On Readout of Vibrational Qubits Using Quantum Beats

Readout of the final states of qubits is a crucial step towards implementing quantum computation in experiment. Although not scalable to large numbers of qubits per molecule, computational studies show that molecular vibrations could provide a significant (factor 2–5 in the literature) increase in the number of qubits compared to two-level systems. In this theoretical work, we explore the process of readout from vibrational qubits in thiophosgene molecule, SCCl2, using quantum beat oscillations. The quantum beats are measured by first exciting the superposition of the qubit-encoding vibrational states to the electronically excited readout state with variable time-delay pulses. The resulting oscillation of population of the readout state is then detected as a function of time delay. In principle, fitting the quantum beat signal by an analytical expression should allow extracting the values of probability amplitudes and the relative phases of the vibrational qubit states. However, we found that if this procedure is implemented using the standard analytic expression for quantum beats, a non-negligible phase error is obtained. We discuss the origin and properties of this phase error, and propose a new analytical expression to correct the phase error. The corrected expression fits the quantum beat signal very accurately, which may permit reading out the final state of vibrational qubits in experiments by combining the analytic fitting expression with numerical modelling of the readout process. The new expression is also useful as a simple model for fitting any quantum beat experiments where more accurate phase information is desired

Ultrafast Reaction Dynamics

A decade ago this magazine devoted a special issue to laser chemistry (see PHYSICS TODAY, November 1980). One of the articles emphasized the importance of time scales in chemical reactions and the possible use of ultrashort lasser pulses to induce chemistry. Over the past 10 years new laser techniques, and gas‐phase and molecular‐beam experiments, have revealed much about the fundamental steps of elementary chemical reactions. These approaches and the tremendous detail they have exposed about the dynamics of chemical reactions are the subject of the present article. With new laser techniques and with gas phase and molecular beam experiments, it is now possible to determine the ultrafast motion in isolated chemical reactions—chemistry on the 10^(−13)‐second time scale

Ultrafast Reaction Dynamics

A decade ago this magazine devoted a special issue to laser chemistry (see PHYSICS TODAY, November 1980). One of the articles emphasized the importance of time scales in chemical reactions and the possible use of ultrashort lasser pulses to induce chemistry. Over the past 10 years new laser techniques, and gas‐phase and molecular‐beam experiments, have revealed much about the fundamental steps of elementary chemical reactions. These approaches and the tremendous detail they have exposed about the dynamics of chemical reactions are the subject of the present article. With new laser techniques and with gas phase and molecular beam experiments, it is now possible to determine the ultrafast motion in isolated chemical reactions—chemistry on the 10^(−13)‐second time scale

QUANTUM CONTROLLED NUCLEAR FUSION

Laser-assisted nuclear fusion is a potential means for providing short, well-controlled particle bursts in the lab, such as neutron or alpha particle pulses. I will discuss computational results of how coherent control by shaped, amplified 800 nm laser pulses can be used to enhance the nuclear fusion cross section of diatomic molecules such as BH or DT. Quantum dynamics simulations show that a strong laser pulse can simultaneously field-bind the diatomic molecule after electron ejection, and increase the amplitude of the vibrational wave function at small internuclear distances. When VUV shaped laser pulses become available, coherent laser control may also be extended to muonic molecules such as D-mu-T, held together by muons instead of electrons. Muonic fusion has been extensively investigated for many decades, but without coherent laser control it falls slightly short of the break-evne point

Simulation-Based Fitting of Protein-Protein Interaction Potentials to SAXS Experiments

AbstractWe present a new method for computing interaction potentials of solvated proteins directly from small-angle x-ray scattering data. An ensemble of proteins is modeled by Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics simulation. The global x-ray scattering of the whole model ensemble is then computed at each snapshot of the simulation, and averaged to obtain the x-ray scattering intensity. Finally, the interaction potential parameters are adjusted by an optimization algorithm, and the procedure is iterated until the best agreement between simulation and experiment is obtained. This new approach obviates the need for approximations that must be made in simplified analytical models. We apply the method to lambda repressor fragment 6-85 and fyn-SH3. With the increased availability of fast computer clusters, Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics analysis using residue-level or even atomistic potentials may soon become feasible

Protein Dynamics: From Molecules, to Interactions, to Biology

Proteins have a remarkably rich diversity of dynamical behaviors, and the articles in this issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences are a testament to that fact. From the picosecond motions of single sidechains probed by NMR or fluorescence spectroscopy, to aggregation processes at interfaces that take months, all time scales play a role. Proteins are functional molecules, so by their nature they always interact with their environment. This environment includes water, other biomolecules, or larger cellular structures. In a sense, it also includes the protein molecule itself: proteins are large enough to fold and interact with themselves. These interactions have been honed by evolution to produce behaviors completely different from those of random polymers