Efficient classical simulation of quantum optics
Saleh Rahimi-Keshari, Timothy C. Ralph, Carlton M. Caves · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2015
We provide general sufficient conditions for the efficient classical simulation of quantum-optics experiments that involve inputting states to a quantum process and making measurements at the output. The first condition is based on the negativity of phase-space quasiprobability distributions (PQDs) of the output state of the process and the output measurements; the second one is based on the negativity of PQDs of the input states, the output measurements, and the transition function associated with the process. We apply these conditions to implementations of boson sampling that use single-photon or spontaneous-parametric-down-conversion sources. We show that above some threshold for loss and noise, the boson-sampling experiments are classically simulatable.