QuSeC-TAQS: Novel Quantum Algorithms for Optical Atomic Clocks

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Optical clocks are the most accurate instruments ever realized by humankind. They have great potential for fundamental physics discovery as sensors, e.g., for low-frequency gravitational wave detection and dark matter searches. However, thus far optical clocks have generally used the same basic modality since the first atomic clocks were realized: uniform state preparation and interrogation of a sample of atoms. In contrast, the quantum information science (QIS) toolbox has developed to the point where single atoms in large arrays can be individually controlled, interrogated, and even entangled with other atoms. This project seeks to leverage QIS advances to develop new algorithms for the use of optical clocks as sensors. The team will train graduate students, undergraduate students, and postdocs in interdisciplinary research at the forefront of quantum metrology. All participants will be trained in advanced concepts regarding precision measurements, quantum sensing, and quantum algorithms. Through training in the context of cutting-edge research, this work will strengthen the quantum workforce. This project aims to realize new quantum algorithms to advance optical atomic clocks as quantum sensors for signals of interest including dark matter, gravitational waves, and as frequency and time references. Established quantum information science algorithms, such as quantum error correction, will serve as a jumping off point for the optical clock algorithms that this team will develop. This team will leverage ensembles of trapped neutral atoms and arrays of trapped ions, and develop and demonstrate new measurement protocols that maximize their sensitivity for a given atom number and sensing target, drawing inspiration from existing quantum computing algorithms. This project will advance the performance and capabilities of optical lattice clocks with multiple ensembles of neutral atoms, pioneering a new frontier in precision measurements. In parallel, this team will realize new ion traps with arrays of trapped clock ions, providing complementary approaches for algorithm development. Taken together with the development of novel clock algorithms and theoretical analyses of the expected signals from sensing targets such as various dark matter candidates, this effort will advance the sensing reach of optical clocks. The algorithms developed will also help ease the requirements for transportable optical clocks, for example by relaxing constraints on the optical clock laser system. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.