We propose a machine-learning inspired variational method to obtain the Liouvillian gap, which plays a crucial role in characterizing the relaxation time and dissipative phase transitions of open quantum systems. By using “spin bi-base mapping,” we map the density matrix to a pure restricted-Boltzmann-machine (RBM) state and transform the Liouvillian superoperator to a rank-two non-Hermitian operator. The Liouvillian gap can be obtained by a variational real-time evolution algorithm under this non-Hermitian operator. We apply our method to the dissipative Heisenberg model in both one and two dimensions. For the isotropic case, we find that the Liouvillian gap can be analytically obtained and in one dimension even the whole Liouvillian spectrum can be exactly solved using the Bethe ansatz method. By comparing our numerical results with their analytical counterparts, we show that the Liouvillian gap could be accessed by the RBM approach efficiently to a desirable accuracy, regardless of the dimensionality and entanglement properties.

The repeat-until-success strategy is a standard method to obtain success with a probability that grows exponentially with the number of iterations. However, since quantum systems are disturbed after a quantum measurement, how to perform repeat-until-success strategies in certain quantum algorithms is not straightforward. In this Letter, we propose a new structure for probabilistic higher-order transformation named success-or-draw, which allows a repeat-until-success implementation. For that we provide a universal construction of success-or-draw structure that works for any probabilistic higher-order transformation on unitary operations. We then present a semidefinite programming approach to obtain optimal success-or-draw protocols and analyze in detail the problem of inverting a general unitary operation.

We present a simple proof of the approximate Eastin-Knill theorem, which connects the quality of a quantum error-correcting code (QECC) with its ability to achieve a universal set of transversal logical gates. Our derivation employs powerful bounds on the quantum Fisher information in generic quantum metrological protocols to characterize the QECC performance measured in terms of the worst-case entanglement fidelity. The theorem is applicable to a large class of decoherence models, including erasure and depolarizing noise. Our approach is unorthodox, as instead of following the established path of utilizing QECCs to mitigate noise in quantum metrological protocols, we apply methods of quantum metrology to explore the limitations of QECCs.

We present a model-independent measure of dynamical complexity based on simulation of complex quantum dynamics using stroboscopic Markovian dynamics. Tools from classical signal processing enable us to infer the Hilbert space dimension of the complex quantum system evolving under a time-independent Hamiltonian via pulsed interrogation. We illustrate this using simulated third-order pump-probe spectroscopy data for exciton transport in a toy model of a coupled dimer with vibrational levels, revealing the dimension of the singly excited manifold of the dimer. Finally, we probe the complexity of excitonic transport in light harvesting 2 (LH2) and Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complexes using data from two recent nonlinear ultrafast optical spectroscopy experiments. For the latter we make model-independent inferences that are commensurate with model-specific ones, including the estimation of the fewest number of parameters needed to fit the experimental data and identifying the spatial extent, i.e., delocalization size, of quantum states participating in this complex quantum dynamics.

Phase transitions, being the ultimate manifestation of collective behavior, are typically features of many-particle systems only. Here, we describe the experimental observation of collective behavior in small photonic condensates made up of only a few photons. Moreover, a wide range of both equilibrium and nonequilibrium regimes, including Bose-Einstein condensation or laserlike emission are identified. However, the small photon number and the presence of large relative fluctuations places major difficulties in identifying different phases and phase transitions. We overcome this limitation by employing unsupervised learning and fuzzy clustering algorithms to systematically construct the fuzzy phase diagram of our small photonic condensate. Our results thus demonstrate the rich and complex phase structure of even small collections of photons, making them an ideal platform to investigate equilibrium and nonequilibrium physics at the few particle level.

We show that for any finite-dimensional quantum systems the conserved quantities can be characterized by their robustness to small perturbations: for fragile symmetries, small perturbations can lead to large deviations over long times, while for robust symmetries, their expectation values remain close to their initial values for all times. This is in analogy with the celebrated Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem in classical mechanics. To prove this result, we introduce a resummation of a perturbation series, which generalizes the Hamiltonian of the quantum Zeno dynamics.

If only limited control over a multiparticle quantum system is available, a viable method to characterize correlations is to perform random measurements and consider the moments of the resulting probability distribution. We present systematic methods to analyze the different forms of entanglement with these moments in an optimized manner. First, we find the optimal criteria for different forms of multiparticle entanglement in three-qubit systems using the second moments of randomized measurements. Second, we present the optimal inequalities if entanglement in a bipartition of a multiqubit system shall be analyzed in terms of these moments. Finally, for higher-dimensional two-particle systems and higher moments, we provide criteria that are able to characterize various examples of bound entangled states, showing that detection of such states is possible in this framework.

The class of possible thermodynamic conversions can be extended by introducing an auxiliary system called catalyst, which assists in state conversion while its own state remains unchanged. We reveal a complete characterization of catalytic state conversion in quantum and single-shot thermodynamics by allowing an infinitesimal correlation between the system and the catalyst. Specifically, we prove that a single thermodynamic potential, which provides the necessary and sufficient condition for the correlated-catalytic state conversion, is given by the standard nonequilibrium free energy defined with the Kullback-Leibler divergence. This resolves the conjecture raised by Wilming, Gallego, and Eisert [Entropy 19, 241 (2017)] and by Lostaglio and Müller [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 020403 (2019)] in the positive. Moreover, we show that, with the aid of the work storage, any quantum state can be converted into another by paying the work cost equal to the nonequilibrium free energy difference. Our result would serve as a step towards establishing resource theories of catalytic state conversion in the fully quantum regime.

We identify the chaotic phase of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian by the energy-resolved correlation between spectral features and structural changes of the associated eigenstates as exposed by their generalized fractal dimensions. The eigenvectors are shown to become ergodic in the thermodynamic limit, in the configuration space Fock basis, in which random matrix theory offers a remarkable description of their typical structure. The distributions of the generalized fractal dimensions, however, are ever more distinguishable from random matrix theory as the Hilbert space dimension grows.

A typical concept in quantum state analysis is based on the idea that states in the vicinity of some pure entangled state share the same properties, implying that states with a high fidelity must be entangled. States whose entanglement can be detected in this way are also called faithful. We prove a structural result on the corresponding fidelity-based entanglement witnesses, resulting in a simple condition for faithfulness of a two-party state. For the simplest case of two qubits faithfulness can directly be decided and for higher dimensions accurate analytical criteria are given. Finally, our results show that faithful entanglement is, in a certain sense, useful entanglement; moreover, they establish connections to computational complexity and simplify several results in entanglement theory.

Bell nonlocality represents the ultimate consequence of quantum entanglement, fundamentally undermining the classical tenet that spatially separated degrees of freedom possess objective attributes independently of the act of their measurement. Despite its importance, probing Bell nonlocality in many-body systems is considered to be a formidable challenge, with a computational cost scaling exponentially with system size. Here we propose and validate an efficient variational scheme, based on the solution of inverse classical Ising problems, which in polynomial time can probe whether an arbitrary set of quantum data is compatible with a local theory; and, if not, it delivers the many-body Bell inequality most strongly violated by the quantum data. We use our approach to unveil new many-body Bell inequalities, violated by suitable measurements on paradigmatic quantum states (the low-energy states of Heisenberg antiferromagnets), paving the way to systematic Bell tests in the many-body realm.

Within a natural black-box setting, we exhibit a simple optimization problem for which a quantum variational algorithm that measures analytic gradients of the objective function with a low-depth circuit and performs stochastic gradient descent provably converges to an optimum faster than any algorithm that only measures the objective function itself, settling the question of whether measuring analytic gradients in such algorithms can ever be beneficial. We also derive upper bounds on the cost of gradient-based variational optimization near a local minimum.

Heralded entangling quantum gates are an essential element for the implementation of large-scale optical quantum computation. Yet, the experimental demonstration of genuine heralded entangling gates with free-flying output photons in linear optical system, was hindered by the intrinsically probabilistic source and double-pair emission in parametric down-conversion. Here, by using an on-demand single-photon source based on a semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a micropillar cavity, we demonstrate a heralded controlled-NOT (CNOT) operation between two single photons for the first time. To characterize the performance of the CNOT gate, we estimate its average quantum gate fidelity of $(87.8\pm 1.2)\%$. As an application, we generated event-ready Bell states with a fidelity of $(83.4\pm 2.4)\%$. Our results are an important step towards the development of photon-photon quantum logic gates.

“The unambiguous account of proper quantum phenomena must, in principle, include a description of all relevant features of experimental arrangement” (Bohr). The measurement process is composed of premeasurement (quantum correlation of the system with the pointer variable) and an irreversible decoherence via interaction with an environment. The system ends up in a probabilistic mixture of the eigenstates of the measured observable. For the premeasurement stage, any attempt to introduce an “outcome” leads, as we show, to a logical contradiction, $1=i$. This nullifies claims that a modified concept of Wigner’s friend, who just premeasures, can lead to valid results concerning quantum theory.

We introduce the multipartite collision model, defined in terms of elementary interactions between subsystems and ancillas, and show that it can simulate the Markovian dynamics of any multipartite open quantum system. We develop a method to estimate an analytical error bound for any repeated interactions model, and we use it to prove that the error of our scheme displays an optimal scaling. Finally, we provide a simple decomposition of the multipartite collision model into elementary quantum gates, and show that it is efficiently simulable on a quantum computer according to the dissipative quantum Church-Turing theorem, i.e., it requires a polynomial number of resources.

Disorder-free localization has been recently introduced as a mechanism for ergodicity breaking in low-dimensional homogeneous lattice gauge theories caused by local constraints imposed by gauge invariance. We show that also genuinely interacting systems in two spatial dimensions can become nonergodic as a consequence of this mechanism. This result is all the more surprising since the conventional many-body localization is conjectured to be unstable in two dimensions; hence the gauge invariance represents an alternative robust localization mechanism surviving in higher dimensions in the presence of interactions. Specifically, we demonstrate nonergodic behavior in the quantum link model by obtaining a bound on the localization-delocalization transition through a classical correlated percolation problem implying a fragmentation of Hilbert space on the nonergodic side of the transition. We study the quantum dynamics in this system by introducing the method of “variational classical networks,” an efficient and perturbatively controlled representation of the wave function in terms of a network of classical spins akin to artificial neural networks. We identify a distinguishing dynamical signature by studying the propagation of line defects, yielding different light cone structures in the localized and ergodic phases, respectively. The methods we introduce in this work can be applied to any lattice gauge theory with finite-dimensional local Hilbert spaces irrespective of spatial dimensionality.

Quantum teleportation enables the deterministic exchange of qubits via lossy channels. While it is commonly believed that unconditional teleportation requires a preshared entangled qubit pair, here we demonstrate a protocol that is in principle unconditional and requires only a single photon as an ex-ante prepared resource. The photon successively interacts, first, with the receiver and then with the sender qubit memory. Its detection, followed by classical communication, heralds a successful teleportation. We teleport six mutually unbiased qubit states with average fidelity $\overline{F}=(88.3\pm 1.3)\%$ at a rate of 6 Hz over 60 m.

To build universal quantum computers, an essential step is to realize the so-called controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. Quantum photonic integrated circuits are well recognized as an attractive technology offering great promise for achieving large-scale quantum information processing, due to the potential for high fidelity, high efficiency, and compact footprints. Here, we demonstrate a supercompact integrated quantum CNOT gate on silicon by using the concept of symmetry breaking of a six-channel waveguide superlattice. The present path-encoded quantum CNOT gate is implemented with a footprint of $4.8\times 4.45\mu {\mathrm{m}}^2$ ($\sim 3\lambda \times 3\lambda$) as well as a high-process fidelity of $\sim 0.925$ and a low excess loss of $<0.2\mathrm{dB}$. The footprint is shrunk significantly by $\sim 10000$ times compared to those previous results based on dielectric waveguides. This offers the possibility of realizing practical large-scale quantum information processes and paving the way to the applications across fundamental science and quantum technologies.