Mitigating photon loss in linear optical quantum circuits:classical postprocessing methods outperforming postselection

Photon loss rates set an effective upper limit on the size of computations that can be run on current linear optical quantum devices. We present a family of techniques to mitigate the effects of photon loss on both output probabilities and expectation values derived from noisy linear optical circuits composed of an input of $n$ photons, an $m$-mode interferometer, and $m$ single photon detectors. Central to these techniques is the construction of objects called recycled probabilities. Recycled probabilities are constructed from output statistics affected by loss, and are designed to amplify the signal of the ideal (lossless) probabilities. Classical postprocessing techniques then take recycled probabilities as input and output a set of loss-mitigated probabilities, or expectation values. We provide analytical and numerical evidence that these methods can be applied, up to large sample sizes, to produce more accurate outputs than those obtained from postselection - which is currently the standard method of coping with photon loss when sampling from discrete variable linear optical quantum circuits. In contrast, we provide strong evidence that the popular zero noise extrapolation technique cannot improve on on the performance of postselection for any photon loss rate

Efficient approximate unitary t-designs from partially invertible universal sets and their application to quantum speedup

At its core a $t$-design is a method for sampling from a set of unitaries in a way which mimics sampling randomly from the Haar measure on the unitary group, with applications across quantum information processing and physics. We construct new families of quantum circuits on $n$-qubits giving rise to $\varepsilon$-approximate unitary $t$-designs efficiently in $O(n^3t^{12})$ depth. These quantum circuits are based on a relaxation of technical requirements in previous constructions. In particular, the construction of circuits which give efficient approximate $t$-designs by Brandao, Harrow, and Horodecki (F.G.S.L Brandao, A.W Harrow, and M. Horodecki, Commun. Math. Phys. (2016).) required choosing gates from ensembles which contained inverses for all elements, and that the entries of the unitaries are algebraic. We reduce these requirements, to sets that contain elements without inverses in the set, and non-algebraic entries, which we dub partially invertible universal sets. We then adapt this circuit construction to the framework of measurement based quantum computation(MBQC) and give new explicit examples of $n$-qubit graph states with fixed assignments of measurements (graph gadgets) giving rise to unitary $t$-designs based on partially invertible universal sets, in a natural way. We further show that these graph gadgets demonstrate a quantum speedup, up to standard complexity theoretic conjectures. We provide numerical and analytical evidence that almost any assignment of fixed measurement angles on an $n$-qubit cluster state give efficient $t$-designs and demonstrate a quantum speedup.Comment: 25 pages,7 figures. Comments are welcome. Some typos corrected in newest version. new References added.Proofs unchanged. Results unchange

Mitigating errors by quantum verification and post-selection

Correcting errors due to noise in quantum circuits run on current and near-term quantum hardware is essential for any convincing demonstration of quantum advantage. Indeed, in many cases it has been shown that noise renders quantum circuits efficiently classically simulable, thereby destroying any quantum advantage potentially offered by an ideal (noiseless) implementation of these circuits. Although the technique of quantum error correction (QEC) allows to correct these errors very accurately, QEC usually requires a large overhead of physical qubits which is not reachable with currently available quantum hardware. This has been the motivation behind the field of quantum error mitigation, which aims at developing techniques to correct an important part of the errors in quantum circuits, while also being compatible with current and near-term quantum hardware. In this work, we present a technique for quantum error mitigation which is based on a technique from quantum verification, the so-called accreditation protocol, together with post-selection. Our technique allows for correcting the expectation value of an observable $O$, which is the output of multiple runs of noisy quantum circuits, where the noise in these circuits is at the level of preparations, gates, and measurements. We discuss the sample complexity of our procedure and provide rigorous guarantees of errors being mitigated under some realistic assumptions on the noise. Our technique also allows for time dependant behaviours, as we allow for the output states to be different between different runs of the accreditation protocol. We validate our findings by running our technique on currently available quantum hardware.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Solving graph problems with single-photons and linear optics

An important challenge for current and near-term quantum devices is finding useful tasks that can be preformed on them. We first show how to efficiently encode a bounded $n \times n$ matrix $A$ into a linear optical circuit with $2n$ modes. We then apply this encoding to the case where $A$ is a matrix containing information about a graph $G$. We show that a photonic quantum processor consisting of single-photon sources, a linear optical circuit encoding $A$, and single-photon detectors can solve a range of graph problems including finding the number of perfect matchings of bipartite graphs, computing permanental polynomials, determining whether two graphs are isomorphic, and the $k$-densest subgraph problem. We also propose pre-processing methods to boost the probabilities of observing the relevant detection events and thus improve performance. Finally, we present various numerical simulations which validate our findings.Comment: 6 pages + 9 pages appendix. Comments Welcome

On Unitary <i>t</i>-Designs from Relaxed Seeds

The capacity to randomly pick a unitary across the whole unitary group is a powerful tool across physics and quantum information. A unitary $t$-design is designed to tackle this challenge in an efficient way, yet constructions to date rely on heavy constraints. In particular, they are composed of ensembles of unitaries which, for technical reasons, must contain inverses and whose entries are algebraic. In this work, we reduce the requirements for generating an $\varepsilon$-approximate unitary $t$-design. To do so, we first construct a specific $n$-qubit random quantum circuit composed of a sequence of, randomly chosen, 2-qubit gates, chosen from a set of unitaries which is approximately universal on $U(4)$, yet need not contain unitaries and their inverses, nor are in general composed of unitaries whose entries are algebraic; dubbed $relaxed$ seed. We then show that this relaxed seed, when used as a basis for our construction, gives rise to an $\varepsilon$-approximate unitary $t$-design efficiently, where the depth of our random circuit scales as $poly(n, t, log(1/\varepsilon))$, thereby overcoming the two requirements which limited previous constructions. We suspect the result found here is not optimal, and can be improved. Particularly because the number of gates in the relaxed seeds introduced here grows with $n$ and $t$. We conjecture that constant sized seeds such as those in ( Brand\~ao, Harrow, and Horodecki; Commun. Math. Phys. (2016) 346: 397) are sufficient.Comment: Typos corrected. Readability improved. Results unchanged. Proofs unchange

Perceval: A Software Platform for Discrete Variable Photonic Quantum Computing

We introduce Perceval, an evolutive open-source software platform for simulating and interfacing with discrete variable photonic quantum computers, and describe its main features and components. Its Python front-end allows photonic circuits to be composed from basic photonic building blocks like photon sources, beam splitters, phase shifters and detectors. A variety of computational back-ends are available and optimised for different use-cases. These use state-of-the-art simulation techniques covering both weak simulation, or sampling, and strong simulation. We give examples of Perceval in action by reproducing a variety of photonic experiments and simulating photonic implementations of a range of quantum algorithms, from Grover's and Shor's to examples of quantum machine learning. Perceval is intended to be a useful toolkit both for experimentalists wishing to easily model, design, simulate, or optimise a discrete variable photonic experiment, and for theoreticians wishing to design algorithms and applications for discrete-variable photonic quantum computing platforms

Aléatoire pour le traitement de l'information quantique

This thesis is focused on the generation and understanding of particular kinds of quantum randomness. Randomness is useful for many tasks in physics and information processing, from randomized benchmarking , to black hole physics , as well demonstrating a so-called quantum speedup , and many other applications. On the one hand we explore how to generate a particular form of random evolution known as a t-design. On the other we show how this can also give instances for quantum speedup - where classical computers cannot simulate the randomness efficiently. We also show that this is still possible in noisy realistic settings. More specifically, this thesis is centered around three main topics. The first of these being the generation of epsilon-approximate unitary t-designs. In this direction, we first show that non-adaptive, fixed measurements on a graph state composed of poly(n,t,log(1/epsilon)) qubits, and with a regular structure (that of a brickwork state) effectively give rise to a random unitary ensemble which is a epsilon-approximate t-design. This work is presented in Chapter 3. Before this work, it was known that non-adaptive fixed XY measurements on a graph state give rise to unitary t-designs , however the graph states used there were of complicated structure and were therefore not natural candidates for measurement based quantum computing (MBQC), and the circuits to make them were complicated. The novelty in our work is showing that t-designs can be generated by fixed, non-adaptive measurements on graph states whose underlying graphs are regular 2D lattices. These graph states are universal resources for MBQC. Therefore, our result allows the natural integration of unitary t-designs, which provide a notion of quantum pseudorandomness which is very useful in quantum algorithms, into quantum algorithms running in MBQC. Moreover, in the circuit picture this construction for t-designs may be viewed as a constant depth quantum circuit, albeit with a polynomial number of ancillas. We then provide new constructions of epsilon-approximate unitary t-designs both in the circuit model and in MBQC which are based on a relaxation of technical requirements in previous constructions. These constructions are found in Chapters 4 and 5.Cette thèse est basée sur la génération et la compréhension de types particuliers des ensembles unitaires aleatoires. Ces ensembles est utile pour de nombreuses applications de physique et de l’Information Quantique, comme le benchmarking aléatoire, la physique des trous noirs, ainsi qu’à la démonstration de ce que l’on appelle un "quantum speedup" etc. D'une part, nous explorons comment générer une forme particulière d'évolution aléatoire appelée epsilon-approximateunitary t-designs . D'autre part, nous montrons comment cela peut également donner des exemples de quantum speedup, où les ordinateurs classiques ne peuvent pas simuler en temps polynomiale le caractère aléatoire. Nous montrons également que cela est toujours possible dans des environnements bruyants et réalistes

Unitary tt-designs from relaxedrelaxed seeds

In this work we reduce the requirements for generating $t$-designs, an important tool for randomisation with applications across quantum information and physics. We show that random quantum circuits with support over families of $relaxed$ finite sets of unitaries which are approximately universal in $U(4)$ (we call such sets $seeds$), converge towards approximate unitary $t$-designs efficiently in $poly(n,t)$ depth, where $n$ is the number of inputs of the random quantum circuit, and $t$ is the order of the design. We show this convergence for seeds which are relaxed in the sense that every unitary matrix in the seed need not have an inverse in the seed, nor be composed entirely of algebraic entries in general, two requirements which have restricited previous constructions. We suspect the result found here is not optimal, and can be improved. Particularly because the number of gates in the relaxed seeds introduced here grows with $n$ and $t$. We conjecture that constant sized seeds such as those in (Brand\~ao, Harrow, and Horodecki, Commun. Math. Phys. 2016) are sufficient

Perceval: A Software Platform for Discrete Variable Photonic Quantum Computing

We introduce $Perceval$, an open-source software platform for simulating and interfacing with discrete-variable photonic quantum computers, and describe its main features and components. Its Python front-end allows photonic circuits to be composed from basic photonic building blocks like photon sources, beam splitters, phase-shifters and detectors. A variety of computational back-ends are available and optimised for different use-cases. These use state-of-the-art simulation techniques covering both weak simulation, or sampling, and strong simulation. We give examples of $Perceval$ in action by reproducing a variety of photonic experiments and simulating photonic implementations of a range of quantum algorithms, from Grover's and Shor's to examples of quantum machine learning. $Perceval$ is intended to be a useful toolkit for experimentalists wishing to easily model, design, simulate, or optimise a discrete-variable photonic experiment, for theoreticians wishing to design algorithms and applications for discrete-variable photonic quantum computing platforms, and for application designers wishing to evaluate algorithms on available state-of-the-art photonic quantum computers