Arbitrary control of coherent dynamics for distant qubits in a quantum network

We show that the coherent coupling of atomic qubits at distant nodes of a quantum network, composed of several cavities linked by optical fibers, can be arbitrarily controlled via the selective pairing of Raman transitions. The adiabatic elimination of the atomic excited states and photonic states leads to selective qubit-qubit interactions, which would have important applications in quantum-information processing. Quantum gates between any pair of distant qubits and parallel two-qubit operations on selected qubit pairs can be implemented through suitable choices of the parameters of the external fields. Selective pairing of Raman transitions also allows the generation of spin chains and cluster states without the requirement that the cavity-fiber coupling be smaller than the detunings of the Raman transitions.