challenge is that logical qubits do not necessarily map to disjoint sets of physical qubits, which limits parallelism. We introduce clustered-cyclic codes, a quantum low-density parity-check code family with finite-size instances such as [[136,8,14]] and [[198,18,10]] that are competitive with state-of-the-art constructions. These codes admit a directly addressable logical basis, enabling highly parallel logical measurement layers. To leverage this structure, we propose parallel product surgery for quantum product codes. Using an auxiliary copy of the data patch and an engineered product-connection structure, the protocol performs many logical Pauli-product measurements in a single surgery round with small, fixed overhead. For clustered-cyclic codes, this yields surface-code-style maximal parallelism: up to k/2 disjoint Pauli-product measurements per round under explicit algebraic conditions. We prove that parallel product surgery preserves the code distance for hypergraph product codes and numerically verify distance preservation for the listed clustered-cyclic instances with k = 8. Finally, for the [[24,8,3]] clustered-cyclic code, treating half of the logical qubits as auxiliaries enables arbitrary parallel CNOTs on disjoint pairs; combined with symmetry-derived operations, these gates generate the full Clifford group fault-tolerantly.
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All authors Boren Gu, Andy Zeyi Liu, Armanda O. Quintavalle, Qian Xu, Jens Eisert, Joschka Roffe

Quantum Physics

Extending spin-lattice relaxation theory to three-phonon processes

Spin-lattice relaxation theory has been developed over almost a century, but some cardinal assumptions on the nature of the interactions involved have never been fully verified. This includes the weak coupling approximation, which makes it possible to describe spin dynamics perturbatively and leads to the canonical description of spin relaxation in terms of one- and two-phonon processes. Here, we extend the first-principles theory of spin relaxation to three-phonon processes and apply it to the vdW crystal of a spin-1/2 Chromium nitride complex. Results show that three-phonon contributions to spin relaxation only become relevant at temperatures inaccessible to experiments for this molecule, thus providing unprecedented evidence for the validity of the weak spin-phonon coupling assumption in spin relaxation theory. At the same time, we numerically show that a relatively small increase in spin-phonon coupling would lead to a crossover between three- and two-phonon processes' efficiency at room temperature, illustrating the possibility for three-phonon effects in molecular materials as well as paving the way to a systematic exploration of strong coupling in spin systems.
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Quantum Physics

SpiderCat: Optimal Fault-Tolerant Cat State Preparation

The ability to fault-tolerantly prepare CAT states, also known as multi-qubit GHZ states, is an important primitive for quantum error correction. It is required for Shor-style syndrome extraction, and can also be used as a subroutine for doing fault-tolerant state preparation of CSS codewords. Existing approaches to fault-tolerant CAT state preparations have been found using computationally expensive heuristics involving SAT solving, reinforcement learning, or exhaustive analysis. In this paper, we constructively find optimal circuits for CAT states in a more scalable way. In particular, we derive formal lower bounds on the number of CNOT gates required for circuits implementing $n$-qubit CAT states that do not spread errors of weight at most $t$ for $1\leq t \leq 5$. We do this by using fault-equivalent rewrites of ZX-diagrams to reduce it to a problem of characterising certain 3-regular simple graphs. We then provide families of such optimal graphs for infinitely many values of $n$ and $t\leq5$. By encoding the construction of optimal graphs as a constraint satisfaction problem we find explicit constructions for circuits that match this lower bound on CNOT count for all $n\leq50$ and $t \leq 5$ and for nearly all pairs $(n,t)$ with $n\leq 100$ and $t\leq 5$ or $n\leq 50$ and $t\leq 7$, significantly extending the regimes that were achievable by previous methods and improving the resource counts for existing constructions. We additionally show how to trade CNOT count against depth, allowing us to construct constant-depth fault-tolerant implementations using $O(n)$ ancilla and $O(n)$ CNOT gates.
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All authors Andrey Boris Khesin, Sarah Meng Li, Boldizsár Poór, Benjamin Rodatz, John van de Wetering, Richie Yeung

Quantum Physics

Achieving Thresholds via Standalone Belief Propagation on Surface Codes

The standard approach to Belief Propagation (BP) decoding passes messages on the Tanner graph of the quantum error-correcting (QEC) code, and is known to lack a threshold for the surface code. We propose novel BP decoders that exchange messages on the decoding graph and obtain thresholds (both for code capacity and circuit-level noise) via standalone BP for the surface code under depolarizing noise. Our approach, similarly to the minimum weight perfect matching (MWPM) decoder, is applicable to any graphlike QEC code. The thresholds observed with our decoders are close to those obtained by MWPM. This result opens the path towards scalable hardware-accelerated implementations of MWPM-compatible decoders.
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All authors Pedro Hack, Luca Menti, Francisco Lazaro, Alexandru Paler

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from physics.chem-ph

MQED-QD: An Open-Source Package for Quantum Dynamics Simulation in Complex Dielectric Environments

Simulating the dynamics of molecular excitons in complex nanophotonic environments requires integrating rigorous electromagnetic simulations with accurate treatments of open quantum system dynamics. In this work, we develop MQED-QD (Macroscopic Quantum Electrodynamics for Quantum Dynamics), a robust computational package for simulating exciton dynamics in arbitrary dielectric and plasmonic environments. Based on the MQED framework, the package offers a unified workflow for constructing the dyadic Green's functions from classical electromagnetic solvers, parametrizing quantum master equations, and propagating the time evolution to determine the molecular subsystem's dynamical properties. To demonstrate the package's capabilities, we simulate exciton transport within a one-dimensional molecular chain near a silver nanostructure, including benchmarking against planar surfaces and exploring the influence of silver nanorods. Our results reveal that surface plasmon polaritons on nanorods dramatically enhance long-range dipole-dipole interactions, accelerating exciton delocalization and yielding higher participation ratios compared to planar geometries. By elucidating accurate molecular exciton dynamics in conjunction with nanophotonics and plasmonics, MQED-QD provides a powerful, open-source package that facilitates the rational design of nanoscale architectures.
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Quantum Physics

Nonreciprocal transparency windows, Fano resonance, and slow/fast light in a membrane-in-the-middle magnomechanical system induced by the Barnett effect

Nonreciprocal phenomena are currently a major focus of research within the fields of classical and quantum technology. In this work, we theoretically investigate the interplay among multiple magnomechanically induced transparency (MMIT) windows, Fano resonances, slow/fast light, and nonreciprocal absorption and group delay in a hybrid cavity magnomechanical system. This system is composed of two yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres and a membrane positioned at the center of the cavity. By analyzing the absorption spectrum of a weak probe field in the presence of a strong control field, we demonstrate the emergence of five transparency windows resulting from combined photon-phonon, photon-magnon, and phonon-magnon interactions. The photon-phonon coupling associated with the membrane plays a crucial role in enhancing and tailoring these transparency features. We further examine the impact of the Barnett effect on the absorption and dispersion characteristics, showing that it enables the controllable manipulation of transparency windows and the generation of tunable Fano resonance profiles. The influence of cavity decay and magnon dissipation rates on the spectral response is also analyzed. In addition, we demonstrate that the group delay of the transmitted probe field can be effectively tuned via the photon-phonon coupling strength and the Barnett effect, allowing for a controllable transition between slow and fast light regimes. Finally, nonreciprocal absorption and group delay are achieved through appropriate adjustment of the coupling parameters. These findings highlight the potential of the proposed hybrid system for applications in optical signal processing and quantum information technologies.
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Quantum Physics

Computing Green's functions and improving ground state energy estimation on quantum computers with Liouvillian recursion

We present a quantum-classical hybrid implementation of the Liouvillian recursion method to compute many-body Green's functions using a quantum computer. From an approximate ground state preparation circuit, this algorithm produces the local ($r=r'$) and inter-site ($r\neq r'$) Green's functions $G_{rr'}(\omega)$ by measuring observables generated recursively. We demonstrate the approach on a superconducting quantum processor for the open-boundary four-site Hubbard model. We then use the computed Green's functions as input to the Galitskii-Migdal formula to produce better ground state energy estimation than the expectation value of the Hamiltonian for the approximate circuit. Empirical results indicate exponential convergence in the number of iterations, yielding a computational complexity polynomial in the Green's-function accuracy, as measured with the Wasserstein distance. Our results also indicate significant robustness to noise and to inaccuracies of the ground state preparation, providing evidence that Liouvillian recursion is well adapted to the constraints of near-term quantum computing.
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All authors Jérôme Leblanc, Olivier Nahman-Lévesque, Julien Forget, Thomas Lepage-Lévesque, Simon Verret, Alexandre Foley

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from physics.optics

Pulse-duration-sensitive high harmonics and attosecond locally-chiral light from a chiral topological Weyl semimetal

High harmonic generation (HHG) in solids results from an interplay between intraband acceleration and electron-hole recombination driven by a high-intensity laser pulse. Here, we theoretically reveal that the driving pulse duration can play a major role in extending HHG to higher photon energies by promoting higher conduction band excitations. The effect is present in a conventional semiconductor as Si, restricted in a large-gap insulator as MgO, and most prominent in RhSi, a prototypical chiral Weyl semimetal presenting numerous band crossings. Further, we elucidate the HHG selection rules in RhSi required for the synthesis of attosecond locally chiral light. The chiral crystal structure enables the generation of a local 3D electric field exhibiting an asymmetric instantaneous torsion on attosecond timescales. A pronounced circular dichroism emerges when the driving helicity is either aligned with or opposite to the crystal handedness. Our findings motivate future experiments in chiral Weyl semimetals to track high-energy band crossings and in-situ locally chiral light, paving the way for chiral compact light sources and light-wave driven topological electronics.
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Quantum Physics

Simplified circuit-level decoding using Knill error correction

Quantum error correction will likely be essential for building a large-scale quantum computer, but it comes with significant requirements at the level of classical control software. In particular, a quantum error-correcting code must be supplemented with a fast and accurate classical decoding algorithm. Standard techniques for measuring the parity-check operators of a quantum error-correcting code involve repeated measurements, which both increases the amount of data that needs to be processed by the decoder, and changes the nature of the decoding problem. Knill error correction is a technique that replaces repeated syndrome measurements with a single round of measurements, but requires an auxiliary logical Bell state. Here, we provide a theoretical and numerical investigation into Knill error correction from the perspective of decoding. We give a self-contained description of the protocol, prove its fault tolerance under locally decaying (circuit-level) noise, and numerically benchmark its performance for quantum low-density parity-check codes. We show analytically and numerically that the time-constrained decoding problem for Knill error correction can be solved using the same decoder used for the simpler code-capacity noise model, illustrating that Knill error correction may alleviate the stringent requirements on classical control required for building a large-scale quantum computer.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.stat-mech

Dynamical quantum phase transitions through the lens of mode dynamics

We study the mode dynamics of a generic quadratic fermionic Hamiltonian under a sudden quench protocol in momentum space. Modes with zero energy at any given time, $t$, are referred to as dynamical critical modes. Among all zero-energy modes, spin-flip symmetry is restored in the eigenvector corresponding to selected zero-energy modes. This symmetry restoration is used to define the dynamical quantum phase transition (DQPT). This shows that the occurrence of these dynamical critical modes is necessary but not sufficient for a DQPT. We show that the conditions on the quench protocol and time for such dynamical symmetry restoration are the same as the divergence of the rate function and integer jump in the dynamical topological order parameter, which have been the traditional identifiers of a DQPT. This perspective also naturally explains when one or both of DQPT and ground-state quantum phase transitions will occur.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from hep-th

Gauge-string duality, monomial bases and graph determinants

Questions at the intersection of the AdS/CFT correspondence and quantum information theory motivate the study of projectors in sequences of subalgebras of finite-dimensional commutative associative semisimple algebras $\mathcal{A}$, obtained by incrementally adjoining one generator at each step to produce a non-linear generating set for $\mathcal{A}$. We define degeneracy graphs, which are finite layered tree graphs whose nodes represent projectors in the successive subalgebras. Using combinatorial properties of the degeneracy graph, we give a simple formula for constructing a linear basis of $\mathcal{A}$ in terms of monomials in the generators. The nodes can be labelled by formal variables corresponding to the eigenvalues of the generators added at each layer. We prove that the construction is compatible with the required counting of projectors in $\mathcal{A}$, and give explicit constructions of the projectors in terms of the monomials, in the cases of one- and two-layer degeneracy graphs with arbitrary numbers of nodes. More generally, we provide extensive computational evidence for the invertibility of the matrix relating the proposed monomial basis to the projector basis, by evaluating its determinant. In the 1-layer case, this is a Vandermonde determinant. A simple formula for the non-vanishing determinant in the general layer case is conjectured and supported by the computational data. The construction is illustrated with examples including centres of symmetric group algebras and maximally commuting subalgebras generated by JucysMurphy elements. We outline applications of the monomial basis to algorithms for constructing matrix units in non-commutative semisimple algebras, with relevance to orthogonal bases of multi-matrix gauge-invariant operators and to quantum information theory.
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Quantum Physics

Robust and optimal control of open quantum systems

Recent advancements in quantum technologies have highlighted the importance of mitigating system imperfections, including parameter uncertainties and decoherence effects, to improve the performance of experimental platforms. However, most of the previous efforts in quantum control are devoted to the realization of arbitrary unitary operations in a closed quantum system. Here, we improve the algorithm that suppresses system imperfections and noises, providing notably enhanced scalability for robust and optimal control of open quantum systems. Through experimental validation in a superconducting quantum circuit, we demonstrate that our approach outperforms its conventional counterpart for closed quantum systems with an ultra-low infidelity of about $0.60\%$, while the complexity of this algorithm exhibits the same scaling, with only a modest increase in the prefactor. This work represents a notable advancement in quantum optimal control techniques, paving the way for realizing quantum-enhanced technologies in practical applications.
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All authors Zi-Jie Chen, Hongwei Huang, Lida Sun, Qing-Xuan Jie, Jie Zhou, Ziyue Hua, Yifang Xu, Weiting Wang, Guang-Can Guo, Chang-Ling Zou, Luyan Sun, Xu-Bo Zou

Quantum Physics

Optimization landscapes of variational quantum algorithms

Optimization plays a central role in variational quantum algorithms, where the objective function typically takes the form $F(\boldsymbol{\theta})= \sum_{m=1}^{M} f_m \left(\mathrm{Tr}[U(\boldsymbol{\theta})\rho_m U^\dagger(\boldsymbol{\theta}) O_m]\right)$, with $U(\boldsymbol{\theta})$ being a parameterized quantum ansatz. Understanding the optimization landscape of such objective functions is crucial for assessing the trainability and performance of these algorithms. For the special case $M=1$, it is known that under certain assumptions, the landscape is free of false traps (FTs), i.e., local optima that are not global. In this work, we investigate optimization landscapes of the general case $M\geq1$ and show that the landscape becomes intrinsically more complex. First, we establish a complete framework for analyzing critical features of the optimization landscape, by deriving necessary and sufficient conditions to identify and classify all critical points under some assumptions, which is also of practical importance in designing efficient algorithms independent of whether these assumptions are satisfied. Then, we show that FTs can still emerge on landscapes for $M>1$, standing in stark contrast to the $M=1$ case and further revealing that parameter sufficiency alone is not enough to guarantee a trap-free landscape. Moreover, we uncover a close connection that the emergence of FTs is necessarily attributed to the loss of distinguishability among the states and/or operators, and fundamentally, to the loss of compatibility of the spectral ordering governed by different objective terms. Our results provide a deeper understanding of the optimization complexity and practical guidance for both algorithmic and problem-setting designs.
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All authors Xiaozhen Ge, Shuming Cheng, Guofeng Zhang, Re-Bing Wu

Quantum Physics

Design and Analysis of an Improved Constrained Hypercube Mixer in Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm

The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is expected to offer advantages over classical approaches when solving combinatorial optimization problems in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era. In its standard formulation, however, QAOA is not suited for constrained problems. One way to incorporate certain types of constraints is to restrict the mixing operator to the feasible subspace; however, this substantially increases circuit size, thereby reducing noise robustness. In this work, we refine an existing hypercube mixer method for enforcing hard constraints in QAOA. We present a modification that generates circuits with fewer gates for a broad class of constrained problems defined by linear functions. Furthermore, we calculate an analytical upper bound on the number of binary variables for which this reduction might not apply. Additionally, we present numerical experimental results demonstrating that the proposed approach improves robustness to noise. In summary, the method proposed in this paper allows for more accurate QAOA performance in noisy settings, bringing us closer to practical, real-world NISQ-era applications.
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Quantum Physics

Security bounds for unidimensional discrete-modulated CV-QKD: a Gaussian extremality approach

Unidimensional (1D) Gaussian-modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocols have been proposed as a way to simplify implementation and reduce costs through single-quadrature modulation, requiring only one modulator while maintaining compatibility with standard optical infrastructure. Here, we determine security bounds for a 1D discrete-modulated protocol under the Gaussian extremality assumption by extending the method of Ghorai et al. [Phys. Rev. X 9, 021059 (2019)]. We establish the appropriate symmetry arguments to extend the method to the 1D discrete-modulated case, define the physicality zone in which the protocol is allowed to operate, and derive a security bound against collective attacks in the asymptotic regime via semidefinite programming. Our analysis for uniformly distributed coherent states reveals a limitation: the Gaussian extremality assumption systematically overestimates Eve's information with increasing constellation size, yielding bounds so conservative that secure key extraction becomes increasingly limited for larger constellations, even under ideal conditions. This overestimation worsens with excess noise and restricts viable modulation amplitudes to near-vacuum values. Unlike two-dimensional (2D) protocols, where Gaussian extremality improves with constellation size, 1D protocols lack the growing phase-space isotropy required for the approximation to remain tight as the constellation grows. Our results expose these limitations and highlight the necessity of alternative methods or optimized non-uniform constellation designs for this class of protocols.
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All authors John A. Mora Rodriguez, Maron F. Anka, Leonardo J. Pereira, Micael A. Dias, Alexandre B. Tacla

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.dis-nn

Machine Learning the Strong Disorder Renormalization Group Method for Disordered Quantum Spin Chains

We train machine learning algorithms to infer the entanglement structure of disordered long-range interacting quantum spin chains by learning from the strong disorder renormalisation group (SDRG) method. The system consists of $S=1/2$-quantum spins coupled by antiferromagnetic power-law interactions with decay exponent $\alpha$ at random positions on a one-dimensional chain. Using SDRG as a physics-informed teacher, we compare a Random Forest classifier as a classical baseline with a graph neural network (GNN) that operates directly on the interaction graph and learns a bond-ranking rule mirroring the SDRG decimation policy. The GNN achieves a disorder-averaged pairing accuracy close to one and reproduces the entanglement entropy $S(\ell)$ in excellent quantitative agreement with SDRG across all subsystem sizes and interaction exponents. RG flow heat maps confirm that the GNN learns the sequential decimation hierarchy rather than merely fitting final-state observables. Finite-temperature entanglement properties are incorporated via the SDRGX framework through a two-stage strategy, using the zero-temperature GNN to generate the RG flow and sampling thermal occupations from the canonical ensemble, yielding results in agreement with both numerical SDRGX and analytical predictions without retraining.
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Quantum Physics

Constant-Depth Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution Using Dynamic Fan-out Circuits

Dynamic quantum circuits combine mid-circuit measurement with classical feed-forward, enabling circuit constructions with reduced entangling-gate depth. Here, we investigate their use in Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution (QITE), where circuit depth and parameter growth limit practical implementations of ground-state preparation. For dense classical optimization Hamiltonians, we introduce a reduced-parameter QITE ansatz that restricts entanglement generation via a small set of control qubits, enabling each QITE layer to be implemented with constant two-qubit gate depth using fan-out-based dynamic circuits. In noiseless simulations of exact cover and set partitioning instances, the reduced ansatz yields a higher success probability than standard QITE approaches. We implement unitary, dynamic fan-out, and semi-classical adaptive variants on IBM superconducting hardware. The semi-classical variant performs favorably to the unitary implementation, while the fully dynamic construction exposes the trade-offs between entangling-depth reduction and measurement and feed-forward overhead associated to dynamic circuit implementations. Using a fidelity threshold of 0.5 relative to the noiseless QITE ansatz, we show that dynamic fan-out based QITE would outperform unitary implementations on current devices when the measurement and two-qubit gate errors are reduced by 65% and the feedback latency is halved.
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All authors Albert Lund, Erika Magnusson, Werner Dobrautz, Laura García-Álvarez

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from hep-th

Simulating Lattice Gauge Theories with Virtual Rishons

Classical tensor network and hybrid quantum-classical algorithms are promising candidates for the investigation of real-time properties of lattice gauge theories. We develop here a novel framework which enforces gauge symmetry via a quantum-link virtual rishon representation applied at intermediate steps. Crucially, the gauge and matter degrees of freedom are dynamical variables encoded in terms of qubits, enabling analysis of gauge theories in $d+1$ spacetime dimensions. We benchmark this framework in a U(1) gauge theory with and without matter fields. For $d = 1$, the multi-flavor Schwinger model with $1\leq N_f\leq3$ flavors is analyzed for arbitrary boundary conditions and nonzero topological angle, capturing signatures of the underlying Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theory. For $d = 2$, we extract the confining string tension in close agreement with continuum expectations. These results establish the virtual rishon framework as a scalable and robust approach for the simulation of lattice gauge theories using both classical tensor networks as well as near-term quantum hardware.
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All authors David Rogerson, João Barata, Robert M. Konik, Raju Venugopalan, Ananda Roy

Quantum Physics

Advantage of flexible catalysis for entanglement and quantum thermodynamics

Understanding the fundamental limits of state convertibility is crucial for establishing the boundaries of quantum information processing and thermodynamic efficiency. While auxiliary systems, catalysts, can facilitate otherwise impossible transformations, standard catalysis rigidly requires the auxiliary system to return to its exact initial state. In this work, we investigate the power of flexible catalysis, where the catalyst evolves through a cycle of states, restoring its initial configuration only after a finite number of steps. Focusing on the regime of fixed, finite dimensions, we analyze the capabilities of flexible catalysis within the resource theories of entanglement and quantum thermodynamics. In the context of entanglement, we derive conditions limiting flexible catalysts, yet show that flexible catalysis can be strictly more powerful than same-dimensional standard catalysis: it enables deterministic transformations achievable by no standard catalyst of the same dimension, and it strictly increases the success probability of stochastic local operations and classical communication. A similar deterministic advantage arises in quantum thermodynamics, where flexible catalysis enables state transformations that are impossible with any standard catalyst of fixed dimension and Hamiltonian but become achievable via flexible catalysis.
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Quantum Physics

Quantum advantages for syndrome-aware noisy logical observable estimation

Recent progress in fault-tolerant quantum computing suggests that leveraging error-syndrome information at the logical layer can substantially improve performance, including the estimation of logical observables from noisy states. In this work, based on quantum estimation theory, we develop an information-theoretic framework to quantify the utility of error syndromes for noisy logical observable estimation. We distinguish two operational regimes of such syndrome-aware protocols: classical protocols, in which the logical measurement basis is fixed and syndrome information is used only in classical post-processing, and quantum protocols, in which the logical quantum control can be tailored to depend on the observed error syndrome. For classical syndrome-aware protocols, we prove a universal limitation: on average, syndrome information can improve the effective logical error rate by at most a factor of two, implying at most a quadratic reduction in sampling overhead. In contrast, once syndrome-conditioned quantum control is permitted, we demonstrate that the effective logical error rate decays exponentially with the number of code blocks. These findings provide fundamental guidance for designing future fault-tolerant architectures that actively exploit syndrome records rather than discarding them after decoding.
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All authors Kento Tsubouchi, Hyukgun Kwon, Liang Jiang, Nobuyuki Yoshioka

Quantum Physics

Standardizing Access to Heterogeneous Quantum Backends: A Case Study on Cloud Service Integration with QDMI

With an increasingly diverse portfolio of quantum backends, the adoption of standardized interfaces has become a key prerequisite for scalable access and interoperability within quantum software stacks. The Quantum Device Management Interface (QDMI) addresses this challenge and is emerging as one of the de facto standards for hardware abstraction, enabling the unified management not only of individual Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) but also of complete full-stack cloud services. This paper presents a case study demonstrating the integration of QDMI with Amazon Braket, a quantum computing cloud service that provides a single access point to a wide range of hardware technologies. By treating the cloud service itself as a unified device, the proposed implementation enables management of the complete task lifecycle - ranging from authentication and circuit submission to result retrieval - across Braket's heterogeneous set of simulators and hardware backends. We detail the engineering insights gained from this integration and present a hands-on example workflow, ultimately paving the way for integrated access to cloud-hosted quantum resources from QDMI-enabled software stacks.
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All authors Patrick Hopf, Sebastian Stern, Robert Wille, Lukas Burgholzer