6–11 Dec 2026
Stellenbosch University
Africa/Johannesburg timezone

Witness expansion: a unified framework for analytical and measurable mixed-state resource detection

Not scheduled
20m
Jan Mouton Learning Centre (Stellenbosch University)

Jan Mouton Learning Centre

Stellenbosch University

Poster

Speaker

Yifan Tang

Description

Quantum information science aims to harness different kinds of quantum resources to accomplish specific information-processing tasks. These resources also play an increasingly important role in addressing fundamental questions concerning quantum phases and dynamics. Therefore, developing powerful and practical methods for identifying and detecting quantum resources is of great significance, with applications ranging from benchmarking quantum devices to understanding the fundamental structure of quantum theory. In this work, we propose witness expansion, a unified framework for constructing nonlinear criteria for detecting quantum resources that are associated with a well-defined group of free unitaries.
These criteria apply to both pure and mixed quantum states and are based on polynomial functions of the target state, which can be estimated experimentally using multiple copies of the state and evaluated analytically in certain physical models.
We show how several well-known resource-detection quantities naturally emerge from our framework, including the $l_2$ norm of coherence, partial-transpose moments for entanglement, stabilizer entropy for nonstabilizerness (quantum magic), and fermionic antiflatness for fermionic non-Gaussianity. Beyond recovering these existing structures, our framework also yields new criteria for detecting qubit and qudit magic states, substantially enhancing witness-based detection capabilities.
In addition, it gives, to the best of our knowledge, the first analytical criterion for detecting mixed-state fermionic non-Gaussianity with respect to the convex hull of pure fermionic Gaussian states that remains nontrivial for arbitrary numbers of qubits, demonstrating the broad applicability and conceptual unifying power of the framework.

Topic Theoretical foundations of quantum learning

Authors

Yifan Tang Mr Chengkai Zhu (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)) Mr Yuzhen Zhang (University of California, Santa Barbara) Prof. Jens Eisert (Freie Universität Berlin) Dr Zi-Wen Liu (Tsinghua University) Dr Ingo Roth (Technology Innovation Institute) Prof. Otfried Gühne (Universität Siegen) Dr Xin Wang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)) Dr Zhenhuan Liu (Technology Innovation Institute)

Presentation materials