“Deep thermalization” describes the emergence of universal wave-function distributions in quantum many-body dynamics, appearing on a local subsystem upon measurement of its environment. In this work, we study in detail the effect of continuous internal symmetries and associated conservation laws on deep thermalization. Concretely, we consider quantum spin systems with a $U(1)$ symmetry associated with the conservation of magnetization (or “charge”) and analyze how the choice of initial states (specifically, their degree of charge fluctuations) and the choice of measurement basis (specifically, whether or not it can reveal information about the local charge density) determine the ensuing universal wave-function distributions. We put forth a universal ansatz for the limiting form of the projected ensemble, motivated by maximum-entropy principles rooted in statistical physics and quantum information theory. This limiting form depends on a polynomial amount of data on the initial state and measurement basis, a “coarse graining” that is an essential feature of bona fide thermodynamic ensembles. We support our ansatz with three complementary approaches: (i) a rigorous proof in the simplest case of no charge fluctuations in either the initial state or the measurement basis; (ii) analytical calculations using a “replica-limit” approach, applicable when charge fluctuations are allowed in either the input state or the measurement basis but not both; and (iii) extensive numerical simulations of finite-sized systems in the most general case. Our findings demonstrate a rich interplay between symmetries and the information extracted by measurements, which allows deep thermalization to exhibit a range of universal behaviors far beyond regular thermalization.

An important goal in quantum key distribution (QKD) is the task of providing a finite-size security proof without the assumption of collective attacks. For prepare-and-measure QKD, one approach for obtaining such proofs is the generalized entropy-accumulation theorem (GEAT) but thus far it has only been applied to study a small selection of protocols. In this work, we present techniques for applying the GEAT in finite-size analysis of generic prepare-and-measure protocols, with a focus on decoy-state protocols. In particular, we present an improved approach for computing entropy bounds for decoy-state protocols, which has the dual benefits of providing tighter bounds than previous approaches (even asymptotically) and being compatible with methods for computing min-trade-off functions in the GEAT. Furthermore, we develop methods to incorporate some improvements to the finite-size terms in the GEAT and implement techniques to automatically optimize the min-trade-off function. Our approach also addresses some numerical-stability challenges specific to prepare-and-measure protocols, which have not been addressed in previous works.

How are two-body scattering and the resulting collective phenomena affected by preparing the mediator of interactions in different quantum states? This question has recently become experimentally relevant in a specific nonrelativistic version of QED implemented within materials, where standard techniques of quantum optics are available for the preparation of desired quantum states of the photon mediating interactions between matter’s constituents. We develop the necessary nonequilibrium approach for computing the vertex function and find that, in addition to the energy and momentum structure of the scattering, a further structure emerges, which reflects the Hilbert-space distribution of the mediator’s quantum state. This emergent structure becomes nontrivial for non-Gaussian quantum states of the mediator, and can dramatically affect scattering and collective phenomena. As a first application, we show that by preparing photons in pure Fock states one can enhance pair correlations, and even modify the criticality of the superconducting phase transition. Our results also reveal that the thermal mixture of Fock states regularizes the strong pair correlations present in each of its components, yielding the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer criticality. Besides the above QED platform, ultracold atomic mixtures are among the most promising candidates for the experimental implementation of these ideas.

Multiphoton indistinguishability is a central resource for quantum enhancement in sensing and computation. Developing and certifying large-scale photonic devices requires reliable and accurate characterization of this resource, preferably using methods that are robust against experimental errors. Here, we propose a set of methods for the characterization of multiphoton indistinguishability, based on measurements of bunching and photon-number variance. Our methods are robust in a semi-device-independent way, in the sense of being effective even when the interferometers are incorrectly dialed. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using an advanced photonic platform comprising a quantum dot single-photon source and a universal fully programmable integrated photonic processor. Our results show the practical usefulness of our methods, providing robust certification tools that can be scaled up to larger systems.

As a waveguide circuit QED architecture, we investigate theoretically the single-photon pair emission of a Cooper pair splitter composed of two double quantum dots, each coupled to a microwave transmission line. We find that this system can generate frequency-entangled photon pairs in the left and right transmission lines, specifically a superposition of two photon wave packets at different frequencies. The frequency entanglement of the two photons arises from the particle-hole coherent superposition (i.e., Andreev bound states) involving the delocalized entangled spin singlet. We also estimate a lower bound for the efficiency of entangled photon-pair generation, accounting for the presence of nonradiative processes such as phonon emissions. Our proposal is realistic and achievable with state-of-the-art techniques in quantum microwave engineering with electostatically defined semiconducting quantum dots.

Realizing computationally complex quantum circuits in the presence of noise and imperfections is a challenging task. While fault-tolerant quantum computing provides a route to reducing noise, it requires a large overhead for generic algorithms. Here, we develop and analyze a hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant approach to realizing complex sampling circuits. We co-design the circuits with the appropriate quantum error-correcting codes for efficient implementation in a reconfigurable neutral atom-array architecture, constituting what we call a fault-tolerant compilation of the sampling algorithm. Specifically, we consider a family of $\text{⟦}{2}^D,D,2\text{⟧}$ quantum error-detecting codes whose transversal and permutation gate set can realize arbitrary degree-$D$ instantaneous quantum polynomial (IQP) circuits. Using native operations of the code and the atom-array hardware, we compile a fault-tolerant and fast-scrambling family of such IQP circuits in a hypercube geometry, realized recently in the experiments by Bluvstein et al. [Nature 626, 7997 (2024)]. We develop a theory of second-moment properties of degree-$D$ IQP circuits for analyzing hardness and verification of random sampling by mapping to a statistical mechanics model. We provide strong evidence that sampling from these hypercube IQP circuits is classically hard to simulate even at relatively low depths. We analyze the linear cross-entropy benchmark (XEB) in comparison to the average fidelity and, depending on the local noise rate, find two different asymptotic regimes. To realize a fully scalable approach, we first show that Bell sampling from degree-4 IQP circuits is classically intractable and can be efficiently validated. We further devise new families of $\text{⟦}O(d^D),D,d\text{⟧}$ color codes of increasing distance $d$, permitting exponential error suppression for transversal IQP sampling. Our results highlight fault-tolerant compiling as a powerful tool in co-designing algorithms with specific error-correcting codes and realistic hardware.

We present an optical tweezer array of  ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms housed in an cryogenic environment that successfully combines a 4-K cryopumping surface, a <50-K cold box surrounding the atoms, and a room-temperature high-numerical-aperture objective lens. We demonstrate a 3000-s atom-trap lifetime, which enables us to optimize and measure losses at the ${10}^{-4}$ level that arise during imaging and cooling, which are important to array rearrangement. We perform both ground-state qubit manipulation with an integrated microwave antenna and two-photon coherent Rydberg control, with the local electric field tuned to zero via integrated electrodes. We anticipate that the reduced blackbody radiation at the atoms from the cryogenic environment, combined with future electrical shielding, should decrease the rate of undesired transitions to nearby strongly interacting Rydberg states, which cause many-body loss and impede Rydberg gates. This low-vibration, high-optical-access cryogenic platform can be used with a wide range of optically trapped atomic or molecular species for applications in quantum computing, simulation, and metrology.

Manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum at the single-photon level is fundamental for quantum experiments. In the visible and infrared ranges, this can be accomplished with atomic quantum emitters, and with superconducting qubits such control is extended to the microwave range (below 10 GHz). Meanwhile, the region between these two energy ranges presents an unexplored opportunity for innovation. We bridge this gap by scaling up a superconducting qubit to the millimeter-wave range (near 100 GHz). Working in this energy range greatly reduces sensitivity to thermal noise compared to microwave devices, enabling operation at significantly higher temperatures, up to 1 K. This has many advantages by removing the dependence on rare ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ for refrigeration, simplifying cryogenic systems, and providing orders-of-magnitude higher cooling power, lending the flexibility needed for novel quantum sensing and hybrid experiments. Using low-loss niobium trilayer junctions, we realize a qubit at 72 GHz cooled to 0.87 K using only ${}^4\mathrm{He}$. We perform Rabi oscillations to establish control over the qubit state, and measure relaxation and dephasing times of 15.8 and 17.4 ns, respectively. This demonstration of a millimeter-wave quantum emitter offers exciting prospects for enhanced sensitivity thresholds in high-frequency photon detection, provides new options for quantum transduction and for scaling up and speeding up quantum computing, enables integration of quantum systems where ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ refrigeration units are impractical, and, importantly, paves the way for quantum experiments exploring a novel energy range.

We introduce two quantitative measures of the strength of causal relations in quantum theory and more general physical theories. These two measures, called the maximum and minimum causal effect, quantify the maximum and minimum changes in the output of a quantum process induced by changes in its input. The maximum and minimum causal effect possesses useful properties, such as continuity and data-processing inequality. In quantum theory, they have close connections with quantum information tasks. The maximum quantum causal effect can be used to detect quantum channels with nonzero capacity for transmitting classical information. The minimum causal effect can be used to guarantee the recoverability of quantum information: every quantum process with a high value of the minimum quantum causal effect can be approximately inverted. Moreover, we show that the quantum causal effects satisfy a duality relation: if the minimum causal effect of a quantum system $A$ on another quantum system $B$ is high, then $A$ must have a low value of the maximum causal effect on any other quantum system $B^{\prime }$ that is spacelike separated with $B$. This duality implies a monogamy relation for quantum causal effects, and represents a fundamental difference between quantum and classical causal relations. We illustrate the application of the maximum causal effect to the analysis of two paradigmatic examples, the first involving a coherent superposition of direct cause and common cause, and the second involving a coherent superposition of multiple quantum processes.

Arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms are a promising architecture for the realization of quantum computers. In order to run increasingly complex algorithms, it is advantageous to demonstrate high-fidelity and flexible gates between long-lived and highly coherent qubit states. In this work, we demonstrate a universal high-fidelity gate set with individually controlled and parallel application of single-qubit gates and two-qubit gates operating on the ground-state nuclear-spin qubit in arrays of tweezer-trapped ${}^{171}$$\mathrm{Yb}$ atoms. We utilize the long lifetime, flexible control, and high gate fidelity of our system to characterize native gates using single- and two-qubit Clifford and symmetric subspace randomized-benchmarking circuits with more than 200 controlled-$Z$ (cz) gates applied to one or two pairs of atoms. We measure our two-qubit entangling gate fidelity to be 99.72(3)% (99.40(3)%) with (without) postselection. In addition, we introduce a simple and optimized method for calibration of multiparameter quantum gates. These results represent important milestones toward executing complex and general quantum computation with neutral atoms.

We establish a holographic duality between $d$-dimensional mixed-state symmetry-protected topological (mSPT) phases and $(d+1)$-dimensional subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) states. Specifically, we show that the reduced density matrix of the boundary layer of a $(d+1)$-dimensional SSPT state with subsystem symmetry $\mathcal{S}$ and global symmetry $\mathcal{G}$ corresponds to a $d$-dimensional mSPT phase with strong $\mathcal{S}$ and weak $\mathcal{G}$ symmetries. Conversely, we demonstrate that the wave function of an SSPT state can be constructed by replicating the density matrix of the corresponding lower-dimensional mSPT phase. This mapping links the density matrix in lower dimensions to the entanglement properties of higher-dimensional wave functions, providing an approach for analyzing nonlinear quantities and quantum information metrics in mixed-state systems. Our duality offers a new perspective for studying intrinsic mSPT phases that are unique to open quantum systems, without pure-state analogues. We show that strange correlators and twisted Rényi-$N$ correlators can diagnose these nontrivial phases and we explore their connection to strange correlators in pure-state SSPT phases. Furthermore, we discuss several implications of this holographic duality, including a method for preparing intrinsic mSPT phases through the duality.

We present a protocol to implement a spin-1 chain in Rydberg systems using three Rydberg states close to a Förster resonance. In addition to dipole-dipole interactions, strong van der Waals interactions naturally appear due to the presence of the Förster resonance and give rise to a highly tunable Hamiltonian. The resulting phase diagram is studied using the infinite density-matrix renormalization group and reveals a highly robust Haldane phase—a prime example of a symmetry-protected topological phase. We find experimentally accessible parameters to probe the Haldane phase in current Rydberg systems, and demonstrate an efficient adiabatic preparation scheme. This paves the way to probe the remarkable properties of spin fractionalization in the Haldane phase.

The resource overhead required to achieve net computational benefits from quantum error correction (QEC) limits its utility while current systems remain constrained in size, despite exceptional progress in experimental demonstrations. In this paper, we demonstrate that the strategic application of QEC primitives without logical encoding can yield significant advantages on superconducting processors—relative to any alternative error-reduction strategy—while only requiring a modest overhead. We first present a novel protocol for implementing long-range cnot gates that relies on a unitarily prepared Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state as well as a unitary disentangling step; the protocol natively introduces an error-detection process using the disentangled qubits as flags. We demonstrate that it achieves state-of-the-art gate fidelities of over 85% across up to 40 lattice sites, significantly and consistently outperforming the best alternative measurement-based protocol without introducing any additional ancilla qubits. We then apply sparse stabilizer measurements to generate large GHZ states by detecting bit-flip and amplitude-damping errors. Employing this technique in combination with deterministic error suppression, we generate a 75-qubit GHZ state exhibiting genuine multipartite entanglement, the largest reported to date. The generation requires no more than 9 ancilla qubits and the fraction of samples discarded due to errors grows no higher than 78%, far lower than previous discard fractions required for tests using comparable numbers of fully encoded qubits. This work in total represents compelling evidence that adopting QEC primitives on current-generation devices can deliver substantial net benefits.

A central ingredient in fault-tolerant quantum algorithms is the initialization of a logical state for a given quantum error-correcting code from a set of noisy qubits. A scheme that has demonstrated promising results for small code instances that are realizable on currently available hardware composes a non-fault-tolerant state preparation circuit with a verification circuit that checks for spreading errors. Known circuit constructions of this scheme are mostly obtained manually, and no algorithmic techniques for constructing depth- or gate-optimal circuits exist. As a consequence, the current state-of-the-art exploits this scheme only for specific code instances and mostly for the special case of distance $d=3$ codes only. In this work, we propose an automated approach for synthesizing fault-tolerant state preparation circuits for arbitrary CSS codes. We utilize methods based on satisfiability solving (SAT) to construct fault-tolerant state preparation circuits consisting of depth- and gate-optimal preparation and verification circuits. We also provide heuristics that can synthesize fault-tolerant state preparation circuits for code instances where no optimal solution can be obtained in an adequate time. Moreover, we give a general construction for nondeterministic state preparation circuits for codes beyond distance 3. Numerical evaluations using $d=3$, $d=5$, and $d=7$ codes confirm that the generated circuits exhibit the desired scaling of the logical error rates. The resulting methods are publicly available as part of the Munich Quantum Toolkit (MQT) at https://github.com/cda-tum/mqt-qecc. Such methods are an important step in providing fault-tolerant circuit constructions that can aid in near-term demonstrations of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Connecting two half-filled quantum dots to two superconducting leads induces a competition of bonds, with the dots forming either an interdot exchange bond or two individual Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) screening bonds with the leads. Defining a qubit using these singlet-parity bonding states provides dot-charge-noise protection, attributed to the chargeless nature of the screening quasiparticles, and magnetic noise protection, as the bonds guard against magnetic polarization. In this paper, we propose embedding a double-quantum-dot (DQD) Josephson junction in parallel with a transmon to enable circuit-quantum-electrodynamics (cQED) measurements and operation of a YSR-bond qubit. We demonstrate that, under realistic parameters, two-tone spectroscopy of the DQD can be performed, revealing a significant parameter regime suitable for qubit operation. Additionally, coherent manipulations of the bond states can be achieved through dot gates and single-shot readout is enabled by measurements of a capacitively coupled resonator. Finally, we analyze noise sources and estimate gate noise on couplings as the primary source of qubit decoherence. Since this qubit is protected against nuclear Overhauser fields and does not rely on spin-orbit interactions for operation, a broader range of material platforms becomes available compared to current Andreev spin qubits.

Non-Hermitian systems exhibit a variety of unique features rooted in the presence of exceptional points (EPs). The distinct topological structure in the proximity of an EP gives rise to counterintuitive behaviors absent in Hermitian systems, which emerge after encircling the EP either quasistatically or dynamically. However, experimental exploration of EP encirclement in quantum systems, particularly those involving high-order EPs, remains challenging due to the difficulty of coherently controlling more degrees of freedom. In this work, we experimentally investigate the eigenvalue braiding and state transfer arising from the encirclement of EP in a three-dimensional non-Hermitian quantum system using superconducting circuits. We characterize the second- and third-order EPs through the coalescence of eigenvalues. Then we reveal the topological structure near the EP3 by quasistatically encircling it along various paths with three independent parameters, which yields the eigenvalue braiding described by the braid group $B_3$. Additionally, we observe chiral state transfer between three eigenstates under a fast driving scheme when no EPs are enclosed, while time-symmetric behavior occurs when at least one EP is encircled. Our findings offer insights into understanding non-Hermitian topological structures and the manipulation of quantum states through dynamic operations.

Studies on quantum algorithms for ground-state energy estimation often assume perfect ground-state preparation; however, in reality the initial state will have imperfect overlap with the true ground state. Here, we address that problem in two ways: by faster preparation of matrix-product-state (MPS) approximations and by more efficient filtering of the prepared state to find the ground-state energy. We show how to achieve unitary synthesis with a Toffoli complexity about $7\times$ lower than that in prior work and use that to derive a more efficient MPS-preparation method. For filtering, we present two different approaches: sampling and binary search. For both, we use the theory of window functions to avoid large phase errors and minimize the complexity. We find that the binary-search approach provides better scaling with the overlap at the cost of a larger constant factor, such that it will be preferred for overlaps less than about $0.003$. Finally, we estimate the total resources to perform ground-state energy estimation of $\mathrm{Fe}$-$\mathrm{S}$ cluster systems, including the $\mathrm{Fe}\mathrm{Mo}$ cofactor by estimating the overlap of different MPS initial states with potential ground states of the $\mathrm{Fe}\mathrm{Mo}$ cofactor using an extrapolation procedure. With a modest MPS bond dimension of $4000$, our procedure produces an estimate of approximately $0.9$ overlap squared with a candidate ground state of the $\mathrm{Fe}\mathrm{Mo}$ cofactor, producing a total resource estimate of $7.3\times {10}^{10}$ Toffoli gates; neglecting the search over candidates and assuming the accuracy of the extrapolation, this validates prior estimates that have used perfect ground-state overlap. This presents an example of a practical path to prepare states of high overlap in a challenging-to-compute chemical system.

Recent experimental advances have made it possible to implement logical multiqubit transversal gates on surface codes in a multitude of platforms. A transversal controlled-not (tcnot) gate on two surface codes introduces correlated errors across the code blocks and thus requires modified decoding compared to established methods of decoding surface-code quantum memory (SCQM) or lattice-surgery operations. In this work, we examine and benchmark the performance of three different decoding strategies for the tcnot for scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation. In particular, we present a low-complexity decoder based on minimum-weight perfect matching (MWPM) that achieves the same threshold as the SCQM MWPM decoder. We extend our analysis with a study of tailored decoding of a transversal-teleportation circuit, along with a comparison between the performance of lattice-surgery and transversal operations under Pauli- and erasure-noise models. Our investigation builds toward systematic estimation of the cost of implementing large-scale quantum algorithms based on transversal gates in the surface code.

Quantum error mitigation is a key approach for extracting target state properties on state-of-the-art noisy machines and early fault-tolerant devices. Using the ideas from flag fault tolerance and virtual state purification, we develop the virtual-channel-purification (VCP) protocol, which consumes similar qubit and gate resources as virtual state purification but offers stronger error suppression with increased system size and more noisy operation copies. The application of VCP does not require specific knowledge about the target quantum state, the target problem and the gate noise model in the target circuit, and can still offer rigorous performance guarantees for practical noise regimes as long as the noise is incoherent. Further connections are made between VCP and quantum error correction to produce the virtual error-correction (VEC) protocol, one of the first protocols that combine quantum error correction (QEC) and quantum error mitigation beyond directly applying error-mitigation protocols on top of logical qubits. Assuming perfect syndrome extraction, VEC can virtually remove all correctable noise in the channel while paying only the same sampling cost as low-order purification. It can achieve QEC-level protection on an unencoded register when transmitting it through a noisy channel, removing the associated encoding qubit overhead. Another variant of VEC can mimic the error-suppression power of the surface code by inputting only a bit-flip and a phase-flip code. Our protocol can also be adapted to key tasks in quantum networks like channel capacity activation and entanglement distribution.

Entanglement serves as a foundational pillar in quantum information theory, delineating the boundary between what is classical and what is quantum. The common assumption is that a higher degree of entanglement corresponds to a greater degree of “quantumness.” However, this folk belief is challenged by the fact that classically simulable operations, such as Clifford circuits, can create highly entangled states. The simulability of these states raises the question: What are the differences between “low-magic” entanglement and “high-magic” entanglement? To understand this interplay between entanglement and magic, we take an operational approach by studying tasks such as entanglement estimation, distillation, and dilution. We uncover a separation of Hilbert space into two distinct regimes: the entanglement-dominated (ED) phase, where entanglement surpasses magic, and the magic-dominated (MD) phase, where magic dominates entanglement. This separation induces a computational phase transition: entanglement-related tasks are efficiently solvable in the ED phase, but become intractable in the MD phase. Our results find applications in diverse areas such as quantum error correction, many-body physics, and the study of quantum chaos, providing a unifying framework for understanding the behavior of quantum systems. We also offer theoretical explanations for previous numerical observations, highlighting the broad implications of the ED-MD distinction across various subfields of physics.