Engineering Quantum Dissipation in Cold Atom Systems

耗散通常对量子系统是一件坏事，剥夺了它们的相干、叠加和纠缠的特殊量子特征，并驱使它们进入经典行为。该项目将努力利用量子系统中的耗散来实现积极的效益。这项研究将开发利用耗散来从量子系统中移除无用的能量、熵和随机性的技术，同时保留所需的量子信息。这项研究是原子物理、量子信息科学和凝聚态物理的交集，将物质波类比到量子光学领域，从而使物质与光相互作用产生的重要特征可以在一个纯粹的物质系统中复制或扩展。开发设计耗散、理解和控制开放量子系统的方法，将与几乎任何建立在量子力学基础上的新技术应用相关，从完全实现的量子计算机到更温和的应用，如基于相干量子力学过程的传感器。研究生和本科生将在学术和国家实验室环境中接受最先进的科学培训，使他们接触到各种各样的物理和研究。

Dissipation is generally a bad thing for quantum systems, robbing them of their special quantum features of coherence, superposition, and entanglement, and driving them to classical behavior. This project will endeavor to use dissipation in quantum systems for positive benefit. The research will develop techniques to use dissipation to remove unwanted energy, entropy, and randomness from a quantum system while preserving the wanted quantum information. A matter wave analogy to the field of quantum optics will be pursued, so that the important features that arise from interaction of matter with light can be replicated and perhaps expanded in a solely matter-based system.This research resides at the intersection of atomic physics, quantum information science, and condensed matter physics. Developing ways to engineer dissipation and understand and control open quantum systems will be relevant to virtually any new technological applications built on quantum mechanics, from a fully realized quantum computer to much more modest applications such as sensors based on coherent quantum mechanical processes. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in state-of-the-art science in an environment that exposes them to a wide variety of physics and research in both an academic and national lab setting.