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Shao and Motter Rework Entanglement Percolation
Yanxuan Shao and Adilson E. Motter propose a power-of-choice protocol for entanglement percolation in quantum communication networks. Their paper says reversing a selection rule can bring the percolation transition earlier, reduce the entan
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A selection rule for quantum links
Yanxuan Shao and Adilson E. Motter published a power-of-choice protocol for quantum communication networks in Physical Review A on October 23, 2026. Their paper addresses a gap between the states that best support these networks and the states that can be distributed in practice: networks work best with maximally entangled states, while imperfections in generating and distributing entanglement generally leave distributed states only partially entangled.
The paper frames local operations and classical communication as the usual tools for creating networks with suitable entanglement. Shao and Motter focus on how a protocol selects among possible operations in that setting. Their proposal is a change to that selection rule, not a claim of a hardware demonstration or a measured cost reduction for deployed equipment.
Reversing a selection rule
The authors introduce what they call a power-of-choice (PoC) protocol. It is based on reversing the selection criteria in the Achlioptas process, a process previously considered in classical explosive percolation. The paper’s abstract does not spell out the detailed steps of the protocol, but identifies that reversal as the central design choice.
The outcome they report is an earlier entanglement percolation transition. In this context, the transition is the point associated with establishing quantum communication through the network. According to the authors, reaching it sooner reduces the entanglement resources needed to establish communication. The paper’s summary does not provide a numerical estimate of the reduction, so the result here is a reported qualitative improvement rather than a quantified saving.
“The resulting PoC protocol anticipates the entanglement percolation transition, thereby reducing the entanglement resources needed to establish quantum communication.”
Yanxuan Shao and Adilson E. Motter, authors of the paper
Local information
The paper also addresses the information needed to implement the protocol. It says PoC can be implemented using local information with no appreciable loss of performance. That comparison is specifically with explosive percolation: the authors contrast their local implementation with that approach, rather than claiming that every quantum-network operation can be carried out locally.
The distinction matters to the proposal’s practical framing. A protocol that uses local information does not require the full network state to be known for the implementation described by the authors. But the published summary does not report a field test, identify particular equipment, or establish a monetary cost. Its claims concern the protocol and its performance in the entanglement-percolation setting.
What the paper establishes
Shao is affiliated with Northwestern University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Network Dynamics. Motter is affiliated with those units as well as Northwestern’s Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, and Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering.
The article appears in volume 114 of Physical Review A, as article 042452. APS lists it as received December 10, 2025, accepted August 31, 2026, and published October 23, 2026. The paper’s stated contribution is the selection protocol and its reported effects: an anticipated transition, reduced entanglement-resource requirements, and local implementation without appreciable performance loss. It does not, in the information reported on the publication page, offer a numerical resource-saving figure or a demonstration on a deployed quantum network.