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Friday 10 April

Quantum Physics

Coherent Control of Nanoscale Nuclear Spin Ensembles in the Spin Noise Regime

Spin defects in solids, such as the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, have emerged as a key tool for detecting nuclear spins at the nanoscale. While active nuclear spin control via radio-frequency (RF) irradiation is often unnecessary for standard spin-noise detection, it becomes essential for advanced protocols like multidimensional nanoscale NMR. In this work, we investigate nuclear spin control using correlation spectroscopy techniques. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that the resulting nuclear spin dynamics depend critically on the initial RF phase and its orientation relative to the NV crystalline axis. Depending on these parameters, identical nuclear rotations can yield full, partial, or even vanishing contrast in the NV readout. These findings highlight a previously underappreciated aspect of spin manipulation in the spin-noise regime: the link between the phase and direction of the applied RF field and its direct impact on correlation-based experiments. Consequently, imperfect calibration of these parameters can lead to ambiguous signal contrasts and misinterpretation of the underlying nuclear spin dynamics. Our results provide deeper insight into nanoscale spin control and pave the way toward reliable multidimensional spin resonance experiments.
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All authors Ana Martin, Roberto Rizzato, Carlos Munuera-Javaloy, Dileep Singh, Dominik B. Bucher, Jorge Casanova

Quantum Physics

SatQNet: Satellite-assisted Quantum Network Entanglement Routing Using Directed Line Graph Neural Networks

Quantum networks are expected to become a key enabler for interconnecting quantum devices. In contrast to classical communication networks, however, information transfer in quantum networks is usually restricted to short distances due to physical constraints of entanglement distribution. Satellites can extend entanglement distribution over long distances, but routing in such networks is challenging because satellite motion and stochastic link generation create a highly dynamic quantum topology. Existing routing methods often rely on global topology information that quickly becomes outdated due to delays in the classical control plane, while decentralized methods typically act on incomplete local information. We propose SatQNet, a reinforcement learning approach for entanglement routing in satellite-assisted quantum networks that can be decentralized at runtime. Its key innovation is an edge-centric directed line graph neural network that performs local message passing on directed edge embeddings, enabling it to better capture link properties in high-degree and time-varying topologies. By exchanging messages with neighboring repeaters, SatQNet learns a local graph representation at runtime that supports agents in establishing high-fidelity end-to-end entanglements. Trained on random graphs, SatQNet outperforms heuristic and learning-based approaches across diverse settings, including a real-world European backbone topology, and generalizes to unseen topologies without retraining.
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All authors Tobias Meuser, Jannis Weil, Aninda Lahiri, Marius Paraschiv

Quantum Physics

Dyadic-Order Quantum Fractional Transforms: Circuit Constructions and Applications to Hartley and Cosine Transform Families

This paper presents a generalized circuit framework for constructing Shih-type fractionalizations of unitary operators of dyadic order, i.e., operators $U$ satisfying $U^{2^n}=I$. Building upon the architecture of the quantum fractional Fourier transform (QFrFT), we show that fractionalization can be implemented coherently as a weighted superposition of integer powers, $\sum_k c_k(\alpha)U^k$, where the coefficients are generated through an ancilla-domain quantum Fourier transform and a diagonal phase modulation. Under the assumption that controlled implementations of the required powers of $U$ are available, the resulting circuit yields a parameterized family of operators that interpolates the integer powers of $U$ and satisfies the additive property of fractional transforms. As concrete applications, we derive explicit quantum circuit realizations of the quantum fractional Hartley transform (QFrHT) and of the fractional cosine-transform families associated with Types~I and~IV. These constructions demonstrate the versatility of the proposed dyadic-order fractionalization framework for structured operators arising in quantum signal processing.
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All authors Matheus J. A. Oliveira, Israel F. Araujo, José R. de Oliveira Neto, Juliano B. Lima

Quantum Physics

Wave packet motion in a quantized electromagnetic field: Analytic results

We investigate the dynamics of a charged particle interacting with a multimode quantized electromagnetic field and obtain an analytic solution for the full electron–field system. This framework enables the calculation of position expectation values and uncertainties for arbitrary wave packets and field states, allowing us to identify quantum corrections to the corresponding classical motion. While the corrections to the position expectation value are weak and largely insensitive to the quantum state of the field, the wave packet broadening exhibits a pronounced dependence on the field state. In particular, the quantum uncertainty of the radiation is directly imprinted onto the spatial uncertainty of the particle. We illustrate these effects for Gaussian wave packets interacting with coherent, Fock, and squeezed states, including bright squeezed vacuum. The interaction with a finite-duration laser pulse is also analyzed as a multimode example. Our results provide a transparent analytic route toward understanding how quantum fluctuations of light influence electron dynamics in strong-field settings.
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All authors Szabolcs Hack, Béla Gábor Pusztai, Krisztina Joós, Sándor Varró, Attila Czirják, Péter Földi

Quantum Physics

Quadratic Quantum Polarimetry with Entangled Photon Pairs

Conventional polarimetry, including schemes leveraging entangled light, characterizes optical samples through linear transformations of polarization states. We introduce a two-photon probing approach in which both photons of an entangled pair interact with the same depolarizing medium simultaneously. In this regime, the transformation of the two-photon polarization correlations becomes quadratic in the Mueller matrix, enabling access to second-order polarization information beyond conventional polarimetry. We develop a theoretical framework linking the Mueller matrix to the evolution of the two-photon polarization correlation tensor and show that depolarization induces quadratic degradation of entanglement and state purity. Experiments using polarization-entangled photon pairs transmitted through controlled scattering media confirm the predicted response and reveal enhanced sensitivity to polarization scrambling compared with single-photon probing. These results establish two-photon probing as a higher-order quantum polarimetric modality for characterizing polarization channels.
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All authors Jinliang Ren, Vira Besaga, Ivan Lopushenko, Jinyong Ma, Alexander Bykov, Igor Meglinski, Frank Setzpfandt, Andrey A. Sukhorukov

Quantum Physics

Thermodynamical aspects of optically pumped dense atomic medium

Optically Pumped Magnetometers use light to drive an atomic vapor into a Non-Equilibrium Steady State for sensing. This kind of state is achieved when spin-exchange collisions, together with optical pumping, dominate the relaxation dynamics, redistributing the atomic populations and thereby shaping the steady-state configuration. Despite the rapid advancement of atomic magnetometer technology, a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the state preparation is largely unexplored. We apply a thermodynamic framework to alkali atoms in a vapor cell, modeling their interactions with the pump laser and their relaxation via spin-exchange and spin-destruction collisions. We analyze how the pump rate and light polarization determine the non-equilibrium steady state, quantifying irreversibility via entropy production, assessing useful energy via ergotropy, and defining the spin-polarization efficiency. Finally, we establish a connection between metrological performance and the Quantum Fisher Information (QFI), demonstrating that a higher thermodynamic efficiency directly translates into an improved fundamental bound on magnetometer sensitivity. These results provide insights for optimizing state preparation in quantum sensors.
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Quantum Physics

Pontryagin's Principle for Leakage-Immune Adiabatic Quantum State Transfer

The standard stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) protocol enables high-fidelity quantum state transfer in an ideal three-level system via adiabatic following of a dark state. However, in practical systems with more energy levels, control pulses with finite spectral selectivity often couple the three-level subspace to the remaining subspace, introducing leakage that fundamentally limits the transfer performance. Here, we adopt a multilevel chain model for STIRAP that explicitly incorporates this leakage subspace. Using Pontryagin's maximum principle, we formulate a leakage-penalized quantum optimal control problem with the control pulses constrained to experimentally feasible Gaussian pulse families. We derive explicit gradients of the objective functional with respect to the pulse parameters, enabling efficient low-dimensional optimization that suppresses leakage while preserving the counterintuitive STIRAP pulse ordering. Numerical simulations for a superconducting transmon platform demonstrate that the optimized control pulses significantly enhance the target-state transfer fidelity and improve robustness against amplitude miscalibration and detuning drifts.
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Quantum Physics

Order structure and signalling in higher order quantum maps

We study the signalling structure of higher order quantum maps from an order-theoretic perspective, building on the combinatorial characterization of higher order types by Bisio and Perinotti. We have shown in a previous work arxiv:2411.09256 that types are represented by boolean functions called type functions, and that each such function is characterized by a related structure poset. We characterize the distributive lattice generated by all type functions with fixed indices of input and output systems - whose elements we call regular subtypes - by a monotonicity condition. Unlike the set of type functions, the lattice of regular subtypes is closed under the one-way signalling product, moreover, it is generated by a specific family of causally ordered types. We then study signalling relations for maps belonging to a regular subtype, showing that the no-signalling conditions between an input and an output system are determined by a single evaluation of the corresponding function. For higher order types specifically, we show that all signalling relations can be read off directly from the structure poset via a rank parity condition. Finally, we study relations between the structure poset of a type and its normal forms, that is, expressions of the type in terms of causally ordered types. We illustrate construction of normal forms on some examples, demonstrating the possibility that the normal form can be systematically derived from maximal chains of the poset and signalling relations between them.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.stat-mech

Eigenstate entanglement entropy in Bose-Hubbard models

While the eigenstate entanglement entropy has been extensively studied for fermionic systems, much less is known about bosonic systems. Here, we study the entanglement entropy of mid-spectrum eigenstates of Bose-Hubbard models, focusing on weakly disordered models with and without particle-number conservation, and contrasting them with the translationally-invariant model. We analyze the volume-law and O(1) contributions to the entanglement entropy via the averages over mid-spectrum eigenstates and the corresponding distributions. We derive the volume-law coefficient of the entanglement entropy by generalizing the mean-field approach from [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 220603 (2017)] to many-body systems with a tunable local bosonic cutoff, which agrees with previous analytical and numerical results from [Phys. Rev. B 110, 235154 (2024)]. We show that the volume-law contribution to the entanglement entropy does not change upon breaking translational invariance via on-site disorder. We then numerically study the role of the subleading O(1) contribution to the entanglement entropy. We find that, in the particle-number conserving case, it exhibits a nontrivial dependence on the particle-number density and the local bosonic cutoff, while without particle-number conservation, results suggest the emergence of a universal O(1) contribution beyond the random pure state predictions.
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Quantum Physics

QuIKS: Near-Zero Latency Key Supply with Adaptive Buffering for Resource-Efficient Quantum Key Distribution Networks

Quantum key distribution (QKD) networks provide information-theoretically secure keys for distant parties, emerging as a vital alternative to classical cryptography infrastructures threatened by quantum computing. In QKD networks, the immediacy of key supply service is crucial to the security and performance of applications, as their data must be encrypted before transmission. While key buffering can enable instant key supply services, existing schemes rely on heuristic solutions that incur prohibitive key resource consumption, thus significantly hindering practical deployment. To address this issue, we propose QuIKS, an instant key supply scheme based on adaptive buffering, offering the dominant advantage of near-zero key supply latency while consuming ultra-low key resources (i.e., ultra-low buffer size). Specifically, it is built upon a novel analytical model that determines the minimum buffer size required to guarantee near-zero-latency key supply performance. Guided by this model, QuIKS introduces a lightweight two-phase control algorithm that dynamically determines key relaying requests and adjusts the buffer size by probing real-time application patterns and network conditions. Experiments on a real QKD network testbed demonstrate that QuIKS achieves near-zero key supply latency while providing a more than 10-fold reduction in key buffer size compared to state-of-the-art schemes.
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All authors Yuxin Chen, Zite Xia, Jian Li, Kaiping Xue, Zhonghui Li, Lutong Chen, Ruidong Li

Quantum Physics

Continuous Quantum Aperture: Beamforming with a Single-Vapor-Cell Rydberg Receiver

Beamforming is conventionally understood as a collective property of many discrete antenna elements in both communication and radar fields, which links angular selectivity to array size, element spacing, and band-specific hardware. Here we uncover a fundamentally different beamforming mechanism achieved by a Rydberg atomic receiver: a Rydberg-atom vapor cell dressed by a local-oscillator field constitutes a continuous quantum aperture. In this regime, spatially-varying quantum coherence across the aperture provides continuous amplitude-phase control, allowing a directional beam pattern to emerge from one sensing volume rather than from an engineered array. We establish the theory of continuous quantum aperture and show that tailoring the local-oscillator field can directly program the aperture response. This enables reconfigurable single-peak, multipeak, and multiband beamforming within a single vapor cell. Experiments on a Rydberg atomic receiver prototype verify that practical beam patterns agree with theoretical predictions across aperture sizes, frequency bands, and local-oscillator configurations. Leveraging this new beamforming mechanism, we further demonstrate interference mitigation, multiuser access, and multiband multiuser access with the single-vapor-cell platform. Our results identify the continuous quantum aperture as a new operating principle of Rydberg atomic receivers and establish single-vapor-cell beamforming as an integrated and reconfigurable platform for spatially selective electromagnetic reception.
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All authors Mingyao Cui, Qunsong Zeng, Minze Chen, Yilin Wang, Zhiao Zhu, Tianqi Mao, Dezhi Zheng, Kaibin Huang, Jun Zhang

Quantum Physics

Tantalum-Encapsulated Niobium Superconducting Resonators: High Internal Quality Factor and Improved Temporal Stability via Surface Passivation

Superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators are essential components in quantum processors, where their internal quality factor (Qi) constrains qubit coherence and readout fidelity. In niobium devices, microwave losses at millikelvin temperatures are strongly influenced by two-level systems (TLS) associated with the complex NbOx surface oxide. To mitigate these losses, we investigate a surface-engineering approach in which Nb films are capped in situ with a thin tantalum layer to suppress Nb2O5 formation and replace the native NbOx interface with a Ta-based oxide. We fabricate Nb/Ta bilayer and reference Nb resonators on high-resistivity silicon using identical DC sputtering and wet etching conditions, and characterize their performance at millikelvin temperatures. Fresh Ta-encapsulated devices exhibit internal quality factors up to 2.4 x 10^6 in the near-single-photon regime, with power dependence consistent with reduced TLS-related loss at the metal-air interface. A control Nb device fabricated under the same process shows comparatively lower Q_TLS, consistent with the beneficial effect of the Ta capping layer. Furthermore, ageing tests performed on Nb/Ta resonators after six months reveal a moderate reduction in Q_TLS relative to their initial values, yet the performance remains superior to newly fabricated Nb-only devices. These results suggest that thin Ta encapsulation enhances interface quality and contributes to improved temporal stability while remaining compatible with Nb-based fabrication workflows.
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All authors Anas Alkhazaleh, Juan Villegas, Florent Ravaux, Alexey Zharinov

Quantum Physics

Galilean One-Particle Kinematics from a Smooth Family of Reference States

Giannelli and Chiribella derived an observable-generator duality for energy from a collision model of informational nonequilibrium. We study a continuous-variable version aimed at the Galilean one-particle sector. A smooth family of reference states around an isotropic equilibrium supplies time, translation, rotation, and boost directions. The local observable-generator correspondence is obtained by differentiating a smooth extension of the single-state duality map, and the norm-one property of localization is obtained from a fiducial focusing assumption together with covariance. Combined with the standard smearing form of covariant localization observables, this yields sharp localization. With local inertial composition, the spin-cover action of rotations, and a central boost-translation holonomy, every irreducible sector is unitarily equivalent to the Hilbert space L2(R3) tensored with a (2s+1)-dimensional spin space. In that representation translations are generated by the canonical momentum, the holonomy is a scalar mass m > 0, boosts at t = 0 are generated by m times the position observable, the Hamiltonian is the free-particle kinetic term plus a constant E0, and the total angular momentum is orbital plus spin.
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Quantum Physics

Loss-Tolerant Quantum Communication via Bosonic-GKP-Parity-Encoding

Quantum repeaters constitute a promising platform for enabling long-distance quantum communication and may ultimately serve as the backbone of a secure quantum internet, a scalable quantum network, or a distributed quantum computer. An efficient approach to encoding qubits within an error correcting code is provided by bosonic codes, in which even a single oscillator mode can function as a sufficiently large physical system. In this work, we initially investigate the bosonic Gottesman Kitaev Preskill (GKP) code as a promising platform for loss correcting quantum repeaters, compatible with room temperature implementation, and analyse how loss and other noise sources propagate through the circuit using Heisenberg evolution. We analyse three quantum repeater protocols in which transmission loss is suppressed at the cost of logical errors, identifying a relay-like teleamplifier as the optimal scheme. This enables long distance quantum communication via densely packed nodes without higher-level encoding, and we evaluate the resulting secure key rates exploiting analog syndrome information. Furthermore, we propose a concatenated Bell-state measurement (CBSM) scheme with a modified parity encoding based on GKP qubits, CV measurement with teleamplifier and a clipping method that corrects transmission loss without introducing logical errors. This significantly enhances the possible secure key distance. We find that GKP based repeaters can achieve performance comparable to approaches relying on photonic qubits, while requiring orders of magnitude fewer qubits. Our parity encoded GKP repeater protocol achieves a substantially higher secret key rate than existing GKP based repeater schemes while maintaining a comparable resource overhead.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from physics.optics

A scalable platform for nanometer-scale quantum confinement

Overcoming the limitations of current nanofabrication techniques to achieve nanoscale feature sizes is essential for achieving new regimes of light-matter interactions at extreme frequencies and length scales. Here, we demonstrate a scalable nanofabrication platform capable of producing in-plane feature sizes down to 1.75 nm, pushing the boundaries of current top-down nanofabrication techniques. Using precise thickness control of atomic layer deposition (ALD) and employing widely spaced oxide nanofins, we transform conventional ALD into a surface structuring method that produces nanolaminates with sub-10 nm periodicities over large areas. The resulting nanostructures can be used as a one-dimensional gate array to control charge carriers in two-dimensional materials. As an initial demonstration, we integrate the platform with graphene and perform electron transport measurements. In the presence of the gate array enabled by the nanolaminate, we observe satellite Dirac peaks consistent with band-structure modulation, suggestive of quantum-confinement effects. Our platform paves the way for exploring previously inaccessible regimes of nanoscale light-matter interactions, holding significant promise for applications in short wavelength optics, electronics, and polaritonics.
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All authors Christina M. Spaegele, Mehdi Rezaee, Thomas Werkmeister, Soon Wei Daniel Lim, Kailyn Vaillancourt, Joon-Suh Park, Paul Chevalier, Ido Kaminer, Philip Kim, Federico Capasso, Michele Tamagnone

Quantum Physics

Impact of Pump Phase-Noise on Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers

Superconducting traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) are essential elements for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and thus the read-out fidelity of superconducting qubits because of their high gain and near quantum-limited noise. However, the impact of the pump source, e.g., phase noise on these amplifiers, has not yet been studied. In this work, we show that among the two amplification processes in JTWPAs, the three-wave mixing (3WM) process is more sensitive to the pump phase noise than the four-wave mixing (4WM) process. We show that the even-order nonlinearity of 4th order and above in three-wave mixing is responsible for more than 10 dB increase of phase noise at high frequency offsets within the phase noise mask as the power of the pump increases. A polynomial model of the amplifier and cyclo-stationary property of phase noise also corroborate with the simulations. The Harmonic Balance (HB) periodic noise analysis tool and Leeson phase noise model in Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) simulator were used in this study.
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All authors Daryoush Shiri, Likai Yang, Saesun Kim, Mohamed A. Hassan, Philip Krantz, Eric T. Holland

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Finite Hilbert space and maximum mass of Schwarzschild black holes from a Generalized Uncertainty Principle

We show that implementing a generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) with both minimal length and maximal momentum directly on the reduced phase space of the Schwarzschild black hole (BH) leads to a finite and discrete mass spectrum, a strict upper bound on the BH mass, a bounded entropy, and a fully regulated Hawking temperature. We further construct a GUP-deformed lapse function that preserves the ADM mass and horizon radius while exactly reproducing the GUP temperature through the surface gravity. Using the most massive observed supermassive BHs, we derive the constraint on the GUP parameter, $\beta\lesssim 10^{-98}$, showing that present astrophysical data already impose robust bounds on minimal length quantum gravity.
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Quantum Physics

Observing complementary Lucas sequences using non-Hermitian zero modes

The Lucas sequences are integers defined by a homogeneous recurrence relation. They include the well-known Fibonacci numbers, which appear abundantly in nature. The complementary Lucas numbers, defined by the same recurrence relation, are less well-known. In this work, we show that such complementary Lucas sequences can be observed simultaneously on the same physical platform, using zero modes in one-dimensional system(s) coupled to a non-Hermitian reservoir. When the latter consists solely of gain and loss modulated non-Hermiticity, the two Lucas sequences can manifest as a linearly localized edge state and a constant-intensity mode, respectively. When the reservoir features asymmetric couplings as well, more general Lucas sequences can be realized either directly on one sublattice in the reservoir or by reconstructing the wave function on both sublattices. Finally, if we allow, in addition, an alternate frequency detuning in the reservoir, all Lucas sequences can be observed in principle, including the Fibonacci and Lucas numbers.
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Quantum Physics

Complexity-Aware Theory Testing from Bell Witnesses

Bell statistical-strength analyses and complexity-based model selection are usually treated separately. Here we relate them by showing that a witness obtained from a coarse-graining of full Bell trials yields, through data processing, a lower bound on the Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance to a competitor class in terms of the induced witness distribution. For binary Bell-game witnesses this reduces to a Bernoulli bound, and in the CHSH scenario the local image collapses to a single threshold, giving the closed-form expression D_KL(Bern(omega) || Bern(3/4)) under uniform inputs, with a corresponding extension to known nonuniform designs. A finite-sample Hoeffding argument gives a lower confidence bound under independent trials. We also include a non-CHSH example based on the three-party Mermin-GHZ game. Because the bound is measured in bits per trial, it can be compared directly with an MDL/BIC-type complexity penalty and thereby yields a conservative crossover criterion for when a more expressive competitor becomes worthwhile. For the reproducible four-photon data of Wang et al., the witness certifies a positive information gap against locality, while a full-table comparison across local, no-signaling, saturated, and two compact nonlocal families favors low-dimensional nonlocal descriptions once complexity is charged. A four-parameter unbiased-correlator control shows that the data support compact nonlocality over locality, while only weakly distinguishing the specific cosine structure of the two-parameter model; an AIC comparison instead favors broader nonlocal controls. We also report witness-based benchmarks from additional published CHSH experiments and discuss the interpretational scope of BIC for constrained or non-regular model classes.
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Quantum Physics

Beating three-parameter precision trade-offs with entangling collective measurements

Quantum-mechanical incompatibility, which precludes the simultaneous precise measurement of non-commuting observables, imposes fundamental limits on the rate at which classical information can be extracted. While the potential to surpass these limits using entangling collective measurements has been explored for two parameters, the regime of three or more parameters remains largely unexplored despite its fundamental and technological importance. Here, we investigate the three-parameter trade-off relations for estimating the Bloch vector components of a qubit, comparing conventional individual measurements with entangling collective measurements. We theoretically derive and experimentally implement optimal collective measurements on two identically prepared qubits using a programmable photonic circuit. Our experimental results demonstrate a clear violation of the entanglement-free trade-off relation – by an average of 16 standard deviations – achieving a tomography precision beyond the reach of any individual measurement scheme. This work directly confirms that optimal collective measurements can surpass the fundamental quantum limits of individual schemes in a three-parameter setting – thereby deepening our understanding of quantum uncertainty relations beyond the two-parameter regime and providing a clear strategy to overcome the precision trade-offs imposed by quantum incompatibility.
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All authors Simon K. Yung, Wen-Zhe Yan, Lan-Tian Feng, Aritra Das, Jiayi Qin, Guang-Can Guo, Ping Koy Lam, Jie Zhao, Zhibo Hou, Lorcan O. Conlon, Syed M. Assad, Xi-Feng Ren, Guo-Yong Xiang

Quantum Physics

Crosstalk-robust superconducting two-qubit geometric gates using tunable couplers

The design of coupler-based superconducting two-qubit gates simplifies circuit layout and alleviate frequency crowding, thereby enhancing the scalability and flexibility of quantum chips. However, in such architectures, a trade-off often exists between suppressing crosstalk and reducing gate duration, and how to achieve synergistic optimization of both remains an open challenge. To address this, this paper proposes a coupler-assisted superconducting two-qubit geometric gate scheme oriented towards crosstalk robustness. By introducing additional parametric degrees of freedom, the scheme steers the system evolution along desired trajectories, thereby flexibly avoiding crosstalk-sensitive operational regions. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme can effectively suppress crosstalk errors while enabling fast gate operations, and exhibits strong robustness against typical experimental imperfections such as qubit frequency drift. Moreover, even when accounting for unavoidable high-frequency oscillation terms and qubit decoherence in realistic physical systems, our crosstalk-robust two-qubit geometric gates still achieve high fidelity. This work provides a feasible pathway toward robust and efficient two-qubit gate implementation in superconducting quantum computation.
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All authors Bo-Xun Deng, Jia-Qi Hu, Cheng-Yun Ding, Zheng-Yuan Xue, Tao Chen

Quantum Physics

Comparison of the standard and dressed-picture master equations for the quantum Rabi model in the ultrastrong coupling regime

The goal of this chapter is to investigate the effects of relaxation and dephasing on the quantum Rabi model in the ultrastrong coupling regime, and to provide explicit formulas that enable students and researchers to implement and numerically solve the resulting nonunitary dynamics from first principles. We numerically solve the standard Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) master equation and the dressed-picture master equation (DME), derived by Beaudoin, Gambetta, and Blais, for various initial field states, including coherent states, odd Schrödinger cat states, squeezed vacuum states, squeezed coherent states, and thermal states. The coupling strength is varied in the range $0.05\,\omega $ to $0.8\,\omega $. We also examine photon generation from the vacuum induced by external time-dependent modulation of the qubit parameters, as well as multiphoton Rabi oscillations for an initially excited qubit. Two different reservoir spectral densities are considered: white noise and Ohmic noise. The differences between the two master-equation approaches are illustrated through numerical results for several physical observables, including the qubit excited-state population, the mean photon number, the Mandel $Q$-factor, the negativity (used as a measure of entanglement), the subsystem purities, and the photon-number probability distribution at selected times. As expected, for many of these quantities the predictions of the standard GKSL master equation differ substantially from those of the dressed-picture master equation. However, in certain parameter regimes and for specific observables, the discrepancies remain comparatively small.
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Thursday 9 April

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

Engineering quantum optical responses of microtubules through tryptophan-network simulations and ultraviolet spectroscopy

Microtubules host dense ultraviolet-absorbing aromatic networks, suggesting an opportunity to engineer their optical response for biotechnology. Here we assess the feasibility of tuning microtubule fluorescence by combining an excitonic radiative-coupling model with molecular-dynamics-derived microtubule-like assemblies and steady-state absorbance and fluorescence measurements in microplate geometries. Simulations quantify how positional and orientational fluctuations reshape radiative rates and quantum yield, and predict how perturbing the tryptophan network by removing a specific site, adding an extra tryptophan at candidate binding pockets, or using mixed modification fractions can modulate emission. Experiments on porcine tubulin dimers and taxol-stabilized microtubules support these trends: polymerization enhances microtubule quantum yield at 280 nm and yields bounded changes at 295 nm due to scattering, while added L-tryptophan reproducibly quenches microtubules at both wavelengths. Together, theory and experiment provide evidence for chemically addressable tuning of microtubule quantum yield and motivate design rules for engineered microtubule photonics.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math.RA

Tomiyama-type maps with a diagonal perturbation

We investigate a two-parameter family of linear maps on matrix algebras, constructed as diagonal perturbations of classical Tomiyama maps. Employing the Choi matrix method alongside block-positivity techniques, we derive explicit necessary and sufficient conditions for positivity, complete positivity, and k-positivity across arbitrary dimensions. These conditions provide a transparent geometric characterization of the positivity regions within the parameter space.
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Quantum Physics

Classical and Quantum Dynamics in an Information Theoretic Space

We study elementary classical and quantum dynamics in an information geometric space corresponding to a Bernoulli random variable, extending work by Goehle and Griffin [Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 188, 115535, (2024)], who study the information theoretic analog of the spring-mass system. Information geometric constructions are useful in both statistical physics and in physical interpretations of Friston's free energy principle, a form of the Bayesian brain hypothesis. In this letter, we derive the spectrum for the Laplace-Beltrami operator in Bernoulli space and find Green's functions for the Helmholtz equation, which provides solutions to the wave, heat, and Poisson equations. We then show how to quantize momentum in Bernoulli space and obtain energies and wavefunctions for both a free particle and a variety of quantum (harmonic) oscillators in this space. In particular, we show that quadratic approximation of the Kullback-Leibler potential used by Goehle and Griffin results in a quantum oscillator in information space that is equivalent to a quantum pendulum in Euclidean space.
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Quantum Physics

Curvature-Flux Representation of Local Dirac-Node Topology from Non-Hermitian Zeeman Quantum Geometry

Local Dirac-node topology is usually described by a winding number or Berry phase, whereas curvature-flux formulations are commonly associated with global band topology. Here we show that the non-Hermitian Zeeman quantum geometric tensor (QGT) provides a curvature-flux representation of local $\pi_1$ topology. Unlike the conventional Hermitian QGT, whose metric and Berry curvature are fixed respectively by its real symmetric and imaginary antisymmetric parts, the Zeeman QGT must be decomposed according to symmetry under index exchange. This decomposition yields normal and anomalous metric-curvature sectors. The normal sector has the same metric-curvature structure as the conventional Hermitian QGT. The anomalous sector, by contrast, contains two components absent in the conventional QGT: an imaginary symmetric metric-like tensor and a real antisymmetric curvature-like tensor. In a two-dimensional Dirac system, the anomalous Zeeman curvature forms a radial flux field Hodge-dual to the tangential winding field of the Dirac node, thereby converting the local winding invariant into a Gauss-type flux invariant. We further show that the four Zeeman-geometric sectors map one-to-one onto frequency- and symmetry-resolved gyrotropic conductivity channels, with reciprocal kinetic magnetoelectric response providing a complementary probe. These results establish non-Hermitian Zeeman quantum geometry as a measurable framework connecting local Dirac-node topology and transport.
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All authors Rongjie Cui, Longjun Xiang, Fuming Xu, Jian Wang

Quantum Physics

Quantum Patches: Enhancing Robustness of Quantum Machine Learning Models

Machine learning models and their applications, such as autonomous driving systems, are becoming increasingly common and are essential components of human daily life. However, due to their sensitivity to perturbed noise, these models are easily susceptible to adversarial attacks. Not only are classical machine learning models affected, but quantum machine learning (QML) models have also been proven to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks, which degrade their performance. To defend against these types of attacks, several classical methods have been proposed. Among these, a prominent approach uses various types of pseudo-noise during training to enhance the model's robustness against real-world attacks. One of the recently emerging solutions is to leverage the unique properties of quantum circuits to create quantum-based pseudo-noise similar to real perturbed noise to counter adversarial attacks. This paper proposes a solution that utilizes random quantum circuits (RQCs) as adversarial data to help QML models overcome these adversarial attacks. The results reported in this paper show that the data generated by RQC actually provides a similar effect to models trained with adversarial data on high-feature datasets. This quantum-based pseudo-noise resulted in a significant reduction in the attack rate in the CIFAR-10 data set, from 89. 8% to 68.45%. For the CINIC-10 dataset, the successful attack rate decreased from 94.23% to 78.68%. This research opens up avenues for applying unique quantum properties, such as superposition, entanglement, and even decoherence, to enhance the quality of machine learning models.
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All authors Ban Q. Tran, Chuong K. Luong, Viet Q. Nguyen, Duong M. Chu, Susan Mengel

Quantum Physics

Investigation of coherence of niobium-based resonators enabled by a fast-sealing microwave cavity

Resonators and qubits with a niobium (Nb) base metal layer achieve some of the highest coherence times in superconducting quantum devices. The performance of such devices is often limited by loss associated with two-level systems, which are found primarily at material surfaces and interfaces. The metal-air (MA) interface is a major contributor to device loss. In this work, we develop a fast-sealing microwave cavity that enables devices to be placed under vacuum within five minutes of oxide removal, thereby significantly reducing the MA interface loss compared to common device processing and packaging approaches. Using coplanar stripline resonators, we demonstrate that devices sealed in such a cavity exhibit internal quality factors exceeding one million at single-photon power. After re-exposure to air, the devices show downward resonance frequency shifts and quality factor degradations, quantitatively consistent with a model of Nb oxide regrowth. The fast-sealing microwave cavity provides a practical and consistent method to mitigate MA interface loss and sustain high coherence in Nb devices, and establishes a controlled platform for studying metal oxide regrowth kinetics and dielectric properties, the understanding of which is critical to achieving high coherence in superconducting quantum devices.
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All authors Chi Zhang, Richard Germond, Noah Janzen, Anne-Marie Valente-Feliciano, Mustafa Bal, Adrian Lupascu

Quantum Physics

Weak Adversarial Neural Pushforward Method for the Wigner Transport Equation

We extend the Weak Adversarial Neural Pushforward Method to the Wigner transport equation governing the phase-space dynamics of quantum systems. The central contribution is a structural observation: integrating the nonlocal pseudo-differential potential operator against plane-wave test functions produces a Dirac delta that exactly inverts the Fourier transform defining the Wigner potential kernel, reducing the operator to a pointwise finite difference of the potential at two shifted arguments. This holds in arbitrary dimension, requires no truncation of the Moyal series, and treats the potential as a black-box function oracle with no derivative information. To handle the negativity of the Wigner quasi-probability distribution, we introduce a signed pushforward architecture that decomposes the solution into two non-negative phase-space distributions mixed with a learnable weight. The resulting method inherits the mesh-free, Jacobian-free, and scalable properties of the original framework while extending it to the quantum setting.
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Quantum Physics

Frequency resolved optical gating using parametric amplification for characterizing ultrafast temporally multimode squeezed states

Temporally multimode squeezed states have been a topic of recent interest due to their applications in quantum communication, information processing, and sensing. Characterizing the mode shapes is crucial for effectively manipulating these states, but current mode shape and state characterization techniques necessitate constraining assumptions and complicated experimental setups. Here, we propose a characterization technique that simultaneously recovers the complex temporal mode shapes and quadrature variances of ultrafast multimode squeezed states based on frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) using an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). FROG is a promising tool for quantum state characterization due to its flexibility of implementation and high temporal resolution. Using an OPA as the nonlinear process in FROG has the benefit of amplifying weak quantum states to a detectable level while preserving quantum information. Numerical simulations demonstrate the recovery of the mode shapes and levels of squeezing and anti-squeezing of ultrafast multimode squeezed states. This scheme offers a practical experimental approach to measuring arbitrary temporal mode shapes and characterizing large-scale multimode ultrafast Gaussian quantum states.
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All authors Elina Sendonaris, Thomas Zacharias, Robert Gray, James Williams, Alireza Marandi