Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Riemannian optimization of photonic quantum circuits in phase and Fock space

  Yuan Yao, Filippo Miatto, Nicolás Quesada

  SciPost Phys. 17, 082 (2024) · published 18 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a framework to design and optimize generic photonic quantum circuits composed of Gaussian objects (pure and mixed Gaussian states, Gaussian unitaries, Gaussian channels, Gaussian measurements) as well as non-Gaussian effects such as photon-number-resolving measurements. In this framework, we parametrize a phase space representation of Gaussian objects using elements of the symplectic group (or the unitary or orthogonal group in special cases), and then we transform it into the Fock representation using a single linear recurrence relation that computes the Fock amplitudes of any Gaussian object recursively. We also compute the gradient of the Fock amplitudes with respect to phase space parameters by differentiating through the recurrence relation. We can then use Riemannian optimization on the symplectic group to optimize $M$-mode Gaussian objects, avoiding the need to commit to particular realizations in terms of fundamental gates. This allows us to "mod out" all the different gate-level implementations of the same circuit, which now can be chosen after the optimization has completed. This can be especially useful when looking to answer general questions, such as bounding the value of a property over a class of states or transformations, or when one would like to worry about hardware constraints separately from the circuit optimization step. Finally, we make our framework extendable to non-Gaussian objects that can be written as linear combinations of Gaussian ones, by explicitly computing the change in global phase when states undergo Gaussian transformations. We implemented all of these methods in the freely available open-source library MrMustard, which we use in three examples to optimize the 216-mode interferometer in Borealis, and 2- and 3-modes circuits (with Fock measurements) to produce cat states and cubic phase states.

  9 citations

• Multi-directional unitarity and maximal entanglement in spatially symmetric quantum states

  Márton Mestyán, Balázs Pozsgay, Ian M. Wanless

  SciPost Phys. 16, 010 (2024) · published 9 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider dual unitary operators and their multi-leg generalizations that have appeared at various places in the literature. These objects can be related to multi-party quantum states with special entanglement patterns: the sites are arranged in a spatially symmetric pattern and the states have maximal entanglement for all bipartitions that follow from the reflection symmetries of the given geometry. We consider those cases where the state itself is invariant with respect to the geometrical symmetry group. The simplest examples are those dual unitary operators which are also self dual and reflection invariant, but we also consider the generalizations in the hexagonal, cubic, and octahedral geometries. We provide a number of constructions and concrete examples for these objects for various local dimensions. All of our examples can be used to build quantum cellular automata in 1+1 or 2+1 dimensions, with multiple equivalent choices for the "direction of time".

  9 citations

• Integrable deformations of superintegrable quantum circuits

  Tamás Gombor, Balázs Pozsgay

  SciPost Phys. 16, 114 (2024) · published 26 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Superintegrable models are very special dynamical systems: they possess more conservation laws than what is necessary for integrability. This severely constrains their dynamical processes, and it often leads to their exact solvability, even in non-equilibrium situations. In this paper we consider special Hamiltonian deformations of superintegrable quantum circuits. The deformations break superintegrability, but they preserve integrability. We focus on a selection of concrete models and show that for each model there is an (at least) one parameter family of integrable deformations. Our most interesting example is the so-called Rule54 model. We show that the model is compatible with a one parameter family of Yang-Baxter integrable spin chains with six-site interaction. Therefore, the Rule54 model does not have a unique integrability structure, instead it lies at the intersection of a family of quantum integrable models.

  9 citations

• Long-range entanglement and topological excitations

  Gianpaolo Torre, Jovan Odavić, Pierre Fromholz, Salvatore Marco Giampaolo, Fabio Franchini

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 050 (2024) · published 5 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Topological order comes in different forms, and its classification and detection is an important field of modern research. In this work, we show that the Disconnected Entanglement Entropy, a measure originally introduced to identify topological phases, is also able to unveil the long-range entanglement (LRE) carried by a single, fractionalized excitation. We show this by considering a quantum, delocalized domain wall excitation that can be introduced into a system by inducing geometric frustration in an antiferromagnetic spin chain. Furthermore, we show that the LRE of such systems is resilient against a quantum quench and the introduction of disorder, as it happens in traditional symmetry-protected topological phases. All these evidences establish the existence of a new phase induced by frustration with topological features despite not being of the usual type.

  9 citations

• Dark Matter Superfluidity

  Justin Khoury

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 42 (2022) · published 16 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In these lectures I describe a theory of dark matter superfluidity developed in the last few years. The dark matter particles are axion-like, with masses of order eV. They Bose-Einstein condense into a superfluid phase in the central regions of galaxy halos. The superfluid phonon excitations in turn couple to baryons and mediate a long-range force (beyond Newtonian gravity). For a suitable choice of the superfluid equation of state, this force reproduces the various galactic scaling relations embodied in Milgrom's law. Thus the dark matter and modified gravity phenomena represent different phases of a single underlying substance, unified through the rich and well-studied physics of superfluidity.

  9 citations

• An objective collapse model without state dependent stochasticity

  Lotte Mertens, Matthijs Wesseling, Jasper van Wezel

  SciPost Phys. 14, 114 (2023) · published 16 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The impossibility of describing measurement in quantum mechanics while using a quantum mechanical model for the measurement machine, remains one of its central problems. Objective collapse theories attempt to resolve this problem by proposing alterations to Schrödinger's equation. Here, we present a minimal model for an objective collapse theory that, in contrast to previous proposals, does not employ state dependent stochastic terms in its construction. It is an explicit proof of principle that it is possible for Born's rule to emerge from a stochastic evolution in which no properties of the stochastic process depend on the state being evolved. We propose the presented model as a basis from which more realistic objective collapse theories can be constructed.

  9 citations

• Speed of sound in dense strong-interaction matter

  Jens Braun, Andreas Geißel, Benedikt Schallmo

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 015 (2024) · published 5 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the speed of sound in strong-interaction matter at zero temperature and in density regimes which are expected to be governed by the presence of a color-superconducting gap. At (very) high densities, our analysis indicates that the speed of sound approaches its asymptotic value associated with the non-interacting quark gas from below, in agreement with first-principles studies which do not take the presence of a color-superconducting gap into account. Towards lower densities, however, the presence of a gap induces an increase of the speed of sound above its asymptotic value. Importantly, even if gap-induced corrections to the pressure may appear small, we find that derivatives of the gap with respect to the chemical potential can still be sizeable and lead to a qualitative change of the density dependence of the speed of sound. Taking into account constraints on the density dependence of the speed of sound at low densities, our general considerations suggest the existence of a maximum in the speed of sound. Interestingly, we also observe that specific properties of the gap can be related to characteristic properties of the speed of sound which are indirectly constrained by observations.

  9 citations

• Ab initio electron-lattice downfolding: Potential energy landscapes, anharmonicity, and molecular dynamics in charge density wave materials

  Arne Schobert, Jan Berges, Erik G. C. P. van Loon, Michael A. Sentef, Sergey Brener, Mariana Rossi, Tim O. Wehling

  SciPost Phys. 16, 046 (2024) · published 9 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The interplay of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom presents an outstanding problem in condensed matter physics and chemistry. Computational challenges arise especially for large systems, long time scales, in nonequilibrium, or in systems with strong correlations. In this work, we show how downfolding approaches facilitate complexity reduction on the electronic side and thereby boost the simulation of electronic properties and nuclear motion-in particular molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Three different downfolding strategies based on constraining, unscreening, and combinations thereof are benchmarked against full density functional calculations for selected charge density wave (CDW) systems, namely 1H-TaS$_2$, 1T-TiSe$_2$, 1H-NbS$_2$, and a one-dimensional carbon chain. We find that the downfolded models can reproduce potential energy surfaces on supercells accurately and facilitate computational speedup in MD simulations by about five orders of magnitude in comparison to purely ab initio calculations. For monolayer 1H-TaS$_2$ we report classical and path integral replica exchange MD simulations, revealing the impact of thermal and quantum fluctuations on the CDW transition.

  9 citations

• Equilibration of multitime quantum processes in finite time intervals

  Neil Dowling, Pedro Figueroa-Romero, Felix A. Pollock, Philipp Strasberg, Kavan Modi

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 043 (2023) · published 14 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A generic non-integrable (unitary) out-of-equilibrium quantum process, when interrogated across many times, is shown to yield the same statistics as an (non-unitary) equilibrated process. In particular, using the tools of quantum stochastic processes, we prove that under loose assumptions, quantum processes equilibrate within finite time intervals. Sufficient conditions for this to occur are that multitime observables are coarse grained in both space and time, and that the initial state overlaps with many different energy eigenstates. These results help bridge the gap between (unitary) quantum and (non-unitary) statistical physics, i.e., when all multitime properties and correlations are well approximated by stationary quantities, which includes non-Markovianity and temporal entanglement. We discuss implications of this result for the emergence of classical stochastic processes from multitime measurements of an underlying genuinely quantum system.

  9 citations

• Introduction to dynamical mean-field theory of randomly connected neural networks with bidirectionally correlated couplings

  Wenxuan Zou, Haiping Huang

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 79 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dynamical mean-field theory is a powerful physics tool used to analyze the typical behavior of neural networks, where neurons can be recurrently connected, or multiple layers of neurons can be stacked. However, it is not easy for beginners to access the essence of this tool and the underlying physics. Here, we give a pedagogical introduction of this method in a particular example of random neural networks, where neurons are randomly and fully connected by correlated synapses and therefore the network exhibits rich emergent collective dynamics. We also review related past and recent important works applying this tool. In addition, a physically transparent and alternative method, namely the dynamical cavity method, is also introduced to derive exactly the same results. The numerical implementation of solving the integro-differential mean-field equations is also detailed, with an illustration of exploring the fluctuation dissipation theorem.

  9 citations