Experimental Monte Carlo Quantum Process Certification

Experimental implementations of quantum information processing have now reached a level of sophistication where quantum process tomography is impractical. The number of experimental settings as well as the computational cost of the data post-processing now translates to days of effort to characterize even experiments with as few as 8 qubits. Recently a more practical approach to determine the fidelity of an experimental quantum process has been proposed, where the experimental data is compared directly to an ideal process using Monte Carlo sampling. Here we present an experimental implementation of this scheme in a circuit quantum electrodynamics setup to determine the fidelity of two qubit gates, such as the cphase and the cnot gate, and three qubit gates, such as the Toffoli gate and two sequential cphase gates

Cavity QED with separate photon storage and qubit readout modes

We present the realization of a cavity quantum electrodynamics setup in which photons of strongly different lifetimes are engineered in different harmonic modes of the same cavity. We achieve this in a superconducting transmission line resonator with superconducting qubits coupled to the different modes. One cavity mode is strongly coupled to a detection line for qubit state readout, while a second long lifetime mode is used for photon storage and coherent quantum operations. We demonstrate sideband based measurement of photon coherence, generation of n photon Fock states and the scaling of the sideband Rabi frequency with the square root of n using a scheme that may be extended to realize sideband based two-qubit logic gates.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, version with high resolution figures available at http://qudev.ethz.ch/content/science/PubsPapers.htm

Classical GR as a topological theory with linear constraints

We investigate a formulation of continuum 4d gravity in terms of a constrained topological (BF) theory, in the spirit of the Plebanski formulation, but involving only linear constraints, of the type used recently in the spin foam approach to quantum gravity. We identify both the continuum version of the linear simplicity constraints used in the quantum discrete context and a linear version of the quadratic volume constraints that are necessary to complete the reduction from the topological theory to gravity. We illustrate and discuss also the discrete counterpart of the same continuum linear constraints. Moreover, we show under which additional conditions the discrete volume constraints follow from the simplicity constraints, thus playing the role of secondary constraints. Our analysis clarifies how the discrete constructions of spin foam models are related to a continuum theory with an action principle that is equivalent to general relativity.Comment: 4 pages, based on a talk given at the Spanish Relativity Meeting 2010 (ERE2010, Granada, Spain

ALMA data suggest the presence of a spiral structure in the inner wind of CW Leo

(abbreviated) We aim to study the inner wind of the well-known AGB star CW Leo. Different diagnostics probing different geometrical scales have pointed toward a non-homogeneous mass-loss process: dust clumps are observed at milli-arcsec scale, a bipolar structure is seen at arcsecond-scale and multi-concentric shells are detected beyond 1". We present the first ALMA Cycle 0 band 9 data around 650 GHz. The full-resolution data have a spatial resolution of 0".42x0".24, allowing us to study the morpho-kinematical structure within ~6". Results: We have detected 25 molecular lines. The emission of all but one line is spatially resolved. The dust and molecular lines are centered around the continuum peak position. The dust emission has an asymmetric distribution with a central peak flux density of ~2 Jy. The molecular emission lines trace different regions in the wind acceleration region and suggest that the wind velocity increases rapidly from about 5 R* almost reaching the terminal velocity at ~11 R*. The channel maps for the brighter lines show a complex structure; specifically for the 13CO J=6-5 line different arcs are detected within the first few arcseconds. The curved structure present in the PV map of the 13CO J=6-5 line can be explained by a spiral structure in the inner wind, probably induced by a binary companion. From modeling the ALMA data, we deduce that the potential orbital axis for the binary system lies at a position angle of ~10-20 deg to the North-East and that the spiral structure is seen almost edge-on. We infer an orbital period of 55 yr and a binary separation of 25 au (or ~8.2 R*). We tentatively estimate that the companion is an unevolved low-mass main-sequence star. The ALMA data hence provide us for the first time with the crucial kinematical link between the dust clumps seen at milli-arcsecond scale and the almost concentric arcs seen at arcsecond scale.Comment: 22 pages, 18 Figures, Astronomy & Astrophysic

Classical GR as a topological theory with linear constraints

We investigate a formulation of continuum 4d gravity in terms of a constrained topological (BF) theory, in the spirit of the Plebanski formulation, but involving only linear constraints, of the type used recently in the spin foam approach to quantum gravity. We identify both the continuum version of the linear simplicity constraints used in the quantum discrete context and a linear version of the quadratic volume constraints that are necessary to complete the reduction from the topological theory to gravity. We illustrate and discuss also the discrete counterpart of the same continuum linear constraints. Moreover, we show under which additional conditions the discrete volume constraints follow from the simplicity constraints, thus playing the role of secondary constraints. Our analysis clarifies how the discrete constructions of spin foam models are related to a continuum theory with an action principle that is equivalent to general relativity.Comment: 4 pages, based on a talk given at the Spanish Relativity Meeting 2010 (ERE2010, Granada, Spain

Classical GR as a topological theory with linear constraints

We investigate a formulation of continuum 4d gravity in terms of a constrained topological (BF) theory, in the spirit of the Plebanski formulation, but involving only linear constraints, of the type used recently in the spin foam approach to quantum gravity. We identify both the continuum version of the linear simplicity constraints used in the quantum discrete context and a linear version of the quadratic volume constraints that are necessary to complete the reduction from the topological theory to gravity. We illustrate and discuss also the discrete counterpart of the same continuum linear constraints. Moreover, we show under which additional conditions the discrete volume constraints follow from the simplicity constraints, thus playing the role of secondary constraints. Our analysis clarifies how the discrete constructions of spin foam models are related to a continuum theory with an action principle that is equivalent to general relativity.Comment: 4 pages, based on a talk given at the Spanish Relativity Meeting 2010 (ERE2010, Granada, Spain

On the Glauber model in a quantum representation

The Glauber model is reconsidered based on a quantum formulation of the Master equation. Unlike the conventional approach the temperature and the Ising energy are included from the beginning by introducing a Heisenberg-like picture of the second quantized operators. This method enables us to get an exact expression for the transition rate of a single flip-process $w_i(\sigma_i)$ which is in accordance with the principle of detailed balance. The transition rate differs significantly from the conventional one due to Glauber in the low temperature regime. Here the behavior is controlled by the Ising energy and not by the microscopic time scale.Comment: 8 page