Principles and demonstrations of quantum information processing by NMR spectroscopy (Q1567564)

This paper surveys the recent research by the authors on quantum information processing based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The authors begin with a geometric introduction to the NMR of an ensemble of indistinguishable spins, and then show how this geometric interpretation is contained within an algebra of multispin product operators. This algebra is used throughout the rest of the paper to demonstrate that it provides a facile framework within which to study quantum information processing more generally. The implementation of quantum algorithms by NMR depends upon the availability of special kinds of mixed states called pseudo-pure states, and the authors consider a number of different methods of preparing these states, along with analysis of how they scale with the number of spins. The quantum-mechanical nature of processes involving such macroscopic pseudo-pure states also is a matter of debate, and in order to discuss the issue in concrete terms the authors present the results of NMR experiments which constitute a macroscopic analogue of Hardy's paradox. Finally a detailed product operator description is given of recent NMR experiments which demonstrate a three-bit quantum error correcting code, using field gradients to implement a precisely-known decoherence model.