Limited-path-length entanglement percolation in quantum complex networks

We study entanglement distribution in quantum complex networks where nodes are connected by bipartite entangled states. These networks are characterized by a complex structure, which dramatically affects how information is transmitted through them. For pure quantum state links, quantum networks exhibit a remarkable feature absent in classical networks: it is possible to effectively rewire the network by performing local operations on the nodes. We propose a family of such quantum operations that decrease the entanglement percolation threshold of the network and increase the size of the giant connected component. We provide analytic results for complex networks with an arbitrary (uncorrelated) degree distribution. These results are in good agreement with numerical simulations, which also show enhancement in correlated and real-world networks. The proposed quantum preprocessing strategies are not robust in the presence of noise. However, even when the links consist of (noisy) mixed-state links, one can send quantum information through a connecting path with a fidelity that decreases with the path length. In this noisy scenario, complex networks offer a clear advantage over regular lattices, namely, the fact that two arbitrary nodes can be connected through a relatively small number of steps, known as the small-world effect. We calculate the probability that two arbitrary nodes in the network can successfully communicate with a fidelity above a given threshold. This amounts to working out the classical problem of percolation with a limited path length. We find that this probability can be significant even for paths limited to few connections and that the results for standard (unlimited) percolation are soon recovered if the path length exceeds by a finite amount the average path length, which in complex networks generally scales logarithmically with the size of the network. © 2011 American Physical Society.