Aging and reliability of quantum networks

Physical Review A, vol. 109

Abstract

Quantum information science may lead to technological breakthroughs in computing, cryptography, and sensing. For the implementation of these tasks, however, complex devices with many components are needed and the quantum advantage may easily be spoiled by the failure of only a few parts. A paradigmatic example is quantum networks. There, not only do noise sources such as photon absorption or imperfect quantum memories lead to long waiting times and low fidelity, but also hardware components may break, leading to a dysfunctionality of the entire network. For the successful long-term deployment of quantum networks in the future, it is important to take such deterioration effects into consideration during the design phase. Using methods from reliability theory and the theory of aging, we develop an analytical approach for characterizing the functionality of networks under aging and repair mechanisms, also for nontrivial topologies. Combined with numerical simulations, our results allow us to optimize long-distance entanglement distribution under aging effects.

Authors 4

1. Lisa T. Weinbrenner corresponding

   University of Siegen

   Affiliation as printed

   Universität Siegen

2. Lina Vandré

   Peking University · University of Siegen

   Affiliation as printed

   Peking University

   Universität Siegen

   State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-Optoelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

3. Tim Coopmans Aachen Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University

   Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 CA, The Netherlands

4. Otfried Gühne

   University of Siegen

   Affiliation as printed

   Universität Siegen