For scalable quantum communication and networks, a key step is to realize a quantum repeater node that can efficiently connect different segments of atom-photon entanglement using quantum memories. We report a compact and hardware-efficient realization of a quantum repeater node using a single atomic ensemble for multicell quantum memories. A millisecond lifetime is achieved for individual memory cells after suppressing the magnetic-field-induced inhomogeneous broadening and the atomic-motion-induced spin-wave dephasing. Based on these long-lived memory cells, we achieve heralded asynchronous entanglement generation in two quantum repeater segments one after another and then an on-demand entanglement connection of these two repeater segments. As another application of the multicell atomic quantum memory, we further demonstrate storage and on-demand retrieval of heralded atomic spin-wave qubits by implementing a random access quantum memory with individual addressing capacity. This work provides a promising constituent for efficient realization of quantum repeaters for large-scale quantum networks.

With the development of delegated quantum computation, clients will want to ensure confidentiality of their data and algorithms and the integrity of their computations. While protocols for blind and verifiable quantum computation exist, they suffer from high overheads and from oversensitivity: when running on noisy devices, imperfections trigger the same detection mechanisms as malicious attacks, resulting in perpetually aborted computations. We introduce the first blind and verifiable protocol for delegating bounded-error quantum polynomial (BQP) computations to a powerful server, with repetition as the only overhead. It is composable and statistically secure with exponentially low bounds and can tolerate a constant amount of global noise.

Precision magnetometry is fundamental to the development of novel magnetic materials and devices. Recently, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has emerged as a promising probe for static magnetism in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials, capable of quantitative imaging with nanoscale spatial resolution. However, the dynamic character of magnetism, crucial for understanding the magnetic phase transition and achieving technological applications, has rarely been experimentally accessible in single 2D crystals. Here, we coherently control the NV center’s spin precession to achieve ultrasensitive, quantitative ac susceptometry of a 2D ferromagnet. Combining dc hysteresis with ac susceptibility measurements varying temperature, field, and frequency, we illuminate the formation, mobility, and consolidation of magnetic domain walls in few-layer ${\mathrm{Cr}\mathrm{Br}}_3$. We show that domain wall mobility is enhanced in ultrathin ${\mathrm{Cr}\mathrm{Br}}_3$, with minimal decrease for excitation frequencies exceeding hundreds of kilohertz, and is influenced by the domain morphology and local pinning of the flake. Our technique extends NV magnetometry to the multifunctional ac and dc magnetic characterization of wide-ranging spintronic materials at the nanoscale.

Recent progress in the realm of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices [J. Preskill, Quantum 2, 79 (2018)] represents an exciting opportunity for many-body physics by introducing new laboratory platforms with unprecedented control and measurement capabilities. We explore the implications of NISQ platforms for many-body physics in a practical sense: we ask which physical phenomena, in the domain of quantum statistical mechanics, they may realize more readily than traditional experimental platforms. While a universal quantum computer can simulate any system, the eponymous noise inherent to NISQ devices practically favors certain simulation tasks over others in the near term. As a particularly well-suited target, we identify discrete time crystals (DTCs), novel nonequilibrium states of matter that break time translation symmetry. These can only be realized in the intrinsically out-of-equilibrium setting of periodically driven quantum systems stabilized by disorder-induced many-body localization. While promising precursors of the DTC have been observed across a variety of experimental platforms—ranging from trapped ions to nitrogen-vacancy centers to NMR crystals—none have all the necessary ingredients for realizing a fully fledged incarnation of this phase, and for detecting its signature long-range spatiotemporal order. We show that a new generation of quantum simulators can be programmed to realize the DTC phase and to experimentally detect its dynamical properties, a task requiring extensive capabilities for programmability, initialization, and readout. Specifically, the architecture of Google’s Sycamore processor is a remarkably close match for the task at hand. We also discuss the effects of environmental decoherence, and how they can be distinguished from ‘internal’ decoherence coming from closed-system thermalization dynamics. Already with existing technology and noise levels, we find that DTC spatiotemporal order would be observable over hundreds of periods, with parametric improvements to come as the hardware advances.

Mistrustful cryptography includes important tasks like bit commitment, oblivious transfer, coin flipping, secure computations, position authentication, digital signatures and secure unforgeable tokens. Practical quantum implementations presently use photonic setups. In many such implementations, Alice sends photon pulses encoding quantum states and Bob chooses measurements on these states. In practice, Bob generally uses single-photon threshold detectors, which cannot distinguish the number of photons in detected pulses. Also, losses and other imperfections require Bob to report the detected pulses. Thus, malicious Alice can send and track multiphoton pulses and thereby gain information about Bob’s measurement choices, violating the protocols’ security. Here, we provide a theoretical framework for analyzing such multiphoton attacks, and present known and new attacks. We illustrate the power of these attacks with an experiment, and study their application to earlier experimental demonstrations of mistrustful quantum cryptography. We analyze countermeasures based on selective reporting and prove them inadequate. We also discuss side-channel attacks where Alice controls further degrees of freedom or sends other physical systems.

Quantum computing is in its greatest upswing, with so-called noisy-intermediate-scale-quantum devices heralding the computational power to be expected in the near future. While the field is progressing toward quantum advantage, quantum computers already have the potential to tackle classically intractable problems. Here, we consider gauge theories describing fundamental-particle interactions. On the way to their full-fledged quantum simulations, the challenge of limited resources on near-term quantum devices has to be overcome. We propose an experimental quantum simulation scheme to study ground-state properties in two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (2D QED) using existing quantum technology. Our protocols can be adapted to larger lattices and offer the perspective to connect the lattice simulation to low-energy observable quantities, e.g., the hadron spectrum, in the continuum theory. By including both dynamical matter and a nonminimal gauge-field truncation, we provide the novel opportunity to observe 2D effects on present-day quantum hardware. More specifically, we present two variational-quantum-eigensolver- (VQE) based protocols for the study of magnetic field effects and for taking an important first step toward computing the running coupling of QED. For both instances, we include variational quantum circuits for qubit-based hardware. We simulate the proposed VQE experiments classically to calculate the required measurement budget under realistic conditions. While this feasibility analysis is done for trapped ions, our approach can be directly adapted to other platforms. The techniques presented here, combined with advancements in quantum hardware, pave the way for reaching beyond the capabilities of classical simulations.

If gravitational perturbations are quantized into gravitons in analogy with the electromagnetic field and photons, the resulting graviton interactions should lead to an entangling interaction between massive objects. We suggest a test of this prediction. To do this, we introduce the concept of interactive quantum information sensing. This novel sensing protocol is tailored to provable verification of weak dynamical entanglement generation between a pair of systems. We show that this protocol is highly robust to typical thermal noise sources. Moreover, the sensitivity can be increased both using an initial thermal state and/or an initial phase of entangling via a nongravitational interaction. We outline a concrete implementation testing the ability of the gravitational field to generate entanglement between an atomic interferometer and a mechanical oscillator. Preliminary numerical estimates suggest that near-term devices could feasibly be used to perform the experiment.

Novel quantum technologies and devices place unprecedented demands on the performance of experimental components, while their widespread deployment beyond the laboratory necessitates increased robustness and fast affordable production. We show how the use of additive manufacturing, together with mathematical optimization techniques and innovative designs, allows the production of compact lightweight components with greatly enhanced performance. We use such components to produce a magneto-optical trap that captures approximately $2\times {10}^8$ rubidium atoms, employing for this purpose a compact and highly stable device for spectroscopy and optical power distribution, optimized neodymium magnet arrays for magnetic field generation, and a lightweight additively manufactured ultrahigh-vacuum chamber. We show how the use of additive manufacturing enables substantial weight reduction and stability enhancement, while also illustrating the transferability of our approach to experiments and devices across the quantum technology sector and beyond.

Quasiparticle poisoning, expected to arise during the measurement of the Majorana zero-mode state, poses a fundamental problem for the realization of Majorana-based quantum computation. Parafermions, a natural generalization of Majorana fermions, can encode topological qudits immune to quasiparticle poisoning. While parafermions are expected to emerge in superconducting fractional quantum Hall systems, they are not yet attainable with current technology. To bypass this problem, we employ a photonic quantum simulator to experimentally demonstrate the key components of parafermion-based universal quantum computation. Our contributions in this paper are twofold. First, by manipulating the photonic states, we realize Clifford-operator Berry phases that correspond to braiding statistics of parafermions. Second, we investigate the quantum contextuality in a topological system for the first time by demonstrating the contextuality of parafermion-encoded qudit states. Importantly, we find that the topologically encoded contextuality opens the way to magic state distillation, while both the contextuality and the braiding-induced Clifford gates are resilient against local noise. By introducing contextuality, our photonic quantum simulation provides the first step toward a physically robust methodology for realizing topological quantum computation.

Microwave photons are used to wire up modular quantum processors, but mitigating the effects of loss between modules remains a crucial challenge. We use a low-loss bus resonator to couple bosonic qubits across a superconducting network with protocols made robust to photon loss in the bus. We transfer a multiphoton qubit and track loss events, improving the fidelity to the break-even point with respect to the best uncorrectable encoding. We also demonstrate a entanglement protocol using Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and error detection to prepare a two-photon Bell state with fidelity 94% and success probability 0.79, halving the error obtained with a single photon. This network link also presents new opportunities for resource-efficient direct gates between modules.

The concept of quantum complexity has far-reaching implications spanning theoretical computer science, quantum many-body physics, and high-energy physics. The quantum complexity of a unitary transformation or quantum state is defined as the size of the shortest quantum computation that executes the unitary or prepares the state. It is reasonable to expect that the complexity of a quantum state governed by a chaotic many-body Hamiltonian grows linearly with time for a time that is exponential in the system size; however, because it is hard to rule out a shortcut that improves the efficiency of a computation, it is notoriously difficult to derive lower bounds on quantum complexity for particular unitaries or states without making additional assumptions. To go further, one may study more generic models of complexity growth. We provide a rigorous connection between complexity growth and unitary $k$-designs, ensembles that capture the randomness of the unitary group. This connection allows us to leverage existing results about design growth to draw conclusions about the growth of complexity. We prove that local random quantum circuits generate unitary transformations whose complexity grows linearly for a long time, mirroring the behavior one expects in chaotic quantum systems and verifying conjectures by Brown and Susskind. Moreover, our results apply under a strong definition of quantum complexity based on optimal distinguishing measurements.

Shortcuts to adiabaticity is a general method for speeding up adiabatic quantum protocols, and has many potential applications in quantum information processing. Unfortunately, analytically constructing shortcuts to adiabaticity for systems having complex interactions and more than a few levels is a challenging task. This is usually overcome by assuming an idealized Hamiltonian [e.g., only a limited subset of energy levels are retained, and the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is made]. Here we develop an analytic approach that allows one to go beyond these limitations. Our method is general and results in analytically derived pulse shapes that correct both nonadiabatic errors and non-RWA errors. We also show that our approach can yield pulses requiring a smaller driving power than conventional nonadiabatic protocols. We show in detail how our ideas can be used to analytically design high-fidelity single-qubit “tripod” gates in a realistic superconducting fluxonium qubit.

Quantum information processing is steadily progressing from a purely academic discipline towards applications throughout science and industry. Transitioning from lab-based, proof-of-concept experiments to robust, integrated realizations of quantum information processing hardware is an important step in this process. However, the nature of traditional laboratory setups does not offer itself readily to scaling up system sizes or allow for applications outside of laboratory-grade environments. This transition requires overcoming challenges in engineering and integration without sacrificing the state-of-the-art performance of laboratory implementations. Here, we present a 19-inch rack quantum computing demonstrator based on ${}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$ optical qubits in a linear Paul trap to address many of these challenges. We outline the mechanical, optical, and electrical subsystems. Furthermore, we describe the automation and remote access components of the quantum computing stack. We conclude by describing characterization measurements relevant to quantum computing including site-resolved single-qubit interactions, and entangling operations mediated by the Mølmer-Sørensen interaction delivered via two distinct addressing approaches. Using this setup, we produce maximally entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with up to 24 ions without the use of postselection or error mitigation techniques; on par with well-established conventional laboratory setups.

Single-shot error correction corrects data noise using only a single round of noisy measurements on the data qubits, removing the need for intensive measurement repetition. We introduce a general concept of confinement for quantum codes, which roughly stipulates qubit errors cannot grow without triggering more measurement syndromes. We prove confinement is sufficient for single-shot decoding of adversarial errors and linear confinement is sufficient for single-shot decoding of local stochastic errors. Further to this, we prove that all three-dimensional homological product codes exhibit confinement in their $X$ components and are therefore single shot for adversarial phase-flip noise. For local stochastic phase-flip noise, we numerically explore these codes and again find evidence of single-shot protection. Our Monte Carlo simulations indicate sustainable thresholds of $3.08(4)\mathrm{\%}$ and $2.90(2)\mathrm{\%}$ for three-dimensional (3D) surface and toric codes, respectively, the highest observed single-shot thresholds to date. To demonstrate single-shot error correction beyond the class of topological codes, we also run simulations on a randomly constructed family of 3D homological product codes.

The out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) and entanglement are two physically motivated and widely used probes of the “scrambling” of quantum information, a phenomenon that has drawn great interest recently in quantum gravity and many-body physics. We argue that the corresponding notions of scrambling can be fundamentally different, by proving an asymptotic separation between the time scales of the saturation of OTOC and that of entanglement entropy in a random quantum-circuit model defined on graphs with a tight bottleneck, such as tree graphs. Our result counters the intuition that a random quantum circuit mixes in time proportional to the diameter of the underlying graph of interactions. It also provides a more rigorous justification for an argument in our previous work [Shor P.W., Scrambling time and causal structure of the photon sphere of a Schwarzschild black hole, arXiv:1807.04363 (2018)], that black holes may be slow information scramblers, which in turn relates to the black-hole information problem. The bounds we obtain for OTOC are interesting in their own right in that they generalize previous studies of OTOC on lattices to the geometries on graphs in a rigorous and general fashion.

While a propagating state of light can be generated with arbitrary squeezing by pumping a parametric resonator, the intraresonator state is limited to 3 dB of squeezing. Here, we implement a reservoir-engineering method to surpass this limit using superconducting circuits. Two-tone pumping of a three-wave-mixing element implements an effective coupling to a squeezed bath, which stabilizes a squeezed state inside the resonator. Using an ancillary superconducting qubit as a probe allows us to perform a direct Wigner tomography of the intraresonator state. The raw measurement provides a lower bound on the squeezing at about $6.7\pm 0.2$ dB below the zero-point level. Further, we show how to correct for resonator evolution during the Wigner tomography and obtain a squeezing as high as $8.2\pm 0.8$ dB. Moreover, this level of squeezing is achieved with a purity of $0.91\pm 0.09$.

Although entanglement is necessary for observing nonlocality in a Bell experiment, there are entangled states that can never be used to demonstrate nonlocal correlations. In a seminal paper Buscemi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 200401 (2012)] extended the standard Bell experiment by allowing Alice and Bob to be asked quantum, instead of classical, questions. This gives rise to a broader notion of nonlocality, one which can be observed for every entangled state. In this work we study a resource theory of this type of nonlocality referred to as Buscemi nonlocality. We propose a geometric quantifier measuring the ability of a given state and local measurements to produce Buscemi nonlocal correlations and prove the following results. First, we show that any distributed measurement that can demonstrate Buscemi nonlocal correlations provides strictly better performance than any distributed measurement that does not use entanglement in the task of distributed state discrimination, and that this advantage is quantified by the geometric quantifier we propose, thus establishing its operational significance. Second, we prove a quantitative relationship between Buscemi nonlocality, the ability to perform nonclassical teleportation, and entanglement. In particular, we show that the maximal amount of Buscemi nonlocality that can be generated using a given state is precisely equal to its entanglement content. Using this relationship, we propose new discrimination tasks for which nonclassical teleportation and entanglement lead to an advantage over their classical counterparts. Third, we interpret Buscemi nonlocality from the perspective of information theory and show that it is related to a single-shot capacity of a quantum-to-classical bipartite channel.

A quantum many-body system whose dynamics includes local measurements at a nonzero rate can be in distinct dynamical phases, with differing entanglement properties. We introduce theoretical approaches to measurement-induced phase transitions (MPTs) and also to entanglement transitions in random tensor networks. Many of our results are for “all-to-all” quantum circuits with unitaries and measurements, in which any qubit can couple to any other, and related settings where some of the complications of low-dimensional models are reduced. We also propose field-theory descriptions for spatially local systems of any finite dimensionality. To build intuition, we first solve the simplest “minimal cut” toy model for entanglement dynamics in all-to-all circuits, finding scaling forms and exponents within this approximation. We then show that certain all-to-all measurement circuits allow exact results by exploiting local treelike structure in the circuit geometry. For this reason, we make a detour to give general universal results for entanglement phase transitions in a class of random tree tensor networks with bond dimension 2, making a connection with the classical theory of directed polymers on a tree. We then compare these results with numerics in all-to-all circuits, both for the MPT and for the simpler “forced-measurement phase transition” (FMPT). We characterize the two different phases in all-to-all circuits using observables that are sensitive to the amount of information that is propagated between the initial and final time. We demonstrate signatures of the two phases that can be understood from simple models. Finally we propose Landau-Ginsburg-Wilson-like field theories for the measurement phase transition, the forced-measurement phase transition, and for entanglement transitions in random tensor networks. This analysis shows a surprising difference between the measurement phase transition and the other cases. We discuss variants of the measurement problem with additional structure (for example free-fermion structure), and questions for the future.

Entangled-photon pairs are an essential resource for quantum-information technologies. Chip-scale sources of entangled pairs have been integrated with various photonic platforms, including silicon, nitrides, indium phosphide, and lithium niobate, but each has fundamental limitations that restrict the photon-pair brightness and quality, including weak optical nonlinearity or high waveguide loss. Here, we demonstrate a novel ultralow-loss $\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$-on-insulator platform capable of generating time-energy entangled photons in a $Q>1$ million microring resonator with nearly 1000-fold improvement in brightness compared to existing sources. The waveguide-integrated source exhibits an internal generation rate greater than $20\times {10}^9$ pairs ${\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{mW}}^{-2}$, emits near 1550 nm, produces heralded single photons with $>99\mathrm{\%}$ purity, and violates Bell’s inequality by more than 40 standard deviations with visibility $>97\mathrm{\%}$. Combined with the high optical nonlinearity and optical gain of $\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ for active component integration, these are all essential features for a scalable quantum photonic platform.

Most proof-of-principle experiments for spin qubits have been performed with $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$-based quantum dots because of the excellent control they offer over tunneling barriers and the orbital and spin degrees of freedom. Here we present the first realization of high-quality single and double quantum dots hosted in an $\mathrm{In}\mathrm{As}$ two-dimensional electron gas, demonstrating accurate control down to the few-electron regime, where we observe a clear Kondo effect and singlet-triplet spin blockade. We measure an electronic $g$ factor of 16 and a typical magnitude of the random hyperfine fields on the quantum dots of approximately $0.6\mathrm{mT}$. We estimate the spin-orbit length in the system to be approximately $5-10\mu \mathrm{m}$ (which is almost 2 orders of magnitude longer than typically measured in $\mathrm{In}\mathrm{As}$ nanostructures), achieved by a very symmetric design of the quantum well. These favorable properties put the $\mathrm{In}\mathrm{As}$ two-dimensional electron gas on the map as a compelling host for studying fundamental aspects of spin qubits. Furthermore, having weak spin-orbit coupling in a material with a large Rashba coefficient potentially opens up avenues for engineering structures with spin-orbit coupling that can be controlled locally in space and/or time.