Qudos on the Qudits!

Martinis group at UCSB have demonstrated operations on a quantum bit with 5 levels (qudit with d=5) instead of the usual 2 (qubit):"Emulation of a Quantum Spin with a Superconducting Phase Qudit"Matthew Neeley,1 Markus Ansmann,1 Radoslaw C. Bialczak,1 Max Hofheinz,1 Erik Lucero,1 Aaron D. O'Connell,1 Daniel Sank,1 Haohua Wang,1 James Wenner,1 Andrew N. Cleland,1 Michael R. Geller,2 John M. Martinis1. They use a standard type of phase qubit experiment in which the quantum states are defiined by a ladder of energy levels in a single potential well, rather than the more common flux qubit where the energy levels arise from the degeneracy between two adjacent wells. The qubits/qudits are controlled by applying very careful timed and shaped pulses of microwaves to excite the quantum states between levels and to allow the levels to interact with one another. The energy between each level is very slightly different due to the anharmonicity of the Josephson junction's energy landscape, so each level transition has a unique 'frequency signature'. (This scheme wouldn't work if the quantum states were in a harmonic oscillator, as all the levels would be equally spaced.)The group demonstrate a shift in the Ramsey fringes which equates to the expected Berry phase produced by the rotation of the quantum state around the Bloch Sphere. They also demonstrate robust Rabi oscillations and the swapping of quantum information between states. The relaxation times of the states are all in the 100's of ns, but are smaller for the higher states.I can't really stress how exciting this result is for experimental quantum computation with superconducting circuits - it opens up new possibilities for implementation of algorithms and quantum simulation. The group focus on the potential of the technique for emulating quantum spin systems.I wonder what algorithms have been developed that require multi-dimensional Hilbert spaces for their implementation? I know that higher dimensional quantum bits can help make quantum cryptography more secure. I find a sudden renewed interest in learning about qudits...I'm also slightly smug in my opinion that this once again puts Josephson SC qubits marginally ahead in the awesomeness stakes. (Those ion trap guys were really giving us a run for our money). Qutrit systems (3 levels) have been realised in NMR and Ion trap QC but I believe that experiments like this really open up the door for more complex QIP realizations.