Direct Characterization of Quantum Dynamics: General Theory

The characterization of the dynamics of quantum systems is a task of both fundamental and practical importance. A general class of methods which have been developed in quantum information theory to accomplish this task is known as quantum process tomography (QPT). In an earlier paper [M. Mohseni and D. A. Lidar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 170501 (2006)] we presented a new algorithm for Direct Characterization of Quantum Dynamics (DCQD) of two-level quantum systems. Here we provide a generalization by developing a theory for direct and complete characterization of the dynamics of arbitrary quantum systems. In contrast to other QPT schemes, DCQD relies on quantum error-detection techniques and does not require any quantum state tomography. We demonstrate that for the full characterization of the dynamics of n d-level quantum systems (with d a power of a prime), the minimal number of required experimental configurations is reduced quadratically from d^{4n} in separable QPT schemes to d^{2n} in DCQD.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, minor modifications are mad

Efficient estimation of nearly sparse many-body quantum Hamiltonians

We develop an efficient and robust approach to Hamiltonian identification for multipartite quantum systems based on the method of compressed sensing. This work demonstrates that with only O(s log(d)) experimental configurations, consisting of random local preparations and measurements, one can estimate the Hamiltonian of a d-dimensional system, provided that the Hamiltonian is nearly s-sparse in a known basis. We numerically simulate the performance of this algorithm for three- and four-body interactions in spin-coupled quantum dots and atoms in optical lattices. Furthermore, we apply the algorithm to characterize Hamiltonian fine structure and unknown system-bath interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Title is changed. Detailed error analysis is added. Figures are updated with additional clarifying discussion

Efficient measurement of quantum dynamics via compressive sensing

The resources required to characterise the dynamics of engineered quantum systems-such as quantum computers and quantum sensors-grow exponentially with system size. Here we adapt techniques from compressive sensing to exponentially reduce the experimental configurations required for quantum process tomography. Our method is applicable to dynamical processes that are known to be nearly-sparse in a certain basis and it can be implemented using only single-body preparations and measurements. We perform efficient, high-fidelity estimation of process matrices on an experiment attempting to implement a photonic two-qubit logic-gate. The data base is obtained under various decoherence strengths. We find that our technique is both accurate and noise robust, thus removing a key roadblock to the development and scaling of quantum technologies.Comment: New title and authors. A new experimental section. Significant rewrite of the theor

Deep Learning of Quantum Many-Body Dynamics via Random Driving

Neural networks have emerged as a powerful way to approach many practical problems in quantumphysics. In this work, we illustrate the power of deep learning to predict the dynamics of a quantummany-body system, where the training is based purely on monitoring expectation values of observables under random driving. The trained recurrent network is able to produce accurate predictions for driving trajectories entirely different than those observed during training. As a proof of principle, here we train the network on numerical data generated from spin models, showing that it can learn the dynamics of observables of interest without needing information about the full quantum state.This allows our approach to be applied eventually to actual experimental data generated from aquantum many-body system that might be open, noisy, or disordered, without any need for a detailedunderstanding of the system. This scheme provides considerable speedup for rapid explorations andpulse optimization. Remarkably, we show the network is able to extrapolate the dynamics to times longer than those it has been trained on, as well as to the infinite-system-size limit

Gravitational waves and dragging effects

Linear and rotational dragging effects of gravitational waves on local inertial frames are studied in purely vacuum spacetimes. First the linear dragging caused by a simple cylindrical pulse is investigated. Surprisingly strong transversal effects of the pulse are exhibited. The angular momentum in cylindrically symmetric spacetimes is then defined and confronted with some results in literature. In the main part, the general procedure is developed for studying weak gravitational waves with translational but not axial symmetry which can carry angular momentum. After a suitable averaging the rotation of local inertial frames due to such rotating waves can be calculated explicitly and illustrated graphically. This is done in detail in the accompanying paper. Finally, the rotational dragging is given for strong cylindrical waves interacting with a rotating cosmic string with a small angular momentum.Comment: Scheduled to appear in Class. Quantum Grav. July 200

Quantum control theory for coupled 2-electron dynamics in quantum dots

We investigate optimal control strategies for state to state transitions in a model of a quantum dot molecule containing two active strongly interacting electrons. The Schrodinger equation is solved nonperturbatively in conjunction with several quantum control strategies. This results in optimized electric pulses in the THz regime which can populate combinations of states with very short transition times. The speedup compared to intuitively constructed pulses is an order of magnitude. We furthermore make use of optimized pulse control in the simulation of an experimental preparation of the molecular quantum dot system. It is shown that exclusive population of certain excited states leads to a complete suppression of spin dephasing, as was indicated in Nepstad et al. [Phys. Rev. B 77, 125315 (2008)].Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Massive Schwinger model and its confining aspects on curved space-time

Using a covariant method to regularize the composite operators, we obtain the bosonized action of the massive Schwinger model on a classical curved background. Using the solution of the bosonic effective action, the energy of two static external charges with finite and large distance separation on a static curved space-time is obtained. The confining behavior of this model is also explicitly discussed.Comment: A disscussion about the infrared regularization and also two references are added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D (2001