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arXiv:quant-ph/9809037 · Physical Review A

Macroscopically distinct quantum-superposition states as a bosonic code for amplitude damping

P. T. Cochrane, Gerard J Milburn, William J. Munro

Published Apr 1, 1999• 470 citations
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Abstract

We show how macroscopically distinct quantum superposition states (Schr\"odinger cat states) may be used as logical qubit encodings for the correction of spontaneous emission errors. Spontaneous emission causes a bit flip error, which is easily corrected by a standard error correction circuit. The method works arbitrarily well as the distance between the amplitudes of the superposed coherent states increases.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.59.2631

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Abstract Quantum superpositions of macroscopically distinct classical states—so-called Schrödinger cat states—are a resource for quantum metrology, quantum communication and quantum computation. In particular, the superpositions of two opposite-phase coherent states in an oscillator encode a qubit protected against phase-flip errors1, 2. However, several challenges have to be overcome for this concept to become a practical way to encode and manipulate error-protected quantum information. The protection must be maintained by stabilizing these highly excited states and, at the same time, the system has to be compatible with fast gates on the encoded qubit and a quantum non-demolition readout of the encoded information. Here we experimentally demonstrate a method for the generation and stabilization of Schrödinger cat states based on the interplay between Kerr nonlinearity and single-mode squeezing1, 3 in a superconducting microwave resonator4. We show an increase in the transverse relaxation time of the stabilized, error-protected qubit of more than one order of magnitude compared with the single-photon Fock-state encoding. We perform all single-qubit gate operations on timescales more than sixty times faster than the shortest coherence time and demonstrate single-shot readout of the protected qubit under stabilization. Our results showcase the combination of fast quantum control and robustness against errors, which is intrinsic to stabilized macroscopic states, as well as the potential of these states as resources in quantum information processing5–8.

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Mar 16, 2021•0 citations
We show how macroscopically distinct quantum superposition states (Schr"odinger cat states) may be used as logical qubit encodings for the correction of spontaneous emission errors. Spontaneous emission causes a bit flip error, which is easily corrected by a standard error correction circuit. The method works arbitrarily well as the distance between the amplitudes of the superposed coherent states increases.
We analyze a generalized quantum error-correction code against photon loss where a logical qubit is encoded into a subspace of a single oscillator mode that is spanned by distinct multicomponent cat states (coherent-state superpositions). We present a systematic code construction that includes the extension of an existing one-photon-loss code to higher numbers of losses. When subject to a photon loss (amplitude damping) channel, the encoded qubits are shown to exhibit a cyclic behavior where the code and error spaces each correspond to certain multiples of losses, half of which can be corrected. As another generalization we also discuss how to protect logical qudits against photon losses, and as an application we consider a one-way quantum communication scheme in which the encoded qubits are periodically recovered while the coherent-state amplitudes are restored as well at regular intervals.
Bosonic quantum codes redundantly encode quantum information in the states of a quantum harmonic oscillator, making it possible to detect and correct errors. Schr\"odinger cat codes---based on the superposition of two coherent states with opposite displacements---can correct phase-flip errors induced by dephasing, but they are vulnerable to bit-flip errors induced by particle loss. Here, we develop a bosonic quantum code relying on squeezed cat states, i.e., cat states made of a linear superposition of displaced-squeezed states. Squeezed cat states allow to partially correct errors caused by particle loss, while at the same time improving the protection against dephasing. We present a comprehensive analysis of the squeezed cat code, including protocols for code generation and elementary quantum gates. We characterize the effect of both particle loss and dephasing and develop an optimal recovery protocol that is suitable to be implemented on currently available quantum hardware. We show that with moderate squeezing, and using typical parameters of state-of-the-art quantum hardware platforms, the squeezed cat code has a resilience to particle loss errors that significantly outperforms that of the conventional cat code.
We present a systematic study of Schrödinger cat codes constructed from Kerr-type coherent states, including displaced Kerr coherent states and Barut--Girardello Kerr coherent states, each admitting two distinct families determined by the sign of the Kerr nonlinearity. By tuning the Kerr parameter and coherent-state amplitude, these states interpolate between su(2)\mathfrak{su}(2)su(2), su(1,1)\mathfrak{su}(1,1)su(1,1) coherent states, providing a unified and versatile foundation for this type of bosonic quantum error correction. Unlike standard two-component Schrödinger cat codes, where a single photon-loss event induces an uncorrectable bit-flip, the nonlinear phase-space structure of Kerr cat states enables simultaneous detection and correction of both photon-loss and dephasing errors within a unified recovery framework, with optimal recovery operations determined via convex optimization. We demonstrate that Kerr cat encodings significantly outperform conventional cat codes under combined loss and dephasing noise, and that judicious parameter optimization can suppress both error channels to a level that reduces the overhead of additional error correction layers. We further show that Kerr-deformed coherent-state manifolds under engineered two-photon driving emerge as effective steady states of driven-dissipative dynamics, with single-photon decoherence strongly suppressed and leakage outside the protected manifold appearing only as higher-order corrections in the deformation strength. Our extended formalism identifies generalized Kerr Schrödinger cat codes as promising candidates for fault-tolerant bosonic quantum computation in experimental platforms such as nonlinear photonics.
It is shown that encoding the state of a quantum computer (or other quantum information-processing device) for error correction has the effect of making its operating states macroscopically indistinguishable; all the more, the more ``stable'' the code is, that is, the more errors it can correct in each pass. It is also shown that for nondegenerate codes the expectation values of macroscopic observables in such encoded states are identical to those that would be obtained for a totally mixed state of maximum entropy, where again the degree of indistinguishability increases with the number of errors corrected by the code. The results can be used to estimate the decoherence rates for systems of qubits under certain forms of interaction with the environment: it is found that when the qubits are encoded all coherent superpositions decay, to lowest order, at the same rate, which scales more slowly with the number of physical qubits than the decoherence rate for macroscopic coherent superpositions (``Schr\"odinger cats'') of the bare qubits.
Abstract Superpositions of even and odd Schrödinger cat states, exposed to the amplitude damping noise, exhibit regularities in the time evolution that allow to encode a logical qubit. In the present scenario, we evaluate how the above-mentioned encoding procedure is affected by perturbations of the canonical coherent states that form the initial superposition. The above-mentioned regularities are maintained, over determined times, by perturbations of the canonical coherent states given by Wright generalized coherent states, but do not hold for perturbations given by Mittag-Leffler generalized coherent states. Thus, the above-mentioned encoding procedure can be performed with mutually orthogonal Wright generalized Schrödinger cat states exposed to the amplitude damping noise. The encoding procedure holds for special values of the label over time intervals that are determined by the distribution of the negative real zeros of the Wright function.
Abstract Quantum superpositions of macroscopically distinct classical states—so-called Schrödinger cat states—are a resource for quantum metrology, quantum communication and quantum computation. In particular, the superpositions of two opposite-phase coherent states in an oscillator encode a qubit protected against phase-flip errors1, 2. However, several challenges have to be overcome for this concept to become a practical way to encode and manipulate error-protected quantum information. The protection must be maintained by stabilizing these highly excited states and, at the same time, the system has to be compatible with fast gates on the encoded qubit and a quantum non-demolition readout of the encoded information. Here we experimentally demonstrate a method for the generation and stabilization of Schrödinger cat states based on the interplay between Kerr nonlinearity and single-mode squeezing1, 3 in a superconducting microwave resonator4. We show an increase in the transverse relaxation time of the stabilized, error-protected qubit of more than one order of magnitude compared with the single-photon Fock-state encoding. We perform all single-qubit gate operations on timescales more than sixty times faster than the shortest coherence time and demonstrate single-shot readout of the protected qubit under stabilization. Our results showcase the combination of fast quantum control and robustness against errors, which is intrinsic to stabilized macroscopic states, as well as the potential of these states as resources in quantum information processing5–8.