Quantum state and process tomography via adaptive measurements

We investigate quantum state tomography(QST) for pure states and quantum process tomography(QPT) for unitary channels via adaptive measurements. For a quantum system with a d-dimensional Hilbert space, we first propose an adaptive protocol where only 2d. 1 measurement outcomes are used to accomplish the QST for all pure states. This idea is then extended to study QPT for unitary channels, where an adaptive unitary process tomography(AUPT) protocol of d2+d.1measurement outcomes is constructed for any unitary channel. We experimentally implement the AUPT protocol in a 2-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance system. We examine the performance of the AUPT protocol when applied to Hadamard gate, T gate(/8 phase gate), and controlled-NOT gate,respectively, as these gates form the universal gate set for quantum information processing purpose. As a comparison, standard QPT is also implemented for each gate. Our experimental results show that the AUPT protocol that reconstructing unitary channels via adaptive measurements significantly reduce the number of experiments required by standard QPT without considerable loss of fidelity.     

Quantum phase transition and dynamics induced by atom-pair tunnelling of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

We investigate the quantum phase transition (QPT) and dynamics induced by atom-pair tunnelling of Bose-Einstein condensates in a symmetric double well under the mean-field approximation. We find the system undergoes a new QPT towards phase-locking state when atom-pair tunnelling is strong enough, and the critical point of self-trapping QPT is shifted by atom-pair tunnelling. As for the dynamics, the system displays localized dynamical behaviour: phase-locking motion and self-trapping motion. We further study the correlation between this localized dynamics and QPT, and find that the area of the localized trajectories in the phase space can serve as an order parameter for both QPTs. The critical exponent of this order parameter is also discussed.     

First-order quantum phase transitions: Test ground for emergent chaoticity,regularity and persisting symmetries

We present a comprehensive analysis of the emerging order and chaos and enduring symmetries, accompanying a generic (high-barrier) first-order quantum phase transition (QPT). The interacting boson model Hamiltonian employed, describes a QPT between spherical and deformed shapes, associated with its U(5) and SU(3) dynamical symmetry limits. A classical analysis of the intrinsic dynamics reveals a rich but simply-divided phase space structure with a Hénon–Heiles type of chaotic dynamics ascribed to the spherical minimum and a robustly regular dynamics ascribed to the deformed minimum. The simple pattern of mixed but well-separated dynamics persists in the coexistence region and traces the crossing of the two minima in the Landau potential. A quantum analysis discloses a number of regular low-energy U(5)-like multiplets in the spherical region, and regular SU(3)-like rotational bands extending to high energies and angular momenta, in the deformed region. These two kinds of regular subsets of states retain their identity amidst a complicated environment of other states and both occur in the coexistence region. A symmetry analysis of their wave functions shows that they are associated with partial U(5) dynamical symmetry (PDS) and SU(3) quasi-dynamical symmetry (QDS), respectively. The pattern of mixed but well-separated dynamics and the PDS or QDS characterization of the remaining regularity, appear to be robust throughout the QPT. Effects of kinetic collective rotational terms, which may disrupt this simple pattern, are considered.     

Selective and efficient quantum process tomography without ancilla

Several methods, known as quantum process tomography, are available to characterize the evolution of quantum systems, a task of crucial importance. However, their complexity dramatically increases with the size of the system. Here we present a new method for quantum process tomography. We describe a new algorithm that can be used to selectively estimate any parameter characterizing a quantum process. Unlike any of its predecessors this new quantum tomographer combines two virtues: it requires investing a number of physical resources scaling polynomially with the number of qubits and at the same time it does not require any ancillary resources. We present the results of the first implementation of this quantum device, characterizing quantum processes affecting two qubits encoded in heralded single photons. Even for this small system our method displays clear advantages over the other existing ones.     

Quantum Phase Transition Effect on Dynamical Decoupling: a Case Study

The effect of quantum phase transition (QPT) on the coherence retrieval by dynamical decoupling is discussed explicitly by exemplifications. Two different cases can be identified; For QPT without variant of topology, dynamical decoupling can work better than that without QPT. Whereas the systems have nontrivial topology, it displays limited improvement of retrieval of qubit coherent. This feature can be understood by the fact that dynamical decoupling is physically to average out the effect of harmful local couplings. When nontrivial topology is involved, the local operation becomes invalid. Hence one has to find more efficient way to recover qubit coherence.     

Negativity and Quantum Phase Transition in the Spin Model Using the Quantum Renormalization-group Method

In this paper, we study the anisotropy parameter and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction on negativity and quantum phase transition (QPT) by using the quantum renormalization-group (QRG) method in the spin model. In our model, the anisotropy parameter and DM interaction can influence the phase diagrams. Negativity can develop two different values which separated two phases i.e. Spin-fluid phase and the Néel phase with the number of QRG iterations increased, and can obviously exhibit QPT at the critical point. Then, we find that negativity of particles 1, 3 throughout is less than negativity of particles 1, 2 or particles 2, 3. Because of information between the three particle distributions, please see the conclusion. We find that the negativity difference value (S) can also clearly detect QPT at the critical point. Most importantly, the maximum S _max become more and more close to the critical point. So S _max can be used as a criterion of the quantum phase transition occurrence when the spin chain is infinity (N → ∞).     

Quantum Dynamics of Entanglement and Single Excitation Transfer in LH1-RC-Type Trimer

In this paper, we study quantum dynamics of entanglement and single excitation transfer (SET) in an LH1-RC-type trimer which can describe a basic unit cell in the LH1-RC complex in the photosynthetic process. It is shown that there exists a sudden change of entanglement at the critic point of quantum phase transition (QPT) of the system at low temperatures, the entanglement sudden change caused by the QPT is suppressed at higher temperatures. We investigate the influence of environment on entanglement and SET. We show the generation of the dephasing-assisted entanglement between a donor and an acceptor and the existence of the steady-state entanglement, and demonstrate the entanglement transfer from donor-donor entanglement to donor-acceptor entanglement in the dynamic evolution. We reveal the close relation between the SET probability and donor-acceptor entanglement. Especially, we find that the SET probability is proportional to the amount of donor-acceptor entanglement under certain conditions.     

Complete characterization of the directly implementable quantum gates used in the IBM quantum processors

Quantum process tomography (QPT) of each directly implementable quantum gate used in the IBM quantum processors is performed to compute gate error in order to check viability of complex quantum operations in the superconductivity-based quantum computers introduced by IBM. QPT of C-NOT gates is performed for three configurations available in IBM QX4. For the other allowed gates QPT have been performed for every allowed position (i.e., by placing the gates in different qubit lines) for IBM QX4 architecture, and thus, gate fidelities are obtained. Gate fidelities are observed to be lower than the corresponding values obtained in the other technologies, like NMR. Further, gate fidelities for all the single-qubit gates are obtained for IBM QX2 architecture by placing the gates in the third qubit line (q[2]). It's observed that the IBM QX4 architecture yields better gate fidelity compared to IBM QX2 in all cases except Y gate.     

Quantum Dynamics of Entanglement and Single Excitation Transfer in LH1-RC-Type Trimer

In this paper,we study quantum dynamics of entanglement and single excitation transfer(SET) in an LH1-RC-type trimer which can describe a basic unit cell in the LH1-RC complex in the photosynthetic process.It is shown that there exists a sudden change of entanglement at the critic point of quantum phase transition(QPT) of the system at low temperatures,the entanglement sudden change caused by the QPT is suppressed at higher temperatures.We investigate the influence of environment on entanglement and SET.We show the generation of the dephasing-assisted entanglement between a donor and an acceptor and the existence of the steady-state entanglement,and demonstrate the entanglement transfer from donor-donor entanglement to donor-acceptor entanglement in the dynamic evolution.We reveal the close relation between the SET probability and donor-acceptor entanglement.Especially,we find that the SET probability is proportional to the amount of donor-acceptor entanglement under certain conditions.     

On Grover’s search algorithm from a quantum information geometry viewpoint

We present an information geometric characterization of Grover’s quantum search algorithm. First, we quantify the notion of quantum distinguishability between parametric density operators by means of the Wigner-Yanase quantum information metric. We then show that the quantum searching problem can be recast in an information geometric framework where Grover’s dynamics is characterized by a geodesic on the manifold of the parametric density operators of pure quantum states constructed from the continuous approximation of the parametric quantum output state in Grover’s algorithm. We also discuss possible deviations from Grover’s algorithm within this quantum information geometric setting.     

Bell-CHSH function approach to quantum phase transitions in matrix product systems

Recently, nonlocality and Bell inequalities have been used to investigate quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in low-dimensional quantum systems. Nonlocality can be detected by the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) function. In this work, we extend the study of the Bell-CHSH function (BCF) to QPTs in matrix product systems (MPSs). In these kinds of QPTs, the ground-state energy remains analytical in the vicinity of the QPT points, and they are usually called MPS-QPTs. For several typical models, our results show that the BCF can signal MPS-QPTs very well. In addition, we find the BCF can capture signal of QPTs in unentangled states and classical states, for which other measures of quantum correlation (quantum entanglement and quantum discord) fail. Furthermore, we find that in these MPSs, there exists some kind of quantum correlation which cannot be characterized by entanglement, or by nonlocality.     

Quantum Coherence and Correlation in Spin Models with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction

We study quantum coherence and quantum correlation for detecting quantum phase transition (QPT) by means of quantum renormalization group (QRG) in various spin chain models with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, including XXZ model with DM interaction, Ising model with DM interaction and XY model with DM interaction. It is found that through enough QRG iterations, l ₁ norm quantum coherence and one-norm geometric quantum discord can effectively characterize QPT. We also discuss the effect of DM interaction and anisotropy on quantum coherence and quantum correlation.     

Quantum Phase Transitions in Matrix Product States

We present a new general and much simpler scheme to construct various quantum phase transitions （Q, PTs） in spin chain systems with matrix product ground states. By use of the scheme we take into account one kind of matrix product state （MPS） OPT and provide a concrete model. We also study the properties of the concrete example and show that a kind of Q, PT appears, accompanied by the appearance of the discontinuity of the parity absent block physical observable, diverging correlation length only for the parity absent block operator, and other properties which are that the fixed point of the transition point is an isolated intermediate-coupling fixed point of renormalization flow and the entanglement entropy of a half-infinite chain is discontinuous.     

Multipartite non-locality and entanglement signatures of a field-induced quantum phase transition

Quantum correlation measures are limited in practice to a few number of parties, since no general theory is still capable of reaching the thermodynamic limit. In the present work we study entanglement and non-locality for a cluster of spins belonging to a compound that displays a magnetocaloric effect. A quantum phase transition (QPT) is induced by an external magnetic field B, in such a way that the corresponding quantum fluctuations are reproduced at a much smaller scale than the experimental outcomes, and then described by means of the aforementioned quantum measures.     

Transverse Ising model: Markovian evolution of classical and quantum correlations under decoherence

The transverse Ising Model (TIM) in one dimension is the simplest model which exhibits a quantum phase transition (QPT). Quantities related to quantum information theoretic measures like entanglement, quantum discord (QD) and fidelity are known to provide signatures of QPTs. The issue is less well explored when the quantum system is subjected to decoherence due to its interaction, represented by a quantum channel, with an environment. In this paper we study the dynamics of the mutual information I(ρ _AB ), the classical correlations C(ρ _AB ) and the quantum correlations Q(ρ _AB ), as measured by the QD, in a two-qubit state the density matrix of which is the reduced density matrix obtained from the ground state of the TIM in 1d. The time evolution brought about by system-environment interactions is assumed to be Markovian in nature and the quantum channels considered are amplitude damping, bit-flip, phase-flip and bit-phase-flip. Each quantum channel is shown to be distinguished by a specific type of dynamics. In the case of the phase-flip channel, there is a finite time interval in which the quantum correlations are larger in magnitude than the classical correlations. For this channel as well as the bit-phase-flip channel, appropriate quantities associated with the dynamics of the correlations can be derived which signal the occurrence of a QPT.     

Criticality-based quantum metrology in the presence of decoherence

Because quantum critical systems are very sensitive to the variation of parameters around the quantum phase transition (QPT), quantum criticality has been presented as an efficient resource for metrology. In this paper, we address the issue whether the divergent feature of the inverted variance is realizable in the presence of noise when approaching the QPT. Taking the quantum Rabi model (QRM) as an example, we obtain the analytical result for the inverted variance with single-photon relaxation. We show that the inverted variance may be convergent in time due to the noise. Since the precision of the metrology is very sensitive to the noise, as a remedy, we propose squeezing the initial state to improve the precision under decoherence. In addition, we also investigate the criticality-based metrology under the influence of the two-photon relaxation. Strikingly, although the maximum inverted variance still manifests a power-law dependence on the energy gap, the exponent is positive and depends on the dimensionless coupling strength. This observation implies that the criticality may not enhance but weaken the precision in the presence of two-photon relaxation, due to the non-linearity introduced by the two-photon relaxation.     

Ancilla-assisted quantum process tomography

Complete and precise characterization of a quantum dynamical process can be achieved via the method of quantum process tomography. Using a source of correlated photons, we have implemented several methods, each investigating a wide range of processes, e.g., unitary, decohering, and polarizing. One of these methods, ancilla-assisted process tomography (AAPT), makes use of an additional "ancilla system," and we have theoretically determined the conditions when AAPT is possible. Surprisingly, entanglement is not required. We present data obtained using both separable and entangled input states. The use of entanglement yields superior results, however.     

Coherence and Quantum Phase Transition in Spin Models

Based on quantum renormalization group (QRG) method, we investigated quantum coherence and quantum phase transition (QPT) in XXZ chain and XY chain, respectively. The results show that both the geometric quantum coherence and entropic coherecne can accurately indicate the QPT at critical point after enough iteration steps. Moreover, the increasing anisotropy parameter destroys the coherence in the XXZ chain, while enhances it in the XY chain. In addition, focused on the XXZ chain we analyzed the nonanalytic phenomena and scaling behaviors with different theoretical exponents in detail.

     

No Spin-Localization Phase Transition in the Spin-Boson Model without Local Field

We explore the spin-boson model in a special case, i.e., with zero local field. In contrast to previous studies, we find no possibility for quantum phase transition （QPT） happening between the localized and delocalized phases, and the behavior of the model can be fully characterized by the even or odd parity as well as the parity breaking, instead of the QPT, owned by the ground state of the system. The parity breaking mentioned in our case is completely different from the spontaneously broken symmetry relevant to the conventionally defined QPT in previous studies. Our analytical treatment about the eigensolution of the ground state of the model presents for the first time a rigorous proof of no- degeneracy for the ground state of the model, which is independent of the bath type, the degrees of freedom of the bath and the calculation precision. We argue that the QPT mentioned previously appears due to incorrect employment of the ground state of the model and/or unreasonable treatment of the infrared divergence existing in the spectral functions for Ohmic and sub-Ohmic dissipations.