Concatenated Quantum Codes

One of the main problems for the future of practical quantum computing is to stabilize the computation against unwanted interactions with the environment and imperfections in the applied operations. Existing proposals for quantum memories and quantum channels require gates with asymptotically zero error to store or transmit an input quantum state for arbitrarily long times or distances with fixed error. In this report a method is given which has the property that to store or transmit a qubit with maximum error $\epsilon$ requires gates with error at most $c\epsilon$ and storage or channel elements with error at most $\epsilon$, independent of how long we wish to store the state or how far we wish to transmit it. The method relies on using concatenated quantum codes with hierarchically implemented recovery operations. The overhead of the method is polynomial in the time of storage or the distance of the transmission. Rigorous and heuristic lower bounds for the constant $c$ are given.Comment: 16 pages in PostScirpt, the paper is also avalaible at http://qso.lanl.gov/qc

The Least Action Principle And The Spin Of Galaxies In The Local Group

Using Peebles' least action principle, we determine trajectories for the galaxies in the Local Group and the more massive galaxies in the Local Neighbourhood. We deduce the resulting angular momentum for the whole of the Local Group and study the tidal force acting on the Local Group and its galaxies. Although Andromeda and the Milky Way dominate the tidal force acting on each other during the present epoch, we show that there is a transition time at $z\approx 1$ before which the tidal force is dominated by galaxies outside the Local Group in each case. This shows that the Local Group can not be considered as an isolated system as far as the tidal forces are concerned. We integrate the tidal torques acting on the Milky Way and Andromeda and derive their spin angular momenta, obtaining results which are comparable with observation.Comment: 16 pages (5 figures available on request), plain TeX, IoA-93-01-AM

Experimental simulation of anyonic fractional statistics with an NMR quantum information processor

Anyons have exotic statistical properties, fractional statistics, differing from Bosons and Fermions. They can be created as excitations of some Hamiltonian models. Here we present an experimental demonstration of anyonic fractional statistics by simulating a version of the Kitaev spin lattice model proposed by Han et al[Phys. Rev.Lett. 98, 150404 (2007)] using an NMR quantum information processor. We use a 7-qubit system to prepare a 6-qubit pseudopure state to implement the ground state preparation and realize anyonic manipulations, including creation, braiding and anyon fusion. A $\pi/2\times 2$ phase difference between the states with and without anyon braiding, which is equivalent to two successive particle exchanges, is observed. This is different from the $\pi\times 2$ and $2\pi \times 2$ phases for Fermions and Bosons after two successive particle exchanges, and is consistent with the fractional statistics of anyons.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Quantum Error Correction with Mixed Ancilla Qubits

Most quantum error correcting codes are predicated on the assumption that there exists a reservoir of qubits in the state $\ket{0}$, which can be used as ancilla qubits to prepare multi-qubit logical states. In this report, we examine the consequences of relaxing this assumption, and propose a method to increase the fidelity produced by a given code when the ancilla qubits are initialized in mixed states, using the same number of qubits, at most doubling the number of gates. The procedure implemented consists of altering the encoding operator to include the inverse of the unitary operation used to correct detected errors after decoding. This augmentation will be especially useful in quantum computing architectures that do not possess projective measurement, such as solid state NMRQIP.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure