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arXiv:2001.00562

Optimal Entropy Compression and Purification in Quantum Bits

Varad R. Pande

Published Jan 2, 2020• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Global unitary transformations (OPTSWAPS) that optimally increase the bias of any mixed computation qubit in a quantum system -- represented by a diagonal density matrix -- towards a particular state of the computational basis which, in effect, increases its purity are presented. Quantum circuits that achieve this by implementing the above data compression technique -- a generalization of the 3B-Comp used before -- are described. These circuits enable purity increment in the computation qubit by maximally transferring part of its von Neumann or Shannon entropy to any number of surrounding qubits and are valid for the complete range of initial biases. Using the optswaps, a practicable new method that algorithmically achieves hierarchy-dependent cooling of qubits to their respective limits in an engineered quantum register opened to the heat-bath is delineated. In addition to multi-qubit purification and satisfying two of DiVincenzo's criteria for quantum computation in some architectures, the implications of this work for quantum data compression and quantum thermodynamics are discussed.

DOI
10.13016/m25wva-qusw

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Global unitary transformations (OPTSWAPS) that optimally increase the bias of any mixed computation qubit in a quantum system -- represented by a diagonal density matrix -- towards a particular state of the computational basis which, in effect, increases its purity are presented. Quantum circuits that achieve this by implementing the above data compression technique -- a generalization of the 3B-Comp used before -- are described. These circuits enable purity increment in the computation qubit by maximally transferring part of its von Neumann or Shannon entropy to any number of surrounding qubits and are valid for the complete range of initial biases. Using the optswaps, a practicable new method that algorithmically achieves hierarchy-dependent cooling of qubits to their respective limits in an engineered quantum register opened to the heat-bath is delineated. In addition to multi-qubit purification and satisfying two of DiVincenzo's criteria for quantum computation in some architectures, the implications of this work for quantum data compression and quantum thermodynamics are discussed.
The Shannon's bound for compression is one of the key restrictions for the compression of quantum information. Here we show that the unitarity of the compression operation imposes new bounds on the compression that are more limiting than Shannon's compression bound. This translates to a no-go theorem for the purification of quantum states. For a specific case of a two-qubit system, our results indicate that it is not possible to distill purity beyond the maximum of the individual purities. We show that this restriction results in the cooling limit of the heat-bath algorithmic cooling techniques. We formalize the limitations imposed by the unitarity of the compression operation in two theorems and use the theorems to show that the limitations of unitarity lead to the cooling limit of heat-bath algorithmic cooling. To this end, we introduce a new optimal cooling technique and show that without the limitations of the unitary operations, the new cooling technique would have exceeded the limit of Heat-bath algorithmic cooling. This work opens up new avenues to understanding the limits of dynamic cooling.
The field of quantum information has inspired new methods for cooling physical systems at the quantum scale by manipulating entropy in an algorithmic way, such as heat-bath algorithmic cooling (HBAC). These methods not only provide fundamental insight into quantum thermodynamics, but they are also at the core of practical applications in quantum science and quantum technologies. Arguably, the most promising practical applications are in quantum computing, for the preparation of pure states. The ability to prepare highly pure states is required both for initializing qubits in most quantum algorithms and for supplying reliable low-noise ancilla qubits that satisfy the fault-tolerance threshold for quantum error correction (achieving the high levels of purity required represents one of the major challenges not only for ensemble implementations but also for technologies with strong but not perfect projective measurements). \n \n \nThe heat bath algorithmic cooling protocols have inspired the work within this thesis, which examines and proposes powerful new techniques that significantly enhance cooling by taking advantage of classical and quantum correlations. These new methods go beyond the limits of conventional cooling techniques, providing a novel way to cool that allows a generalized interaction of the system with the environment, which has not been taken into account in previous work. Concretely, I have contributed to elucidating our understanding of these algorithmic cooling mechanisms by using techniques from quantum information theory and quantum thermodynamics. First, I found the analytical solution of the maximum achievable cooling of these algorithmic cooling methods, which had been a longstanding problem that remained open for almost 15 years. Then, I showed how to circumvent the cooling limits of the conventional algorithmic cooling – which were widely believed to be optimal –, creating novel methods that show how correlations can be used to significantly improve cooling. On the one hand, we fundamentally changed the way previous methods considered the interactions between the system and environment and showed how correlated relaxation processes can be essential for enhancing cooling. On the other hand, we demonstrated that correlations present in the initial state due to internal interactions can be exploited to improve cooling. Finally, we showed how, by using ideas and concepts from resource theory, it is possible to find the optimal entropy compression required for HBAC by studying the n-to-1 distillation of athermality of two level systems.
Consider a source of pure quantum states with density matrix ρ and von Neumann entropy S . It is known that the quantum information of the source may be faithfully compressed to 5 qubits/signal (asymptotically for long sequences) and that this limit is optimal if we demand high fidelity for long strings of signals. The usual method for achieving this compression, based on the typical subspace of the source, requires knowledge of the density matrix. We describe a new “universal” compression scheme which does not even require knowledge of ρ. More precisely, suppose that the source is known to have von Neumann entropy less than some given bound S 0 but is otherwise completely unspecified. Our method will faithfully compress the quantum information of any such source to S 0 qubits/signal. It is known that S is always less than or equal to the Shannon entropy H of the prior distribution of the source. According to Shannon’s theorem, H provides the limit for compression of classical signals, so one may ask the question: what is the physical origin of the extra compression available in the quantum case compared to the classical case (where the prior probabilities are the same)? One may suggest that this effect is a consequence of possible non-orthogonality of signal states. However we demonstrate that it is possible to make each pair of signal states of a source more parallel (keeping the prior probabilities the same) while increasing the von Neumann entropy. This casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that overlap of quantum states is a measure of their (non-)distinguishability. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
To achieve scalability of NMR computers, one needs a large number of highly polarized spins in liquid nuclearspin systems at finite temperature. In quantum computing terminology, such spin-half states are (almost) pure qubit states. Producing highly polarized spins (almost pure qubit states) out of non-polarized spins (non-pure qubit states) is sometimes called "purification". From a thermodynamic point of view, purification can be viewed as cooling spins to a very low temperature. In this work, we study how classical data compression codes can be used to design cooling algorithms for both short and long molecules. We argue that so designed cooling (purification) algorithms potentially outperform other methods in terms of the closeness of the output state to the ideal pure state, which in turn implies lower output temperature. We also analyze how the mismatch of the algorithm's computational basis and the actual eigenbasis of the spins' density matrix will affect the cooling (purification) performance.
We report on a quantum thermodynamic method to purify a qubit on a quantum processing unit (QPU) equipped with (nearly) identical qubits. Our starting point is a three qubit design that emulates the well-known two qubit swap engine. Similar to standard fridges, the method would allow us to cool down a qubit at the expense of heating two other qubits. A minimal modification thereof leads to a more practical three qubit design that allows for enhanced refrigeration tasks, such as increasing the purity of one qubit at the expense of decreasing the purity of the other two. The method is based on the application of properly designed quantum circuits and can therefore be run on any gate model quantum computer. We implement it on a publicly available superconducting qubit based QPU and observe a purification capability down to 200 mK. We identify gate noise as the main obstacle toward practical application for quantum computing.
Pure quantum states play a central role in applications of quantum information, both as initial states for quantum algorithms and as resources for quantum error correction. Preparation of highly pure states that satisfy the threshold for quantum error correction remains a challenge, not only for ensemble implementations like NMR or ESR but also for other technologies. Heat-bath algorithmic cooling is a method to increase the purity of a set of qubits coupled to a bath. We investigated the achievable polarization by analyzing the limit when no more entropy can be extracted from the system. In particular, we give an analytic form for the maximum polarization achievable for the case when the initial state of the qubits is totally mixed, and the corresponding steady state of the whole system. It is, however, possible to reach higher polarization while starting with certain states; thus, our result provides an achievable bound. We also give the number of steps needed to get a specific required polarization.