I present in this thesis the design, implementation and measurement results of a narrowband quantum light source based on cavity-enhanced Parametric Down-Conversion (PDC). Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion (SPDC) is the workhorse in the field of optical quantum information and quantum computation, yet it is not suitable for applications where deterministic nonlinearities are required due to its low spectral brightness. By placing the nonlinear crystal inside a cavity, the spectrum of down-conversion is actively modified, such that all the non-resonant modes of down-conversion experience destructive interference, while the resonant mode sees constructive interference, resulting in great enhancement in spectral brightness. I design and construct such a cavity-enhanced down-conversion source with record high spectral brightness, making it possible to use cold atoms as the interaction medium to achieve large nonlinearity between photons. The frequency of the photons is tunable and their coherence time is measured to be on the order of 10 nanoseconds, matching the lifetime of the excited state of typical alkali atoms. I characterize extensively the output of the source by measuring the second-order correlation function, quantifying two-photon indistinguishability, performing quantum state tomography of entangled states, and showing different statistics of the source. The unprecedented long coherence time of the photon pairs has also made possible the encoding of quantum information in the time domain of the photons. I present a theoretical proposal of multi-dimensional quantum information with such long-coherence-time photons and analyze its performance with realistic parameter settings. I implement this proposal with the quantum light source I have built, and show for the first time that a qutrit can be encoded in the time domain of the single photons. I demonstrate the coherence is preserved for the qutrit state, thus ruling out any classical probabilistic explanation of the experimental data. Such an encoding scheme provides an easy access to multi-dimensional systems and can be used as a versatile platform for many quantum information and quantum computation tasks.

A continuous time quantum walk consists of a particle moving among the vertices of a graph G. Its movement is governed by the structure of the graph. More formally, the adjacency matrix A is the Hamiltonian that determines the movement of our particle. Quantum walks have found a number of algorithmic applications, including unstructured search, element distinctness and Boolean formula evaluation. We will examine the properties of periodicity and state transfer. In particular, we will prove a result of the author along with Godsil, Kirkland and Severini, which states that pretty good state transfer occurs in a path of length n if and only if the n+1 is a power of two, a prime, or twice a prime. We will then examine the property of strong cospectrality, a necessary condition for pretty good state transfer from u to v. We will then consider quantum walks involving more than one particle. In addition to moving around the graph, these particles interact when they encounter one another. Varying the nature of the interaction term gives rise to a range of different behaviours. We will introduce two graph invariants, one using a continuous-time multi-particle quantum walk, and the other using a discrete-time quantum walk. Using cellular algebras, we will prove several results which characterize the strength of these two graph invariants. Let A be an association scheme of n × n matrices. Then, any element of A can act on the space of n × n matrices by left multiplication, right multiplication, and Schur multiplication. The set containing these three linear mappings for all elements of A generates an algebra. This is an example of a Jaeger algebra. Although these algebras were initially developed by Francois Jaeger in the context of spin models and knot invariants, they prove to be useful in describing multi-particle walks as well. We will focus on triply-regular association schemes, proving several new results regarding the representation of their Jaeger algebras. As an example, we present the simple modules of a Jaeger algebra for the 4-cube.

The idea to assimilate classical information theory with quantum mechanics resulted in the creation of a new field in physics known as quantum information. One of the first papers in this new field occurred in the early 1970's when Stephen Wiesner wrote the seminal manuscript titled: "Conjugate Coding". However, its importance wasn't imme- diately recognized and wasn't published until 1983. The 1980's and 1990's saw a number of important papers published in quantum information leading to the subfields of quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, quantum entanglement, distinguishability of quantum states, and quantum cloning. It was also during the 1980's, that a new model of computing, known as quantum computation, was beginning to emerge. It offered the possibility of solving certain problems faster than a classical computer by exploiting various properties of quantum mechanics. Research in this field was undoubtedly stimulated by a well known talk given by Richard Feynman in 1981 at MIT on quantum simulations. Both quantum information and quantum computation were initially developed with quantum discrete variables in mind. However, over the course of the last decade, there has been a significant increase in using quantum continuous variables. This thesis will focus on the topic of quantum information and quantum computation using continuous variables. Specifically, we will theoretically consider the cloning of continuous-variable entanglement, the distinguishability of Gaussian states, new continuous-variable quantum cryptography protocols and finally, the universality of quantum computation using continuous-variable cluster states.

The idea to assimilate classical information theory with quantum mechanics resulted in the creation of a new field in physics known as quantum information. One of the first papers in this new field occurred in the early 1970's when Stephen Wiesner wrote the seminal manuscript titled: "Conjugate Coding". However, its importance wasn't imme- diately recognized and wasn't published until 1983. The 1980's and 1990's saw a number of important papers published in quantum information leading to the subfields of quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, quantum entanglement, distinguishability of quantum states, and quantum cloning. It was also during the 1980's, that a new model of computing, known as quantum computation, was beginning to emerge. It offered the possibility of solving certain problems faster than a classical computer by exploiting various properties of quantum mechanics. Research in this field was undoubtedly stimulated by a well known talk given by Richard Feynman in 1981 at MIT on quantum simulations. Both quantum information and quantum computation were initially developed with quantum discrete variables in mind. However, over the course of the last decade, there has been a significant increase in using quantum continuous variables. This thesis will focus on the topic of quantum information and quantum computation using continuous variables. Specifically, we will theoretically consider the cloning of continuous-variable entanglement, the distinguishability of Gaussian states, new continuous-variable quantum cryptography protocols and finally, the universality of quantum computation using continuous-variable cluster states.

In thinking about quantum causality one would like to approach rigorous QFT from outside the perspective of QFT, which one expects to recover only in a specific physical domain of quantum gravity. This thesis considers issues in causality using Category Theory, and their application to field theoretic observables. It appears that an abstract categorical Machian principle of duality for a ribbon graph calculus has the potential to incorporate the recent calculation of particle rest masses by Brannen, as well as the Bilson-Thompson characterisation of the particles of the Standard Model. This thesis shows how Veneziano n point functions may be recovered in such a framework, using cohomological techniques inspired by twistor theory and recent MHV techniques. This distinct approach fits into a rich framework of higher operads, leaving room for a generalisation to other physical amplitudes. The utility of operads raises the question of a categorical description for the underlying physical logic. We need to consider quantum analogues of a topos. Grothendieck's concept of a topos is a genuine extension of the notion of a space that incorporates a logic internal to itself. Conventional quantum logic has yet to be put into a form of equal utility, although its logic has been formulated in category theoretic terms. Axioms for a quantum topos are given in this thesis, in terms of braided monoidal categories. The associated logic is analysed and, in particular, elements of linear vector space logic are shown to be recovered. The usefulness of doing so for ordinary quantum computation was made apparent recently by Coecke et al. Vector spaces underly every notion of algebra, and a new perspective on it is therefore useful. The concept of state vector is also readdressed in the language of tricategories.

This thesis reports high-fidelity near-field spatial microwave addressing of long-lived ⁴³Ca⁺ "atomic clock" qubits performed in a two-zone single-layer surface-electrode ion trap. Addressing is implemented by using two of the trap's integrated microwave electrodes, one in each zone, to drive single-qubit rotations in the zone we choose to address whilst interferometrically cancelling the microwave field at the neighbour (non-addressed) zone. Using this field-nulling scheme, we measure a Rabi frequency ratio between addressed and non-addressed zones of up to 1400, from which we calculate an addressing error (or a spin-flip probability on the qubit transition) of 1e-6. Off-resonant excitation out of the qubit state is a more significant source of error in this experiment, but we also demonstrate polarisation control of the microwave field at an error level of 2e-5, which, if combined with individual-ion addressing, would be sufficient to suppress off-resonant excitation errors to the 1e-9 level. Further, this thesis presents preliminary results obtained with a micron-scale coupled-microstrip differential antenna probe that can be scanned over an ion-trap chip to map microwave magnetic near fields. The probe is designed to enable the measurement of fields at tens of microns above electrode surfaces and to act as an effective characterisation tool, speeding up design-fabrication-characterisation cycles in the production of new prototype microwave ion-trap chips. Finally, a new multi-layer design for an ion-trap chip which displays, in simulations, a 100-fold improvement in addressing performance, is presented. The chip electrode structure is designed to use the cancelling effect of microwave return currents to produce Rabi frequency ratios of order 1000 between trap zones using a single microwave electrode (i.e. without the need for nulling fields). If realised, this chip could be used to drive individually addressed single-qubit operations on arrays of memory qubits in parallel and with high fidelity.

Fault tolerant quantum error correction is a procedure which satisfies the feature that if one of the gates in the procedure has failed then the failure causes at most one error in the output qubits of the encoded block. Quantum computer is based on the idea of two quantum state systems (Qubits). However, the majority of systems are constructed from higher than two- level subspace. Bad control and environmental interactions in these systems lead to leakage fault. Leakage errors are errors that couple the states inside a code subspace to the states outside a code subspace. One example for leakage fault is loss errors. Since the fault tolerant procedure may be unable to recognize the leakage fault because it was designed to deal with Pauli errors. In that case a single leakage fault might disrupt the fault tolerant technique. In this thesis we investigate the effect of ancilla losses on fault-tolerant quantum error correction in the [[7,1,3]] Steane code. We proved that both Shor and Steane methods are still fault tolerant if loss errors occur.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 cervatineto_a_me_sjrp.pdf: 2223044 bytes, checksum: 7fd8ad5a2c1a98b7bf95f401b2c2b358 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A teoria de informação e computação quântica é uma área de pesquisa que vem crescendo de maneira acentuada nos últimos anos devido aos inúmeros avanços tecnológicos que a acompanham. Neste mestrado começamos nossos estudos nesta área de pesquisa onde nos introduzimos e aprofundamos em seus aspectos intrigantes e peculiares. Dada nossa formação inicial na área de ciências da computação, inicialmente nos dedicamos a entender os aspectos fundamentais da mecânica quântica, assim como da teoria de informação e computação quântica. Focamos principalmente nos sistemas quânticos abertos, visto que o maior obstáculo a ser superado para o desenvolvimento destes computadores é o efeito deletério do meio ambiente. A princípio, concentramos nossos estudos nos ditos processos não-Markovianos, que apresentam efeitos de memória. Aprendemos sobre as novas medidas de não-Markovianidade, principalmente as medidas baseadas na dinâmica do emaranhamento e na dinâmica da informação mútua. Conseguimos publicar nosso primeiro resultado, onde provamos a inequivalência destas duas medidas de não-Markovianidade. De fato, mostramos que tais medidas, em geral, podem discordar sobre o tipo de processo dissipativo, sendo que uma pode reconhecê-lo como Markoviano enquanto outra pode reconhecê-lo como não-Markoviano. Como mostramos, esta inequivalência está diretamente relacionada com o refluxo de informação do meio ambiente para o sistema, e como mensuramos tal informação nestas duas medidas distintas de não-Markovianidade. Finalmente, na fase final de nossos estudos, tivemos como objetivo encontrar um meio de otimizar o controle das operações lógicas. Especificamente, trabalhamos com um método numérico utilizado em sistemas fechados para otimizar sistemas abertos Markovianos. Observamos que a eficácia deste método depende do tipo e intensidade da interferência do ambiente e das condições iniciais do sistema, obtendo melhores resultados em casos específicos. / Quantum information theory and computation is a field of research that has been growing acutely in the past few years due to the many technological improvements it follows. In this masters’ course, we began our studies in this area of research where we were introduced and immersed in its intriguing and peculiar aspects. Given our initial formation in computer science, we initially dedicated ourselves to understanding the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, as well as of information theory and quantum computation. Our main focus were open quantum systems, since the greatest obstacle to the development of these computers is the harmful effect of the environment. At first, we concentrated our studies in the so called non-Markovian processes, that show memory effects. We learned about the new non-Markovianity measurements, mainly those based on the dynamics of entanglement and mutual information. We managed to publish our first result, where we proved the inequivalence of these two measurements of non-Markovianity. Indeed, we showed that such measurements, in general, can disagree about the dissipative process, so that one can regard it as Markovian and the other as non-Markovian. As we demonstrated, this inequivalence is directly related to the information back-flow from the environment to the system, and how this information is measured by each of the two distinct measurements. Finally, in the last stage of our studies, our goal was to find a way to optimize the control of the logical operations. Specifically, we worked with a numeric method used in closed systems to optimize Markovian open systems. We have observed that the effectiveness of this method depends on the type and intensity of the interference of the environment and of its initial conditions, attaining better results for specific cases.

Este projeto se destina ao estudo de sistemas quânticos não relativísticos de dois, quatro e oito níveis de energia que descrevem partículas com spin s=1/2 sujeitas à ação de campos externos e interagentes entre si. São apresentadas soluções exatas para as equações que regem esses sistemas. Tais sistemas possuem uma vasta aplicação em diversas áreas da física, dentre as quais é possível destacar a computação quântica. Possíveis aplicações dos resultados são a construção de portas lógicas quânticas universais. Estas portas lógicas quânticas representam um elemento essencial no desenvolvimento dos chamados computadores quânticos. A análise e a implementação destes computadores quânticos exige a manipulação de sistemas de vários níveis, sujeitos a campos externos dependentes do tempo. Neste trabalho é apresentada a solução para o assim chamado Problema de Rabi, um particular problema de dois níveis. Um exemplo de solução para o sistema de quatro níveis, aqui relativo a um problema de dois spins também é discutido. Foram obtidas soluções exatas para sistemas de oito níveis cuja possível aplicação é a Correção Quântica de Erros. / This project aims to study the non-relativistic quantum systems of two, four and eight energy levels that describe particles with spin s=1/2 in external .elds and interacting with each other. We find exact analitical solutions for these systems. Such systems have extensive applications in various areas of physics, among which its possible to highlight quantum computing. Possible applications of the results are the construction of quantum universal logic gates.These quantum logic gates are an essential element in the development of so-called quantum computers. The analysis and implementation of quantum computers requires handling systems of various levels, subject to time-dependent external fields. This work presents a solution to the so-called Rabi problem, a particular problem at two levels. An example of a solution to the system of four levels, related to two spins problem is also investigated. We obtained exact solutions for systems of eight levels with possible application to the Quantum Error Correction.

Orientador: Carlile Campos Lavor / Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Matematica, Estatistica e Computação Cientifica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T22:21:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lima_LeandroBezerrade_M.pdf: 2935219 bytes, checksum: 44ab53f3f917eeeb707d820048631f0d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Neste trabalho, usando conceitos de álgebra linear e de operações quânticas, obtemos algumas propriedades de ruído quântico (para o caso particular de um q-bit), a fim de apresentar uma interpretação geométrica dos diferentes ruídos em canais quânticos, cujo processo é fundamental para a compreensão do processamento da informação quântica / Abstract: In this work, using concepts of linear algebra and quantum operations, we obtain some properties of quantum noise (for the one qubit case), in order to present a geometrical interpretation of different noises in quantum channels, which process is fundamental to the comprehension of the quantum information processing / Mestrado / Computação Quantica / Mestre em Matemática