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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

A solvable model of a nonlinear extension of quantum mechanics

We introduce a particular nonlinear generalization of quantum mechanics which has the property that it is exactly solvable in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian of the usual linear quantum mechanics problem. Here, we hope that this simple example will elucidate some of the issues of interpreting nonlinear generalization of quantum mechanics that have been put forth to resolve questions about quantum measurement theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Probing Cellular Activity Via Charge‐Sensitive Quantum Nanoprobes

Nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) based quantum sensors hold great potential for real‐time single‐cell sensing with far‐reaching applications in fundamental biology and medical diagnostics. Although highly sensitive, the mapping of quantum measurements onto cellular physiological states has remained an exceptional challenge. Here, we introduce a novel quantum sensing modality capable of detecting changes in cellular activity. Our approach is based on the detection of environment‐induced charge depletion within an individual particle that, owing to a previously unaccounted transverse dipole term, induces systematic shifts in the zero‐field splitting (ZFS). Importantly, these charge‐induced shifts serve as a reliable indicator for lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐mediated inflammatory response in macrophages. Furthermore, we demonstrate that surface modification of our diamond nanoprobes effectively suppresses these environment‐induced ZFS shifts, providing an important tool for differentiating electrostatic shifts caused by the environment from other unrelated effects, such as temperature variations. Notably, this surface modification also leads to significant reductions in particle‐induced toxicity and inflammation. Our findings shed light on systematic drifts and sensitivity limits of NV spectroscopy in a biological environment with ramifications for the critical discussion surrounding single‐cell thermogenesis. Notably, this work establishes the foundation for a novel sensing modality capable of probing complex cellular processes through straightforward physical measurements.

band bending↗
DOE OSTI2024

Solid State Quantum Refrigeration Superconducting, Absorption and Measurement Based (Final Technical Report)

During this DOE grant, DE-SC0017890, in place for the past six years, all proposed research was carried out and published in peer-reviewed papers, as well as other projects that emerged during the research. In that effort the research team accomplished all proposed research, as well as many closely related research projects discovered and conceived of during the grant. These works included “Efficient Quantum Measurement Engines”, a work published in Physical Review Letters, giving a theory of quantum measurement-based engines, which uses quantum measurement as a resource. These engines are designed to efficiently convert energy from the stochastic quantum measurement process into useful work. Further publications include “Experimental Realization of a Quantum Dot Energy Harvester”, a joint theory and experimental work in collaboration with the group of Charles Smith in Cambridge, UK, as well as long time theoretical collaborators, Rafael Sánchez and Björn Sothmann. This work, featured as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Letters, realized an earlier theoretical proposal of ours, whereby two resonant tunneling quantum dots are connected to a central electronic cavity that is heated by a hot energy source. We also published “Superconducting Quantum Refrigerator: Breaking and Rejoining Cooper Pairs with Magnetic Field Cycles” a work done in collaboration with experimentalist Francesco Giazotto from ENS Pisa, Italy, which also resulted in a patent. This paper, published in Phys. Rev. Applied, advanced the concept of a cyclic fridge based on the normal/superconducting phase transition together with layered materials separated by tunnel junctions. We also completed the proposed research on a heat transistor, publishing “Thermal transistor and thermometer based on Coulomb-coupled conductors”, carried out as a collaboration between my group and theorists Splettstoesser (Lund U., Sweden), Sothmann (U. Duisburg-Essen, Germany), and Sánchez (U. Autónoma de Madrid, Spain). We carried out an analysis of a quantum coupled to a quantum point contact as a sensitive thermometer and heat transistor. We found the optimal statistical estimator for the temperature and compared it with experiments on the same type of devices. We also investigated autonomous quantum absorption refrigerators using quantum dots to cool by using a very hot thermal reservoir to drive heat between two other reservoirs. In the article “Quantifying the quantum heat contribution from a driven superconducting circuit”, we demonstrated that for a driven superconducting circuit, we showed heat flow provided by a hot source to the qubit can be switched on and off by varying external parameters, the frequency and the intensity of the driving. In the work “Stochastic thermodynamic cycles of a mesoscopic thermoelectric engine”, we reconsidered the autonomous thermoelectric heat engine in terms of underlying cycles. Rather than periodic behavior, the cycles were stochastic in nature. Nevertheless, by undertaking a graph theoretical analysis of the elementary transport processed, great quantitative and qualitative insight could be found. We also considered the quantum measurement process and showed that a quantum version of Maxwell’s demon could be related to the work extraction of a quantum system, closely related to arrow-of-time measures for quantum measurement, as described in our article “Thermodynamics of quantum measurement and Maxwell's demon's arrow of time”. This work was selected in Phys. Rev. A as an Editor’s Suggestion. A recent preprint titled “Cyclic Superconducting Quantum Refrigerators Using Guided Fluxon Propagation” accomplished an important piece of this grant: to propose a new kind of quantum refrigerator using the dynamics of fluxons in a type II superconductor. This invention envisioned a race-track type geometry where fluxons are confined. By applying a gradient of magnetic field together with electric current in a Corbino geometry, the circulating fluxons can actively cool a cold reservoir, realizing a new type of cyclic superconducting refrigerator. We also investigated the possibility of thermal control from different points of view. The application of quantum measurement to the system gives a new kind of control on the system of interest – we have pioneered this approach and shown that measurement can boost the thermal power of quantum engines as described in “Continuous measurement boosted adiabatic quantum thermal machines”. The ability to have heat flows on demand is an outstanding challenge, and we have provided new solutions to this problem in Thermal control across a chain of electronic nanocavities” for a chain of electron cavities using gating voltage control. The control methods using qubit/qubit coupling to create absorption fridges at their most fundamental level have also been developed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimal Zeno Dragging for Quantum Control: A Shortcut to Zeno with Action-Based Scheduling Optimization

The quantum Zeno effect asserts that quantum measurements inhibit simultaneous unitary dynamics when the “collapse” events are sufficiently strong and frequent. This applies in the limit of strong continuous measurement or dissipation. It is possible to implement a dissipative control that is known as “Zeno dragging” by dynamically varying the monitored observable, and hence also the eigenstates, which are attractors under Zeno dynamics. This is similar to adiabatic processes, in that the Zeno-dragging fidelity is highest when the rate of eigenstate change is slow compared to the measurement rate. We demonstrate here two theoretical methods for using such dynamics to achieve control of quantum systems. The first, which we shall refer to as “shortcut to Zeno,” is analogous to the shortcuts to adiabaticity (counterdiabatic driving) that are frequently used to accelerate unitary adiabatic evolution. In the second approach, we apply the Chantasri-Dressel-Jordan stochastic action [PRA 88, 042110 (2013)], and demonstrate that the extremal-probability readout paths derived from this are well suited to setting up a Pontryagin-style optimization of the Zeno-dragging schedule. A fundamental contribution of the latter approach is to show that an action suitable for measurement-driven control optimization can be derived quite generally from statistical arguments. Implementing these methods on the Zeno dragging of a qubit, we find that both approaches yield the same solution, namely, that the optimal control is a unitary that matches the motion of the Zeno-monitored eigenstate. We then show that such a solution can be more robust than a unitary-only operation and we comment on solvable generalizations of our qubit example embedded in larger systems. These methods open up new pathways toward systematically developing dynamic control of Zeno subspaces to realize dissipatively stabilized quantum operations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Few measurement shots challenge generalization in learning to classify entanglement

The ability to extract general laws from a few known examples depends on the complexity of the problem and on the amount of training data. In the quantum setting, the learner's generalization performance is further challenged by the destructive nature of quantum measurements that, together with the no-cloning theorem, limits the amount of information that can be extracted from each training sample. In this paper we focus on hybrid quantum learning techniques where classical machine-learning methods are paired with quantum algorithms and show that, in some settings, the uncertainty coming from a few measurement shots can be the dominant source of errors. We identify an instance of this possibly general issue by focusing on the classification of maximally entangled vs. separable states, showing that this toy problem becomes challenging for learners unaware of entanglement theory. Finally, we introduce an estimator based on classical shadows that performs better in the big data, few copy regime. Our results show that the naive application of classical machine-learning methods to the quantum setting is problematic, and that a better theoretical foundation of quantum learning is required.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

A volumetric framework for quantum computer benchmarks

We propose a very large family of benchmarks for probing the performance of quantum computers. We call them volumetric benchmarks (VBs) because they generalize IBM's benchmark for measuring quantum volume \cite{Cross18}. The quantum volume benchmark defines a family of square circuits whose depth d and width w are the same. A volumetric benchmark defines a family of rectangular quantum circuits, for which d and w are uncoupled to allow the study of time/space performance trade-offs. Each VB defines a mapping from circuit shapes — ( w , d ) pairs — to test suites C ( w , d ) . A test suite is an ensemble of test circuits that share a common structure. The test suite C for a given circuit shape may be a single circuit C , a specific list of circuits { C 1 … C N } that must all be run, or a large set of possible circuits equipped with a distribution P r ( C ) . The circuits in a given VB share a structure, which is limited only by designers' creativity. We list some known benchmarks, and other circuit families, that fit into the VB framework: several families of random circuits, periodic circuits, and algorithm-inspired circuits. The last ingredient defining a benchmark is a success criterion that defines when a processor is judged to have ``passed'' a given test circuit. We discuss several options. Benchmark data can be analyzed in many ways to extract many properties, but we propose a simple, universal graphical summary of results that illustrates the Pareto frontier of the d vs w trade-off for the processor being benchmarked.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scalable multiphoton quantum metrology with neither pre- nor post-selected measurements

The quantum statistical fluctuations of electromagnetic fields establish a limit, known as the shot-noise limit, on the sensitivity of optical measurements performed with classical technologies. However, quantum technologies are not constrained by this shot-noise limit. In this regard, the possibility of using every photon produced by quantum sources of light to estimate small physical parameters, beyond the shot-noise limit, constitutes one of the main goals of quantum optics. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scalable protocol for quantum-enhanced optical phase estimation across a broad range of phases, with neither pre- nor post-selected measurements. This is achieved through the efficient design of a source of spontaneous parametric downconversion in combination with photon-number-resolving detection. The robustness of two-mode squeezed vacuum states against loss allows us to outperform schemes based on N00N states, in which the loss of a single photon is enough to remove all phase information from a quantum state. In contrast to other schemes that rely on N00N states or conditional measurements, the sensitivity of our technique could be improved through the generation and detection of high-order photon pairs. This unique feature of our protocol makes it scalable. Furthermore, our work is important for quantum technologies that rely on multiphoton interference such as quantum imaging, boson sampling, and quantum networks.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Statistical Complexity of Quantum Learning

Abstract Learning problems involve settings in which an algorithm has to make decisions based on data, and possibly side information such as expert knowledge. This study has two main goals. First, it reviews and generalizes different results on the data and model complexity of quantum learning, where the data and/or the algorithm can be quantum, focusing on information‐theoretic techniques. Second, it introduces the notion of copy complexity, which quantifies the number of copies of a quantum state required to achieve a target accuracy level. Copy complexity arises from the destructive nature of quantum measurements, which irreversibly alter the state to be processed, limiting the information that can be extracted about quantum data. As a result, empirical risk minimization is generally inapplicable. The paper presents novel results on the copy complexity for both training and testing. To make the paper self‐contained and approachable by different research communities, an extensive background material is provided on classical results from statistical learning theory, as well as on the distinguishability of quantum states. Throughout, the differences between quantum and classical learning are highlighted by addressing both supervised and unsupervised learning, and extensive pointers are provided to the literature.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measurement and memory in the periodically driven complex Ginzburg-Landau equation

In the present work we illustrate that classical but nonlinear systems may possess features reminiscent of quantum ones, such as memory, upon suitable external perturbation. As our prototypical example, we use the two-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in its vortex glass regime. Here, we impose an external drive as a perturbation mimicking a quantum measurement protocol, with a given “measurement rate” (the rate of repetition of the drive) and “mixing rate” (characterized by the intensity of the drive). Using a variety of measures, we find that the system may or may not retain its coherence, statistically retrieving its original glass state, depending on the strength and periodicity of the perturbing field. The corresponding parametric regimes and the associated energy cascade mechanisms involving the dynamics of vortex waveforms and domain boundaries are discussed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Strong parametric dispersive shifts in a statically decoupled two-qubit cavity QED system

Qubits in cavity quantum electrodynamic (QED) architectures are often operated in the dispersive regime, in which the operating frequency of the cavity depends on the energy state of the qubit, and vice versa. The ability to tune these dispersive shifts provides additional options for performing either quantum measurements or logical manipulations. Here we couple two transmon qubits to a lumped-element cavity through a shared superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). In this work, our design balances the mutual capacitive and inductive circuit components so that both qubits are statically decoupled from the cavity with low flux sensitivity, offering protection from decoherence processes. Parametric driving of the SQUID flux enables independent, dynamical tuning of each qubit’s interaction with the cavity. As a practical demonstration, we perform pulsed parametric dispersive readout of both qubits. The dispersive frequency shifts of the cavity mode follow the theoretically expected magnitude and sign. This parametric approach creates an extensible, tunable cavity QED framework with various future applications, such as entanglement and error correction via multi-qubit parity readout, state and entanglement stabilization, and parametric logical gates.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Postselection-Free Entanglement Dynamics via Spacetime Duality

The dynamics of entanglement in 'hybrid' non-unitary circuits (for example, involving both unitary gates and quantum measurements) has recently become an object of intense study. A major hurdle toward experimentally realizing this physics is the need to apply postselection on random measurement outcomes in order to repeatedly prepare a given output state, resulting in an exponential overhead. We propose a method to sidestep this issue in a wide class of non-unitary circuits by taking advantage of spacetime duality. This method maps the purification dynamics of a mixed state under non-unitary evolution onto a particular correlation function in an associated unitary circuit. This translates to an operational protocol which could be straightforwardly implemented on a digital quantum simulator. We discuss the signatures of different entanglement phases, and demonstrate examples via numerical simulations. With minor modifications, the proposed protocol allows measurement of the purity of arbitrary subsystems, which could shed light on the properties of the quantum error correcting code formed by the mixed phase in this class of hybrid dynamics.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Direct measurement of the quantum metric tensor in solids

The quantum metric tensor is a central geometric quantity in modern physics that is defined as the distance between nearby quantum states. Despite numerous studies highlighting its relevance to fundamental physical phenomena in solids, measuring the complete quantum metric tensors in real solid-state materials is challenging. In this work, we report a direct measurement of the full quantum metric tensors of Bloch electrons in solids using black phosphorus as a representative material. We extracted the momentum space distribution of the pseudospin texture of the valence band from the polarization dependence of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurement. Our approach is poised to advance our understanding of quantum geometric responses in a wide class of crystalline systems.

Kim, Sunje↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantum-parallel vectorized data encodings and computations on trapped-ion and transmon QPUs

Compact data representations in quantum systems are crucial for the development of quantum algorithms for data analysis. In this study, we present two innovative data encoding techniques, known as QCrank and QBArt, which exhibit significant quantum parallelism via uniformly controlled rotation gates. The QCrank method encodes a series of real-valued data as rotations on data qubits, resulting in increased storage capacity. On the other hand, QBArt directly incorporates a binary representation of the data within the computational basis, requiring fewer quantum measurements and enabling well-established arithmetic operations on binary data. We showcase various applications of the proposed encoding methods for various data types. Notably, we demonstrate quantum algorithms for tasks such as DNA pattern matching, Hamming weight computation, complex value conjugation, and the retrieval of a binary image with 384 pixels, all executed on the Quantinuum trapped-ion QPU. Furthermore, we employ several cloud-accessible QPUs, including those from IBMQ and IonQ, to conduct supplementary benchmarking experiments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Symmetry-mediated quantum coherence of W 5+ spins in an oxygen-deficient double perovskite

Elucidating the factors limiting quantum coherence in real materials is essential to the development of quantum technologies. Here we report a strategic approach to determine the effect of lattice dynamics on spin coherence lifetimes using oxygen deficient double perovskites as host materials. In addition to obtaining millisecond T 1 spin-lattice lifetimes at T ~ 10 K, measurable quantum superpositions were observed up to room temperature. We determine that T 2 enhancement in Sr 2 CaWO 6-δ over previously studied Ba 2 CaWO 6-δ is caused by a dynamically-driven increase in effective site symmetry around the dominant paramagnetic site, assigned as W 5+ via electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Further, a combination of experimental and computational techniques enabled quantification of the relative strength of spin-phonon coupling of each phonon mode. This analysis demonstrates the effect of thermodynamics and site symmetry on the spin lifetimes of W 5+ paramagnetic defects, an important step in the process of reducing decoherence to produce longer-lived qubits.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Shot‐Noise‐Driven Macroscopic Vibrations and Displacement Transduction in Quantum Tunnel Junctions

Back‐action is an inevitable result of quantum measurement. Although the microscopic impacts of shot‐noise back‐action have been explored, macroscopic evidence is seldom documented, especially in the field of electrical transport. Tunneling shot‐noise has been shown to excite the fundamental flexural mode of the host crystal using a sub‐GHz lumped‐element radio‐frequency quantum point contact (QPC). Here, in this study, this aspect of shot‐noise back‐action is examined at much higher operational frequencies and wider bandwidths by employing a GaAs QPC integrated into a planar superconducting cavity within the circuit‐QED framework, leading to the observation of the excitation of multiple mechanical modes. The device operates in the shot‐noise‐limited regime. Constructed on a piezoelectric platform, there is positive feedback between the electrical and mechanical degrees of freedom within the QPC. Shot‐noise excites piezoelectric vibrational modes; concurrently the resulting polarization charges enhance tunneling and develop peaks in the shot‐noise spectra at the modal frequencies. The excitation of vibrational modes is a macroscopic demonstration of measurement back‐action, and the amplitudes of the noise‐peaks enable us to calibrate the displacement sensitivity of the QPC‐resonator systems, which is in the range $≈ 35 fm/√ Hz$, making it an excellent sensor for ultra‐sensitive and rapid strain/displacement detection.

Kumbhakar, Prasanta [Indian Institute of Science E↗
DOE OSTI2025

Correlating Superconducting Qubit Performance Losses to Sidewall Near-Field Scattering via Terahertz Nanophotonics

Elucidating dielectric losses, structural heterogeneity, and interface imperfections is critical for improving coherence in superconducting qubits. However, most diagnostics rely on destructive electron microscopy or low-throughput millikelvin quantum measurements. Here, we demonstrate noninvasive terahertz (THz) nano-imaging/-spectroscopy of encapsulated niobium transmon qubits, revealing sidewall near-field scattering that correlates with qubit coherence. We further employ a THz hyperspectral line scan to probe dielectric responses and field participation at Al junction interfaces. These findings highlight the promise of THz near-field methods as a high-throughput proxy characterization tool for guiding material selection and optimizing processing protocols to improve qubit and quantum circuit performance.

Kim, Richard H.J. [Ames Lab]↗
DOE OSTI2021

Room-Temperature Mechanical Resonator with a Single Added or Subtracted Phonon

A room-temperature mechanical oscillator undergoes thermal Brownian motion with an amplitude much larger than the amplitude associated with a single phonon of excitation. This motion can be read out and manipulated using laser light using a cavity-optomechanical approach. By performing a strong quantum measurement (i.e., counting single photons in the sidebands imparted on a laser), we herald the addition and subtraction of single phonons on the 300 K thermal motional state of a 4 GHz mechanical oscillator. Further, to understand the resulting mechanical state, we implement a tomography scheme and observe highly non-Gaussian phase-space distributions. Using a maximum likelihood method, we infer the density matrix of the oscillator, and we confirm the counterintuitive doubling of the mean phonon number resulting from phonon addition and subtraction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Quantum mechanical closure of partial differential equations with symmetries

We develop a statistical framework for the dynamical closure of spatiotemporal dynamics governed by partial differential equations. Employing the mathematical framework of quantum mechanics to embed the original classical dynamics into a quantum mechanical representation, we use the space of quantum density operators to model the unresolved degrees of freedom of the original dynamics in a statistical sense, and the framework of quantum measurement to predict their contributions to the resolved dynamics. The embedded dynamics is discretized by a positivity preserving process, leading to a compressed representation that is invariant under the dynamical symmetries of the resolved dynamics. We present a data based formulation of the closure scheme and apply it to a closure problem for the shallow water equations. The numerical results demonstrate that our closure model can accurately predict the main features of the true dynamics, including for out of sample initial conditions.

Delay embedding↗