Scalable boson-sampling with time-bin encoding using a loop-based architecture

We present an architecture for arbitrarily scalable boson-sampling using two nested fiber loops. The architecture has fixed experimental complexity, irrespective of the size of the desired interferometer, whose scale is limited only by fiber and switch loss rates. The architecture employs time-bin encoding, whereby the incident photons form a pulse train, which enters the loops. Dynamically controlled loop coupling ratios allow the construction of the arbitrary linear optics interferometers required for boson-sampling. The architecture employs only a single point of interference and may thus be easier to stabilize than other approaches. The scheme has polynomial complexity and could be realized using demonstrated present-day technologies.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Generation of Universal Linear Optics by Any Beamsplitter

In 1994, Reck et al. showed how to realize any unitary transformation on a single photon using a product of beamsplitters and phaseshifters. Here we show that any single beamsplitter that nontrivially mixes two modes, also densely generates the set of unitary transformations (or orthogonal transformations, in the real case) on the single-photon subspace with m>=3 modes. (We prove the same result for any two-mode real optical gate, and for any two-mode optical gate combined with a generic phaseshifter.) Experimentally, this means that one does not need tunable beamsplitters or phaseshifters for universality: any nontrivial beamsplitter is universal for linear optics. Theoretically, it means that one cannot produce "intermediate" models of linear optical computation (analogous to the Clifford group for qubits) by restricting the allowed beamsplitters and phaseshifters: there is a dichotomy; one either gets a trivial set or else a universal set. No similar classification theorem for gates acting on qubits is currently known. We leave open the problem of classifying optical gates that act on three or more modes.Comment: 14 pages; edited Lemma 3.3 and updated references. Results are unchange

Flexible quantum circuits using scalable continuous-variable cluster states

We show that measurement-based quantum computation on scalable continuous-variable (CV) cluster states admits more quantum-circuit flexibility and compactness than similar protocols for standard square-lattice CV cluster states. This advantage is a direct result of the macronode structure of these states---that is, a lattice structure in which each graph node actually consists of several physical modes. These extra modes provide additional measurement degrees of freedom at each graph location, which can be used to manipulate the flow and processing of quantum information more robustly and with additional flexibility that is not available on an ordinary lattice.Comment: (v2) consistent with published version; (v1) 11 pages (9 figures

Universal quantum computation with the Orbital Angular Momentum of a single photon

We prove that a single photon with quantum data encoded in its orbital angular momentum can be manipulated with simple optical elements to provide any desired quantum computation. We will show how to build any quantum unitary operator using beamsplitters, phase shifters, holograms and an extraction gate based on quantum interrogation. The advantages and challenges of these approach are then discussed, in particular the problem of the readout of the results.Comment: First version. Comments welcom

Temporal-mode continuous-variable cluster states using linear optics

I present an extensible experimental design for optical continuous-variable cluster states of arbitrary size using four offline (vacuum) squeezers and six beamsplitters. This method has all the advantages of a temporal-mode encoding [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 250503], including finite requirements for coherence and stability even as the computation length increases indefinitely, with none of the difficulty of inline squeezing. The extensibility stems from a construction based on Gaussian projected entangled pair states (GPEPS). The potential for use of this design within a fully fault tolerant model is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 19 color figure

One-way quantum computing with arbitrarily large time-frequency continuous-variable cluster states from a single optical parametric oscillator

One-way quantum computing is experimentally appealing because it requires only local measurements on an entangled resource called a cluster state. Record-size, but non-universal, continuous-variable cluster states were recently demonstrated separately in the time and frequency domains. We propose to combine these approaches into a scalable architecture in which a single optical parametric oscillator and simple interferometer entangle up to ($3\times 10^3$ frequencies) $\times$ (unlimited number of temporal modes) into a new and computationally universal continuous-variable cluster state. We introduce a generalized measurement protocol to enable improved computational performance on this new entanglement resource.Comment: (v4) Consistent with published version; (v3) Fixed typo in arXiv abstract, 14 pages, 8 figures; (v2) Supplemental material incorporated into main text, additional explanations added, results unchanged, 14 pages, 8 figures; (v1) 5 pages (3 figures) + 6 pages (5 figures) of supplemental material; submitted for publicatio

Universal quantum computation with temporal-mode bilayer square lattices

We propose an experimental design for universal continuous-variable quantum computation that incorporates recent innovations in linear-optics-based continuous-variable cluster state generation and cubic-phase gate teleportation. The first ingredient is a protocol for generating the bilayer-square-lattice cluster state (a universal resource state) with temporal modes of light. With this state, measurement-based implementation of Gaussian unitary gates requires only homodyne detection. Second, we describe a measurement device that implements an adaptive cubic-phase gate, up to a random phase-space displacement. It requires a two-step sequence of homodyne measurements and consumes a (non-Gaussian) cubic-phase state.Comment: (v2) 14 pages, 5 figures, consistent with published version; (v1) 13 pages, 5 figure