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arXiv:1511.02704 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Quantum computing with parafermions

Adrian Hutter, Daniel Loss

Published Mar 2, 2016• 70 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

${\mathbb{Z}}_{d}$ parafermions are exotic non-Abelian quasiparticles generalizing Majorana fermions, which correspond to the case $d=2$. In contrast to Majorana fermions, braiding of parafermions with $d>2$ allows one to perform an entangling gate. This has spurred interest in parafermions, and a variety of condensed matter systems have been proposed as potential hosts for them. In this work, we study the computational power of braiding parafermions more systematically. We make no assumptions on the underlying physical model but derive all our results from the algebraical relations that define parafermions. We find a family of $2d$ representations of the braid group that are compatible with these relations. The braiding operators derived this way reproduce those derived previously from physical grounds as special cases. We show that if a $d$-level qudit is encoded in the fusion space of four parafermions, braiding of these four parafermions allows one to generate the entire single-qudit Clifford group (up to phases), for any $d$. If $d$ is odd, then we show that in fact the entire many-qudit Clifford group can be generated.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.93.125105

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Zd{\mathbb{Z}}_{d}Zd​ parafermions are exotic non-Abelian quasiparticles generalizing Majorana fermions, which correspond to the case d=2d=2d=2. In contrast to Majorana fermions, braiding of parafermions with d>2d>2d>2 allows one to perform an entangling gate. This has spurred interest in parafermions, and a variety of condensed matter systems have been proposed as potential hosts for them. In this work, we study the computational power of braiding parafermions more systematically. We make no assumptions on the underlying physical model but derive all our results from the algebraical relations that define parafermions. We find a family of 2d2d2d representations of the braid group that are compatible with these relations. The braiding operators derived this way reproduce those derived previously from physical grounds as special cases. We show that if a ddd-level qudit is encoded in the fusion space of four parafermions, braiding of these four parafermions allows one to generate the entire single-qudit Clifford group (up to phases), for any ddd. If ddd is odd, then we show that in fact the entire many-qudit Clifford group can be generated.
Abstract Majorana fermions and their generalizations to Zn parafermions are considered promising building blocks of fault-tolerant quantum computers for their ability to encode quantum information nonlocally. In such topological quantum computers, highly robust quantum gates are obtained by braiding pairs of these quasi-particles. However, it is well-known that braiding Majorana fermions or parafermions only leads to a Clifford gate, hindering quantum universality. This paper establishes an exact mapping between Majorana fermions to Z4 parafermions in systems under total parity nonconserving and total parity conserving setting. It is revealed that braiding of Majorana fermions may lead to non-Clifford quantum gates in the 4-dimensional qudit representation spanned by Z4 parafermions, whilst braiding of Z4 parafermions may similarly yield non-Clifford quantum gates in the qubit representation spanned by Majorana fermions. This finding suggests that topologically protected universal quantum computing may be possible with Majorana fermions (Z4 parafermions) by supplementing the usual braiding operations with the braiding of Z4 parafermions (Majorana fermions) that could be formed out of Majorana fermions (Z4 parafermions) via the mapping prescribed here. Finally, the paper discusses how braiding of Majorana fermions or Z4 parafermions could be obtained via a series of parity measurements.
Parafermions are Zn{\mathbb{Z}}_{n}Zn​ generalizations of Majorana quasiparticles, with fractional non-Abelian statistics. They can be used to encode topological qudits and perform Clifford operations by their braiding. Here we investigate the generation of quantum gates by allowing Z3{\mathbb{Z}}_{3}Z3​ parafermions to interact in order to achieve universality. In particular, we study the form of the nontopological gate that arises through direct short-range interaction of the parafermion edge modes in a Z3{\mathbb{Z}}_{3}Z3​ parafermion chain. We show that such an interaction gives rise to a dynamical phase gate on the encoded ground space, generating a non-Clifford gate which can be tuned to belong to even levels of the Clifford hierarchy. We illustrate how to access highly noncontextual states using this dynamical gate. Finally, we propose an experiment that simulates the braiding and dynamical evolutions of the Z3{\mathbb{Z}}_{3}Z3​ topological states with Rydberg atom technology.
Because of potential relevance to topological quantum information processing, we introduce and study the self-dual family of representations of the braid group. Self-dual representations are physically well motivated and provide a natural generalization of the Majorana and Gaussian representations, which appear as particular instances. To show that self-dual representations admit a particle interpretation, we introduce and describe in second quantization a family of particle species with $p=2,3,\ensuremath{\cdots}$ exclusion and $\ensuremath{\theta}=2\ensuremath{\pi}/p$ exchange statistics. We call these anyons Fock parafermions, because they are the particles naturally associated to the parafermionic zero-energy modes, potentially realizable in mesoscopic arrays of fractional topological insulators. Josephson junctions modeled with Fock parafermions may display a $2\ensuremath{\pi}p$ periodic relation between the Josephson current and the phase difference across the junction. Self-dual representations can be realized in terms of local quadratic combinations of either parafermions or Fock parafermions, an important requisite for physical implementation of quantum logic gates. The second-quantization description of Fock parafermions entails the concept of Fock algebra, i.e., a Fock space endowed with a statistical multiplication that captures and logically correlates these anyons' exclusion and exchange statistics. As a consequence normal ordering continues to be a well-defined operation.
Because of potential relevance to topological quantum information processing, we introduce and study the self-dual family of representations of the braid group. Self-dual representations are physically well motivated and provide a natural generalization of the Majorana and Gaussian representations, which appear as particular instances. To show that self-dual representations admit a particle interpretation, we introduce and describe in second quantization a family of particle species with $p=2,3,\ensuremath{\cdots}$ exclusion and $\ensuremath{\theta}=2\ensuremath{\pi}/p$ exchange statistics. We call these anyons Fock parafermions, because they are the particles naturally associated to the parafermionic zero-energy modes, potentially realizable in mesoscopic arrays of fractional topological insulators. Josephson junctions modeled with Fock parafermions may display a $2\ensuremath{\pi}p$ periodic relation between the Josephson current and the phase difference across the junction. Self-dual representations can be realized in terms of local quadratic combinations of either parafermions or Fock parafermions, an important requisite for physical implementation of quantum logic gates. The second-quantization description of Fock parafermions entails the concept of Fock algebra, i.e., a Fock space endowed with a statistical multiplication that captures and logically correlates these anyons' exclusion and exchange statistics. As a consequence normal ordering continues to be a well-defined operation.
In quantum information science, Clifford operators and stabilizer codes play a central role for systems of qubits (or qudits). In this paper, we study their analogues for systems composed of Majorana fermions. In this case, a crucial role is played by fermion parity symmetry, which is an unbreakable symmetry present in any system with fundamentally fermionic degrees of freedom. We prove that the subgroup of parity-preserving Majorana Cliffords can be represented by the orthogonal group over the binary field $\F$, and we show how it can be generated by braiding operators and used to construct any (even-parity) Majorana stabilizer code. We also analyze the frame potential for this so-called p-Clifford group when acting on a fixed-parity sector of the Hilbert space, proving that it is equivalent to the frame potential of the ordinary Clifford group acting on the same sector.
In this work, we develop a graphical calculus for multi-qudit computations with generalized Clifford algebras, building off the algebraic framework developed in our prior work. We build our graphical calculus out of a fixed set of graphical primitives defined by algebraic expressions constructed out of elements of a given generalized Clifford algebra, a graphical primitive corresponding to the ground state, and also graphical primitives corresponding to projections onto the ground state of each qudit. We establish many properties of the graphical calculus using purely algebraic methods, including a novel algebraic proof of a Yang-Baxter equation and a construction of a corresponding braid group representation. Our algebraic proof, which applies to arbitrary qudit dimension, also enables a resolution of an open problem of Cobanera and Ortiz on the construction of self-dual braid group representations for even qudit dimension. We also derive several new identities for the braid elements, which are key to our proofs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that in many cases, the verification of involved vector identities can be reduced to the combinatorial application of two basic vector identities. Additionally, in terms of quantum computation, we demonstrate that it is feasible to envision implementing the braid operators for quantum computation, by showing that they are 2-local operators. In fact, these braid elements are almost Clifford gates, for they normalize the generalized Pauli group up to an extra factor ζ , which is an appropriate square root of a primitive root of unity.