Long-distance quantum communication over noisy networks without long-time quantum memory

The problem of sharing entanglement over large distances is crucial for implementations of quantum cryptography. A possible scheme for long-distance entanglement sharing and quantum communication exploits networks whose nodes share Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs. In Perseguers et al. [Phys. Rev. A 78, 062324 (2008)] the authors put forward an important isomorphism between storing quantum information in a dimension $D$ and transmission of quantum information in a $D+1$-dimensional network. We show that it is possible to obtain long-distance entanglement in a noisy two-dimensional (2D) network, even when taking into account that encoding and decoding of a state is exposed to an error. For 3D networks we propose a simple encoding and decoding scheme based solely on syndrome measurements on 2D Kitaev topological quantum memory. Our procedure constitutes an alternative scheme of state injection that can be used for universal quantum computation on 2D Kitaev code. It is shown that the encoding scheme is equivalent to teleporting the state, from a specific node into a whole two-dimensional network, through some virtual EPR pair existing within the rest of network qubits. We present an analytic lower bound on fidelity of the encoding and decoding procedure, using as our main tool a modified metric on space-time lattice, deviating from a taxicab metric at the first and the last time slices.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures; title modified; appendix included in main text; section IV extended; minor mistakes remove

Emergent nontrivial lattices for topological insulators

Materials with nontrivial lattice geometries allow for the creation of exotic states of matter like topologically insulating states. Therefore searching for such materials is an important aspect of current research in solid-state physics. In the field of ultracold gases there are ongoing studies aiming to create nontrivial lattices using optical means. In this paper we study two species of fermions trapped in a square optical lattice and show how nontrivial lattices can emerge due to strong interaction between atoms. We theoretically investigate regimes of tunable parameters in which such self-assembly may take place and describe the necessary experimental conditions. Moreover, we discuss the possibility of such emergent lattices hosting topologically insulating states