Antonio Negretti

Optimal control of open quantum systems: cooperative effects of driving and dissipation.

We investigate the optimal control of open quantum systems, in particular, the mutual influence of driving and dissipation. A stochastic approach to open-system control is developed, using a generalized version of Krotovs iterative algorithm, with no need for Markovian or rotating-wave approximations. The application to a harmonic degree of freedom reveals cooperative effects of driving and dissipation that a standard Markovian treatment cannot capture. Remarkably, control can modify the open-system dynamics to the point where the entropy change turns negative, thus achieving cooling of translational motion without any reliance on internal degrees of freedom.

Microwave potentials and optimal control for robust quantum gates on an atom chip

We propose a two-qubit collisional phase gate that can be implemented with available atom chip technology and present a detailed theoretical analysis of its performance. The gate is based on earlier phase gate schemes, but uses a qubit state pair with an experimentally demonstrated, very long coherence lifetime. Microwave near fields play a key role in our implementation as a means to realize the state-dependent potentials required for conditional dynamics. Quantum control algorithms are used to optimize gate performance. We employ circuit configurations that can be built with current fabrication processes and extensively discuss the impact of technical noise and imperfections that characterize an actual atom chip. We find an overall infidelity compatible with requirements for fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Emulating solid-state physics with a hybrid system of ultracold ions and atoms.

We propose and theoretically investigate a hybrid system composed of a crystal of trapped ions coupled to a cloud of ultracold fermions. The ions form a periodic lattice and induce a band structure in the atoms. This system combines the advantages of high fidelity operations and detection offered by trapped ion systems with ultracold atomic systems. It also features close analogies to natural solid-state systems, as the atomic degrees of freedom couple to phonons of the ion lattice, thereby emulating a solid-state system. Starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian, we derive the low energy Hamiltonian, including the atomic band structure, and give an expression for the atom-phonon coupling. We discuss possible experimental implementations such as a Peierls-like transition into a period-doubled dimerized state.

Quantum computing implementations with neutral particles

We review quantum information processing with cold neutral particles, that is, atoms or polar molecules. First, we analyze the best suited degrees of freedom of these particles for storing quantum information, and then we discuss both single- and two-qubit gate implementations. We focus our discussion mainly on collisional quantum gates, which are best suited for atom-chip-like devices, as well as on gate proposals conceived for optical lattices. Additionally, we analyze schemes both for cold atoms confined in optical cavities and hybrid approaches to entanglement generation, and we show how optimal control theory might be a powerful tool to enhance the speed up of the gate operations as well as to achieve high fidelities required for fault tolerant quantum computation.

Theoretical analysis of a realistic atom-chip quantum gate

E. Charron, M. A. Cirone, A. Negretti, 3, ∗ J. Schmiedmayer, and T. Calarco 5 Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire du CNRS, Bâtiment 210 Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex France ECT*, Strada delle Tabarelle 286, I-38050 Villazzano, Trento, Italy, and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento, and BEC-CNR-INFM, I-38050 Povo, Italy Institut für Physik, Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany ITAMP, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA (Dated: May 30, 2020)

Dynamical programming of continuously observed quantum systems

We develop dynamical programming methods for the purpose of optimal control of quantum states with convex constraints and concave cost and bequest functions of the quantum state. We consider both open loop and feedback control schemes, which correspond, respectively, to deterministic and stochastic master equation dynamics. For the quantum feedback control scheme with continuous nondemolition observations, we exploit the separation theorem of filtering and control aspects for quantum stochastic dynamics to derive a generalized Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. If the control is restricted to only Hamiltonian terms this is equivalent to a Hamilton-Jacobi equation with an extra linear dissipative term. In this work, we consider, in particular, the case when control is restricted only to observation. A controlled qubit is considered as an example throughout the development of the formalism. Finally, we discuss optimum observation strategies to obtain a pure state from a mixed state of a quantum two-level system.

Enhanced phase sensitivity and soliton formation in an integrated BEC interferometer

We study the dynamics of Bose–Einstein condensates in time-dependent microtraps for the purpose of understanding the influence of the mean field interaction on the performance of interferometers. We identify conditions where the nonlinearity due to atom interactions increases the sensitivity of interferometers to a phase shift. This feature is connected with the adiabatic generation of a dark soliton. We analyse the robustness of this phenomenon with respect to thermal fluctuations, due to excited near fields in an electromagnetic surface trap.

Quantum Superposition State Production by Continuous Observations and Feedback

We present a protocol for the generation of superpositions of states with distinguishable field amplitudes in an optical cavity by quantum nondemolition photon number measurements and coherent feeding of the cavity.

Unraveling the Structure of Ultracold Mesoscopic Collinear Molecular Ions

We present an in-depth many-body investigation of the so-called mesoscopic molecular ions that can buildup when an ion is immersed into an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in one dimension. To this end, we employ the multilayer multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method for mixtures of ultracold bosonic species for solving the underlying many-body Schrödinger equation. This enables us to unravel the actual structure of such massive charged molecules from a microscopic perspective. Laying out their phase diagram with respect to atom number and interatomic interaction strength, we determine the maximal number of atoms bound to the ion and reveal spatial densities and molecular properties. Interestingly, we observe a strong interaction-induced localization, especially for the ion, that we explain by the generation of a large effective mass, similarly to ions in liquid Helium. Finally, we predict the dynamical response of the ion to small perturbations. Our results provide clear evidence for the importance of quantum correlations, as we demonstrate by benchmarking them with wave function ansatz classes employed in the literature.

Ground-state properties of ultracold trapped bosons with an immersed ionic impurity

We consider a trapped atomic ensemble of interacting bosons in the presence of a single trapped ion in a quasi one dimensional geometry. Our study is carried out by means of the newly developed multilayer-multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons, a numerical exact approach to simulate quantum many-body dynamics. In particular, we are interested in the scenario by which the ion is so strongly trapped that its motion can be effectively neglected. This enables us to focus on the atomic ensemble only. With the development of a model potential for the atom-ion interaction, we are able to numerically obtain the exact many-body ground state of the atomic ensemble in the presence of an ion. We analyse the influence of the atom number and the atom-atom interaction on the ground state properties. Interestingly, for weakly interacting atoms, we find that the ion impedes the transition from the ideal gas behaviour to the Thomas-Fermi limit. Furthermore, we show that this effect can be exploited to infer the presence of the ion both in the momentum distribution of the atomic cloud and by observing the interference fringes occurring during an expansion of the quantum gas. In the strong interacting regime, the ion modifies the fragmentation process in dependence of the atom number parity which allows a clear identification of the latter in expansion experiments. Hence, we propose in both regimes experimentally viable strategies to assess the impact of the ion on the many-body state of the atomic gas. This study serves as the first building block for systematically investigate many-body physics of such hybrid system.