We study the problem of mapping an unknown mixed quantum state onto a known pure state without the use of unitary transformations. This is achieved with the help of sequential measurements of two non-commuting observables only. We show that the overall success probability is maximized in the case of measuring two observables whose eigenstates define mutually unbiased bases. We find that for this optimal case the success probability quickly converges to unity as the number of measurement processes increases and that it is almost independent of the initial state. In particular, we show that to guarantee a success probability close to one the number of consecutive measurements must be larger than the dimension of the Hilbert space. We connect these results to quantum copying, quantum deleting and entanglement generation.

L. Roa M. L. Ladron de Guevara A. Delgado A. Klimov

We find the allowed complex numbers associated with the inner product of N equally separated pure quantum states. The allowed areas on the unitary complex plane have the form of petals. A point inside the petal-shape represents a set of N linearly independent (LI) pure states, and a point on the edge of that area represents a set of N linearly dependent (LD) pure states. For each one of those LI sets we study the complete discrimination of its N equi-separated states combining sequentially the two known strategies: first the unambiguous identification protocol for LI states, followed, if necessary, by the error-minimizing measurement scheme for LD states. We find that the probabilities of success for both unambiguous and ambiguous discrimination procedures depend on both the module and the phase of the involved inner product complex number. We show that, with respect to the phase-parameter, the maximal probability of discriminating unambiguously the N non-orthogonal pure states holds just when there no longer be probability of obtaining ambiguously information about the prepared state by applying the second protocol if the first one was not successful.

Luis Roa Carla Hermann-Avigliano Roberto Salazar A. B. Klimov B. Burgos A. Delgado

The task of changing the overlap between two quantum states can not be performed by making use of a unitary evolution only. However, by means of a unitary-reduction process it can be probabilistically modified. Here we study in detail the problem of mapping two known pure states onto other two states in such a way that the final inner product between the outcome states is different from the inner product of the initial states. In this way we design an optimal non-orthogonal quantum state preparation scheme by starting from an orthonormal basis. In this scheme the absolute value of the inner product can be reduced only probabilistically whereas it can be increased deterministically. Our analysis shows that the phases of the involved inner products play an important role in the increase of the success probability of the desired process.

Luis Roa A. Delgado M. L. Ladron de Guevara

We put the pure-state decomposition mathematical property of a mixed state to a physical test. We begin by characterizing all the possible decompositions of a rank-two mixed state by means of the complex overlap between two involved states. The physical test proposes a scheme of quantum state recognition of one of the two linearly independent states which arise from the decomposition. We find that the two states associated with the balanced pure-state decomposition have the smaller overlap modulus and therefore the smallest probability of being discriminated conclusively, while in the nonconclusive scheme they have the highest probability of having an error. In addition, we design an experimental scheme which allows to discriminate conclusively and optimally two nonorthogonal states prepared with different a priori probabilities. Thus, we propose a physical implementation for this linearly independent pure-state decomposition and state discrimination test by using twin photons generated in the process of spontaneous parametric down conversion. The information-state is encoded in one photon polarization state whereas the second single-photon is used for heralded detection.

Luis Roa Alejandra Maldonad-Trapp Marcelo Alid

Transferring the state of an information carrier from a sender to a receiver is an essential primitive in both classical and quantum communication and information processing. In a quantum process known as teleportation the unknown state of a quantum bit can be relayed to a distant party using shared entanglement and classical information. Here we present experiments in a solid-state system based on superconducting quantum circuits demonstrating the teleportation of the state of a qubit at the macroscopic scale. In our experiments teleportation is realized deterministically with high efficiency and achieves a high rate of transferred qubit states. This constitutes a significant step towards the realization of repeaters for quantum communication at microwave frequencies and broadens the tool set for quantum information processing with superconducting circuits.

L. Steffen A. Fedorov M. Oppliger Y. Salathe P. Kurpiers M. Baur G. Puebla-Hellmann C. Eichler A. Wallraff

The basic entanglement-swapping scheme can be seen as a process which allows to redistribute the Bell states' properties between different pairs of a four qubits system. Achieving the task requires performing a von Neumann measurement, which projects a pair of factorized qubits randomly onto one of the four Bell states. In this work we propose a similar scheme, by performing the same Bell-von Neumann measurement over two local qubits, each one initially being correlated through an X-state with a spatially distant qubit. This process swaps the X-feature without conditions, whereas the input entanglement is partially distributed in the four possible outcome states under certain conditions. Specifically, we obtain two threshold values for the input entanglement in order for the outcome states to be nonseparable. Besides, we find that there are two possible amounts of outcome entanglement, one is greater and the other less than the input entanglement; the probability of obtaining the greatest outcome entanglement is smaller than the probability of achieving the least one. In addition, we illustrate the distribution of the entanglement for some particular and interesting initial X-states.

Ariana Muñoz Gesa Grüning Luis Roa

Systems of interacting quantum spins show a rich spectrum of quantum phases and display interesting many-body dynamics. Computing characteristics of even small systems on conventional computers poses significant challenges. A quantum simulator has the potential to outperform standard computers in calculating the evolution of complex quantum systems. Here, we perform a digital quantum simulation of the paradigmatic Heisenberg and Ising interacting spin models using a two transmon-qubit circuit quantum electrodynamics setup. We make use of the exchange interaction naturally present in the simulator to construct a digital decomposition of the model-specific evolution and extract its full dynamics. This approach is universal and efficient, employing only resources which are polynomial in the number of spins and indicates a path towards the controlled simulation of general spin dynamics in superconducting qubit platforms.

Y. Salathé M. Mondal M. Oppliger J. Heinsoo P. Kurpiers A. Potočnik A. Mezzacapo U. Las Heras L. Lamata E. Solano S. Filipp A. Wallraff

A protocol for transferring an unknown single qubit state has quantum features when the average fidelity of the outcomes is greater than 2/3. We use the probabilistic and unambiguous state extraction scheme as a mechanism to redistribute the fidelity in the outcome of the teleportation when the process is performed with an X-state as a noisy quantum channel. We show that the entanglement of the channel is necessary but not sufficient in order for the total average fidelity f_X to display quantum features, i.e., we find a threshold C_X for the concurrence of the channel. If the mechanism for redistributing fidelity is successfully applied then we find a filtrable outcome with normalized average fidelity f_{X,USE,0} greater than f_X. In addition, we find the threshold concurrence of the channel C_{X,USE,0} in order for the normalized average fidelity to display quantum features. Surprisingly, we find that the threshold concurrence C_{X,USE,0} can be lesser than C_X. Finally, we show that if the mechanism for redistributing fidelity fails then the respective filtrable outcome has average fidelity lesser than 2/3.

Luis Roa Robinson Gómez Ariana Muñoz Gautam Rai

A switch capable of routing microwave signals at cryogenic temperatures is a desirable component for state-of-the-art experiments in many fields of applied physics, including but not limited to quantum information processing, communication and basic research in engineered quantum systems. Conventional mechanical switches provide low insertion loss but disturb operation of dilution cryostats and the associated experiments by heat dissipation. Switches based on semiconductors or microelectromechanical systems have a lower thermal budget but are not readily integrated with current superconducting circuits. Here we design and test an on-chip switch built by combining tunable transmission-line resonators with microwave beam-splitters. The device is superconducting and as such dissipates a negligible amount of heat. It is compatible with current superconducting circuit fabrication techniques, operates with a bandwidth exceeding $100\,\mathrm{MHz}$, is capable of handling photon fluxes on the order of $10^{5}\,\mu\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, equivalent to powers exceeding $-90\,\mathrm{dBm}$, and can be switched within approximately $6-8\,\mathrm{ns}$. We successfully demonstrate operation of the device in the quantum regime by integrating it on a chip with a single-photon source and using it to route non-classical itinerant microwave fields at the single-photon level.

M. Pechal J. -C. Besse M. Mondal M. Oppliger S. Gasparinetti A. Wallraff

Spectroscopic mapping refers to the massive recording of spectra whilst varying an additional degree of freedom, such as: magnetic field, location, temperature, or charge carrier concentration. As this involves two serial tasks, spectroscopic mapping can become excruciatingly slow. We demonstrate exponentially faster mapping through our combination of sparse sampling and parallel spectroscopy. We exemplify our concept using quasiparticle interference imaging of Au(111) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi2212), as two well-known model systems. Our method is accessible, straightforward to implement with existing scanning tunneling microscopes, and can be easily extended to enhance gate or field-mapping spectroscopy. In view of a possible four orders of magnitude speed advantage, it is setting the stage to fundamentally promote the discovery of novel quantum materials.

Berk Zengin Jens Oppliger Danyang Liu Lorena Niggli Tohru Kurosawa Fabian Donat Natterer