65,691 research outputs found
Topological Quantum Computation
The theory of quantum computation can be constructed from the abstract study
of anyonic systems. In mathematical terms, these are unitary topological
modular functors. They underlie the Jones polynomial and arise in
Witten-Chern-Simons theory. The braiding and fusion of anyonic excitations in
quantum Hall electron liquids and 2D-magnets are modeled by modular functors,
opening a new possibility for the realization of quantum computers. The chief
advantage of anyonic computation would be physical error correction: An error
rate scaling like e^{-\a\l}, where \l is a length scale, and is
some positive constant. In contrast, the \qpresumptive" qubit-model of
quantum computation, which repairs errors combinatorically, requires a
fantastically low initial error rate (about ) before computation can
be stabilized
Measurement-Only Topological Quantum Computation via Anyonic Interferometry
We describe measurement-only topological quantum computation using both
projective and interferometrical measurement of topological charge. We
demonstrate how anyonic teleportation can be achieved using "forced
measurement" protocols for both types of measurement. Using this, it is shown
how topological charge measurements can be used to generate the braiding
transformations used in topological quantum computation, and hence that the
physical transportation of computational anyons is unnecessary. We give a
detailed discussion of the anyonics for implementation of topological quantum
computation (particularly, using the measurement-only approach) in fractional
quantum Hall systems.Comment: 57 pages, 5 figures; v2: minor correction
Introduction to topological quantum computation with non-Abelian anyons
Topological quantum computers promise a fault tolerant means to perform
quantum computation. Topological quantum computers use particles with exotic
exchange statistics called non-Abelian anyons, and the simplest anyon model
which allows for universal quantum computation by particle exchange or braiding
alone is the Fibonacci anyon model. One classically hard problem that can be
solved efficiently using quantum computation is finding the value of the Jones
polynomial of knots at roots of unity. We aim to provide a pedagogical,
self-contained, review of topological quantum computation with Fibonacci
anyons, from the braiding statistics and matrices to the layout of such a
computer and the compiling of braids to perform specific operations. Then we
use a simulation of a topological quantum computer to explicitly demonstrate a
quantum computation using Fibonacci anyons, evaluating the Jones polynomial of
a selection of simple knots. In addition to simulating a modular circuit-style
quantum algorithm, we also show how the magnitude of the Jones polynomial at
specific points could be obtained exactly using Fibonacci or Ising anyons. Such
an exact algorithm seems ideally suited for a proof of concept demonstration of
a topological quantum computer.Comment: 51 pages, 51 figure
Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
Topological quantum computation has recently emerged as one of the most
exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The
proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose
quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles
known as {\it Non-Abelian anyons}, meaning that they obey {\it non-Abelian
braiding statistics}. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple
quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate
operations which are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by
braiding quasiparticles, and then measuring the multi-quasiparticle states. The
fault-tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the non-local
encoding of the states of the quasiparticles, which makes them immune to errors
caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states
thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most
prominently the \nu=5/2 state, although several other prospective candidates
have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultra-cold atoms in optical
lattices and thin film superconductors. In this review article, we describe
current research in this field, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of
non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on
understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to
detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological
quantum computer. We address both the mathematical underpinnings of topological
quantum computation and the physics of the subject using the \nu=5/2 fractional
quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling
fault-tolerant quantum computation.Comment: Final Accepted form for RM
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