On the capacities of bipartite Hamiltonians and unitary gates

We consider interactions as bidirectional channels. We investigate the capacities for interaction Hamiltonians and nonlocal unitary gates to generate entanglement and transmit classical information. We give analytic expressions for the entanglement generating capacity and entanglement-assisted one-way classical communication capacity of interactions, and show that these quantities are additive, so that the asymptotic capacities equal the corresponding 1-shot capacities. We give general bounds on other capacities, discuss some examples, and conclude with some open questions.Comment: V3: extensively rewritten. V4: a mistaken reference to a conjecture by Kraus and Cirac [quant-ph/0011050] removed and a mistake in the order of authors in Ref. [53] correcte

Security Trade-offs in Ancilla-Free Quantum Bit Commitment in the Presence of Superselection Rules

Security trade-offs have been established for one-way bit commitment in quant-ph/0106019. We study this trade-off in two superselection settings. We show that for an `abelian' superselection rule (exemplified by particle conservation) the standard trade-off between sealing and binding properties still holds. For the non-abelian case (exemplified by angular momentum conservation) the security trade-off can be more subtle, which we illustrate by showing that if the bit-commitment is forced to be ancilla-free an asymptotically secure quantum bit commitment is possible.Comment: 7 pages Latex; v2 has 8 pages and additional references and clarifications, this paper is to appear in the New Journal of Physic

Simulating quantum operations with mixed environments

We study the physical resources required to implement general quantum operations, and provide new bounds on the minimum possible size which an environment must be in order to perform certain quantum operations. We prove that contrary to a previous conjecture, not all quantum operations on a single-qubit can be implemented with a single-qubit environment, even if that environment is initially prepared in a mixed state. We show that a mixed single-qutrit environment is sufficient to implement a special class of operations, the generalized depolarizing channels.Comment: 4 pages Revtex + 1 fig, pictures at http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/~smolin/tetrahedron .Several small correction

Quantum Gravity and Inflation

Using the Ashtekar-Sen variables of loop quantum gravity, a new class of exact solutions to the equations of quantum cosmology is found for gravity coupled to a scalar field, that corresponds to inflating universes. The scalar field, which has an arbitrary potential, is treated as a time variable, reducing the hamiltonian constraint to a time-dependent Schroedinger equation. When reduced to the homogeneous and isotropic case, this is solved exactly by a set of solutions that extend the Kodama state, taking into account the time dependence of the vacuum energy. Each quantum state corresponds to a classical solution of the Hamiltonian-Jacobi equation. The study of the latter shows evidence for an attractor, suggesting a universality in the phenomena of inflation. Finally, wavepackets can be constructed by superposing solutions with different ratios of kinetic to potential scalar field energy, resolving, at least in this case, the issue of normalizability of the Kodama state.Comment: 18 Pages, 2 Figures; major corrections to equations but prior results still hold, updated reference

Holographic Formulation of Quantum Supergravity

We show that ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity with a cosmological constant can be expressed as constrained topological field theory based on the supergroup $Osp(1|4)$. The theory is then extended to include timelike boundaries with finite spatial area. Consistent boundary conditions are found which induce a boundary theory based on a supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory. The boundary state space is constructed from states of the boundary supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory on the punctured two sphere and naturally satisfies the Bekenstein bound, where area is measured by the area operator of quantum supergravity.Comment: 30 pages, no figur

Reconstructing Quantum Geometry from Quantum Information: Spin Networks as Harmonic Oscillators

Loop Quantum Gravity defines the quantum states of space geometry as spin networks and describes their evolution in time. We reformulate spin networks in terms of harmonic oscillators and show how the holographic degrees of freedom of the theory are described as matrix models. This allow us to make a link with non-commutative geometry and to look at the issue of the semi-classical limit of LQG from a new perspective. This work is thought as part of a bigger project of describing quantum geometry in quantum information terms.Comment: 16 pages, revtex, 3 figure

Perfect quantum error correction coding in 24 laser pulses

An efficient coding circuit is given for the perfect quantum error correction of a single qubit against arbitrary 1-qubit errors within a 5 qubit code. The circuit presented employs a double `classical' code, i.e., one for bit flips and one for phase shifts. An implementation of this coding circuit on an ion-trap quantum computer is described that requires 26 laser pulses. A further circuit is presented requiring only 24 laser pulses, making it an efficient protection scheme against arbitrary 1-qubit errors. In addition, the performance of two error correction schemes, one based on the quantum Zeno effect and the other using standard methods, is compared. The quantum Zeno error correction scheme is found to fail completely for a model of noise based on phase-diffusion.Comment: Replacement paper: Lost two laser pulses gained one author; added appendix with circuits easily implementable on an ion-trap compute