Exploring Open Channel Operations with Atomic Qubits as A Processing and Measurement Resource

物理学家倾向于坚持一个宽泛的概念，即量子力学效应往往出现在物理系统非常小和非常冷的时候（与普朗克常数相比）。 然而，最近，随着技术允许我们使用激光冷却（非常冷）对单个原子（非常小）进行常规工作，我们对信息如何在环境和所研究的系统之间流动有了更好的理解。 这揭示了热系统必然是非量子的期望中的一些漏洞。 这个研究项目正在探索一些方法，即良好控制的耗散，一个潜在的热点和典型的经典过程，可以帮助我们控制和使用量子系统进行测量和计算。 为此，该小组将使用悬浮在真空室中的单个原子，并研究如何巧妙地利用直接照射在原子上的太阳光等“热”东西将原子冷却到接近绝对零度，以用于量子信息应用，这将有助于我们推进科学理解并利用量子信息实现更大的利益。随着实际应用中使用的量子设备的尺寸，复杂性和精度的增长，这些仪器更接近于热力学行为和幺正行为之间的模糊边界。一个双重的挑战出现，以改善实用的仪器和更好地了解统计和量子领域之间的过渡。该计划将利用具有长寿命亚稳态电子态（高度量子化的子系统）的被困原子离子与来自激光和热源（高度经典的子系统）的经典光相互作用来探索这些挑战。 该项目将解决三个关键问题：1）通过利用可用的稳定原子能级的更大资源，可以创建更强大的捕获原子处理器或传感器吗？2)在这样一个系统中，接近理想的投影零测量（PNM）如何实现新的处理原语？3）当这些量子测量被推向经典状态时，会发生什么？该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Physicists tend to adhere to a broad notion that quantum mechanical effects tend to appear when physical systems are very small and very cold (compared to something called Planck’s constant). More recently, however, as technology has allowed us to routinely work with individual atoms (very small) using laser cooling (very cold), we have a better understanding of how information flows between the environment and the system under study. This has revealed some loopholes in the expectation that hot systems are necessarily non-quantum. This research program is exploring some of the ways that well-controlled dissipation, a potentially hot and typically classical process, can help us to control and use quantum systems for measurement and computation. For this, the group will use a single atom levitated in a vacuum chamber and study how "hot" things like sunlight shining directly on the atom can be cleverly employed to cool the atom to nearly absolute zero for quantum information applications that will help us advance scientific understanding and harness quantum information for the greater good.As the size, complexity, and precision of quantum devices employed in practical applications grows, these instruments push closer to the fuzzy boundary between thermodynamic and unitary behavior. A dual challenge arises to improve practical instruments and better understand the transition between the statistical and quantum realms. This program will explore these challenges using trapped atomic ions with long-lived metastable electronic states (a highly quantized subsystem) interacting with classical light from lasers and thermal sources (a highly classical subsystem). This project will address three key questions: 1) Can more powerful trapped atom processors or sensors be created by tapping into the larger resource of available stable atomic levels? 2) How can the nearly ideal projective null measurements (PNMs) in such a system enable new processing primitives? and 3) What happens when these quantum measurements are pushed toward the classical regime by bringing the system into contact with a hot, thermal reservoir such as the sun?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.