We are on the verge of a new scientific and technological era as the first quantum simulators able to investigate physical systems that cannot be studied classically are about to be built in the laboratories. Controlling and probing complex quantum systems is of paramount importance for the implementation of these devices.
Quantum simulators are controllable complex quantum systems that emulate the behaviour of other quantum systems whose properties cannot be easily tested. While several models of quantum simulators are currently under construction, the development of effective probing techniques is still lagging behind, despite their crucial role. In most of the quantum simulator experiments measurement techniques are invasive and destructive, destroying not only the very quantum properties from which the simulator stems, but often also the quantum system itself.
QuProCS works on the development of a radically new approach to probe complex quantum systems for quantum simulations, based on the quantification and optimisation of the information that can be extracted by an immersed quantum probe as opposed to a classical one. Furthermore, the ability to coherently control and entangle multiple probes will allow the measurement of a wide range of temporal and spatial correlations, breaking the boundaries of what is currently accessible through the usual classical investigations. This addresses the key issue of how to read out and benchmark quantum simulators, indispensable to bridge the gap between scientific results and concrete engineering technologies.
We will develop optimal probing strategies to read out and benchmark quantum simulators, thus providing the most crucial ingredient for commercial devices.
The concrete objectives that constitute a proof-of-concept of QuProCS targeted breakthrough precisely address this crucial need:
1) Experimental and theoretical characterisation and design of novel quantum probes for quantum simulators in both cold atoms and quantum optical platform.
2) Development of a laboratory prototype of an impurity-based quantum information probe for ultracold atomic gases.
3) Experimental realisation of fully-controllable paradigmatic models of classical and quantum noise with specific frequency spectra in the quantum optical platform.
4) Theoretical and experimental characterisation of different types of correlations (entanglement, quantum discord, classical correlations) present in the quantum simulator by means of entangled quantum probes.
5) Theoretical investigation of novel quantum simulations of non-equilibrium phenomena with ultra cold gases.
6) Theoretical studies of the characterisation and design of quantum probes for complex quantum networks.
