Entanglement Distribution in Quantum Networks

This Thesis contributes to the theory of entanglement distribution in quantum networks in general, analyzing the generation of long-distance entanglement in particular. We consider that neighboring stations share one partially entangled pair of qubits, which emphasizes the difficulty of creating remote entanglement in realistic settings. The task is then to design local quantum operations at the stations, such that the entanglement present in the links of the whole network gets concentrated between few parties only, regardless of their spatial arrangement. We study pure-state and mixed-state quantum lattices, showing that useful quantum correlations can be created over a large distance by using percolation strategies and syndrome-based error correction , respectively. We also propose a model of quantum complex networks , which have a very rich topology and exhibit some totally unexpected properties.