Yaakov S. Weinstein

NMR Based Quantum Information Processing: Achievements and Prospects

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) provides an experimental setting to explore physical implementations of quantum information processing (QIP). Here we introduce the basic background for understanding applications of NMR to QIP and explain their current successes, limitations and potential. NMR spectroscopy is well known for its wealth of diverse coherent manipulations of spin dynamics. Ideas and instrumentation from liquid state NMR spectroscopy have been used to experiment with QIP. This approach has carried the field to a complexity of about 10 qubits, a small number for quantum computation but large enough for observing and better understanding the complexity of the quantum world. While liquid state NMR is the only present-day technology about to reach this number of qubits, further increases in complexity will require new methods. We sketch one direction leading towards a scalable quantum computer using spin 1/2 particles. The next step of which is a solid state NMR-based QIP capable of reaching 10-30 qubits.

Implementation of the Quantum Fourier Transform

A quantum Fourier transform (QFT) has been implemented on a three qubit nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computer to extract the periodicity of an input state. Implementation of a QFT provides a first step towards the realization of Shors factoring and other quantum algorithms. The experimental implementation of the QFT on a periodic state is presented along with a quantitative measure of its efficiency measured through state tomography. Experimentally realizing the QFT is a clear demonstration of the ability of NMR to control quantum systems.

Quantum process tomography of the quantum Fourier transform

The results of quantum process tomography on a three-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor are presented and shown to be consistent with a detailed model of the system-plus-apparatus used for the experiments. The quantum operation studied was the quantum Fourier transform, which is important in several quantum algorithms and poses a rigorous test for the precision of our recently developed strongly modulating control fields. The results were analyzed in an attempt to decompose the implementation errors into coherent (overall systematic), incoherent (microscopically deterministic), and decoherent (microscopically random) components. This analysis yielded a superoperator consisting of a unitary part that was strongly correlated with the theoretically expected unitary superoperator of the quantum Fourier transform, an overall attenuation consistent with decoherence, and a residual portion that was not completely positive-although complete positivity is required for any quantum operation. By comparison with the results of computer simulations, the lack of complete positivity was shown to be largely a consequence of the incoherent errors which occurred over the full quantum process tomography procedure. These simulations further showed that coherent, incoherent, and decoherent errors can often be identified by their distinctive effects on the spectrum of the overall superoperator. The gate fidelity of the experimentally determined superoperator was 0.64, while the correlation coefficient between experimentally determined superoperator and the simulated superoperator was 0.79; most of the discrepancies with the simulations could be explained by the cumulative effect of small errors in the single qubit gates.

Pseudo-Random Unitary Operators for Quantum Information Processing

Pseudo-random operators consist of sets of operators that exhibit many of the important statistical features of uniformly distributed random operators. Such pseudo-random sets of operators are most useful whey they may be parameterized and generated on a quantum processor in a way that requires exponentially fewer resources than direct implementation of the uniformly random set. Efficient pseudo-random operators can overcome the exponential cost of random operators required for quantum communication tasks such as super-dense coding of quantum states and approximately secure quantum data-hiding, and enable efficient stochastic methods for noise estimation on prototype quantum processors. This paper summarizes some recently published work demonstrating a random circuit method for the implementation of pseudo-random unitary operators on a quantum processor [Emerson et al., Science 302:2098 (Dec.~19, 2003)], and further elaborates the theory and applications of pseudo-random states and operators.

Fidelity decay as an efficient indicator of quantum chaos.

We demonstrate that a systems rate of fidelity decay under repeated perturbations may be measured efficiently on a quantum information processor, and analyze the conditions under which this indicator is a reliable probe of quantum chaos. The type and rate of the decay are not dependent on the eigenvalue statistics of the unperturbed system, but depend on the systems eigenvector statistics in the eigenbasis of the perturbation. For random eigenvector statistics, the decay is exponential with a rate fixed by the variance of the perturbations energy spectrum. Hence, even classically regular models can exhibit an exponential fidelity decay under generic quantum perturbations. These results clarify which perturbations can distinguish classically regular and chaotic quantum systems.

Border between regular and chaotic quantum dynamics

We identify a border between regular and chaotic quantum dynamics. The border is characterized by a power law decrease in the overlap between a state evolved under chaotic dynamics and the same state evolved under a slightly perturbed dynamics. For example, the overlap decay for the quantum kicked top is well fitted with

Tripartite entanglement witnesses and entanglement sudden death

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Use of maximally entangled N-photon states for practical quantum interferometry

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Experimental Implementation of the Quantum Baker’s Map

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Quantum information processing by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

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