High-quality two-qubit gate operations are crucial for scalable quantum information processing. Often, the gate fidelity is compromised when the system becomes more integrated. Therefore, a low-error-rate, easy-to-scale two-qubit gate scheme is highly desirable. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a new two-qubit gate scheme that exploits fixed-frequency qubits and a tunable coupler in a superconducting quantum circuit. The scheme requires less control lines, reduces cross talk effect, and simplifies calibration procedures, yet produces a controlled-$Z$ gate in 30 ns with a high fidelity of 99.5%, derived from the interleaved randomized benchmarking method. Error analysis shows that gate errors are mostly coherence limited. Our demonstration paves the way for large-scale implementation of high-fidelity quantum operations.

The standard definition of genuine multipartite entanglement stems from the need to assess the quantum control over an ever-growing number of quantum systems. We argue that this notion is easy to hack: in fact, a source capable of distributing bipartite entanglement can, by itself, generate genuine $k$-partite entangled states for any $k$. We propose an alternative definition for genuine multipartite entanglement, whereby a quantum state is genuinely network $k$-entangled if it cannot be produced by applying local trace-preserving maps over several ($k-1$)-partite states distributed among the parties, even with the aid of global shared randomness. We provide analytic and numerical witnesses of genuine network entanglement, and we reinterpret many past quantum experiments as demonstrations of this feature.

Quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium can host intriguing phenomena such as transitions to exotic dynamical states. Although this emergent behaviour can be observed in experiments, its potential for technological applications is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the impact of collective effects on quantum engines that extract mechanical work from a many-body system. Using an optomechanical cavity setup with an interacting atomic gas as a working fluid, we demonstrate theoretically that such engines produce work under periodic driving. The stationary cycle of the working fluid features nonequilibrium phase transitions, resulting in abrupt changes of the work output. Remarkably, we find that our many-body quantum engine operates even without periodic driving. This phenomenon occurs when its working fluid enters a phase that breaks continuous time-translation symmetry: The emergent time-crystalline phase can sustain the motion of a load generating mechanical work. Our findings pave the way for designing novel nonequilibrium quantum machines.

In this Letter we set up a suggestive number theory interpretation of a quantum ladder system made of $\mathcal{N}$ coupled chains of spin $1/2$. Using the hard-core boson representation and a leg-Hamiltonian made of a magnetic field and a hopping term, we can associate to the spins ${\sigma }_a$ the prime numbers $p_a$ so that the chains become quantum registers for square-free integers. The rung Hamiltonian involves permutation terms between next-neighbor chains and a coprime repulsive interaction. The system has various phases; in particular, there is one whose ground state is a coherent superposition of the first $\mathcal{N}$ prime numbers. We also discuss the realization of such a model in terms of an open quantum system with a dissipative Lindblad dynamics.

Many-body localization (MBL) provides a mechanism to avoid thermalization in many-body quantum systems. Here, we show that an emergent symmetry can protect a state from MBL. Specifically, we propose a ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ symmetric model with nonlocal interactions, which has an analytically known, SU(2) invariant, critical ground state. At large disorder strength, all states at finite energy density are in a glassy MBL phase, while the lowest energy states are not. These do, however, localize when a perturbation destroys the emergent SU(2) symmetry. The model also provides an example of MBL in the presence of nonlocal, disordered interactions that are more structured than a power law. Finally, we show how the protected state can be moved into the bulk of the spectrum.

Symmetry-breaking transitions are a well-understood phenomenon of closed quantum systems in quantum optics, condensed matter, and high energy physics. However, symmetry breaking in open systems is less thoroughly understood, in part due to the richer steady-state and symmetry structure that such systems possess. For the prototypical open system—a Lindbladian—a unitary symmetry can be imposed in a “weak” or a “strong” way. We characterize the possible ${\mathbb{Z}}_n$ symmetry-breaking transitions for both cases. In the case of ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$, a weak-symmetry-broken phase guarantees at most a classical bit steady-state structure, while a strong-symmetry-broken phase admits a partially protected steady-state qubit. Viewing photonic cat qubits through the lens of strong-symmetry breaking, we show how to dynamically recover the logical information after any gap-preserving strong-symmetric error; such recovery becomes perfect exponentially quickly in the number of photons. Our study forges a connection between driven-dissipative phase transitions and error correction.

Using quantum walks (QWs) to rank the centrality of nodes in networks, represented by graphs, is advantageous compared to certain widely used classical algorithms. However, it is challenging to implement a directed graph via QW, since it corresponds to a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and thus cannot be accomplished by conventional QW. Here we report the realizations of centrality rankings of a three-, a four-, and a nine-vertex directed graph with parity-time ($PT$) symmetric quantum walks by using high-dimensional photonic quantum states, multiple concatenated interferometers, and dimension dependent loss to achieve these. We demonstrate the advantage of the QW approach experimentally by breaking the vertex rank degeneracy in a four-vertex graph. Furthermore, we extend our experiment from single-photon to two-photon Fock states as inputs and realize the centrality ranking of a nine-vertex graph. Our work shows that a $PT$ symmetric multiphoton quantum walk paves the way for realizing advanced algorithms.

We investigate the role of the effective range on the bulk viscosity of $s$- and $p$-wave Fermi gases. At resonance, the presence of the effective range breaks the scale invariance of the system, and hence results in a nonzero bulk viscosity. However, we show that the effective range plays a very different role in the two cases. In the $s$-wave case, the role of the effective range is perturbative, and its contribution to the bulk viscosity vanishes in the limit of zero effective range. On the other hand, the effective range in $p$-wave Fermi gases leads to a nonzero bulk viscosity, even in the zero-range limit. We employ a general diagrammatic approach to compute the bulk viscosity spectral function that includes the effects of the effective range. We then compute the analytic expressions for the spectral function in the high temperature limit, at low and high frequencies. We also derive the sum rules for the bulk viscosity spectral function for both $s$- and $p$-wave gases.

We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate the use of motional sidebands in a trapped ensemble of ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms to engineer tunable long-range $XXZ$ spin models. We benchmark our simulator by probing a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic dynamical phase transition in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, a collective $XXZ$ model plus additional transverse and longitudinal fields, via Rabi spectroscopy. We experimentally reconstruct the boundary between the dynamical phases, which is in good agreement with mean-field theoretical predictions. Our work introduces new possibilities in quantum simulation of anisotropic spin-spin interactions and quantum metrology enhanced by many-body entanglement.

Quantum mechanics challenges our intuition on the cause-effect relations in nature. Some fundamental concepts, including Reichenbach’s common cause principle or the notion of local realism, have to be reconsidered. Traditionally, this is witnessed by the violation of a Bell inequality. But are Bell inequalities the only signature of the incompatibility between quantum correlations and causality theory? Motivated by this question, we introduce a general framework able to estimate causal influences between two variables, without the need of interventions and irrespectively of the classical, quantum, or even postquantum nature of a common cause. In particular, by considering the simplest instrumental scenario—for which violation of Bell inequalities is not possible—we show that every pure bipartite entangled state violates the classical bounds on causal influence, thus, answering in negative to the posed question and opening a new venue to explore the role of causality within quantum theory.

Measurements serve as the intermediate communication layer between the quantum world and our classical perception. So, the question of which measurements efficiently extract information from quantum systems is of central interest. Using quantum steering as a nonclassical phenomenon, we show that there are instances where the results of all two-outcome measurements can be explained in a classical manner, while the results of some three-outcome measurements cannot. This points to the important role of the number of outcomes in revealing the nonclassicality hidden in a quantum system. Moreover, our methods allow us to improve the understanding of quantum correlations by delivering novel criteria for quantum steering and improved ways to construct local hidden variable models.

Quantum teleportation provides a way to transmit unknown quantum states from one location to another. In the quantum world, multilevel systems which enable high-dimensional systems are more prevalent. Therefore, to completely rebuild the quantum states of a single particle remotely, one needs to teleport multilevel (high-dimensional) states. Here, we demonstrate the teleportation of high-dimensional states in a three-dimensional six-photon system. We exploit the spatial mode of a single photon as the high-dimensional system, use two auxiliary entangled photons to realize a deterministic three-dimensional Bell state measurement. The fidelity of teleportation process matrix is $F=0.596\pm 0.037$. Through this process matrix, we can prove that our teleportation is both nonclassical and genuine three dimensional. Our work paves the way to rebuild complex quantum systems remotely and to construct complex quantum networks.

Starting from the quantum-phase-estimate (QPE) algorithm, a method is proposed to construct entangled states that describe correlated many-body systems on quantum computers. Using operators for which the discrete set of eigenvalues is known, the QPE approach is followed by measurements that serve as projectors on the entangled states. These states can then be used as inputs for further quantum or hybrid quantum-classical processing. When the operator is associated with a symmetry of the Hamiltonian, the approach can be seen as a quantum-computer formulation of symmetry breaking followed by symmetry restoration. The method, called discrete spectra assisted, is applied to superfluid systems. By using the blocking technique adapted to qubits, the full spectra of a pairing Hamiltonian is obtained.

We study the far from equilibrium prethermal dynamics of magnons in Heisenberg ferromagnets. We show that such systems exhibit universal self-similar scaling in momentum and time of the quasiparticle distribution function, with the scaling exponents independent of microscopic details or initial conditions. We argue that the SU(2) symmetry of the Hamiltonian, which leads to a strong momentum-dependent magnon-magnon scattering amplitude, gives rise to qualitatively distinct prethermal dynamics from that recently observed in Bose gases. We compute the scaling exponents using the Boltzmann kinetic equation and incoherent initial conditions that can be realized with microwave pumping of magnons. We also compare our numerical results with analytic estimates of the scaling exponents and demonstrate the robustness of the scaling to variations in the initial conditions. Our predictions can be tested in quench experiments of spin systems in optical lattices and pump-probe experiments in ferromagnetic insulators such as yttrium iron garnet.

I identify a fundamental difference between classical and quantum dynamics in the linear response regime by showing that the latter is, in general, contextual. This allows me to provide an example of a quantum engine whose favorable power output scaling unavoidably requires nonclassical effects in the form of contextuality. Furthermore, I describe contextual advantages for local metrology. Given the ubiquity of linear response theory, I anticipate that these tools will allow one to certify the nonclassicality of a wide array of quantum phenomena.

The gap of the Liouvillian spectrum gives the asymptotic decay rate of a quantum dissipative system, and therefore its inverse has been identified as the slowest relaxation time. Contrary to this common belief, we show that the relaxation time due to diffusive transports in a boundary dissipated many-body quantum system is determined not by the gap or low-lying eigenvalues of the Liouvillian but by superexponentially large expansion coefficients for Liouvillian eigenvectors with nonsmall eigenvalues at an initial state. This finding resolves an apparent discrepancy reported in the literature between the inverse of the Liouvillian gap and the relaxation time in dissipative many-body quantum systems.

We present a class of Hamiltonians $H$ for which a sector of the Hilbert space invariant under a Lie group $G$, which is not a symmetry of $H$, possesses the essential properties of many-body scar states. These include the absence of thermalization and the “revivals” of special initial states in time evolution. A particular class of examples concerns interacting spin-$1/2$ fermions on a lattice consisting of $N$ sites (it includes deformations of the Fermi-Hubbard model as special cases), and we show that it contains two families of $N+1$ scar states. One of these families, which was found in recent literature, comprises the well-known $\eta$-pairing states. We find another family of scar states that is $\mathrm{U}(N)$ invariant. Both families and most of the group-invariant scar states produced by our construction, in general, give rise to the off-diagonal long range order, which survives at high temperatures and is insensitive to the details of the dynamics. Such states could be used for reliable quantum information processing because the information is stored nonlocally and thus cannot be easily erased by local perturbations. In contrast, other scar states we find are product states, which could be easily prepared experimentally. The dimension of scar subspace is directly controlled by the choice of group $G$ and can be made exponentially large.

We introduce a model of trapped bosons with contact interactions as well as Coulomb repulsion or gravitational attraction in one spatial dimension. We find the exact ground-state energy and many-body wave function. The density profile and the pair-correlation function are sampled using Monte Carlo method and show a rich variety of regimes with crossovers between them. Strong attraction leads to a trapped McGuire quantum soliton. Weak repulsion results in an incompressible Laughlin-like fluid with flat density, well reproduced by a Gross-Pitaevskii equation with long-range interactions. Stronger repulsion induces Friedel oscillations and the eventual formation of a Wigner crystal.

We study a class of two-dimensional models of classical hard-core particles with Vicsek type “exchange interaction” that aligns the directions of motion of nearby particles. By extending the Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner theorem for the absence of spontaneous magnetization and the McBryan-Spencer bound for correlation functions, we prove that the models do not spontaneously break the rotational symmetry in their equilibrium states at any nonzero temperature. This provides a counterexample to the well-known argument that the mobility of particles is the key origin of the spontaneous symmetry breaking in two-dimensional Vicsek type models. Our result suggests that the origin of the symmetry breaking should be sought in the absence of a detailed balance condition, or, equivalently, in nonequilibrium nature.