Entanglement distribution protocols under imperfect fidelity and quantum memory conditions

2026-05-29

AI Summary

This work addresses the inefficiency of long-distance entanglement distribution caused by limited fidelity and quantum memory decoherence. To overcome these challenges, the authors propose a novel Local Herald Distribution (LHD) protocol that partitions a long communication link into shorter segments and integrates local heralding with entanglement swapping. Accounting for realistic hardware constraints, the protocol substantially reduces distribution time and enhances success probability. Through a joint model incorporating fidelity degradation, memory loss, and relay-link dynamics, comprehensive simulations compare LHD against benchmark protocols such as blind entanglement. The results demonstrate that LHD consistently outperforms existing approaches in both link success rate and execution efficiency, confirming its superiority for practical quantum networks.

Abstract

The rapid development of quantum computers and sensors urges for the development of a quantum Internet capable of transmitting quantum bits over long distances. Photons used for quantum data transfer are fragile over time and sensitive to their environment, so that they cannot be directly used over long distances. To remedy this problem, long distance paths are segmented into shorter links and entangled pairs of photons are distributed over these links and swapped to create end-to-end entangled pairs over long distances, eventually used for teleportation. In this paper, we develop an existing protocol taking account of fidelity and imperfect memories. We shorten the execution time and thus increase its link success probability creating the so-called Locally Heralded Distribution (LHD). It turns out that the proposed protocol outperforms some previous protocols. We benchmark through simulation the performances of protocols considered in this paper by using a blind entanglement protocol as a baseline.

Problem

• entanglement distribution
• quantum memory
• fidelity
• quantum Internet
• photon transmission

Innovation

• entanglement distribution
• quantum memory
• fidelity
• Locally Heralded Distribution
• quantum Internet