Artur Ekert

Quantum algorithms revisited

Quantum computers use the quantum interference of different computational paths to enhance correct outcomes and suppress erroneous outcomes of computations. A common pattern underpinning quantum algorithms can be identified when quantum computation is viewed as multiparticle interference. We use this approach to review (and improve) some of the existing quantum algorithms and to show how they are related to different instances of quantum phase estimation. We provide an explicit algorithm for generating any prescribed interference pattern with an arbitrary precision.

CONDITIONAL QUANTUM DYNAMICS AND LOGIC GATES

Quantum logic gates provide fundamental examples of conditional quantum dynamics. They could form the building blocks of general quantum information processing systems which have recently been shown to have many interesting nonclassical properties. We describe a simple quantum logic gate, the quantum controlled-NOT, and analyze some of its applications. We discuss two possible physical realizations of the gate, one based on Ramsey atomic interferometry and the other on the selective driving of optical resonances of two subsystems undergoing a dipole-dipole interaction.

Quantum computers and dissipation

We analyse dissipation in quantum computation and its destructive impact on the efficiency of quantum algorithms. Using a general model of decoherence, we study the time evolution of a quantum register of arbitrary length coupled with an environment of arbitrary coherence length. We discuss relations between decoherence and computational complexity and show that the quantum factorization algorithm must be modified in order to be regarded as efficient and realistic.

Universality in Quantum Computation

We show that in quantum computation almost every gate that operates on two or more bits is a universal gate. We discuss various physical considerations bearing on the proper definition of universality for computational components such as logic gates.

Geometric quantum computation

Abstract We describe in detail a general strategy for implementing a conditional geometric phase between two spins. Combined with single-spin operations, this simple operation is a universal gate for quantum computation, in that any unitary transformation can be implemented with arbitrary precision using only single-spin operations and conditional phase shifts. Thus quantum geometrical phases can form the basis of any quantum computation. Moreover, as the induced conditional phase depends only on the geometry of the paths executed by the spins it is resilient to certain types of errors and offers the potential of a naturally fault-tolerant way of performing quantum computation.

OPTIMAL UNIVERSAL QUANTUM CLONING AND STATE ESTIMATION

We derive a tight upper bound for the fidelity of a universal N ! M qubit cloner, valid for any M

Machines, Logic and Quantum Physics

N, where the output of the cloner is required to be supported on the symmetric subspace. Our proof is based on the concatenation of two cloners and the connection between quantum cloning and quantum state estimation. We generalize the operation of a quantum cloner to mixed and /or entangled input qubits described by a density matrix supported on the symmetric subspace of the constituent qubits. We also extend the validity of optimal state estimation methods to inputs of this kind. [S0031-9007(98)07141-5]

Detection of entanglement with few local measurements

§1. Mathematics and the physical world. Genuine scientific knowledge cannot be certain, nor can it be justified a priori. Instead, it must be conjectured, and then tested by experiment, and this requires it to be expressed in a language appropriate for making precise, empirically testable predictions. That language is mathematics. This in turn constitutes a statement about what the physical world must be like if science, thus conceived, is to be possible. As Galileo put it, “the universe is written in the language of mathematics”. Galileos introduction of mathematically formulated, testable theories into physics marked the transition from the Aristotelian conception of physics, resting on supposedly necessary a priori principles, to its modern status as a theoretical, conjectural and empirical science. Instead of seeking an infallible universal mathematical design, Galilean science usesmathematics to express quantitative descriptions of an objective physical reality. Thus mathematics became the language in which we express our knowledge of the physical world — a language that is not only extraordinarily powerful and precise, but also effective in practice. Eugene Wigner referred to “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the physical sciences”. But is this effectiveness really unreasonable or miraculous? Numbers, sets, groups and algebras have an autonomous reality quite independent of what the laws of physics decree, and the properties of these mathematical structures can be just as objective as Plato believed they were (and as Roger Penrose now advocates).

Method for direct detection of quantum entanglement

We introduce a general method for the experimental detection of entanglement by performing only few local measurements, assuming some prior knowledge of the density matrix. The idea is based on the minimal decomposition of witness operators into a pseudomixture of local operators. We discuss an experimentally relevant case of two qubits, and show an example how bound entanglement can be detected with few local measurements.

The ultimate physical limits of privacy

Basing on positive maps separability criterion we propose the experimentally viable, direct detection of quantum entanglement. It is efficient and does not require any a priori knowledge about the state. For two qubits it provides a sharp (i.e., if and only if) separability test and estimation of amount of entanglement. We view this method as a new form of quantum computation, namely, as a decision problem with quantum data structure.