The possibility of revealing non-classical behaviours in the dynamics of a trapped ion via measurements of the mean value of suitable operators is reported. In particular we focus on the manifestation known as `` Parity Effect\rq\rq which may be observed \emph{directly measuring} the expectation value of an appropriate correlation operator. The experimental feasibility of our proposal is discussed.
Revealing Noise in Axial Motion Through Quantum Noise Spectroscopy on a Trapped Ion Processor
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；HRL Laboratories, LLC（HRL实验室有限责任公司）；Sandia National Laboratories（桑迪亚国家实验室）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico（新墨西哥大学物理与天文系）；Center for Quantum Information and Control, CQuIC, University of New Mexico（新墨西哥大学量子信息与控制中心）；Quantinuum；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）
In this paper we consider two problems in diagnostics of trapped ion crystals in which an analysis of the ions' collective oscillatory motion yield potentially useful results. When one of the ions in a linear crystal undergoes a collision, observation of the subsequent motion allows one to deduce the identity of which ion sustained the collision. When a linear ion crystal is formed with a dark impurity ion, analysis of the ions' motion can identify the mass (and thus give an important clue to the species) of the impurity.
We investigate the Brownian motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field. We study this in the high temperature classical and low temperature quantum domains. In both domains, we observe a transition of the mean square displacement from a monotonic behaviour to a damped oscillatory behaviour as one increases the strength of the magnetic field. When the strength of the magnetic field is negligible, the mean square displacement grows linearly with time in the classical domain and logarithmically with time in the quantum domain. We notice that these features of the mean square displacement ar…
Cross-correlation signals are recorded from fluorescence photons scattered in free space off a trapped ion structure. The analysis of the signal allows for unambiguously revealing the spatial frequency, thus the distance, as well as the spatial alignment of the ions. For the case of two ions we obtain from the cross-correlations a spatial frequency $f_\text{spatial}=1490 \pm 2_{stat.}\pm 8_{syst.}\,\text{rad}^{-1}$, where the statistical uncertainty improves with the integrated number of correlation events as $N^{-0.51\pm0.06}$. We independently determine the spatial frequency to be $1494\pm 1…
We report on the collapse and revival of Ramsey fringe visibility when a spatially dependent phase is imprinted in the coherences of a trapped ensemble of two-level atoms. The phase is imprinted via the light shift from a Gaussian laser beam which couples the dynamics of internal and external degrees of freedom for the atoms in an echo spectroscopy sequence. The observed revivals are directly linked to the oscillatory motion of atoms in the trap. An understanding of the effect is important for quantum state engineering of trapped atoms.
The non-commutativity of position and momentum observables is a hallmark feature of quantum physics. However this incompatibility does not extend to observables which are periodic in these base variables. Such modular-variable observables have been suggested as tools for fault-tolerant quantum computing and enhanced quantum sensing. Here we implement sequential measurements of modular variables in the oscillatory motion of a single trapped ion, using state-dependent displacements and a heralded non-destructive readout. We investigate the commutative nature of modular variable observables by de…
We unravel the many-body dynamics of a harmonically trapped impurity colliding with a bosonic medium confined in a double-well upon quenching the initially displaced harmonic trap to the center of the double-well. We reveal that the emerging correlation dynamics crucially depends on the impurity-medium interaction strength allowing for a classification into different dynamical response regimes. For strong attractive impurity-medium couplings the impurity is bound to the bosonic bath, while for intermediate attractions it undergoes an effective tunneling. In the case of weak attractive or repul…
The state of a microscopic system encodes its complete quantum description, from which the probabilities of all measurement outcomes are inferred. Being a statistical concept, the state cannot be obtained from a single system realization. It can be reconstructed from an ensemble of copies, by performing measurements on different realizations. Reconstructing the state of a set of trapped particles shielded from their environment is an important step for the investigation of the quantum to classical boundary. While trapped atom state reconstructions have been achieved, it is challenging to perfo…
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Atoms trapped in the evanescent field around a nanofiber experience strong coupling to the light guided in the fiber mode. However, due to the intrinsically strong positional dependence of the coupling, thermal motion of the ensemble limits the use of nanofiber trapped atoms for some quantum tasks. We investigate the thermal dynamics of such an ensemble by using short light pulses to make a spatially inhomogeneous population transfer between atomic states. As we monitor the wave packet of atoms created by this scheme, we find a damped oscillatory behavior which we attribute to sloshing and dis…
We unravel the stationary properties and the interaction quench dynamics of two bosons, confined in a two-dimensional anisotropic harmonic trap. A transcendental equation is derived giving access to the energy spectrum and revealing the dependence of the energy gaps on the anisotropy parameter. The relation between the two and the one dimensional scattering lengths as well as the Tan contacts is established. The contact, capturing the two-body short range correlations, shows an increasing tendency for a larger anisotropy. Subsequently, the interaction quench dynamics from attractive to repulsi…
We demonstrate that entanglement can persistently recur in an oscillating two-spin molecule that is coupled to a hot and noisy environment, in which no static entanglement can survive. The system represents a non-equilibrium quantum system which, driven through the oscillatory motion, is prevented from reaching its (separable) thermal equilibrium state. Environmental noise, together with the driven motion, plays a constructive role by periodically resetting the system, even though it will destroy entanglement as usual. As a building block, the present simple mechanism supports the perspective …
Many complex systems can spontaneously oscillate under non-periodic forcing. Such self-oscillators are commonplace in biological and technological assemblies where temporal periodicity is needed, such as the beating of a human heart or the vibration of a cello string. While self-oscillation is well understood in classical non-linear systems and their quantized counterparts, the spontaneous emergence of periodicity in quantum systems without a semi-classical limit is more elusive. Here, we show that this behavior can emerge within the repeated-interaction description of open quantum systems. Sp…
