We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a parallel electromagnetically induced transparency (parallel EIT) cooling technique for ion crystals in the Paul trap. It breaks the stringent cooling requirements of the standard EIT cooling, thus allowing, in principle, to simultaneously cool the motional mode spectrum with an arbitrary range. Experimentally a large cooling range over 5 MHz is proved by using a single trapped ${}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$ ion. We also observe simultaneous near-ground-state cooling for all motional modes of a 4-ion chain with the best average phonon number of about 0.2. For cooling a large number of modes, we only need to modulate the probe beam of the standard EIT cooling with several rf frequencies. This cooling scheme has no selectivity for the types of ions (e.g., ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$, ${}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$), therefore it would be a powerful tool for initialization of all kinds of operational trapped-ion quantum computers or simulators.

A Kerr nonlinear parametric oscillator (KPO) can stabilize a quantum superposition of two coherent states with opposite phases, which can be used as a qubit. In a universal gate set for quantum computation with KPOs, an $R_x$ gate, which interchanges the two coherent states, is relatively hard to perform owing to the stability of the two states. We propose a method for a high-fidelity $R_x$ gate by exciting the KPO outside the qubit space with parity-selective transitions, which can be implemented by only adding a driving field. In this method, the utilization of higher effective excited states leads to a faster $R_x$ gate, rather than states near the qubit space. The proposed method can realize a continuous $R_x$ gate and thus is expected to be useful for, e.g., recently proposed variational quantum algorithms.

Future quantum networks will be hybrid structures, constructed from complex architectures of quantum repeaters interconnected by quantum channels that describe a variety of physical domains; predominantly optical-fiber and free-space links. In this hybrid setting, the interplay between the channel quality within network substructures must be carefully considered, and is pivotal for ensuring high-rate end-to-end quantum communication. In this work, we combine recent advances in the theory of point-to-point free-space channel capacities and end-to-end quantum network capacities in order to develop critical tools for the study of hybrid, free-space quantum networks. We present a general formalism for studying the capacities of arbitrary, hybrid quantum networks, before specifying to the regime of atmospheric and space-based quantum channels. We then introduce a class of modular quantum network architectures, which offer a realistic and readily analyzable framework for hybrid quantum networks. By considering a physically motivated, highly connected modular structure we are able to idealize network performance and derive channel conditions for which optimal performance is guaranteed. This allows us to reveal vital properties for which distance-independent rates are achieved, so that the end-to-end capacity has no dependence on the physical separation between users. Our analytical method elucidates key infrastructure demands for a future satellite-based global quantum internet, and for hybrid wired and wireless metropolitan quantum networks.

Electronic voting is a very useful but challenging internet-based protocol that despite many theoretical approaches and various implementations with different degrees of success, remains a contentious topic due to issues in reliability and security. Here we present a quantum protocol that exploits an untrusted source of multipartite entanglement to carry out an election without relying on election authorities, simultaneous broadcasting, or computational assumptions, and whose result is publicly verifiable. The level of security depends directly on the fidelity of the shared multipartite entangled quantum state, and the protocol can be readily implemented for a few voters with state-of-the-art photonic technology.

Today’s quantum processors composed of fifty or more qubits have allowed us to enter a computational era where the output results are not easily simulatable on the world’s biggest supercomputers. What we have not seen yet, however, is whether or not the complexity achievable with such quantum processors would ever be useful for any practical applications. In the quantum neural network approach, there has been an expectation that the Hilbert space can serve as a computational resource by providing a large feature space; however, it is not understood, nor illustrated in what way the Hilbert space provides that computational power. In this work we introduce a resource-efficient quantum neural network model with a focus on the role of the feature space the quantum processors can give. Then we apply it for classification tasks, showing a quantum advantage in terms of the physical resources needed to realize the neural network. To facilitate the Hilbert space as a large feature space, we utilize scale-free networks that can be generated in a discrete-time crystal model. The virtue of this approach is in both its theoretical simplicity and its practical applicability: our quantum neural network model is simple enough to identify the role of the Hilbert space as the feature space, and, furthermore, can be implemented with current technology. Our model does not require optimization of the quantum processor, and hence once the quantum processor has been set, it can be used for other different classification problems without any changes in the quantum processor itself.

We study the physics of a magnetic molecule described by a “giant” spin with multiple ($d>2$) spin states interacting with the quantized cavity field produced by a superconducting resonator. By means of the input-output formalism, we derive an expression for the output modes in the dispersive regime of operation. It includes the effect of magnetic anisotropy, which makes different spin transitions addressable. We find that the measurement of the cavity transmission allows us to uniquely determine the spin state of the qudits. We discuss, from an effective Hamiltonian perspective, the conditions under which the qudit readout is a nondemolition measurement and consider possible experimental protocols to perform it. Finally, we illustrate our results with simulations performed for realistic models of existing magnetic molecules.

We demonstrate, numerically, the possibility of manipulating the spin states of molecular nanomagnets with shaped microwave pulses designed with quantum optimal control theory techniques. The state-to-state or full gate transformations can be performed in this way in shorter times than using simple monochromatic resonant pulses. This enhancement in the operation rates can therefore mitigate the effect of decoherence. The optimization protocols and their potential for practical implementations are illustrated by simulations performed for a simple molecular cluster hosting a single ${\mathrm{Gd}}^{3+}$ ion. Its eight accessible levels (corresponding to a total spin $S=7/2$) allow encoding an eight-level qudit or a system of three coupled qubits. All necessary gates required for universal operation can be obtained with optimal pulses using the intrinsic couplings present in this system. The application of optimal control techniques can facilitate the implementation of quantum technologies based on molecular spin qudits.

Superconducting circuits present a promising platform with which to realize a quantum refrigerator. Motivated by this, we fabricate and perform spectroscopy of a gated Cooper-pair box, capacitively coupled to two superconducting coplanar-waveguide resonators with different frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate the strong coupling of a charge qubit to two superconducting resonators, with the ability to perform voltage driving of the qubit at gigahertz frequencies. We go on to discuss how the measured device could be modified to operate as a cyclic quantum refrigerator by terminating the resonators with normal-metal resistors acting as heat baths.

Continuous-variable systems realized in high-coherence microwave cavities are a promising platform for quantum information processing. While strong dynamic nonlinear interactions are desired to implement fast and high-fidelity quantum operations, static cavity nonlinearities typically limit the performance of bosonic quantum error-correcting codes. Here we study theoretical models of nonlinear oscillators describing superconducting quantum circuits with asymmetric Josephson-junction loops. Treating the nonlinearity as a perturbation, we derive effective Hamiltonians using the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation. We support our analytical results by numerical experiments and show that the effective Kerr-type couplings can be canceled by an interplay of higher-order nonlinearities. This can be better understood in a simplified model supporting only cubic and quartic nonlinearities. Our results show that a cubic interaction allows an increase in the effective rates of both linear and nonlinear operations without an increase in the undesired anharmonicity of an oscillator which is crucial for many bosonic encodings.

Modeling and simulations of entanglement-based quantum-networking protocols commonly assume perfect entangled states. Some investigations have been performed, which show how imperfections cause the efficiency of the protocols to rapidly deteriorate. For polarization-entangled states created by spontaneous-parametric down-conversion (SPDC), the fundamentals of phase matching lead to a trade-off problem for the optimal properties of the state. We present a SPDC method, which circumvents the trade-off problem and allows one to obtain degeneracy, indistinguishability, and heralded-single-photon spectral purity greater than $99\mathrm{\%}$ for any target SPDC wavelength in the visible and near-infrared spectrum. Therefore, our method can, in principle, generate polarization-entangled states that are optimal for polarization-entanglement-based quantum-networking protocols.

With continuing improvements on the quality of fabricated quantum devices, it becomes increasingly crucial to analyze noisy quantum process in greater details such as characterizing the non-Markovianity in a quantitative manner. In this work, we propose an experimental protocol, termed spectral transfer tensor maps (STTMs), to accurately predict the Rivas-Huelga-Plenio non-Markovian measure of any Pauli channels without state preparation and measurement errors. In fact, for Pauli channels, STTM even allows the reconstruction of a highly precise noise power spectrum for qubits. At last, we also discuss how STTM can be useful to approximately characterize non-Markovianity of non-Pauli channels via Pauli twirling in an optimal basis.

Studies of micromechanical and acoustic modes in the quantum regime have shed light on quantum properties of massive objects. Integrating these systems into superconducting circuits shows great promise for applications as quantum memory elements, bosonic codes, or in frequency conversion. To this end, investigation of nonclassical properties of acoustic degrees of freedom is critical also for applications. Here, we investigate a strongly driven system consisting of a transmon qubit interacting with a high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator. We observe multiphonon transitions, which enable mapping the energy landscape in the coupled system. At a high driving amplitude comparable to the qubit-oscillator coupling, we observe a shift of the multiphonon spectral lines, reminiscent of Stark shift, which is explained using a simple model. Our work thus also provides insight in multiquanta transitions in other qubit-oscillator systems, not limited to acoustics or circuit quantum electrodynamics.

We propose a realistic setup, inspired by already existing experiments, within which we develop a general formalism for the implementation of distributed quantum gates. Mediated by a quantum link that establishes a bidirectional quantum channel between distant nodes, our proposal works both for inter- and intranode communication and handles scenarios ranging from the few to the many modes limit of the quantum link. We are able to design fast and reliable state transfer protocols in every regime of operation, which, together with a detailed description of the scattering process, allows us to engineer two sets of deterministic universal distributed quantum gates: gates whose implementation in quantum networks does not need entanglement distribution nor measurements. By employing a realistic description of the physical setup we identify the most relevant imperfections in the quantum links as well as optimal points of operation with resulting infidelities of $1-F\approx {10}^{-2}$–${10}^{-3}$.

Reverse annealing is a variant of quantum annealing, in which the system is prepared in a classical state, reverse annealed to an inversion point, and then forward annealed. We report on reverse annealing experiments using the D-Wave 2000Q device, with a focus on the $p=2p$-spin problem, which undergoes a second-order quantum phase transition with a gap that closes polynomially in the number of spins. We concentrate on the total and partial success probabilities, with the latter being the probabilities of finding each of two degenerate ground states of all spins up or all spins down, and the former being their sum. The empirical partial success probabilities exhibit a strong asymmetry between the two degenerate ground states, depending on the initial state of the reverse anneal. To explain these results, we perform open-system simulations using master equations in the limits of weak and strong coupling to the bath. The former, known as the adiabatic master equation, with decoherence in the instantaneous energy eigenbasis, predicts perfect symmetry between the two degenerate ground states, thus failing to agree with the experiment. In contrast, the latter, known as the polaron transformed Redfield equation, is in close agreement with experiment. Thus, our results present a challenge to the sufficiency of the weak system-bath coupling limit in describing the dynamics of current experimental quantum annealers, at least for reverse annealing on timescales of a microsecond or longer.