Linear optics underpins tests of fundamental quantum mechanics and computer science, as well as quantum technologies. Here we experimentally demonstrate the longstanding goal of a single reprogrammable optical circuit that is sufficient to implement all possible linear optical protocols up to the size of that circuit. Our six-mode universal system consists of a cascade of 15 MachZehnder interferometers with 30 thermo-optic phase shifters integrated into a single photonic chip that is electrically and optically interfaced for arbitrary setting of all phase shifters, input of up to six photons and their measurement with a 12 single-photon detector system. We programmed this system to implement heralded quantum logic and entangling gates, boson sampling with verification tests, and six-dimensional complex Hadamards. We implemented 100 Haar random unitaries with average fidelity 0.999 ± 0.001. Our system is capable of switching between these and any other linear optical protocol in seconds. These results point the way to applications across fundamental science and quantum technologies.Photonics has been crucial in establishing the foundations of quantum mechanics [1], and more recently has pushed the vanguard of efforts in understanding new non-classical computational possibilities. Typical protocols involve nonlinear operations, such as the generation of quantum states of light through optical frequency conversion [2,3], or measurement-induced nonlinearities for quantum logic gates [4], together with linear operations between optical modes to implement core processing functions [5]. Encoding qubits in the polarisation of photons has been particularly appealing for the ability to implement arbitrary linear operations on the two polarisation modes using a series of wave plates [6]. For path encoding the same operations can be mapped to a sequence of beamsplitters and phase shifters. In fact, since any linear optical (LO) circuit is described by a unitary operator, and a specific array of basic two-mode operations is mathematically sufficient to implement any unitary operator on optical modes [7], it is theoretically possible to construct a single device with sufficient versatility to implement any possible LO operation up to the specified number of modes.Here we report the realisation of this longstanding goal with a six-mode device that is completely reprogrammable and universal for LO. We demonstrate the versatility of this universal LO processor (LPU) by applying it to several quantum information protocols, including tasks that were previously not possible. We im- * anthony.laing@bristol.ac.uk plement heralded quantum logic gates at the heart of the circuit model of LO quantum computing [4] and new heralded entangling gates that underpin the measurementbased model of LO quantum computing [8][9][10], both of which are the first of their kind in integrated photonics. We perform 100 different boson sampling [11][12][13][14][15] experiments and simultaneously realise new verification protocols. Finally, we use multi-p...

It is predicted that quantum computers will dramatically outperform their conventional counterparts. However, largescale universal quantum computers are yet to be built. Boson sampling 1 is a rudimentary quantum algorithm tailored to the platform of linear optics, which has sparked interest as a rapid way to demonstrate such quantum supremacy 2-6 . Photon statistics are governed by intractable matrix functions, which suggests that sampling from the distribution obtained by injecting photons into a linear optical network could be solved more quickly by a photonic experiment than by a classical computer. The apparently low resource requirements for large boson sampling experiments have raised expectations of a near-term demonstration of quantum supremacy by boson sampling 7,8 . Here we present classical boson sampling algorithms and theoretical analyses of prospects for scaling boson sampling experiments, showing that near-term quantum supremacy via boson sampling is unlikely. Our classical algorithm, based on Metropolised independence sampling, allowed the boson sampling problem to be solved for 30 photons with standard computing hardware. Compared to current experiments, a demonstration of quantum supremacy over a successful implementation of these classical methods on a supercomputer would require the number of photons and experimental components to increase by orders of magnitude, while tackling exponentially scaling photon loss.It is believed that new types of computing machines will be constructed to exploit quantum mechanics for an exponential speed advantage in solving certain problems compared with classical computers 9 . Recent large state and private investments in developing quantum technologies have increased interest in this challenge. However, it is not yet experimentally proven that a large computationally useful quantum system can be assembled, and such a task is highly non-trivial given the challenge of overcoming the effects of errors in these systems.Boson sampling is a simple task which is native to linear optics and has captured the imagination of quantum scientists because it seems possible that the anticipated supremacy of quantum machines could be demonstrated by a near-term experiment. The advent of integrated quantum photonics 10 has enabled large, complex, stable and programmable optical circuitry 11,12 , while recent advances in photon generation [13][14][15] and detection 16,17 have also been impressive. The possibility to generate many photons, evolve them under a large linear optical unitary transformation, then detect them, seems feasible, so the role of a boson sampling machine as a rudimentary but legitimate computing device is particularly appealing. Compared to a universal digital quantum computer, the resources required for experimental boson sampling appear much less demanding. This approach of designing quantum algorithms to demonstrate computational supremacy with nearterm experimental capabilities has inspired a raft of proposals suited to different hardware platforms [18]...

Advances in control techniques for vibrational quantum states in molecules present new challenges for modelling such systems, which could be amenable to quantum simulation methods. Here, by exploiting a natural mapping between vibrations in molecules and photons in waveguides, we demonstrate a reprogrammable photonic chip as a versatile simulation platform for a range of quantum dynamic behaviour in different molecules. We begin by simulating the time evolution of vibrational excitations in the harmonic approximation for several four-atom molecules, including HCS, SO, HNCO, HFHF, N and P. We then simulate coherent and dephased energy transport in the simplest model of the peptide bond in proteins-N-methylacetamide-and simulate thermal relaxation and the effect of anharmonicities in HO. Finally, we use multi-photon statistics with a feedback control algorithm to iteratively identify quantum states that increase a particular dissociation pathway of NH. These methods point to powerful new simulation tools for molecular quantum dynamics and the field of femtochemistry.

We introduce fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC) -a model of universal quantum computation in which entangling measurements, called fusions, are performed on the qubits of small constant-sized entangled resource states. We introduce a stabilizer formalism for analyzing fault tolerance and computation in these schemes. This framework naturally captures the error structure that arises in certain physical systems for quantum computing, such as photonics. FBQC can offer significant architectural simplifications, enabling hardware made up of many identical modules, requiring an extremely low depth of operations on each physical qubit and reducing classical processing requirements. We present two pedagogical examples of fault-tolerant schemes constructed in this framework and numerically evaluate their threshold under a hardware agnostic fusion error model including both erasure and Pauli error. We also study an error model of linear optical quantum computing with probabilistic fusion and photon loss. In FBQC the non-determinism of fusion is directly dealt with by the quantum error correction protocol, along with other errors. We find that tailoring the fault-tolerance framework to the physical system allows the scheme to have a higher threshold than schemes reported in literature. We present a ballistic scheme which can tolerate a 10.4% probability of suffering photon loss in each fusion.

The standard primitives of quantum computing include deterministic unitary entangling gates, which are not natural operations in many systems including photonics. Here, we present fusion-based quantum computation, a model for fault tolerant quantum computing constructed from physical primitives readily accessible in photonic systems. These are entangling measurements, called fusions, which are performed on the qubits of small constant sized entangled resource states. Probabilistic photonic gates as well as errors are directly dealt with by the quantum error correction protocol. We show that this computational model can achieve a higher threshold than schemes reported in literature. We present a ballistic scheme which can tolerate a 10.4% probability of suffering photon loss in each fusion, which corresponds to a 2.7% probability of loss of each individual photon. The architecture is also highly modular and has reduced classical processing requirements compared to previous photonic quantum computing architectures.

Increasing control of single photons enables new applications of photonic quantum-enhanced technology and further experimental exploration of fundamental quantum phenomena. Here, we demonstrate quantum logic using narrow linewidth photons that are produced under nearly perfect quantum control from a single 87 Rb atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse cavity. We use a controlled-NOT gate integrated into a photonic chip to entangle these photons, and we observe non-classical correlations between events separated by periods exceeding the travel time across the chip by three orders of magnitude. This enables quantum technology that will use the properties of both narrowband single photon sources and integrated quantum photonics, such as networked quantum computing, narrow linewidth quantum enhanced sensing and atomic memories.New applications of single photons will continue to emerge from increased control of both their emission and their subsequent processing with photonic components. Today, intrinsically probabilistic photon sources, such as spontaneous parametric down conversion, are widely used for proof-of-principle photonic quantum technologies. This is because of control over properties such as entanglement [1] and spectrum [2], and increasingly because of the demonstrated compatibility with integrated quantum photonics [3]. But probabilistic sources can only generate high numbers of photons with an overhead of fast switching and optical delays [4]. Deterministic single photon emitters circumvent this overhead whilst providing valuable capabilities such as mediating entangling operations and acting as quantum memories. Here we demonstrate that it is also possible to operate integrated quantum logic with ultra-narrowband photons emitted on-demand from single 87 Rb atoms.Integrated optics is a viable approach to control photons after they have been generated, with increasingly complex, miniature, and programable quantum circuits [3,5,6]. Single photon emitters are being used with photonic quantum logic with the aim of increasing capability. For instance, sequentially emitted photons from single quantum dots have been used to measure the logical truth table of an on-chip controlled-NOT gate (CNOT) [7] and entangled using a bulk-optical CNOT [8]; photons emitted from diamond colour centres have been manipulated with an on-chip interferometer [9]. These emitters can be regarded as artificial atomic systems. In contrast to these, ultra-narrowband indistinguishable photons can be readily obtained on-demand from real single atoms in strong coupling to high-finesse cavities [10][11][12]. These systems emit mutually coherent photons [13], they have been used to generate photonatom entanglement [14] and distant atom-atom entanglement [15], they can be used for quantum memories [16] and they can be used to individually tailor the phase and coherence envelope of each emitted single photon [17,18]. We seek the benefits of both integrated quantum photonic circuits and atom-cavity photon sources.Our demonstration operates i...

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