Reliable preparation of entanglement between distant systems is an outstanding problem in quantum information science and quantum communication. In practice, this has to be accomplished by noisy channels (such as optical fibers) that generally result in exponential attenuation of quantum signals at large distances. A special class of quantum error correction protocols, quantum repeater protocols, can be used to overcome such losses. In this work, we introduce a method for systematically optimizing existing protocols and developing more efficient protocols. Our approach makes use of a dynamic programming-based searching algorithm, the complexity of which scales only polynomially with the communication distance, letting us efficiently determine near-optimal solutions. We find significant improvements in both the speed and the final-state fidelity for preparing long-distance entangled states.
Reliable preparation of entanglement between distant systems is an outstanding problem in quantum information science and quantum communication. In practice, this has to be accomplished by noisy channels (such as optical fibers) that generally result in exponential attenuation of quantum signals at large distances. A special class of quantum error correction protocols, quantum repeater protocols, can be used to overcome such losses. In this work, we introduce a method for systematically optimizing existing protocols and developing more efficient protocols. Our approach makes use of a dynamic programming-based searching algorithm, the complexity of which scales only polynomially with the communication distance, letting us efficiently determine near-optimal solutions. We find significant improvements in both the speed and the final-state fidelity for preparing long-distance entangled states.
Quantum communication enables the implementation of tasks that are unachievable with classical resources. However, losses on the communication channel preclude the direct long-distance transmission of quantum information in many relevant scenarios. In principle, quantum repeaters allow one to overcome losses. However, realistic hardware parameters make long-distance quantum communication a challenge in practice. For instance, in many protocols an entangled pair is generated that needs to wait in quantum memory until the generation of an additional pair. During this waiting time the first pair decoheres, impacting the quality of the final entanglement produced. At the cost of a lower rate, this effect can be mitigated by imposing a cutoff condition. For instance, a maximum storage time for entanglement after which it is discarded. In this article, we optimize the cutoffs for quantum repeater chains. First, we develop an algorithm for computing the probability distribution of the waiting time and fidelity of entanglement produced by repeater chain protocols which include a cutoff. Then, we use the algorithm to optimize cutoffs in order to maximize the secret-key rate between the end nodes of the repeater chain. In this article, we find that the use of the optimal cutoff extends the parameter regime for which secret key can be generated and, moreover, significantly increases the secret-key rate for a large range of parameters.
Quantum communication enables various technological possibilities that are hard or impossible with classical communication. These include secure distribution of keys, transfer of quantum information and distributed quantum computation and sensing. Quantum communication relies on the ability to transmit a quantum state over some distance. Exponential photon loss from fibre inevitably limits the distance one would be able to achieve this over and therefore make use of these promising new technologies.Quantum repeaters have been proposed as a solution to this problem. Elementary repeater protocols involve dividing the channel into smaller segments with repeater nodes, distributing entanglement between these nodes and then performing swapping operations to connect entangled pairs and purification to correct operation errors. In the years since these elementary protocols, quantum repeaters have been through extensive theoretical improvements including utilising the benefits of quantum error correction to improve efficiency.However, the vast majority of these protocols are for discrete encodings of quantum information. There is significant interest in using continuous variable encodings of quantum information for quantum communication applications. This is motivated in part by the ease of generating, manipulating and detecting quantum states and additionally the increased compatibility with existing infrastructure. In this thesis we present one of the first quantum repeater protocols for continuous variable encodings of quantum information.The continuous variable quantum repeater we present in this thesis is based on concatenated error correction protocols that work to correct loss on any optical field state. We thoroughly investigate operation of this error correction protocol including the trade-offs associated with real implementations, various modifications to the error correction protocol as well as whether it can be implemented with current technology.We illustrate how these error correction protocols may be structured to form a quantum repeater that inhibits the exponential photon loss problem with a resource cost that scales polynomially with distance. We show that our continuous variable repeater is able to beat the fundamental bound on quantum communication without a repeater. Finally, we compare the performance of our first generation continuous variable repeater to existing first generation discrete variable protocols.
Large-scale quantum networks depend on the efficient distribution of entangled pairs between distant nodes. However, state-of-the-art solutions rely on restrictive operational assumptions, incur prohibitive computational complexity, and optimize metrics misaligned with application needs. This paper addresses the entanglement distribution problem introducing four pivotal advances. First, since the primary application of quantum communication is private information transmission, we derive the Ensemble Capacity, a novel metric that quantifies the private classical information enabled by entanglement distribution. Second, we propose a generalized formulation of the Entanglement Distribution Problem that allows arbitrary sequencing of entanglement swapping and purification, removing the structural restrictions of prior models. Third, to navigate the resulting combinatorial space, we introduce a dynamic programming-based hypergraph generation algorithm that preserves exact, continuous fidelities, avoiding quantization, while pruning sub-optimal sequences in advance. Finally, we integrate these solutions into CODE, a two-tier orchestration framework enabling near-real-time network operation. Extensive evaluations show that our approach achieves higher private information capacity and significantly lower computational complexity than existing solutions, while meeting the sub-second latency requirements of dynamic quantum network operation.
Despite the tremendous progress of quantum cryptography, efficient quantum communication over long distances (≥ 1000 km) remains an outstanding challenge due to fiber attenuation and operation errors accumulated over the entire communication distance. Quantum repeaters (QRs), as a promising approach, can overcome both photon loss and operation errors, and hence significantly speedup the communication rate. Depending on the methods used to correct loss and operation errors, all the proposed QR schemes can be classified into three categories (generations). Here we present the first systematic comparison of three generations of quantum repeaters by evaluating the cost of both temporal and physical resources, and identify the optimized quantum repeater architecture for a given set of experimental parameters for use in quantum key distribution. Our work provides a roadmap for the experimental realizations of highly efficient quantum networks over transcontinental distances.
We study the use of entanglement purification for quantum communication over long distances. For distances much longer than the coherence length of a corresponding noisy quantum channel, the fidelity of transmission is usually so low that standard purification methods are not applicable. It is possible, however, to divide the channel into shorter segments that are purified separately and then connected by the method of entanglement swapping. This method can be much more efficient than schemes based on quantum error correction, as it makes explicit use of two-way classical communication. An important question is how the noise, introduced by imperfect local operations (that constitute the protocols of purification and the entanglement swapping), accumulates in such a compound channel, and how it can be kept below a certain noise level. To treat this problem, we first study the applicability and the efficiency of entanglement purification protocols in the situation of imperfect local operations. We then present a scheme that allows entanglement purification over arbitrary long channels and tolerates errors on the percent level. It requires a polynomial overhead in time, and an overhead in local resources that grows only logarithmically with the length of the channel.
In quantum communication via noisy channels, the error probability scales exponentially with the length of the channel. We present a scheme of a quantum repeater that overcomes this limitation. The central idea is to connect a string of (imperfect) entangled pairs of particles by using a novel nested purification protocol, thereby creating a single distant pair of high fidelity. Our scheme tolerates general errors on the percent level, it works with a polynomial overhead in time and a logarithmic overhead in the number of particles that need to be controlled locally.