On the convergence of projective-simulation-based reinforcement learning in Markov decision processes

In recent years, the interest in leveraging quantum effects for enhancing machine learning tasks has significantly increased. Many algorithms speeding up supervised and unsupervised learning were established. The first framework in which ways to exploit quantum resources specifically for the broader context of reinforcement learning were found is projective simulation. Projective simulation presents an agent-based reinforcement learning approach designed in a manner which may support quantum walk-based speedups. Although classical variants of projective simulation have been benchmarked against common reinforcement learning algorithms, very few formal theoretical analyses have been provided for its performance in standard learning scenarios. In this paper, we provide a detailed formal discussion of the properties of this model. Specifically, we prove that one version of the projective simulation model, understood as a reinforcement learning approach, converges to optimal behavior in a large class of Markov decision processes. This proof shows that a physically inspired approach to reinforcement learning can guarantee to converge.

Long-Range Big Quantum-Data Transmission

We introduce an alternative type of quantum repeater for long-range quantum communication with improved scaling with the distance. We show that by employing hashing, a deterministic entanglement distillation protocol with one-way communication, one obtains a scalable scheme that allows one to reach arbitrary distances, with constant overhead in resources per repeater station, and ultrahigh rates. In practical terms, we show that, also with moderate resources of a few hundred qubits at each repeater station, one can reach intercontinental distances. At the same time, a measurement-based implementation allows one to tolerate high loss but also operational and memory errors of the order of several percent per qubit. This opens the way for long-distance communication of big quantum data.

Adaptive quantum computation in changing environments using projective simulation

Quantum information processing devices need to be robust and stable against external noise and internal imperfections to ensure correct operation. In a setting of measurement-based quantum computation, we explore how an intelligent agent endowed with a projective simulator can act as controller to adapt measurement directions to an external stray field of unknown magnitude in a fixed direction. We assess the agent's learning behavior in static and time-varying fields and explore composition strategies in the projective simulator to improve the agent's performance. We demonstrate the applicability by correcting for stray fields in a measurement-based algorithm for Grover's search. Thereby, we lay out a path for adaptive controllers based on intelligent agents for quantum information tasks.

Hybrid architecture for encoded measurement-based quantum computation

We present a hybrid scheme for quantum computation that combines the modular structure of elementary building blocks used in the circuit model with the advantages of a measurement-based approach to quantum computation. We show how to construct optimal resource states of minimal size to implement elementary building blocks for encoded quantum computation in a measurement-based way, including states for error correction and encoded gates. The performance of the scheme is determined by the quality of the resource states, where within the considered error model a threshold of the order of 10% local noise per particle for fault-tolerant quantum computation and quantum communication.

Experimental violation of multipartite Bell inequalities with trapped ions

We report on the experimental violation of multipartite Bell inequalities by entangled states of trapped ions. First, we consider resource states for measurement-based quantum computation of between 3 and 7 ions and show that all strongly violate a Bell-type inequality for graph states, where the criterion for violation is a sufficiently high fidelity. Second, we analyze Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states of up to 14 ions generated in a previous experiment using stronger Mermin-Klyshko inequalities, and show that in this case the violation of local realism increases exponentially with system size. These experiments represent a violation of multipartite Bell-type inequalities of deterministically prepared entangled states. In addition, the detection loophole is closed.

Approaches to measuring entanglement in chemical magnetometers

Chemical magnetometers are radical pair systems such as solutions of pyrene and N,N-dimethylaniline (Py–DMA) that show magnetic field effects in their spin dynamics and their fluorescence. We investigate the existence and decay of quantum entanglement in free geminate Py–DMA radical pairs and discuss how entanglement can be assessed in these systems. We provide an entanglement witness and propose possible observables for experimentally estimating entanglement in radical pair systems with isotropic hyperfine couplings. As an application, we analyze how the field dependence of the entanglement lifetime in Py–DMA could in principle be used for magnetometry and illustrate the propagation of measurement errors in this approach.

Measurement-based quantum computation with trapped ions

Measurement-based quantum computation represents a powerful and flexible framework for quantum information processing, based on the notion of entangled quantum states as computational resources. The most prominent application is the one-way quantum computer, with the cluster state as its universal resource. Here we demonstrate the principles of measurement-based quantum computation using deterministically generated cluster states, in a system of trapped calcium ions. First we implement a universal set of operations for quantum computing. Second we demonstrate a family of measurement-based quantum error correction codes and show their improved performance as the code length is increased. The methods presented can be directly scaled up to generate graph states of several tens of qubits.

Universal and optimal error thresholds for measurement-based entanglement purification

We investigate measurement-based entanglement purification protocols (EPP) in the presence of local noise and imperfections. We derive a universal, protocol-independent threshold for the required quality of the local resource states, where we show that local noise per particle of up to 24% is tolerable. This corresponds to an increase of the noise threshold by almost an order of magnitude, based on the joint measurement-based implementation of sequential rounds of few-particle EPP. We generalize our results to multipartite EPP, where we encounter similarly high error thresholds.

Heat transport through lattices of quantum harmonic oscillators in arbitrary dimensions

In d-dimensional lattices of coupled quantum harmonic oscillators, we analyze the heat current caused by two thermal baths of different temperatures, which are coupled to opposite ends of the lattice, with a focus on the validity of Fourier's law of heat conduction. We provide analytical solutions of the heat current through the quantum system in the nonequilibrium steady state using the rotating-wave approximation and bath interactions described by a master equation of Lindblad form. The influence of local dephasing in the transition of ballistic to diffusive transport is investigated.

Quantum computation in correlation space and extremal entanglement

Recently, a framework was established to systematically construct novel universal resource states for measurement-based quantum computation using techniques involving finitely correlated states. With these methods, universal states were found which are in certain ways much less entangled than the original cluster-state model, and it was hence believed that with this approach, many of the extremal entanglement features of the cluster states could be relaxed. The new resources were constructed as "computationally universal" states-i.e., they allow one to efficiently reproduce the classical output of each quantum computation-whereas the cluster states are universal in a stronger sense since they are "universal state preparators." Here, we show that the new resources are universal state preparators after all, and must therefore exhibit a whole class of extremal entanglement features, similar to the cluster states.

Unifying all classical spin models in a lattice gauge theory

The partition function of all classical spin models, including all discrete standard statistical models and all Abelian discrete lattice gauge theories (LGTs), is expressed as a special instance of the partition function of the 4D Z2 LGT. This unifies all classical spin models with apparently very different features in a single complete model. This result is applied to establish a new method to compute the mean-field theory of Abelian discrete LGTs with d > or = 4, and to show that computing the partition function of the 4D Z2 LGT is computationally hard (#P hard). The 4D Z2 LGT is also proved to be approximately complete for Abelian continuous models. The proof uses techniques from quantum information.

Completeness of the classical 2D Ising model and universal quantum computation

We prove that the 2D Ising model is complete in the sense that the partition function of any classical q-state spin model (on an arbitrary graph) can be expressed as a special instance of the partition function of a 2D Ising model with complex inhomogeneous couplings and external fields. In the case where the original model is an Ising or Potts-type model, we find that the corresponding 2D square lattice requires only polynomially more spins with respect to the original one, and we give a constructive method to map such models to the 2D Ising model. For more general models the overhead in system size may be exponential. The results are established by connecting classical spin models with measurement-based quantum computation and invoking the universality of the 2D cluster states.

Classical spin models and the quantum-stabilizer formalism

We relate a large class of classical spin models, including the inhomogeneous Ising, Potts, and clock models of q-state spins on arbitrary graphs, to problems in quantum physics. More precisely, we show how to express partition functions as inner products between certain quantum-stabilizer states and product states. This connection allows us to use powerful techniques developed in quantum-information theory, such as the stabilizer formalism and classical simulation techniques, to gain general insights into these models in a unified way. We recover and generalize several symmetries and high-low temperature dualities, and we provide an efficient classical evaluation of partition functions for all interaction graphs with a bounded tree-width.

A one-way quantum computer

We present a scheme of quantum computation that consists entirely of one-qubit measurements on a particular class of entangled states, the cluster states. The measurements are used to imprint a quantum logic circuit on the state, thereby destroying its entanglement at the same time. Cluster states are thus one-way quantum computers and the measurements form the program.

Persistent entanglement in arrays of interacting particles

We study the entanglement properties of a class of N-qubit quantum states that are generated in arrays of qubits with an Ising-type interaction. These states contain a large amount of entanglement as given by their Schmidt measure. They also have a high persistency of entanglement which means that approximately N/2 qubits have to be measured to disentangle the state. These states can be regarded as an entanglement resource since one can generate a family of other multiparticle entangled states such as the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states of <N/2 qubits by simple measurements and classical communication.