We investigate several control strategies for the transport of an excitation along a spin chain. We demonstrate that fast, high fidelity transport can be achieved using protocols designed with differentiable programming. Building on this, we then show how this approach can be effectively adapted to control a disordered quantum system. We consider two settings: optimal control for a known unwanted disorder pattern, i.e. a specific disorder realisation, and optimal control where only the statistical properties of disorder are known, i.e. optimizing for high average fidelities. In the former, disorder effects can be effectively mitigated for an appropriately chosen control protocol. However, in the latter setting the average fidelity can only be marginally improved, suggesting the presence of a fundamental lower bound.
We propose an efficient numerical method to compute configuration averages of observables in disordered open quantum systems whose dynamics can be unraveled via stochastic trajectories. We prove that the optimal sampling of trajectories and disorder configurations is simply achieved by considering one random disorder configuration for each individual trajectory. As a first application, we exploit the present method to the study the role of disorder on the physics of the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model in two different regimes: (i) for strong interactions, we explore the dissipative physi…
We derive temporally shaped control pulses for the creation of long-distance entanglement in disordered spin chains. Our approach is based on a time-dependent target functional and a time-local control strategy that permits to ensure that the description of the chain in terms of matrix product states is always valid. With this approach, we demonstrate that long-distance entanglement can be created even for substantially disordered interaction landscapes.
Anderson localization, the absence of diffusion in disordered media, draws its origins from the destructive interference between multiple scattering paths. The localization properties of disordered systems are expected to be dramatically sensitive to their symmetry characteristics. So far however, this question has been little explored experimentally. Here, we investigate the realization of an artificial gauge field in a synthetic (temporal) dimension of a disordered, periodically-driven (Floquet) quantum system. Tuning the strength of this gauge field allows us to control the time-reversal sy…
The robustness of quantum transport under various perturbations is analyzed in disordered interacting many-body systems, which are constructed from the embedded Gaussian random matrix ensembles (EGEs). The transport efficiency can be enhanced drastically, if centrosymmetry (csEGE) is imposed. When the csEGE is perturbed with an ordinary EGE, the transport efficiency in the optimal cases is reduced significantly, while in the suboptimal cases the changes are less pronounced. Qualitatively the same behavior is observed, when parity and centrosymmetry are broken by block perturbations. Analyzing …
We investigate the effect of disorder on the transfer of quantum states across a one-dimensional lattice with varying levels of control resources. We find that the application of properly designed control signals, even when applied only to the two ends of the lattice, allows perfect state transfer up to disorder strengths that would not allow a generic quantum state to propagate the length of the lattice. At sufficiently large disorder strengths, however, the local control signals fail to send the quantum state from one end of the system to the other end. Our results shed light on the interpla…
We study a 2-D disordered time-discrete quantum walk based on 1-D `generalized elephant quantum walk' where an entangling coin operator is assumed and which paves the way to a new set of properties. We show that considering a given disorder in one direction, it is possible to control the degree of spreading and entanglement in the other direction. This observation helps assert that the random quantum walks of this ilk serve as a controllable decoherence channel with the degree of randomness being the tunable parameter and highlight the role of dimensionality in quantum systems regarding inform…
Light transport in a dense and disordered cold atomic ensemble, where the cooperation of atomic dipoles essentially modifies their coupling with the radiation modes, offers an alternative approach to light-matter interfacing protocols. Here, we show how the cooperativity and quasi-static dipole interaction affect the process of light propagation under the conditions of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). We perform comparative analysis of the self-consistent approach with ab-initio microscopic calculations and emphasize the role of the interatomic interaction in the dipoles' dynami…
Using the Lindblad equation approach, we derive the range of the parameters of an interacting one-dimensional electronic chain connected to two reservoirs in the large bias limit in which an optimal working point (corresponding to a change in the monotonicity of the stationary current as a function of the applied bias) emerges in the nonequilibrium stationary state. In the specific case of the one-dimensional spinless fermionic Hubbard chain, we prove that an optimal working point emerges in the dependence of the stationary current on the coupling between the chain and the reservoirs, both in …
Disordered quantum networks, as those describing light-harvesting complexes, are often characterized by the presence of antenna structures where the light is captured and inner structures (reaction centers) where the excitation is transferred. Antennae often display distinguished coherent features: their eigenstates can be separated, with respect to the transfer of excitation, in the two classes of superradiant and subradiant states. Both are important to optimize transfer efficiency. In absence of disorder superradiant states have an enhanced coupling strength to the RC, while subradiant ones…
We introduce an inhomogeneous protocol to drive a weakly disordered quantum spin chain quasi-adiabatically across a quantum phase transition and minimize the residual energy of the final state. The number of spins that simultaneously reach the critical point is controlled by the length scale in which the magnetic field is modulated, introducing an effective size that favors adiabatic dynamics. The dependence of the residual energy on this length scale and the velocity at which the magnetic field sweeps out the chain is shown to be nonmonotonic. We determine the conditions for an optimal suppre…
Monochromatic coherent light traversing a disordered photonic medium evolves into a random field whose statistics are dictated by the disorder level. Here we demonstrate experimentally that light statistics can be deterministically tuned in certain disordered lattices, even when the disorder level is held fixed, by controllably breaking the excitation symmetry of the lattice modes. We exploit a lattice endowed with disorder-immune chiral symmetry in which the eigenmodes come in skew-symmetric pairs. If a single lattice site is excited, a "photonic thermalization gap" emerges: the realm of sub-…
We study the interplay between dephasing, disorder, and openness on transport efficiency in a one-dimensional chain of finite length $N$, and in particular the beneficial or detrimental effect of dephasing on transport. The excitation moves along the chain by coherent nearest-neighbor hopping $Ω$, under the action of static disorder $W$ and dephasing $γ$. The system is open due to the coupling of the last site with an external acceptor system (sink), where the excitation can be trapped with a rate $Γ_{\rm trap}$, which determines the opening strength. While it is known that dephasing can help …
We numerically investigate the quench expansion dynamics of an initially confined state in a two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii lattice in the presence of external disorder. The expansion dynamics is conveniently described in the control parameter space of the energy and norm densities. The expansion can slow down substantially if the expected final state is a non-ergodic non-Gibbs one, regardless of the disorder strength. Likewise stronger disorder delays expansion. We compare our results with recent studies for quantum many body quench experiments.
Disordered quantum networks, as those describing light-harvesting complexes, are often characterized by the presence of peripheral ring-like structures, where the excitation is initialized, and inner reaction centers (RC), where the excitation is trapped. The peripheral rings display coherent features: their eigenstates can be separated in the two classes of superradiant and subradiant states. Both are important to optimize transfer efficiency. In the absence of disorder, superradiant states have an enhanced coupling strength to the RC, while the subradiant ones are basically decoupled from it…
Quantum particles co-propagating on disordered lattices develop complex non-classical correlations due to an interplay between quantum statistics, inter-particle interactions, and disorder. Here we present a deep learning algorithm based on Generative Adversarial Networks, capable of learning these correlations and identifying the physical control parameters in a completely unsupervised manner. After one-time training on a data set of unlabeled examples, the algorithm can generate, without further calculations, a much larger number of unseen yet physically correct new examples. Furthermore, th…
We investigate how robust is the modified XX spin-1/2 chain of [R. Vieira and G. Rigolin, Phys. Lett. A 382, 2586 (2018)] in transmitting entanglement when several types of disorder and noise are present. First, we consider how deviations about the optimal settings that lead to almost perfect transmission of a maximally entangled two-qubit state affect the entanglement reaching the other side of the chain. Those deviations are modeled by static, dynamic, and fluctuating disorder. We then study how spurious or undesired interactions and external magnetic fields diminish the entanglement transmi…
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices offer a unique platform for investigating disorder-driven phenomena. While static disordered site potentials have been explored in a number of optical lattice experiments, a more general control over site-energy and off-diagonal tunneling disorder has been lacking. The use of atomic quantum states as "synthetic dimensions" has introduced the spectroscopic, site-resolved control necessary to engineer new, more tailored realizations of disorder. Here, by controlling laser-driven dynamics of atomic population in a momentum-space lattice, we extend the range of …
Nanophotonics focuses on the control of light and the interaction with matter by the aid of intricate nanostructures. Typically, a photonic nanostructure is carefully designed for a specific application and any imperfections may reduce its performance, i.e., a thorough investigation of the role of unavoidable fabrication imperfections is essential for any application. However, another approach to nanophotonic applications exists where fabrication disorder is used to induce functionalities by enhancing light-matter interaction. Disorder leads to multiple scattering of light, which is the realm …
