An improved ant colony algorithm based on artificial potential field and quantum evolution theory

The optimal evacuation route in emergency evacuation can further reduce casualties. Therefore, path planning is of great significance to emergency evacuation. Aiming at the blindness and relatively slow convergence speed of ant colony algorithm path planning search, an improved ant colony algorithm is proposed by combining artificial potential field and quantum evolution theory. On the one hand, the evacuation environment of pedestrians is modeled by the grid method. Use the potential field force in the artificial potential field, the influence coefficient of the potential field force heuristic information, and the distance between the person and the target position in the ant colony algorithm to construct comprehensive heuristic information. On the other hand, the introduction of quantum evolutionary theory. The pheromone is represented by quantum bits, and the pheromone is updated by quantum revolving door feedback control. In this way, it can not only reflect the high efficiency of quantum parallel computing, but also have the better optimization ability of ant colony algorithm. A large number of simulation experiments show that the improved ant colony algorithm has a faster convergence rate and is more effective in evacuation path planning.

Dynamically corrected gates from geometric space curves

Quantum information technologies demand highly accurate control over quantum systems. Achieving this requires control techniques that perform well despite the presence of decohering noise and other adverse effects. Here, we review a general technique for designing control fields that dynamically correct errors while performing operations using a close relationship between quantum evolution and geometric space curves. This approach provides access to the global solution space of control fields that accomplish a given task, facilitating the design of experimentally feasible gate operations for a wide variety of applications.

An Evolutionary Frog Leaping Algorithm for Global Optimization Problems and Applications

Shuffled frog leaping algorithm, a novel heuristic method, is inspired by the foraging behavior of the frog population, which has been designed by the shuffled process and the PSO framework. To increase the convergence speed and effectiveness, the currently improved versions are focused on the local search ability in PSO framework, which limited the development of SFLA. Therefore, we first propose a new scheme based on evolutionary strategy, which is accomplished by quantum evolution and eigenvector evolution. In this scheme, the frog leaping rule based on quantum evolution is achieved by two potential wells with the historical information for the local search, and eigenvector evolution is achieved by the eigenvector evolutionary operator for the global search. To test the performance of the proposed approach, the basic benchmark suites, CEC2013 and CEC2014, and a parameter optimization problem of SVM are used to compare 15 well-known algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed algorithm is better than that of the other heuristic algorithms.

Measuring Loschmidt echo via Floquet engineering in superconducting circuits

The Loschmidt echo is a useful diagnostic for the perfection of quantum time-reversal process and the sensitivity of quantum evolution to small perturbations. The main challenge for measuring the Loschmidt echo is the time reversal of a quantum evolution. In this work, we demonstrate the measurement of the Loschmidt echo in a superconducting 10-qubit system using Floquet engineering and discuss the imperfection of an initial Bell-state recovery arising from the next-nearest-neighbour (NNN) coupling present in the qubit device. Our results show that the Loschmidt echo is very sensitive to small perturbations during quantum-state evolution, in contrast to the quantities like qubit population that is often considered in the time-reversal experiment. These properties may be employed for the investigation of multiqubit system concerning many-body decoherence and entanglement, etc., especially when devices with reduced or vanishing NNN coupling are used.

Efficient Characterization of Quantum Evolutions via a Recommender System

We demonstrate characterizing quantum evolutions via matrix factorization algorithm, a particular type of the recommender system (RS). A system undergoing a quantum evolution can be characterized in several ways. Here we choose (i) quantum correlations quantified by measures such as entropy, negativity, or discord, and (ii) state-fidelity. Using quantum registers with up to 10 qubits, we demonstrate that an RS can efficiently characterize both unitary and nonunitary evolutions. After carrying out a detailed performance analysis of the RS in two qubits, we show that it can be used to distinguish a clean database of quantum correlations from a noisy or a fake one. Moreover, we find that the RS brings about a significant computational advantage for building a large database of quantum discord, for which no simple closed-form expression exists. Also, RS can efficiently characterize systems undergoing nonunitary evolutions in terms of quantum discord reduction as well as state-fidelity. Finally, we utilize RS for the construction of discord phase space in a nonlinear quantum system.

Noisy atomic magnetometry in real time

Continuously monitored atomic spin-ensembles allow, in principle, for real-time sensing of external magnetic fields beyond classical limits. Within the linear-Gaussian regime, thanks to the phenomenon of measurement-induced spin-squeezing, they attain a quantum-enhanced scaling of sensitivity both as a function of time, t, and the number of atoms involved, N. In our work, we rigorously study how such conclusions based on Kalman filtering methods change when inevitable imperfections are taken into account: in the form of collective noise, as well as stochastic fluctuations of the field in time. We prove that even an infinitesimal amount of noise disallows the error to be arbitrarily diminished by simply increasing N, and forces it to eventually follow a classical-like behaviour in t. However, we also demonstrate that, "thanks" to the presence of noise, in most regimes the model based on a homodyne-like continuous measurement actually achieves the ultimate sensitivity allowed by the decoherence, yielding then the optimal quantum-enhancement. We are able to do so by constructing a noise-induced lower bound on the error that stems from a general method of classically simulating a noisy quantum evolution, during which the stochastic parameter to be estimated—here, the magnetic field—is encoded. The method naturally extends to schemes beyond the linear-Gaussian regime, in particular, also to ones involving feedback or active control.

Fast-forwarding quantum evolution

We investigate the problem of fast-forwarding quantum evolution, whereby the dynamics of certain quantum systems can be simulated with gate complexity that is sublinear in the evolution time. We provide a definition of fast-forwarding that considers the model of quantum computation, the Hamiltonians that induce the evolution, and the properties of the initial states. Our definition accounts for any asymptotic complexity improvement of the general case and we use it to demonstrate fast-forwarding in several quantum systems. In particular, we show that some local spin systems whose Hamiltonians can be taken into block diagonal form using an efficient quantum circuit, such as those that are permutation-invariant, can be exponentially fast-forwarded. We also show that certain classes of positive semidefinite local spin systems, also known as frustration-free, can be polynomially fast-forwarded, provided the initial state is supported on a subspace of sufficiently low energies. Last, we show that all quadratic fermionic systems and number-conserving quadratic bosonic systems can be exponentially fast-forwarded in a model where quantum gates are exponentials of specific fermionic or bosonic operators, respectively. Our results extend the classes of physical Hamiltonians that were previously known to be fast-forwarded, while not necessarily requiring methods that diagonalize the Hamiltonians efficiently. We further develop a connection between fast-forwarding and precise energy measurements that also accounts for polynomial improvements.