Quantum Physics
Papers
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Thursday 17 September
To extract complete information about experimental noisy quantum states, as well as correlations among different physical parameters, we develop an efficient machine learning-assisted framework with the normalizing flow based Bayesian parameter estimation (BPE). By embedding a physically interpretable parameter vector, ${s}$, into the quantum state ansatzes, $\rho({s})$, the corresponding parameter distribution $p({s}|D)$ is induced from BPE, based on the available experimental data $D$. The BPE allows us to perform parameter correlation analyses, providing powerful insights about how experimental parameters and related noise sources affect quantum features of the system. As an example, the flexibility of our framework is demonstrated using two different physical ansatzes on the optical cat state experiments, where a noisy single-photon state is added to impure squeezed state. With correlations among the Wigner function negativity, photon-addition fraction, noisy fraction, and pump powers, our framework gives interpretations for complicated experimental mechanisms in generating noisy non-Gaussian states. By leveraging normalizing flow-based neural networks and Bayesian uncertainty estimation, along with physical and experimental constraints incorporated naturally, the valuable information inferred in the posterior learning provides guidelines for experimentalists, as well as theorists, in identifying promising parameters to enhance desirable features.
Wednesday 16 September
Quantum Physics
Stabilizer-Public-Key Authentication: Long Stabilizer Public Keys Resist Finite-Copy Forgery Attacks
We propose an information-theoretic authentication protocol based on a finite supply of long quadratic-stabilizer public-key states over an odd-prime field, where the effective key length after one signature exposure is the residual dimension $r=n-\ell$. A computationally unbounded adversary observes one valid classical signature and may jointly process $N$ public-key copies, while verification uses one additional independent copy. We show that, conditioned on the exposed signature, the security problem reduces to a partial-prediction game for a uniform stabilizer ensemble on these $r$ residual qudits, with a partial query along $d=\operatorname{rank}(Y-Y')$ directions, where $Y$ and $Y'$ denote the honestly signed and target-forged messages, respectively. Surprisingly, although the target requires only partial information, there is no first-order reduction in the required copy rate when $d/r\to\beta\in(0,1]$. The optimal average forgery probability for the specified target tends to zero for $N/r\to\alpha<1$ and to one for $\alpha>1$, revealing a sharp threshold at $\alpha=1$. Thus, long stabilizer public keys resist finite-copy forgery attacks under a single-signature-exposure model whenever the adversarial copy rate remains below one.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.quant-gas
Radial dam breaks in a two-dimensional droplet bearing environment
The controlled dynamical generation of radial dam break flows (DBFs) is demonstrated in two-dimensional droplet environments. These ultracold mixtures feature competing mean-field and quantum fluctuation effects and are initialized on a disk-shaped uniform density. Depending on the value of the latter, reflecting also the dominance of attractive or repulsive interactions, three dynamical response regimes are identified. At small densities a moving wavetrain of bright ring solitons is observed (dubbed ring DBF), at intermediate densities a ring kink-dispersive shock wave, while at large densities the flows encompass composite ring kink-rarefaction waves moving towards the center. The emergence of these patterns, whose formation would be prohibited in two-dimensional Kerr media due to wave-collapse, is rooted in the competition between attraction and repulsion inherent to droplet environments, modeled by the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The characterization of the ensuing nonlinear waveforms is further corroborated by reduced models based on the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The different wave patterns emanating from dam break flows can be experimentally realized using current state-of-the-art ultracold atom experiments.
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Quantum Physics
Engineering and Probing a One-Dimensional Dipolar Spin Ensemble in Diamond
Dimensionality plays a central role in determining the collective behavior of interacting quantum systems. Engineering strongly interacting ensembles of solid-state spin defects in reduced dimensions remains a significant challenge at the interface between the applied and fundamental sciences. Here, we create and characterize a positionally disordered, quasi-one-dimensional spin chain in diamond, consisting of optically dark substitutional nitrogen defects (P1 centers) and optically addressable probe nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. Our approach exploits the preferential incorporation of nitrogen along step bunches formed during chemical vapor deposition to achieve both lateral and vertical confinement. Combining spatially resolved materials characterization with nanoscale quantum sensing, we establish the one-dimensional character of the optically dark, unpolarized P1 spin ensemble. We then use correlation spectroscopy to probe local spin autocorrelations and investigate infinite-temperature dipolar spin transport. Our results establish a materials-based route for engineering low-dimensional quantum spin systems.
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Quantum Physics
Efficiently estimating failure rates of fault-tolerant logical non-Clifford blocks
Useful quantum computation requires the fault-tolerant implementations of a universal gate set which are generically not efficiently simulable. We devise an algebraic framework that allows for efficient sampling from the measurement distribution of fault-tolerant circuits that implement diagonal logic gates in the third level of the Clifford hierarchy. Upon successful sampling we also provide sufficient conditions for decoding success. The resulting estimate for the logical failure rate is an overestimate, which becomes more accurate for blocks that are fault tolerant against arbitrary local errors. The non-Clifford simulation overhead is independent of the number of logical qubits, making the method particularly attractive for large-scale simulations. The framework is based on viewing the non-Clifford gates in the circuit as a cohomology invariant of an underlying spacetime fault complex. The method can also be interfaced with Clifford simulators to simulate larger fault-tolerant circuits and algorithmic subroutines.
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Quantum Physics
Scalable Simulation of Quantum Dynamics on Topological Quantum Hardware
Quantum computers offer a significant advantage in simulating quantum systems compared to classical computers for certain problems, although most current applications are limited to calculating static molecular properties using hybrid quantum-classical hardware. In this work, we establish a framework for the representation of quantum dynamics in molecular and condensed matter systems, designed for execution on topological quantum hardware. By leveraging the non-Abelian braiding statistics of Fibonacci and Ising anyons, we utilize the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm to approximate unitary propagators for a range of systems. We demonstrate the efficacy of these algorithms across a hierarchy of complexity, from two-level systems and one dimensional double-well potentials to condensed phase spin-boson models, simple molecules, and molecular reaction kinetics. These algorithms provide a scalable and robust pathway for simulating many-body condensed phase chemical physics on fault-tolerant quantum devices.
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Quantum Physics
Fifty Years of the GKLS Master Equation: Foundations and Early Developments
The year 2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the two seminal papers in which Gorini, Kossakowski, and Sudarshan, and independently Lindblad, characterized the generators of completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups. We revisit the conceptual and historical route leading to the Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan (GKLS) master equation and examine several of its early developments and consequences. Our aim is to show how several initially separate mathematical and physical ideas converged in the GKLS structure theorem, imme- diately opening the way to manifold consequences for the description of dissipative quantum phenomena and how that theorem, fifty years later, remains both a foundational result and an active framework for open quantum dynamics.
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Quantum Physics
Transformers as Intrinsic Optimizers for Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm
The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is a leading variational framework for combinatorial optimization on noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware, but its practical performance depends strongly on the classical optimizer used to train its variational parameters. This outer-loop optimization is often nonconvex, initialization-sensitive, and costly when repeated across large families of related problem instances. In this work, we propose a Transformer-based intrinsic optimization framework for QAOA, in which the optimizer itself is learned and embedded directly into the hybrid quantum-classical loop. The proposed graph-conditioned Transformer processes problem structure, current QAOA parameters, measurement feedback, and recent optimization history to predict the next variational-parameter update, thereby reformulating instance-wise classical optimization as an amortized learned policy. We develop a mathematical formulation of this intrinsic-optimization perspective and evaluate the method on QAOA-based MaxCut benchmarks across multiple problem settings, with comparisons against representative classical and learned optimization baselines. The results demonstrate that Transformer-based intrinsic optimization can provide a structured and transferable mechanism for improving the classical component of hybrid quantum optimization algorithms.
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Quantum Physics
Observing and evading quantum back-action on a kilogram-scale oscillator
Continuous quantum displacement measurements are fundamentally limited by a trade-off between readout imprecision and measurement back-action, constrained by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), these two quantum noise components dominate much of the observation band, making it an excellent testbed. We induce a sub-Hz-linewidth optomechanical mode by trapping the differential motion of the 40-kg mirrors in a band where radiation-pressure back-action dominates the motion. Engineering the quantum state entering the dark port creates correlations between imprecision and back-action that partially cancel their contributions, reducing observed motion near resonance by ~47%. A framework resolving the imprecision, back-action, and correlation terms identifies the origin of this suppression. These results demonstrate quantum back-action evasion and quantum reservoir engineering in a macroscopic optomechanical system.
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Quantum Physics
Quantum inflation and source-transfer hierarchies are complete for tree networks
Understanding the capabilities and limits of quantum systems is central to quantum information processing. This includes determining which correlations can arise in networks of quantum systems distributed by independent sources. Yet for general quantum networks, no systematic, dimension-free method is known to bound these correlations arbitrarily well. We resolve this problem for all quantum tree networks through a new source-transfer model, which we prove equivalent to a mixed quantum model. The mixed model places no restriction on dimension and reduces to the standard tensor-product model in finite dimensions; the source-transfer model instead describes these correlations through states on $C^*$-algebras and completely positive maps composed recursively along the tree. We prove the equivalence by reconstructing local measurements as Radon-Nikodym derivatives in the spatial tensor products prescribed by the network. Building on this characterization, we establish two convergent outer hierarchies of semidefinite programs (SDPs): a new source-transfer hierarchy and the inflation-NPA hierarchy. For the source-transfer hierarchy, we extend noncommutative real algebraic geometry to multi-state polynomials with completely positive maps, prove a reconstruction theorem establishing its convergence, and give a sufficient stopping criterion for extracting finite-dimensional realizations. For the inflation-NPA hierarchy, we reconstruct source-transfer realizations from weak-operator limits of averages over source copies produced by quantum inflation. Consequently, the game-value promise problem for quantum tree networks in the mixed model is $\mathsf{coRE}$-complete.
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Quantum Physics
Temporal information processing on a 4,500-qubit quantum annealer
Quantum machine learning could uncover statistical structure beyond the reach of classical models, but this requires quantum models large and expressive enough to be useful and cheap enough to read out. Most approaches optimize many quantum parameters and are thus limited by expensive training loops. Here we report a quantum machine-learning model implemented on a programmable superconducting quantum annealer that processes temporal data at large scale using up to 4,500 qubits-the largest quantum machine-learning experiment performed to date. Following the quantum reservoir computing paradigm, the untrained native many-body dynamics generated by reverse annealing is directly used to process temporal data. We prove that the interactions produced during annealing are indispensable-a non-interacting reservoir retains no memory of its input. We evaluate our model experimentally on standard memory benchmarks and demonstrate that it can successfully forecast chaotic time series. These results establish quantum annealers as a scalable platform for large-scale quantum machine learning.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.stat-mech
Universal Suppression of Dissipation across Conformal Interface in Open Quantum Critical Systems
Conformal interfaces provide an important setting for studying universal transmission phenomena in one-dimensional quantum critical systems. While energy and information transmission across such interfaces are characterized by universal quantities in closed systems, the corresponding role of conformal interfaces in dissipative dynamics is less understood. In this work, we study relaxation in locally dissipative quantum critical chains with a conformal interface and show that a universal characterization emerges at the level of individual relaxation modes. We first show that the relaxation coefficient defined in the recent work [1] from the Liouvillian gap can become non-universal for certain boundary conditions because the mode determining the smallest decay rate can change as the interface transmission is varied. To resolve this ambiguity, we introduce a mode-resolved relaxation coefficient $c_{\rm relax}$ by continuously tracking the same Liouvillian rapidity mode as a function of the interface transmission. Using analytical and numerical calculations for a critical harmonic chain and a critical free-fermion chain, we find that, in the weak-dissipation regime, $c_{\rm relax}$ follows the same universal dependence on the interface transmission in all cases considered, independent of microscopic details such as the boundary conditions, dissipation strength, and location of the local dissipation. For boundary dissipation, this universal behavior persists even at finite dissipation strength. Our results establish a universal mode-resolved characterization of relaxation across conformal interfaces in open quantum critical systems.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.str-el
Non-Abelian Anyon Condensation: a Path-Integral Monte Carlo Approach
Transitions out of non-Abelian topological order are difficult to describe in microscopic quantum models with numerical methods that remain tractable at large scales. We develop a sign-free path-integral framework for Kitaev quantum doubles $\mathcal D(G)$ by organizing single-link perturbations in terms of non-invertible electric and magnetic 1-form symmetries that proliferate distinct anyon species. For any finite group $G$, an exact $\textit{matterization}$ isometry introduces vertex degrees of freedom and maps the link-only model onto a $G$ gauge–Higgs theory. Furthermore, the 1-form symmetries of the fixed point allow us to define generalized Fredenhagen–Marcu order parameters that become finite when the corresponding anyons condense. For $G = S_3$, quantum Monte Carlo simulations show that proliferating a non-Abelian electric anyon drives a first-order transition in which all nontrivial electric anyons condense. In the purely magnetic limit, the model reduces to a $(2+1)$D pure $G$ gauge theory; for $G=S_3$, it exhibits a first-order confinement transition, diagnosed by the onset of a Wilson-loop area law and the restoration of an emergent magnetic 1-form symmetry. These results provide a unified numerical framework for non-Abelian anyon condensation, confinement, and generalized symmetry breaking.
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Quantum Physics
A Square-Root Barrier to Quantum Gate Speed under Linear Coupling
Faster quantum gates can suppress the decoherence accumulated during a computation, but in superconducting processors stronger microwave pulses can also increase leakage, off-resonant excitation, stray-field errors, and crosstalk. This creates a central energy–speed–error tradeoff: can quantum state engineering make a gate parametrically faster without paying proportionally more drive energy? We address this question by treating the driving pulse as a quantum bosonic field rather than a classical waveform. For a finite-dimensional system coupled linearly to that field, we prove that fixed-fidelity gate transition rates grow at most as the square root of the pulse energy, under stated uniformity conditions on the coupling and accepted dynamics. The bound permits arbitrary pulse states, including squeezed and non-Gaussian states, as well as drive–system entanglement and back action; coherent Gaussian pulses attain its energy exponent. Thus squeezing or other state engineering alone cannot replace the square-root energy law of a conventional linear drive by the linear scaling allowed by general quantum speed limits. Achieving that improvement requires changing the interaction class, in addition to using a suitable nonclassical pulse, thereby identifying interaction nonlinearity as an essential resource for relaxing the practical gate-speed error tradeoff.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cond-mat.quant-gas
Hysteresis in Atomic Josephson Junctions
Hysteresis and retrapping are hallmarks of underdamped Josephson dynamics, yet they have remained elusive in atomic Josephson junctions. Here, we introduce a velocity-sweep protocol to demonstrate these phenomena in the underdamped regime of an atomic Josephson junction. Specifically, using classical-field simulations of a two-dimensional bosonic superfluid, we show hysteresis in the velocity-imbalance characteristics and determine the retrapping current. The dynamics are quantitatively captured by the resistively and capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) model. We show that hysteresis originates from persistent phase slips below the critical current, with the associated dissipation mediated by vortex-antivortex pair nucleation at the weak link. The retrapping current follows the Stewart-McCumber scaling of underdamped junctions, establishing a common phase-dynamical framework for atomic and superconducting Josephson junctions.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from hep-th
Deterministic Hypergraph SYK: Melonic Dominance and Maximal Chaos Without Disorder Averaging
We show that SYK-like melonic solvability and maximal chaos survive in a sparse deterministic model, without disorder averaging. Our deterministic hypergraph SYK model (hSYK) consists of $N$ Majorana fermions on a $q$-uniform, $d$-regular interaction hypergraph with only $O(dN)$ interaction terms and uniform positive couplings. Under explicit geometric and spectral expansion conditions, its two-point function satisfies the standard melonic Schwinger-Dyson equation up to $O(d^{-1})$ corrections, while the leading bilocal effective action coincides with that of ordinary SYK at the dominant large-$d$ saddle. Its connected four-point function factorizes into a temporal SYK ladder kernel and a line-graph random walk. A finite line-graph spectral gap controls the visibility of the maximally chaotic uniform mode in generic localized OTOCs and, by gapping non-uniform spatial modes in the bilocal spectrum, excludes additional light fluctuation modes beyond the Schwarzian. Exact diagonalization further shows melonic two-point scaling, single-instance Wigner-Dyson statistics, and the predicted graph-controlled spatial decay of OTOCs. The model therefore offers a disorder-free realization of the essential melonic and chaotic features of SYK, in a form more amenable to quantum simulation.
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Quantum Physics
Emergent classicality and wavefunction branching in an isolated quantum many-body system
Decoherence in quantum systems is conventionally modeled as the effect of interactions with an external environment. However, such a prescription excludes isolated many-body systems, which are also expected to display classical behavior at macroscopic scales. In isolated systems, decoherence must emerge internally from microscopic degrees of freedom that are invisible to the macroscopic description. Here we explicitly show that classicality can emerge in such a fashion. We consider a weakly disordered, $3$-local chaotic kicked top of $N$ qubits, where the collective spin sector serves as the macroscopic description, while the microscopic permutation sector acts as an internal bath, decohering the collective spin sector. Starting from closed unitary dynamics, we derive and numerically confirm an effective Lindblad equation for the collective spin variables. In the thermodynamic limit these reduced dynamics converge to a classical chaotic Fokker–Planck equation with vanishingly small diffusion on the spherical phase space, producing a quantum-classical correspondence beyond the Ehrenfest time. The chaotic dynamics evolve the pure many-body wavefunction into continuously branching components associated with distinct classical trajectories. These branches acquire nearly orthogonal microscopic records in the permutation sector, preventing quantum interferences and ensuring the corresponding histories remain consistent.
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Quantum Physics
Theory of post-selected entanglement transitions in monitored bosons
Entanglement phase transitions driven by quantum measurements have emerged as a central paradigm in open quantum many-body physics. Such phase transitions are well established for systems with finite local Hilbert-space dimensions, such as qubits and fermions, while their realization in bosonic systems with unbounded local occupation numbers remains poorly understood. Even in the absence of interactions, number states of bosons are intrinsically non-Gaussian, preventing the use of standard correlation-matrix approaches. To address this problem, we develop a replica-free Keldysh field-theoretic framework that expresses the Renyi entropy of bosonic systems initialized in on-site Fock states in terms of permanents of matrices constructed from single-particle Green's functions. Applying this framework to a continuously monitored one-dimensional cross-stitch lattice conditioned on the no-click trajectory, we uncover a transition from volume-law to logarithmic entanglement scaling. We show that the transition is controlled by a restructuring of the non-Hermitian spectrum that changes the number of long-lived modes from extensive to finite. In the strongly monitored regime, bosons dynamically condense into a microscopic number of slowest-decaying modes, producing logarithmic entanglement scaling, whereas an extensive manifold of long-lived modes at weak monitoring gives rise to volume-law entanglement. Our results establish a distinct mechanism for measurement-induced entanglement transitions in free bosonic systems and provide a computationally efficient diagnostic of the measurement-induced bosonic condensation.
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Quantum Physics
Achieving the limits of automorphism gates
Universal fault-tolerant quantum computing combines versatile but expensive operations with specialized but cheap ones. Its efficiency depends on how much computation can be pushed onto the cheap operations and on the size of the code needed to do so. Automorphism gates provide such cheap operations using only physical single-qubit Clifford gates and qubit permutations. Yet no general theory characterizes their maximum logical power or the minimum code size needed to attain it. We develop such a theory. For stabilizer codes encoding $k\geq3$ logical qubits, we show that the largest logical group attainable by automorphisms is generated by all addressable $S$ and $\mathrm{CX}$ gates, and we construct codes attaining it. While this group contains exponentially fewer gates than the full Clifford group, adding one suitable non-Clifford gate yields universality. We further classify the largest logical groups attainable using qubit permutations, physical single-qubit Cliffords, or both across general stabilizer and CSS codes, and derive refined bounds for self-dual CSS subclasses. Achieving the maximum-size logical group through automorphisms requires $n=\Theta(2^k)$ physical qubits. By contrast, all addressable diagonal Clifford gates, generated by $S$ and $\mathrm{CZ}$, require only $n=\Theta(k^2)$ physical qubits when implemented using physical single-qubit Cliffords alone. Both bounds are tight. This polynomial qubit cost extends beyond Cliffords to all addressable diagonal gates at any fixed level of the Clifford hierarchy, using physical single-qubit diagonal gates. Thus, for full addressability, the sharpest physical-qubit cost divide lies between diagonal and $\mathrm{CX}$-type gates, not between Clifford and non-Clifford gates.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from hep-th
Topological entanglement entropy in 3D gravity
We derive an entropy formula for a recently proposed tensor network model of states in 3D gravity which satisfy the constraint equations of diffeomorphism invariance, and including the effects of matter. After accounting for the invertibility of the spacetime metric, we argue that this formula matches the quantum extremal surface formula (for small but finite $G_N$), and is not restricted to time symmetric spacetimes. We derive the result via canonical quantization without relying on path integrals, and discuss an extension to compact bulk subregions.
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Quantum Physics
Lazy training of quantum physics informed neural networks
We study the gradient-flow training dynamics of quantum physics-informed neural networks (QPINNs) for the solution of second-order elliptic partial differential equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We consider parameterized quantum circuits as function approximators and analyze their overparameterized regime through the lens of the neural tangent kernel (NTK). Our contribution is a nonasymptotic lazy-training theory for QPINNs and their variational formulation: we prove that, for sufficiently large circuit width, the nonlinear gradient flow is quantitatively approximated by a linearized NTK model, with explicit bounds depending on the number of qubits, circuit depth, circuit light-cone geometry, and the dimension of the domain of the solution to the PDE.
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Quantum Physics
Enhanced Emission and Two-Photon Interference of Lead-Vacancy Centers in Diamond Solid Immersion Lenses
A negatively charged lead-vacancy (PbV-) center in diamond is a novel quantum system which can be operated at a high temperature above 4 K owing to its large ground state splitting. To unlock the quantum properties of the PbV- center, the enhancement of the fluorescence intensity is a key issue. Here, we demonstrate enhanced emission from PbV- centers by a factor of approximately 10 using solid immersion lenses (SILs) fabricated on rough diamond surface caused by high-temperature anneal over 2000{\deg}C. Resonant excitation reveals the narrow emission close to the transform-limited linewidth. Furthermore, we demonstrate two-photon interference using one single PbV- center in an SIL. This enhanced emission and indistinguishability will lead to further development of the PbV- center towards quantum network node applications.
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Quantum Physics
Comparing magic state cultivation methods using matrix product states
Magic state cultivation prepares high-fidelity magic states at low expected space-time costs; however, the exact performance of some schemes is unsettled due to the difficulty in simulating non-Clifford circuits. Here, we use matrix-product states (MPS) based methods to compute the exact performance of two types of fold-transversal cultivation schemes: (i) the Sahay et al method based on the regular surface code S gate, and (ii) a method we propose based on a partially fault-tolerant fold-transversal S gate. We show that for the former protocol at $d=5$, the $|T\rangle$ output reaches similar logical error rates to the $|S\rangle$ output, traditionally used as a cheap full Clifford proxy. This contrasts with the $\sim10\times$ discrepancy reported for the $d=5$ colour-code scheme of Gidney et al. We also find that our new $d=5$ scheme has $\sim1.3\times$ lower expected space-time cost while still reaching $10^{-9}$ logical error rate. We show that MPS and Clifford-augmented MPS (CAMPS) perform on par with or even better than the recently introduced near-Clifford simulator Clifft on the hardest $d=5$ regular surface code scheme. Additionally, to speed up simulation, we propose a new pre-screening method based on simple Pauli propagation, lowering by up to three orders of magnitude the required number of exact simulations, and use several simulator-agnostic sampling methods such as subset sampling.
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Quantum Physics
Continuous variable distributed quantum sensing in integrated photonics
Distributed quantum sensing is an emerging application of quantum networking, where entangled probe states are employed to sense combinations of delocalized parameters with enhanced precision relative to using separable states. Squeezed states of light are a prime resource for experimental demonstrations of entanglement-enhanced sensing, because they can be generated and entangled deterministically. Existing distributed quantum sensing experiments have been fundamentally limited in scalability due to their bulk-optic architectures. Meanwhile, integrated photonics provides a scalable and compact platform for quantum sensors. Here we demonstrate entanglement-enhanced sensing of linear functions of four phase shifts in an integrated photonic circuit. We find an entanglement-enhanced precision of 0.199(16) dB below the shot noise limit compared to 0.041(18) dB for separable states. A four-mode entangled state is generated on-chip with entanglement verification and phase sensing also performed on-chip with an array of four integrated homodyne detectors.
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Quantum Physics
Securing quantum error correction against misleading advice from AI agents
Can an attacker turn influence over an artificial intelligence (AI) adviser into a harmful quantum error-correction update? We identify an ambiguity in passive syndrome records that obstructs recovery selection, then show how additional calibration measurements support certified recovery updates under uncertainty and drift. In an odd-distance square toric code with error-free preparation, syndrome measurements, and recovery operations, opposite coherent $X$ rotations produce identical passive syndrome-history distributions. Yet a fixed phase correction can help at one sign and harm at the other. A terminal logical measurement on known encoded calibration states supplies the missing sign information. A separate evaluator accepts an update only when calibration uncertainty and a justified drift bound certify improvement over the current recovery, without assuming that the adviser recommends correctly. In simulated advice attacks, calibration-confidence checks reject harmful proposals while retaining beneficial updates under honest advice. We derive sufficient limits on calibration age that require improvement through deployment. In matched simulations, a validated channel-specific bound retains more beneficial updates than the general bound after accounting for evaluation time, while preventing the tested harmful activations under the stated drift assumption. A separate surface-code experiment includes stochastic circuit faults and noise changing during acquisition. Deterministic controllers achieve at least as many beneficial updates with the same observations. Violating the drift assumption permits harmful acceptance in the toric experiment. The results identify information required for recovery selection, establish conditional guarantees against harmful updates, and quantify the recovery improvements forgone through conservative acceptance.
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Quantum Physics
Exact logical error rates for magic state cultivation
We compute exactly the acceptance and logical error rates for the distance $d=3$ and $d=5$ magic state cultivation circuits from Clifft [arXiv:2604.27058] and SOFT [arXiv:2512.23037] using Pauli propagation and binary tensor contraction. Actual $T$-gates are studied, not the $S$-gate proxy used for sampling. The calculation includes every fault order at several circuit-level noise strengths ($p$). We provide a series expansion form to the logical error rates, through order $(p/(1-p))^{10}$. The analytical results recover the numerical values from Clifft and SOFT at both $d=3$ and $d=5$ to within their sampling uncertainty. Then, we show that the $d=3$ and $d=5$ circuits actually have fault distances of $d_{\text{fault}}=2$ and $d_{\text{fault}}=3$ respectively, explaining the similar distance degrading effects from the companion code of [Quantum 10, 2134 (2026)].
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math.NA
Graph lattice sums and graph zeta functions for long-range interacting quantum lattice models
Taming the exponential increase of the Hilbert space dimension with system size in the simulation of gapped quantum lattice models is of the highest relevance for understanding and designing exotic quantum materials, where nonlocal interactions are of particular interest. High-order linked-cluster expansions provide access the solution of the eigenvalue problem for the infinite system, yet rely on the computation of high-dimensional oscillatory lattice sums with a graph structure, only approachable with Monte Carlo methods so far. This work resolves this issue, rendering all required graph lattice sums, referred to as graph zeta functions for kernels involving power-laws, computable. The resulting method reduces the evaluation time for state-of-the art series expansions from tenthousands of core-hours to minutes. After factorizing the lattice sum over blocks, each block is evaluated by the cheapest available strategy depending on its treewidth $\mathrm{tw}$. Basic blocks admit analytic forms in terms of generalized zeta functions. Series-parallel blocks with $\mathrm{tw}\le 2$ can be computed at linear cost in the number of graph nodes and in the size of the momentum grid using a semi-analytical algebra based on Epstein zeta functions and rapidly decaying Fourier series. Finally, for $\mathrm{tw}>2$, the method is combined with tensor-network bucket elimination yielding polynomial scaling of numerical work and memory in momentum grid size with exponents only growing with $\mathrm{tw}$ rather than with the number of vertices. Through use of FFT, the full momentum grid is recovered at the cost of a single momentum evaluation. We provide a detailed analysis of the precision and runtime of our method against analytic and numerical benchmarks. We further reproduce published Monte Carlo data for the transverse-field Ising model on different 1D, 2D, and 3D lattices, obtaining full agreement.
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Quantum Physics
Hamiltonian engineering via pulses: beyond group averaging
We develop a geometric framework for Hamiltonian engineering in finite-dimensional quantum systems using ideal control pulses. Starting from a bilinear Schrödinger equation with unbounded control amplitudes, we construct the closed pulse group and use extensions of control systems and Filippov's relaxation theorem to obtain a family of effective Hamiltonians given by the convex hull of the drift's adjoint orbit plus the Lie algebra of the pulse group. The geometry of this orbitope describes possibilities beyond group averaging. Using the isotypic decomposition of the adjoint representation, we characterize its affine hull and show that the group average lies in its interior. This yields locally accessible families of effective Hamiltonians around the invariant part of the drift. We apply the framework to recover the necessary and sufficient condition for dynamical decoupling from arbitrary interactions with a finite-dimensional bath. For connected abelian pulse groups, we describe the relevant representation decomposition through restricted roots. Finally, for qubit networks with identical pairwise couplings, we give a qualitative characterization and quantitative estimation of effective Hamiltonians that can be generated using our framework.
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Quantum Physics
Logarithmic-depth quantum simulation of boson sampling
We show that boson sampling with an arbitrary $m$-mode interferometer and $n\le m$ single-photon inputs can be simulated to inverse-polynomial total-variation error by a logarithmic-depth qubit circuit with polynomially many qubits. The circuit uses Clifford+$T$ gates, arbitrary qubit connectivity, and a single final measurement, and its family is logspace uniform. The key idea is to enlarge the optical system, decompose the resulting transformation into six quadratic shears, and distribute each mode over many submodes. This redistribution permits a fixed local occupation cutoff, after which local basis changes and parallel phase gates give the qubit circuit. Consequently, our result places boson sampling within shallow quantum computation.
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Quantum Physics
Entanglement swapping across a five-node relay in a multiplexed quantum-classical network
Quantum networks are resources for scaling quantum computers and distributed sensing technologies while offering post-quantum security benefits. Teleporting non-classical resources like entanglement, via so called entanglement swapping, is essential for networks in particular overcoming rate-loss limits via quantum repeaters. Deploying these systems on real infrastructure will likely require multiplexing photonic qubits into fibers carrying 'classical' light encoding standard Internet communications and control plane signals for multi-node quantum protocols. Here, we report the first demonstration of entanglement swapping and conventional communications operating over the same fibers. Entanglement is swapped across a five-node quantum relay topology connected by four long-distance fibers, each populated with classical data signals. Time-bin entangled photons in the C-band are multiplexed alongside C-band classical signals using dense-wavelength division multiplexing, introducing noise photons generated by high-power classical light. We experimentally and theoretically characterize the trade-off between quantum fidelity and Raman noise photons. Entanglement swapping is demonstrated over a maximum fiber length of 40 km (four 10-km fibers) while simultaneously transmitting 10-Gbps classical data through all fibers. These results represent a significant advancement in the demonstrated complexity of coexisting quantum and classical networks and provide a roadmap for achieving the widespread deployment of advanced quantum technologies.