"BROOKLYN" QUANTUM PREPARES A SPIN-J STATE ON A PHOTONIC QC (MERRILY)!

This week we return yet again to the magic of the Majorana stars. Specifically, we'll be using the Majorana decomposition of a spin-j state into 2j stars on the sphere to prepare a spin-j state on a photonic quantum computer using beamsplitters and post-selection, thanks to Xanadu's StrawberryFields. Previously, we used the relationship between a spin-j state and 2j permutation symmetric qubits to achieve the same on IBM's qubit based machines. This time we'll use the relationship between a spin-j state and the total number = 2j sector of the Fock space of two harmonic oscillators to achieve our goal. Then we'll turn to another interesting and related topic: extending the Majorana representation to mixed states and operators--it can be done, and we'll see how!