Entanglement improving coordination in distributed systems
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Coordination in distributed systems is often hampered by communication latency, which degrades performance. Quantum entanglement offers fundamentally stronger correlations than classically achievable without communication. Crucially, these correlations manifest instantaneously upon measurement, irrespective of the physical distance separating the systems. We investigate the application of shared entanglement to a dual-work optimization problem in a distributed system comprising two servers. The system must process both a continuously available, preemptible baseline task and incoming customer requests arriving in pairs. System performance is characterized by the trade-off between baseline task throughput and customer waiting time. We present a rigorous analytical model demonstrating that when the baseline task throughput function is strictly convex, rewarding longer uninterrupted processing periods, entanglement-assisted routing strategies achieve Pareto-superior performance compared to optimal communication-free classical strategies. We prove this advantage through queueing-theoretic analysis, nonlocal game formulation, and computational certification of classical bounds. We complement these formal results with simulations indicating that the advantage persists when arrivals are independent across routers and grows under bursty traffic. Our results suggest distributed scheduling and coordination as a candidate application domain for near-term entanglement-based quantum networks.
Source: Physical Review A
DOI: 10.1103/3328-dwtb
Institutions: QuTech, Delft University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,675
Awards: G1665575404, G4693968386
OpenAlex ID: W7161026617