Engineering Quantum Dissipation in Cold Atom Systems

耗散通常对量子系统来说是一件坏事，它剥夺了量子系统的相干性、叠加性和纠缠性等特殊量子特性，并将它们推向经典行为。本项目将努力利用量子系统中的耗散来获得积极的效益。该研究将开发技术，利用耗散来消除量子系统中不需要的能量、熵和随机性，同时保留所需的量子信息。与量子光学领域类似的物质波将被研究，这样，由物质与光的相互作用产生的重要特征就可以在一个完全以物质为基础的系统中得到复制和扩展。这项研究是原子物理学、量子信息科学和凝聚态物理学的交叉领域。开发工程耗散、理解和控制开放量子系统的方法，将与建立在量子力学基础上的几乎任何新技术应用相关，从完全实现的量子计算机到更适度的应用，如基于相干量子力学过程的传感器。研究生和本科生将在一个环境中接受最先进的科学训练，使他们在学术和国家实验室环境中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.