Control of dissipative many-body dynamics in AMO quantum simulators

在过去的几年里，原子、分子和光学系统在量子模拟开发平台中的应用得到了快速的发展。量子模拟器提供了探索多体动力学的机会，这既与我们对多体物理学的理解有关，也与材料科学有直接联系。然而，它们也为模拟量子计算机提供了更广泛的应用机会，有可能为量子化学问题提供新的线索，甚至是物流和优化方面的计算问题，其潜在影响远远超出基础物理。量子模拟器面临的最大挑战之一是由于噪声和量子模拟器与其环境的耦合而产生的消相干。然而，如果正确理解，与环境的耦合也可以用来产生控制量子系统的新工具。近年来，人们对如何利用通常不需要的消相干特性越来越感兴趣：(1)产生在基础水平上令人感兴趣的新的多体现象；(2)为量子模拟器开发新的控制技术工具箱，以及它们在开发下一代其他量子技术中的应用。这些控制技术可以包括在量子模拟器中对不同问题进行编码的新机会，或者使用测量和反馈技术将系统驱动到多体状态，这对于开发可编程量子传感器是有用的。在这个项目中，我们将解决基于光学晶格中的冷原子、镊子阵列中的中性原子和囚禁离子的量子模拟器中的多体动力学控制。我们将研究开放多体量子系统的基本物理(例如，测量诱导的相变和多体系统中的量子反馈控制)，以及探索耗散引起的动力学，包括冷原子系统中的量子输运。目标将是：1)确定由耗散控制的新的多体现象(例如，由相干和耗散动力学之间的竞争或量子反馈的强度决定的跃迁)；2)进行分析研究并扩展数值技术，以研究现实实验环境中的这些现象；以及3)确定这些现象在未来量子技术中的潜在应用。

Over the past years there has been rapid development in the application of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical systems in developing platforms for Quantum Simulation. Quantum Simulators provide opportunities to explore many-body dynamics that are relevant both to our understanding of many-body physics, and have immediate connections to materials science. However, they also provide opportunities for broader applications as analogue quantum computers, with the potential to shed new light on problems in quantum chemistry, and even computational problems in logistics and optimisation, with potential impact well beyond basic physics. One of the biggest challenges for quantum simulators is decoherence that arises from noise and coupling of a quantum simulator to its environment. However, if properly understood, coupling to the environment can also be used to generate new tools for control of quantum systems. In recent years, interest has been growing in how to use usually unwanted decoherence properties both (1) to generate new many-body phenomena that are interesting on a fundmental level, and (2) to develop a new toolbox of control techniques for quantum simulators and their applications in developing next generations of other quantum technologies. These control techniques can include new opportunities to encode different problems in quantum simulators, or the use of measurement and feedback techniques to drive the system into many-body states that can be useful for developing programmable quantum sensors.In this project, we will address the control of many-body dynamics in quantum simulators, based around cold atoms in optical lattices, neutral atoms in tweezer arrays, and trapped ions. We will investigate both the basic physics of open many-body quantum systems (e.g., measurement-induced phase transitions and quantum feedback control in many-body systems), and exploration of dyanmics induced by dissipation, including quantum transport in cold atoms systems. The objectives will be:1) To identify new many-body phenomena controlled by dissipation (e.g., transitions determined by the competition between coherent and dissipative dynamics or the strength of quantum feedback)2) To perform analytical studies and extend numerical techniques to study these phenomena for realistic experimental settings, and3) To identify potential applications of these phenomena in future quantum technologies.