Perfect $(s,r)$-state transfer

Abstract

Much work has been done in the last two decades on the topic of quantum state transfer in a quantum spin network. One can model such a system of interacting qubits using an undirected graph, and studying vertex-to-vertex dynamics. This setup has recently been relaxed to allow for dynamics between linear combinations of two vertex states, i.e.\ from $\mathbf u = \mathbf e_a + s \mathbf e_b$ to $\mathbf μ=\mathbf e_α + r \mathbf e_β$, where $r=s$ is either $-1$ (which corresponds to pair state transfer) or $+1$ (which corresponds to plus state transfer), or more recently $r=s$ is taken to be any real number (which corresponds to $s$-pair state transfer). Here, we broaden the investigation of $s$-pair state transfer to \textit{perfect $(s,r)$-state transfer}, which is perfect state transfer from $\mathbf u = \mathbf e_a + s \mathbf e_b$ to $\mathbf μ=\mathbf e_α + r \mathbf e_β$ (up to some dilation) where $r,s\in \mathbb C$. We identify infinite families of graphs with perfect $(s,r)$-state transfer and provide characterizations of cases when $|r|= |s|$ and when $|r|\neq |s|$, showing situations when the degree of entanglement between vertex states is preserved, and when it is not preserved. The latter is particularly important as it represents perfect state transfer from an entangled pair of qubits to another one where the degree of entanglement need not be the same\mdash in fact, it can be set up so as to ``boost'' (increase) entanglement. We provide an algorithm that finds the vector with two nonzero entries that maximizes the fidelity of transfer for a fixed time $t$ starting from a given $s$-pair state $\mathbf u$. Finally, we provide a sensitivity analysis, with respect to readout time errors, of perfect $(s,r)$-state transfer.