Vol.7 No.7 September 1, 2007

Research Articles: 
Estimation of the heating rate of ions due to laser fluctuations when implementing quantum algorithms (pp573-583)
          S. Fujiwara and S. Hasegawa
We analyze numerically the heating of trapped ions due to laser intensity and phase fluctuations when implementing Grover's algorithm and the Quantum Fourier Transform. For a simpler analysis we assume that the stochastic processes are white noise processes and average over each noise as in [Phys. Rev. A. \textbf{57}, 3748, (1998)]. We investigate the fidelity and the heating rate for these algorithms using parameters estimated from experiments, and we can see the order of magnitude difference in the heating rate depending on the quantum algorithms.

Genuine tripartite entanglement semi-monotone for 2x2xn-dimensional systems (pp584-593)
          C.-S. Yu, H.-S. Song, and Y.-H. Wang
In this paper, we present a new approach to study genuine tripartite entanglement existing in $(2\times 2\times n)-$dimensional quantum pure states. By utilizing the approach, we introduce a particular quantity to measure genuine tripartite entanglement. The quantity is shown to be an entanglement monotone in 2-dimensional subsystems (semi-monotone) and reaches zero for separable states and $(2\times 2\times 2)-$dimensional $W$ states, hence is a good criterion to characterize genuine tripartite entanglement. Furthermore, the formulation for pure states can be conveniently extended to the case of mixed states by utilizing the kronecker product approximation technique. As applications, we give the analytic approximation for weakly mixed states, and study the genuine tripartite entanglement of two given weakly mixed states.

High-fidelity single-qubit gates using non-adiabatic rapid passage (pp594-608)
          R. Li, M. Hoover, and F. Gaitan  
Numerical simulation results are presented which suggest that a class of non-adiabatic rapid passage sweeps first realized experimentally in 1991 should be capable of implementing a set of quantum gates that is universal for one-qubit unitary operations and whose elements operate with error probabilities $P_{e}<10^{-4}$. The sweeps are non-composite and generate controllable quantum interference effects which allow the one-qubit gates produced to operate non-adiabatically while maintaining high accuracy. The simulations suggest that the one-qubit gates produced by these sweeps show promise as possible elements of a fault-tolerant scheme for quantum computing.

Probabilistic purification of noisy coherent states (pp609-623)
          P. Marek and R. Filip
A basic feasible probabilistic purification of unknown noisy coherent states, outgoing from different state preparations with unknown mean number of thermal photons, is proposed. The scheme is based only on a linear-optical network with an avalanche photo-diode or heterodyne (homodyne) detection used to post-select a successful processing. The suggested probabilistic method can produce an output state with a lower noise than both quantum deterministic and classical probabilistic purification method. The purification applied in the state preparation can increase classical capacity of communication and security of quantum key distribution.

Separability criteria based on the Bloch representation of density matrices (pp624-638)
          J. de Vicente
We study the separability of bipartite quantum systems in arbitrary dimensions using the Bloch representation of their density matrix. This approach enables us to find an alternative characterization of the separability problem, from which we derive a necessary condition and sufficient conditions for separability. For a certain class of states the necessary condition and a sufficient condition turn out to be equivalent, therefore yielding a necessary and sufficient condition. The proofs of the sufficient conditions are constructive, thus providing decompositions in pure product states for the states that satisfy them. We provide examples that show the ability of these conditions to detect entanglement. In particular, the necessary condition is proved to be strong enough to detect bound entangled states.

Zero-error attacks and detection statistics in the coherent one-way protocol for quantum cryptography (pp639-664)
          C. Branciard, N. Gisin, N. Lutkenhaus, and V. Scarani
This is a study of the security of the Coherent One-Way (COW) protocol for quantum cryptography, proposed recently as a simple and fast experimental scheme. In the zero-error regime, the eavesdropper Eve can only take advantage of the losses in the transmission. We consider new attacks, based on unambiguous state discrimination, which perform better than the basic beam-splitting attack, but which can be detected by a careful analysis of the detection statistics. These results stress the importance of testing several statistical parameters in order to achieve higher rates of secret bits.

Sequential attacks against differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution with weak coherent states (pp665-688)
          M. Curty, L.L. Zhang, H.-K. Lo, and N. Lutkenhaus
We investigate limitations imposed by sequential attacks on the performance of differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution protocols that use pulsed coherent light. In particular, we analyze two sequential attacks based on unambiguous state discrimination and minimum error discrimination, respectively, of the signal states emitted by the source. Sequential attacks represent a special type of intercept-resend attacks and, therefore, they provide ultimate upper bounds on the maximal distance achievable by quantum key distribution schemes.

Book Review: 
On “” (pp689-690)
          G.J. Milburn

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