Calculating the quantum weight enumerator polynomial (WEP) is a valuable tool for characterizing quantum error-correcting (QEC) codes, but it is computationally hard for large or complex codes. The Quantum LEGO (QL) framework provides a tensor network approach for WEP calculation, in some cases offering superpolynomial speedups over brute-force methods, provided the code exhibits area law entanglement, that a good QL layout is used, and an efficient tensor network contraction schedule is found. We analyze the performance of a hyper-optimized contraction schedule framework across QL layouts for diverse stabilizer code families. We find that the intermediate tensors in the QL networks for stabilizer WEPs are often highly sparse, invalidating the dense-tensor assumption of standard cost functions. To address this, we introduce an exact, polynomial-time Sparse Stabilizer Tensor (SST) cost function based on the rank of the parity check matrices for intermediate tensors. The SST cost function correlates perfectly with the true contraction cost, providing a significant advantage over the default cost function, which exhibits large uncertainty. Optimizing contraction schedules using the SST cost function yields substantial performance gains, achieving up to orders of magnitude improvement in actual contraction cost compared to using the dense tensor cost function. Furthermore, the precise cost estimation from the SST function offers an efficient metric to decide whether the QL-based WEP calculation is computationally superior to brute force for a given QL layout. These results, enabled by PlanqTN, a new open-source QL implementation, validate hyper-optimized contraction as a crucial technique for leveraging the QL framework to explore the QEC code design space.

In unitary circuit games, two competing parties, an "entangler" and a "disentangler", can induce an entanglement phase transition in a quantum many-body system. The transition occurs at a certain rate at which the disentangler acts. We analyze such games within the context of matchgate dynamics, which equivalently corresponds to evolutions of non-interacting fermions. We first investigate general entanglement properties of fermionic Gaussian states (FGS). We introduce a representation of FGS using a minimal matchgate circuit capable of preparing the state and derive an algorithm based on a generalized Yang-Baxter relation for updating this representation as unitary operations are applied. This representation enables us to define a natural disentangling procedure that reduces the number of gates in the circuit, thereby decreasing the entanglement contained in the system. We then explore different strategies to disentangle the systems and study the unitary circuit game in two different scenarios: with braiding gates, i.e., the intersection of Clifford gates and matchgates, and with generic matchgates. For each model, we observe qualitatively different entanglement transitions, which we characterize both numerically and analytically.

Estimating spectral gaps of quantum many-body Hamiltonians is a highly challenging computational task, even under assumptions of locality and translation-invariance. Yet, the quest for rigorous gap certificates is motivated by their broad applicability, ranging from many-body physics to quantum computing and classical sampling techniques. Here we present a general method for obtaining lower bounds on the spectral gap of frustration-free quantum Hamiltonians in the thermodynamic limit. We formulate the gap certification problem as a hierarchy of optimization problems (semidefinite programs) in which the certificate – a proof of a lower bound on the gap – is improved with increasing levels. Our approach encompasses existing finite-size methods, such as Knabe's bound and its subsequent improvements, as those appear as particular possible solutions in our optimization, which is thus guaranteed to either match or surpass them. We demonstrate the power of the method on one-dimensional spin-chain models where we observe an improvement by several orders of magnitude over existing finite size criteria in both the accuracy of the lower bound on the gap, as well as the range of parameters in which a gap is detected.

We present a method to suppress crosstalk from implementing controlled-Z gates via local addressing in neutral atom quantum computers. In these systems, a fraction of the laser light that is applied locally to implement gates typically leaks to other atoms. We analyze the resulting crosstalk in a setup of two gate atoms and one neighboring third atom. We then perturbatively derive a spin-echo-inspired gate protocol that suppresses the leading order of the amplitude error, which dominates the crosstalk. Numerical simulations demonstrate that our gate protocol improves the fidelity by two orders of magnitude across a broad range of experimentally relevant parameters. To further reduce the infidelity, we develop a circuit to cancel remaining phase errors. Our results pave the way for using local addressing for high-fidelity quantum gates on Rydberg-based quantum computers.

Security analyses in quantum key distribution (QKD) and other adversarial quantum tasks often assume perfect device models. However, real-world implementations often deviate from these models. Thus, it is important to develop security proofs that account for such deviations from ideality. In this work, we extend the idea of squashing maps to develop a general framework for analysing imperfect threshold detectors, treating uncharacterised device parameters such as dark counts and detection efficiencies as adversarially controlled within some ranges. This approach enables a rigorous worst-case analysis with exactly characterised devices, ensuring security proofs remain valid under realistic conditions. Our results strengthen the connection between theoretical security and practical implementations by introducing a flexible framework for integrating detector imperfections into adversarial quantum protocols.

While commonly used entanglement criteria for continuous variable systems are based on quadrature measurements, here we study entanglement detection from measurements of the Wigner function. These are routinely performed in platforms such as trapped ions and circuit QED, where homodyne measurements are difficult to be implemented. We provide complementary criteria which we show to be tight for a variety of experimentally relevant Gaussian and non-Gaussian states. Our results show novel approaches to detect entanglement in continuous variable systems and shed light on interesting connections between known criteria and the Wigner function.

We introduce an efficient method to quantify nonstabilizerness in fermionic Gaussian states, overcoming the long-standing challenge posed by their extensive entanglement. Using a perfect sampling scheme based on an underlying determinantal point process, we compute the Stabilizer Renyi Entropies (SREs) for systems with hundreds of qubits. Benchmarking on random Gaussian states with and without particle conservation, we reveal an extensive leading behavior equal to that of Haar random states, with logarithmic subleading corrections. We support these findings with analytical calculations for a set of related quantities, the participation entropies in the computational (or Fock) basis, for which we derive an exact formula. We also investigate the time evolution of non-stabilizerness in a random unitary circuit with Gaussian gates, observing that it converges in a time that scales logarithmically with the system size. Applying the sampling algorithm to a two-dimensional free-fermionic topological model, we uncover a sharp transition in non-stabilizerness at the phase boundaries, highlighting the power of our approach in exploring different phases of quantum many-body systems, even in higher dimensions.

Efficient verification of multipartite quantum states is crucial to many applications in quantum information processing. By virtue of Schmidt decomposition and mutually unbiased bases, here we propose a universal protocol to verify arbitrary multipartite pure quantum states using adaptive local projective measurements. Moreover, we establish a universal upper bound on the sample complexity that is independent of the local dimensions. Numerical calculations further indicate that Haar-random pure states can be verified with a constant sample cost, irrespective of the qudit number and local dimensions, even in the adversarial scenario in which the source cannot be trusted. As alternatives, we provide several simpler variants that can achieve similar high efficiencies without using Schmidt decomposition. The simplest variant consists of only two distinct tests.

We study the task of localizing multipartite entanglement in pure quantum states onto a subsystem by measuring the remaining systems. To this end, we fix a multipartite entanglement measure and consider two quantities: the multipartite entanglement of assistance (MEA), defined as the entanglement measure averaged over the post-measurement states and maximized over arbitrary measurements; and the localizable multipartite entanglement (LME), defined in the same way but restricted to only local single-system measurements. Both quantities generalize previously considered bipartite entanglement localization measures. In our work we choose the n-tangle, the genuine multipartite entanglement concurrence and the concentratable entanglement (CE) as the underlying seed measure, and discuss the resulting MEA and LME quantities. First, we prove easily computable upper and lower bounds on MEA and LME and establish Lipschitz-continuity for the n-tangle and CE-based LME and MEA. Using these bounds we investigate the typical behavior of entanglement localization by deriving concentration inequalities for the MEA evaluated on Haar-random states and performing numerical studies for small tractable system sizes. We then turn our attention to protocols that transform graph states. We give a simple criterion based on a matrix equation to decided whether states with a specified n-tangle value can be obtained from a given graph state, providing no-go theorems for a broad class of such graph state transformations beyond the usual “local Clifford plus local Pauli measurement” framework. This analysis is generalized to weighted graph states, which provide a realistic error model in current experiments preparing graph state. Our entanglement localization framework certifies the near-optimality of recently discussed local-measurement protocols to transform uniformly weighted line graph states into GHZ states, even when considering arbitrary entangled measurements. Finally, we demonstrate how our MEA and LME quantities can be used to detect critical phenomena such as phase transitions in transversal field Ising models. Since entanglement localization is operationally relevant throughout quantum networking and measurement-based quantum computation, our framework of results based on the MEA and LME has the potential for broad applications in these fields.

We present a quantum variational algorithm based on a novel circuit that generates all permutations that can be spanned by one- and two-qubits permutation gates. The construction of the circuits follows from group-theoretical results, most importantly the Bruhat decomposition of the group generated by the cx gates. These circuits require a number of qubits that scale logarithmically with the permutation dimension, and are therefore employable in near-term applications. We further augment the circuits with ancilla qubits to enlarge their span, and with these we build ansatze to tackle permutation-based optimization problems such as quadratic assignment problems, and graph isomorphisms. The resulting quantum algorithm, QuPer, is competitive with respect to classical heuristics and we could simulate its behavior up to a problem with 256 variables, requiring 20 qubits.