Engineering Quantum Dissipation in Cold Atom Systems

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This research will explore ways to engineer quantum dissipation to be useful rather than problematic. Much of the focus in quantum research has concentrated on purely conservative systems, isolated as well as possible from environmental influences. But coupling to a dissipative channel can be important and useful, to remove entropy, a critical component of both classical and quantum information processing. Any realistic quantum information processor is an open quantum system, and will require control and understanding of dissipation. This research will develop techniques to use dissipation to remove entropy from one degree of freedom while preserving the quantum state of another, vital for quantum computation. In particular, the work will concentrate on developing the ability to laser cool atoms without destroying quantum information stored in the nuclear spin.The researchers will explore a matter wave analogy to quantum optics, studying an open quantum system where the dissipation comes from the phonon vibrations of a degenerate gas rather than the photon vacuum. Atoms trapped in an optical lattice will interact with a Bose condensate of another species, and will dissipate energy into excitations in the condensate, in analogy to atoms dissipating energy through spontaneous emission into excitations of the electromagnetic vacuum. The wider range of control of the reservoir formed by the condensate will allow for a greater understanding and possible control of dissipation in the quantum world.This work 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. One of the biggest impediments to implementing quantum information processing is the interaction with the environment.Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in state-of-the-art optical techniques, along with gaining experience with high vacuum, analog, RF, and digital electronics, and computer-based data acquisition. They will be in an environment that exposes them to a wide variety of physics including quantum information, condensed matter and atomic physics. They will be exposed to research in an academic and national lab setting. The results of this research will be disseminated through the significant outreach efforts of the Joint Quantum Institute that are focused on explaining to the public the importance of quantum phenomena in the world around them and for future technology.