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Cyclic order superpositions enable quantum information transmission through completely depolarizing channels
Cyclic order superpositions enable quantum information transmission through completely depolarizing channels
Yaxin Wang
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Linxiang Zhou
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Tianfeng Feng
(QICI Quantum Information and Computation Initiative, School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong)
Hanlin Nie
(Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore)
Ying Xia
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Tianqi Xiao
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Weihu Xu
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Juntao Li
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Vlatko Vedral
(Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford)
Xiaoqi Zhou
(State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University)
Abstract Noise fundamentally limits quantum communication capacity, completely preventing information transmission in fully depolarizing environments. While indefinite causal order theoretically circumvents this limitation, experimentally realizing multi-channel configurations for genuine quantum transmission remains challenging. Here we show the activation of quantum communication through completely depolarizing channels using a programmable silicon photonic chip. By implementing a superposition of cyclic orders across four completely depolarizing channels, we achieve an output state fidelity of 0.712 ± 0.013, which strictly exceeds the classical threshold of 2/3. This mechanism provides a powerful tool for overcoming extreme noise, offering broad potential for building robust quantum networks in highly decoherent environments.