Harvesting magic from the vacuum

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a three-level quantum detector can extract quantum magic from a vacuum field, enabling the generation of magic resources necessary for quantum advantage from quantum field theories.

Contribution

It introduces a protocol for evolving a qutrit from a non-magical to a magical state via interaction with a quantum field in vacuum, extending resource harvesting methods.

Findings

Magic can be harvested from quantum vacuum using a qutrit.

The protocol enables generating magic from quantum field theories.

Quantum advantage resources can be extracted from fundamental quantum fields.

Abstract

Magic is the quantum resource allowing a quantum computer to perform operations that cannot be simulated efficiently by classical computation. As such, generating magic in a quantum system is crucial for achieving quantum advantage. This letter shows that magic can be harvested by a three-level Unruh-DeWitt detector (a qutrit) interacting with a quantum field in an initial vacuum state. While the idea of extracting resources from Quantum Field Theories (QFT) was born from the harvesting of entanglement, our result extends the protocol to evolve a qutrit from a non-magical state to a magical one, making it possible to generate magic from QFT.