Faithfully Simulating Near-Term Quantum Repeaters

Abstract

Quantum repeaters have long been established to be essential for distributing entanglement over long distances. Consequently, their experimental realization constitutes a core challenge of quantum communication. However, there are numerous open questions about implementation details for realistic near-term experimental setups. In order to assess the performance of realistic repeater protocols, here we present , a comprehensive Monte Carlo–based ulation platform for antum peaters that faithfully includes loss and models a wide range of imperfections such as memories with time-dependent noise. Our platform allows us to perform an analysis for quantum repeater setups and strategies that go far beyond known analytical results: This refers to being able to both capture more realistic noise models and analyze more complex repeater strategies. We present a number of findings centered around the combination of strategies for improving performance, such as entanglement purification and the use of multiple repeater stations, and demonstrate that there exist complex relationships between them. We stress that numerical tools such as ours are essential to model complex quantum communication protocols aimed at contributing to the quantum Internet. Published by the American Physical Society 2024