Error correction with orbital angular momentum of multiple photons propagating in a turbulent atmosphere

TL;DR

This paper investigates how atmospheric turbulence affects the orbital angular momentum of multiple photons and proposes quantum error correction schemes to mitigate these effects, enhancing quantum communication robustness.

Contribution

It derives a Lindblad equation for photon angular momentum noise and explores error correction strategies for quantum information protection.

Findings

Dominant noise operators shift angular momentum by one unit

Error correction schemes can mitigate turbulence effects

Numerical analysis of Lindblad operators

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum of photons is an intriguing system for the storage and transmission of quantum information, but it is rapidly degraded by atmospheric turbulence. Understanding the noise processes that affect photons is essential if we desire to protect them. In this paper we use the infinitesimal propagation equation of Roux to derive a discrete Lindblad equation, and numerically study the form of the most relevant Lindblad operators. We find that the dominant Lindblad operators are those that shift the angular momentum by one unit. We explore possible schemes to protect quantum information across multiple photons by concatenating a standard quantum error-correcting code with an error-detecting code for orbital angular momentum.