World Quantum Day AMA

Since 2022, JQI has hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event in honor of World Quantum Day, a global celebration of quantum science and technology that encourages scientists to engage with and educate the general public. During the event, several researchers gather together and answer questions posed on Reddit. You can find direct links to our past threads below.

Hybrid Quantum Networking: Towards Interfacing Ions with Neutral Atoms

Abstract: Building large-scale modular quantum computers and quantum networks require high fidelity, high efficiency, and long lifetime quantum memories [1]. Quantum memories are proposed to increase photon-mediatated matter-qubit entanglment rates by synchronizing photon interference between network nodes [2].

Error-corrected fermionic quantum processors with neutral atoms

Abstract: Many-body fermionic systems can be simulated in a hardware-efficient manner using a fermionic quantum processor. Neutral atoms trapped in optical potentials can realize such processors, where non-local fermionic statistics are guaranteed at the hardware level. Implementing quantum error correction in this setup is however challenging, due to the atom-number superselection present in atomic systems, that is, the impossibility of creating coherent superpositions of different particle numbers.

Lost, but not forgotten: Extracting quantum information in noisy systems

Abstract: In this talk, we will mainly focus on noisy quantum trees: at each node of a tree, a received qubit unitarily interacts with fresh ancilla qubits, after which each qubit is sent through a noisy channel to a different node in the next level. Therefore, as the tree depth grows, there is a competition between the irreversible effect of noise and the protection against such noise achieved by delocalization of information.

Observation of string breaking on a (2+1)D Rydberg quantum simulator

Abstract: Fundamental forces of nature are described by gauge theories, and the interactions of matter with gauge fields lead to intriguing phenomena like the confinement of quarks in quantum chromodynamics. Separating a confined quark-anti-quark pair incurs an energy cost that grows linearly with their separation, eventually leading to the production of additional particles by an effect that is called string-breaking. In this talk, I will discuss how similar phenomenology can be probed using Rydberg atom arrays.

Quantum Vortices of Photons

Abstract: Vortices appear in optics as phase twists in the electromagnetic field resulting from light-matter interactions. Quantum vortices, characterized by phase singularities in the wavefunction, are typically associated with strongly interacting many-particle systems. However, the emergence of vortices through the effective interaction of light with itself, a phenomenon requiring strong optical nonlinearity, was previously limited to the classical regime until recent advancements. 

Complexity-constrained quantum thermodynamics

Abstract: Irreversible quantum computation requires thermodynamic work. In principle, one can often evade work costs by implementing reversible transformations. In practice, complexity---the difficulty of realizing a quantum process---poses an obstacle: a realistic agent can perform only a limited number of gates and so not every reversible transformation. Hence an agent, if unable to complete a task unitarily, may expend work on an irreversible process, such as erasure, to finish the job.