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We use an artificial neural network (ANN) model to identify the entanglement class of an experimentally generated three-qubit pure state drawn from one of the six inequivalent classes under stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC). The ANN model is also able to detect the presence of genuinely multipartite entanglement (GME) in the state. We apply data science techniques to reduce the dimensionality of the problem, which corresponds to a reduction in the number of required density matrix elements to be computed. The ANN model is first trained on a simulated dataset containing randomly generated states, and is later tested and validated on noisy experimental three-qubit states cast in the canonical form and generated on a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum processor. We benchmark the ANN model via Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithms and compare the results of our ANN-based entanglement classification with existing three-qubit SLOCC entanglement classification schemes such as 3-tangle and correlation tensors. Our results demonstrate that the ANN model can perform GME detection and SLOCC class identification with high accuracy, using a priori knowledge of only a few density matrix elements as inputs. Since the ANN model works well with a reduced input dataset, it is an attractive method for entanglement classification in real-life situations with limited experimental data sets., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We experimentally demonstrate a weak measurement and measurement reversal-based scheme to ameliorate the effects of decoherence due to amplitude damping, on an NMR quantum processor. The weak measurement and measurement reversal processes require the implementation of non-unitary operations, which are typically infeasible on conventional quantum processors, where only unitary quantum operations are allowed. The duality quantum algorithm is used to efficiently implement the required non-unitary quantum operations corresponding to weak measurement and measurement reversal. We experimentally validate the efficacy of the weak measurement-based decoherence mitigation scheme by showing state protection on a four-qubit system, with one qubit being designated as the 'system qubit', while the remaining three qubits serve as 'ancilla qubits'. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate the success of the weak measurement-based decoherence mitigation scheme in protecting the desired state. Since the measurement process involved has trace less than unity, the scheme can be thought of as a filtration scheme, where a subset of the spins is protected while the rest of the spins can be discarded., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We investigate bound entanglement in three-qubit mixed states which are diagonal in the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) basis. Entanglement in these states is detected using entanglement witnesses and the analysis focuses on states exhibiting positive partial transpose (PPT). We then compare the detection capabilities of optimal linear and nonlinear entanglement witnesses. In theory, both linear and nonlinear witnesses produce non-negative values for separable states and negative values for some entangled GHZ diagonal states with PPT, indicating the presence of entanglement. Our experimental results reveal that in cases where linear entanglement witnesses fail to detect entanglement, nonlinear witnesses are consistently able to identify its presence. Optimal linear and nonlinear witnesses were generated on an IBM quantum computer and their performance was evaluated using two bound entangled states (Kay and Kye states) from the literature, and randomly generated entangled states in the GHZ diagonal form. Additionally, we propose a general quantum circuit for generating a three-qubit GHZ diagonal mixed state using a six-qubit pure state on the IBM quantum processor. We experimentally implemented the circuit to obtain expectation values for three-qubit mixed states and compute the corresponding entanglement witnesses., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Variational quantum algorithms are emerging as promising candidates for near-term practical applications of quantum information processors, in the field of quantum chemistry. We implement the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm to calculate the molecular ground-state energy of the H2 molecule and experimentally demonstrated it on an NMR quantum processor. Further, we simulate the excited states of the H2 molecule using the variational quantum deflation algorithm and experimentally demonstrate it on the same NMR quantum processor. We also develop the first simulation of the energy calculation of the H2 molecule using only a single qubit, and verify the results on an NMR quantum computer. Our experimental results demonstrate that only a single NMR qubit suffices to calculate the molecular energies of the H2 molecule to the desired accuracy., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

This experimental study aims to investigate the convex combinations of Pauli semigroups with arbitrary mixing parameters to determine whether the resulting dynamical map exhibits Markovian or non-Markovian behavior. Specifically, we consider the cases of equal as well as unequal mixing of two Pauli semigroups, and demonstrate that the resulting map is always non-Markovian. Additionally, we study three cases of three-way mixing of the three Pauli semigroups and determine the Markovianity or non-Markovianity of the resulting maps by experimentally determining the decay rates. To simulate the non-unitary dynamics of a single qubit system with different mixing combinations of Pauli semigroups on an NMR quantum processor, we use an algorithm involving two ancillary qubits. The experimental results align with the theoretical predictions., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

We experimentally demonstrate the transfer of an unknown single-qubit state from Alice to Bob via a two-step discrete-time quantum random walk on a cycle with four vertices on a four-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance quantum processor. The qubits with Alice and Bob are used as coin qubits and the walk is carried out on in a two-qubit `Gaming Arena'. In this scheme, the required entangled state is generated naturally via conditional shift operators during the quantum walk, instead of being prepared in advance. We implement controlled operators at Bob's end, which are controlled by Alice's coin qubit and arena qubits, in order to reconstruct Alice's randomly generated state at Bob's end. To characterize the state transfer process, we perform quantum process tomography by repeating the experiment for a set of input states $\{ \vert 0\rangle, \vert 1\rangle, \vert +\rangle, \vert -\rangle \}$. Using an entanglement witness, we certify that the quantum walk generates a genuine quadripartite entangled state of all four qubits. To evaluate the efficacy of the transfer scheme, We use quantum state tomography to reconstruct the transferred state by calculating the projection of the experimentally reconstructed four-qubit density matrix onto three-qubit basis states. Our results demonstrate that the quantum circuit is able to perform quantum state transfer via the two-step quantum random walk with high fidelity., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

In this study we employ a feed-forward artificial neural network (FFNN) architecture to perform tomography of quantum states and processes obtained from noisy experimental data. To evaluate the performance of the FFNN, we use a heavily reduced data set and show that the density and process matrices of unknown quantum states and processes can be reconstructed with high fidelity. We use the FFNN model to tomograph 100 two-qubit and 128 three-qubit states which were experimentally generated on a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum processor. The FFNN model is further used to characterize different quantum processes including two-qubit entangling gates, a shaped pulsed field gradient, intrinsic decoherence processes present in an NMR system, and various two-qubit noise channels (correlated bit flip, correlated phase flip and a combined bit and phase flip). The results obtained via the FFNN model are compared with standard quantum state and process tomography methods and the computed fidelities demonstrates that for all cases, the FFNN model outperforms the standard methods for tomography., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the implementation of a recently proposed robust and state-independent heat-bath algorithmic cooling (HBAC) method [1] on an NMR quantum processor. While HBAC methods improve the purity of a quantum system via iterative unitary entropy compression, they are difficult to implement experimentally since they use sort operations that are different for each iteration. The new robust HBAC method proved that optimal HBAC is possible without prior state information and using a single fixed operation. We modified the protocol to experimentally perform efficient cooling of 13C and 15N spins and provide an optimal decomposition of this modified protocol in terms of quantum gates. This is the first time that optimal HBAC has been experimentally demonstrated on 15N spins. We examined the relaxation dynamics of these algorithmically cooled spins, in order to ascertain the effect of decoherence on the cooled states., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

In this paper, we present an efficient weak measurement-based scheme for direct quantum state tomography (DQST) and direct quantum process tomography (DQPT), and experimentally implement it on an NMR ensemble quantum information processor without involving any projective measurements. We develop a generalized quantum circuit that enables us to directly measure selected elements of the density matrix and process matrix which characterize unknown quantum states and processes, respectively. This generalized quantum circuit uses the scalar J-coupling to control the interaction strength between the system qubits and the metre qubit. We experimentally implement these weak measurement-based DQST and DQPT protocols and use them to accurately characterize several two-qubit quantum states and single-qubit quantum processes. An extra qubit is used as a metre qubit to implement the DQST protocol, while for the DQPT protocol, two extra qubits (one as a metre qubit and the other as an ancilla qubit) are used., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We designed a quantum circuit to prepare a permutation-symmetric maximally entangled three-qubit state called the $\vert {\rm S} \rangle$ state and experimentally created it on an NMR quantum processor. The presence of entanglement in the state was certified by computing two different entanglement measures, namely negativity and concurrence. We used the $\vert {\rm S} \rangle$ state in conjunction with a set of maximally incompatible local measurements, to demonstrate the maximal violation of inequality number $26$ in Sliwa's classification scheme, which is a tight Bell inequality for the (3,2,2) scenario i.e. the three party, two measurement settings and two measurement outcomes scenario., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We introduce a protocol to classify three-qubit pure states into different entanglement classes and implement it on an NMR quantum processor. The protocol is designed in such a way that the experiments performed to classify the states can also measure the amount of entanglement present in the state. The classification requires the experimental reconstruction of the correlation matrices using 13 operators. The rank of the correlation matrices provide the criteria to classify the state in one of the five classes, namely, separable, biseparable (of three types), and genuinely entangled (of two types, GHZ and W). To quantify the entanglement, a concurrence function is defined which measures the global entanglement present in the state, using the same 13 operators. Global entanglement is zero for separable states and non-zero otherwise. We demonstrate the efficacy of the protocol by implementing it on states chosen from each of the six inequivalent (under stochastic local operations and classical communication) classes for three qubits. We also implement the protocol on states picked at random from the state space of three-qubit pure states., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We experimentally implement the Sz.-Nagy dilation algorithm to simulate open quantum dynamics on an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum processor. The Sz.-Nagy algorithm enables the simulation of the dynamics of arbitrary-dimensional open quantum systems, using only a single ancilla qubit. We experimentally simulate the action of two non-unitary processes, namely, a phase damping channel acting independently on two qubits and a magnetic field gradient pulse (MFGP) acting on an ensemble of two coupled nuclear spin-1/2 particles. To evaluate the quality of the experimentally simulated quantum process, we perform convex optimization-based full quantum process tomography to reconstruct the quantum process from the experimental data and compare it with the target quantum process to be simulated., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

In this work, we study the dynamics of quantum coherence (total coherence, global coherence and local coherence) evolving under a local PT-symmetric Hamiltonian in maximally entangled bipartite and tripartite states. Our results indicate that quantum coherence in the bipartite state oscillates in the unbroken phase regime of the PT-symmetric Hamiltonian. Interestingly, in the broken phase regime, while the global coherence decays exponentially, the local and total coherences enter a 'freezing' regime where they attain a stable value over time. A similar pattern is observed for the dynamics of total and local coherences in the maximally entangled tripartite state, while the dynamics of global coherence in this state differs from that of the bipartite state. These results were experimentally validated for a maximally entangled bipartite state on a three-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum processor, with one of the qubits acting as an ancilla. The experimental results match well with the theoretical predictions, upto experimental errors., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

We develop a theoretical framework based on a graph theoretic approach to analyze monogamous relationships of entropic non-contextuality (ENC) inequalities. While ENC inequalities are important in quantum information theory and are well studied, theoretical as well as experimental demonstration of their monogamous nature is still elusive. We provide conditions for ENC inequalities to exhibit a monogamous relationship and derive the same for general scenarios. We show that two entropic versions of the Bell-CHSH inequality acting on a tripartite scenario exhibit a monogamous relationship, for which we provide a theoretical proof as well as an experimental validation on an NMR quantum information processor. Our experimental technique to evaluate entropies has been designed to obtain information about entropies via measurement of only the expectation values of observables., Comment: Comments are welcome!!

We demonstrate the efficacy of the universally robust dynamical decoupling (URDD) sequence to preserve multipartite maximally entangled quantum states on a cloud based quantum computer via the IBM platform. URDD is a technique that can compensate for experimental errors and simultaneously protect the state against environmental noise. To further improve the performance of the URDD sequence, phase randomization (PR) as well as correlated phase randomization (CPR) techniques are added to the basic URDD sequence. The performance of the URDD sequence is quantified by measuring the entanglement in several noisy entangled states (two-qubit triplet state, three-qubit GHZ state, four-qubit GHZ state and four-qubit cluster state) at several time points. Our experimental results demonstrate that the URDD sequence is successfully able to protect noisy multipartite entangled states and its performance is substantially improved by adding the phase randomization and correlated phase randomization sequences., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We employ the compressed sensing (CS) algorithm and a heavily reduced data set to experimentally perform true quantum process tomography (QPT) on an NMR quantum processor. We obtain the estimate of the process matrix $\chi$ corresponding to various two- and three-qubit quantum gates with a high fidelity. The CS algorithm is implemented using two different operator bases, namely, the standard Pauli basis and the Pauli-error basis. We experimentally demonstrate that the performance of the CS algorithm is significantly better in the Pauli-error basis, where the constructed $\chi$ matrix is maximally sparse. We compare the standard least square (LS) optimization QPT method with the CS-QPT method and observe that, provided an appropriate basis is chosen, the CS-QPT method performs significantly better as compared to the LS-QPT method. In all the cases considered, we obtained experimental fidelities greater than 0.9 from a reduced data set, which was approximately five to six times smaller in size than a full data set. We also experimentally characterized the reduced dynamics of a two-qubit subsystem embedded in a three-qubit system, and used the CS-QPT method to characterize processes corresponding to the evolution of two-qubit states under various $J$-coupling interactions., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

The experimental implementation of selective quantum process tomography (SQPT) involves computing individual elements of the process matrix with the help of a special set of states called quantum 2-design states. However, the number of experimental settings required to prepare input states from quantum 2-design states to selectively and precisely compute a desired element of the process matrix is still high, and hence constructing the corresponding unitary operations in the lab is a daunting task. In order to reduce the experimental complexity, we mathematically reformulated the standard SQPT problem, which we term the modified SQPT (MSQPT) method. We designed the generalized quantum circuit to prepare the required set of input states and formulated an efficient measurement strategy aimed at minimizing the experimental cost of SQPT. We experimentally demonstrated the MSQPT protocol on the IBM QX2 cloud quantum processor and selectively characterized various two- and three-qubit quantum gates., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We present a generalized quantum scattering circuit which can be used to perform non-invasive quantum measurements, and implement it on NMR qubits. Such a measurement is a key requirement for testing temporal non-contextual inequalities. We use this circuit to experimentally demonstrate the violation of the Peres-Mermin inequality (which is the temporal analog of a Klyachko-Can- Binicioglu-Shumovsky (KCBS) inequality), on a three-qubit NMR quantum information processor. Further, we experimentally demonstrate the violation of a transformed Bell-type inequality (the spatial equivalent of the temporal KCBS inequality) and show that its Tsirelson bound is the same as that for the temporal KCBS inequality. In the temporal KCBS scenario, the contextual bound is strictly lower than the quantum temporal and nonlocal bounds., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

In this work, we studied the relaxation dynamics of coherences of different order present in a system of two coupled nuclear spins. We used a previously designed model for intrinsic noise present in such systems which considers the Lindblad master equation for Markovian relaxation. We experimentally created zero-, single- and double- quantum coherences in several two-spin systems and performed a complete state tomography and computed state fidelity. We experimentally measured the decay of zero- and double- quantum coherences in these systems. The experimental data fitted well to a model that considers the main noise channels to be a correlated phase damping channel acting simultaneously on both spins in conjunction with a generalized amplitude damping channel acting independently on both spins. The differential relaxation of multiple-quantum coherences can be ascribed to the action of a correlated phase damping channel acting simultaneously on both the spins., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

Quantum discord is a measure based on local projective measurements which captures quantum correlations that may not be fully captured by entanglement. A change in the measurement process, achieved by replacing rank-one projectors with a weak positive operator-valued measure (POVM), allows one to define weak variants of quantum discord. In this work, we experimentally simulate the effect of a weak POVM on a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor. The two-qubit system under investigation is part of a three-qubit system, where one of the qubits is used as an ancillary to implement the phase damping channel. The strength of the weak POVM is controlled by varying the strength of the phase damping channel. We experimentally observed two weak variants of quantum discord namely, super quantum discord and weak quantum discord, in two-qubit Werner and Bell-diagonal states. The resultant dynamics of the states is investigated as a function of the measurement strength., Comment: Major Changes

We use a constrained convex optimization (CCO) method to experimentally characterize arbitrary quantum states and unknown quantum processes on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor. Standard protocols for quantum state and quantum process tomography are based on linear inversion, which often result in an unphysical density matrix and hence an invalid process matrix. The CCO method on the other hand, produces physically valid density matrices and process matrices, with significantly improved fidelity as compared to the standard methods. The constrainedoptimization problem is solved with the help of a semi-definite programming (SDP) protocol. We use the CCO method to estimate the Kraus operators and characterize gates in the presence of errors due to decoherence. We then assume Markovian system dynamics and use a Lindblad master equation in conjunction with the CCO method to completely characterize the noise processes present in the NMR qubits., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

The non-local nature of the correlations possessed by quantum systems may be revealed by experimental demonstrations of the violation of Bell-type inequalities. Recent work has placed bounds on the correlations that quantum systems can possess in an actual experiment. These bounds were limited to a composite quantum system comprising of a few lower-dimensional subsystems. In a more general approach, it has been shown that fewer body correlations can reveal the non-local nature of the correlations arising from a quantum mechanical description of nature. Such tests on the correlations can be transformed to a semi-definite program (SDP). This study reports the experimental implementation of a local measurement-based hierarchy on the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) hardware utilizing three nuclear spins as qubits. The protocol has been experimentally tested on genuinely entangled tripartite states such as W state, GHZ state and a few graph states. In all the cases, the experimentally measured correlations were used to formulate the SDP, using linear constraints on the entries of the moment matrix. We observed that for each genuinely entangled state, the SDP failed to find a semi-definite positive moment matrix consistent with the experimental data. This implies that the observed correlations can not arise from local measurements on a separable state and are hence non-local in nature, and also confirms that the states being tested are indeed entangled., Comment: Minor changes made, experimental fidelities recomputed, minor text modifications

The existence of contextuality in quantum mechanics is a fundamental departure from the classical description of the world. Currently, the quest to identify scenarios which cannot be more contextual than quantum theory is at the forefront of research in quantum contextuality. In this work, we experimentally test two inequalities, which are capable of revealing fully contextual quantum correlations, on a Hilbert space of dimension 8 and 4 respectively, on an NMR quantum information processor. The projectors associated with the contextuality inequalities are first reformulated in terms of Pauli operators, which can be determined in an NMR experiment. We also analyze the behavior of each inequality under rotation of the underlying quantum state, which unitarily transforms it to another pure state., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures

In this work, we experimentally created and characterized a class of qubit-ququart PPT (positive under partial transpose) entangled states using three nuclear spins on an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum information processor. Entanglement detection and characterization for systems with a Hilbert space dimension $\ge 2 \otimes 3$ is nontrivial since there are states in such systems which are both PPT as well as entangled. The experimental detection scheme that we devised for the detection of qubit-ququart PPT entanglement was based on the measurement of three Pauli operators with high precision, and is a key ingredient of the protocol in detecting entanglement. The family of PPT-entangled states considered in the current study are incoherent mixtures of five pure states. All the five states were prepared with high fidelities and the resulting PPT entangled states were prepared with mean fidelity $\ge 0.95$. The entanglement thus detected was validated by carrying out full quantum state tomography (QST)., Comment: 7 pages; 5 figures

We use concurrence as an entanglement measure and experimentally demonstrate the entanglement classification of arbitrary three-qubit pure states on a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum information processor. Computing the concurrence experimentally under three different bipartitions, for an arbitrary three-qubit pure state, reveals the entanglement class of the state. The experiment involves measuring the expectation values of Pauli operators. This was achieved by mapping the desired expectation values onto the local $z$ magnetization of a single qubit. We tested the entanglement classification protocol on twenty seven different generic states and successfully detected their entanglement class. Full quantum state tomography was performed to construct experimental tomographs of each state and negativity was calculated from them, to validate the experimental results., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

We undertake experimental detection of the entanglement present in arbitrary three-qubit pure quantum states on an NMR quantum information processor. Measurements of only four observables suffice to experimentally differentiate between the six classes of states which are inequivalent under stochastic local operation and classical communication (SLOCC). The experimental realization is achieved by mapping the desired observables onto Pauli $z$-operators of a single qubit, which is directly amenable to measurement. The detection scheme is applied to known entangled states as well as to states randomly generated using a generic scheme that can construct all possible three-qubit states. The results are substantiated via direct full quantum state tomography as well as via negativity calculations and the comparison suggests that the protocol is indeed successful in detecting tripartite entanglement without requiring any {\it a priori} information about the states., Comment: 9 pages revtex 3 figures

We present the first NMR implementation of a scheme for selective and efficient quantum process tomography without ancilla. We generalize this scheme such that it can be implemented efficiently using only a set of measurements involving product operators. The method allows us to estimate any element of the quantum process matrix to a desired precision, provided a set of quantum states can be prepared efficiently. Our modified technique requires fewer experimental resources as compared to the standard implementation of selective and efficient quantum process tomography, as it exploits the special nature of NMR measurements to allow us to compute specific elements of the process matrix by a restrictive set of sub-system measurements.To demonstrate the efficacy of our scheme, we experimentally tomograph the processes corresponding to `no operation', a controlled-NOT (CNOT), and a controlled-Hadamard gate on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor, with high fidelities., Comment: 8 pages revtex minor revision

We have designed efficient quantum circuits for the three-qubit Toffoli (controlled-controlled NOT) and the Fredkin (controlled-SWAP) gate, optimized via genetic programming methods. The gates thus obtained were experimentally implemented on a three-qubit NMR quantum information processor, with a high fidelity. Toffoli and Fredkin gates in conjunction with the single-qubit Hadamard gates form a universal gate set for quantum computing, and are an essential component of several quantum algorithms. Genetic algorithms are stochastic search algorithms based on the logic of natural selection and biological genetics and have been widely used for quantum information processing applications. The numerically optimized rf pulse profiles of the three-qubit quantum gates achieve $> 99\%$ fidelity. The optimization was performed under the constraint that the experimentally implemented pulses are of short duration and can be implemented with high fidelity. Therefore the gate implementations do not suffer from the drawbacks of rf offset errors or debilitating effects of decoherence during gate action. We demonstrate the advantage of our pulse sequences by comparing our results with existing experimental schemes.

We embarked upon the task of experimental protection of different classes of tripartite entangled states, namely the maximally entangled GHZ and W states and the ${\rm W \bar{W}}$ state, using dynamical decoupling. The states were created on a three-qubit NMR quantum information processor and allowed to evolve in the naturally noisy NMR environment. Tripartite entanglement was monitored at each time instant during state evolution, using negativity as an entanglement measure. It was found that the W state is most robust while the GHZ-type states are most fragile against the natural decoherence present in the NMR system. The ${\rm W \bar{W}}$ state which is in the GHZ-class, yet stores entanglement in a manner akin to the W state, surprisingly turned out to be more robust than the GHZ state. The experimental data were best modeled by considering the main noise channel to be an uncorrelated phase damping channel acting independently on each qubit, alongwith a generalized amplitude damping channel. Using dynamical decoupling, we were able to achieve a significant protection of entanglement for GHZ states. There was a marginal improvement in the state fidelity for the W state (which is already robust against natural system decoherence), while the ${\rm W \bar{W}}$ state showed a significant improvement in fidelity and protection against decoherence., Comment: Minor changes

We report a study of the Majorana geometrical representation of a qutrit, where a pair of points on a unit sphere represents its quantum states. A canonical form for qutrit states is presented, where every state can be obtained from a one-parameter family of states via $SO(3)$ action. The notion of spin-1 magnetization which is invariant under $SO(3)$ is geometrically interpreted on the Majorana sphere. Furthermore, we describe the action of several quantum gates in the Majorana picture and experimentally implement these gates on a spin-1 system (an NMR qutrit) oriented in a liquid crystalline environment. We study the dynamics of the pair of points representing a qutrit state under various useful quantum operations and connect them to different NMR operations. Finally, using the Gell Mann matrix picture we experimentally implement a scheme for complete qutrit state tomography., Comment: replaced with final version 3 figures added

We experimentally demonstrate the efficacy of a three-layer nested Uhrig dynamical decoupling (NUDD) sequence to preserve arbitrary quantum states in a two-dimensional subspace of the four-dimensional two-qubit Hilbert space, on an NMR quantum information processor. The effect of the state preservation is studied first on four known states, including two product states and two maximally entangled Bell states. Next, to evaluate the preservation capacity of the NUDD scheme, we apply it to eight randomly generated states in the subspace. Although, the preservation of different states varies, the scheme on the average performs very well. The complete tomographs of the states at different time points are used to compute fidelity. State fidelities using NUDD protection are compared with those obtained without using any protection. The nested pulse schemes are complex in nature and require careful experimental implementation., Comment: Revtex 8 pages, 8 figures; Minor changes to version 1

A bipartite quantum system in a mixed state can exhibit nonclassical correlations, which can go beyond quantum entanglement. While quantum discord is the standard measure of quantifying such general quantum correlations, the nonclassicality can be determined by simpler means via the measurement of witness operators. We experimentally construct a positive map to witness nonclassicality of two qubits in an NMR system. The map can be decomposed so that a single run of an experiment on an ensemble of spins suffices to detect the nonclassicality in the state, if present. We let the state evolve in time and use the map to detect nonclassicality as a function of time. To evaluate the efficacy of the witness operator as a means to detect nonclassicality, we measure quantum discord by performing full quantum state tomography at each time point and obtained a fairly good match between the two methods., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX

The discovery of the intriguing phenomenon that certain kinds of quantum correlations remain impervious to noise up to a specific point in time and then suddenly decay, has generated immense recent interest. We exploit dynamical decoupling sequences to prolong the persistence of time-invariant quantum discord in a system of two NMR qubits decohering in independent dephasing environments. We experimentally prepare two-qubit Bell-diagonal quantum states that interact with individual dephasing channels and demonstrate the effect of dynamical decoupling on the preservation of both quantum and classical correlations. We are able to freeze quantum discord over long time scales in the presence of noise, using dynamical decoupling. We use robust state-independent dynamical decoupling schemes for state preservation and demonstrate that these schemes are able to successfully preserve quantum discord., Comment: Revtex4.1 7 eps figures

Random local measurements have recently been proposed to construct entanglement witnesses and thereby detect the presence of bipartite entanglement. We experimentally demonstrate the efficacy of one such scheme on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor. We show that a set of three random local measurements suffices to detect the entanglement of a general two-qubit state. We experimentally generate states with different amounts of entanglement, and show that the scheme is able to clearly witness entanglement. We perform complete quantum state tomography for each state and compute state fidelity to validate our results. Further, we extend previous results and perform a simulation using random local measurements to optimally detect bipartite entanglement in a hybrid system of $2\otimes 3$ dimensionality., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Estimation of quantum states is one of the most important steps in any quantum information processing experiment. A naive reconstruction of the density matrix from experimental measurements can often give density matrices which are not positive, and hence not physically acceptable. How do we ensure that at all stages of reconstruction, we keep the density matrix positive and normalized? Recently a method has been suggested based on maximum likelihood estimation, wherein the density matrix is guaranteed to be positive definite. We experimentally implement this protocol and demonstrate its utility on an NMR quantum information processor. We discuss several examples where we undertake such an estimation and compare it with the standard method of state estimation., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures LaTeX file

We experimentally test quantum contextuality of a single qutrit using NMR. The contextuality inequalities based on nine observables developed by Kurzynski et. al. are first reformulated in terms of traceless observables which can be measured in an NMR experiment. These inequalities reveal the contextuality of almost all single-qutrit states. We demonstrate the violation of the inequality on four different initial states of a spin-1 deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal matrix, and follow the violation as the states evolve in time. We also describe and experimentally perform a single-shot test of contextuality for a subclass of qutrit states whose density matrix is diagonal in the energy basis., Comment: 7 pages revtex 4 figures

We experimentally construct a novel three-qubit entangled W-superposition ($\rm W \bar{\rm W}$) state on an NMR quantum information processor. We give a measurement-based filtration protocol for the invertible local operation (ILO) that converts the $\rm W \bar{\rm W}$ state to the GHZ state, using a register of three ancilla qubits. Further we implement an experimental protocol to reconstruct full information about the three-party $\rm W \bar{\rm W}$ state using only two-party reduced density matrices. An intriguing fact unearthed recently is that the $\rm W \bar{\rm W}$ state which is equivalent to the GHZ state under ILO, is in fact reconstructible from its two-party reduced density matrices, unlike the GHZ state. We hence demonstrate that although the $\rm W \bar{\rm W}$ state is interconvertible with the GHZ state, it stores entanglement very differently., Comment: 7 pages Revtex4-1, Six eps figures

The quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is a key ingredient of several quantum algorithms and a qudit-specific implementation of the QFT is hence an important step toward the realization of qudit-based quantum computers. This work develops a circuit decomposition of the QFT for hybrid qudits based on generalized Hadamard and generalized controlled-phase gates, which can be implemented using selective rotations in NMR. We experimentally implement the hybrid qudit QFT on an NMR quantum emulator, which uses four qubits to emulate a single qutrit coupled to two qubits., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

We experimentally demonstrate the freezing of evolution of quantum states in one- and two-dimensional subspaces of two qubits, on an NMR quantum information processor. State evolution was frozen and leakage of the state from its subspace to an orthogonal subspace was successfully prevented using super-Zeno sequences, comprising of a set of inverting radio frequency (rf) pulses punctuated by pre-selected time intervals. We demonstrate the efficacy of the scheme by preserving different types of states, including separable and maximally entangled states in one- and two-dimensional subspaces of two qubits. The change in the experimental density matrices was tracked by carrying out full state tomography at several time points. We use the fidelity measure for the one-dimensional case and the leakage (fraction) into the orthogonal subspace for the two-dimensional case, as qualitative indicators to estimate the resemblance of the density matrix at a later time to the initially prepared density matrix. For the case of entangled states, we additionally compute an entanglement parameter to indicate the presence of entanglement in the state at different times. We experimentally demonstrate that the super-Zeno scheme is able to successfully confine state evolution to the one- or two-dimensional subspace being protected., Comment: 9 pages Revtex4-1 11 figures, Minor changes, references added

We experimentally explore the state space of three qubits on an NMR quantum information processor. We construct a scheme to experimentally realize a canonical form for general three-qubit states up to single-qubit unitaries. This form involves a non-trivial combination of GHZ and W-type maximally entangled states of three qubits. The general circuit that we have constructed for the generic state reduces to those for GHZ and W states as special cases. The experimental construction of a generic state is carried out for a nontrivial set of parameters and the good fidelity of preparation is confirmed by complete state tomography. The GHZ and W-states are constructed as special cases of the general experimental scheme. Further, we experimentally demonstrate a curious fact about three-qubit states, where for almost all pure states, the two-qubit reduced states can be used to reconstruct the full three-qubit state. For the case of a generic state and for the W-state, we demonstrate this method of reconstruction by comparing it with the directly tomographed three-qubit state., Comment: Revised version to appear in PRA new results added

We present the NMR implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm to find the parity of a permutation. In the usual qubit model of quantum computation, speedup requires the presence of entanglement and thus cannot be achieved by a single qubit. On the other hand, a qutrit is qualitatively more quantum than a qubit because of the existence of quantum contextuality and a single qutrit can be used for computing. We use the deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal as the experimental qutrit. This is the first experimental exploitation of a single qutrit to carry out a computational task., Comment: 6 pages 4 figures revtex

We study multiple-spin coherence transfers in linear Ising spin chains with nearest neighbor couplings. These constitute a model for efficient information transfers in future quantum computing devices and for many multi-dimensional experiments for the assignment of complex spectra in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We complement prior analytic techniques for multiple-spin coherence transfers with a systematic numerical study where we obtain strong evidence that a certain analytically-motivated family of restricted controls is sufficient for time-optimality. In the case of a linear three-spin system, additional evidence suggests that prior analytic pulse sequences using this family of restricted controls are time-optimal even for arbitrary local controls. In addition, we compare the pulse sequences for linear Ising spin chains to pulse sequences for more realistic spin systems with additional long-range couplings between non-adjacent spins. We experimentally implement the derived pulse sequences in three and four spin systems and demonstrate that they are applicable in realistic settings under relaxation and experimental imperfections-in particular-by deriving broadband pulse sequences which are robust with respect to frequency offsets., Comment: 11 pages

The Quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is a key ingredient in most quantum algorithms. We have compared various spin-based quantum computing schemes to implement the QFT from the point of view of their actual time-costs and the accuracy of the implementation. We focus here on an interesting decomposition of the QFT as a product of the non-selective Hadamard transformation followed by multiqubit gates corresponding to square- and higher-roots of controlled-NOT gates. This decomposition requires only O(n) operations and is thus linear in the number of qubits $n$. The schemes were implemented on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor and the resultant density matrices reconstructed using standard quantum state tomography techniques. Their experimental fidelities have been measured and compared.