Physics of Quantum Information

May 27, 2024, 8:00 a.m. → May 31, 2024, 5:00 p.m. America/Toronto

PI/1-100 - Theatre (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

The dialogue between quantum information and quantum matter has fostered notable progress in both fields. Quantum information science has revolutionized our understanding of the structure of quantum many-body systems and novel forms of out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics. The advances of quantum matter have provided novel paradigms and platforms for quantum information processing.
This conference aims to bring together leading experts at the intersections of quantum information and quantum matter. Key topics include: (i) quantum error correction, (ii) quantum dynamics, and (iii) quantum simulation.

Organizers:

Timothy Hsieh, Perimeter Institute
Beni Yoshida, Perimeter Institute
Zhi Li, Perimeter Institute
Tsung-Cheng Lu, Perimeter Institute
Meenu Kumari, National Research Council Canada

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Monday, May 27

8:30 a.m. → 9:00 a.m. Registration

9:00 a.m. → 9:15 a.m. OPENING REMARKS

9:15 a.m. → 10:15 a.m. Repetition Code Revisited

"Optimal fault tolerant error correction thresholds for CCS codes are traditionally obtained via mappings to classical statistical mechanics models, for example the 2d random bond Ising model for the 1d repetition code subject to bit-flip noise and faulty measurements. Here, we revisit the 1d repetition code, and develop an exact “stabilizer expansion” of the full time evolving density matrix under repeated rounds of (incoherent and coherent) noise and faulty stabilizer measurements. This
expansion enables computation of the coherent information, indicating whether encoded information is retained under the noisy dynamics, and generates a dual representation of the (replicated) 2d random bond Ising model. However, in the fully generic case with both coherent noise and weak measurements, the stabilizer expansion breaks down (as does the canonical 2d random bond Ising model mapping). If the measurement results are thrown away all encoded information is lost
at long times, but the evolution towards the trivial steady state reveals a signature of a quantum transition between an over and under damped regime. Implications for generic noisy dynamics in other CCS codes will be mentioned, including open issues."

Speaker: Matthew Fisher (UC Santa Barbara)

10:15 a.m. → 11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. → 12:00 p.m. Separability as a window into many-body mixed-state phases

Ground states as well as Gibbs states of many-body quantum Hamiltonians have been studied extensively for some time. In contrast, the landscape of mixed states that do not correspond to a system in thermal equilibrium is relatively less explored. In this talk I will motivate a rather coarse characterization of mixed quantum many-body states using the idea of "separability", i.e., whether a mixed state can be expressed as an ensemble of short-range entangled pure states. I will discuss several examples of decoherence-driven phase transitions from a separability viewpoint, and argue that such a framework also provides a potentially new view on Gibbs states. Based on work with Yu-Hsueh Chen. References: 2309.11879, 2310.07286, 2403.06553.

Speaker: Tarun Grover (UC San Diego)

12:00 p.m. → 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. → 2:00 p.m. Discussion

2:00 p.m. → 3:00 p.m. Stability of mixed-state quantum phases via finite Markov length

For quantum phases of Hamiltonian ground states, the energy gap plays a central role in ensuring the stability of the phase as long as the gap remains finite. In this talk we introduce Markov length, the length scale at which the quantum conditional mutual information (CMI) decays exponentially, as an equally essential quantity characterizing mixed-state phases and transitions. For a state evolving under a local Lindbladian, we argue that if its Markov length remains finite along the evolution, then it remains in the same phase, meaning there exists another quasi-local Lindbladian evolution that can reverse the former one. We apply this diagnostic to toric code subject to decoherence and show that the Markov length is finite everywhere except at its decodability transition, at which it diverges. This implies that the mixed state phase transition coincides with the decodability transition and also suggests a quasi-local decoding channel.

Speaker: Shengqi Sang (Perimeter Institute)

3:00 p.m. → 3:30 p.m. Break

3:30 p.m. → 4:30 p.m. The rise and fall of mixed-state entanglement: measurement, feedback, and decoherence

Long-range entangled mixed states are exotic many-body systems that exhibit intrinsically quantum phenomena despite extensive classical fluctuations. In the first part of the talk, I will show how they can be efficiently prepared with measurements and unitary feedback conditioned on the measurement outcome. For example, symmetry-protected topological phases can be universally converted into mixed states with long-range entanglement, and certain gapped topological states such as Chern insulators can be converted into mixed states with critical correlations in the bulk. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss how decoherence can drive interesting mixed-state entanglement transitions. By focusing on the toric codes in various space dimensions subject to certain types of decoherence, I will present the exact results of entanglement negativity, from which the universality class of entanglement transitions can be completely characterized.

Speaker: Tsung-Cheng Peter Lu (Perimeter Institute)

Tuesday, May 28

9:00 a.m. → 10:00 a.m. Universal bound on topological gap

I will show the existence of a universal upper bound on the energy gap of topological states of matter, such as (integer and fractional) Chern insulators, quantum spin liquids and topological superconductors. This gap bound turns out to be fairly tight for the Chern insulator states that were predicted and observed in twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides. Next, I will show a universal relation between the energy gap and dielectric constant of solids. These results are derived from fundamental principles of physics and therefore apply to all electronic materials. I will end by outlining new research directions involving topology, quantum geometry and energy.

Speaker: Liang Fu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT))

10:00 a.m. → 11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. → 12:00 p.m. Mapping ground states to string-nets

Two gapped ground states of lattice Hamiltonians are in the same quantum phase of matter, or topological phase, if they can be connected by a constant-depth circuit. It is conjectured that in two spatial dimensions, two gapped ground states with gappable boundary are in the same phase if and only if they have the same anyon contents, which are described by a unitary modular tensor category. We prove this conjecture for a class of states that obey a strict form of area law. Our main technical development is to transform these states into string-net wavefunctions using constant-depth circuits.

Speaker: Daniel Ranard (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT))

12:00 p.m. → 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. → 2:00 p.m. Discussion

2:00 p.m. → 3:00 p.m. Sequential Quantum Circuit

Entanglement in many-body quantum systems is notoriously hard to characterize due to the exponentially many parameters involved to describe the state. On the other hand, we are usually not interested in all the microscopic details of the entanglement attern but only some of its global features. It turns out, quantum circuits of different levels of complexity provide a useful way to establish a hierarchy among many-body entanglement structures. A circuit of a finite depth generates only short range entanglement which is in the same gapped phase as an unentangled product state. A linear depth circuit on the other hand can lead to chaos beyond thermal equilibrium. In this talk, we discuss how to reach the interesting regime in between that contains nontrivial gapped orders. This is achieved using the Sequential Quantum Circuit — a circuit of linear depth but with each layer acting only on one subregion in the system. We discuss how the Sequential Quantum Circuit can be used to generate nontrivial gapped states with long range correlation or long range entanglement, perform renormalization group transformation in foliated fracton order, and create defect excitations inside the bulk of a higher dimensional topological state.

Speaker: Xie Chen (California Institute of Technology)

3:00 p.m. → 3:30 p.m. Break

3:30 p.m. → 4:30 p.m. How much entanglement is needed for quantum error correction?

It is commonly believed that logical states of quantum error-correcting codes have to be highly entangled such that codes capable of correcting more errors require more entanglement to encode a qubit. Here we show that this belief may or may not be true depending on a particular code. To this end, we characterize a tradeoff between the code distance d quantifying the number of correctable errors, and geometric entanglement of logical states quantifying their maximal overlap with product states or more general ``topologically trivial" states. The maximum overlap is shown to be exponentially small in d for three families of codes: (1) low-density parity check (LDPC) codes with commuting check operators, (2) stabilizer codes, and (3) codes with a constant encoding rate. Equivalently, the geometric entanglement of any logical state of these codes grows at least linearly with d. On the opposite side, we also show that this distance-entanglement tradeoff does not hold in general. For any constant d and k (number of logical qubits), we show there exists a family of codes such that the geometric entanglement of some logical states approaches zero in the limit of large code length.

Speaker: Zhi Li (Perimeter Institute)

4:30 p.m. → 6:00 p.m. Poster Session

Wednesday, May 29

9:00 a.m. → 10:00 a.m. Entanglement-based probes of topological phases of matter

I will discuss recent progress in understanding entanglement-based probes of 2D topological phases of matter. These probes are supposed to extract universal topological information from a many-body ground state. Specifically, I will discuss (1) the topological entanglement entropy, which is supposed to give information about the number of anyon excitations, and (2) the modular commutator, which is supposed to tell us the chiral central charge.

Speaker: Michael Levin (University of Chicago)

10:00 a.m. → 11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. → 12:00 p.m. Certifying almost all quantum states with few single-qubit measurements

Certifying that an n-qubit state synthesized in the lab is close to the target state is a fundamental task in quantum information science. However, existing rigorous protocols either require deep quantum circuits or exponentially many single-qubit measurements. In this work, we prove that almost all n-qubit target states, including those with exponential circuit complexity, can be certified from only O(n^2) single-qubit measurements. This result is established by a new technique that relates certification to the mixing time of a random walk. Our protocol has applications for benchmarking quantum systems, for optimizing quantum circuits to generate a desired target state, and for learning and verifying neural networks, tensor networks, and various other representations of quantum states using only single-qubit measurements. We show that such verified representations can be used to efficiently predict highly non-local properties that would otherwise require an exponential number of measurements. We demonstrate these applications in numerical experiments with up to 120 qubits, and observe advantage over existing methods such as cross-entropy benchmarking (XEB).

Speaker: Hsin-Yuan (Robert) Huang (Google Quantum AI)

12:00 p.m. → 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. → 2:00 p.m. Discussion

2:00 p.m. → 3:00 p.m. Free Time // Perimeter Institute Colloquium - VIRTUAL

To watch the Colloquium talk, please sign in to Zoom
https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91694101859?pwd=K29PM1BWL1dhVGMvb3p4dHBaVEFndz09

3:00 p.m. → 3:30 p.m. Break

3:30 p.m. → 4:30 p.m. Defining stable steady-state phases of open systems

The steady states of dynamical processes can exhibit stable nontrivial phases, which can also serve as fault-tolerant classical or quantum memories. For Markovian quantum (classical) dynamics, these steady states are extremal eigenvectors of the non-Hermitian operators that generate the dynamics, i.e., quantum channels (Markov chains). However, since these operators are non-Hermitian, their spectra are an unreliable guide to dynamical relaxation timescales or to stability against perturbations. We propose an alternative dynamical criterion for a steady state to be in a stable phase, which we name uniformity: informally, our criterion amounts to requiring that, under sufficiently small local perturbations of the dynamics, the unperturbed and perturbed steady states are related to one another by a finite-time dissipative evolution. We show that this criterion implies many of the properties one would want from any reasonable definition of a phase. We prove that uniformity is satisfied in a canonical classical cellular automaton, and provide numerical evidence that the gap determines the relaxation rate between nearby steady states in the same phase, a situation we conjecture holds generically whenever uniformity is satisfied. We further conjecture some sufficient conditions for a channel to exhibit uniformity and therefore stability.

Speaker: Sarang Gopalakrishnan (Princeton University)

4:30 p.m. → 6:00 p.m. Discussion

6:00 p.m. → 8:00 p.m. Banquet

Thursday, May 30

9:00 a.m. → 10:00 a.m. The Physics of LDPC Codes

Speaker: Vedika Khemani (Stanford University)

10:00 a.m. → 11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. → 12:00 p.m. Approximate Quantum Codes From Long Wormholes

We discuss families of approximate quantum error correcting codes which arise as the nearly-degenerate ground states of certain quantum many-body Hamiltonians composed of non-commuting terms. For exact codes, the conditions for error correction can be formulated in terms of the vanishing of a two-sided mutual information in a low-temperature thermofield double state. We consider a notion of distance for approximate codes obtained by demanding that this mutual information instead be small, and we evaluate this mutual information for the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model and for a family of low-rank SYK models. After an extrapolation to nearly zero temperature, we find that both kinds of models produce fermionic codes with constant rate as the number, N, of fermions goes to infinity. For SYK, the distance scales as N^1/2, and for low-rank SYK, the distance can be arbitrarily close to linear scaling, e.g. N^.99, while maintaining a constant rate. We also consider an analog of the no low-energy trivial states property and show that these models do have trivial low-energy states in the sense of adiabatic continuity. We discuss a holographic model of these codes in which the large code distance is a consequence of the emergence of a long wormhole geometry in a simple model of quantum gravity

Speaker: Brian Swingle (Brandeis University)

12:00 p.m. → 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. → 2:00 p.m. Discussion

2:00 p.m. → 3:00 p.m. Typical eigenstate entanglement entropy as a diagnostic of quantum chaos and integrability

Quantum-chaotic systems are known to exhibit eigenstate thermalization and to generically thermalize under unitary dynamics. In contrast, quantum-integrable systems exhibit a generalized form of eigenstate thermalization and need to be described using generalized Gibbs ensembles after equilibration. I will discuss evidence that the entanglement properties of highly excited eigenstates of quantum-chaotic and quantum-integrable systems are fundamentally different. They both exhibit a typical bipartite entanglement entropy whose leading term scales with the volume of the subsystem. However, while the coefficient is constant and maximal in quantum-
chaotic models, in integrable models it depends on the fraction of the system that is traced out. The latter is typical in random Gaussian pure states. I will also discuss the nature of the subleading corrections that emerge as a consequence of the presence of abelian and nonabelian symmetries in such models.

Speaker: Marcos Rigol (Penn State University)

3:00 p.m. → 3:30 p.m. Break

3:30 p.m. → 4:30 p.m. Unraveling quantum many-body scars: Insights from collective spin models

Quantum many-body scars (QMBS) are atypical eigenstates of chaotic systems that are characterized by sub-volume or area law entanglement as opposed to the volume law present in the bulk of the eigenstates. The term, QMBS, was coined using heuristic correlations with quantum scars - eigenstates with high probability density around unstable classical periodic orbits in quantum systems with a semiclassical description. Through the study of entanglement in a multi-qubit system with a semiclassical description, quantum kicked top (QKT), we show that the properties of QMBS states strongly correlate with the eigenstates corresponding to the very few stable periodic orbits in a chaotic system as opposed to quantum scars in such systems. Specifically, we find that eigenstates associated with stable periodic orbits of small periodicity in chaotic regime exhibit markedly different entanglement scaling compared to chaotic quantum states, while quantum scar eigenstates demonstrate entanglement scaling resembling that of chaotic quantum states. Our findings reveal that quantum many-body scars and quantum scars are distinct. This work is in collaboration with Cheng-Ju Lin and Amirreza Negari.

Speaker: Meenu Kumari (National Research Council Canada)

Friday, May 31

9:00 a.m. → 10:00 a.m. Landscape of Measurement-Prepared Tensor Networks and Decohered Non-Abelian Topological Order

What is the structure of many-body quantum phases and transitions in the presence of non-unitary elements, such as decoherence or measurements? In this talk we explore two new directions. First, recent works have shown that even if one starts with an ideal preparation of topological order such as the toric code, decoherence can lead to interesting mixed states with subtle phase transitions [e.g., Fan et al, arXiv:2301.05689]. Motivated by a recent experimental realization of non-Abelian topological order [Iqbal et al, Nature 626 (2024)], we generalize this to decohered non-Abelian states, based on work with Pablo Sala and Jason Alicea [to appear]. Second, we study whether and how one can prepare pure states which are already detuned from ideal fixed-point cases---with tunable correlation lengths. This turns out to be possible for large classes of tensor network states which can be deterministically prepared using finite-depth measurement protocols. This is based on two recent works with Rahul Sahay [arXiv:2404.17087; arXiv:2404.16753].

Speaker: Ruben Verresen (Harvard / MIT)

10:00 a.m. → 11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. → 12:00 p.m. Fault tolerance with the ZX-calculus and fusion complexes

Quantum error correction methods for qubit technologies such as ions, photons, or superconducting qubits can appear very different at first glance. Moreover, as more detailed error models are accounted for, the relationship to the abstract models of fault tolerance can appear to become more distant. In this talk I will discuss two unifying frameworks which connect hardware specific models more closely to the underlying code structures, which can help enable QEC development. First I will introduce a unifying framework for fault tolerance based on the ZX calculus (arXiv:2303.08829) and show how it allows us to view circuit-based, measurement-based, fusion-based quantum computation, and Floquet codes as different flavors of the same underlying stabilizer fault-tolerance structure. Secondly I will introduce fusion complexes (arXiv:2308.07844) which allows a topological interpretation of fault tolerance even under circuit level error models. Both of these frameworks are tools that can aid in the design of quantum error correction methods under hardware-focussed models, and I will give some examples of this applied to the design of photonic architectures.

Speaker: Naomi Nickerson (PSI Quantum)

12:00 p.m. → 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. → 2:00 p.m. Universal quantum computation in two dimensions by converting between the toric code and a non-abelian quantum double

In this talk, I will explain how to implement fault-tolerant non-Clifford gates in copies of toric code in two dimensions achieved by transiently switching to a non-Abelian topologically ordered phase by expanding earlier results by Bombin [arXiv.1810.09571] and Brown [SciAdv.aay4929]. This addresses the challenge of performing universal fault-tolerant quantum computation in purely two spatial dimensions and shows a new approach to quantum computation using non-Abelian phases.
This talk is based on upcoming work in collaboration with A. Bauer, B.Brown, J. Magdalena de la Fuente, M. Webster and D. Williamson.

Speaker: Margarita Davydova (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT))

2:00 p.m. → 2:30 p.m. Break

2:30 p.m. → 3:30 p.m. Emergent symmetries and their application to logical gates in quantum LDPC codes

In this talk, I’ll discuss the deep connection between emergent k-form symmetries and transversal logical gates in quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. I’ll then present a parallel fault-tolerant quantum computing scheme for families of homological quantum LDPC codes defined on 3-manifolds with constant or almost-constant encoding
rate using the underlying higher symmetries in our recent work. We derive a generic formula for a transversal T gate on color codes defined on general 3-manifolds, which acts as collective non-Clifford logical CCZ gates on any triplet of logical qubits with their logical-X membranes having a Z2 triple intersection at a single point. The triple intersection number is a topological invariant, which also arises in the path integral of the emergent higher symmetry operator in a topological quantum field theory (TQFT): the (Z2) 3 gauge theory. Moreover, the transversal S gate of the color code
corresponds to a higher-form symmetry supported on a codimension-1 submanifold, giving rise to exponentially many addressable and parallelizable logical CZ gates. Both symmetries are related to gauged SPT defects in the (Z2) 3 gauge theory. We have then developed a generic formalism to compute the triple intersection invariants for general 3-
manifolds. We further develop three types of LDPC codes supporting such logical gates with constant or almost-constant encoding rate and logarithmic distance. Finally, I’ll point out a connection between the gauged SPT defects in the 6D color code and a recently discovered non-Abelian self-correcting quantum memory in 5D.

Reference: arXiv:2310.16982, arXiv:2208.07367, arXiv:2405.11719.

Speaker: Guanyu Zhu (IBM)

3:30 p.m. → 4:00 p.m. CONCLUDING REMARKS