Beyond Fidelity: Resolving Errors in Photonic Seed State Generation
Abstract
An important aspect of many linear optical quantum computing architectures is probabilistically generating small dual-rail qubit entangled states, or seed states. While many schemes to achieve this have been discovered, attention has been primarily focused on minimizing input resources and maximizing success probability rather than establishing a detailed understanding of linear-optical error performance. In this work, we develop a framework for resolving sensitivities to physically distinct errors in linear optical state generation, allowing us to identify precise ways in which these errors affect the properties of the output state. We use this framework to identify seed state generators in which destructive many-photon interference prevents detector loss and detector noise from causing a falsely successful heralding event. We show that this effect suppresses errors, for example cutting the effective loss on the output of particular Bell state generators in half relative to a standard scheme. We also present a new Bell state generator in which both detector loss and detector noise do not affect the quality of the output Bell state to first order, and a 4GHZ generator with >75% higher success probability than a standard circuit. In addition we provide some useful identities, bounds and invariants for studying linear optical seed state generation.
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BibTeX
@misc{bartolucci2026beyond,
title = {{Beyond Fidelity: Resolving Errors in Photonic Seed State Generation}},
author = {Sara Bartolucci and Patrick Birchall and Jacob Bulmer and Sam Gartenstein and Mihir Pant and Terry Rudolph and Chris Sparrow and Andrzej Veitia},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.26603},
eprint = {2610.26603},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26603},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Beyond Fidelity: Resolving Errors in Photonic Seed State Generation
AU - Sara Bartolucci
AU - Patrick Birchall
AU - Jacob Bulmer
AU - Sam Gartenstein
AU - Mihir Pant
AU - Terry Rudolph
AU - Chris Sparrow
AU - Andrzej Veitia
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.26603
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26603
AB - An important aspect of many linear optical quantum computing architectures is probabilistically generating small dual-rail qubit entangled states, or seed states. While many schemes to achieve this have been discovered, attention has been primarily focused on minimizing input resources and maximizing success probability rather than establishing a detailed understanding of linear-optical error performance. In this work, we develop a framework for resolving sensitivities to physically distinct errors in linear optical state generation, allowing us to identify precise ways in which these errors affect the properties of the output state. We use this framework to identify seed state generators in which destructive many-photon interference prevents detector loss and detector noise from causing a falsely successful heralding event. We show that this effect suppresses errors, for example cutting the effective loss on the output of particular Bell state generators in half relative to a standard scheme. We also present a new Bell state generator in which both detector loss and detector noise do not affect the quality of the output Bell state to first order, and a 4GHZ generator with >75% higher success probability than a standard circuit. In addition we provide some useful identities, bounds and invariants for studying linear optical seed state generation.
ER -