Entanglement generation is a cornerstone of quantum information science, yet its speed in Hermitian systems is fundamentally constrained by the coupling strength, a restriction known as the quantum speed limit. Here we demonstrate that this bound can be beaten by exploiting the unique topology of non-Hermitian systems near exceptional points (EPs). Using a pair of trapped ions, we engineer a parity-time symmetric Hamiltonian where the coalescence of eigenstates near the EP distorts the Hilbert space geometry, providing a shortcut for quantum state evolution. We observe that, as the system approaches the EP, the time required to generate a maximally entangled state is markedly reduced with respect to the limits imposed by the equivalent Hermitian interaction. We further uncover a fundamental physical trade-off whereby the acceleration of entanglement is intrinsically coupled to a reduction in the success probability, revealing the information cost of non-Hermitian speedup. Our results suggest that tailored dissipation, rather than being a source of decoherence, can serve as a powerful resource for accelerating quantum dynamics, offering a new paradigm for designing high-speed quantum gates and sensors in hardware-constrained platforms.
Entanglement generation is a cornerstone of quantum information science, yet its speed in Hermitian systems is fundamentally constrained by the coupling strength, a restriction known as the quantum speed limit. Here we demonstrate that this bound can be beaten by exploiting the unique topology of non-Hermitian systems near exceptional points (EPs). Using a pair of trapped ions, we engineer a parity-time symmetric Hamiltonian where the coalescence of eigenstates near the EP distorts the Hilbert space geometry, providing a shortcut for quantum state evolution. We observe that, as the system approaches the EP, the time required to generate a maximally entangled state is markedly reduced with respect to the limits imposed by the equivalent Hermitian interaction. We further uncover a fundamental physical trade-off whereby the acceleration of entanglement is intrinsically coupled to a reduction in the success probability, revealing the information cost of non-Hermitian speedup. Our results suggest that tailored dissipation, rather than being a source of decoherence, can serve as a powerful resource for accelerating quantum dynamics, offering a new paradigm for designing high-speed quantum gates and sensors in hardware-constrained platforms.
Breaking the entanglement-fidelity tradeoff in PT-symmetric quantum systems
A noteworthy discovery is that the minimal evolution time is smaller for parity-time ( PT )-symmetric systems compared to Hermitian setups. Moreover, there is a significant acceleration of two-qubit quantum entanglement preparation near an exceptional point (EP), or spectral coalescence, within such a system. Nevertheless, an important problem often overlooked for quantum EP-based devices is their fidelity, greatly affected by the process of dissipation. We identify an inherent trade-off relation between the degree of entanglement and fidelity, and demonstrate that this limitation can be effectively overcome by harnessing an active PT -symmetric system, which possesses balanced gain and loss, enabling maximal entanglement with rapid speed, high fidelity, and greater resilience to non-resonant and coupling strength errors. Two- to six-partite entanglement is prepared as the concrete example to show (i) how to break this inherent fidelity-entanglement trade-off even with non-balanced gain and loss, and its resilience against non-resonant errors, in contrast to passive PT -symmetric dynamics; (ii) achieving speedups of many orders of magnitude, in contrast to conventional Hermitian dynamics. We use this approach to prepare 10-qubit entanglement to show the generality of this method. These findings highlight the potential of truly PT -symmetric devices as a versatile platform for generating and manipulating diverse quantum resources, with implications for advancing quantum information technologies.
Although non-Hermitian dynamics near exceptional points (EPs) provide a route to accelerated entanglement generation, entanglement can also be generated far from EPs at comparable or even higher rates. However, the behavior of such entanglement in open systems remains largely unexplored, rendering it highly susceptible to environmental noise. Here, we study entanglement dynamics in two coupled qubits described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, where the dissipative rates are subject to stochastic noise. We focus on the regime away from EPs. Our approach demonstrates that, even in the presence of classical noise, rich dynamical control can be achieved, enabling highly efficient entanglement generation with a timescale that is significantly shorter than that of both Hermitian systems and EP-based non-Hermitian protocols. Additionally, the timescale is independent of the number of qubits, highlighting favorable scalability for multipartite entanglement generation and facilitating integration into future photonic quantum processors.
A noteworthy discovery is that the minimal evolution time is smaller for parity-time (PT) symmetric systems compared to Hermitian setups. Moreover, there is a significant acceleration of two-qubit quantum entanglement preparation near the exceptional point (EP), or spectral coalescence, within such system. Nevertheless, an important problem often overlooked for quantum EP-based devices is their fidelity, greatly affected by the process of dissipation or post-selection, creating an inherent trade-off relation between the degree of entanglement and fidelity. Our study demonstrates that this limitation can be effectively overcome by harnessing an active PT-symmetric system, which possesses balanced gain and loss, enabling maximal entanglement with rapid speed, high fidelity, and greater resilience to non-resonant errors. This new approach can efficiently prepare multi-qubit entanglement and use not only bipartite but also tripartite entanglement, as illustrative examples, even when the precise gain-loss balance is not strictly maintained. Our analytical findings are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations, confirming the potential of truly PT-devices as a powerful tool for creating and engineering diverse quantum resources for applications in quantum information technology
Non-Hermitian quantum systems have attracted significant interest in recent years due to the presence of unique spectral singularities in which eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce. Those singularities are known as exceptional points (EPs). The drastic changes of the non-Hermitian systems around their EPs have led to unique entanglement dynamics, which remained elusive until quite recently. In this work, we theoretically investigate the robustness of multipartite entanglement induced by EPs of the passive PT -symmetric non-Hermitian superconducting qubits, both in stand-alone configurations and hybrid setups with Hermitian qubits. In particular, we consider the qubits with both all-to-all and nearest-neighbor couplings under uniform and nonuniform coupling strengths. Our results reveal that non-Hermitian qubits with all-to-all coupling generate GHZ states, while those with nearest-neighbor interactions produce W states. These entangled states are resilient to nonuniform couplings, off-resonant driving fields, and decoherence effects. Moreover, the hybrid configurations combining Hermitian and non-Hermitian qubits indicate the necessity of EPs for rapidly generating and maintaining genuine multipartite entanglement. Additionally, driving the PT -symmetric qubits with a strong Rabi frequency can help sustain the entanglement over time by countering losses, while strong interqubit coupling favors the entangled states in the low dissipation regime. We also demonstrate that increasing the number of non-Hermitian qubits speeds up multipartite entanglement generation due to enhanced collective interactions. These findings reveal that exploiting non-Hermitian systems and their associated EPs is beneficial for generating robust and genuine entangled states which are useful for both fundamental studies and quantum technologies.
Hermiticity in quantum mechanics ensures the reality of energies, while parity-time symmetry offers an alternative route. Interestingly, in a three-level system, parity-time symmetry-breaking can lead to third-order exceptional points with distinctive topological properties. Experimentally implementing this in open quantum systems requires two well-controlled loss channels, resulting in dynamics that challenges a pure non-Hermitian description. Here we address the challenge by employing two approaches to eliminate the effects of quantum jump terms, ensuring pure non-Hermitian dynamics in a dissipative trapped ion. Based on this, we experimentally observe a parity-time symmetry-breaking-induced third-order exceptional point through non-Hermitian absorption spectroscopy. Quantum state tomography further demonstrates the coalescence of three eigenstates into a single eigenstate at the exceptional point. Finally, we identify an intrinsic third-order Liouvillian exceptional point via quench dynamics. Our experiments can be extended to observe other non-Hermitian phenomena involving multiple dissipative levels and potentially find applications in quantum information technology. Parity-time symmetry breaking and related non-Hermitian phenomena, such as high-order exceptional points, have attracted significant interest across various experimental platforms. Here the authors demonstrate a third-order exceptional point induced by parity-time symmetry breaking in a dissipative trapped ion.
Abstract The nontrivial degeneracies in non-Hermitian systems, exceptional points (EPs), have attracted extensive attention due to intriguing phenomena. Compared with commonly observed second-order EPs, high-order EPs show rich physics due to their extended dimension and parameter space, ranging from the coalescence of EPs into higher-order EPs to potential applications in topological properties. However, these features also pose challenges in controlling multiple coherent and dissipative elements in a scaled system. Here we experimentally demonstrate a native programmable control to simulate a high-order non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in a multi-dimensional trapped ion system. We simulate a series of non-Hermitian systems with varied parameters and observe the coalescence of second-order EPs into fourth-order EPs. Our results pave the way for scalable quantum simulation of high-dimensional dissipative systems and can be beneficial for the application of high-order EPs in quantum sensing and quantum control.