Preparing random states and benchmarking with many-body quantum chaos.

Producing quantum states at random has become increasingly important in modern quantum science, with applications being both theoretical and practical. In particular, ensembles of such randomly distributed, but pure, quantum states underlie our understanding of complexity in quantum circuits1 and black holes2, and have been used for benchmarking quantum devices3,4 in tests of quantum advantage5,6. However, creating random ensembles has necessitated a high degree of spatio-temporal control7-12 placing such studies out of reach for a wide class of quantum systems. Here we solve this problem by predicting and experimentally observing the emergence of random state ensembles naturally under time-independent Hamiltonian dynamics, which we use to implement an efficient, widely applicable benchmarking protocol. The observed random ensembles emerge from projective measurements and are intimately linked to universal correlations built up between subsystems of a larger quantum system, offering new insights into quantum thermalization13. Predicated on this discovery, we develop a fidelity estimation scheme, which we demonstrate for a Rydberg quantum simulator with up to 25 atoms using fewer than 104 experimental samples. This method has broad applicability, as we demonstrate for Hamiltonian parameter estimation, target-state generation benchmarking, and comparison of analogue and digital quantum devices. Our work has implications for understanding randomness in quantum dynamics14 and enables applications of this concept in a much wider context4,5,9,10,15-20.

Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor.

The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor1. A fundamental challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space. Here we report the use of a processor with programmable superconducting qubits2-7 to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 253 (about 1016). Measurements from repeated experiments sample the resulting probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations. Our Sycamore processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times-our benchmarks currently indicate that the equivalent task for a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would take approximately 10,000 years. This dramatic increase in speed compared to all known classical algorithms is an experimental realization of quantum supremacy8-14 for this specific computational task, heralding a much-anticipated computing paradigm.

Stabilizing a Bosonic Qubit Using Colored Dissipation.

Protected qubits such as the 0-π qubit, and bosonic qubits including cat qubits and Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) qubits offer advantages for fault tolerance. Some of these protected qubits (e.g., 0-π qubit and Kerr-cat qubit) are stabilized by Hamiltonians which have (near-)degenerate ground state manifolds with large energy gaps to the excited state manifolds. Without dissipative stabilization mechanisms the performance of such energy-gap-protected qubits can be limited by leakage to excited states. Here, we propose a scheme for dissipatively stabilizing an energy-gap-protected qubit using colored (i.e., frequency-selective) dissipation without inducing errors in the ground state manifold. Concretely we apply our colored dissipation technique to Kerr-cat qubits and propose colored Kerr-cat qubits which are protected by an engineered colored single-photon loss. When applied to the Kerr-cat qubits our scheme significantly suppresses leakage-induced bit-flip errors (which we show are a limiting error mechanism) while only using linear interactions. Beyond the benefits to the Kerr-cat qubit we also show that our frequency-selective loss technique can be applied to a broader class of protected qubits.

Thermodynamic Implementations of Quantum Processes.

Recent understanding of the thermodynamics of small-scale systems have enabled the characterization of the thermodynamic requirements of implementing quantum processes for fixed input states. Here, we extend these results to construct optimal universal implementations of a given process, that is, implementations that are accurate for any possible input state even after many independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) repetitions of the process. We find that the optimal work cost rate of such an implementation is given by the thermodynamic capacity of the process, which is a single-letter and additive quantity defined as the maximal difference in relative entropy to the thermal state between the input and the output of the channel. Beyond being a thermodynamic analogue of the reverse Shannon theorem for quantum channels, our results introduce a new notion of quantum typicality and present a thermodynamic application of convex-split methods.

Clustering of Conditional Mutual Information for Quantum Gibbs States above a Threshold Temperature.

We prove that the quantum Gibbs states of spin systems above a certain threshold temperature are approximate quantum Markov networks, meaning that the conditional mutual information decays rapidly with distance. We demonstrate the exponential decay for short-ranged interacting systems and power-law decay for long-ranged interacting systems. Consequently, we establish the efficiency of quantum Gibbs sampling algorithms, a strong version of the area law, the quasilocality of effective Hamiltonians on subsystems, a clustering theorem for mutual information, and a polynomial-time algorithm for classical Gibbs state simulations.

Finite-Size Scaling of Out-of-Time-Ordered Correlators at Late Times.

Chaotic dynamics in quantum many-body systems scrambles local information so that at late times it can no longer be accessed locally. This is reflected quantitatively in the out-of-time-ordered correlator of local operators, which is expected to decay to 0 with time. However, for systems of finite size, out-of-time-ordered correlators do not decay exactly to 0 and in this paper we show that the residual value can provide useful insights into the chaotic dynamics. When energy is conserved, the late-time saturation value of the out-of-time-ordered correlator of generic traceless local operators scales as an inverse polynomial in the system size. This is in contrast to the inverse exponential scaling expected for chaotic dynamics without energy conservation. We provide both analytical arguments and numerical simulations to support this conclusion.

Macroscopic Thermodynamic Reversibility in Quantum Many-Body Systems.

The resource theory of thermal operations, an established model for small-scale thermodynamics, provides an extension of equilibrium thermodynamics to nonequilibrium situations. On a lattice of any dimension with any translation-invariant local Hamiltonian, we identify a large set of translation-invariant states that can be reversibly converted to and from the thermal state with thermal operations and a small amount of coherence. These are the spatially ergodic states, i.e., states that have sharp statistics for any translation-invariant observable, and mixtures of such states with the same thermodynamic potential. As an intermediate result, we show for a general state that if the gap between the min- and the max-relative entropies to the thermal state is small, then the state can be approximately reversibly converted to and from the thermal state with thermal operations and a small source of coherence. Our proof provides a quantum version of the Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem for the relative entropy and a quantum Stein's lemma for ergodic states and local Gibbs states. Our results provide a strong link between the abstract resource theory of thermodynamics and more realistic physical systems as we achieve a robust and operational characterization of the emergence of a thermodynamic potential in translation-invariant lattice systems.

Quantum Error Correcting Codes in Eigenstates of Translation-Invariant Spin Chains.

Quantum error correction was invented to allow for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Systems with topological order turned out to give a natural physical realization of quantum error correcting codes (QECC) in their ground spaces. More recently, in the context of the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence, it has been argued that eigenstates of CFTs with a holographic dual should also form QECCs. These two examples raise the question of how generally eigenstates of many-body models form quantum codes. In this Letter we establish new connections between quantum chaos and translation invariance in many-body spin systems, on one hand, and approximate quantum error correcting codes (AQECC), on the other hand. We first observe that quantum chaotic systems obeying the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis have eigenstates forming approximate quantum error-correcting codes. Then we show that AQECC can be obtained probabilistically from translation-invariant energy eigenstates of every translation-invariant spin chain, including integrable models. Applying this result to 1D classical systems, we describe a method for using local symmetries to construct parent Hamiltonians that embed these codes into the low-energy subspace of gapless 1D quantum spin chains. As explicit examples we obtain local AQECC in the ground space of the 1D ferromagnetic Heisenberg model and the Motzkin spin chain model with periodic boundary conditions, thereby yielding nonstabilizer codes in the ground space and low energy subspace of physically plausible 1D gapless models.

Conditional Decoupling of Quantum Information.

Insights from quantum information theory show that correlation measures based on quantum entropy are fundamental tools that reveal the entanglement structure of multipartite states. In that spirit, Groisman, Popescu, and Winter [Phys. Rev. A 72, 032317 (2005)PLRAAN1050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.72.032317] showed that the quantum mutual information I(A;B) quantifies the minimal rate of noise needed to erase the correlations in a bipartite state of quantum systems AB. Here, we investigate correlations in tripartite systems ABE. In particular, we are interested in the minimal rate of noise needed to apply to the systems AE in order to erase the correlations between A and B given the information in system E, in such a way that there is only negligible disturbance on the marginal BE. We present two such models of conditional decoupling, called deconstruction and conditional erasure cost of tripartite states ABE. Our main result is that both are equal to the conditional quantum mutual information I(A;B|E)-establishing it as an operational measure for tripartite quantum correlations.

Thermalization and Return to Equilibrium on Finite Quantum Lattice Systems.

Thermal states are the bedrock of statistical physics. Nevertheless, when and how they actually arise in closed quantum systems is not fully understood. We consider this question for systems with local Hamiltonians on finite quantum lattices. In a first step, we show that states with exponentially decaying correlations equilibrate after a quantum quench. Then, we show that the equilibrium state is locally equivalent to a thermal state, provided that the free energy of the equilibrium state is sufficiently small and the thermal state has exponentially decaying correlations. As an application, we look at a related important question: When are thermal states stable against noise? In other words, if we locally disturb a closed quantum system in a thermal state, will it return to thermal equilibrium? We rigorously show that this occurs when the correlations in the thermal state are exponentially decaying. All our results come with finite-size bounds, which are crucial for the growing field of quantum thermodynamics and other physical applications.

Entanglement Area Laws for Long-Range Interacting Systems.

We prove that the entanglement entropy of any state evolved under an arbitrary 1/r^{α} long-range-interacting D-dimensional lattice spin Hamiltonian cannot change faster than a rate proportional to the boundary area for any α>D+1. We also prove that for any α>2D+2, the ground state of such a Hamiltonian satisfies the entanglement area law if it can be transformed along a gapped adiabatic path into a ground state known to satisfy the area law. These results significantly generalize their existing counterparts for short-range interacting systems, and are useful for identifying dynamical phase transitions and quantum phase transitions in the presence of long-range interactions.

Efficient Quantum Pseudorandomness.

Randomness is both a useful way to model natural systems and a useful tool for engineered systems, e.g., in computation, communication, and control. Fully random transformations require exponential time for either classical or quantum systems, but in many cases pseudorandom operations can emulate certain properties of truly random ones. Indeed, in the classical realm there is by now a well-developed theory regarding such pseudorandom operations. However, the construction of such objects turns out to be much harder in the quantum case. Here, we show that random quantum unitary time evolutions ("circuits") are a powerful source of quantum pseudorandomness. This gives for the first time a polynomial-time construction of quantum unitary designs, which can replace fully random operations in most applications, and shows that generic quantum dynamics cannot be distinguished from truly random processes. We discuss applications of our result to quantum information science, cryptography, and understanding the self-equilibration of closed quantum dynamics.

Randomness Amplification under Minimal Fundamental Assumptions on the Devices.

Recently, the physically realistic protocol amplifying the randomness of Santha-Vazirani sources producing cryptographically secure random bits was proposed; however, for reasons of practical relevance, the crucial question remained open regarding whether this can be accomplished under the minimal conditions necessary for the task. Namely, is it possible to achieve randomness amplification using only two no-signaling components and in a situation where the violation of a Bell inequality only guarantees that some outcomes of the device for specific inputs exhibit randomness? Here, we solve this question and present a device-independent protocol for randomness amplification of Santha-Vazirani sources using a device consisting of two nonsignaling components. We show that the protocol can amplify any such source that is not fully deterministic into a fully random source while tolerating a constant noise rate and prove the composable security of the protocol against general no-signaling adversaries. Our main innovation is the proof that even the partial randomness certified by the two-party Bell test [a single input-output pair (u^{*}, x^{*}) for which the conditional probability P(x^{*}|u^{*}) is bounded away from 1 for all no-signaling strategies that optimally violate the Bell inequality] can be used for amplification. We introduce the methodology of a partial tomographic procedure on the empirical statistics obtained in the Bell test that ensures that the outputs constitute a linear min-entropy source of randomness. As a technical novelty that may be of independent interest, we prove that the Santha-Vazirani source satisfies an exponential concentration property given by a recently discovered generalized Chernoff bound.

Erratum: Reversible Framework for Quantum Resource Theories [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 070503 (2015)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.070503.

Reversible Framework for Quantum Resource Theories.

In recent years it has been recognized that properties of physical systems such as entanglement, athermality, and asymmetry, can be viewed as resources for important tasks in quantum information, thermodynamics, and other areas of physics. This recognition was followed by the development of specific quantum resource theories (QRTs), such as entanglement theory, determining how quantum states that cannot be prepared under certain restrictions may be manipulated and used to circumvent the restrictions. Here we discuss the general structure of QRTs, and show that under a few assumptions (such as convexity of the set of free states), a QRT is asymptotically reversible if its set of allowed operations is maximal, that is, if the allowed operations are the set of all operations that do not generate (asymptotically) a resource. In this case, the asymptotic conversion rate is given in terms of the regularized relative entropy of a resource which is the unique measure or quantifier of the resource in the asymptotic limit of many copies of the state. This measure also equals the smoothed version of the logarithmic robustness of the resource.

Quantum Conditional Mutual Information, Reconstructed States, and State Redistribution.

We give two strengthenings of an inequality for the quantum conditional mutual information of a tripartite quantum state recently proved by Fawzi and Renner, connecting it with the ability to reconstruct the state from its bipartite reductions. Namely, we show that the conditional mutual information is an upper bound on the regularized relative entropy distance between the quantum state and its reconstructed version. It is also an upper bound for the measured relative entropy distance of the state to its reconstructed version. The main ingredient of the proof is the fact that the conditional mutual information is the optimal quantum communication rate in the task of state redistribution.

Resource theory of quantum states out of thermal equilibrium.

The ideas of thermodynamics have proved fruitful in the setting of quantum information theory, in particular the notion that when the allowed transformations of a system are restricted, certain states of the system become useful resources with which one can prepare previously inaccessible states. The theory of entanglement is perhaps the best-known and most well-understood resource theory in this sense. Here, we return to the basic questions of thermodynamics using the formalism of resource theories developed in quantum information theory and show that the free energy of thermodynamics emerges naturally from the resource theory of energy-preserving transformations. Specifically, the free energy quantifies the amount of useful work which can be extracted from asymptotically many copies of a quantum system when using only reversible energy-preserving transformations and a thermal bath at fixed temperature. The free energy also quantifies the rate at which resource states can be reversibly interconverted asymptotically, provided that a sublinear amount of coherent superposition over energy levels is available, a situation analogous to the sublinear amount of classical communication required for entanglement dilution.

When does noise increase the quantum capacity?

Superactivation is the property that two channels with zero quantum capacity can be used together to yield a positive capacity. Here we demonstrate that this effect exists for a wide class of inequivalent channels, none of which can simulate each other. We also consider the case where one of two zero-capacity channels is applied, but the sender is ignorant of which one is applied. We find examples where the greater the entropy of mixing of the channels, the greater the lower bound for the capacity. Finally, we show that the effect of superactivation is rather generic by providing an example of superactivation using the depolarizing channel.

Quantum one-time pad in the presence of an eavesdropper.

A classical one-time pad allows two parties to send private messages over a public classical channel-an eavesdropper who intercepts the communication learns nothing about the message. A quantum one-time pad is a shared quantum state which allows two parties to send private messages or private quantum states over a public quantum channel. If the eavesdropper intercepts the quantum communication she learns nothing about the message. In the classical case, a one-time pad can be created using shared and partially private correlations. Here we consider the quantum case in the presence of an eavesdropper, and find the single-letter formula for the rate at which the two parties can send messages using a general quantum state as a quantum one-time pad. Surprisingly, the formula coincides with the distillable entanglement assisted by a symmetric channel, an important quantity in quantum information theory, but which lacked a clear operational meaning.

Detection of multiparticle entanglement: quantifying the search for symmetric extensions.

We provide quantitative bounds on the characterization of multiparticle separable states by states that have locally symmetric extensions. The bounds are derived from two-particle bounds and relate to recent studies on quantum versions of de Finetti's theorem. We discuss algorithmic applications of our results, in particular a quasipolynomial-time algorithm to decide whether a multiparticle quantum state is separable or entangled (for constant number of particles and constant error in the norm induced by one-way local operations and classical communication, or in the Frobenius norm). Our results provide a theoretical justification for the use of the search for symmetric extensions as a test for multiparticle entanglement.