Abstract Quantum networks describe communication networks that are based on quantum entanglement. A concurrence percolation theory has been recently developed to determine the required entanglement to enable communication between two distant stations in an arbitrary quantum network. Unfortunately, concurrence percolation has been calculated only for very small networks or large networks without loops. Here, we develop a set of mathematical tools for approximating the concurrence percolation threshold for unprecedented large-scale quantum networks by estimating the path-length distribution, under the assumption that all paths between a given pair of nodes have no overlap. We show that our approximate method agrees closely with analytical results from concurrence percolation theory. The numerical results we present include 2D square lattices of 2002 nodes and complex networks of up to 104 nodes. The entanglement percolation threshold of a quantum network is a crucial parameter for constructing a real-world communication network based on entanglement, and our method offers a significant speed-up for the intensive computations involved.
Abstract Quantum networks describe communication networks that are based on quantum entanglement. A concurrence percolation theory has been recently developed to determine the required entanglement to enable communication between two distant stations in an arbitrary quantum network. Unfortunately, concurrence percolation has been calculated only for very small networks or large networks without loops. Here, we develop a set of mathematical tools for approximating the concurrence percolation threshold for unprecedented large-scale quantum networks by estimating the path-length distribution, under the assumption that all paths between a given pair of nodes have no overlap. We show that our approximate method agrees closely with analytical results from concurrence percolation theory. The numerical results we present include 2D square lattices of 2002 nodes and complex networks of up to 104 nodes. The entanglement percolation threshold of a quantum network is a crucial parameter for constructing a real-world communication network based on entanglement, and our method offers a significant speed-up for the intensive computations involved.
Establishing long-distance quantum entanglement, i.e., entanglement transmission, in quantum networks (QN) is a key and timely challenge for developing efficient quantum communication. Traditional comprehension based on classical percolation assumes a necessary condition for successful entanglement transmission between any two infinitely distant nodes: they must be connected by at least a path of perfectly entangled states (singlets). Here, we relax this condition by explicitly showing that one can focus not on optimally converting singlets but on establishing concurrence-a key measure of bipartite entanglement. We thereby introduce a new statistical theory, concurrence percolation theory (ConPT), remotely analogous to classical percolation but fundamentally different, built by generalizing bond percolation in terms of "sponge-crossing" paths instead of clusters. Inspired by resistance network analysis, we determine the path connectivity by series and parallel rules and approximate higher-order rules via star-mesh transforms. Interestingly, we find that the entanglement transmission threshold predicted by ConPT is lower than the known classical-percolation-based results and is readily achievable on any series-parallel networks such as the Bethe lattice. ConPT promotes our understanding of how well quantum communication can be further systematically improved versus classical statistical predictions under the limitation of QN locality-a "quantum advantage" that is more general and efficient than expected. ConPT also shows a percolationlike universal critical behavior derived by finite-size analysis on the Bethe lattice and regular two-dimensional lattices, offering new perspectives for a theory of criticality in entanglement statistics.
Quantum networks are essential to quantum information distributed applications, and communicating over them is a key challenge. Complex networks have rich and intriguing properties, which are as yet unexplored in the quantum setting. Here, we study the effect of entanglement percolation as a means to establish long-distance entanglement between arbitrary nodes of quantum complex networks. We develop a theory to analytically study random graphs with arbitrary degree distribution and give exact results for some models. Our findings are in good agreement with numerical simulations and show that the proposed quantum strategies enhance the percolation threshold substantially. Simulations also show a clear enhancement in small-world and other real-world networks.
A quantum network is a network of entangled states, which can be used to transmit quantum information. Nonmaximally entangled states are not really effective in establishing quantum communication across vast distances. Creating and maintaining a maximally entangled state over which quantum information can be transferred more effectively is difficult in experiments, as nonmaximally entangled states are typically produced there. Therefore, we usually construct a network of nonmaximally entangled states and use the underlying network structure to establish maximal entanglement between distant nodes. Various protocols leveraging interesting aspects of quantum and statistical physics are designed to achieve long-range maximally entangled states. Here, we consider two-dimensional lattices as quantum networks where edges represent nonmaximally entangled pure states. We introduce a general protocol based on bond percolation -- general concurrence percolation (GCP) -- to create a network of maximally entangled states. The associated network obtained through GCP ought to enable the achievement of long-range quantum communication. Our observations indicate that, similar to other existing protocols, GCP falls within the percolation universality class, as determined through finite-size scaling analysis performed on two-dimensional lattices. We find that the associated percolation threshold value is smaller than that of the existing protocols. We introduce and analytically solve a minimal model that renders insight into the origin of the fundamentally lower percolation threshold achieved by GCP.
Quantum networks have good prospects for applications in the future. Compared with classical networks, small-world quantum networks have some interesting properties. The topology of the network can be changed through entanglement exchange operations, and different network topologies will result in different percolation thresholds when performing entanglement percolation. A lower percolation threshold means that quantum networks require fewer minimum resources for communication. Since a shared singlet between two nodes can still be a limitation, concurrency percolation theory (ConPT) can be used to relax the condition. In this paper, we investigate how entanglement distribution is performed in small-world quantum networks to ensure that nodes in the network can communicate with each other by establishing communication links through entanglement swapping. Any node can perform entanglement swapping on only part of the connected edges, which can reduce the influence of each node in the network during entanglement swapping. In addition, the ConPT method is used to reduce the percolation threshold even further, thus obtaining a better network structure and reducing the resources required.
We study entanglement distribution in quantum complex networks where nodes are connected by bipartite entangled states. These networks are characterized by a complex structure, which dramatically affects how information is transmitted through them. For pure quantum state links, quantum networks exhibit a remarkable feature absent in classical networks: it is possible to effectively rewire the network by performing local operations on the nodes. We propose a family of such quantum operations that decrease the entanglement percolation threshold of the network and increase the size of the giant connected component. We provide analytic results for complex networks with an arbitrary (uncorrelated) degree distribution. These results are in good agreement with numerical simulations, which also show enhancement in correlated and real-world networks. The proposed quantum preprocessing strategies are not robust in the presence of noise. However, even when the links consist of (noisy) mixed-state links, one can send quantum information through a connecting path with a fidelity that decreases with the path length. In this noisy scenario, complex networks offer a clear advantage over regular lattices, namely, the fact that two arbitrary nodes can be connected through a relatively small number of steps, known as the small-world effect. We calculate the probability that two arbitrary nodes in the network can successfully communicate with a fidelity above a given threshold. This amounts to working out the classical problem of percolation with a limited path length. We find that this probability can be significant even for paths limited to few connections and that the results for standard (unlimited) percolation are soon recovered if the path length exceeds by a finite amount the average path length, which in complex networks generally scales logarithmically with the size of the network.
The realization of entanglement distribution (ED) in large-scale quantum networks (QNs), as a fundamental theoretical framework of quantum communication, faces significant challenges. Percolation theory, drawn from statistical physics, has been identified as a potential solution to this problem. Nevertheless, when addressing ED, percolation theory primarily relies on numerical simulations and approximate algorithms. This approach often lacks interpretability and controllability for many phenomena occurring during the ED process in large-scale networks, including emergent phenomena near the threshold. To address these limitations, in this paper, we {focus on} leveraging operator theory to construct a mathematical framework for entanglement percolation in series-parallel QNs. Through the application of operator-theoretic methodologies, we analyze several critical issues within the entanglement percolation process.