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1. The Montevideo Interpretation: How the Inclusion of a Quantum Gravitational Notion of Time Solves the Measurement Problem

   https://doi.org/10.3390/universe6120236  

   Gambini, Rodolfo; Pullin, Jorge (December 2020, Universe)

   null (Ed.)

   We review the Montevideo Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is based on the use of real clocks to describe physics, using the framework that was recently introduced by Höhn, Smith, and Lock to treat the problem of time in generally covariant systems. These new methods, which solve several problems in the introduction of a notion of time in such systems, do not change the main results of the Montevideo Interpretation. The use of the new formalism makes the construction more general and valid for any system in a quantum generally covariant theory. We find that, as in the original formulation, a fundamental mechanism of decoherence emerges that allows for supplementing ordinary environmental decoherence and avoiding its criticisms. The recent results on quantum complexity provide additional support to the type of global protocols that are used to prove that within ordinary—unitary—quantum mechanics, no definite event—an outcome to which a probability can be associated—occurs. In lieu of this, states that start in a coherent superposition of possible outcomes always remain as a superposition. We show that, if one takes into account fundamental inescapable uncertainties in measuring length and time intervals due to general relativity and quantum mechanics, the previously mentioned global protocols no longer allow for distinguishing whether the state is in a superposition or not. One is left with a formulation of quantum mechanics purely defined in quantum mechanical terms without any reference to the classical world and with an intrinsic operational definition of quantum events that does not need external observers. 

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2. Computational projects with the Landau–Zener problem in the quantum mechanics classroom

   https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0139717  

   Guttieres, Livia A.; Petrović, Marko D.; Freericks, James K. (November 2023, American Journal of Physics)

   The Landau–Zener problem, where a minimum energy separation is passed with constant rate in a two-state quantum-mechanical system, is an excellent model quantum system for a computational project. It requires a low-level computational effort, but has a number of complex numerical and algorithmic issues that can be resolved through dedicated work. It can be used to teach computational concepts, such as accuracy, discretization, and extrapolation, and it reinforces quantum concepts of time-evolution via a time-ordered product and of extrapolation to infinite time via time-dependent perturbation theory. In addition, we discuss the concept of compression algorithms, which are employed in many advanced quantum computing strategies, and easy to illustrate with the Landau–Zener problem. 

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3. Time-reversal-based quantum metrology with many-body entangled states

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01653-5  

   Colombo, Simone; Pedrozo-Peñafiel, Edwin; Adiyatullin, Albert F.; Li, Zeyang; Mendez, Enrique; Shu, Chi; Vuletić, Vladan (July 2022, Nature Physics)

   Linear quantum measurements with independent particles are bounded by the standard quantum limit, which limits the precision achievable in estimating unknown phase parameters. The standard quantum limit can be overcome by entangling the particles, but the sensitivity is often limited by the final state readout, especially for complex entangled many-body states with non-Gaussian probability distributions. Here, by implementing an effective time-reversal protocol in an optically engineered many-body spin Hamiltonian, we demonstrate a quantum measurement with non-Gaussian states with performance beyond the limit of the readout scheme. This signal amplification through a time-reversed interaction achieves the greatest phase sensitivity improvement beyond the standard quantum limit demonstrated to date in any full Ramsey interferometer. These results open the field of robust time-reversal-based measurement protocols offering precision not too far from the Heisenberg limit. Potential applications include quantum sensors that operate at finite bandwidth, and the principle we demonstrate may also advance areas such as quantum engineering, quantum measurements and the search for new physics using optical-transition atomic clocks. 

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4. Efficient Distribution of Quantum Circuits

   https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2021.41  

   G_Sundaram, Ranjani; Gupta, Himanshu; Ramakrishnan, C R (January 2021, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik)

   Gilbert, Seth (Ed.)

   Quantum computing hardware is improving in robustness, but individual computers still have small number of qubits (for storing quantum information). Computations needing a large number of qubits can only be performed by distributing them over a network of smaller quantum computers. In this paper, we consider the problem of distributing a quantum computation, represented as a quantum circuit, over a homogeneous network of quantum computers, minimizing the number of communication operations needed to complete every step of the computation. We propose a two-step solution: dividing the given circuit’s qubits among the computers in the network, and scheduling communication operations, called migrations, to share quantum information among the computers to ensure that every operation can be performed locally. While the first step is an intractable problem, we present a polynomial-time solution for the second step in a special setting, and a O(log n)-approximate solution in the general setting. We provide empirical results which show that our two-step solution outperforms existing heuristic for this problem by a significant margin (up to 90%, in some cases). 

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5. Time-marching based quantum solvers for time-dependent linear differential equations

   https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2023-03-20-955  

   Fang, Di; Lin, Lin; Tong, Yu (March 2023, Quantum)

   The time-marching strategy, which propagates the solution from one time step to the next, is a natural strategy for solving time-dependent differential equations on classical computers, as well as for solving the Hamiltonian simulation problem on quantum computers. For more general homogeneous linear differential equations d d t | ψ ( t ) ⟩ = A ( t ) | ψ ( t ) ⟩ , | ψ ( 0 ) ⟩ = | ψ 0 ⟩ , a time-marching based quantum solver can suffer from exponentially vanishing success probability with respect to the number of time steps and is thus considered impractical. We solve this problem by repeatedly invoking a technique called the uniform singular value amplification, and the overall success probability can be lower bounded by a quantity that is independent of the number of time steps. The success probability can be further improved using a compression gadget lemma. This provides a path of designing quantum differential equation solvers that is alternative to those based on quantum linear systems algorithms (QLSA). We demonstrate the performance of the time-marching strategy with a high-order integrator based on the truncated Dyson series. The complexity of the algorithm depends linearly on the amplification ratio, which quantifies the deviation from a unitary dynamics. We prove that the linear dependence on the amplification ratio attains the query complexity lower bound and thus cannot be improved in the worst case. This algorithm also surpasses existing QLSA based solvers in three aspects: (1) A ( t ) does not need to be diagonalizable. (2) A ( t ) can be non-smooth, and is only of bounded variation. (3) It can use fewer queries to the initial state | ψ 0 ⟩ . Finally, we demonstrate the time-marching strategy with a first-order truncated Magnus series, which simplifies the implementation compared to high-order truncated Dyson series approach, while retaining the aforementioned benefits. Our analysis also raises some open questions concerning the differences between time-marching and QLSA based methods for solving differential equations. 

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