Engineering Quantum Dissipation in Cold Atom Systems

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Dissipation is generally a bad thing for quantum systems, robbing them of their special quantum features of coherence, superposition, and entanglement, and driving them to classical behavior. This project will endeavor to use dissipation in quantum systems for positive benefit. The research will develop techniques to use dissipation to remove unwanted energy, entropy, and randomness from a quantum system while preserving the wanted quantum information. A matter wave analogy to the field of quantum optics will be pursued, so that the important features that arise from interaction of matter with light can be replicated and perhaps expanded in a solely matter-based system. This research resides at the intersection of atomic physics, quantum information science, and condensed matter physics. Developing ways to engineer dissipation and understand and control open quantum systems will be relevant to virtually any new technological applications built on quantum mechanics, from a fully realized quantum computer to much more modest applications such as sensors based on coherent quantum mechanical processes. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in state-of-the-art science in an environment that exposes them to a wide variety of physics and research in both an academic and national lab setting.