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Wednesday 26 August

Quantum Physics

Fault-tolerant quantum computation cannot be achieved with constant spacetime overhead

The threshold theorem states that quantum computations can be made reliable below a physical error threshold, at the cost of additional physical qubits and circuit depth. Recent work has reduced these space and time overheads to polylogarithmic or nearly logarithmic scalings, but whether the cumulative spacetime overhead can be constant has remained unclear. Here, we show that even for the simplest task of preserving quantum information in a quantum memory, under an optimistic noise model and allowing general adaptive protocols, there is an unavoidable logarithmic contribution to the cumulative spacetime overhead. This additional cost can nevertheless be shared among many logical qubits, so sufficiently wide computations, including standard implementations of Shor's algorithm, may still achieve constant relative overhead. We further give a positive-rate CSS code construction that attains the memory bound, identify sufficient conditions under which the same scaling extends from quantum memory to fault-tolerant circuit implementations, and derive circuit-size bounds for subsystem spacetime codes. Our work establishes fundamental limits on the resources required for quantum fault tolerance.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

How quantum is quantum geometry?

The quantum geometric tensor - the Berry curvature together with the quantum metric - now underlies a long list of observables, from the anomalous Hall effect to the superfluid weight of a flat band. We ask which of these observables actually require quantum mechanics. To answer this question, we study a purely classical system: a point particle carrying a classical magnetic moment $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ that precesses in a momentum-dependent magnetic field $\mathbf{B}(\mathbf{p})$. Within Hamiltonian classical mechanics, the component of $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ along the field reproduces the Berry-curvature phenomena, while its precessing transverse component reproduces the quantum-metric phenomena. The particle acquires a position spread whose second moment is the metric, an orbital magnetic moment, and - most strikingly - an inertial mass generated by a position-dependent force, and with it a nonzero Drude weight in a system that is nominally dispersionless.
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Quantum Physics

Bosonic Encodings for Hermite-Galerkin Discretizations of High-Dimensional PDEs and Bayesian Inverse Problems

The Koopman-von Neumann framework has been proposed to design quantum algorithms for non-linear dynamics. It maps a non-linear ordinary differential equation to a linear partial differential equation (PDE) governing a probability amplitude. Previous works represents this amplitude in the Hermite-function basis, equivalently as a bosonic state, and truncates the total Hermite degree to obtain a representation over $\Theta(m\log N)$ qubits, where $N$ is the number of variables and $m$ the truncation order. We extend this approach to a broader class of linear PDEs whose differential operators have a structured polynomial form. We prove convergence of the truncation for both time-dependent dynamics and gapped ground-state problems under explicit regularity and stability assumptions. We then introduce a qubit encoding that supports efficient block encodings of the truncated operators. Finally, we apply the framework to Bayesian inverse problems with Gaussian priors and observation noise, reducing posterior-state preparation to the preparation of a structured Hamiltonian's ground state.
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Quantum Physics

Lieb-Schultz-Mattis Constraints for Quantum Channels: A Spacetime-Duality View

Quantum anomalies strongly constrain the possible behavior of many-body systems. A prime example is the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem, which relates UV symmetry and filling constraints to IR features of the energy spectrum and ground-state structure. Here, we ask how LSM constraints shape dynamical signatures and temporal correlations in open quantum systems. Using a spacetime duality, we show that the Liouvillian of a $d$-dimensional repeated quantum channel with a mixed anomaly between strong $S$ and weak $G$ symmetry can be mapped to a $(d{+}1)$-dimensional mixed-state symmetry-protected topological (mSPT) phase. Under this correspondence, the initial and steady states of the channel are identified with boundary states of the higher-dimensional mSPT in the presence of bulk projection. We further introduce the twisted Renyi-$N$ correlator (TRNC) as a probe of temporal correlations in the channel and demonstrate that it is dual to the mSPT strange correlator, providing a direct bulk-boundary route to diagnose long-range temporal order implied by the LSM anomaly. Finally, we identify the Liouvillian singular spectrum, rather than the Liouvillian spectrum itself, as a more fundamental diagnostic of quantum anomalies, and show that it is dual to the operator entanglement spectrum of the mSPT.
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All authors Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Yu-Jie Liu, Tsung-Cheng Lu, Frank Pollmann, Yizhi You

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.str-el

Statistics as a local phase: crystalline order and quench dynamics of emergent dimers in Ising gauge theories

How does the Bose or Fermi statistics of microscopic particles survive when confinement binds them into emergent bosonic composites? We address this question in the strong-coupling limit of a $2+1$D $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theory, where charges are confined into tightly bound pairs that can be described by an effective dimer model. We find that the statistics of the underlying matter is encoded entirely in a single local hopping phase $\varphi$ -$0$ for bosons, $\pi$ for fermions. Treating $\varphi$ as a continuous parameter that interpolates between the two, we map the ground-state phase diagram with the help of tensor-network methods. The angle $\varphi$ itself drives a transition between a dimer-superfluid and a dimer-charge density wave state, while the magnetic coupling binds neighboring dimers into resonating pairs, in competition with the inter-dimer repulsion. We identify a novel gapped phase in which dimer pairs crystallize into an ordered pattern of resonating plaquettes. Finally, we propose a quench protocol under which identical dimer configurations evolve in markedly different ways depending on the statistics of their constituents. This provides a dynamical probe of the internal structure of dimers, and allows to detect ordered phases through real-time signatures, within reach of simulators that natively realize bosonic degrees of freedom.
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Quantum Physics

Fast GHZ encoding with $1-o(1)$ fidelity

We prove that $(1-o(1))$-fidelity $N$-qubit Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) encoding can be performed in time $O(\log N/N)$ using all-to-all 2-local Hamiltonians with bounded 2-qubit interaction terms. This saturates the theoretical lower bound $\Omega(\log N/N)$, and by rescaling, also saturates the lower bound on signaling time for Hamiltonians with power-law interaction strengths $1/r^\gamma$, $\gamma<d$ in dimension $d$. The protocol uses spin-squeezing dynamics combined with quantum signal processing.
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All authors Laura Shou, T. C. Mooney, Twesh Upadhyaya, Alexey V. Gorshkov

Quantum Physics

Least Variable Quantum Counting Processes

Counting processes provide a fundamental description of stochastic events ranging from photon detection to clock ticks. A central question is how accurately such events can be timed when only finite memory resources are available. Here, we investigate this problem within a general framework of finite-dimensional classical and quantum counting processes. We derive a rigorous finite-memory variance bound obeyed by every classical $d$-state counting process, which is tight and saturated by a discrete Erlang-type ladder process. Through numerical optimization, we identify quantum counting processes that violate this classical bound, achieving smaller first-tick fluctuations than any classical process with the same memory size and mean tick time. For the qubit case, we further derive an analytical large-mean bound within a single-Kraus no-tick family, showing that the quantum advantage persists asymptotically within this class. The optimized quantum processes exhibit coherent conditioned dynamics and approach a continuous-time quantum-jump description as the mean increases. Our results establish a finite-memory quantum advantage in temporal precision and connect discrete-time counting processes with continuous-time quantum timekeeping.
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All authors Bita Olamaei, Florian Meier, Costantino Budroni, Pharnam Bakhshinezhad, Giuseppe Vitagliano

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.quant-gas

Exact quantum geometry from sublattice symmetry: Closed-form solution of the quarter-flux Harper-Hofstadter model

Quantum geometry has emerged as a guiding principle across atomic and condensed-matter physics, shaping the topological responses of Bloch bands and the stability of the correlated phases they host. Sublattice symmetry, though common among bipartite lattice models, has not yet been exploited to obtain closed-form quantum geometry in multiband systems. For this purpose, we derive a general expression for the QGT of sublattice-symmetric systems in terms of contributions from the individual sublattice sectors, and show that this symmetry renders the Bloch Hamiltonian of a paradigmatic four-band model, the quarter-flux Harper-Hofstadter model, anti-block-diagonal, analytically yielding the spectrum, eigenstates, and full quantum geometric tensor (QGT), including the Berry curvature and quantum metric, for all four bands. The model, describing charged particles on a two-dimensional square lattice subjected to a uniform magnetic field, has recently been realized experimentally with ultracold atoms, photons, and superconducting circuits. Finally, we evaluate fractional-Chern-insulator stability criteria analytically and quantify the lowest band of the quarter-flux Harper-Hofstadter model to be a nearly ideal Chern band. Our approach opens a route for studying also the quantum geometry of other sublattice-symmetric multiband systems.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Torsion balances as operational probes of semiclassical gravity: Matched-filter bounds, torque-diffusion constraints, and quantum-noise benchmarks

Calibrated torsion-balance spectra constrain deterministic and stochastic deviations from standard Newtonian gravity. Using one-sided spectra, we derive a calibrated angle-equivalent noise budget and finite-time matched-filter/Cramér-Rao bounds for known torque templates. For stochastic models, subtracting the calibrated standard noise budget (thermal, Newtonian, environmental, imprecision, backaction) from the observed angle spectrum yields a residual spectrum, convertible to an equivalent residual torque spectrum via calibrated torsional susceptibility. This bounds additional stationary stochastic torque noise. This frequency-resolved bound compresses to a single torque-diffusion coefficient, $D_\tau$, only in the Markovian white-noise limit; non-Markovian or colored models require the full residual spectrum. Page–Geilker branch discrimination and Fedida-Kent mixture-equivalence tests address distinct physical questions, but upon projection onto torque templates, both reduce to the same statistical matched-filter discrimination problem. For a room-temperature Cavendish benchmark, resonant thermal angle ASD is $1.36\times10^{-4}\,\mathrm{rad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, while measurement-added SQL is $3.25\times10^{-12}\,\mathrm{rad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. For the Yan et al. search, the reported $0.3\,\mu\mathrm{rad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ sensitivity at $2.5\,\mathrm{mHz}$ yields a conservative bound $D_\tau \lesssim 2.4\times10^{-23}\,\mathrm{N^2\,m^2\,s}$, assuming white torque noise. These formulations provide an interface linking calibrated torsion-balance data, deterministic tests, and stochastic semiclassical-gravity searches, without asserting a direct test of the full relativistic semiclassical Einstein equation.
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Quantum Physics

Yang-Lee Criticality as a Dissipative Dynamical Phase Transition: Quantum Simulation of non-Hermitian Physics without Post-selection

We show that the $d+0$-dimensional Yang-Lee theory describing classical Ising spins in an imaginary magnetic field can be realized, without post-selection, within a $(d-1)+1$ open quantum system whose dynamics consist of local unitaries and engineered dissipation. Competition between the coherent unitary and dissipative dynamics drives a transition wherein the time-dependence of a particular class of linear observables changes from damped oscillatory "underdamped" to purely exponential "overdamped" decay. Our construction relies on an extensive number of weak-symmetries of the Lindbladian fixed by the choice of observable but is otherwise exact. Consequently, we show that the dynamics are described by the non-Hermitian generator of the Yang-Lee transfer matrix, leading to an effective Yang-Lee theory defined on the spacetime history of the open system. By locally modifying the dynamics, we directly measure spin correlation functions of the Yang-Lee theory as well as a related "Loschmidt Echo" correlator which we detail. We explicitly show that the required dissipation channels can be obtained through local $2$-qubit gates and discuss potential realization on near-term quantum simulator devices. Finally, we generalize our construction to embed arbitrary non-Hermitian Hamiltonians within an open quantum system under Lindbladian time-evolution without post-selection, drawing connections between unconditional open quantum dynamics, exceptional point physics, and non-unitary statistical mechanics.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.str-el

Parity Anomaly as Modular Commutator with Massless Dirac Fermion

The modular commutator $J(A,B,C) = i\langle[K_{AB},K_{BC}]\rangle$ extracts the chiral central charge $c_-$ from a single bulk wavefunction of a gapped 2d state, where $3J/\pi=c_-$. Inspired by the recent developments in the field of gapless symmetry-protected topological phases, we ask: what does the modular commutator measure, if it is well-defined at all, when the 2d bulk becomes gapless? Several interesting new insights can already be obtained using the simple Haldane honeycomb model. For the critical point hosting an isolated Dirac node we find that $J$ remains sharp: it converges to a half-quantized value, with corrections that decay as a power law in the subsystem size rather than exponentially, mirroring the power-law correlations in gapless systems. We prove the half-quantization using an emergent reflection symmetry of the massless Dirac cone, and show that the half-quantized contribution comes from the other gapped cone (the massive partner of the massless one). This massive partner can be interpreted as the physical incarnation of the Pauli-Villars regulator, which is the origin of the parity-breaking level-$\frac{1}{2}$ Chern-Simons term (with half-quantized Hall conductance) and the parity anomaly. When protected chiral edge modes coexist with a bulk Dirac node we obtain $3J/\pi = c_-+\frac{1}{2}$. The half-quantization is also shown to be robust against tripartition deformation, tuning Dirac velocity and Dirac cone anisotropy. We further investigate other types of gaplessness—quadratic nodes (in contrast to linear Dirac) and the case with Fermi surface—and show that the robust half-quantization of $J$ is lost in such non-Dirac cases. These results generalize the modular commutator beyond gapped phases, and at the same time provide an information-theoretic measurement of the parity anomaly.
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Quantum Physics

Asymptotically optimal purification of noisy unitary channels in any dimension

We consider the problem of noisy unitary purification. Given access to an unknown $d$-dimensional unitary channel followed by depolarizing noise of strength $p$, we aim to construct a superchannel that universally purifies the noisy unitary back to the original unknown unitary. We optimize over arbitrary adaptive sequential strategies and analytically derive the optimal fidelity to the leading order in the noise strength and number of channel uses, while also providing a concrete $\mathrm{SU}(d)$-covariant parallel strategy that attains the optimum. Our result implies the query complexity $\Theta(d^2p/\epsilon)$ for achieving leading-order infidelity $\epsilon$ in the low-noise regime, which scales better than the naive approach combining optimal state purification and storage-and-retrieval of quantum channels. We also consider the dual problem of noisy unitary conjugation, where the goal is to obtain the best approximation of the complex conjugate of the original unknown unitary from access to noisy queries. We show that the optimal fidelity for this task coincides with that of noisy unitary purification to the leading-order in the low-noise and large-query limit.
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Quantum Physics

A heterogeneously integrated coupled-cavity frequency beam splitter

Frequency encoded photonic qubits promise a scalable path towards high-dimensional quantum information processing, but require efficient components for coherently mixing frequency modes. Coupled cavity modulators provide this functionality by using only a single driving microwave tone to couple hybridized optical supermodes. Here, we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated thin-film lithium-niobate-on-silicon coupled-cavity modulator that realizes tunable bidirectional frequency mode transformations, including \(50/50\) beam splitting and near complete frequency swapping with \(>20~\mathrm{dB}\) pump extinction at a \(10~\mathrm{GHz}\) supermode splitting. Because the electro-optic film is bonded onto a foundry fabricated silicon photonics platform, the approach is compatible with co-integration of photon pair sources, spectral filters, active tuning elements, and single photon detectors. We also bond thin-film lithium tantalate onto the same coupled-cavity platform, demonstrating material flexibility for scalable integrated frequency bin quantum photonic circuits.
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All authors Lucas M. Cohen, Manuel H. Muñoz-Arias, Mohan Sarovar, Nicholas A. Boynton, Shawn C. Arterburn, Thomas A. Friedmann, Nils T. Otterstrom, Paul S. Davids, Michael Gehl

Quantum Physics

Immittance formulas for exact blackbox quantization and divergence-free effective models in circuit QED

Building on the first-order circuit quantization method [arXiv:2304.12252, arXiv:2401.09120], we provide simple formulas to construct exact Hamiltonians for Josephson-junction-based superconducting qudits capacitively, inductively, or galvanically coupled to passive linear environments. These environments may be multiport, multimode, discrete or continuous, reciprocal or nonreciprocal, and are characterized directly by their impedance or admittance matrices. In the weak-coupling regime, we further derive divergence-free dispersive Hamiltonians for mode-resolved environments and transition-resolved weak-coupling master equations for dissipative continua. Mode structure, frequency renormalizations, environment-mediated interactions, decay rates, and directional cross couplings then follow from the same causal immittance response, while spurious Lamb-shift divergences arising from uncontrolled approximations in previous treatments are made explicit and avoided. We apply the theory to a set of illustrative circuits comprising a discrete resonator filter, finite-band metamaterial environments, nonreciprocal waveguide-QED systems, and superconducting giant atoms, for which analytical response matrices can be obtained, although the method is particularly well suited to numerical responses from electromagnetic solvers or experimental characterization. We thereby extend the black-box quantization framework to multiport, dissipative, and nonreciprocal settings, establishing a simple and scalable route toward optimized and automated electromagnetic design of large-scale superconducting quantum hardware.
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Quantum Physics

The Gain-Engineered Transmon

The interaction between a qubit and its environment can be engineered such that one error channel dominates over all others, resulting in noise bias. This property enables error correction codes to focus on the dominant error type, thereby significantly reducing the number of physical systems required for fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, engineering noise bias typically introduces complexity at the physical system level, which decreases its usefulness by limiting scalability. Here, we introduce and experimentally realize a noise-biased qubit in a standard transmon-readout resonator circuit, one of the most common superconducting architectures, by only adding a single microwave tone. We encode the qubit in the transmon $|\mathrm{g}\rangle$- and $|\mathrm{f}\rangle$-states, and engineer a frequency-selective gain channel that counteracts single-photon loss errors between the computational states. We demonstrate an order-of-magnitude enhancement in relaxation time compared to the $|\mathrm{g}\rangle-|\mathrm{e}\rangle$ encoding, conceding only a factor-of-two decrease in the echo-coherence time. Furthermore, we show that this qubit is compatible with fast, high-fidelity operations. Our results open a path towards using this system as a simple building-block for hardware-efficient quantum error detection and correction schemes.
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All authors Ian Yang, Francesco Adinolfi, Alessandro Bruno, Venus Hasanuzzaman Kamrul, Daniel Z. Haxell, Alexander Grimm

Quantum Physics

From Round-Trip State Echo to Error Recovery: Snapshot-Resolved Quantum-Hardware Diagnostics

Quantum-hardware scores vary across workloads and execution times. We study these variations through repeated communication and deletion-recovery experiments on superconducting and trapped-ion hardware. Our opening test is round-trip state echo (RTSE): prepare one of four tetrahedral qubit states, move it along a route and back by swaps, undo the preparation at the root, and measure the return probability. Repeating identical native communication programs on IQM Emerald changed the differences between tasks on the same routes, while the aggregate RTSE estimates differed by only $0.00125$. A separate two-window experiment found a drop in root return probability from route length 2 to 10 for both RTSE and its remote-inverse do-nothing predecessor; the prespecified directional test did not support better retention by RTSE. Across 64 fixed combinations of placement, input state, and deleted position, the IQM recovery mean fell from $0.738$ to $0.624$. On IonQ's five submitted virtual wires, with advertised all-to-all connectivity, recovery means of $0.911$ and $0.923$ exceeded the prespecified two-thirds reference in both windows. The corresponding differences from a control using the decoder's adjoint were $0.446$ and $0.443$. These measurements characterize complete compiled workloads at dated executions. Recovery is tested after subsystem discard in the circuit model, and each hardware interface is analyzed separately.
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Quantum Physics

Superadditivity of classical communication over quantum channels via random and deterministic permutations

Since Hastings' proof of superadditivity of classical communication over quantum channels, considerable effort has been devoted to finding a structural explanation of this phenomenon that was originally established by concentration of measure for Haar random unitaries. The main observation of this work is that Haar randomness can be replaced by random permutations without changing the limiting geometry responsible for nonadditivity. This replacement turns a continuous problem over unitary matrices into a discrete combinatorial problem over zero–one permutation matrices, and thereby opens a path toward derandomization. The theorem of Bordenave and Collins shows that random permutations have the required limiting behavior and the algorithm of O'Donnell and Wu then provides a deterministic asymptotic construction, running in polynomial time in the size when the channel parameters and accuracy are fixed. Thus the random construction can be derandomized in an asymptotic algorithmic sense. Finally, a quantitative random permutation estimate by Chen, Garza-Vargas, Tropp and van Handel gives a fully numerical estimate: there exists a tuple of 57,836,025 permutations acting on a set of size \[ N \le 5.422\times 10^{116216}\] such that the associated finite dimensional channel exhibits nonadditivity. This enormous value remains an obstacle to a practical construction.
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Quantum Physics

Dissipatively Stabilized 0-n Fock Qubits for Noise-Biased Quantum Computing

Noise-biased qubits have bit-flip errors that are exponentially suppressed relative to phase-flip errors, and offer a promising route toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. However, this bias can be compromised during gate operations with non-biased control qubits. To address this limitation, we propose a "0-n" Fock qubit architecture that maintains the noise bias by encoding information in the ground state and n-th excited state of a nonlinear multi-level system, such as a transmon. This encoding is achieved via a dissipative stabilization that acts as decay and gain for lower and upper intermediate levels, respectively. We first analytically demonstrate that bit-flip errors are exponentially suppressed with the number of levels. Then, we present a practical implementation using a multi-mode lossy filter to achieve the frequency-selective dissipation. Finally, we numerically demonstrate that bit-flip probabilities approaching $10^{-8}$ are achievable for controlled-X gates on cat qubits using the 0-n qubit as an ancilla with $n \geq 9$ (i.e. ten or more levels), for realistic experimental parameters. Building on this, we simulate syndrome extraction in a repetition code, achieving logical error rates in the megaquop regime with only a distance of $d=9$.
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All authors Su Direkci, Simon Lieu, Kyungjoo Noh, Connor T. Hann

Quantum Physics

Position- and Momentum-Space Quantum Information Measures of the Double-Morse Oscillator

We investigate the quantum-information properties of a particle confined by the double Morse potential in position and momentum spaces. The quasi-exact solvability of the model gives analytical expressions for the first two bound states, allowing the corresponding probability densities to be analyzed directly. Shannon entropy, Onicescu energy, Fisher information, statistical complexity, and Fisher-Shannon products are evaluated as functions of the parameter $A$, which controls the transition from a well-separated double well to a merged single-well profile. The position distribution is more delocalized and structurally complex when the double-well character is pronounced, whereas the momentum distribution exhibits the complementary trend. As the wells merge, the ground-state Fisher–Shannon product approaches its Gaussian reference value, whereas the excited state retains stronger non-Gaussian structure.
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Quantum Physics

Entirely nonlocal quantum magic without entanglement

Nonstabilizerness, or magic, is an archetypal quantum resource that is necessary for quantum computational advantage. Here we uncover a phenomenon seemingly at odds with the quantum nature of magic: entirely nonlocal magic (ENM)—magic present only in correlations and absent from each party's marginal—can live without entanglement. We systematically study this separation and show it is universal and operationally reversible: every magical state or channel can be encoded into and recovered from a separable ENM realization using only local stabilizer processing and classical communication. We leverage this mechanism to devise an activation key protocol in which a classical key controls access to non-Clifford operations. We further formulate magic secret sharing, in which computational power inaccessible to any party alone becomes accessible through cooperation. On a superconducting quantum processor, we experimentally demonstrate activation key and network computing primitives, together with separable ENM state preparation and extraction protocols. Together, our results establish that magic can be classically activated, localized, and secret-shared without entanglement, providing new resource-control primitives for distributed quantum computation.
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All authors Fuchuan Wei, Ruixia Wang, Yujia Zhang, Huihui Li, Junfeng Li, Fei Yan, Zi-Wen Liu

Quantum Physics

Magic of Kitaev spin liquids

Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are long-range entangled phases of matter and a natural setting for exploring how quantum correlations generate quantum complexity. Motivated by the emergence of magic, or nonstabilizerness, as a diagnostic of many-body complexity beyond entanglement, we study magic of QSLs by computing the stabilizer Rényi entropy (SRE) of the Kitaev honeycomb model. We derive a correspondence between Pauli strings and products of itinerant Majorana operators in the model's free-fermion description; this enables the sampling of SRE using an optimized algorithm for Gaussian states in systems with thousands of spins. Our results show that magic is largest in the gapless phase, where subleading volume-law corrections indicate nonlocal contributions, while in the gapped phases, SRE decreases in quantitative agreement with a perturbative expansion that we develop in the anisotropic limit. At the topological phase transition, SRE exhibits universal scaling dictated by critical exponents.
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All authors Eleonora Lamma, Tim Bauer, Marcello Dalmonte, Mario Collura

Quantum Physics

Computing key rates for one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution

The defining feature of one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution is its asymmetric trust model in which only one party is characterized. This scenario sets an interesting middle ground between high key rates achievable by characterizing devices and the security of full device-independence. Here, we provide new tools, methods, and benchmarks for calculating key rates in this setting. To achieve this, we develop and compare two extensions of the NPA hierarchy and derive finite-size security bounds against general attacks with arbitrary device memory. The latter is based on the Generalized Entropy Accumulation Theorem. We then investigate the performance of various protocols: the BB84 protocol both with and without losses, a qutrit mutually unbiased bases protocol, and protocols based on Bell inequalties such as CHSH and $I_{3322}$. We find that the choice of which party is characterized can strongly affects the key rate, surprisingly without a universal ordering. Our work thus offers a general toolbox for calculating key rates for one-sided device-independent QKD protocols.
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All authors Andreas Bluhm, Gereon Koßmann, Martin Sandfuchs, René Schwonnek, Giuseppe Viola, Ramona Wolf

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

Switchable heavy-hole/light-hole spin qubit

Compressively strained Ge quantum wells in planar SiGe/Ge heterostructures are the state-of-the-art platform for hole spin qubits. While they exhibit robust coherence times, they possess weak intrinsic spin-orbit interaction (SOI) due to the heavy-hole (HH) character of the wavefunction. Recently, light-hole (LH) qubits were proposed in GeSn/Ge heterostructures, offering strong, intrinsic, linear-in-momentum SOI. In this work, we propose a switchable HH-LH spin qubit in a bilayer Ge heterostructure with SiGeSn barriers, combining the advantages of HH and LH devices. The character of the qubit can be changed by shuttling from an LH well to an HH well, which also enables fast, hopping-based single-qubit rotations. Additionally, we observe an HH-LH resonance introduced by the in-plane confinement, resulting in $g$-factor peaks and first-order charge noise sweet spots. Our calculations reveal a sweet spot with Rabi frequencies on the order of 100 MHz, comparable to the LH regime, but with a more than tenfold increase in coherence time, on the order of 100 $\mu$s.
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All authors Zoltán György, Dmitry Miserev, Jelena Klinovaja, Daniel Loss

Quantum Physics

Structured Non-Locality and Emergent Locality in Cavity-QED Many-Body Dynamics

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) modifies many-body systems by combining cavity-mediated collective interactions with microscopic short-range interactions. The resulting dynamics lies between the local and fully collective limits, such that neither locality nor collectivity alone provides a complete organizing principle. In the clean conceptual limit of dominant collective coupling, we show that the effective dynamics within each energetically isolated subspace is generically controlled by whether that subspace admits a local product-state basis, and identify exceptions imposed by angular-momentum selection rules. Product-state subspaces generically retain the spatial structure of the microscopic interaction. Entangled subspaces instead generically dress local processes with global operators, generating non-local but highly structured dynamics. We illustrate this by deriving the corresponding effective Hamiltonians in two representative cavity-QED spin models. The cavity-isolated subspace thus becomes a resource for generating competing short-range interactions or globally conditioned local processes, opening a class of many-body dynamics without local or fully collective counterparts.
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All authors Mark A. Oehlgrien, Błażej Jaworowski, Darrick E. Chang, Charlie-Ray Mann

Quantum Physics

Distributed Trotterization with optimal time-scaling entanglement cost

Distributed architectures extend quantum simulation of many-body dynamics beyond the reach of any single processor, with shared entanglement mediating interactions between spatially separated devices. Conventional implementations rely on quantum teleportation, which provides a universal realization of nonlocal operations but incurs a fixed entanglement cost per gate, irrespective of its strength. This becomes increasingly inefficient in product formula simulation, where higher accuracy requires ever more numerous, yet progressively weaker, nonlocal rotations, causing the entanglement cost to diverge in the high-accuracy limit. Here we introduce a simple repeat-until-success protocol that makes entanglement consumption adaptive to interaction strength. Incorporating this primitive into distributed product formulas yields a total entanglement cost that scales linearly with evolution time and remains independent of Trotter error. A matching lower bound from quantum communication complexity proves this time scaling to be optimal, establishing a resource-efficient foundation for high-accuracy quantum simulation across networked processors.
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All authors Tianfeng Feng, Jinzhao Sun, Yunlong Xiao, Qi Zhao

Quantum Physics

How much randomness in a quantum process can be explained using memory?

For a stochastic process describing observations of a dynamical system, complexity science provides systematic methods to decompose the information produced into true irreducible randomness, and that which corresponds to structure superficially disguised as random but can in fact be learned and predicted. Such methods then equip vital tools for prediction, control and inference of the system's internal structure. However, quantum analogs remain underdeveloped due to the inherent complications of invasive measurements and quantum correlations. By harnessing the Choi state representation of process tensors which encode multi-time input-output relations, we formulate a convergent measure of irreducible randomness in stationary quantum stochastic processes. This directly enables a measure of temporal correlations which lower bounds the memory resources required to replicate the process via a recurrent quantum circuit.
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Quantum Physics

Surpassing Gaussian optimality in multiparameter estimation with indefinite causal order

We identify single-mode Gaussian probes, generated by displacement and squeezing operations on the vacuum state, which are optimal for the simultaneous estimation of displacement and squeezing operations in continuous-variable quantum systems. Importantly, our results reveal that the best precision at a fixed energy is achieved not by an experimentally costly squeezing resource, but rather by redirecting some of the energy towards displacement, thus allowing for more resource-effective operations. Furthermore, introducing indefinite causal order (ICO) in either the probe preparation or parameter encoding step can surpass the Gaussian precision bound, even though the optimal Gaussian probe state is agnostic to the ordering of the operations. Specifically, we observe that odd-parity superpositions of the two definite orders can enhance precision over optimal Gaussian probes in specific parameter regimes. Further, the observed advantage cannot be attributed solely to non-Gaussianity, as quantified by the relative entropy of non-Gaussianity, highlighting ICO as an independent resource for enhancing multiparameter estimation.
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All authors Sudipta Das, Rivu Gupta, Aditi Sen De, Himadri Shekhar Dhar

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

Light-Hole Spin Qubits in Strained SiGe Lattice-Matched to Ge

Strained germanium ($\varepsilon$-Ge) quantum wells on metamorphic SiGe buffers have enabled advanced hole-based spin qubit devices. Alternatively, unstrained Ge with lattice-matched strained silicon-germanium ($\varepsilon$-SiGe) barriers eliminates the need for metamorphic buffers altogether. The ground state character of both these platforms is predominantly heavy-hole (HH) with a largely anisotropic spin response. We propose and study an alternative heterostructure, lattice-matched to Ge, in which both the SiGe quantum well and barriers are tensile strained, with their composition contrast providing the band offset for confinement and the tensile strain stabilizing a light-hole (LH) ground state. We show large spin-orbit coupling (SOC), both linear and cubic, along with a significantly more isotropic spin response compared to strained HH qubits. We also study the decoherence properties of the proposed device, showing an appreciable gain in the quality factor compared to their HH counterparts. Finally, we propose a bilayer heterostructure that allows for electrical switching between HH and LH ground state character.
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All authors Edmondo Valvo, Davide Costa, Patrick Del Vecchio, Stefano Bosco, Giordano Scappucci, Maximilian Rimbach-Russ

Quantum Physics

Enhanced quantum metrology with robust multipass interferometry

Quantum metrology typically uses entangled states to achieve measurement precisions beyond the standard quantum limit. The advantage increases with the size of the entangled state, however generating and preserving large entangled states remains a major experimental challenge. Multipass protocols offer an alternative approach by allowing a single probe to interact repeatedly with the parameter of interest, but their performance is highly susceptible to loss, which accumulates over successive passes and rapidly erodes the quantum advantage. Here we introduce a hybrid strategy that combines small, loss-resilient entangled states with multipass interferometry. We show that this approach retains the robustness of small entangled probes while exploiting repeated interactions to achieve substantial enhancements in measurement precision. Furthermore, we propose a concrete implementation using currently available technologies, demonstrating that the predicted performance gains should be experimentally accessible with existing capabilities.
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All authors Sayak Mukherjee, José Afonso Oliveira, Sean William Moore, Jacob A. Dunningham

Quantum Physics

Fast-forwarding quantum algorithms for weakly nonlinear dissipative differential equations and beyond

We study a fast-forwarded quantum algorithm for solving weakly nonlinear dissipative ordinary differential equations. Our approach is a combination of the Carleman embedding technique and the linear combination of Hamiltonian simulation algorithm for linearized systems with fast-forwarded scaling. The complexity of our algorithm does not explicitly depend on the evolution time $T$, thus greatly improving the previous state-of-the-art $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{T})$ to $\mathcal{O}(1)$, and any remaining time dependence enters through the output norm and forcing parameters. We rigorously analyze the performance of this approach by convergence guarantees of the Carleman embedding for time-dependent coefficient matrices and detailed complexity estimates, and improve the realization of the Carleman-embedding-based algorithms by simplifying the post-selection step. In addition, we perform a numerical study on differential equations beyond the weakly nonlinear case, and identify possibility of achieving fast-forwarding scaling for systems with stronger nonlinearity or linear non-resonant effect.
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