304 research outputs found
Adiabatically steered open quantum systems: Master equation and optimal phase
We introduce an alternative way to derive the generalized form of the master
equation recently presented by J. P. Pekola et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105,
030401 (2010)] for an adiabatically steered two-level quantum system
interacting with a Markovian environment. The original derivation employed the
effective Hamiltonian in the adiabatic basis with the standard interaction
picture approach but without the usual secular approximation. Our approach is
based on utilizing a master equation for a non-steered system in the first
super-adiabatic basis. It is potentially efficient in obtaining higher-order
equations. Furthermore, we show how to select the phases of the adiabatic
eigenstates to minimize the local adiabatic parameter and how this selection
leads to states which are invariant under a local gauge change. We also discuss
the effects of the adiabatic noncyclic geometric phase on the master equation.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, final versio
Non-Abelian geometric phases in ground state Josephson devices
We present a superconducting circuit in which non-Abelian geometric
transformations can be realized using an adiabatic parameter cycle. In contrast
to previous proposals, we employ quantum evolution in the ground state. We
propose an experiment in which the transition from non-Abelian to Abelian
cycles can be observed by measuring the pumped charge as a function of the
period of the cycle. Alternatively, the non-Abelian phase can be detected using
a single-electron transistor working as a charge sensor.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; added references and clarified discussion about
earlier research on the fiel
Decoherence of adiabatically steered quantum systems
We study the effect of Markovian environmental noise on the dynamics of a
two-level quantum system which is steered adiabatically by an external driving
field. We express the master equation taking consistently into account all the
contributions to the lowest non-vanishing order in the coupling to the
Markovian environment. We study the master equation numerically and
analytically and we find that, in the adiabatic limit, a zero-temperature
environment does not affect the ground state evolution. As a physical
application, we discuss extensively how the environment affects Cooper pair
pumping. The adiabatic ground state pumping appears to be robust against
environmental noise. In fact, the relaxation due to the environment is required
to avoid the accumulation of small errors from each pumping cycle. We show that
neglecting the non-secular terms in the master equation leads to unphysical
results, such as charge non-conservation. We discuss also a possible way to
control the environmental noise in a realistic physical setup and its influence
on the pumping process.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. Final versio
Detection of zeptojoule microwave pulses using electrothermal feedback in proximity-induced Josephson junctions
We experimentally investigate and utilize electrothermal feedback in a
microwave nanobolometer based on a normal-metal
(\mbox{Au}_{x}\mbox{Pd}_{1-x}) nanowire with proximity-induced
superconductivity. The feedback couples the temperature and the electrical
degrees of freedom in the nanowire, which both absorbs the incoming microwave
radiation, and transduces the temperature change into a radio-frequency
electrical signal. We tune the feedback in situ and access both positive and
negative feedback regimes with rich nonlinear dynamics. In particular, strong
positive feedback leads to the emergence of two metastable electron temperature
states in the millikelvin range. We use these states for efficient threshold
detection of coherent 8.4 GHz microwave pulses containing approximately 200
photons on average, corresponding to 1.1 \mbox{ zJ} \approx 7.0 \mbox{ meV}
of energy
Dynamically stable multiply quantized vortices in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates
Multiquantum vortices in dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined in
long cigar-shaped traps are known to be both energetically and dynamically
unstable. They tend to split into single-quantum vortices even in the ultralow
temperature limit with vanishingly weak dissipation, which has also been
confirmed in the recent experiments [Y. Shin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93,
160406 (2004)] utilizing the so-called topological phase engineering method to
create multiquantum vortices. We study the stability properties of multiquantum
vortices in different trap geometries by solving the Bogoliubov excitation
spectra for such states. We find that there are regions in the trap asymmetry
and condensate interaction strength plane in which the splitting instability of
multiquantum vortices is suppressed, and hence they are dynamically stable. For
example, the doubly quantized vortex can be made dynamically stable even in
spherical traps within a wide range of interaction strength values. We expect
that this suppression of vortex-splitting instability can be experimentally
verified.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Experimental determination of the Berry phase in a superconducting charge pump
We present the first measurements of the Berry phase in a superconducting
Cooper pair pump. A fixed amount of Berry phase is accumulated to the
quantum-mechanical ground state in each adiabatic pumping cycle, which is
determined by measuring the charge passing through the device. The dynamic and
geometric phases are identified and measured quantitatively from their
different response when pumping in opposite directions. Our observations, in
particular, the dependencies of the dynamic and geometric effects on the
superconducting phase bias across the pump, agree with the basic theoretical
model of coherent Cooper pair pumping.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Ground-state geometric quantum computing in superconducting systems
We present a theoretical proposal for the implementation of geometric quantum
computing based on a Hamiltonian which has a doubly degenerate ground state.
Thus the system which is steered adiabatically, remains in the ground-state.
The proposed physical implementation relies on a superconducting circuit
composed of three SQUIDs and two superconducting islands with the charge states
encoding the logical states. We obtain a universal set of single-qubit gates
and implement a non-trivial two-qubit gate exploiting the mutual inductance
between two neighboring circuits, allowing us to realize a fully geometric
ground-state quantum computing. The introduced paradigm for the implementation
of geometric quantum computing is expected to be robust against environmental
effects.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Final version with notation and typos correcte
Conservation law of operator current in open quantum systems
We derive a fundamental conservation law of operator current for master
equations describing reduced quantum systems. If this law is broken, the
temporal integral of the current operator of an arbitrary system observable
does not yield in general the change of that observable in the evolution. We
study Lindblad-type master equations as examples and prove that the application
of the secular approximation during their derivation results in a violation of
the conservation law. We show that generally any violation of the law leads to
artificial corrections to the complete quantum dynamics, thus questioning the
accuracy of the particular master equation.Comment: 5 pages, final versio
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