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

Sampling arbitrary photon-added or photon-subtracted squeezed states is in the same complexity class as boson sampling

Boson sampling is a simple model for non-universal linear optics quantum computing using far fewer physical resources than universal schemes. An input state comprising vacuum and single photon states is fed through a Haar-random linear optics network and sampled at the output using coincidence photodetection. This problem is strongly believed to be classically hard to simulate. We show that an analogous procedure implements the same problem, using photon-added or -subtracted squeezed vacuum states (with arbitrary squeezing), where sampling at the output is performed via parity measurements. The equivalence is exact and independent of the squeezing parameter, and hence provides an entire class of new quantum states of light in the same complexity class as boson sampling.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Boson sampling with displaced single-photon Fock states versus single-photon-added coherent states---The quantum-classical divide and computational-complexity transitions in linear optics

Boson sampling is a specific quantum computation, which is likely hard to implement efficiently on a classical computer. The task is to sample the output photon number distribution of a linear optical interferometric network, which is fed with single-photon Fock state inputs. A question that has been asked is if the sampling problems associated with any other input quantum states of light (other than the Fock states) to a linear optical network and suitable output detection strategies are also of similar computational complexity as boson sampling. We consider the states that differ from the Fock states by a displacement operation, namely the displaced Fock states and the photon-added coherent states. It is easy to show that the sampling problem associated with displaced single-photon Fock states and a displaced photon number detection scheme is in the same complexity class as boson sampling for all values of displacement. On the other hand, we show that the sampling problem associated with single-photon-added coherent states and the same displaced photon number detection scheme demonstrates a computational complexity transition. It transitions from being just as hard as boson sampling when the input coherent amplitudes are sufficiently small, to a classically simulatable problem in the limit of large coherent amplitudes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; published versio

Vaccinia virus immune evasion: mechanisms, virulence and immunogenicity

Virus infection of mammalian cells is sensed by pattern recognition receptors and leads to an innate immune response that restricts virus replication and induces adaptive immunity. In response, viruses have evolved many countermeasures that enable them to replicate and be transmitted to new hosts, despite the host innate immune response. Poxviruses, such as vaccinia virus (VACV), have large DNA genomes and encode many proteins that are dedicated to host immune evasion. Some of these proteins are secreted from the infected cell, where they bind and neutralize complement factors, interferons, cytokines and chemokines. Other VACV proteins function inside cells to inhibit apoptosis or signalling pathways that lead to the production of interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In this review, these VACV immunomodulatory proteins are described and the potential to create more immunogenic VACV strains by manipulation of the gene encoding these proteins is discussed