Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1935
Angel Ballesteros, Diego Fernandez-Silvestre, Flaminia Giacomini, Giulia Gubitosi
Quantum groups have been widely explored as a tool to encode possible nontrivial generalisations of reference frame transformations, relevant in quantum gravity. In quantum information, it was found that the reference frames can be associated to quantum particles, leading to quantum reference frames transformations. The connection between these two frameworks is still unexplored, but if clarified it will lead to a more profound understanding of symmetries in quantum mechanics and quantum gravity. Here, we establish a correspondence between quantum reference frame transformations and transformations generated by a quantum deformation of the Galilei group with commutative time, taken at first order in the quantum deformation parameter. This is found once the quantum group noncommutative transformation parameters are represented on the phase space of a quantum particle, and upon setting the quantum deformation parameter to be proportional to the inverse of the mass of the particle serving as the quantum reference frame. These results allow us to show that quantum reference frame transformations are physically relevant when the state of the quantum reference frame is in a quantum superposition of semiclassical states. We conjecture that the all-order quantum Galilei group describes quantum reference frame transformations between more general quantum states of the quantum reference frame.
{"title":"Quantum Galilei group as quantum reference frame transformations","authors":"Angel Ballesteros, Diego Fernandez-Silvestre, Flaminia Giacomini, Giulia Gubitosi","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1935","url":null,"abstract":"Quantum groups have been widely explored as a tool to encode possible nontrivial generalisations of reference frame transformations, relevant in quantum gravity. In quantum information, it was found that the reference frames can be associated to quantum particles, leading to quantum reference frames transformations. The connection between these two frameworks is still unexplored, but if clarified it will lead to a more profound understanding of symmetries in quantum mechanics and quantum gravity. <br/> Here, we establish a correspondence between quantum reference frame transformations and transformations generated by a quantum deformation of the Galilei group with commutative time, taken at first order in the quantum deformation parameter. This is found once the quantum group noncommutative transformation parameters are represented on the phase space of a quantum particle, and upon setting the quantum deformation parameter to be proportional to the inverse of the mass of the particle serving as the quantum reference frame. These results allow us to show that quantum reference frame transformations are physically relevant when the state of the quantum reference frame is in a quantum superposition of semiclassical states. We conjecture that the all-order quantum Galilei group describes quantum reference frame transformations between more general quantum states of the quantum reference frame.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"142 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1932
Kishore Thapliyal, Jan Perina Jr., Grzegorz Chimczak, Anna Kowalewska-Kudlaszyk, Adam Miranowicz
The existence and degeneracies of quantum exceptional, diabolical, and hybrid (i.e., diabolically degenerated exceptional) singularities of simple bosonic systems composed of up to five modes with damping and/or amplification are analyzed. Their dynamics governed by quadratic non-Hermitian Hamiltonians is followed using the Heisenberg-Langevin equations. Their dynamical matrices generally exhibit specific structures that allow for an effective reduction of their dimension by half. This facilitates analytical treatment and enables efficient spectral analysis based on characteristic second-order diabolical degeneracies. Conditions for the observation of inherited quantum hybrid points, observed directly in the dynamics of field operators, having up to third-order exceptional and second-order diabolical degeneracies are revealed. Surprisingly, exceptional degeneracies of only second and third orders are revealed, even though the systems with up to five modes are considered. Exceptional and diabolical genuine points and their degeneracies observed in the dynamics of second-order field-operator moments are also analyzed. Each analyzed bosonic system exhibits its own unique and complex dynamical behavior.
{"title":"Multiple quantum exceptional, diabolical, and hybrid points in multimode bosonic systems: I. Inherited and genuine singularities","authors":"Kishore Thapliyal, Jan Perina Jr., Grzegorz Chimczak, Anna Kowalewska-Kudlaszyk, Adam Miranowicz","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1932","url":null,"abstract":"The existence and degeneracies of quantum exceptional, diabolical, and hybrid (i.e., diabolically degenerated exceptional) singularities of simple bosonic systems composed of up to five modes with damping and/or amplification are analyzed. Their dynamics governed by quadratic non-Hermitian Hamiltonians is followed using the Heisenberg-Langevin equations. Their dynamical matrices generally exhibit specific structures that allow for an effective reduction of their dimension by half. This facilitates analytical treatment and enables efficient spectral analysis based on characteristic second-order diabolical degeneracies. Conditions for the observation of inherited quantum hybrid points, observed directly in the dynamics of field operators, having up to third-order exceptional and second-order diabolical degeneracies are revealed. Surprisingly, exceptional degeneracies of only second and third orders are revealed, even though the systems with up to five modes are considered. Exceptional and diabolical genuine points and their degeneracies observed in the dynamics of second-order field-operator moments are also analyzed. Each analyzed bosonic system exhibits its own unique and complex dynamical behavior.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"144 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1934
Shiran Even-Haim, Asaf A. Diringer, Ron Ruimy, Gefen Baranes, Alexey Gorlach, Shay Hacohen-Gourgy, Ido Kaminer
Conditional displacement with a qubit ancilla is a critical component in continuous-variable error correction protocols. We present the generalized conditional displacement operator, conditioned on a qudit ancilla, and explore potential implementations. We show how this operator can be used to enhance error correction with Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes.
{"title":"Generalized Conditional Displacement","authors":"Shiran Even-Haim, Asaf A. Diringer, Ron Ruimy, Gefen Baranes, Alexey Gorlach, Shay Hacohen-Gourgy, Ido Kaminer","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1934","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-10-1934","url":null,"abstract":"Conditional displacement with a qubit ancilla is a critical component in continuous-variable error correction protocols. We present the generalized conditional displacement operator, conditioned on a qudit ancilla, and explore potential implementations. We show how this operator can be used to enhance error correction with Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1929
Tulja Varun Kondra, Chandan Datta, Alexander Streltsov
Quantum resource theories provide a mathematically rigorous way of understanding the nature of various quantum resources. An important problem in any quantum resource theory is to determine how quantum states can be converted into each other within the physical constraints of the theory. The standard approach to this problem is to study approximate or probabilistic transformations. Here, we investigate the intermediate regime, providing limits on both, the fidelity and the probability of state transformations. We derive limitations on the transformations, which are valid in all quantum resource theories, by providing bounds on the maximal transformation fidelity for a given transformation probability. As an application, we show that these bounds imply an upper bound on the asymptotic rates for various classes of states under probabilistic transformations. We also show that the deterministic version of the single copy bounds can be applied for drawing limitations on the manipulation of quantum channels, which goes beyond the previously known bounds of channel manipulations. Furthermore, we completely solve the question of stochastic-approximate state conversion via local operations and classical communication in the following two cases: (i) Both initial and target states are pure bipartite entangled states of arbitrary dimensions. (ii) The target state is a two-qubit entangled state and the initial state is a pure bipartite state.
{"title":"Stochastic approximate state conversion for entanglement and general quantum resource theories","authors":"Tulja Varun Kondra, Chandan Datta, Alexander Streltsov","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1929","url":null,"abstract":"Quantum resource theories provide a mathematically rigorous way of understanding the nature of various quantum resources. An important problem in any quantum resource theory is to determine how quantum states can be converted into each other within the physical constraints of the theory. The standard approach to this problem is to study approximate or probabilistic transformations. Here, we investigate the intermediate regime, providing limits on both, the fidelity and the probability of state transformations. We derive limitations on the transformations, which are valid in all quantum resource theories, by providing bounds on the maximal transformation fidelity for a given transformation probability. As an application, we show that these bounds imply an upper bound on the asymptotic rates for various classes of states under probabilistic transformations. We also show that the deterministic version of the single copy bounds can be applied for drawing limitations on the manipulation of quantum channels, which goes beyond the previously known bounds of channel manipulations. Furthermore, we completely solve the question of stochastic-approximate state conversion via local operations and classical communication in the following two cases: (i) Both initial and target states are pure bipartite entangled states of arbitrary dimensions. (ii) The target state is a two-qubit entangled state and the initial state is a pure bipartite state.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"154 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145674522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1931
Mingyu Kang, Yingjia Lin, Hanwen Yao, Mert Gökduman, Arianna Meinking, Kenneth R. Brown
To achieve quantum fault tolerance with lower overhead, quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes have emerged as a promising alternative to topological codes such as the surface code, offering higher code rates. To support their study, an end-to-end framework for simulating QLDPC codes at the circuit level is needed. In this work, we present QUITS, a modular and flexible circuit-level simulator for QLDPC codes. Its design allows users to freely combine LDPC code constructions, syndrome extraction circuits, decoding algorithms, and noise models, enabling comprehensive and customizable studies of the performance of QLDPC codes under circuit-level noise. QUITS supports several leading QLDPC families, including hypergraph product codes, lifted product codes, and balanced product codes. As part of the framework, we introduce a syndrome extraction circuit improved from Tremblay, Delfosse, and Beverland [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 050504 (2022)] that applies to all three code families. In particular, for a small hypergraph product code, our circuit achieves lower depth than the conventional method, resulting in improved logical performance. Using QUITS, we evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art QLDPC codes and decoders under various settings, revealing trade-offs between the decoding runtime and the logical failure rate. The source code of QUITS is available online.
为了以更低的开销实现量子容错,量子低密度奇偶校验(QLDPC)码已成为拓扑码(如表面码)的一种有希望的替代方案,提供更高的码率。为了支持他们的研究,需要一个在电路级模拟QLDPC代码的端到端框架。在这项工作中,我们提出了QUITS,一个模块化和灵活的电路级模拟器,用于QLDPC代码。它的设计允许用户自由组合LDPC码结构、综合征提取电路、解码算法和噪声模型,从而能够全面和可定制地研究电路级噪声下QLDPC码的性能。QUITS支持几个领先的QLDPC家族,包括超图产品代码、提升产品代码和平衡产品代码。作为框架的一部分,我们引入了从Tremblay, Delfosse和Beverland[物理学家]改进的综合征提取电路。Rev. Lett. 129, 050504(2022)],适用于所有三个代码族。特别是对于一个小的超图积代码,我们的电路实现了比传统方法更低的深度,从而提高了逻辑性能。使用QUITS,我们评估了最先进的QLDPC码和解码器在各种设置下的性能,揭示了解码运行时间和逻辑故障率之间的权衡。QUITS的源代码可以在网上找到。
{"title":"QUITS: A modular Qldpc code circUIT Simulator","authors":"Mingyu Kang, Yingjia Lin, Hanwen Yao, Mert Gökduman, Arianna Meinking, Kenneth R. Brown","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1931","url":null,"abstract":"To achieve quantum fault tolerance with lower overhead, quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes have emerged as a promising alternative to topological codes such as the surface code, offering higher code rates. To support their study, an end-to-end framework for simulating QLDPC codes at the circuit level is needed. In this work, we present QUITS, a modular and flexible circuit-level simulator for QLDPC codes. Its design allows users to freely combine LDPC code constructions, syndrome extraction circuits, decoding algorithms, and noise models, enabling comprehensive and customizable studies of the performance of QLDPC codes under circuit-level noise. QUITS supports several leading QLDPC families, including hypergraph product codes, lifted product codes, and balanced product codes. As part of the framework, we introduce a syndrome extraction circuit improved from Tremblay, Delfosse, and Beverland [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 050504 (2022)] that applies to all three code families. In particular, for a small hypergraph product code, our circuit achieves lower depth than the conventional method, resulting in improved logical performance. Using QUITS, we evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art QLDPC codes and decoders under various settings, revealing trade-offs between the decoding runtime and the logical failure rate. The source code of QUITS is available online.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145674532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1930
Lewis Wooltorton, Peter Brown, Roger Colbeck
Nonlocal tests on multi-partite quantum correlations form the basis of protocols that certify randomness in a device-independent (DI) way. Such correlations admit a rich structure, making the task of choosing an appropriate test difficult. For example, extremal Bell inequalities are tight witnesses of nonlocality, but achieving their maximum violation places constraints on the underlying quantum system, which can reduce the rate of randomness generation. As a result there is often a trade-off between maximum randomness and the amount of violation of a given Bell inequality. Here, we explore this trade-off for more than two parties. More precisely, we study the maximum amount of randomness that can be certified by correlations with a particular violation of the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) inequality. For any even number of parties, we find that maximum randomness cannot occur beyond a threshold quantum violation, which increases with the number of parties, and we give a conjectured form of the maximum randomness in terms of the MABK value. We also show that maximum randomness can be obtained for any MABK violation for odd numbers of parties. To obtain our results, we derive new families of Bell inequalities certifying maximum randomness from a technique for randomness certification, which we call "expanding Bell inequalities''. Our technique allows a bipartite Bell expression to be used as a seed, and transformed into a multi-partite Bell inequality tailored for randomness certification, showing how intuition learned in the bipartite case can find use in more complex scenarios.
{"title":"Expanding bipartite Bell inequalities for maximum multi-partite randomness","authors":"Lewis Wooltorton, Peter Brown, Roger Colbeck","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-05-1930","url":null,"abstract":"Nonlocal tests on multi-partite quantum correlations form the basis of protocols that certify randomness in a device-independent (DI) way. Such correlations admit a rich structure, making the task of choosing an appropriate test difficult. For example, extremal Bell inequalities are tight witnesses of nonlocality, but achieving their maximum violation places constraints on the underlying quantum system, which can reduce the rate of randomness generation. As a result there is often a trade-off between maximum randomness and the amount of violation of a given Bell inequality. Here, we explore this trade-off for more than two parties. More precisely, we study the maximum amount of randomness that can be certified by correlations with a particular violation of the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) inequality. For any even number of parties, we find that maximum randomness cannot occur beyond a threshold quantum violation, which increases with the number of parties, and we give a conjectured form of the maximum randomness in terms of the MABK value. We also show that maximum randomness can be obtained for any MABK violation for odd numbers of parties. To obtain our results, we derive new families of Bell inequalities certifying maximum randomness from a technique for randomness certification, which we call \"expanding Bell inequalities''. Our technique allows a bipartite Bell expression to be used as a seed, and transformed into a multi-partite Bell inequality tailored for randomness certification, showing how intuition learned in the bipartite case can find use in more complex scenarios.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145674521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-03DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-03-1928
Marit O. E. Steiner, Julen S. Pedernales, Martin B. Plenio
We explore the potential of levitating solids embedded with non-permanent, optically controllable electron spins, which can be used to hyperpolarize their nuclear spin environment with exceptionally long lifetimes. For example, pentacene-doped naphthalene, which will also serve as our prime example, can achieve bulk polarization exceeding $80,%$ at cryogenic temperatures with polarization lifetimes extending over weeks. These materials make a compelling case for applications such as matter-wave interferometry and novel uses of established NMR techniques. In that spirit, we design a multi-spin Stern-Gerlach-type interferometry protocol which, thanks to the homogeneous spin distribution and the absence of a preferential nuclear-spin quantization axis in such materials, avoids many of the limitations associated with solid state crystals hosting electronic spin defects, such as nanodiamonds containing NV centers. We assess the potential of our interferometer to enhance existing bounds on the free parameters of objective collapse models. Beyond matter-wave interferometry, we analyze the prospects for implementing magic angle spinning at frequencies surpassing the current standard in NMR, capitalizing on the exceptional rotational capabilities offered by levitation. Additionally, we outline a novel protocol for measuring spin ensemble polarization via the position of the nanoparticle and conduct an analysis of dominant noise sources, benchmarking the required isolation levels for various applications.
{"title":"Optically Hyperpolarized Materials for Levitated Optomechanics","authors":"Marit O. E. Steiner, Julen S. Pedernales, Martin B. Plenio","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-03-1928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-03-1928","url":null,"abstract":"We explore the potential of levitating solids embedded with non-permanent, optically controllable electron spins, which can be used to hyperpolarize their nuclear spin environment with exceptionally long lifetimes. For example, pentacene-doped naphthalene, which will also serve as our prime example, can achieve bulk polarization exceeding $80,%$ at cryogenic temperatures with polarization lifetimes extending over weeks. These materials make a compelling case for applications such as matter-wave interferometry and novel uses of established NMR techniques. In that spirit, we design a multi-spin Stern-Gerlach-type interferometry protocol which, thanks to the homogeneous spin distribution and the absence of a preferential nuclear-spin quantization axis in such materials, avoids many of the limitations associated with solid state crystals hosting electronic spin defects, such as nanodiamonds containing NV centers. We assess the potential of our interferometer to enhance existing bounds on the free parameters of objective collapse models. Beyond matter-wave interferometry, we analyze the prospects for implementing magic angle spinning at frequencies surpassing the current standard in NMR, capitalizing on the exceptional rotational capabilities offered by levitation. Additionally, we outline a novel protocol for measuring spin ensemble polarization via the position of the nanoparticle and conduct an analysis of dominant noise sources, benchmarking the required isolation levels for various applications.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"247 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145658280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1922
Samuel Jaques, Arthur G. Rattew
Quantum random-access memory (QRAM) is a mechanism to access data (quantum or classical) based on addresses which are themselves a quantum state. QRAM has a long and controversial history, and here we survey and expand arguments and constructions for and against. We use two primary categories of QRAM from the literature: (1) active, which requires external intervention and control for each QRAM query (e.g. the error-corrected circuit model), and (2) passive, which requires no external input or energy once the query is initiated. In the active model, there is a powerful opportunity cost argument: in many applications, one could repurpose the control hardware for the qubits in the QRAM (or the qubits themselves) to run an extremely parallel classical algorithm to achieve the same results just as fast. We apply these arguments in detail to quantum linear algebra and prove that most asymptotic quantum advantage disappears with active QRAM systems, with some nuance related to the architectural assumptions. Escaping the constraints of active QRAM requires ballistic computation with passive memory, which creates an array of dubious physical assumptions, which we examine in detail. Considering these details, in everything we could find, all non-circuit QRAM proposals fall short in one aspect or another. In summary, we conclude that cheap, asymptotically scalable passive QRAM is unlikely with existing proposals, due to fundamental obstacles that we highlight. These obstacles are deeply rooted in the requirements of QRAM, but are not provably inevitable; we hope that our results will help guide research into QRAM technologies that circumvent or mitigate these obstacles. Finally, circuit-based QRAM still helps in many applications, and so we additionally provide a survey of state-of-the-art techniques as a resource for algorithm designers using QRAM.
{"title":"QRAM: A Survey and Critique","authors":"Samuel Jaques, Arthur G. Rattew","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1922","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1922","url":null,"abstract":"Quantum random-access memory (QRAM) is a mechanism to access data (quantum or classical) based on addresses which are themselves a quantum state. QRAM has a long and controversial history, and here we survey and expand arguments and constructions for and against.<br/> We use two primary categories of QRAM from the literature: (1) active, which requires external intervention and control for each QRAM query (e.g. the error-corrected circuit model), and (2) passive, which requires no external input or energy once the query is initiated. In the active model, there is a powerful opportunity cost argument: in many applications, one could repurpose the control hardware for the qubits in the QRAM (or the qubits themselves) to run an extremely parallel classical algorithm to achieve the same results just as fast. We apply these arguments in detail to quantum linear algebra and prove that most asymptotic quantum advantage disappears with active QRAM systems, with some nuance related to the architectural assumptions.<br/> Escaping the constraints of active QRAM requires ballistic computation with passive memory, which creates an array of dubious physical assumptions, which we examine in detail. Considering these details, in everything we could find, all non-circuit QRAM proposals fall short in one aspect or another.<br/> In summary, we conclude that cheap, asymptotically scalable passive QRAM is unlikely with existing proposals, due to fundamental obstacles that we highlight. These obstacles are deeply rooted in the requirements of QRAM, but are not provably inevitable; we hope that our results will help guide research into QRAM technologies that circumvent or mitigate these obstacles. Finally, circuit-based QRAM still helps in many applications, and so we additionally provide a survey of state-of-the-art techniques as a resource for algorithm designers using QRAM.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1923
Augustin Vanrietvelde, Nick Ormrod, Hlér Kristjánsson, Jonathan Barrett
Over the past decade, a number of quantum processes have been proposed which are logically consistent, yet feature a cyclic causal structure. However, there is no general formal method to construct a process with an exotic causal structure in a way that ensures, and makes clear why, it is consistent. Here we provide such a method, given by an extended circuit formalism. This only requires directed graphs endowed with Boolean matrices, which encode basic constraints on operations. Our framework (a) defines a set of elementary rules for checking the validity of any such graph, (b) provides a way of constructing consistent processes as a circuit from valid graphs, and (c) yields an intuitive interpretation of the causal relations within a process and an explanation of why they do not lead to inconsistencies. We display how several standard examples of exotic processes, including ones that violate causal inequalities, are among the class of processes that can be generated in this way; we conjecture that this class in fact includes all unitarily extendible processes.
{"title":"Consistent circuits for indefinite causal order","authors":"Augustin Vanrietvelde, Nick Ormrod, Hlér Kristjánsson, Jonathan Barrett","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1923","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1923","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past decade, a number of quantum processes have been proposed which are logically consistent, yet feature a cyclic causal structure. However, there is no general formal method to construct a process with an exotic causal structure in a way that ensures, and makes clear why, it is consistent. Here we provide such a method, given by an extended circuit formalism. This only requires directed graphs endowed with Boolean matrices, which encode basic constraints on operations. Our framework (a) defines a set of elementary rules for checking the validity of any such graph, (b) provides a way of constructing consistent processes as a circuit from valid graphs, and (c) yields an intuitive interpretation of the causal relations within a process and an explanation of why they do not lead to inconsistencies. We display how several standard examples of exotic processes, including ones that violate causal inequalities, are among the class of processes that can be generated in this way; we conjecture that this class in fact includes all unitarily extendible processes.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1925
Ben Zindorf, Sougato Bose
Universal gate sets for quantum computation, when single and two qubit operations are accessible, include both Hermitian and non-Hermitian gates. Here we utilize the fact that any single-qubit operator may be implemented as two Hermitian gates, and thus a purely Hermitian universal set is possible. This implementation can be used to prepare high fidelity single-qubit states in the presence of amplitude errors, and helps to achieve a high fidelity single-qubit gate decomposition using four Hermitian gates. An implementational convenience can be that non-identity single-qubit Hermitian gates are equivalent to $pi$ rotations up to a global phase. We show that a gate set comprised of $pi$ rotations about two fixed axes, along with the CNOT gate, is universal for quantum computation. Moreover, we show that two $pi$ rotations can transform the axis of any multi-controlled unitary, a special case being a single CNOT sufficing for any controlled $pi$ rotation. These gates simplify the process of circuit compilation in view of their Hermitian nature. We exemplify by designing efficient circuits for a variety of controlled gates, and achieving a CNOT count reduction for the four-controlled Toffoli gate in LNN-restricted qubit connectivity.
{"title":"All You Need is pi: Quantum Computing with Hermitian Gates","authors":"Ben Zindorf, Sougato Bose","doi":"10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-12-02-1925","url":null,"abstract":"Universal gate sets for quantum computation, when single and two qubit operations are accessible, include both Hermitian and non-Hermitian gates. Here we utilize the fact that any single-qubit operator may be implemented as two Hermitian gates, and thus a purely Hermitian universal set is possible. This implementation can be used to prepare high fidelity single-qubit states in the presence of amplitude errors, and helps to achieve a high fidelity single-qubit gate decomposition using four Hermitian gates. An implementational convenience can be that non-identity single-qubit Hermitian gates are equivalent to $pi$ rotations up to a global phase. We show that a gate set comprised of $pi$ rotations about two fixed axes, along with the CNOT gate, is universal for quantum computation. Moreover, we show that two $pi$ rotations can transform the axis of any multi-controlled unitary, a special case being a single CNOT sufficing for any controlled $pi$ rotation. These gates simplify the process of circuit compilation in view of their Hermitian nature. We exemplify by designing efficient circuits for a variety of controlled gates, and achieving a CNOT count reduction for the four-controlled Toffoli gate in LNN-restricted qubit connectivity.","PeriodicalId":20807,"journal":{"name":"Quantum","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}