Editorial:Celebrating the 30 Wonderful Year Journey of Chinese Physics B

The year 2022 marks the 30^(th)anniversary of Chinese Physics B.This editorial provides a brief history of the journal and introduces the anniversary theme collection comprising over 30 invited reviews and perspective articles from renowned scholars in various branches of physics.

High-dimensional quantum state transfer in a noisy network environment

We propose and analyze an efficient high-dimensional quantum state transfer protocol in an XX coupling spin network with a hypercube structure or chain structure. Under free spin wave approximation, unitary evolution results in a perfect high-dimensional quantum swap operation requiring neither external manipulation nor weak coupling. Evolution time is independent of either distance between registers or dimensions of sent states, which can improve the computational efficiency. In the low temperature regime and thermodynamic limit, the decoherence caused by a noisy environment is studied with a model of an antiferromagnetic spin bath coupled to quantum channels via an Ising-type interaction. It is found that while the decoherence reduces the fidelity of state transfer, increasing intra-channel coupling can strongly suppress such an effect. These observations demonstrate the robustness of the proposed scheme.

Quantum Key Distribution Based on a Weak-Coupling Cavity QED Regime

We present a quantum key distribution scheme using a weak-coupling cavity QED regime based on quantum dense coding.Hybrid entanglement statesof photons and electrons are used to distribute information.We just need to transmit photons without storing them in the scheme.The electron confined in a quantum dot,which is embedded in a microcavity,is held by one of the legitimate users throughout the whole communication process.Only the polarization of a single photon and spin of electron measurements are applied in this protocol,which are easier to perform than collective-Bell state measurements.Linear optical apparatus,such as a special polarizing beam splitter in a circular basis and single photon operations,make it more flexible to realize under current technology.Its efficiency will approach 100%in the ideal case.The security of the scheme is also discussed.

Distal-scanning common path probe for optical coherence tomography

In this paper,we present a distal-scanning common path probe for optical coherence tomography(OCT)equipped with a hollow ultrasonic motor and a simple and specially designed beam-splitter.This novel probe proves to be able to effectively circumvent polarization and dispersion mismatch caused by fiber motion and is more robust to a variety of interfering factors during the imaging process,experimentally compared to a conventional noncommon path probe.Furthermore,our design counteracts the attenuation of backscattering with depth and the fall-off of the signal,resulting in a more balanced signal range and greater imaging depth.Spectral-domain OCT imaging of phantom and biological tissue is also demonstrated with a sensitivity of∼100dB and a lateral resolution of∼3μm.This low-cost probe offers simplified system configuration and excellent robustness,and is therefore particularly suitable for clinical diagnosis as one-off medical apparatus.

Correction:Brillouin scattering spectrum for liquid detection and applications in oceanography

After publication of this article1,it was brought to our at-tention that the mathematical expressions‘‰’were mis-takenly replaced by‘%’for salinities.Details are listed below.1.In the last sentence in abstract,“approximately 0.1℃and 0.5%”should be“approximately 0.1℃and 0.5‰”.

Nuclear magnetic resonance for quantum computing： Techniques and recent achievements

Rapid developments in quantum information processing have been made, and remarkable achievements have been obtained in recent years, both in theory and experiments. Coherent control of nuclear spin dynamics is a powerful tool for the experimental implementation of quantum schemes in liquid and solid nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) system,especially in liquid-state NMR. Compared with other quantum information processing systems, the NMR platform has the advantages such as the long coherence time, the precise manipulation, and well-developed quantum control techniques,which make it possible to accurately control a quantum system with up to 12-qubits. Extensive applications of liquid-state NMR spectroscopy in quantum information processing such as quantum communication, quantum computing, and quantum simulation have been thoroughly studied over half a century. This article introduces the general principles of NMR quantum information processing, and reviews the new-developed techniques. The review will also include the recent achievements of the experimental realization of quantum algorithms for machine learning, quantum simulations for high energy physics, and topological order in NMR. We also discuss the limitation and prospect of liquid-state NMR spectroscopy and the solid-state NMR systems as quantum computing in the article.

A Scheme for Simulation of Quantum Gates by Abelian Anyons

Anyons can be used to realize quantum computation,because they are two-level systems in two dimensions.In this paper,we propose a scheme to simulate single-qubit gates and CNOT gate using Abelian anyons in the Kitaevmodel.Two pairs of anyons (six spins)are used to reaJize single-qubit gates,while ten spins are needed for the CNOTgate.Based on these quantum gates,we show how to realize the Grover algorithm in a two-qubit system.

Elastic scattering of surface states on three-dimensional topological insulators

Topological insulators as a new type of quantum matter materials are characterized by a full insulating gap in the bulk and gapless edge/surface states protected by the time-reversal symmetry.We propose that the interference patterns caused by the elastic scattering of defects or impurities are dominated by the surface states at the extremal points on the constant energy contour.Within such a formalism,we summarize our recent theoretical investigations on the elastic scattering of topological surface states by various imperfections,including non-magnetic impurities,magnetic impurities,step edges,and various other defects,in comparison with the recent related experiments in typical topological materials such as BiSb alloys,Bi2Te3,and Bi2Se3 crystals.

Modulation of Step Heights of Thin Pb Films by the Quantum Size Effect Observed by Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy

Using a home-made Q-plus sensor,simultaneous scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements were performed on the wedge-shaped Pb islands grown on Si(111)-7 × 7.Atomic resolved AFM images were observed.The contrast of AFM topography shows no dependence on the sample bias (tip is grounded),while the simultaneously obtained tunneling current image exhibits strong bias dependence due to quantum well states (QWS).Furthermore,In the AFM mode,neighboring Pb films with one monolayer (ML) thickness difference within the same Pb island show the same apparent height,which means that the apparent step heights of Pb films oscillate with a bilayer periodicity,being consistent with previous observations by helium atom scattering,x-ray diffraction,and STM.The possible reasons underlying the oscillation of apparent step heights in AFM topography are discussed.

Quantum teleportation of particles in an environment

We discuss the teleportation of particles in an environment of an N-body system.In this case,we can change a many-body system into an arbitrary shape in space by teleporting some or all the constituent particles,and thus we call the quantum teleportation under this circumstance as quantum tele-transformation(QTT).The particular feature of QTT is that the wave function of the internal degrees of freedom remains the same,while the spatial wave function experiences a drastic change.The notion of QTT provides conceptual and pedagogical convenience for quantum information processing.In view of QTT,teleportation is the change of a single particle in space,while entanglement swapping is the change of one particle of an entangled pair.

Predicting Quantum Many-Body Dynamics with Transferable Neural Net works

Advanced machine learning(ML)approaches such as transfer learning have seldom been applied to approximate quantum many-body systems.Here we demonstrate that a simple recurrent unit(SRU)based efficient and transferable sequence learning framework is capable of learning and accurately predicting the time evolution of the one-dimensional(ID)Ising model with simultaneous transverse and parallel magnetic fields,as quantitatively corroborated by relative entropy measurements between the predicted and exact state distributions.At a cost of constant computational complexity,a larger many-body state evolution is predicted in an autoregressive way from just one initial state,without any guidance or knowledge of any Hamiltonian.Our work paves the way for future applications of advanced ML methods in quantum many-body dynamics with knowledge only from a smaller system.

Mott Transition and Superconductivity in Quantum Spin Liquid Candidate NaYbSe2

The Mott transition is one of the fundamental issues in condensed matter physics,especially in the system with antiferromagnetic long-range order.However,such a transition is rare in quantum spin liquid(QSL)systems without long-range order.Here we report the experimental pressure-induced insulator to metal transition followed by the emergence of superconductivity in the QSL candidate NaYbSe2 with a triangular lattice of 4 f Yb^3+ions.Detail analysis of transport properties in metallic state shows an evolution from non-Fermi liquid to Fermi liquid behavior when approaching the vicinity of superconductivity.An irreversible structure phase transition occurs around 11 GPa,which is revealed by the x-ray diffraction.These results shed light on the Mott transition in the QSL systems.

Noise-Induced Entanglement Transition in One-Dimensional Random Quantum Circuits

A random quantum circuit is a minimally structured model to study entanglement dynamics of many-body quantum systems.We consider a one-dimensional quantum circuit with noisy Haar-random unitary gates using density matrix operator and tensor contraction methods.It is shown that the entanglement evolution of the random quantum circuits is properly characterized by the logarithmic entanglement negativity.By performing exact numerical calculations,we find that,as the physical error rate is decreased below a critical value p;≈0.056,the logarithmic entanglement negativity changes from the area law to the volume law,giving rise to an entanglement transition.The critical exponent of the correlation length can be determined from the finite-size scaling analysis,revealing the universal dynamic property of the noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.

Brillouin scattering spectrum for liquid detection and applications in oceanography

The Brillouin scattering spectrum has been used to investigate the properties of a liquid medium.Here,we propose an improved method based on the double-edge technique to obtain the Brillouin spectrum of a liquid.We calculated the transmission ratios and deduced the Brillouin shift and linewidth to construct the Brillouin spectrum by extracting the Brillouin edge signal through filtered double-edge data.We built a detection system to test the performance of this method and measured the Brillouin spectrum for distilled water at different temperatures and compared it with the theoretical prediction.The observed difference between the experimental and theoretical values for Brillouin shift and linewidth is less than 4.3 MHz and 3.2 MHz,respectively.Moreover,based on the double-edge technique,the accuracy of the extracted temperatures and salinity is approximately 0.1°C and 0.5‰,respectively,indicating significant potential for application in water detection and oceanography.

Effective Bi-Layer Model Hamiltonian and Density-Matrix Renormalization Group Study for the High-TcSuperconductivity in La_(3)Ni_(2)O_(7) under High Pressure

High-T_(c)superconductivity with possible T_(c)≈80 K has been reported in the single crystal of La_(3)Ni_(2)O_(7)under high pressure.Based on the electronic structure given by the density functional theory calculations,we propose an effective bi-layer model Hamiltonian including both 3d_(z)^(2)and 3d_((x)^(2)-(y)^(2))orbital electrons of the nickel cations.The main feature of the model is that the 3d_(z)^(2)electrons form inter-layerσ-bonding and anti-bonding bands via the apical oxygen anions between the two layers,while the 3d_((x)^(2)-(y)^(2))electrons hybridize with the 3d_(z)^(2)electrons within each NiO_(2)plane.The chemical potential difference of these two orbital electrons ensures that the 3d_(z)^(2)orbitals are close to half-filling and the 3d_((x)^(2)-(y)^(2))orbitals are near quarter-filling.The strong on-site Hubbard repulsion of the 3d_(z)^(2)orbital electrons gives rise to an effective inter-layer antiferromagnetic spin super-exchange J.Applying pressure can self dope holes on the 3d_(z)^(2)orbitals with the same amount of electrons doped on the 3d_((x)^(2)-(y)^(2))orbitals.By performing numerical density-matrix renormalization group calculations on a minimum setup and focusing on the limit of large J and small doping of 3d_(z)^(2)orbitals,we find the superconducting instability on both the 3d_(z)^(2)and3d_((x)^(2)-(y)^(2))orbitals by calculating the equal-time spin singlet pair–pair correlation function.Our numerical results may provide useful insights in the high-T_(c)superconductivity in single crystal La_(3)Ni_(2)O_(7)under high pressure.

Realization of quantum secure direct communication over 100 km fiber with time-bin and phase quantum states

Rapid progress has been made in quantum secure direct communication in recent years.For practical application,it is important to improve the performances,such as the secure information rate and the communication distance.In this paper,we report an elaborate physical system design and protocol with much enhanced performance.This design increased the secrecy capacity greatly by achieving an ultra-low quantum bit error rate of<0.1%,one order of magnitude smaller than that of existing systems.Compared to previous systems,the proposed scheme uses photonic time-bin and phase states,operating at 50 MHz of repetition rate,which can be easily upgraded to over 1 GHz using current on-the-shelf technology.The results of our experimentation demonstrate that the proposed system can tolerate more channel loss,from 5.1 dB,which is about 28.3 km in fiber in the previous scheme,to 18.4 dB,which corresponds to fiber length of 102.2 km.Thus,the experiment shows that intercity quantum secure direct communication through fiber is feasible with present-day technology.

Unraveling Shuttle Effect and Suppression Strategy in Lithium/Sulfur Cells by In Situ/Operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopic Characterization

The polysulfides shuttle effect represents a great challenge in achieving high capacity and long lifespan of lithium/sulfur(Li/S)cells.A comprehensive understanding of the shuttle-related sulfur speciation and diffusion process is vital for addressing this issue.Herein,we employed in situ/operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy(XAS)to trace the migration of polysulfides across the Li/S cells by precisely monitoring the sulfur chemical speciation at the cathodic electrolyte-separator and electrolyte-anode interfaces,respectively,in a real-time condition.After we adopted a shuttle-suppressing strategy by introducing an electrocatalytic layer of twinborn bismuth sulfide/bismuth oxide nanoclusters in a carbon matrix(BSOC),we found the Li/S cell showed greatly improved sulfur utilization and longer life span.The operando S Kedge XAS results revealed that the BSOC modification was bi-functional:trapping polysulfides and catalyzing conversion of sulfur species simultaneously.We elucidated that the polysulfide trapping-and-catalyzing effect of the BSOC electrocatalytic layer resulted in an effective lithium anode protection.Our results could offer potential stratagem for designing more advanced Li/S cells.

Quantum gradient descent algorithms for nonequilibrium steady states and linear algebraic systems

The gradient descent approach is the key ingredient in variational quantum algorithms and machine learning tasks,which is an optimization algorithm for finding a local minimum of an objective function.The quantum versions of gradient descent have been investigated and implemented in calculating molecular ground states and optimizing polynomial functions.Based on the quantum gradient descent algorithm and Choi-Jamiolkowski isomorphism,we present approaches to simulate efficiently the nonequilibrium steady states of Markovian open quantum many-body systems.Two strategies are developed to evaluate the expectation values of physical observables on the nonequilibrium steady states.Moreover,we adapt the quantum gradient descent algorithm to solve linear algebra problems including linear systems of equations and matrix-vector multiplications,by converting these algebraic problems into the simulations of closed quantum systems with well-defined Hamiltonians.Detailed examples are given to test numerically the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms for the dissipative quantum transverse Ising models and matrix-vector multiplications.

Note on Divergence of the Chapman-Enskog Expansion for Solving Boltzmann Equation

Within about a year(1916-1917) Chapman and Enskog independently proposed an important expansion for solving the Boltzmann equation. However, the expansion is divergent or indeterminant in the case of relaxation time τ≥1. Since then, this divergence problem has puzzled researchers for a century. Using a modified M?bius series inversion formula, we propose a modified Chapman-Enskog expansion with a variable upper limit of the summation. The new expansion can give not only a convergent summation but also the best-so-far explanation on some unbelievable scenarios occurring in previous practice.

Preparation of pseudo-pure states for NMR quantum computing with one ancillary qubit

Quantum state preparation plays an equally important role as quantum operations and measurements in quantum information processing. The previous methods for initialization require either an exponential number of experiments, or cause signal reduction or place restrictions on molecular structures. In this study, we propose three types of quantum circuits for preparing the pseudo-pure states of(n-1) qubits in the n-coupled Hilbert space, which simply needs the assistance of one ancilla spin and two different experiments independent of n. Most importantly, our methods work well on homo-nuclear and hetero-nuclear molecules without the reduction of signals in the gradient field. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we experimentally prepared the pseudo-pure states of heteronuclear 2-qubit and homonuclear 4-qubit molecules using a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor.