Vol.7 No.3 March 1, 2007

Research Articles: 
How to build a 300 bit, 1 Giga-operation quantum computer (pp171-183) PDF
          A.M. Steane
Experimental methods for laser control of trapped ions have reached sufficient maturity that it is possible to set out in detail a design for a large quantum computer based on such methods, without any major omissions or uncertainties. The main features of such a design are given, with a view to identifying areas for study. The machine is based on 13000 ions moved via 20$\mu$m vacuum channels around a chip containing 160000 electrodes and associated classical control circuits; 1000 laser beam pairs are used to manipulate the hyperfine states of the ions and drive fluorescence for readout. The computer could run a quantum algorithm requiring $10^9$ logical operations on 300 logical qubits, with a physical gate rate of 1 MHz and a logical gate rate of 8 kHz, using methods for quantum gates that have already been experimentally implemented. Routes for faster operation are discussed.

Cluster state quantum computation for many-level systems (pp184-208) PDF
          W. Hall   
The cluster state model for quantum computation [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{86}, 5188] outlines a scheme that allows one to use measurement on a large set of entangled quantum systems in what is known as a cluster state to undertake quantum computations. The model itself and many works dedicated to it involve using entangled qubits. In this paper we consider the issue of using entangled qudits instead. We present a complete framework for cluster state quantum computation using qudits, which not only contains the features of the original qubit model but also contains the new idea of adaptive computation: via a change in the classical computation that helps to correct the errors that are inherent in the model, the implemented quantum computation can be changed. This feature arises through the extra degrees of freedom that appear when using qudits. Finally, for prime dimensions, we give a very explicit description of the model, making use of mutually unbiased bases.

Convex hulls of varieties and entanglement measures based on the roof construction (pp209-227) PDF
          T.J. Osborne   
In this paper we study the problem of calculating the convex hull of certain affine algebraic varieties. As we explain, the motivation for considering this problem is that certain pure-state measures of quantum entanglement, which we call \emph{polynomial entanglement measures}, can be represented as affine algebraic varieties. We consider the evaluation of certain mixed-state extensions of these polynomial entanglement measures, namely \emph{convex and concave roofs}. We show that the evaluation of a roof-based mixed-state extension is equivalent to calculating a hyperplane which is multiply tangent to the variety in a number of places equal to the number of terms in an optimal decomposition for the measure. In this way we provide an \emph{implicit} representation of optimal decompositions for mixed-state entanglement measures based on the roof construction.

Universal quantum circuit for n-qubit quantum gate: a programmable quantum gate (pp228-242) PDF
          P.B.M. Sousa and R.V. Ramos    
Quantum computation has attracted much attention, among other things, due to its potentialities to solve classical NP problems in polynomial time. For this reason, there has been a growing interest to build a quantum computer. One of the basic steps is to implement the quantum circuit able to realize a given unitary operation. This task has been solved using decomposition of unitary matrices in simpler ones till reach quantum circuits having only single-qubits and CNOTs gates. Usually the goal is to find the minimal quantum circuit able to solve a given problem. In this paper we go in a different direction. We propose a general quantum circuit able to implement any specific quantum circuit by just setting correctly the parameters. In other words, we propose a programmable quantum circuit. This opens the possibility to construct a real quantum computer where several different quantum operations can be realized in the same hardware. The configuration is proposed and its optical implementation is discussed.

Optimal fingerprinting strategies with one-sided error (pp243-264) PDF
          A.J. Scott, J. Walgate, and B.C. Sanders
Fingerprinting enables two parties to infer whether the messages they hold are the same or different when the cost of communication is high: each message is associated with a smaller fingerprint and comparisons between messages are made in terms of their fingerprints alone. In the simultaneous message passing model, it is known that fingerprints composed of quantum information can be made exponentially smaller than those composed of classical information. For small message lengths, we present constructions of optimal classical fingerprinting strategies with one-sided error, in both the one-way and simultaneous message passing models, and provide bounds on the worst-case error probability with the help of extremal set theory. The performance of these protocols is then compared to that for quantum fingerprinting strategies constructed from spherical codes, equiangular tight frames and mutually unbiased bases.

Quantum Gaussian channels with additive correlated classical noise (pp265-272) PDF
          G. Ruggeri and S. Mancini
We provide a model to study memory effects in quantum Gaussian channels with additive classical noise over an arbitrary number of uses. The correlation among different uses is introduced by contiguous two-mode interactions. Numerical results for few modes are presented. They confirm the possibility to enhance the classical information rate with the aid of entangled inputs, and show a likely asymptotic behavior that should lead to the full capacity of the channel.

Continuous-discrete entanglement: an example with non-relativistic particles (pp273-280) PDF
          N.L. Harshman
This article discusses entanglement between two subsystems, one with discrete degrees of freedom and the other with continuous degrees of freedom. The overlap integral between continuous variable wave functions emerges as an important parameter to characterize this kind entanglement. ``Beam-like'' entanglement and ``shape-like'' entanglement are contrasted. One example of this kind of entanglement is between between the spin degrees of freedom and the momentum degrees of freedom for a non-relativistic particle. This intraparticle entanglement is Galilean invariant.

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