Papers

Random Number Generators (RNGs) are crucial for applications ranging from cryptography to simulations. Depending on the source of randomness, RNGs are classified into Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs), True Random Number Generators (TRNGs), and Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs). This work presents the end-to-end development of a high-speed, high-efficiency, phase-noise-based QRNG system that taps into the quantum phase noise of a single-frequency laser, with randomness originating from spontaneous emission. Using a self-heterodyne measurement with a semiconductor laser (linewidth $\approx$ 5.23 $GHz$) operated near threshold and a $\sim$48 $cm$ fiber delay line, a raw data generation rate of 2.0 $Gbps$ is achieved. To ensure uniform randomness in the QRNG output, robust extraction techniques developed in-house, such as the Toeplitz Strong Extractor (TSE), are used. Randomness validation using the NIST and Diehard test suites confirms that all statistical tests pass at standard confidence levels. The developed system achieves a post-processed generation rate of 1.0 $Gbps$ in operation and attains a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 7, approaching TRL 8, making it suitable for real-time secure applications such as cryptographic key generation and stochastic modeling.

We demonstrate emergent Hilbert-space fragmentation in a composite chain of PXP and dual-PXP subchains separated by junctions with simultaneous blockade and anti-blockade projection constraints. The Hilbert space shatters into disjoint Krylov fragments growing exponentially with junction number. Freezing does not require a unique allowed junction state: multiple configurations remain locally allowed, but the dual constraints remove dynamical links between them. Each fragment is labeled by frozen junction configurations and contains compatible basis states. This fragmentation produces dynamical caging of quantum information between neighboring junctions and novel states with partially thermal and athermal regions. Softening the junction by admitting other local states with variable nonzero diagonal amplitudes destroys the direct-sum block structure and fragmentation. Nevertheless, information remains dynamically insulated and inhomogeneous thermal properties persist up to an onset time scaling with the diagonal energy penalty of the previously restricted junction states, followed by longer prethermal behavior. Energy-level statistics in each symmetry-resolved sector evolve from Poissonian in the hard-junction limit toward Wigner-Dyson behavior upon softening, with finite-size non-monotonicity. This signals the breakdown of the tensor-sum structure yielding pairwise sums of chaotic subchain spectra, restoring chaotic thermalization. In the hard-junction case, we find a chirally protected zero-energy mode with density peaks at physical edges and near the junction, pinned to zero under chirality-preserving disorder. The tensor-product eigenfunction structure also enhances the number of nonzero-energy scar states. Finally, we discuss routes to these junction architectures in programmable Rydberg atom platforms using optical tweezers, local addressing, and facilitation techniques.

We introduce a machine-learning approach for identifying hidden structural features of open quantum dynamics under restricted experimental access. Unlike most existing data-driven methods which focus on detection or prediction of dynamical behavior, our framework targets the inference of invariant algebraic structures underlying the effective Markovian evolution. Measurement limitations, symmetries, and superselection rules are incorporated through a *-algebraic description of accessible observables. The learning problem is formulated as maximum-likelihood estimation from multi-time measurement sequences, where the algebraic type of an invariant subalgebra, particularly a decoherence-free subalgebra, is treated as a discrete structural hypothesis. The feasibility of the approach is illustrated on multiple synthetic models and a waveguide quantum electrodynamics system, where nontrivial intermediate algebraic structures are identified directly from measurement data.

We establish a systematic framework of unbiased quantum sampling and estimation protocols for the classical Gibbs expectation. This framework generalizes existing approaches to the partition function estimation and has broader applications in various fields. We consider sampling and estimation for a wide class of non-log-concave distributions, particularly heavy-tailed ones, under relaxed assumptions beyond strong convexity, such as dissipativity. We develop an unbiased extension of quantum-accelerated multilevel Monte Carlo (QA-MLMC) to eliminate all biases from discretization and time truncation, together with introducing a change-of-measure approach and the Girsanov theorem via Radon-Nikodym derivatives. As a result, our approach achieves quantum complexity $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\epsilon^{-1})$ within error $\epsilon$, whereas the classical MLMC requires $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\epsilon^{-2})$ and existing quantum algorithms yield biased estimators under stronger assumptions. Furthermore, our unified framework enables unbiased quantum sampling and estimation for certain heavy-tailed distributions after transformation. We provide several concrete applications of our approach in statistics, machine learning, and finance, towards more practical scenarios of the quantum acceleration of stochastic processes.

Nonlinear Thouless pumping has been established in periodic lattices; its counterpart in quasiperiodic lattices remains unexplored. Here, we show a nonlinear topological pumping of gap solitons in quasiperiodic lattices where the local nonlinear self-consistent potentials lead to a lattice potential reconstruction; as a result, an emergent topological structure induced by this local reconstruction governs the dynamics of the gap solitons. This enables solitons to adiabatically occupy a single topological band, realizing quasi-quantized Thouless pumping. In addition, the intrinsic lattice perturbations disrupt this band occupation, which drives solitons into a non-quantized drifting regime. However, even in this regime, we also find that the soliton transport is constrained by the topological properties of a critical rational approximant. Tuning nonlinearity or lattice scaling reveals a controllable switching among topological pumping, drifting, and localization. Our work uncovers a mechanism for nonlinearity-induced topological behavior in complex lattice potentials.

We present a theoretical study of the survival probability of a state initially prepared in the one-particle sector of a multi-qubit system. The motivation for our work is the ongoing laboratory development of multi-qubit platforms based on superconducting circuits. Using elementary concepts of random matrix theory, we obtain analytic expressions for the survival probability in mathematical models of platforms which, albeit stylized, have been previously shown to provide relevant benchmarks for experimental data. In particular, we show that the decay properties are sensitive to the property of the Hamilton operator to have extended states. The survival probability does not appear instead to depend on whether the interaction between qubits is described by a Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (often interpreted as a model of ”chaotic” dynamics) or is modeled by an analytically solvable chain. We interpret this phenomenon as a manifestation of a general mechanism for the emergence of equilibration in purely unitary dynamics. Finally, under the same hypothesis of an initial preparation with projection on a large fraction of the extended eigenstates of the Hamilton operator, we show how to extend the classical Kac-Mazur-Montroll estimate of the return time to the quantum survival probability.

This study investigates the application of quantum machine learning (QML) to approximate the nonlinear component of the collision operator within the quantum lattice Boltzmann method (QLBM). To achieve this, we train a variational quantum circuit (VQC) to construct an operator $U$. When applied to the post-linear-collision quantum state $\ket{\Psi_i}$, this operator yields a final state $\ket{\Psi_f} = U\ket{\Psi_i}$ that successfully replicates the nonlinear collision dynamics derived from the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) approximation. Within this framework, we present two distinct architectures: the R1 model and the R2 model. The R1 model is designed for quantum simulations that involve multiple time steps without intermediate measurements, focusing on accurately capturing nonlinear dynamics in continuous evolution. In contrast, the R2 model is tailored to achieve the high-precision reconstruction of the nonlinear operator for a single time step with an unitary operator.

The breakdown of Lorentz invariance, a potential signature of quantum gravity, offers a window into physics beyond general relativity. We investigate how such a violation, embodied by the Einstein-Bumblebee black hole spacetime, influences the nonlocal quantum correlations. Specifically, we study the quantum steering and Bell nonlocality between modes trapped inside and outside the event horizon of an Einstein-Bumblebee black hole. Our analysis demonstrates that quantum steering for an initially correlated state is confined to a narrow region near the event horizon, with the Lorentz-violating parameter further constraining this domain. Notably, the degree of steering asymmetry is significantly modulated by both the distance from the horizon and the Lorentz-violating parameter, with the two spatially separated regions exhibiting opposite trends. Furthermore, the Bell nonlocality measurable by an external observer strengthens with increasing distance from the black hole. These findings confirm the persistence of nonclassical correlations in a Lorentz-violating gravitational background and and offer a novel perspective on the interplay between quantum information and fundamental spacetime symmetries.

The binary paint shop problem (BPSP) is an APX-hard optimization problem in which, given $n$ car models that occur twice in a sequence of length $2n$, the objective is to find a colouring sequence such that each car model pair is painted differently while minimizing the number of times the paint is swapped along the sequence. A recent classical heuristic, known as the recursive star greedy (RSG) algorithm, is conjectured to achieve an expected paint swap ratio of $0.361$, thereby outperforming the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) with circuit depth $p=7$. Since the performance of the QAOA with logarithmic circuit depth is instance independent, the average paint swap-ratio is upper-bounded by the QAOA. We provide an improved upper-bound of the BPSP by extending the QAOA to depth $p=17$, outputting an expected paint swap ratio of $0.334$ via an exact computation while numerical extrapolation suggests a further reduction to a value of $0.295$. To provide hardware-relevant comparisons, we additionally implement the BPSP on a D-Wave Quantum Annealer Advantage 2, obtaining a minimum paint swap ratio of $0.329$. Given that the QAOA with logarithmic circuit depth does not exhibit a quantum advantage for sparse optimization problems such as the BPSP, this implies the existence of a classical algorithm that outperforms both the RSG algorithm and logarithmic depth QAOA. We provide numerical evidence that the Mean-Field Approximate Optimization Algorithm (MF-AOA) is one such algorithm, yielding a paint swap ratio of approximately $0.280$ beating all known classical and quantum algorithms for the BPSP.

We develop a nonperturbative framework for generic nonintegrable many-body systems that reorganizes the expansion of diagonal Green's functions. Starting from exact projection identities and the spectral representation of the resolvent, we derive a recursive hierarchy for the self-energy in which cross-correlated propagation processes are systematically rewritten in terms of diagonal resolvents. Under a diagonal closure approximation, the hierarchy becomes formally closed yet remains systematically improvable. The framework combines two nonperturbative mechanisms. First, a Lanczos continued-fraction representation provides a recursive single-resolvent structure that naturally produces non-Lorentzian spectral features beyond self-consistent Born approximations. Second, an exact projected multi-resolvent hierarchy introduces nonlocal frequency couplings through products of resolvents and their Hilbert transforms. These contributions mix parity sectors under energy reflection and generate spectral skewness, which is absent in single-resolvent closures. To solve the resulting equations, we employ a hierarchy of Lorentzian, Gaussian, and Voigt-type ansätze together with an effective Faddeeva self-energy representation ensuring analyticity and causality. Spectral broadening, distribution tails, and higher-order fluctuations emerge from the interplay between continued-fraction recursion and multi-resolvent correlations. The framework requires no small expansion parameters or diagrammatic truncations, relying instead on ETH-type statistical assumptions appropriate for dense chaotic spectra. It provides a unified route from microscopic interactions to emergent spectral structure, revealing a progression from single-pole self-consistent dynamics to continued-fraction renormalization and finally to multi-resolvent interference effects.

This paper presents a quantum algorithm for solving the fractional Poisson equation \((-\Delta)^s u = f\) with \(s \in (0,1)\) on bounded domains. The proposed approach combines rational approximation techniques with quantum linear system solvers to achieve exponential quantum advantage. The rational approximation represents the inverse fractional Laplacian as a weighted sum of standard resolvents, transforming the original nonlocal problem into a collection of shifted integer-order partial differential equations. These equations are consolidated into a single large linear system through a modified right-hand side construction that simplifies the quantum implementation. To enable practical implementation, we develop explicit quantum circuits via the Schrödingerization technique, which converts the non-unitary dynamics of the linear system into a higher-dimensional Schrödinger-type equation, allowing the use of standard Hamiltonian simulation. The circuit construction leverages the decomposition of shift operators to realize the discrete Laplacian and employs controlled operations to implement the select oracle. Under finite difference discretization, we provide detailed algorithmic procedures utilizing block-encoding techniques for the coefficient matrices. A comprehensive complexity analysis demonstrates that the quantum algorithm achieves a dependence on the inverse mesh size \(h^{-1}\) that is independent of the spatial dimension \(d\), in stark contrast to classical methods which suffer from exponential growth in high dimensions. This establishes an exponential quantum advantage for high-dimensional fractional problems, effectively overcoming the curse of dimensionality that limits classical approaches.

Vortex states of photons, electrons, and other particles are wave packets that carry intrinsic orbital angular momentum (OAM) and exhibit other features unavailable for plane waves. Collisions of high-energy vortex states can become a promising tool for nuclear and particle physics, once experimental challenges are overcome. An extensive literature exists on scattering processes involving vortex states; however, most works rely on assumptions that will be challenging to achieve in experiment. In this work, we initiate a systematic re-analysis of vortex-state scattering processes using paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) wave packets colliding at a non-zero impact parameter $b$. Since the total final transverse momentum $P_\perp$ is no longer fixed, we focus on how the differential cross section depends on $P_\perp$. We emphasize that non-trivial $P_\perp$-dependent features can originate either from the shape of the LG wave packets or from the dynamics of the scattering process under interest. Here, we focus on the former source and explore in detail these universal kinematic features, while the study of process-specific modifications, along with the novel insights they may bring, is delegated to a future work. Interestingly, the non-zero impact parameter $b$ plays a key role in many $P_\perp$-dependent effects, making it a useful probe of vortex states, not a nuisance factor as often assumed.

We investigate nonequilibrium dynamics of a triad of fermionic superfluids connected via Josephson junctions, following sudden switch-on of two-body loss in one of the three superfluids. By formulating the dissipative BCS theory for the Lindblad equation, we find that the superfluid order parameter exhibits a phase rotation, thereby giving rise to three types of dc Josephson currents corresponding to different junctions. We demonstrate that, when the tunneling amplitude $V_{31}$ between superfluids without two-body loss is weak, a two-step nonequilibrium phase transition characterized by the vanishing dc Josephson currents occurs: dissipation first induces the nonequilibrium phase transition by making one dc Josephson current finite, while further increasing dissipation makes this remaining dc Josephson current vanish. By contrast, when $V_{31}$ is strong, dissipation induces the nonequilibrium phase transition in which all dc Josephson currents simultaneously vanish. An analytical study based on a simplified model further supports this observation.

The impending arrival of cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) threatens the security foundations of modern software: Shor's algorithm breaks RSA, ECDSA, ECDH, and Diffie-Hellman, while Grover's algorithm reduces the effective security of symmetric and hash-based schemes. Despite NIST standardising post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in 2024 (FIPS 203 ML-KEM, FIPS 204 ML-DSA, FIPS 205 SLH-DSA), most codebases lack automated tooling to inventory classical cryptographic usage and prioritise migration based on quantum risk. We present Quantum-Safe Code Auditor, a quantum-aware static analysis framework that combines (i) regex-based detection of 15 classes of quantum-vulnerable primitives, (ii) LLM-assisted contextual enrichment to classify usage and severity, and (iii) risk scoring via a Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) model implemented in Qiskit 2.x, incorporating qubit-cost estimates to prioritise findings. We evaluate the system across five open-source libraries – python-rsa, python-ecdsa, python-jose, node-jsonwebtoken, and Bouncy Castle Java – covering 5,775 findings. On a stratified sample of 602 labelled instances, we achieve 71.98% precision, 100% recall, and an F1 score of 83.71%. All code, data, and reproduction scripts are released as open-source.

Liquid crystalline defects in 3D can be viewed as geometric spinors, whose emergent properties are reminiscent of those of topological excitations in quantum condensed matter, such as Majorana quasiparticles. However, it is unclear how deep this analogy is, and whether this is a purely mathematical mapping, or it extends to key physical features, such as the exchange statistics or braiding behaviour. To address this question, here we consider a simple pattern made up of four nematic Majorana-like defect profiles, and ask how the defect profiles change as we braid them repeatedly around each other. Surprisingly, we find that in a large range of parameter space the defect profiles behave as classical analogues of non-Abelian anyons, which can be described in our case by defect bivectors moving on a Bloch-like hemisphere. Elastic interactions and dynamical effects enhance the complexity of the gates which can be performed by braiding these quasiparticles, making these liquid crystalline spinors promising candidates as components of topological computers.

Standard quantum phase estimation (QPE) has often been regarded as unsuitable for simultaneous detection of all eigenvalues, because it requires initial states with sufficient overlap with the target eigenstates. In this paper, we show that this limitation is not inherent to the QPE circuit itself. The output distribution of standard QPE can be written as a superposition of Fejér kernels weighted by the squared overlaps with the eigenmodes. We prove that, if the initial state is independently drawn at each shot from a 1-design (in particular, by random selection of computational basis states), these mode weights are equalized in expectation, yielding a state-averaged QPE distribution that exhibits peaks at every eigenphase location. In this sense, all eigenvalues become accessible without any modification of the standard QPE circuit; repeated eigenvalues appear through the aggregated weight of their eigenspaces. For distinct eigenphases satisfying a separation condition, we further establish a rigorous peak-detection theory and derive a sufficient shot-count estimate for detecting all peaks. We validate the theory through numerical experiments on a finite element method (FEM) matrix with 1,008 degrees of freedom arising from computer-aided engineering (CAE).

Optical gyroscopes based on the Sagnac effect are the cornerstone of precision orientation and navigation. However, their bulky form factors prevent deployment in emerging mobile and autonomous systems. On nanophotonic platforms, the Sagnac signal plummets under aggressive miniaturization. Consequently, the signal is easily swamped by refractive-index fluctuations, rendering navigation-grade sensitivity within just a few square millimeters a notoriously elusive goal. Here, we demonstrate a noise-resilient nanophotonic optical gyroscope by exploiting a two-chain decoupling architecture to effectively isolate the rotation signal from channel noise. Implemented on a 3 mm^2 passive silicon-nitride chip, the proof-of-concept device achieves a bias instability of 0.79 deg/h and an angle random walk of 0.0014 deg/\sqrt{h}, representing improvements of 4 and 6 orders of magnitude, respectively, over a representative nanophotonic gyroscope with the same enclosed sensing area (ref. 1). In the broader context of integrated optical gyroscopes, our approach bridges the long-standing size-performance gap by two to three orders of magnitude, moving chip-scale devices into a previously inaccessible regime and pointing toward navigation-relevant precision for monolithic microsystems. This architecture further enables an estimated input-equivalent phase resolution of 0.17 prad with general applicability, establishing a foundational framework for the next generation of robust, monolithically integrated photonic sensing systems.

High-rate entanglement generation is essential for the realization of practical quantum repeaters. To this end, frequency multiplexing of the photons employed is an effective approach. In particular, schemes using cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion (cSPDC) as a photon-pair source have been proposed. In this study, toward a theoretical performance evaluation of frequency-multiplexed quantum repeaters based on cSPDC, we derive an approximate expression for the quantum state of the frequency-multiplexed photons, where each frequency mode is treated as an independent two-mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) state. Using this expression, we calculate the heralding probability and fidelity of entanglement generation for several cases in a single-photon interference scheme using frequency multiplexing with cSPDC. Our results demonstrate that by multiplexing approximately 100 modes, the heralding probability improves to approximately 98% for an elementary link distance $L_\mathrm{EL}=25 \mathrm{km}$, even in scenarios where the fidelity exceeds 0.9 across all modes. Furthermore, for $L_\mathrm{EL}=100 \mathrm{km}$, we show that the heralding probability, which was approximately 0.7% in the single-mode case, increases to about 38% under the condition that the fidelity remains 0.9 or higher. These analytical results demonstrate the effectiveness of employing cSPDC as a photon-pair source for quantum repeaters.

Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) dramatically enhances the secure key rate (SKR) over inter-city distances through its square-root scaling. Further improvements in aggregate SKR can be achieved by wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) of parallel QKD channels. However, direct implementation in TF-QKD poses significant challenges, as each wavelength channel requires an independent ultra-stable seed laser, narrow-linewidth transmitters, and optical phase-locked loops (OPLLs), which are not easily scalable. Here, we circumvent these limitations by employing two independent, integrated dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) microcombs at Alice and Bob as multi-wavelength sources. High-visibility single-photon interference across all wavelength channels is achieved by stabilizing the frequencies of every comb line - requiring only the stabilization of the pump wavelength and repetition rates of the two microcombs. Based on this architecture, we perform a full TF-QKD experiment using the sending-or-not-sending protocol, achieving a total SKR of 1.57 Mbps over 201.1 km of fiber using 16 DWDM channels. This result represents more than an order-of-magnitude enhancement compared with single-wavelength TF-QKD at the same distance. Given that a single DKS comb can support over 100 coherent lines across the C-band, this approach offers a scalable pathway toward high-rate quantum key distribution over inter-city distances.

The uncertainty principle suggests a quantitative trade-off between the control of position and the control of momentum in particle propagation. However, a superposition of two states with very different uncertainty trade-offs introduces an interference term that seems to combine precise statements about position and about momentum, allowing us to study how quantum mechanics describes the propagation of individual particles in free space. Here, we present a detailed experimental study of photons prepared in a superposition of position and momentum generated in a Sagnac interferometer. The transverse distribution of photons was obtained with three different measurement settings at the output port of the interferometer, corresponding to the initial position distribution, the initial momentum distribution, and an intermediate propagation time at which the contributions of initial position and momentum uncertainties are approximately equal to each other. We show that the interference effect localizes the photons in narrow intervals of position and momentum, resulting in a quantitative violation of Newton's first law as the interference pattern spreads out at the intermediate position. The data obtained can be used to demonstrate the negativity of the Wigner function in regions outside the position and momentum intervals in which the position and momentum contributions are confined.

Super-resolution microscopy is crucial for imaging sub-wavelength biological structures. However, most techniques rely on nonlinear saturation or stochastic switching of emitters, limiting imaging speed and increasing phototoxicity. Here, we achieve deep super-resolution without employing saturation or stochastic dynamics, instead using a form of spatial mode demultiplexing. By shaping the point-spread function of the emitted light, our Structured Detection Microscope (SDM) redistributes information away from high shot-noise regions of the image, enhancing sensitivity to sub-diffraction emitter separations in two-dimensions and without mode-sorting optics. Implementing SDM within a high-numerical aperture total internal reflection fluorescence microscope, we demonstrate imaging of fluorophores attached to DNA nanorulers with separations as small as 50 nm at resolutions surpassing 40 nm - fivefold below the diffraction limit. This shows that spatial mode demultiplexing can achieve far sub-wavelength resolution and is applicable to biologically relevant samples. By enabling super-resolution biomolecular imaging without emitter saturation and stochasticity, our work opens the door to better understanding biological structure, function and dynamics.

We investigate waiting-time distributions (WTDs) of quantum jumps in continuously monitored quantum many-body systems, whose unconditional dynamics lead to the trivial infinite-temperature state. We demonstrate that the WTD of a half-chain subsystem exhibits an anomalous tail, markedly deviating from the Poissonian distribution in stark contrast to that of the whole system. By analyzing the spectral properties of the superoperator $\mathscr L_0$, which is defined by removing the jump terms associated with the half-chain subsystem from the full Liouvillian, we find that the long-time behavior with the anomalous tail of the half-chain WTD is governed by the eigenvalue $\lambda_0\:(<0)$ with the largest real part. We further reveal a qualitative change in the system-size dependence of $\lambda_0$ as a function of the measurement strength: for sufficiently weak measurement, $\lambda_0$ decreases proportionally to the system size, while for strong measurement, $\lambda_0$ scales independently of the system size, signaling the persistence of the anomalous half-chain WTD in the thermodynamic limit. The WTD is extracted solely from the spacetime record of quantum jumps $\{t_i,x_i\}$ and can be experimentally accessed without postselection. Our work establishes a spectral framework for understanding nontrivial WTDs in subsystems of monitored quantum dynamics and provides a novel diagnostics to assess many-body effects on WTDs.

When modelling decoherence in a biological spin system it is tempting to seek a critical rate beyond which the channel is entanglement-breaking (EB) and quantum resources are gone. We show that for the two channel families in which such a model would be posed, no critical rate exists. For uniform dephasing at rate $\gamma$ the partial transpose of the Choi state has eigenvalue $-e^{-\gamma}/d$, so the channel is non-PPT – hence not EB – at every finite $\gamma$. Adding amplitude damping changes nothing: the qubit map's partial transpose stays negative at all finite rates. What does vanish at a finite rate is the coherent information, exactly where the qubit map turns antidegradable: the root of $c^{2}=p$, $\gamma_{\Ic}=0.668$ at $\kappa=0.1$. Antidegradability survives tensor products, so the single-letter and regularised thresholds coincide: of the three properties usually conflated here, two share one finite boundary and the third has none. Our main object is the numerical mechanism that manufactures a threshold where there is none. A quantity that decays exponentially to zero without reaching it, tested against a fixed absolute cutoff, yields a "threshold" set by the cutoff: the PPT test gives $\gamma=5.49$ at $\epsilon=10^{-10}$ and $6.58$ at $10^{-12}$, sliding by $0.55$ per decade. We reported the first number in three now-retracted preprints. Preparing this paper we made the same error three more times – most seriously in $\gamma_{\Ic}$ itself, which a bisection against a $10^{-7}$ cutoff placed at $0.62$ – and we document all four instances, with the closed forms and code that avoid them.

Superdeterminism has received recent attention as a possible path toward a locally causal explanation of the entanglement correlations that appear in experimental tests of Bell's theorem. While the term `superdeterminism' was coined by Bell to refer to restrictions on the free will of experimenters, it was not rigorously defined until recently. It has now been defined as a property of any physical theory that produces systematic violations of statistical independence. Here we focus on formalizing the requirements that being nonsuperdeterministic places on a physical theory, and setting a standard that must be met before we can conclude that a given theory is not superdeterministic. We begin by carefully examining how a physical theory determines what outcomes we observe when performing measurements in terms of ontic states and response functions, and how this differs between superdeterministic and nonsuperdeterministic theories, in terms of the behavior of the types of vetted random sampling procedures that we use in experiments. The core result is that individual samples and measurement outcomes must be representative of the observed distributions, which is explained in detail. This also has a bearing on how measurement settings are chosen by agents, whether freely or randomly, and we argue that this standard ultimately defines what freedom/independence actually mean. We then discuss contextuality, and show that in most cases, superdeterminism is contextual. Finally, we discuss how different physical theories, with different notions of ontic states and response functions, can give rise to the same empirical data, and how the same operational contextuality may appear in different forms.

In this study, we propose an efficient quantum multiplication approach based on a QFT-assisted parallelized addition scheme. The multiplication stage is implemented using a structure composed entirely of Toffoli gates, which generate partial products. In the second stage, these partial results are accumulated using a QFT-based adder. Unlike conventional QFT-based arithmetic circuits, the proposed design eliminates the repeated application of QFT and inverse QFT (IQFT) operations during intermediate summation processes. This leads to a significant reduction in the total gate count and circuit complexity, enabling a more resource-efficient implementation. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, a quantum circuit that performs the multiplication of two 3-bit numbers is designed. The circuit is tested and validated using IBM quantum simulators. The results indicate that the proposed method provides a more efficient alternative to traditional quantum multiplication techniques in terms of gate cost and circuit depth.

The orbital, spin and valley degrees of freedom in silicon quantum dots support many modes of spin qubit operation. However, it is generally challenging to obtain information about the energy level spectrum over large ranges of parameter space. We demonstrate a form of spectroscopy that is capable of mapping the energy level structure of a double quantum dot as a function of level detuning, interdot tunnel coupling, and magnetic field. In the one electron regime, we directly observe the transition from the atom like energy levels of isolated quantum dots to molecular like bonding and anti bonding states with increasing interdot tunnel coupling. We also resolve the Zeeman splitting of ground and excited valley states in a magnetic field. In the two electron regime, we gain access to the detuning dependent singlet triplet splitting. Our work may be extended to a broader class of systems, such as strong spin-orbit materials or proximitized quantum dots, allowing the direct extraction of various energy gaps.

For a century, spin has been an indispensable probe of the fundamental laws of nature. A reflection on the role of spin in shaping modern physics is presented, from the early days of quantum mechanics to the latest precision tests of the Standard Model. The significance of magnetic and electric dipole moments in testing CP and CPT symmetries is surveyed, along with the ongoing searches for exotic spin-dependent interactions that may reveal the nature of dark matter and its connection to spacetime geometry. Through these vignettes, it is shown that spin continues to provide a fresh perspective on the most profound questions in physics today.

Intrinsic nonlinearity in FPGA-based time-to-digital converters (TDCs) is often treated as a calibration issue and evaluated mainly through post-correction metrics. In quantum key distribution (QKD), however, raw delay-line nonuniformity can affect coincidence timing and thereby influence accidental-coincidence rate and Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER). This paper analyzes how measured FPGA-TDC nonlinearity propagates to QKD timing metrics using a conservative system-level model that combines random timing uncertainty and deterministic nonlinearity. We also propose fabric-level mitigation strategies based on LUT-assisted delay shaping and placement constraints to reduce severe bin-width irregularities without statistical calibrations. The method is evaluated by reproducing two open-source TDCs implemented on a low-cost Zynq-7000 FPGA. We observe reductions of 14%-21% in integral nonlinearity (INL) compared with the non-optimized design, leading to a reduced QBER contribution and an improvement by 3.7%-14.2% in the estimated secret fraction. These results suggest that raw FPGA-TDC nonlinearity deserves explicit consideration in timing-sensitive QKD implementations.

Frequency- and polarization-resolved photocurrents provide a sensitive probe of hidden symmetry and band geometry in quantum materials. Here we study a chiral cubic sillenite whose global crystal symmetry forbids a longitudinal odd-in-B magneto-photocurrent in the Voigt geometry. Nevertheless, we observe a pronounced longitudinal response across the visible range that is predominantly linear in magnetic field, persists below the band gap, and exhibits strong helicity selectivity, with the circular channel exceeding the linear one and reversing sign upon switching light helicity. We resolve this apparent contradiction by identifying defect-enabled, field-selected spin ordering as the mechanism that lowers the effective magnetic symmetry without altering the global crystal structure. First-principles calculations show that O vacancies generate in-gap bound states and localized magnetic moments on neighboring Bi-O units, stabilized by strong SOC. Although symmetry-related vacancy configurations remain energetically degenerate and preserve the macroscopic T symmetry at zero field, an applied magnetic field selects a time-reversal-broken sector of the defect ensemble and reduces the effective magnetic symmetry to the subgroup that leaves B invariant, thereby lifting the longitudinal selection rule. Importantly, this field-selected symmetry reduction does more than activate a nominally forbidden photocurrent: it unmasks latent quantum-geometric responses encoded in the electronic structure. Momentum-resolved calculations show that the dominant circular and linear magneto-photocurrent channels spatially correlate with Berry-curvature-rich and quantum-metric-rich regions of the Brillouin zone, respectively. Our results establish field-selected defect symmetry lowering as a route to revealing hidden quantum geometry and activating forbidden nonlinear photocurrents in chiral quantum materials.

Continuous variable (CV) quantum computation offers an alternative to qubit-based computing by exploiting the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of bosonic modes. Despite recent progress, superconducting platforms have yet to demonstrate a scalable architecture capable of universal computation. Here, we design and numerically simulate a two-layer superconducting architecture that implements all five interactions of the universal CV gate set (rotation, displacement, squeezing, Kerr, and beam splitter) within experimentally accessible regimes. To this end, we employ a DC-SQUID as the bosonic mode, a fluxonium qubit to mediate nonlinear interactions, and two ancillary qubits that enable Gaussian and multi-mode operations. By tuning fluxes and frequencies, we achieve high fidelities ($\geq 98\%$) across all gates within state-of-the-art parameter ranges. The modular nature of the design allows straightforward scaling, establishing a feasible pathway toward high-fidelity, universal CV quantum computation based on superconducting circuits.