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arXiv:1212.4778 · Physical Review B

Robustness of quantum memories based on Majorana zero modes

Leonardo Mazza, Matteo Rizzi, Mikhail D. Lukin, J. I. Cirac

Published Nov 26, 2013• 52 citations
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Abstract

We analyze the rate at which quantum information encoded in zero-energy Majorana modes is lost in the presence of perturbations. We show that information can survive for times that scale exponentially with the size of the chain both in the presence of quenching and time-dependent quadratic dephasing perturbations, even when the latter have spectral components above the system's energy gap. The origin of the robust storage, namely the fact that a sudden quench affects in the same way both parity sectors of the original spectrum, is discussed, together with the memory performance at finite temperatures and in the presence of particle exchange with a bath.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.88.205142

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We analyze the rate at which quantum information encoded in zero-energy Majorana modes is lost in the presence of perturbations. We show that information can survive for times that scale exponentially with the size of the chain both in the presence of quenching and time-dependent quadratic dephasing perturbations, even when the latter have spectral components above the system's energy gap. The origin of the robust storage, namely the fact that a sudden quench affects in the same way both parity sectors of the original spectrum, is discussed, together with the memory performance at finite temperatures and in the presence of particle exchange with a bath.
In this work we address the problem of realizing a reliable quantum memory based on zero-energy Majorana modes in the presence of experimental constraints on the operations aimed at recovering the information. In particular, we characterize the best recovery operation acting only on the zero-energy Majorana modes and the memory fidelity that can be therewith achieved. In order to understand the effect of such restriction, we discuss two examples of noise models acting on the topological system and compare the amount of information that can be recovered by accessing either the whole system, or the zero modes only, with particular attention to the scaling with the size of the system and the energy gap. We explicitly discuss the case of a thermal bosonic environment inducing a parity-preserving Markovian dynamics in which the memory fidelity achievable via a read-out of the zero modes decays exponentially in time, independent from system size. We argue, however, that even in the presence of said experimental limitations, the Hamiltonian gap is still beneficial to the storage of information.
Recently there have been numerous proposals to create Majorana zero modes in solid state heterojunctions, superconducting wires, and optical lattices. Putatively the information stored in qubits constructed from these modes is protected from various forms of decoherence. Here we present a generic method to study the effect of external perturbations on these modes. We focus on the case where there are no interactions between different Majorana modes either directly or through intermediary fermions. To quantify the rate of loss of the information stored in the Majorana modes we study the two-time correlators for qubits built from them. We analyze a generic gapped fermionic environment (bath) interacting via tunneling with different components of the qubit (different Majorana modes). We present examples with both static and dynamic perturbations (noise), and using our formalism derive a rate of information loss, for Majorana memories, that depends on the spectral density of both the noise and the fermionic bath.
It was recently realized that quenched disorder may enhance the reliability of topological qubits by reducing the mobility of anyons at zero temperature. Here we compute storage times with and without disorder for quantum chains with unpaired Majorana fermions - the simplest toy model of a quantum memory. Disorder takes the form of a random site-dependent chemical potential. The corresponding one-particle problem is a one-dimensional Anderson model with disorder in the hopping amplitudes. We focus on the zero-temperature storage of a qubit encoded in the ground state of the Majorana chain. Storage and retrieval are modeled by a unitary evolution under the memory Hamiltonian with an unknown weak perturbation followed by an error-correction step. Assuming dynamical localization of the one-particle problem, we show that the storage time grows exponentially with the system size. We give supporting evidence for the required localization property by estimating Lyapunov exponents of the one-particle eigenfunctions. We also simulate the storage process for chains with a few hundred sites. Our numerical results indicate that in the absence of disorder, the storage time grows only as a logarithm of the system size. We provide numerical evidence for the beneficial effect of disorder on storage times and show that suitably chosen pseudorandom potentials can outperform random ones.
We study the sudden quench of a one-dimensional p-wave superconductor through its topological signature in the entanglement spectrum. The long-time evolution of the system and its topological characterization depend on a pseudomagnetic field ${\bs R}_{\mbox{\text eff}}(k)$, which connects both the initial and the final Hamiltonians, hence exhibiting a memory effect. In particular, we explore the robustness of the Majorana zero-mode associated with the entanglement cut in the topologically nontrivial phase and identify the parameter space in which the mode can survive in the infinite-time limit.
We study the sudden quench of a one-dimensional p-wave superconductor through its topological signature in the entanglement spectrum. We show that the long-time evolution of the system and its topological characterization depend on a pseudomagnetic field Reff(k). Furthermore, Reff(k) connects both the initial and the final Hamiltonians, hence exhibiting a memory effect. In particular, we explore the robustness of the Majorana zero-mode and identify the parameter space in which the Majorana zero-mode can revive in the infinite-time limit.
Spin chains with symmetry-protected edge modes are promising candidates to realize intrinsically robust physical qubits that can be used for the storage and processing of quantum information. In any experimental realization of such physical systems, weak perturbations in the form of induced interactions and disorder are unavoidable and can be detrimental to the stored information. At the same time, the latter may in fact be beneficial; for instance, by deliberately inducing disorder which causes the system to localize. We explore the potential of using an XZX cluster Hamiltonian to encode quantum information into the local edge modes and comprehensively investigate the influence of both many-body interactions and disorder on their stability over time, adding substance to the narrative that many-body localization may stabilize quantum information. We recover the edge state at each time step, allowing us to reconstruct the quantum channel that captures the locally constrained out-of-equilibrium time evolution. With this representation in hand, we analyze how well classical and quantum information are preserved over time as a function of disorder and interactions. We find that the performance of the edge qubits varies dramatically between disorder realizations. Whereas some show a smooth decoherence over time, a sizable fraction is rapidly rendered unusable as memories. We also find that the stability of the classical information-a precursor for the usefulness of the chain as a quantum memory-depends strongly on the direction in which the bit is encoded. When employing the chain as a genuine quantum memory, encoded qubits are most faithfully recovered for low interaction and high disorder.