We demonstrate the realization of a discrete-time crystal (DTC) phase in a family of periodically driven, one-dimensional quadratic lattice Hamiltonians that can be obtained using spin chains. These interactions preserve integrability while opening controllable gaps at resonant quasienergies and pinning the emergent quasienergy modes that are responsible for subharmonics. We demonstrate that the DTC phase is rigid in the parameter space of transverse field and an additional interaction like NNN coupling strength, with the drive frequency optimized to produce the strongest subharmonic response. We also provide a detailed phase portrait of the model, exhibiting a variety of new dynamical phases, such as a fragile time crystal and both spin-liquid and paramagnetic phases, as well as sharp quantum phase transitions between them. Finite-size scaling of the Floquet quasienergy splitting between the emergent subharmonic mode and its conjugate shows that the DTC lifetime diverges exponentially with system size. Our work thus establishes a novel mechanism for realizing robust, long-lived DTCs in one dimension, and paves the way for their experimental realization in near-term quantum simulators. Motivation for this work stems from the limitations of disorder-based stabilization schemes that rely on many-body localization and exhibit only prethermal or finite-lived plateaus, eventually restoring ergodicity. Disorder-free routes are therefore highly desirable. Integrable (or Floquet-integrable) systems provide an attractive alternative because their extensive set of conserved quantities and constrained scattering strongly restrict thermalization channels. Our construction exploits these integrable restrictions together with short-range NNN engineering to produce a clean, robust DTC that avoids the prethermal fragility of disordered realizations.

A protocol based on quantum error correction based characterization of quantum dynamics (QECCD) is developed for quantum process tomography on a two-qubit system interacting dissipatively with a vacuum bath. The method uses a 5-qubit quantum error correcting code that corrects arbitrary errors on the first two qubits, and also saturates the quantum Hamming bound. The dissipative interaction with a vacuum bath allows for both correlated and independent noise on the two-qubit system. We study the dependence of the degree of the correlation of the noise on evolution time and inter-qubit separation.

Quantum error-correcting codes (QECCs) and decoherence-free subspace (DFS) codes provide active and passive means, respectively, to address certain types of errors that arise during quantum computation. The latter technique is suitable to correct correlated errors with certain symmetries and the former to correct independent errors. The concatenation of a QECC and a DFS code results in a degenerate code that splits into actively and passively correcting parts, with the degeneracy impacting either part, leading to degenerate errors as well as degenerate stabilizer operators. The concatenation of the two types of code can aid universal fault-tolerant quantum computation when a mix of correlated and independent errors is encountered. In particular, we show that for sufficiently strongly correlated errors, the concatenation with the DFS as the inner code provides better entanglement fidelity, whereas for sufficiently independent errors, the concatenation with the QECC as the inner code is preferable. As illustrative examples, we examine in detail the concatenation of a two-qubit DFS code and a three-qubit repetition code or five-qubit Knill-Laflamme code, under independent and correlated errors.

We introduce a method to construct non-Markovian variants of completely positive (CP) dynamical maps, particularly, qubit Pauli channels. We identify non-Markovianity with the breakdown in CP-divisibility of the map, i.e., appearance of a not-completely-positive (NCP) intermediate map. In particular, we consider the case of non-Markovian dephasing in detail. The eigenvalues of the Choi matrix of the intermediate map crossover at a point which corresponds to a singularity in the canonical decoherence rate of the corresponding master equation, and thus to a momentary non-invertibility of the map. Thereafter, the rate becomes negative, indicating non-Markovianity. We quantify the non-Markovianity by two methods, one based on CP-divisibility (Hall et al., PRA 89, 042120, 2014), which doesn't require optimization but requires normalization to handle the singularity, and another method, based on distinguishability (Breuer et al. PRL 103, 210401, 2009), which requires optimization but is insensitive to the singularity.

Finite-time Markovian channels, unlike their infinitesimal counterparts, do not form a convex set. As a particular instance of this observation, we consider the problem of mixing the three Pauli channels, conservatively assumed to be quantum dynamical semigroups, and fully characterize the resulting ``Pauli simplex.'' We show that neither the set of non-Markovian (completely positive indivisible) nor Markovian channels is convex in the Pauli simplex, and that the measure of non-Markovian channels is about 0.87. All channels in the Pauli simplex are P divisible. A potential application in the context of quantum resource theory is also discussed.

Uniquely among the sciences, quantum cryptography has driven both foundational research as well as practical real-life applications. We review the progress of quantum cryptography in the last decade, covering quantum key distribution and other applications.

The problem of defining and locating free will (FW) in physics is studied. On basis of logical paradoxes, we argue that FW has a meta-theoretic character, like the concept of truth in Tarski's undefinability theorem. Free will exists relative to a base theory if there is freedom to deviate from the deterministic or indeterministic dynamics in the theory, with the deviations caused by parameters (representing will) in the meta-theory. By contrast, determinism and indeterminism do not require meta-theoretic considerations in their formalization, making FW a fundamentally new causal primitive. FW exists relative to the meta-theory if there is freedom for deviation, due to higher-order causes. Absolute free will, which corresponds to our intuitive introspective notion of free will, exists if this meta-theoretic hierarchy is infinite. We argue that this hierarchy corresponds to higher levels of uncomputability. In other words, at any finitely high order in the hierarchy, there are uncomputable deviations from the law at that order. Applied to the human condition, the hierarchy corresponds to deeper levels of the subconscious or unconscious mind. Possible ramifications of our model for physics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) are briefly considered.

Games involving quantum strategies often yield higher payoff. Here, we study a practical realization of the three-player dilemma game using the superconductivity-based quantum processors provided by IBM Q Experience. We analyze the persistence of the quantum advantage under corruption of the input states and how this depends on parameters of the payoff table. Specifically, experimental fidelity and error are observed not to be properly anti correlated, i.e., there are instances where a class of experiments with higher fidelity yields a greater error in the payoff. Further, we find that the classical strategy will always outperform the quantum strategy if corruption is higher than half.

It is argued that the concept of free will, like the concept of truth in formal languages, requires a separation between an object level and a meta-level for being consistently defined. The Jamesian two-stage model, which deconstructs free will into the causally open "free" stage with its closure in the "will" stage, is implicitly a move in this direction. However, to avoid the dilemma of determinism, free will additionally requires an infinite regress of causal meta-stages, making free choice a hypertask. We use this model to define free will of the rationalist-compatibilist type. This is shown to provide a natural three-way distinction between quantum indeterminism, freedom and free will, applicable respectively to artificial intelligence (AI), animal agents and human agents. We propose that the causal hierarchy in our model corresponds to a hierarchy of Turing uncomputability. Possible neurobiological and behavioral tests to demonstrate free will experimentally are suggested. Ramifications of the model for physics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, neuropathological medicine and moral philosophy are briefly outlined.

Topological phases are typically characterised by a topological invariant: winding number, which indicates the number of zero modes expected in a given phase. However, the winding number alone does not capture the qualitative differences between the modes within the same topological phase. In this work, we present an analytical solution for the zero-energy modes across various regimes of the phase diagram; a result that, to our knowledge, has not been reported previously in the literature. Through this solution, we characterise edge modes coexisting in a single phase and systematically classify them based on their spatial behaviour. Our analysis also identifies parameter regions where one or both zero modes are perfectly localised at the system edges. Finite and infinite systems were compared based on their spatial characteristics of zero modes. In addition, we provide a detailed analytical treatment of the characteristic equation, demonstrating that its roots offer further insight into the nature of the topological phase transitions. The whole study is based on a one-dimensional quantum Ising chain with long range interactions.

We study and present the results of Berry connection for the topological states in quantum matter. The Berry connection plays a central role in the geometric phase and topological phenomenon in quantum many-body system. We present the necessary and sufficient conditions to characterize the topological nature of the system through the complex analysis. We also present the different topological aspects of the system in the momentum space.

We have obtained the quantum phase diagram of one dimensional extended Bose-Hubbard model using the density-matrix renormalization group and Abelian bosonization methods for different commensurabilities. We describe the nature of different quantum phases at the charge degeneracy point. We find a direct phase transition from Mott insulating phase to superconducting phase for integer band fillings of bosons. We predict explicitly the presence of two kinds of repulsive Luttinger liquid phases, apart from the charge density wave and superconducting phases for half-integer band fillings. Our study reveals that extended range interactions are necessary to get the correct phase boundary of an one-dimensional interacting bosons system.

Contextuality is a fundamental manifestation of nonclassicality, indicating that for certain quantum correlations, sets of jointly measurable variables cannot be pre-assigned values independently of the measurement context. In this work, we characterize nonclassical quantum correlation beyond contextuality, in terms of supernoncontextuality, namely the higher-than-quantum hidden-variable(HV) dimensionality required to reproduce the given noncontextual quantum correlations. Thus supernoncontextuality is the contextuality analogue of superlocality. Specifically, we study the quantum system of two-qubit states in a scenario composed of five contexts that demonstrate contextuality in a state-dependent fashion. For this purpose, we use the framework of boxes, whose behavior is described by a set of probabilities satisfying the no-disturbance conditions. We first demonstrate that while superlocality is necessary to observe a contextual box, superlocality is not sufficient for contextuality. On the other hand, a noncontextual superlocal box can be supernoncontextual, but superlocality is not a necessary condition. We then introduce a notion of nonclassicality beyond the standard contextuality, called semi-device-independent contextuality. We study semi-device-independent contextuality of two-qubit states in the above mentioned scenario and demonstrate how supernoncontextuality implies this nonclassicality. To this end, we propose a criterion and a measure of semi-device-independent contextuality.

For unital dynamics, we show that a generalized trace distance measure offers no advantage over the trace distance measure for witnessing non-Markovianity. We determine the class of non-unital channels where the standard trace distance measure is insufficient here and the generalized measure is necessary. Finally, we assess the status of the GTD measure as an indicator of information flow between an open system and its environment.

We propose a protocol for secret sharing, called dual quantum information splitting (DQIS), that reverses the roles of state and channel in standard quantum information splitting. In this method, a secret is shared via teleportation of a fiducial input state over an entangled state that encodes the secret in a graph state basis. By performing a test of violation of a Bell inequality on the encoded state, the legitimate parties determine if the violation is sufficiently high to permit distilling secret bits. Thus, the code space must be maximally and exclusively nonlocal. To this end, we propose two ways to obtain code words that are degenerate with respect to a Bell operator. The security of DQIS comes from monogamy of nonlocal correlations, which we illustrate by means of a simple single-qubit attack model. The nonlocal basis of security of our protocol makes it suitable for security in general monogamous theories and in the more stringent, device-independent cryptographic scenario.

We investigate the dynamics of quantum correlations (QC) under the effects of reservoir memory, as a resource for quantum information and computation tasks. Quantum correlations of two-qubit systems are used for implementing quantum teleportation successfully, and for investigating how teleportation fidelity, violation of Bell-CHSH inequality, quantum steering and entanglement are connected with each other under the influence of noisy environments. Both Markovian and non-Markovian channels are considered, and it is shown that the decay and revival of correlations follow the hierarchy of quantum correlations in the state space. Noise tolerance of quantum correlations are checked for different types of unital and non-unital quantum channels, with and without memory. The quantum speed limit time $(\tau_{QSL})$ is investigated from the perspective of memory of quantum noise, and the corresponding dynamics is used to analyze the evolution of quantum correlations. We establish the connection between information backflow, quantum speed limit time and dynamics of quantum correlations for non-Markovian quantum channels.

In an attempt to theoretically investigate the quantum phase transition and criticality in topological models, we study Kitaev chain with longer-range couplings (finite number of neighbors) as well as truly long-range couplings (infinite number of neighbors). We carry out an extensive topological characterization of the momentum space to explore the possibility of obtaining higher order winding numbers and analyze the nature of their stability in the model. The occurrences of phase transitions from even-to-even and odd-to-odd winding numbers are observed with decreasing longer-rangeness in the system. We derive topological quantum critical lines and study them to understand the behavior of criticality. A suppression of higher order winding numbers is observed with decreasing longer-rangeness in the model. We show that the mechanism behind such phenomena is due to the superposition and vanishing of the topological quantum critical lines associated with the higher winding number. Through the study of Berry connection we show the possible different behaviors of critical lines when they undergo superposition along with the corresponding critical exponents. We analyze the behavior of the long-range models through the momentum space characterization. We also provide exact solution for the problem and discuss the experimental aspects of the work.

The eternally non-Markovian Pauli channel is an example of a unital channel characterized by a negative decay rate for all time $t>0$. Here we consider the problem of constructing an analogous non-unital channel, and show in particular that a $d$-dimensional generalized amplitude damping (GAD) channel cannot be eternally non-Markovian when the non-Markovianity originates solely from the non-unital part of the channel. We study specific ramifications of this result for qubit GAD. Specifically, we construct a quasi-eternally non-Markovian qubit GAD channel, characterized by a time $t^\ast > 0$, such that the channel is non-Markovian only and for all time $t > t^\ast$. We further point out that our negative result for the qudit GAD channel, namely the impossibility of the eternal non-Markovian property, does not hold for a general qubit or higher-dimensional non-unital channel.

Entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs) make use of pre-shared entanglement to enhance the rate of error correction and communication. We study the concatenation of EAQECCs, in specific showing how the order of concatenation affects the number of ebits consumed, the logical error probability, the pseudo-threshold, and the violation of the quantum Hamming bound. We find that if the quaternary code from which an EAQECC is derived saturates the Griesmer (resp., Plotkin) bound, then the derived code will saturate the Griesmer (resp., linear Plotkin) bound for EAQECCs. We present families of concatenated EAQECCs that saturate the quantum Singleton, Griesmer, and linear Plotkin bounds for EAQECCs.

Both deterministic and indeterministic physical laws are incompatible with control by genuine (non-illusory) free will. We propose that an indeterministic dynamics can be $weakly$ compatible with free will (FW), whereby the latter acts by altering the probability distribution over allowed outcomes. In the quantum physical world, such a FW can collapse the wave function, introducing deviations from the Born rule. In principle, this deviation would stand in conflict with both special relativity and (a variant of) the Strong Church-Turing thesis, implying that the brain may be an arena of exotic, non-standard physics. However, in practice, these deviations would not be directly or easily observable, because they occur in sub-neuronal superpositions in the brain, where they would be shrouded in random measurement errors, noise and statistical fluctuations. Our result elucidates the difference between the FW of human observers and that of observed particles in the Free Will Theorem. This difference is a basic reason for why FW (and, in general, consciousness) cannot be recreated by standard artificial intelligence (AI) technology. We propose various neurobiological experiments to test our proposed theory. We speculate that for observers to be aware of a physical theory such as quantum mechanics, FW is necessary and that the theory must therefore not be universal. We suggest that FW may be regarded as a primitive principle in Nature for explaining quantum indeterminism.