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Thursday 30 April

Quantum Physics

Geometric complexity in thermodynamics

The third law of thermodynamics forbids cooling a physical system to absolute zero in a finite number of operational steps. Although this unattainability principle has been quantified for specific state-to-state transitions, a universal, dynamics-independent bound for implementing a state-agnostic reset map remains elusive. In this work, we unveil the fundamental limits of physical map implementation by deriving a trade-off relation based on geometric complexity. By analyzing continuous paths of maps on a geometric manifold, we prove that the geometric complexity of any classical stochastic map or quantum channel is bounded from below by its execution error. As a consequence, we show that achieving zero error in a state-reset operation requires a divergent geometric complexity – a unified measure that naturally incorporates disparate physical resources, including infinite time, energetic cost, or control bandwidth. This unattainability principle holds universally across both classical and quantum regimes, establishing a strict geometric limit on the physical realization of reset operations in thermodynamic control and quantum computation.
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Quantum Physics

Wavelet-based multiresolution analysis of quantum fractals in confined dynamics

Fractal structures naturally emerge in quantum systems whose initial states exhibit spatial discontinuities, a phenomenon first identified by Berry in the paradigmatic case of a particle confined in an infinite potential well. While previous analyses of quantum fractals have mainly relied on spectral decompositions and geometric scaling arguments, their quantitative characterization often depends on scale choices and truncation effects. Here we present a wavelet-based multiresolution framework that enables a direct and assumption-free quantification of quantum fractality. Fractal dimensions are extracted from the scale-dependent distribution of wavelet energies, without invoking prior power-law hypotheses. The method is applied to space and time quantum fractals arising in confined dynamics, as well as to dynamical curves generated by the associated quantum probability flux. These flux-driven trajectories provide a natural space–time parametrization of the underlying fractal structure and yield scaling properties fully consistent with Berry's predictions for space–time fractals. The resulting fractal dimensions are shown to be robust with respect to the choice of wavelet family, numerical cutoffs, and system parameters. Beyond validating earlier conjectures, the present framework offers a unified and computationally efficient tool for the multiscale analysis of quantum fractality in confined and interference-driven quantum dynamics. That is, it provides an operational, scale-adaptive criterion that unifies the characterization of space, time, and space–time quantum fractals within a single, hypothesis-free approach.
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Quantum Physics

Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning without short-time control

Characterizing quantum systems by learning their underlying Hamiltonians is a central task in quantum information science. While recent algorithmic advances have achieved near-optimal efficiency in this task, they critically rely on accessing arbitrarily short-time dynamics. This reliance poses severe experimental challenges due to finite control bandwidth and transient pulse errors. In this work, we demonstrate that Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning can be achieved without short-time control. We introduce a framework in which every query to the unknown dynamics has duration at least a prescribed minimum time $T$, and show that this restriction does not preclude Heisenberg-limited scaling. The key ingredient is a method for emulating the continuous quantum control required by iterative learning algorithms using only such lower-bounded evolution times. This reduces the learning task to sparse pure-state tomography. Notably, for logarithmically sparse Hamiltonians, our algorithm achieves the information-theoretically optimal $1/\varepsilon$ scaling in total evolution time for any arbitrary constant minimum evolution time $T$. For many-body (polynomially sparse) systems, we uncover a rigorous quantitative tradeoff, showing that the minimum required evolution time can be significantly relaxed from the standard limit at a polynomial cost in total evolution time. Our results affirmatively resolve a prominent open problem in the field and reveal that high-bandwidth, ultra-short pulses are not fundamentally necessary for optimal quantum learning.
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Quantum Physics

Towards High Performance Quantum Computing (HPQ): Parallelisation of the Hamiltonian Auto Decomposition Optimisation Framework (HADOF)

Practical applicability of quantum optimisation on near term devices is constrained by limited qubit counts and hardware noise, which restricts the scalability of quantum optimisation algorithms for combinatorial problems. The simulation of large quantum circuits is also difficult and constrained by memory requirement. The Hamiltonian Auto Decomposition Optimisation Framework (HADOF) addresses this by decomposing large QUBOs into smaller subproblems that can be solved iteratively on quantum or classical backends. This allows the scalability of quantum QUBO algorithms beyond device limits, as well as their simulation on classical devices. In this research, we extend the evaluation of HADOF by benchmarking on real IBM QPUs across sequential, single-QPU parallel, and multi-QPU parallel execution modes, advancing toward High Performance Quantum (HPQ) computing for combinatorial optimisation problems. Experimental results on IBM quantum hardware demonstrate up to 3-4x reduction in wall clock time when utilising four QPUs compared to sequential execution baseline, while maintaining comparable solution quality. Notably, even single QPU execution benefits from parallelised job orchestration and execution, yielding up to 3x speedup. Simulated results predict over 5x speed-up in parallel execution mode. We further validate the practical applicability of the approach on real world genome assembly instances, showing that both sequential and parallel HADOF variants achieve competitive accuracy while significantly improving time to solution. These results highlight the importance of parallelism at both the algorithmic and system levels, positioning HADOF as a viable pathway toward scalable quantum optimisation.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math-ph

Hypergeometric Functions of Nilpotent Operators: Functional Collapse and Structural Depth at Exceptional Points

We study hypergeometric functions of nilpotent operators in finite-dimensional settings, motivated by the algebraic structure of exceptional points in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics. Our starting point is the following exact result: if N is a nilpotent operator of index m+1 in an associative algebra over C, then every generalized hypergeometric function pFq evaluated at N reduces to a finite polynomial in N of degree at most m, without any analytic convergence requirement. This "functional collapse" is distinct from the classical parameter-termination mechanism and arises purely from the nilpotent structure of the argument. The main result is a "nilpotent depth criterion" (Theorem 2): if the first non-constant coefficient of a formal series F appears in degree r >= 1, then the nilpotent part F(N) - F(0)I has nilpotency index bounded above by ceil((m+1)/r). We apply this criterion to Hamiltonians at exceptional points, where H = lambda I + N with N^{m+1} = 0. Theorem 3 establishes that a function F analytic at lambda reduces the Jordan depth of the exceptional point from m+1 to at most ceil((m+1)/r), where r is the contact order of F at lambda. As consequences: the time evolution operator e^{tH} preserves the full Jordan depth for all t != 0; a function with a zero of order m+1 at lambda annihilates the entire Jordan structure; and the order of the pole of the modified resolvent is reduced from m+1 to at most m+1-r. Results are illustrated with explicit 3x3 Jordan block computations for 1F1, 2F1, and the time evolution operator, confirming sharpness of the bounds.
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Quantum Physics

Entanglement of multi-qubit quantum graph states and studies structural properties of tripartite graphs with quantum computing

We propose a method for constructing multi-qubit entangled quantum states that represent weighted tripartite graphs, and develop approaches for investigating their structural properties using quantum computing. In the general case of multi-qubit states corresponding to arbitrary tripartite graph structures, we derive an expression for the entanglement distance. We establish a connection between entanglement and properties of the corresponding tripartite graphs. Namely, we show that the entanglement of a qubit with the rest of the system in a quantum tripartite graph state depends on the weights of the arcs in the neighborhood of the corresponding vertex, as well as on its degree with respect to the vertex sets of the tripartite graph. As an illustrative example, we consider a tripartite graph forming a triangle and evaluate the entanglement distance with quantum computing. We also compute quantum correlators for the general case of tripartite quantum graph states and relate these quantities to structural features of the underlying graphs, including the number of non-overlapping neighbors, the number of common neighbors of the corresponding vertices, and the number of 4-cycles. Obtained relationships between the quantum properties of multi-qubit states and the structural features of tripartite graphs opens up the possibility of investigating classical systems, such as tripartite graphs, using quantum computing. It is worth emphasizing that tripartite graphs have applications in practical problems, including resource allocation, scheduling, and database and hypergraph modeling.
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Quantum Physics

Compressed Sensing for Efficient Fidelity Estimation of GHZ States

Accurately characterizing multipartite entangled states is a critical challenge in quantum information processing. In this work, we focus on applying compressed sensing techniques to efficiently estimate the fidelity of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. By exploiting the inherent sparsity of these states, our compressed sensing protocol drastically reduces the measurement overhead traditionally required for state verification while maintaining high accuracy. To evaluate the practical performance of this approach, we test the protocol on GHZ states using both quantum simulators and Quantinuum's trapped-ion hardware. Furthermore, we implement error detection techniques during our hardware evaluations, demonstrating the robustness and viability of compressed sensing for fidelity estimation in noisy experimental environments.
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All authors Farrokh Labib, David Nicholaeff, Vincent Russo, William J. Zeng

Quantum Physics

High-Girth Regular Quantum LDPC Codes from Square-Base Hypergraph Products via CPM Lifts

We study square-base Calderbank–Shor–Steane (CSS) hypergraph-product codes as a finite-length class for regular high-girth quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) design. For base matrices of small column weight, we give checkable conditions for regularity, rank deficiency, and short-cycle exclusion, and we present explicit column-weight-three and column-weight-four examples with Tanner girth 6 and 8. We also analyze circulant permutation matrix (CPM) lifts of this class. Using the standard voltage-sum criterion, we identify orthogonality-forced Tanner 8-cycles and show that CPM lifting cannot raise the Tanner girth beyond 8 when these cycles are present. As a representative finite-length instance, a randomized CPM lift of the girth-8 base construction gives a $[[28800,62,18\le d\le192]]$ girth-8 $(3,6)$-regular CSS-LDPC code. Complete enumeration excludes nontrivial logical supports of weight at most $16$ on both sides, giving $d_X,d_Z\ge18$; explicit weight-$192$ representatives give $d_X,d_Z\le192$. Under degeneracy-aware belief-propagation decoding with optional ordered-statistics-decoding-lite post-processing, this code produced zero decoding failures in $2.993\times 10^8$ independent trials at depolarizing probability $p=0.1402$; the Wilson 95% upper confidence bound is $1.28\times 10^{-8}$.
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Quantum Physics

Explicit Quantum Search Algorithm for the Densest k-Subgraph Problem

This paper addresses the problem of finding the densest $k$-vertex subgraph in an arbitrary graph. This problem is NP-hard and has important applications in social network analysis, fraud detection, recommendation systems, and bioinformatics. We propose two quantum approaches to solve this problem: reduction to Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) and using Grover's quantum search algorithm. For the latter approach, we present an explicit gate-based oracle circuit utilizing Dicke states and Quantum Fourier Transform for edge counting. Numerical simulations demonstrate a quadratic speedup over classical Brute-force search.
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All authors Yu.A. Biriukov, R.D. Morozov, I.V. Dyakonov, S.S. Straupe

Quantum Physics

Macroscopic photon counting beating the Poisson noise limit

Photon counting is a cornerstone of quantum optics. Here, we demonstrate precisely counting from 0 to over 9000 photons, beating the Poisson noise limit by at least $4.1~\mathrm{dB}$ across this range. We achieve sub-single-photon precision up to 276 photons per pulse. To do so, we multiplex eight intrinsically photon-number-resolving superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors across 128 temporal modes. We use a model-informed characterization of each of the 1024 detection bins, for optimal precision. We perform quantum detector tomography to reconstruct the positive operator valued measures (POVMs) of the complete device, which consists of $1.38\cdot10^8$ matrix elements. At the repetition rate of our experiment of $80~\mathrm{kHz}$, we can precisely count photons corresponding to an optical power of approximately $71~\mathrm{pW}$, bridging the gap from single-photon measurements to high-sensitivity optical power meters. A photon-number-resolving detector of this size, and the tools used to analyze it, will become increasingly important to characterize large quantum states, as well as tasks in precision metrology and optical power standards.
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All authors Timon Schapeler, Fabian Schlue, Isabell Mischke, Michael Stefszky, Benjamin Brecht, Christine Silberhorn, Tim J. Bartley

Quantum Physics

Timescales for Deep and Full Thermalization

Isolated quantum systems typically approach thermal equilibrium as described by the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH). Going beyond this involves either higher order correlators (full thermalization) or the formation of state designs, i.e., the approach of moments of state ensembles after a projective measurement towards thermal equilibrium (deep thermalization). We compare these two extensions of ETH using extensive numerical studies within a paradigmatic model for chaotic many-body quantum dynamics. For this we find exponential relaxation for both extensions: For deep thermalization all moments relax with the same rate, which approximately equals the relaxation rate of the autocorrelation function captured by ETH. In contrast, higher order correlation functions in full thermalization approach equilibrium faster. This means that at higher orders full thermalization is faster than deep thermalization.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from physics.optics

OAM-mode sorting with a wavefront twister

We propose an OAM sorter based on a novel optical element that we refer to as a wavefront twister. It is a generalization of the conventional wavefront rotators such as the Dove prism. However, unlike a Dove prism, which simply rotates a wavefront, the rotation generated by a wavefront twister varies linearly with radial position, resulting in the twisting of the wavefront. We demonstrate that the wavefront twister, followed by a lens, maps each OAM mode to an annulus of distinct radius at the back focal plane of the lens with negligible inter-modal overlap and preserves the circular symmetry. Thus, the proposed wavefront twister offers a scalable scheme for high-dimensional OAM mode sorting, with important consequences for the practical realization of OAM-based applications.
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All authors Suman Karan, Swati Chaudhary, Harshwardhan Wanare, Anand Kumar Jha

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

Size-Limited Room Temperature Single-Photon Emission from Sidewall-Treated Fractional Dimension InGaN Quantum Dots: Determined by Density-of-States-Corrected Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics and Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Room-temperature single-photon emission (SPE) resulting from a biexciton-exciton cascaded decay is demonstrated for the first time from chemically and photoelectrochemically etched site-controlled In0.14Ga0.86N quantum dots (QDs) embedded in vertical GaN nanowires. Diameter-dependent biexciton-exciton dynamics are analysed to determine the eligibility of QD as a single-photon emitter. The signal-to-noise ratio degrades with increasing QD diameter. Background noise photons pose a bottleneck to achieving SPE. This is also explained from a carrier dynamics perspective. Surface recombination contributes to inhomogeneous broadening at QD diameters larger than 35 nm. Below 35 nm, density-of-states-corrected Auger gradually becomes the principal biexciton-decay route with further reduction in QD diameter, thereby quenching the possibility of thermal broadening and setting a threshold for SPE. Below 9 nm, the Auger recombination rate becomes manyfold of other decay rates, causing multi-photon suppression via single Auger decay to form an exciton. Surface recombination probability of this exciton is minimized while biexciton state filling probability is maximized by reducing sidewall surface states through wet-treatment. These improve biexciton state preparation and enhance the single-photon purity of the exciton towards the exciton Bohr radius (3 nm) regime. Far away from this regime, higher-order autocorrelations to characterize quantum emission involving multi-photon events are discussed. This study establishes a generalized physical framework for predetermining SPE probability as a function of QD surface and geometry down to the exciton Bohr radius regime, with practical implementations. This work shows the pathway to design and develop next-generation semiconductor QDs for high-purity room-temperature SPE.
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Quantum Physics

Parametrically Driven iSWAP Gate Using a Capacitively Shunted Double-Transmon Coupler at the Zero-Flux Sweet Spot

A double-transmon coupler (DTC) enables a fast, high-fidelity CZ gate between two highly detuned, fixed-frequency transmon qubits. Moreover, a recently proposed capacitively shunted DTC (CSDTC) realizes a small residual ZZ interaction over a wide flux-bias range around zero flux, eliminating the necessity of static flux biasing while maintaining high CZ-gate fidelity. However, CZ gates with the DTC and CSDTC require baseband flux pulses with large amplitudes, which are vulnerable to pulse distortion and decoherence due to large qubit-coupler hybridization. To address these issues, we experimentally demonstrate a parametrically driven iSWAP gate operated at zero flux bias between highly detuned, fixed-frequency transmon qubits coupled through a CSDTC. Using a simple flux-drive waveform without predistortion, we realize an average gate fidelity of 99.92(2)% at a total gate time of 112 ns. The observed high-fidelity performance is consistent with small qubit-coupler hybridization and small effective ZZ interaction during the gate. Our numerical simulations reproduce the experimentally observed iSWAP interaction rate and effective ZZ interaction, demonstrating the applicability of the theoretical model not only to spectral information but also to time-domain dynamics such as gate operations. These results boost further progress in the research of superconducting quantum computers.
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All authors Shinichi Inoue, Rui Li, Kentaro Kubo, Yinghao Ho, Yasunobu Nakamura, Hayato Goto

Quantum Physics

Observation of attractor transitions in active magnon-polaritons under microwatt drives

Magnon-polaritons provide a room-temperature platform for investigating nonlinear cavity quantum electrodynamics in the microwave domain, but experimentally observing controlled transitions among distinct nonlinear attractors remains challenging in conventional passive systems, where strong external driving is usually required. Here we report the observation of attractor transitions in an active magnon-polariton formed by a self-oscillating microwave cavity coupled to a yttrium iron garne (YIG) sphere. The feedback loop supplies an internal microwave drive, while Kerr frequency pulling and Suhl-mediated magnon-magnon scattering produce an enhanced effective nonlinearity. Stability analysis using experimentally calibrated parameters reveals a rich fixed-point (FP) landscape with multiple unstable-FP phases and a triple-point region. By tuning gain across these phases, we observe the first experimental evidence of explosive growth of bistability, followed by transitions to multifrequency limit cycles, comb-like/fractal spectra, and broadband chaotic dynamics at microwatt powers. Near a critical point, magnetic-field-triggered switching between nonlinear emission states produces spectral shifts up to 162 times the bare gyromagnetic response. By enabling low-power attractor transitions and attractor-switching-amplified spectral response, active magnon-polaritons open opportunities for nonlinear microwave signal generation, high-precision sensing, and neuromorphic computing.
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All authors Hao Wu, Qichun Liu, Yuanbin Fan, Yulong Liu, Qing Zhao

Quantum Physics

An Analytical Approach to Design Space Exploration for Cavity-Mediated Quantum State Transfer in Multi-core Architectures

In multi-core quantum computing architectures, waveguide-mediated interconnects are essential for facilitating fast, high-fidelity quantum state transfer between qubits located in different chips. However, optimizing these systems typically relies on computationally expensive numerical simulations that offer limited physical insight. In this work, we derive exact analytical expressions for the state transfer dynamics of a two-qubit system coupled via a waveguide, modeled through a Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian and the Lindblad master equation. We apply the Monte Carlo wave-function method and obtain a closed-form solution for qubit occupation probabilities that accounts for both detuning and dissipative losses. Our analytical framework provides a significant computational speedup compared to standard numerical solvers, enabling large-scale parameter sweeps while maintaining high precision in both fidelity and latency predictions. Furthermore, the model reveals and explains systematic low-fidelity regions arising from destructive interference between internal oscillations and detuning-induced envelopes, which are phenomena that are difficult to characterize through numerical means alone. Finally, we propose a simplified latency model and an efficiency-based function to enable rapid identification of optimal operating points. This analytical approach provides a robust foundation for the design and optimization of interconnects in multi-core quantum processors.
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All authors Biel Pons Zaragoza, Junaid Khan, Rohit Sarma Sarkar, Sahar Ben Rached, Carmen G. Almudever, Eduard Alarcon, Sergi Abadal

Quantum Physics

Effective Noise Mitigation via Quantum Circuit Learning in Quantum Simulation of Integrable Spin Chains

We propose a noise-mitigation quantum simulation strategy for near-term quantum devices based on Quantum Circuit Learning (QCL), which is in particular effective for integrable quantum spin chains. The method trains a shallow variational circuit to approximate a deeper time-evolution circuit by learning the conserved charges and only a small amount of dynamical information in the system. Under realistic noise models, the learned circuit maintains both conserved quantities and dynamical observables significantly closer to their true values than the noisy simulation of the original circuit. We demonstrate, on small-scale prototypes, that QCL can act as an effective, physics-informed error mitigation strategy, producing shorter, more robust circuits without exponential sampling overhead.
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All authors Wenlong Zhao, Yimeng Zhang, Yan Guo, Yufan Cui, Zhuohang Wang, Rui-Dong Zhu

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

Hyperfine-resolved laser excitation and detection of nuclear isomer in trapped $^{229}$Th$^{3+}$ ions

We present a comprehensive theoretical investigation of hyperfine-resolved excitation and detection of the low-energy isomeric state of $^{229}$Th in trapped $^{229}\mathrm{Th}^{3+}$ ions. Using a quantum master equation approach, we quantitatively analyze the dependence of the isomeric population on laser linewidth, detuning, and irradiation time, showing that their proper matching is essential for efficient excitation. Going beyond earlier conceptual discussions of electronic-fluorescence-based nuclear-state detection, we propose two concrete nuclear-state detection schemes based on three hyperfine-resolved electronic fluorescence channels at 690, 984, and 1088 nm. Our quantitative analysis shows that, for 50 ions, the 690- and 984-nm scheme yields detectable photon count rates on the order of $10^3~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at 690 nm and $10^4~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at 984 nm, whereas the 1088-nm scheme achieves a detectable photon rate on the order of $10^3~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$. By quantifying the trade-off between irradiation time and scan-step size, we show that the nuclear transition can be located within one month for a 100-MHz uncertainty using currently available vacuum-ultraviolet laser technology. These results provide practical guidance for trapped-ion $^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ spectroscopy and the development of nuclear clocks.
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All authors Wu Wang, Ke Zhang, Ke-Mi Xu, Jin-Bo Hu, Shan-Gui Zhou

Quantum Physics

Quantum Magnetometry with Orientation beyond Steady-State Limits in Cavity-Magnon Systems

We propose a transient vector quantum magnetometry protocol based on cavity-magnon systems. By exploiting finite-time dynamics initialized from a reservoir-engineered squeezed steady state, our scheme retains residual squeezing-induced quadrature noise reduction, which suppresses transient added noise and enhances the short-time signal-to-noise ratio beyond conventional unsqueezed steady-state limits. IQ demodulation of orthogonal cavity-output quadratures enables crosstalk-free reconstruction of all three components of a transient magnetic field, providing access to both its magnitude and orientation. This vector capability is relevant for short-lived magnetic phenomena such as pulsed spin excitations, magnetic textures, nanoscale current transients, and biomagnetic signals. In the long-time limit, we derive a closed-form stationary noise spectrum and identify the on-resonance noise-cancellation condition $g_{am}=\sqrt{\kappa_a\kappa_m}/2$ at which the cavity-added noise vanishes without strong coherent coupling. Injected squeezing further suppresses the cavity-added noise away from resonance, while an array of $N$ yttrium iron garnet spheres reduces the magnon-probe noise contribution by a factor of $1/N$. Our results establish cavity-magnon systems as a scalable platform for transient, vector-resolved quantum magnetometry.
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All authors Zheng Liu, Ding-hui Xu, Yi-jia Yang, Yu-qiang Liu, Chang-shui Yu

Quantum Physics

Observation of Universal Spectral Moments and the Dynamic Dispersive-to-Proliferative Transition

In non-Hermitian systems, spectra can be maximally boundary-sensitive, yet bulk physics need not be. Here we experimentally show that spectral moments provide boundary-robust bulk observables in finite non-Hermitian lattices, even when the spectra undergo dramatic geometry-dependent reshaping due to the skin effect. Using a unified acoustic platform with full spectral reconstruction and time-domain access, we probe one-, two- and three-dimensional lattices and demonstrate that spectral moments remain nearly invariant across distinct boundary geometries while the corresponding complex spectra differ strongly. To connect the thermodynamic theorem to realistic finite systems, we develop a loop-counting theory that identifies the physical origin of finite-size deviations in terms of missing boundary loops, quantitatively captures the corrections, and predicts a scaling law, which we verify experimentally. Beyond acoustic spectroscopy, we reveal a counterintuitive dynamical consequence of moment invariance: a dispersive-to-proliferative bulk transition governed by bulk moment structure rather than spectral boundary sensitivity. As a result, local bulk dynamics can remain stable (dispersive) even in a $\mathcal{PT}$-broken spectral regime, challenging the conventional expectation that $\mathcal{PT}$ breaking necessarily implies feedback-induced dynamical instability (proliferation) through exponentially amplifying spectral components. These results establish spectral moments as practical bulk descriptors for finite non-Hermitian matter and open a route to extracting and controlling intrinsic bulk behavior in realistic wave-based non-Hermitian devices.
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All authors Jia-Xin Zhong, Chang Shu, Nan Cheng, Jee Woo Kim, Kai Zhang, Kai Sun, Yun Jing

Quantum Physics

Experimental detection of entanglement in multimode Gaussian states from high-order intensity correlation moments

Quantum universal invariants of a Gaussian state's covariance matrix, which can be derived from intensity correlation moments, have been adopted to characterize the entanglement properties of Gaussian states via the positive partial transpose criterion, also known as the Peres-Horodecki separability criterion. Such intensity correlation moments enable the extraction of information about the covariance matrix without the need for a coherent local oscillator. Here, we experimentally detect the entanglement properties of multimode Gaussian states using high-order\,(up to sixth-order) intensity correlation moments. These multimode Gaussian states are prepared via spontaneous and cascaded parametric down-conversion pumped by a high-peak-energy pulsed laser. Their intensity correlation moments are measured using a pseudo-photon-number-resolving detector constructed through spatial multiplexing of 32 threshold superconducting nanowire single photon detectors. This method is successfully demonstrated for two-mode and three-mode Gaussian states and can be extended to $N$-mode Gaussian states with $N>3$.
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All authors Ze-Shan He, Yukuan Zhao, Hao-Shu Tian, Kai Sun, Xiao-Ye Xu, Chuan-Feng Li, Guang-Can Guo

Quantum Physics

Magnonic Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states

Bosonic quantum error correction encodes a logical qubit in an oscillator, avoiding the hardware overhead of large qubit arrays. Among such encodings, Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) states are paticularly powerful because their phase-space grid structure protects against small displacement errors simultaneously in both conjugate quadratures. Here we provide the first protocol for preparing magnonic GKP states, which involves an ellipsoidal magnetic crystal effectively coupled to a superconducting qubit via a microwave cavity. The geometric anisotropy intrinsically squeezes the magnon mode, while the cavity-mediated qubit control realizes an effective conditional-displacement interaction. We show that two rounds of a conditional-displacement interaction and a qubit projective measurement yield three- and four-component magnonic GKP-like states. We also show how to realize single logical qubit gate operations, such as Pauli, Hadamard and phase gates, completing the logical Pauli basis of the approximate GKP code. Our results establish hybrid magnon-qubit systems as a promising platform for preparing bosonic code states, with applications in magnonic fault-tolerant quantum computation and quantum sensing.
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All authors Zi-Xu Lu, Gang Liu, Matteo Fadel, Jie Li

Quantum Physics

Pauli equation in spaces of constant curvature and extended Nikiforov-Uvarov method

We apply the extended Nikiforov-Uvarov method to the non-relativistic limit of the Dirac equation with a Coulomb potential in spaces of constant curvature. In this case, the radial equation reduces to the Heun equation, and the extended Nikiforov-Uvarov method easily yields a quantization condition which leads to necessary condition under which the resulting Heun equation can have polynomial solutions. The energy spectrum implied by the quantization condition is virtually identical to the spectrum of a spinless particle obtained using the Schrödinger equation, except for the absence of the “geometric potential", confirming the non-commutativity of the naive non-relativistic limit with the “squaring" of the Dirac equation, first discovered on curved surfaces. However, the necessary conditions for the existence of polynomial solutions cannot be met, and this fact undermines the reliability of the results obtained. This circumstance forces us to conclude that the extended Nikiforov-Uvarov method has limited, if any, value when considering similar problems in quantum mechanics.
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Quantum Physics

Observation antibunching with classical light in a linear interferometer

Understanding the boundary between classical and nonclassical phenomena is important for both fundamental researches in quantum optics and applications in quantum information. One of the most interesting research directions in this field is exploring nonclassical effects with classical light. In this paper, we will show that it is possible to observe antibunching with thermal light in a Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometer by treating single-photon detectors as photon-number-resolving detectors to perform photon-number projection measurements. Both temporal and spatial antibunching is observed via the correlation of two detectors detecting one and zero photon, respectively. By comparing the measured results of thermal and laser light, it is found that the observed antibunching arises from the combined effect of photon statistics of thermal light and photon-number projection measurement.The classical and nonclassical nature of the observed antibunching is analyzed. The results are helpful to understand the connection between classical and nonclassical correlation and may find applications in multiphoton interference and quantum imaging.
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All authors Yu Gu, Yuhan Ma, Yiqi Song, Meixue Chen, Hui Chen, Huaibin Zheng, Yuchen He, Yu Zhou, Fuli Li, Zhuo Xu, Jianbin Liu

Quantum Physics

Finite Imaginary-Time Evolution for Polynomial Unconstrained Binary Optimization

Imaginary-time evolution is a standard primitive for ground-state preparation but is nonunitary, precluding direct quantum implementation. We develop Finite Imaginary-Time Evolution (FinITE), a finite-beta construction for diagonal Pauli-Z cost Hamiltonians arising from polynomial unconstrained binary optimization (PUBO) instances, including QUBO and HUBO cases. FinITE uses the linear-combination-of-unitaries (LCU) framework to implement a scaled imaginary-time propagator. The commuting Pauli-Z structure makes termwise block-encodings compose without product-formula error, and higher-order Pauli-Z terms are handled directly without quadratization. The structure yields an exact finite-beta identity between the LCU success probability and the ground-subspace fidelity. Combined with a gap-based fidelity lower bound, the identity yields a closed-form sufficient imaginary-time threshold beta-star for a chosen target fidelity. The threshold depends on estimates of the spectral gap and the initial ground-subspace overlap. Because the LCU success event is flagged by a known ancilla outcome, we integrate fixed-point amplitude amplification with an explicit query-complexity bound. Statevector simulations verify the identity on a five-vertex MaxCut (QUBO) and an eight-qubit cubic HUBO instance, and shot-based simulations on the MaxCut instance illustrate the predicted finite-beta threshold and amplification procedure.
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All authors Jaehee Kim, Juhyeon Kim, Gwonhak Lee, Kyunghyun Baek, Daniel K. Park, Jeongho Bang, Joonsuk Huh

Quantum Physics

Galilean boost invariance does not survive the trace: symmetry breaking in open quantum systems

Tracing out a Galilean-invariant Caldeira-Leggett environment breaks Galilean boost covariance of the reduced dynamics, while spatial translations and rotations survive intact. An operator-level analysis of the exact Hu-Paz-Zhang master equation localizes the violation entirely in the dissipative anticommutator term, scaling with the damping coefficient $\Gamma(t)f(t)$. The fluctuation-dissipation theorem ties this coefficient to the absorptive bath response that drives equilibrium momentum diffusion, so for any non-trivial bath spectral density bilinear-coupled Galilean invariance, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, and reduced boost covariance cannot hold simultaneously. The stochastic decomposition of the influence functional extends the mechanism beyond the quadratic regime. The dimensionless ratio $\hbar\gamma/k_\mathrm{B} T$ delineates the crossover: cold atoms in dissipative optical lattices and ultracold molecules sit at its edge. Parametric driving offers a one-directional escape: the squeezing rate that protects nonequilibrium entanglement above the standard quantum limit also suppresses boost-breaking over a driving cycle.
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All authors Leonardo F. Calderón, Esteban Marulanda, Santiago Morales, Leonardo A. Pachón

Quantum Physics

Demonstration of Exponential Quantum Speedup with Constant-Depth Compiled Circuits for Simon's Problem

We demonstrate exponential algorithmic quantum speedup for a restricted-Hamming-weight version of Simon's problem, in which the hidden string $b$ is promised to satisfy $\text{HW}(b)\le w$ for a Hamming-weight cutoff $w$, on present-day superconducting quantum processors. We introduce a hardware-aware compilation strategy that reduces the quantum part of each Simon query circuit to constant depth. The resulting compiled circuits have $O(1)$ depth, require only linear nearest-neighbor connectivity, map directly onto common device layouts, and avoid additional routing and SWAP overhead. Implemented on IBM's $156$-qubit Boston and $120$-qubit Miami processors, these circuits achieve sufficient fidelity to exhibit algorithmic quantum speedup without error suppression. Using the number-of-queries-to-solution (NTS) metric, we observe exponential speedup over the classical lower-bound benchmark for all restricted-Hamming-weight cutoffs $w\ge 4$ on Boston and across low-to-intermediate Hamming-weight cutoffs on Miami; at higher Hamming-weight cutoffs on Miami, we still observe polynomial speedup. The same construction also enables unrestricted instances of Simon's problem, corresponding to $w=n$ for problem size $n$, over the finite problem-size ranges for which our NTS computation is feasible; in this regime, the observed scaling advantage is not limited to the restricted-Hamming-weight setting. These results show that careful hardware-aware compilation can make quantum speedup experimentally accessible for a canonical hidden-subgroup problem in the NISQ regime.
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Quantum Physics

Nonadiabatic Renormalization Group for Strongly Coupled Multiscale Quantum Systems

Complex quantum systems are often multiscale in nature with strong interactions between different scales. We present a novel idea: iteratively suppressing, rather than tracing out, the fast, high-energy degrees of freedom in strongly correlated quantum systems with multiple energy scales in a non-perturbative way, termed nonadiabatic renormalization group. This leads to a quantum geometric structure of a nested fiber bundle, in which each fiber of a layer is itself a fiber bundle of the next layer. The nonadiabatic renormalization group brings a new type of tensor network states that shares physical legs among ”sites” and encodes quantum entanglement beyond conventional matrix product states. We demonstrate how to apply the nonadiabatic renormalization group to different types of problems, including an interacting boson model and ab initio quantum chemistry with interacting electrons.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.str-el

Constructing Bulk Topological Orders via Layered Gauging

Understanding quantum phases and phase transitions in the presence of symmetries is a central objective of quantum many-body physics. A powerful modern paradigm for investigating this problem is topological holography, which relates symmetries in $k$ dimensions to "bulk" topological orders in $(k+1)$ dimensions. While conceptually profound, most existing bulk construction methods rely on sophisticated mathematical formalisms and can be difficult to apply to certain symmetry types. In this work, we propose a physically intuitive and versatile method, termed the layered gauging construction, to systematically generate $(k+1)$-dimensional (liquid or fracton) topological orders from $k$-dimensional generalized symmetries. Roughly speaking, the prescription is to stack many layers of $k$-dimensional quantum systems with certain symmetries into a $(k+1)$-dimensional pile, and then sequentially gauge a diagonal symmetry acting on each nearest-neighbor pair of layers. The detailed procedure depends on the specific symmetry types. We have successfully implemented the method in a number of examples in different spatial dimensions, with symmetries that are conventional, higher-form, subsystem, anomalous, nonabelian, or noninvertible. We hence conjecture the method to be very general. For example, from the subsystem symmetry of the $2d$ plaquette Ising model, we derive the X-cube model and also an anisotropic fracton topological order. Additionally, starting from an anomalous $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry in $1d$, we construct a new square lattice model realizing the double semion topological order.
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Quantum Physics

The Born Rule for Projective Measurements from Metric Non-Expansion and Calibration

Why should a calibrated quantum measurement report Born probabilities? Fix a finite dimension $d\geq 2$ and a projective measurement $M$ on $\mathbb{C}^d$, and let $P_M$ be a map assigning outcome probabilities to pure states. I prove that three per-apparatus hypotheses force $P_M$ to be the Born readout: the square-root readout $R_M=\sqrt{P_M}$ is absolutely continuous along Fubini–Study geodesics; the classical Fisher speed of the output never exceeds the quantum Fisher speed of the input almost everywhere on smooth pure-state curves; and the readout reports certainty on every state in each labeled eigenspace. Taking square roots turns probabilities into coordinates on a spherical orthant, and calibration pins the vertices. The metric hypotheses make $R_M$ globally $1$-Lipschitz from Fubini–Study to round distance, so the readout cannot move farther from any calibrated vertex: every coordinate is at least its Born value, both vectors have unit norm, and they are equal. The hypotheses are per measurement; imposing them in every projective context yields the Born assignment on all projective measurements, at every $d\geq 2$, with noncontextuality arriving as an output rather than an axiom. The metric argument stops at projective measurements: for every non-projective POVM, an explicit family of non-Born readouts satisfies the same metric hypotheses even with the stated certainty-of-occurrence calibration.
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