Entanglement percolation in quantum complex networks

Quantum networks are essential to quantum information distributed applications, and communicating over them is a key challenge. Complex networks have rich and intriguing properties, which are as yet unexplored in the quantum setting. Here, we study the effect of entanglement percolation as a means to establish long-distance entanglement between arbitrary nodes of quantum complex networks. We develop a theory to analytically study random graphs with arbitrary degree distribution and give exact results for some models. Our findings are in good agreement with numerical simulations and show that the proposed quantum strategies enhance the percolation threshold substantially. Simulations also show a clear enhancement in small-world and other real-world networks. © 2009 The American Physical Society.