Hybrid systems made of quantum emitters and plasmonic nanoresonators offer a unique platform to implement artificial atoms with completely novel optical responses that are not available otherwise. However, their theoretical analysis is difficult, and since many degrees of freedom have to be explored, engineering their optical properties remains challenging. Here, we propose a new formalism that removes most limitations encountered in previous analytical treatments and allows a flexible and efficient study of complex nanoresonators with arbitrary shapes in an almost fully analytically way. The formalism brings accurate closed-form expressions for the hybrid-system optical response and provides an intuitive description based on the coupling between the quantum emitters and the resonance modes of the nanoresonator. The ability to quickly predict light-scattering properties of hybrid systems paves the way to a deep exploration of their fascinating properties and may enable rapid optimization of quantum plasmonic metamaterials or quantum information devices.

We describe a universal scheme of quantum computation by state injection on rebits (states with real density matrices). For this scheme, we establish contextuality and Wigner function negativity as computational resources, extending results of M. Howard et al. [Nature (London) 510, 351 (2014)] to two-level systems. For this purpose, we define a Wigner function suited to systems of $n$ rebits and prove a corresponding discrete Hudson’s theorem. We introduce contextuality witnesses for rebit states and discuss the compatibility of our result with state-independent contextuality.

The first law of thermodynamics imposes not just a constraint on the energy content of systems in extreme quantum regimes but also symmetry constraints related to the thermodynamic processing of quantum coherence. We show that this thermodynamic symmetry decomposes any quantum state into mode operators that quantify the coherence present in the state. We then establish general upper and lower bounds for the evolution of quantum coherence under arbitrary thermal operations, valid for any temperature. We identify primitive coherence manipulations and show that the transfer of coherence between energy levels manifests irreversibility not captured by free energy. Moreover, the recently developed thermomajorization relations on block-diagonal quantum states are observed to be special cases of this symmetry analysis.

We demonstrate that the quantum dot-confined dark exciton forms a long-lived integer spin solid-state qubit that can be deterministically on-demand initiated in a pure state by one optical pulse. Moreover, we show that this qubit can be fully controlled using short optical pulses, which are several orders of magnitude shorter than the life and coherence times of the qubit. Our demonstrations do not require an externally applied magnetic field, and they establish that the quantum dot-confined dark exciton forms an excellent solid-state matter qubit with some advantages over the half-integer spin qubits, such as the confined electron and hole, separately. Since quantum dots are semiconductor nanostructures that allow integration of electronic and photonic components, the dark exciton may have important implications for implementations of quantum technologies consisting of semiconductor qubits.

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs combined with the spectral filtering of the pump field by more than 95 dB on a single silicon chip using electrically tunable ring resonators and passive Bragg reflectors. Moreover, we perform the demultiplexing and routing of signal and idler photons after transferring them via an optical fiber to a second identical chip. Nonclassical two-photon temporal correlations with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 50 are measured without further off-chip filtering. Our system, fabricated with high yield and reproducibility in a CMOS-compatible process, paves the way toward large-scale quantum photonic circuits by allowing sources and detectors of single photons to be integrated on the same chip.

Protecting quantum information from decoherence due to environmental noise is vital for fault-tolerant quantum computation. To this end, standard quantum error correction employs parallel projective measurements of individual particles, which makes the system extremely complicated. Here, we propose measurement-free topological protection in two dimensions without any selective addressing of individual particles. We make use of engineered dissipative dynamics and feedback operations to reduce the entropy generated by decoherence in such a way that quantum information is topologically protected. We calculate an error threshold, below which quantum information is protected, without assuming selective addressing, projective measurements, or instantaneous classical processing. All physical operations are local and translationally invariant, and no parallel projective measurement is required, which implies high scalability. Furthermore, since the engineered dissipative dynamics we utilize has been well studied in quantum simulation, the proposed scheme can be a promising route progressing from quantum simulation to fault-tolerant quantum information processing.

To control a quantum system via feedback, we generally have two options in choosing a control scheme. One is the coherent feedback, which feeds the output field of the system, through a fully quantum device, back to manipulate the system without involving any measurement process. The other one is measurement-based feedback, which measures the output field and performs a real-time manipulation on the system based on the measurement results. Both schemes have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the system and the control goal; hence, their comparison in several situations is important. This paper considers a general open linear quantum system with the following specific control goals: backaction evasion, generation of a quantum nondemolished variable, and generation of a decoherence-free subsystem, all of which have important roles in quantum information science. Some no-go theorems are proven, clarifying that those goals cannot be achieved by any measurement-based feedback control. On the other hand, it is shown that, for each control goal there exists a coherent feedback controller accomplishing the task. The key idea to obtain all the results is system theoretic characterizations of the above three notions in terms of controllability and observability properties or transfer functions of linear systems, which are consistent with their standard definitions.

In some many-body systems, certain ground-state entanglement (Rényi) entropies increase even as the correlation length decreases. This entanglement nonmonotonicity is a potential indicator of nonclassicality. In this work, we demonstrate that such a phenomenon, known as lack of local convertibility, is due to the edge-state (de)construction occurring in the system. To this end, we employ the example of the Ising chain, displaying an order-disorder quantum phase transition. Employing both analytical and numerical methods, we compute entanglement entropies for various system bipartitions $(A|B)$ and consider ground states with and without Majorana edge states. We find that the thermal ground states, enjoying the Hamiltonian symmetries, show lack of local convertibility if either $A$ or $B$ is smaller than, or of the order of, the correlation length. In contrast, the ordered (symmetry-breaking) ground state is always locally convertible. The edge-state behavior explains all these results and could disclose a paradigm to understand local convertibility in other quantum phases of matter. The connection we establish between convertibility and nonlocal, quantum correlations provides a clear criterion of which features a universal quantum simulator should possess to outperform a classical machine.

Quantum metrology uses quantum states with no classical counterpart to measure a physical quantity with extraordinary sensitivity or precision. Most such schemes characterize a dynamical process by probing it with a specially designed quantum state. The success of such a scheme usually relies on the process belonging to a particular one-parameter family. If this assumption is violated, or if the goal is to measure more than one parameter, a different quantum state may perform better. In the most extreme case, we know nothing about the process and wish to learn everything. This requires quantum process tomography, which demands an informationally complete set of probe states. It is very convenient if this set is group covariant—i.e., each element is generated by applying an element of the quantum system’s natural symmetry group to a single fixed fiducial state. In this paper, we consider metrology with 2-photon (“biphoton”) states and report experimental studies of different states’ sensitivity to small, unknown collective $SU(2)$ rotations [“$SU(2)$ jitter”]. Maximally entangled $N00N$ states are the most sensitive detectors of such a rotation, yet they are also among the worst at fully characterizing an a priori unknown process. We identify (and confirm experimentally) the best $SU(2)$-covariant set for process tomography; these states are all less entangled than the $N00N$ state, and are characterized by the fact that they form a 2-design.

Many-body localization, the persistence against electron-electron interactions of the localization of states with nonzero excitation energy density, poses a challenge to current methods of theoretical and numerical analyses. Numerical simulations have so far been limited to a small number of sites, making it difficult to obtain reliable statements about the thermodynamic limit. In this paper, we explore the ways in which a relatively small quantum computer could be leveraged to study many-body localization. We show that, in addition to studying time evolution, a quantum computer can, in polynomial time, obtain eigenstates at arbitrary energies to sufficient accuracy that localization can be observed. The limitations of quantum measurement, which preclude the possibility of directly obtaining the entanglement entropy, make it difficult to apply some of the definitions of many-body localization used in the recent literature. We discuss alternative tests of localization that can be implemented on a quantum computer.

Quantum electromechanical systems offer a unique opportunity to probe quantum noise properties in macroscopic devices, properties that ultimately stem from Heisenberg’s uncertainty relations. A simple example of this behavior is expected to occur in a microwave parametric transducer, where mechanical motion generates motional sidebands corresponding to the up-and-down frequency conversion of microwave photons. Because of quantum vacuum noise, the rates of these processes are expected to be unequal. We measure this fundamental imbalance in a microwave transducer coupled to a radio-frequency mechanical mode, cooled near the ground state of motion. We also discuss the subtle origin of this imbalance: depending on the measurement scheme, the imbalance is most naturally attributed to the quantum fluctuations of either the mechanical mode or of the electromagnetic field.

We consider two-dimensional lattice models that support Ising anyonic excitations and are coupled to a thermal bath. We propose a phenomenological model for the resulting short-time dynamics that includes pair creation, hopping, braiding, and fusion of anyons. By explicitly constructing topological quantum error-correcting codes for this class of system, we use our thermalization model to estimate the lifetime of the quantum information stored in the encoded spaces. To decode and correct errors in these codes, we adapt several existing topological decoders to the non-Abelian setting. We perform large-scale numerical simulations of these two-dimensional Ising anyon systems and find that the thresholds of these models range from 13% to 25%. To our knowledge, these are the first numerical threshold estimates for quantum codes without explicit additive structure.

Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) can significantly improve the security of cryptographic protocols by ensuring that generated keys cannot be predicted. However, the cost, size, and power requirements of current Quantum random number generators have prevented them from becoming widespread. In the meantime, the quality of the cameras integrated in mobile telephones has improved significantly so that now they are sensitive to light at the few-photon level. We demonstrate how these can be used to generate random numbers of a quantum origin.

Recent progress in nanoscale quantum optics and superconducting qubits has made the creation of strongly correlated, and even topologically ordered, states of photons a real possibility. Many of these states are gapped and exhibit anyon excitations, which could be used for a robust form of quantum information processing. However, while numerous qubit array proposals exist to engineer the Hamiltonian for these systems, the question of how to stabilize the many-body ground state of these photonic quantum simulators against photon losses remains largely unanswered. We here propose a simple mechanism that achieves this goal for Abelian and non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states of light. Our construction uses a uniform two-photon drive field to couple the qubits of the primary lattice with an auxiliary “shadow” lattice, composed of qubits with a much faster loss rate than the qubits of the primary quantum simulator itself. This coupling causes hole states created by photon losses to be rapidly refilled, and the system’s many-body gap prevents further photons from being added once the strongly correlated ground state is reached. The fractional quantum Hall state (with a small, transient population of quasihole excitations) is thus the most stable state of the system, and all other configurations will relax toward it over time. The physics described here could be implemented in a circuit QED architecture, and the device parameters needed for our scheme to succeed are in reach of current technology. We also propose a simple six-qubit device, which could easily be built in the near future, that can act as a proof of principle for our scheme.

Physics and information are intimately connected, and the ultimate information processing devices will be those that harness the principles of quantum mechanics. Many physical systems have been identified as candidates for quantum information processing, but none of them are immune from errors. The challenge remains to find a path from the experiments of today to a reliable and scalable quantum computer. Here, we develop an architecture based on a simple module comprising an optical cavity containing a single negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. Modules are connected by photons propagating in a fiber-optical network and collectively used to generate a topological cluster state, a robust substrate for quantum information processing. In principle, all processes in the architecture can be deterministic, but current limitations lead to processes that are probabilistic but heralded. We find that the architecture enables large-scale quantum information processing with existing technology.

Can quantum mechanics help us build intelligent learning agents? A defining signature of intelligent behavior is the capacity to learn from experience. However, a major bottleneck for agents to learn in real-life situations is the size and complexity of the corresponding task environment. Even in a moderately realistic environment, it may simply take too long to rationally respond to a given situation. If the environment is impatient, allowing only a certain time for a response, an agent may then be unable to cope with the situation and to learn at all. Here, we show that quantum physics can help and provide a quadratic speedup for active learning as a genuine problem of artificial intelligence. This result will be particularly relevant for applications involving complex task environments.

A quantum memory at microwave frequencies, able to store the state of multiple superconducting qubits for long times, is a key element for quantum information processing. Electronic and nuclear spins are natural candidates for the storage medium as their coherence time can be well above 1 s. Benefiting from these long coherence times requires one to apply the refocusing techniques used in magnetic resonance, a major challenge in the context of hybrid quantum circuits. Here, we report the first implementation of such a scheme, using ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond coupled to a superconducting resonator, in a setup compatible with superconducting qubit technology. We implement the active reset of the nitrogen-vacancy spins into their ground state by optical pumping and their refocusing by Hahn-echo sequences. This enables the storage of multiple microwave pulses at the picowatt level and their retrieval after up to $35\mu \mathrm{s}$, a 3 orders of magnitude improvement compared to previous experiments.

Quantum methods allow us to reduce communication complexity of some computational tasks, with several separated partners, beyond classical constraints. Nevertheless, experimental demonstrations of this have thus far been limited to some abstract problems, far away from real-life tasks. We show here, and demonstrate experimentally, that the power of reduction of communication complexity can be harnessed to gain an advantage in a famous, immensely popular, card game—bridge. The essence of a winning strategy in bridge is efficient communication between the partners. The rules of the game allow only a specific form of communication, of very low complexity (effectively, one has strong limitations on the number of exchanged bits). Surprisingly, our quantum technique does not violate the existing rules of the game (as there is no increase in information flow). We show that our quantum bridge auction corresponds to a biased nonlocal Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt game, which is equivalent to a $2\to 1$ quantum random access code. Thus, our experiment is also a realization of such protocols. However, this correspondence is not complete, which enables the bridge players to have efficient strategies regardless of the quality of their detectors.