Implementing quantum gates as non-Abelian holonomies, a class of topologically protected unitary operators, is a particularly promising paradigm for the design of intrinsically stable quantum computers [1]. In contrast to dynamic phases, the geometric phase accumulated by a quantum system propagating through a Hilbert space
Hdepends exclusively on its path. In general, geometric phases can exhibit arbitrary dimensionality. Wilczek and Zee introduced the idea of multi-dimensional, non-Abelian geometric phases - so called holonomies [2]. Anandan later dropped the requirement of adiabaticity to create holonomies, that are truly time-independent [3]. Non-adiabatic holonomies rely on a subspace
Hgeoof the Hilbert-space that is spanned by states
{∣Φk⟩}kthat fulfill
(Φk∣H^∣Φj⟩=0, where
H^is the system's Hamiltonian. Restricting the propagation to
Hgeoensures parallel transport and, thus, a purely geometric phase (see Fig. 1a) [4], [5]. Quantum optics constitutes a particularly versatile platform for quantum information processing, and in particular for the construction of non-adiabatic holonomic quantum computers: In addition to integration and miniaturization provided by the platform, the bosonic nature of photons also conveniently allows for multiple excitations of the same mode, readily expanding
Hgeoand enabling the synthesis of holonomies from higher symmetry groups
U(N)as larger and more capable computational units [6], [7].
One of the most promising nascent technologies, quantum computation faces a major challenge: The need for stable computational building blocks. We present the quantum-optical realization of non-adiabatic holonomies that can be used as single-qubit quantum gates. The hallmark topological protection of non-Abelian geometric phases reduces the need for quantum error correction on a fundamental physical level, while the inherent non-adiabaticity of the structures paves the way for unprecedented miniaturization. To demonstrate their versatility, we realize the Hadamard and Pauli-X gates, experimentally show their non-Abelian nature, and combine them into a single-qubit quantum algorithm, the PQ penny flipover. The planar geometry of such designs enables them to be substituted for the conventional directional coupler meshes currently in wide-spread use in photonic quantum architectures across all platforms.
A practical quantum computer must be capable of performing high fidelity quantum gates on a set of quantum bits (qubits). In the presence of noise, the realization of such gates poses daunting challenges. Geometric phases, which possess intrinsic noise-tolerant features, hold the promise for performing robust quantum computation. In particular, quantum holonomies, i.e., non-Abelian geometric phases, naturally lead to universal quantum computation due to their non-commutativity. Although quantum gates based on adiabatic holonomies have already been proposed, the slow evolution eventually compromises qubit coherence and computational power. Here, we propose a general approach to speed up an implementation of adiabatic holonomic gates by using transitionless driving techniques and show how such a universal set of fast geometric quantum gates in a superconducting circuit architecture can be obtained in an all-geometric approach. Compared with standard non-adiabatic holonomic quantum computation, the holonomies obtained in our approach tends asymptotically to those of the adiabatic approach in the long run-time limit and thus might open up a new horizon for realizing a practical quantum computer.
Quantum computation has been shown to be superior to classical computation in solving some problems, and therefore can substantially change our life. However, the realization of quantum computation is still challenging, even if quantum technologies have been improved significantly. Two main obstacles to the realization of practical quantum computation are control errors and decoherence. Control errors are caused by inaccurate manipulations of quantum systems and decoherence is caused by the inevitable interaction between the system and its environment. Geometric phases are only dependent on evolution paths of quantum systems but independent of the evolution details and therefore quantum computation based on geometric phases, i.e., geometric quantum computation, is robust against control errors, benefiting the realization of practical quantum computation. The early proposals of geometric quantum computation are based on adiabatic geometric phases. These proposals require quantum systems to undergo adiabatic evolution, which makes quantum systems evolve for a long time. To circumvent this, nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation based on nonadiabatic Abelian geometric phases was proposed soon after. In 2012, nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation based on nonadiabatic non-Abelian geometric phases was proposed, which also circumvents long-time evolutions. Moreover, compared with nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation that uses the geometric phase as one parameter of a quantum gate, nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation uses the holonomic matrix itself as a quantum gate. This makes nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation possess whole-geometric property. Due to the merits of both geometric robustness and high-speed implementation without the limit of adiabatic evolution, nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation has been attracting much attention. Until now, much progress has been achieved in the field of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation. On one hand, various methods have been proposed to design more efficient nonadiabatic holonomic gates. Nonadiabatic holonomic gates were first realized by using resonant laser fields to drive a three-level system. After this, the single-shot proposal and the single-loop proposal were proposed, allowing us to realize one-qubit gates by a shorter path and thereby reducing the exposure time of nonadiabatic holonomic gates to the environment. To further shorten the exposure time, the path-shortening protocol was put forward, where nonadiabatic holonomic gates can be realized based on a class of extended evolution paths that are shorter than the former ones. Recently, a general approach of constructing Hamiltonians for nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation was put forward, by using which one can easily find a Hamiltonian making the quantum system evolve along a desired path so that nonadiabatic holonomic gates can be realized with an economical evolution time. On the other hand, various methods have been proposed to combine nonadiabatic holonomic gates and various decoherence-resilient methods, making the resulting schemes robust against both control errors and decoherence. The first proposal in this aspect is combining nonadiabatic holonomic gates and decoherence-free subspaces. Gradually, proposals combining nonadiabatic holonomic gates with noiseless subsystems, dynamical decoupling and surface codes were put forward. Last but not least, various proposals suitable for specific physical systems have been proposed and particularly various experimental platforms have been used to demonstrate nonadiabatic holonomic gates. This also significantly improves the development of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation. In this paper, we review the above research advances on nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation, aiming to help readers understand the main developments of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation.
Quantum gates induced by geometric phases are important for fault-tolerant quantum computing, due to their built-in resilience to noise, but their application is held back due to the complexity of physically implementing them. Based on conventional two-body interaction, this study uses single- and composite-loop techniques to tackle quantum computation with non-Abelian geometric phases. Furthermore, experiments verify that the composite-loop scheme can indeed improve the noise resilience of the implemented gates.