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Measurement-based dynamic control of mesoscopic many-body systems

Project description

Revolutionising quantum control

Quantum control is an ambitious framework for steering dynamics from initial states to arbitrary desired final states. However, most generic quantum control schemes to date have been limited by heavy requirements on the controllability of either the system Hamiltonian or a set of measurement operators, which makes it challenging to efficiently realise these schemes in many realistic scenarios. The ERC-funded MECTRL project aims to overcome these limitations and make many-body quantum control more efficient and reliable. The project will use a combination of fixed many-body time evolution and precise knowledge of quantum back-action to engineer the dynamics in sufficiently small but interesting many body systems. It will attempt to build next-generation optimisation computer algorithms with a higher level of cognition.

Objective

Quantum control is an ambitious framework for steering dynamics from initial states to arbitrary desired final states. It has over the past decade been used extensively with immense success for control of low- dimensional systems in as varied fields as molecular dynamics and quantum computation. Only recently have efforts been initiated to extend this to higher-dimensional many-body systems. Most generic quantum control schemes to date, however, put quite heavy requirements on the controllability of either the system Hamiltonian or a set of measurement operators. This will in many realistic scenarios prohibit an efficient realization.

Within this proposal, I will develop a new quantum control scheme, which is minimalistic on system requirements and therefore ideally suited for the efficient and reliable optimization of many-body control problems. The fundamentally new ingredient is the total quantum evolution dictated by a combination of fixed many-body time evolution and the precise knowledge of the quantum back-action due to repeated quantum non-destruction (QND) measurements of a single projection operator.
The main focus of this proposal is theoretical and experimental quantum engineering of the dynamics in systems, which are sufficiently small to calculate the measurement back-action exactly and sufficiently large to have interesting many-body properties.
Recent experimental advances in single site manipulation of bosons in optical lattices have enabled the high fidelity preparation exactly such mesoscopic samples of atoms (5-50). This forms an ideal starting point for many-body quantum control, and we will i.a. demonstrate engineering of quantum phase transitions and preparation of highly non-classical Schödinger cat states.

Finally, using the results from an online graphical interface allowing users of the internet to solve quantum problems we will attempt to build next-generation optimization computer algorithms with a higher level of cognition built in.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2014-STG

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Host institution

AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 499 406,00
Address
NORDRE RINGGADE 1
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark

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Region
Danmark Midtjylland Østjylland
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 499 406,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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