Reversible simulation of bipartite product Hamiltonians

Consider two quantum systems A and B interacting according to a product Hamiltonian H = H_A x H_B. We show that any two such Hamiltonians can be used to simulate each other reversibly (i.e., without efficiency losses) with the help of local unitary operations and local ancillas. Accordingly, all non-local features of a product Hamiltonian -- including the rate at which it can be used to produce entanglement, transmit classical or quantum information, or simulate other Hamiltonians -- depend only upon a single parameter. We identify this parameter and use it to obtain an explicit expression for the entanglement capacity of all product Hamiltonians. Finally, we show how the notion of simulation leads to a natural formulation of measures of the strength of a nonlocal Hamiltonian.Comment: 10 page

Adiabatic Quantum State Generation and Statistical Zero Knowledge

The design of new quantum algorithms has proven to be an extremely difficult task. This paper considers a different approach to the problem, by studying the problem of 'quantum state generation'. This approach provides intriguing links between many different areas: quantum computation, adiabatic evolution, analysis of spectral gaps and groundstates of Hamiltonians, rapidly mixing Markov chains, the complexity class statistical zero knowledge, quantum random walks, and more. We first show that many natural candidates for quantum algorithms can be cast as a state generation problem. We define a paradigm for state generation, called 'adiabatic state generation' and develop tools for adiabatic state generation which include methods for implementing very general Hamiltonians and ways to guarantee non negligible spectral gaps. We use our tools to prove that adiabatic state generation is equivalent to state generation in the standard quantum computing model, and finally we show how to apply our techniques to generate interesting superpositions related to Markov chains.Comment: 35 pages, two figure

Optimal Entanglement Generation from Quantum Operations

We consider how much entanglement can be produced by a non-local two-qubit unitary operation, $U_{AB}$ - the entangling capacity of $U_{AB}$. For a single application of $U_{AB}$, with no ancillas, we find the entangling capacity and show that it generally helps to act with $U_{AB}$ on an entangled state. Allowing ancillas, we present numerical results from which we can conclude, quite generally, that allowing initial entanglement typically increases the optimal capacity in this case as well. Next, we show that allowing collective processing does not increase the entangling capacity if initial entanglement is allowed.Comment: v1.0 15 pages, 3 figures, written in revtex4. v2.0 References updated. Submitted to Phys. Rev. A v3.0 16 pages, 4 figures. Expanded explanation in section 3A, figures corrected and made clearer. Definition of entangling capacity in section 4 made explicit. Other minor typos correcte

Implementation of multipartite unitary operations with limited resources

A general method for implementing weakly entangling multipartite unitary operations using a small amount of entanglement and classical communication is presented. For the simple Hamiltonian \sigma_z\otimes\sigma_z this method requires less entanglement than previously known methods. In addition, compression of multiple operations is applied to reduce the average communication required.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, comments welcom

Upper bounds on entangling rates of bipartite Hamiltonians

We discuss upper bounds on the rate at which unitary evolution governed by a non-local Hamiltonian can generate entanglement in a bipartite system. Given a bipartite Hamiltonian H coupling two finite dimensional particles A and B, the entangling rate is shown to be upper bounded by c*log(d)*norm(H), where d is the smallest dimension of the interacting particles, norm(H) is the operator norm of H, and c is a constant close to 1. Under certain restrictions on the initial state we prove analogous upper bound for the ancilla-assisted entangling rate with a constant c that does not depend upon dimensions of local ancillas. The restriction is that the initial state has at most two distinct Schmidt coefficients (each coefficient may have arbitrarily large multiplicity). Our proof is based on analysis of a mixing rate -- a functional measuring how fast entropy can be produced if one mixes a time-independent state with a state evolving unitarily.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure