In this study, we analyze the efficiency of a protocol with discrete modulation of continuous variable non-Gaussian states, the coherent states having one photon added and then one photon subtracted (PASCS). We calculate the secure key generation rate against collective attacks using the fact that Eve's information can be bounded based on the protocol with Gaussian modulation, which in turn is unconditionally secure. Our results for a four-state protocol show that the PASCS always outperforms the equivalent coherent states protocol under the same environmental conditions. Interestingly, we find that for the protocol using discrete-modulated PASCS, the noisier the line, the better will be its performance compared to the protocol using coherent states. Thus, our proposal proves to be advantageous for performing quantum key distribution in non-ideal situations.
The stochastic nature of iterative optimization heuristics leads to inherently noisy performance measurements. Since these measurements are often gathered once and then used repeatedly, the number of collected samples will have a significant impact on the reliability of algorithm comparisons. We show that care should be taken when making decisions based on limited data. Particularly, we show that the number of runs used in many benchmarking studies, e.g., the default value of 15 suggested by the COCO environment, can be insufficient to reliably rank algorithms on well-known numerical optimization benchmarks. Additionally, methods for automated algorithm configuration are sensitive to insufficient sample sizes. This may result in the configurator choosing a `lucky' but poor-performing configuration despite exploring better ones. We show that relying on mean performance values, as many configurators do, can require a large number of runs to provide accurate comparisons between the considered configurations. Common statistical tests can greatly improve the situation in most cases but not always. We show examples of performance losses of more than 20%, even when using statistical races to dynamically adjust the number of runs, as done by irace. Our results underline the importance of appropriately considering the statistical distribution of performance values.
Existing quantum compilers optimize quantum circuits by applying circuit transformations designed by experts. This approach requires significant manual effort to design and implement circuit transformations for different quantum devices, which use different gate sets, and can miss optimizations that are hard to find manually. We propose Quartz, a quantum circuit superoptimizer that automatically generates and verifies circuit transformations for arbitrary quantum gate sets. For a given gate set, Quartz generates candidate circuit transformations by systematically exploring small circuits and verifies the discovered transformations using an automated theorem prover. To optimize a quantum circuit, Quartz uses a cost-based backtracking search that applies the verified transformations to the circuit. Our evaluation on three popular gate sets shows that Quartz can effectively generate and verify transformations for different gate sets. The generated transformations cover manually designed transformations used by existing optimizers and also include new transformations. Quartz is therefore able to optimize a broad range of circuits for diverse gate sets, outperforming or matching the performance of hand-tuned circuit optimizers.
Continuous-time measurements are instrumental for a multitude of tasks in quantum engineering and quantum control, including the estimation of dynamical parameters of open quantum systems monitored through the environment. However, such measurements do not extract the maximum amount of information available in the output state, so finding alternative optimal measurement strategies is a major open problem. In this paper we solve this problem in the setting of discrete-time input-output quantum Markov chains. We present an efficient algorithm for optimal estimation of one-dimensional dynamical parameters which consists of an iterative procedure for updating a `measurement filter' operator and determining successive measurement bases for the output units. A key ingredient of the scheme is the use of a coherent quantum absorber as a way to post-process the output after the interaction with the system. This is designed adaptively such that the joint system and absorber stationary state is pure at a reference parameter value. The scheme offers an exciting prospect for optimal continuous-time adaptive measurements, but more work is needed to find realistic practical implementations.
In this work a quantum analogue of Bayesian statistical inference is considered. Based on the notion of instrument, we propose a sequential measurement scheme from which observations needed for statistical inference are obtained. We further put forward a quantum analogue of Bayes rule, which states how the prior normal state of a quantum system updates under those observations. We next generalize the fundamental notions and results of Bayesian statistics according to the quantum Bayes rule. It is also note that our theory retains the classical one as its special case. Finally, we investigate the limit of posterior normal state as the number of observations tends to infinity.
The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is severely threatened by discrepancies between realistic devices and theoretical assumptions. Recently, a significant framework called the reference technique was proposed to provide security against arbitrary source flaws, including pulse correlations. Here, we propose an efficient four-phase twin-field QKD using laser pulses adopting the reference technique for security against all possible source imperfections. We present a characterization of source flaws and connect them to experimental data, together with a finite-key analysis. In addition, we demonstrate the feasibility of our protocol through a proof-of-principle experimental implementation and demonstrate a secure key rate of 1.63 kbps with a 20 dB channel loss. Compared with previous QKD protocols with imperfect devices, our work considerably improves both the secure key rate and the transmission distance, and shows application potential in the practical deployment of secure QKD with device imperfections.
We describe a numerical algorithm for approximating the equilibrium-reduced density matrix and the effective (mean force) Hamiltonian for a set of system spins coupled strongly to a set of bath spins when the total system (system+bath) is held in canonical thermal equilibrium by weak coupling with a "super-bath". Our approach is a generalization of now standard typicality algorithms for computing the quantum expectation value of observables of bare quantum systems via trace estimators and Krylov subspace methods. In particular, our algorithm makes use of the fact that the reduced system density, when the bath is measured in a given random state, tends to concentrate about the corresponding thermodynamic averaged reduced system density. Theoretical error analysis and numerical experiments are given to validate the accuracy of our algorithm. Further numerical experiments demonstrate the potential of our approach for applications including the study of quantum phase transitions and entanglement entropy for long-range interaction systems.
In this paper we study the finite sample and asymptotic properties of various weighting estimators of the local average treatment effect (LATE), several of which are based on Abadie (2003)'s kappa theorem. Our framework presumes a binary endogenous explanatory variable ("treatment") and a binary instrumental variable, which may only be valid after conditioning on additional covariates. We argue that one of the Abadie estimators, which we show is weight normalized, is likely to dominate the others in many contexts. A notable exception is in settings with one-sided noncompliance, where certain unnormalized estimators have the advantage of being based on a denominator that is bounded away from zero. We use a simulation study and three empirical applications to illustrate our findings. In applications to causal effects of college education using the college proximity instrument (Card, 1995) and causal effects of childbearing using the sibling sex composition instrument (Angrist and Evans, 1998), the unnormalized estimates are clearly unreasonable, with "incorrect" signs, magnitudes, or both. Overall, our results suggest that (i) the relative performance of different kappa weighting estimators varies with features of the data-generating process; and that (ii) the normalized version of Tan (2006)'s estimator may be an attractive alternative in many contexts. Applied researchers with access to a binary instrumental variable should also consider covariate balancing or doubly robust estimators of the LATE.
Recent decades, the emergence of numerous novel algorithms makes it a gimmick to propose an intelligent optimization system based on metaphor, and hinders researchers from exploring the essence of search behavior in algorithms. However, it is difficult to directly discuss the search behavior of an intelligent optimization algorithm, since there are so many kinds of intelligent schemes. To address this problem, an intelligent optimization system is regarded as a simulated physical optimization system in this paper. The dynamic search behavior of such a simplified physical optimization system are investigated with quantum theory. To achieve this goal, the Schroedinger equation is employed as the dynamics equation of the optimization algorithm, which is used to describe dynamic search behaviours in the evolution process with quantum theory. Moreover, to explore the basic behaviour of the optimization system, the optimization problem is assumed to be decomposed and approximated. Correspondingly, the basic search behaviour is derived, which constitutes the basic iterative process of a simple optimization system. The basic iterative process is compared with some classical bare-bones schemes to verify the similarity of search behavior under different metaphors. The search strategies of these bare bones algorithms are analyzed through experiments.
After spending 9 years in Quantum Computing and given the impending timeline of developing good quality quantum processing units, it is the moment to rethink the approach to advance quantum computing research. Rather than waiting for quantum hardware technologies to mature, we need to start assessing in tandem the impact of the occurrence of quantum computing in various scientific fields. However, for this purpose, we need to use a complementary but quite different approach than proposed by the NISQ vision, which is heavily focused on and burdened by the engineering challenges. That is why we propose and advocate the PISQ-approach: Perfect Intermediate-Scale Quantum computing based on the already known concept of perfect qubits. This will allow researchers to focus much more on the development of new applications by defining the algorithms in terms of perfect qubits and evaluating them on quantum computing simulators that are executed on supercomputers. It is not a long-term solution but it will allow universities to currently develop research on quantum logic and algorithms and companies can already start developing their internal know-how on quantum solutions.
The performance of a quantum information processing protocol is ultimately judged by distinguishability measures that quantify how distinguishable the actual result of the protocol is from the ideal case. The most prominent distinguishability measures are those based on the fidelity and trace distance, due to their physical interpretations. In this paper, we propose and review several algorithms for estimating distinguishability measures based on trace distance and fidelity. The algorithms can be used for distinguishing quantum states, channels, and strategies (the last also known in the literature as "quantum combs"). The fidelity-based algorithms offer novel physical interpretations of these distinguishability measures in terms of the maximum probability with which a single prover (or competing provers) can convince a verifier to accept the outcome of an associated computation. We simulate many of these algorithms by using a variational approach with parameterized quantum circuits. We find that the simulations converge well in both the noiseless and noisy scenarios, for all examples considered. Furthermore, the noisy simulations exhibit a parameter noise resilience.