Distribution of Fidelity in Quantum State Transfer Protocols

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive framework to analyze the full probability distribution of fidelity in quantum state transfer protocols, revealing how realistic imperfections affect transfer quality beyond average fidelity.

Contribution

It provides a novel method to derive the fidelity distribution for single- and two-qubit transfers, capturing effects of non-idealities and distinguishing protocols with identical average fidelity.

Findings

Fidelity distribution broadens with realistic imperfections

Different protocols with same average fidelity have distinct fidelity distributions

Distribution analysis offers additional insights into protocol performance

Abstract

Quantum state transfer protocols are a major toolkit in many quantum information processing tasks, from quantum key distribution to quantum computation. To assess performance of a such a protocol, one often relies on the average fidelity between the input and the output states. Going beyond this scheme, we analyze the entire probability distribution of fidelity, providing a general framework to derive it for the transfer of single- and two-qubit states. Starting from the delta-like shape of the fidelity distribution, characteristic to perfect transfer, we analyze its broadening and deformation due to realistic features of the process, including non-perfect read-out timing. Different models of quantum transfer, sharing the same value of the average fidelity, display different distributions of fidelity, providing thus additional information on the protocol, including the minimum fidelity.