Deep Quantum Graph Dreaming: Deciphering Neural Network Insights into Quantum Experiments

Tareq Jaouni, Sören Arlt, Carlos Ruiz-Gonzalez, Ebrahim Karimi, Xuemei Gu, Mario Krenn

Despite their promise to facilitate new scientific discoveries, the opaqueness of neural networks presents a challenge in interpreting the logic behind their findings. Here, we use a eXplainable-AI (XAI) technique called inception or deep dreaming, which has been invented in machine learning for computer vision. We use this techniques to explore what neural networks learn about quantum optics experiments. Our story begins by training a deep neural networks on the properties of quantum systems. Once trained, we "invert" the neural network – effectively asking how it imagines a quantum system with a specific property, and how it would continuously modify the quantum system to change a property. We find that the network can shift the initial distribution of properties of the quantum system, and we can conceptualize the learned strategies of the neural network. Interestingly, we find that, in the first layers, the neural network identifies simple properties, while in the deeper ones, it can identify complex quantum structures and even quantum entanglement. This is in reminiscence of long-understood properties known in computer vision, which we now identify in a complex natural science task. Our approach could be useful in a more interpretable way to develop new advanced AI-based scientific discovery techniques in quantum physics.

Transfer learning from Hermitian to non-Hermitian quantum many-body physics

Sharareh Sayyad, Jose L. Lado

Identifying phase boundaries of interacting systems is one of the key steps to understanding quantum many-body models. The development of various numerical and analytical methods has allowed exploring the phase diagrams of many Hermitian interacting systems. However, numerical challenges and scarcity of analytical solutions hinder obtaining phase boundaries in non-Hermitian many-body models. Recent machine learning methods have emerged as a potential strategy to learn phase boundaries from various observables without having access to the full many-body wavefunc- tion. Here, we show that a machine learning methodology trained solely on Hermitian correlation functions allows identifying phase boundaries of non-Hermitian interacting models. These results demonstrate that Hermitian machine learning algorithms can be redeployed to non-Hermitian mod- els without requiring further training to reveal non-Hermitian phase diagrams. Our findings es- tablish transfer learning as a versatile strategy to leverage Hermitian physics to machine learning non-Hermitian phenomena.

Fully Non-Linear Neuromorphic Computing with Linear Wave Scattering

Clara C. Wanjura, Florian Marquardt

The increasing complexity of neural networks and the energy consumption associated with training and inference create a need for alternative neuromorphic approaches, e.g. using optics. Current proposals and implementations rely on physical non-linearities or opto-electronic conversion to realise the required non-linear activation function. However, there are significant challenges with these approaches related to power levels, control, energy-efficiency, and delays. Here, we present a scheme for a neuromorphic system that relies on linear wave scattering and yet achieves non-linear processing with a high expressivity. The key idea is to inject the input via physical parameters that affect the scattering processes. Moreover, we show that gradients needed for training can be directly measured in scattering experiments. We predict classification accuracies on par with results obtained by standard artificial neural networks. Our proposal can be readily implemented with existing state-of-the-art, scalable platforms, e.g. in optics, microwave and electrical circuits, and we propose an integrated-photonics implementation based on racetrack resonators that achieves high connectivity with a minimal number of waveguide crossings.

Roadmap on structured waves

Konstantin Y Bliokh, Ebrahim Karimi, Miles J Padgett, Miguel A Alonso, Mark R Dennis, Angela Dudley, Andrew Forbes, Sina Zahedpour, Scott W Hancock, et al.

Self-learning Machines based on Hamiltonian Echo Backpropagation

Victor Lopez-Pastor, Florian Marquardt

A physical self-learning machine can be defined as a nonlinear dynamical system that can be trained on data (similar to artificial neural networks), but where the update of the internal degrees of freedom that serve as learnable parameters happens autonomously. In this way, neither external processing and feedback nor knowledge of (and control of) these internal degrees of freedom is required. We introduce a general scheme for self-learning in any time-reversible Hamiltonian system. We illustrate the training of such a self-learning machine numerically for the case of coupled nonlinear wave fields.

Experimental Solutions to the High-Dimensional Mean King's Problem

Tareq Jaouni, Xiaoqin Gao, Sören Arlt, Mario Krenn, Ebrahim Karimi

In 1987, Vaidman, Aharanov, and Albert put forward a puzzle called the Mean<br>King's Problem (MKP) that can be solved only by harnessing quantum<br>entanglement. Prime-powered solutions to the problem have been shown to exist,<br>but they have not yet been experimentally realized for any dimension beyond<br>two. We propose a general first-of-its-kind experimental scheme for solving the<br>MKP in prime dimensions ($D$). Our search is guided by the digital discovery<br>framework PyTheus, which finds highly interpretable graph-based representations<br>of quantum optical experimental setups; using it, we find specific solutions<br>and generalize to higher dimensions through human insight. As proof of<br>principle, we present a detailed investigation of our solution for the three-,<br>five-, and seven-dimensional cases. We obtain maximum success probabilities of<br>$72.8 \%$, $45.8\%$, and $34.8 \%$, respectively. We, therefore, posit that our<br>computer-inspired scheme yields solutions that exceed the classical probability<br>($1/D$) twofold, demonstrating its promise for experimental implementation.<br>

Topological properties of a non-Hermitian quasi-one-dimensional chain with a flat band

C. Martínez-Strasser, M. A. J. Herrera, G. Palumbo, Flore K. Kunst, D. Bercioux

We investigate the spectral properties of a non-Hermitian quasi-one-dimensional lattice in two possible dimerization configurations.<br>Specifically, we focus on a non-Hermitian diamond chain that presents a zero-energy flat band. The flat band originates from wave interference and results in eigenstates with a finite contribution only on two sites of the unit<br>cell. To achieve the non-Hermitian characteristics, we introduce non-reciprocal<br>intrasite hopping terms in the chain. This leads to the accumulation of eigenstates on the boundary of the system, known as the non-Hermitian skin effect. Despite this accumulation of eigenstates, for one of the two possible<br>configurations, we can characterize the presence of non-trivial edge states at zero energy by a real-space topological invariant known as the biorthogonal polarization. We show that this invariant, evaluated using the destructive interference method, characterizes the non-trivial phase of the non-Hermitian<br>diamond chain. For the other possible non-Hermitian configuration, we find that there is a finite quantum metric associated with the flat band. Additionally, we observe the skin effect despite having the system a purely real or imaginary spectrum. For both configurations, we show that two non- Hermitian diamond<br>chains can be mapped into two models of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains, either non-Hermitian and Hermitian, in the presence of a flat band. This mapping allows us to draw valuable insights into the behavior and properties of these systems.

Quadrature nonreciprocity in bosonic networks without breaking time-reversal symmetry

Clara C. Wanjura, Jesse J. Slim, Javier del Pino, Matteo Brunelli, Ewold Verhagen, Andreas Nunnenkamp

Nonreciprocity means that the transmission of a signal depends on its direction of propagation. Despite vastly different platforms and underlying working principles, the realizations of nonreciprocal transport in linear, time-independent systems rely on Aharonov–Bohm interference among several pathways and require breaking time-reversal symmetry. Here we extend the notion of nonreciprocity to unidirectional bosonic transport in systems with a time-reversal symmetric Hamiltonian by exploiting interference between beamsplitter (excitation-preserving) and two-mode-squeezing (excitation non-preserving) interactions. In contrast to standard nonreciprocity, this unidirectional transport manifests when the mode quadratures are resolved with respect to an external reference phase. Accordingly, we dub this phenomenon ‘quadrature nonreciprocity’. We experimentally demonstrate it in the minimal system of two coupled nanomechanical modes orchestrated by optomechanical interactions. Next, we develop a theoretical framework to characterize the class of networks exhibiting quadrature nonreciprocity based on features of their particle–hole graphs. In addition to unidirectionality, these networks can exhibit an even–odd pairing between collective quadratures, which we confirm experimentally in a four-mode system, and an exponential end-to-end gain in the case of arrays of cavities.

Topological phase diagrams of exactly solvable non-Hermitian interacting Kitaev chains

Sharareh Sayyad, Jose L. Lado

Many-body interactions give rise to the appearance of exotic phases in Hermitian physics. Despite their importance, many-body effects remain an open problem in non-Hermitian physics due to the complexity of treating many-body interactions. Here, we present a family of exact and numerical phase diagrams for non-Hermitian interacting Kitaev chains. In particular, we establish the exact phase boundaries for the dimerized Kitaev-Hubbard chain with complex-valued Hubbard interactions. Our results reveal that some of the Hermitian phases disappear as non-Hermiticty is enhanced. Based on our analytical findings, we explore the regime of the model that goes beyond the solvable regime, revealing regimes where non-Hermitian topological degeneracy remains. The combination of our exact and numerical phase diagrams provides an extensive description of a family of non-Hermitian interacting models. Our<br>results provide a stepping stone toward characterizing non-Hermitian topology in realistic interacting quantum many-body systems.

Recent advances in the Self-Referencing Embedding Strings (SELFIES) library

Alston Lo, Robert Pollice, AkshatKumar Nigam, Andrew D. White, Mario Krenn, Alán Aspuru-Guzik

String-based molecular representations play a crucial role in cheminformatics applications, and with the growing success of deep learning in chemistry, have been readily adopted into machine learning pipelines. However, traditional<br>string-based representations such as SMILES are often prone to syntactic and semantic errors when produced by generative models. To address these problems, a novel representation, SELF-referencIng Embedded Strings (SELFIES), was proposed that is inherently 100% robust, alongside an accompanying open-source implementation. Since then, we have generalized SELFIES to support a wider range of molecules and semantic constraints and streamlined its underlying grammar. We have implemented this updated representation in subsequent versions<br>of \selfieslib, where we have also made major advances with respect to design, efficiency, and supported features. Hence, we present the current status of \selfieslib (version 2.1.1) in this manuscript.

Non-Hermitian chiral anomalies in interacting systems

Sharareh Sayyad

Deep recurrent networks predicting the gap evolution in adiabatic quantum computing

Naeimeh Mohseni, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Tim Byrnes, Florian Marquardt

One of the main challenges in quantum physics is predicting efficiently the dynamics of observables in many-body problems out of equilibrium. A particular example occurs in adiabatic quantum computing, where finding the structure of the instantaneous gap of the Hamiltonian is crucial in order to optimize the speed of the computation. Inspired by this challenge, in this work we explore the potential of deep learning for discovering a mapping from the parameters that fully identify a problem Hamiltonian to the full evolution of the gap during an adiabatic sweep applying different network architectures. Through this example, we find that a limiting factor for the learnability of the dynamics is the size of the input, that is, how the number of parameters needed to identify the Hamiltonian scales with the system size. We demonstrate that a long short-term memory network succeeds in predicting the gap when the parameter space scales linearly with system size. Remarkably, we show that once this architecture is combined with a convolutional neural network to deal with the spatial structure of the model, the gap evolution can even be predicted for system sizes larger than the ones seen by the neural network during training. This provides a significant speedup in comparison with the existing exact and approximate algorithms in calculating the gap.

Discovering Quantum Circuit Components with Program Synthesis

Leopoldo Sarra, Kevin Ellis, Florian Marquardt

Despite rapid progress in the field, it is still challenging to discover new<br>ways to take advantage of quantum computation: all quantum algorithms need to<br>be designed by hand, and quantum mechanics is notoriously counterintuitive. In<br>this paper, we study how artificial intelligence, in the form of program<br>synthesis, may help to overcome some of these difficulties, by showing how a<br>computer can incrementally learn concepts relevant for quantum circuit<br>synthesis with experience, and reuse them in unseen tasks. In particular, we<br>focus on the decomposition of unitary matrices into quantum circuits, and we<br>show how, starting from a set of elementary gates, we can automatically<br>discover a library of new useful composite gates and use them to decompose more<br>and more complicated unitaries.<br>

Quantum interference between distant creation processes

Johannes Pseiner, Manuel Erhard, Mario Krenn

The search for macroscopic quantum phenomena is a fundamental pursuit in<br>quantum mechanics. It allows us to test the limits quantum physics and provides new avenues for exploring the interplay between quantum mechanics and relativity. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to generate macroscopic quantum systems by demonstrating that the creation process of a quantum system can span a macroscopic distance. Specifically, we generate photon pairs in a coherent superposition of two origins separated by up to 70 meters. This new<br>approach not only provides an exciting opportunity for foundational experiments<br>in quantum physics, but also has practical applications for high-precision measurements of distributed properties such as pressure and humidity of air or gases.

Multiphoton non-local quantum interference controlled by an undetected photon

Kaiyi Qian, Kai Wang, Leizhen Chen, Hou Zhaohua, Mario Krenn, Shining Zhu, Xiao-Song Ma

The interference of quanta lies at the heart of quantum physics. The multipartite generalization<br>of single-quanta interference creates entanglement, the coherent superposition of states shared by several quanta. Entanglement allows non-local correlations between many quanta and hence is a key resource for quantum information technology. Entanglement is typically considered to be essential for creating non-local correlations, manifested by multipartite interference. Here, we show that this is not the case and demonstrate multiphoton non-local quantum interference without entanglement of any intrinsic properties of the photons. We harness the superposition of the physical origin of a four-photon product state, which leads to constructive and destructive interference of the photons’ mere existence. With the intrinsic indistinguishability in the generation process of photons, we realize four-photon frustrated quantum interference. We furthermore establish non-local control of multipartite quantum interference, in which we tune the phase of one undetected photon and observe the interference of the other three photons. Our work paves the way for fundamental studies of non-locality and potential applications in quantum technologies.

Classical Phase Space Crystals in Open Environment

Ali Emami Kopaei, Krzysztof Sacha, Lingzhen Guo

It was recently discovered that a crystalline many-body state can exist in the phase space of a closed dynamical system. Phase space crystal can be anomalous Chern insulator that supports chiral topological transport without<br>breaking physical time-reversal symmetry [L. Guo et al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 094301 (2022)]. In this work, we further study the effects of open dissipative environment with thermal noise, and identify the existence condition of<br>classical phase space crystals in realistic scenarios. By defining a crystal order parameter, we plot the phase diagram in the parameter space of dissipation rate, interaction and temperature. Our present work paves the way to realise phase space crystals and explore anomalous chiral transport in<br>experiments.

PT symmetry-protected exceptional cones and analogue Hawking radiation

Marcus Stålhammar, Jorge Larana-Aragon, Lucas Rødland, Flore K. Kunst

Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, which effectively describe dissipative systems, and analogue gravity models, which simulate properties of gravitational objects, comprise seemingly different areas of current research. Here, we investigate the interplay between the two by relating parity-time- symmetric dissipative Weyl-type Hamiltonians to analogue Schwarzschild black holes emitting Hawking radiation. We show that the exceptional points of these Hamiltonians form tilted cones mimicking the behavior of the light cone of a radially infalling observer approaching a black hole horizon. We further investigate the presence of tunneling processes, reminiscent of those happening in black holes, in a concrete example model. We interpret the non-trivial result as the purely thermal contribution to analogue Hawking radiation in a Schwarzschild black hole. Assuming that our particular Hamiltonian models a photonic crystal, we discuss the concrete nature of the analogue Hawking radiation in this particular setup.

Quench-drive spectroscopy and high-harmonic generation in BCS superconductors

Matteo Puviani, Rafael Haenel, Dirk Manske

In pump-probe spectroscopies, THz pulses are used to quench a system, which is subsequently probed by either a THz or optical pulse. In contrast, third-harmonic generation experiments employ a single multicycle driving pulse and measure the induced third harmonic. In this work, we analyze a spectroscopy setup where both a quench and a drive are applied and two-dimensional spectra as a function of time and quench-drive delay are recorded. We calculate the time evolution of the nonlinear current generated in the superconductor within an Anderson-pseudospin framework and characterize all experimental signatures using a quasiequilibrium approach. We analyze the superconducting response in Fourier space with respect to both the frequencies corresponding to the real time and the quench-drive delay time. In particular, we show the presence of a transient modulation of higher harmonics, induced by a wave mixing process of the drive with the quench pulse, which probes both quasiparticle and collective excitations of the superconducting condensate.

Deep learning of many-body observables and quantum information scrambling

Naeimeh Mohseni, Junheng Shi, Tim Byrnes, Michael Hartmann

Machine learning has shown significant breakthroughs in quantum science, where in particular deep neural networks exhibited remarkable power in modeling quantum many-body systems. Here, we explore how the capacity of data-driven deep neural networks in learning the dynamics of physical observables is correlated with the scrambling of quantum information. We train a neural network to find a mapping from the parameters of a model to the evolution of observables in random quantum circuits for various regimes of quantum<br>scrambling and test its \textit{generalization} and \textit{extrapolation} capabilities in applying it to unseen circuits. Our results show that a particular type of recurrent neural network is extremely powerful in generalizing its predictions within the system size and time window that it has been trained on for both, localized and scrambled regimes. These include<br>regimes where classical learning approaches are known to fail in sampling from a representation of the full wave function. Moreover, the considered neural network succeeds in \textit{extrapolating} its predictions beyond the time window and system size that it has been trained on for models that show localization, but not in scrambled regimes.

Engineering Arbitrary Hamiltonians in Phase Space

Lingzhen Guo, Vittorio Peano

We introduce a general method to engineer arbitrary Hamiltonians in the Floquet phase space of a periodically driven oscillator, based on the non-commutative Fourier transformation (NcFT) technique. We establish the relationship between an arbitrary target Floquet Hamiltonian in phase space and the periodic driving potential in real space. We obtain analytical expressions for the driving potentials in real space that can generate novel Hamiltonians in phase space, e.g., rotational lattices and sharp-boundary well. Our protocol<br>can be realised in a range of experimental platforms for nonclassical states generation and bosonic quantum computation.

Investigation of inverse design of multilayer thin-films with conditional invertible Neural Networks

Alexander Luce, Ali Mahdavi, Heribert Wankerl, Florian Marquardt

The task of designing optical multilayer thin-films regarding a given target is currently solved using gradient-based optimization in conjunction with methods that can introduce additional thin-film layers. Recently, Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning have been been introduced to the task of designing thin-films with great success, however a trained network is usually only able to become proficient for a single target and must be retrained if the optical<br>targets are varied. In this work, we apply conditional Invertible Neural Networks (cINN) to inversely designing multilayer thin-films given an optical target. Since the cINN learns the energy landscape of all thin-film configurations within the training dataset, we show that cINNs can generate a stochastic ensemble of proposals for thin-film configurations that that are reasonably close to the desired target depending only on random variables. By refining the proposed configurations further by a local optimization, we show that the generated thin-films reach the target with significantly greater precision than comparable state-of-the art approaches. Furthermore, we tested the generative capabilities on samples which are outside the training data distribution and found that the cINN was able to predict thin-films for<br>out-of-distribution targets, too. The results suggest that in order to improve the generative design of thin-films, it is instructive to use established and new machine learning methods in conjunction in order to obtain the most<br>favorable results.

From Dyson Models to Many-Body Quantum Chaos

Alexei Andreanov, Matteo Carrega, Jeff Murugan, Jan Olle, Dario Rosa, Ruth Shir

Understanding the mechanisms underlying many-body quantum chaos is one of the big challenges in theoretical physics. We tackle this problem by considering a set of perturbed quadratic Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) Hamiltonians defined on graphs. This allows to disambiguate between operator growth and<br>\emph{delocalization}, showing that the latter is the dominant process in the single-particle to many-body chaotic transition. Our results are verified numerically with state-of-the-art numerical techniques, capable of extracting<br>eigenvalues in a desired energy window of very large Hamiltonians, in this case up to dimension $2^{19}\times 2^{19}$. Our approach essentially provides a new way of viewing many-body chaos from a single-particle perspective.

AI-discovery of a new charging protocol in a micromaser quantum battery

Carla Rodríguez, Dario Rosa, Jan Ollé

We propose a general computational framework for optimizing model-dependent<br>parameters in quantum batteries (QB). We apply this method to two different<br>charging scenarios in the micromaser QB and we discover a new charging protocol<br>for stabilizing the battery in upper-laying Hilbert space chambers in a<br>controlled and automatic way. This protocol is found to be stable and robust,<br>and it leads to an improved charging efficiency in micromaser QBs. Moreover,<br>our optimization framework is highly versatile and efficient, holding great<br>promise for the advancement of QB technologies at all scales.<br>

No-Collapse Accurate Quantum Feedback Control via Conditional State Tomography

Sangkha Borah, Bijita Sarma

The effectiveness of measurement-based feedback control (MBFC) protocols is hindered by the presence of measurement noise, which impairs the ability to accurately infer the underlying dynamics of a quantum system from noisy continuous measurement records. To circumvent this limitation, a real-time stochastic state estimation approach is proposed in this work, that enables noise-free monitoring of the conditional dynamics, including the full density matrix of the quantum system, despite using noisy measurement data. This, in turn, enables the development of precise MBFC strategies that leads to effective control of quantum systems by essentially mitigating the constraints imposed by measurement noise, and has potential applications in various feedback quantum control scenarios. This approach is particularly important for machine learning-based control, where the AI controller can be trained with arbitrary conditional averages of observables, including the full density matrix, to quickly and accurately learn control strategies.

On-chip quantum interference between the origins of a multi-photon state

Lan-Tian Feng, Ming Zhang, Di Liu, Yu-Jie Cheng, Guo-Ping Guo, Dao-Xin Dai, Guang-Can Guo, M. Krenn, Xi-Feng Ren

Quantum mechanically, multiple particles can jointly be in a coherent superposition of two or more different states at the same time. This property is called quantum entanglement, and gives rise to characteristic nonlocal interference and stays at the heart of quantum information process. Here, rather than interference of different intrinsic properties of particles, we experimentally demonstrated coherent superposition of two different birthplaces of a four-photon state. The quantum state is created in four probabilistic photon-pair sources, two combinations of which can create photon quadruplets. Coherent elimination and revival of distributed 4-photons can be fully controlled by tuning a phase. The stringent coherence requirements are met by using a silicon-based integrated photonic chip that contains four spiral waveguides for producing photon pairs via spontaneous four-wave mixing. The experiment gives rise to peculiar nonlocal phenomena without any obvious involvement of entanglement. Besides several potential applications that exploit the new on-chip technology, it opens up the possibility for fundamental studies on nonlocality with spatially separated locations.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Quantum Technologies

Mario Krenn, Jonas Landgraf, Thomas Fösel, Florian Marquardt

In recent years the dramatic progress in machine learning has begun to impact many areas of science and technology significantly. In the present perspective article, we explore how quantum technologies are benefiting from this revolution. We showcase in illustrative examples how scientists in the past few years have started to use machine learning and more broadly methods of artificial intelligence to analyze quantum measurements, estimate the parameters of quantum devices, discover new quantum experimental setups, protocols, and feed- back strategies, and generally improve aspects of quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum simulation. We highlight open challenges and future possibilities and conclude with some speculative visions for the next decade.

Cooling microwave fields into general multimode Gaussian states

Nahid Yazdi, Juan José García-Ripoll, Diego Porras, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch

We show that a collection of lossy multi-chromatically modulated qubits can be used to dissipa- tively engineer arbitrary Gaussian states of a set of bosonic modes. Our ideas are especially suited to superconducting-circuit architectures, where all the required ingredients are experimentally avail- able. The generation of such multimode Gaussian states is necessary for many applications, most notably measurement-based quantum computation. We build upon some of our previous proposals, where we showed how to generate single-mode and two-mode squeezed states through cooling and lasing. Special care must be taken when extending these ideas to many bosonic modes, and we discuss here how to overcome all the limitations and hurdles that naturally appear. We illustrate our ideas with a fully worked out example consisting of GHZ states, but have also tested several other examples such as cluster states. All these examples allow us to show that it is possible to use a set of N lossy qubits to cool down a bosonic chain of N modes to any desired Gaussian state.

Protection of all nondefective twofold degeneracies by antiunitary symmetries in non-Hermitian systems

Sharareh Sayyad

Non-Hermitian degeneracies are classified as defective exceptional points (EPs) and nondefective de- generacies. While in defective EPs, both eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce, nondefective degeneracies are characterized merely by the emergence of degenerate eigenvalues. It is also known that all degeneracies are either symmetryprotected or accidental. In this paper, I prove that antiunitary symmetries protect all nondefective twofold degeneracies. By developing a 2D non-Hermitian tight-binding model, I have demonstrated that these symmetries comprise various symmetry operations, such as discrete or spatial point-group symmetries and Wick’s rotation in the non-Hermitian parameter space. Introducing these composite symmetries, I present the protection of nondefective degeneracies in various parameter regimes of my model. This work paves the way to stabilizing nondefective degeneracies and offers a new perspective on understanding non-Hermitian band crossings.

Deep learning of spatial densities in inhomogeneous correlated quantum systems

Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig, Fabian Dechent, Evert van Nieuwenburg, Florian Marquardt

Machine learning has made important headway in helping to improve the treatment of quantum many-body systems. A domain of particular relevance are correlated inhomogeneous systems. What has been missing so far is a general, scalable deep-learning approach that would enable the rapid prediction of spatial densities for strongly correlated systems in arbitrary potentials. In this work, we present a straightforward scheme, where we learn to predict densities using convolutional neural networks trained on random potentials. While we demonstrate this approach in 1D and 2D lattice models using data from numerical techniques like Quantum Monte Carlo, it is directly applicable as well to training data obtained from experimental quantum simulators. We train networks that can predict the densities of multiple observables simultaneously and that can predict for a whole class of many-body lattice models, for arbitrary system sizes. We show that our approach can handle well the interplay of interference and interactions and the behaviour of models with phase transitions in inhomogeneous situations, and we also illustrate the ability to solve inverse problems, finding a potential for a desired density.

Complex decoherence-free interactions between giant atoms

Lei Du, Lingzhen Guo, Yong Li

Giant atoms provide a promising platform for engineering decoherence-free interactions which <br><br><br>is a major task in modern quantum technologies. Here we study systematically how to implement <br><br><br>complex decoherence-free interactions among giant atoms resorting to periodic coupling modulations and suitable arrangements of coupling points. We demonstrate that the phase of the modulation, which is tunable in experiments, can be encoded into the decoherence-free interactions, and thus <br><br><br>enables the Aharonov-Bohm effect of photons when the giant atoms constitute an effective closed loop. In particular, we consider the influence of non-Markovian retardation effect arising from large separations of the coupling points and study its dependence on the modulation parameters.

Realizing a deep reinforcement learning agent discovering real-time feedback control strategies for a quantum system

Kevin Reuer, Jonas Landgraf, Thomas Fösel, James O'Sullivan, Liberto Beltrán, Abdulkadir Akin, Graham J. Norris, Ants Remm, Michael Kerschbaum, et al.

To realize the full potential of quantum technologies, finding good strategies to control quantum information processing devices in real time becomes increasingly important. Usually these strategies require a precise understanding of the device itself, which is generally not available. Model-free reinforcement learning circumvents this need by discovering control strategies from scratch without relying on an accurate description of the quantum system. Furthermore, important tasks like state <br><br>preparation, gate teleportation and error correction need feedback at time scales much shorter than the coherence time, which for superconducting circuits is in the microsecond range. Developing and training a deep reinforcement learning agent able to operate in this real-time feedback regime has been an open challenge. Here, we have implemented such an agent in the form of a latency-optimized deep neural network on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). We demonstrate its use to efficiently initialize a superconducting qubit into a target state. To train the agent, we use <br><br>model-free reinforcement learning that is based solely on measurement data. We study the agent’s performance for strong and weak measurements, and for three-level readout, and compare with simple strategies based on thresholding. This demonstration motivates further research towards adoption of <br><br>reinforcement learning for real-time feedback control of quantum devices and more generally any physical system requiring learnable low-latency feedback control.

Digital Discovery of 100 diverse Quantum Experiments with PyTheus

Carlos Ruiz-Gonzalez, Sören Arlt, Jan Petermann, Sharareh Sayyad, Tareq Jaouni, Ebrahim Karimi, Nora Tischler, Xuemei Gu, Mario Krenn

Photons are the physical system of choice for performing experimental tests of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, photonic quantum technology is a main player in the second quantum revolution, promising the development of better sensors, secure communications, and quantum-enhanced computation. These endeavors require generating specific quantum states or efficiently performing quantum tasks. The design of the corresponding optical experiments was historically powered by human creativity but is recently being automated with advanced computer algorithms and artificial intelligence. While several computer-designed experiments have been experimentally realized, this approach has not yet been widely adopted by the broader photonic quantum optics community. The main roadblocks consist of most systems being closed-source, inefficient, or targeted to very specific use-cases that are difficult to generalize. Here, we overcome these problems with a highly-efficient, open-source digital discovery framework PyTheus, which can employ a wide range of experimental devices from modern quantum labs to solve various tasks. This includes the discovery of highly entangled quantum states, quantum measurement schemes, quantum communication protocols, multi-particle quantum gates, as well as the optimization of continuous and discrete properties of quantum experiments or quantum states. PyTheus produces interpretable designs for complex experimental problems which human researchers can often readily conceptualize. PyTheus is an example of a powerful framework that can lead to scientific discoveries -- one of the core goals of artificial intelligence in science. We hope it will help accelerate the development of quantum optics and provide new ideas in quantum hardware and technology.

Digital Discovery of a Scientific Concept at the Core of Experimental Quantum Optics

Sören Arlt, Carlos Ruiz-Gonzalez, Mario Krenn

Entanglement is a crucial resource for quantum technologies ranging from quantum communication to quantum-enhanced measurements and computation. Finding experimental setups for these tasks is a conceptual challenge for human scientists due to the counterintuitive behavior of multiparticle interference and the enormously large combinatorial search space. Recently, new possibilities have been opened by artificial discovery where artificial intelligence proposes experimental setups for the creation and manipulation of high-dimensional multi-particle entanglement. While digitally discovered experiments go beyond what has been conceived by human experts, a crucial goal is to understand the underlying concepts which enable these new useful experimental blueprints. Here, we present Halo (Hyperedge Assembly by Linear Optics), a new form of multiphoton quantum interference with surprising properties. Halos were used by our digital discovery framework to solve previously open questions. We -- the human part of this collaboration -- were then able to conceptualize the idea behind the computer discovery and describe them in terms of effective probabilistic multi-photon emitters. We then demonstrate its usefulness as a core of new experiments for highly entangled states, communication in quantum networks, and photonic quantum gates. Our manuscript has two conclusions. First, we introduce and explain the physics of a new practically useful multi-photon interference phenomenon that can readily be realized in advanced setups such as integrated photonic circuits. Second, our manuscript demonstrates how artificial intelligence can act as a source of inspiration for the scientific discoveries of new actionable concepts in physics.

SELFIES and the future of molecular string representations

Mario Krenn, Qianxiang Ai, Senja Barthel, Nessa Carson, Angelo Frei, Nathan C. Frey, Pascal Friederich, Théophile Gaudin, Alberto Alexander Gayle, et al.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are expanding in popularity for broad applications to challenging tasks in chemistry and materials science. Examples include the prediction of properties, the discovery of new reaction pathways, or the design of new molecules. The machine needs to read and write fluently in a chemical language for each of these tasks. Strings are a common tool to represent molecular graphs, and the most popular molecular string representation, SMILES, has powered cheminformatics since the late 1980s. However, in the context of AI and ML in chemistry, SMILES has several shortcomings -- most pertinently, most combinations of symbols lead to invalid results with no valid chemical interpretation. To overcome this issue, a new language for molecules was introduced in 2020 that guarantees 100\% robustness: SELFIES (SELF-referencIng Embedded Strings). SELFIES has since simplified and enabled numerous new applications in chemistry. In this manuscript, we look to the future and discuss molecular string representations, along with their respective opportunities and challenges. We propose 16 concrete Future Projects for robust molecular representations. These involve the extension toward new chemical domains, exciting questions at the interface of AI and robust languages and interpretability for both humans and machines. We hope that these proposals will inspire several follow-up works exploiting the full potential of molecular string representations for the future of AI in chemistry and materials science.

Theory of Laser-Assisted Nuclear Excitation by Electron Capture

Pavlo Bilous

The interplay of x-ray ionization and atomic and nuclear degrees of freedom is investigated theoretically in the process of laser-assisted nuclear excitation by electron capture. In the resonant process of nuclear excitation by electron capture, an incident electron recombines into a vacancy in the atomic shell with simultaneous nuclear excitation. Here we investigate the specific scenario in which the free electron and the required atomic shell hole<br>are generated by an x-ray free electron laser pulse. We develop a theoretical description based on the Feshbach projection operator formalism and consider numerically experimental scenarios at the SACLA x-ray free electron laser. Our numerical results for excitation of the 29.2 keV nuclear state in<br>$^{229}\text{Th}$ and the 14.4 keV M\"ossbauer transition in $^{57}\text{Fe}$<br>show low excitation rates but strong enhancement with respect to direct two<br>photon nuclear excitation.<br>

Design of quantum optical experiments with logic artificial intelligence

Alba Cervera-Lierta, Mario Krenn, Alán Aspuru-Guzik

Logic Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subfield of AI where variables can take two defined arguments, True or False, and are arranged in clauses that follow the rules of formal logic. Several problems that span from physical systems to mathematical conjectures can be encoded into these clauses and solved by checking their satisfiability (SAT). In contrast to machine learning approaches where the results can be approximations or local minima, Logic AI delivers formal and mathematically exact solutions to those problems. In this work, we propose the use of logic AI for the design of optical quantum experiments. We show how to map into a SAT problem the experimental preparation of an arbitrary quantum state and propose a logic-based algorithm, called Klaus, to find an interpretable representation of the photonic setup that generates it. We compare the performance of Klaus with the state-of-the-art algorithm for this purpose based on continuous optimization. We also combine both logic and numeric strategies to find that the use of logic AI significantly improves the resolution of this problem, paving the path to developing more formal-based approaches in the context of quantum physics experiments.

On scientific understanding with artificial intelligence

Mario Krenn, Robert Pollice, Si Yue Guo, Matteo Aldeghi, Alba Cervera-Lierta, Pascal Friederich, Gabriel dos Passos Gomes, Florian Häse, Adrian Jinich, et al.

An oracle that correctly predicts the outcome of every particle physics experiment, the products of every possible chemical reaction or the function of every protein would revolutionize science and technology. However, scientists would not be entirely satisfied because they would want to comprehend how the oracle made these predictions. This is scientific understanding, one of the main aims of science. With the increase in the available computational power and advances in artificial intelligence, a natural question arises: how can advanced computational systems, and specifically artificial intelligence, contribute to new scientific understanding or gain it autonomously? Trying to answer this question, we adopted a definition of ‘scientific understanding’ from the philosophy of science that enabled us to overview the scattered literature on the topic and, combined with dozens of anecdotes from scientists, map out three dimensions of computer-assisted scientific understanding. For each dimension, we review the existing state of the art and discuss future developments. We hope that this Perspective will inspire and focus research directions in this multidisciplinary emerging field.<br><br><br><br>

Predicting the Future of AI with AI: High-quality link prediction in an exponentially growing knowledge network

Mario Krenn, Lorenzo Buffoni, Bruno Coutinho, Sagi Eppel, Jacob Gates Foster, Andrew Gritsevskiy, Harlin Lee, Yichao Lu, Joao P. Moutinho, et al.

A tool that could suggest new personalized research directions and ideas by taking insights from the scientific literature could significantly accelerate the progress of science. A field that might benefit from such an approach is artificial intelligence (AI) research, where the number of scientific publications has been growing exponentially over the last years, making it challenging for human researchers to keep track of the progress. Here, we use AI techniques to predict the future research directions of AI itself. We develop a new graph-based benchmark based on real-world data -- the Science4Cast benchmark, which aims to predict the future state of an evolving semantic network of AI. For that, we use more than 100,000 research papers and build up a knowledge network with more than 64,000 concept nodes. We then present ten diverse methods to tackle this task, ranging from pure statistical to pure learning methods. Surprisingly, the most powerful methods use a<br>carefully curated set of network features, rather than an end-to-end AI approach. It indicates a great potential that can be unleashed for purely ML approaches without human knowledge. Ultimately, better predictions of new future research directions will be a crucial component of more advanced research suggestion tools.

Deep-learning approach for large atomic structure calculations

Pavlo Bilous, Adriana Pálffy, Florian Marquardt

High-precision atomic structure calculations require accurate modelling of<br>electronic correlations involving large multiconfiguration wave function<br>expansions. Here we develop a deep-learning approach which allows to preselect<br>the most relevant configurations out of large basis sets until the targeted<br>precision is achieved. Our method replaces a large multiconfiguration<br>Dirac-Hartree-Fock computation by a series of smaller ones performed on an<br>iteratively expanding basis subset managed by a convolutional neural network.<br>The results for several examples with many-electron atoms show that deep<br>learning can significantly reduce the required computational memory and running<br>time and renders possible large-scale computations on otherwise unaccessible<br>basis sets.<br>

Tunneling-induced fractal transmission in Valley Hall waveguides

Tirth Shah, Florian Marquardt, Vittorio Peano

The Valley Hall effect provides a popular route to engineer robust waveguides<br>for bosonic excitations such a photons and phonons. The almost complete absence<br>of backscattering in many experiments has its theoretical underpinning in a<br>smooth-envelope approximation that neglects large momentum transfer and is<br>accurate only for small bulk band gaps and/or smooth domain walls. For larger<br>bulk band gaps and hard domain walls backscattering is expected to become<br>significant. Here, we show that in this experimentally relevant regime, the<br>reflection of a wave at a sharp corner becomes highly sensitive on the<br>orientation of the outgoing waveguide relative to the underlying lattice.<br>Enhanced backscattering can be understood as being triggered by resonant<br>tunneling transitions in quasimomentum space. Tracking the resonant tunneling<br>energies as a function of the waveguide orientation reveals a self-repeating<br>fractal pattern that is also imprinted in the density of states and the<br>backscattering rate at a sharp corner.<br>

Curiosity in exploring chemical spaces: Intrinsic rewards for deep molecular reinforcement learning

Luca A. Thiede, Mario Krenn, AkshatKumar Nigam, Alán Aspuru-Guzik

Computer-aided design of molecules has the potential to disrupt the field of drug and material discovery. Machine learning, and deep learning, in particular, have been topics where the field has been developing at a rapid pace. Reinforcement learning is a particularly promising approach since it allows for molecular design without prior knowledge. However, the search space is vast and efficient exploration is desirable when using reinforcement learning agents. In this study, we propose an algorithm to aid efficient exploration. The algorithm is inspired by a concept known in the literature as curiosity. We show on three benchmarks that a curious agent finds better performing molecules. This indicates an exciting new research direction for reinforcement learning agents that can explore the chemical space out of their own motivation. This has the potential to eventually lead to unexpected new molecules that no human has thought about so far.

Topologically Protected Transport in Engineered Mechanical Systems

Tirth Shah, Christian Brendel, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt

Mechanical vibrations are being harnessed for a variety of purposes and at many length scales, from the macroscopic world down to the nanoscale. The considerable design freedom in mechanical structures allows to engineer new<br>functionalities. In recent years, this has been exploited to generate setups that offer topologically protected transport of vibrational waves, both in the solid state and in fluids. Borrowing concepts from electronic physics and being cross-fertilized by concurrent studies for cold atoms and electromagnetic waves, this field of topological transport in engineered mechanical systems offers a rich variety of phenomena and platforms. In this review, we provide a unifying overview of the various ideas employed in this area, summarize the different approaches and experimental implementations, and comment on the challenges as well as the prospects.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Quantum State Preparation with Weak Nonlinear Measurements

Riccardo Porotti, Antoine Essig, Benjamin Huard, Florian Marquardt

Quantum control has been of increasing interest in recent years, e.g. for tasks like state initialization and stabilization. Feedback-based strategies are particularly powerful, but also hard to find, due to the exponentially increased search space. Deep reinforcement learning holds great promise in this regard. It may provide new answers to difficult questions, such as whether nonlinear measurements can compensate for linear, constrained control. Here we show that reinforcement learning can successfully discover such feedback strategies, without prior knowledge. We illustrate this for state reparation in a cavity subject to quantum-non-demolition detection of photon number, with a simple linear drive as control. Fock states can be produced and stabilized at very high fidelity. It is even possible to reach superposition states, provided the measurement rates for different Fock states can be controlled as well.

Quantum indistinguishability by path identity and with undetected photons

Armin Hochrainer, Mayukh Lahiri, Manuel Erhard, Mario Krenn, Anton Zeilinger

Two processes of photon-pair creation can be arranged such that the paths of the emitted photons are identical. The path information is thereby not erased but rather never born in the first place due to this path identity. In addition to its implications for fundamental physics, this concept has recently led to a series of impactful discoveries in the fields of imaging, spectroscopy, and quantum information science. Here the idea of path identity is presented and a comprehensive review of recent developments is provided. Specifically, the concept of path identity is introduced based on three defining experimental ideas from the early 1990s. The three experiments have in common that they contain two photon-pair sources. The paths of one or both photons from the different sources overlap such that no measurement can recognize from which source they originate. A wide range of noteworthy quantum interference effects (at the single- or two-photon level), such as induced coherence, destructive interference of photon pairs, and entanglement generation, are subsequently described. Progress in the exploration of these ideas has stagnated and has gained momentum again only in the last few years. The focus of the review is the new development in the last few years that modified and generalized the ideas from the early 1990s. These developments are overviewed and explained under the same conceptual umbrella, which will help the community develop new applications and realize the foundational implications of this sleeping beauty.

Topological phonon transport in an optomechanical system

Hengjiang Ren, Tirth Shah, Hannes Pfeifer, Christian Brendel, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt, Oskar Painter

Recent advances in cavity-optomechanics have now made it possible to use light not just as a passive measuring device of mechanical motion, but also to manipulate the motion of mechanical objects down to the level of individual quanta of vibrations (phonons). At the same time, microfabrication techniques have enabled small-scale optomechanical circuits capable of on-chip manipulation of mechanical and optical signals. Building on these developments, theoretical proposals have shown that larger scale optomechanical arrays can be used to modify the propagation of phonons, realizing a form of topologically protected phonon transport. Here, we report the observation of topological phonon transport within a multiscale optomechanical crystal structure consisting of an array of over 800 cavity-optomechanical elements. Using sensitive, spatially resolved optical read-out we detect thermal phonons in a 0.325−0.34GHz band traveling along a topological edge channel, with substantial reduction in backscattering. This represents an important step from the pioneering macroscopic mechanical systems work towards topological phononic systems at the nanoscale, where hypersonic frequency (≳GHz) acoustic wave circuits consisting of robust delay lines and non-reciprocal elements may be implemented. Owing to the broadband character of the topological channels, the control of the flow of heat-carrying phonons, albeit at cryogenic temperatures, may also be envisioned.

Learning Interpretable Representations of Entanglement in Quantum Optics Experiments using Deep Generative Models

Daniel Flam-Shepherd, Tony Wu, Xuemei Gu, Alba Cervera-Lierta, M. Krenn, Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Quantum physics experiments produce interesting phenomena such as interference or entanglement, which is a core property of numerous future quantum technologies. The complex relationship between a quantum experiment's structure and its entanglement properties is essential to fundamental research in quantum optics but is difficult to intuitively understand. We present the first deep generative model of quantum optics experiments where a variational autoencoder (QOVAE) is trained on a dataset of experimental setups. In a series of computational experiments, we investigate the learned representation of the QOVAE and its internal understanding of the quantum optics world. We demonstrate that the QOVAE learns an intrepretable representation of quantum optics experiments and the relationship between experiment structure and entanglement. We show the QOVAE is able to generate novel experiments for highly entangled quantum states with specific distributions that match its training data. Importantly, we are able to fully interpret how the QOVAE structures its latent space, finding curious patterns that we can entirely explain in terms of quantum physics. The results demonstrate how we can successfully use and understand the internal representations of deep generative models in a complex scientific domain. The QOVAE and the insights from our investigations can be immediately applied to other physical systems throughout fundamental scientific research.

Learning Quantum Systems

Valentin Gebhart, Raffaele Santagati, Antonio Andrea Gentile, Erik Gauger, David Craig, Natalia Ares, Leonardo Banchi, Florian Marquardt, Luca Pezzè, et al.

Quantum technologies hold the promise to revolutionise our society with<br>ground-breaking applications in secure communication, high-performance<br>computing and ultra-precise sensing. One of the main features in scaling up<br>quantum technologies is that the complexity of quantum systems scales<br>exponentially with their size. This poses severe challenges in the efficient<br>calibration, benchmarking and validation of quantum states and their dynamical<br>control. While the complete simulation of large-scale quantum systems may only<br>be possible with a quantum computer, classical characterisation and<br>optimisation methods (supported by cutting edge numerical techniques) can still<br>play an important role.<br> Here, we review classical approaches to learning quantum systems, their<br>correlation properties, their dynamics and their interaction with the<br>environment. We discuss theoretical proposals and successful implementations in<br>different physical platforms such as spin qubits, trapped ions, photonic and<br>atomic systems, and superconducting circuits. This review provides a brief<br>background for key concepts recurring across many of these approaches, such as<br>the Bayesian formalism or Neural Networks, and outlines open questions.<br>

Realizing exceptional points of any order in the presence of symmetry

Sharareh Sayyad, Flore K. Kunst

Exceptional points~(EPs) appear as degeneracies in the spectrum of non-Hermitian matrices at which the eigenvectors coalesce. In general, an EP of order n may find room to emerge if 2(n−1) real constraints are imposed. Our results show that these constraints can be expressed in terms of the determinant and traces of the non-Hermitian matrix. Our findings further reveal that the total number of constraints may reduce in the presence of unitary and antiunitary symmetries. Additionally, we draw generic conclusions for the low-energy dispersion of the EPs. Based on our calculations, we show that in odd dimensions the presence of sublattice or pseudo-chiral symmetry enforces nth order EPs to disperse with the (n−1)th root. For two-, three- and four-band systems, we explicitly present the constraints needed for the occurrence of EPs in terms of system parameters and classify EPs based on their low-energy dispersion relations.

Deep Learning of Quantum Many-Body Dynamics via Random Driving

Naeimeh Mohseni, Thomas Fösel, Lingzhen Guo, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Florian Marquardt

Neural networks have emerged as a powerful way to approach many practical problems in quantumphysics. In this work, we illustrate the power of deep learning to predict the dynamics of a quantummany-body system, where the training is based purely on monitoring expectation values of observables under random driving. The trained recurrent network is able to produce accurate predictions for driving trajectories entirely different than those observed during training. As a proof of principle, here we train the network on numerical data generated from spin models, showing that it can learn the dynamics of observables of interest without needing information about the full quantum state.This allows our approach to be applied eventually to actual experimental data generated from aquantum many-body system that might be open, noisy, or disordered, without any need for a detailedunderstanding of the system. This scheme provides considerable speedup for rapid explorations andpulse optimization. Remarkably, we show the network is able to extrapolate the dynamics to times longer than those it has been trained on, as well as to the infinite-system-size limit.

Bound states and photon emission in non-Hermitian nanophotonics

Zongping Gong, Miguel Bello, Daniel Malz, Flore K. Kunst

We establish a general framework for studying the bound states and the photon-emission dynamics of quantum emitters coupled to structured nanophotonic lattices with engineered dissipation (loss). In the single-excitation sector, the system can be described exactly by a non-Hermitian formalism. We have pointed out in the accompanying letter [Gong \emph{et al}., arXiv:2205.05479] that a single emitter coupled to a one-dimensional non-Hermitian lattice may already exhibit anomalous behaviors without Hermitian counterparts. Here we provide further detail on these observations. We also present several additional examples on the cases with multiple quantum emitters or in higher dimensions. Our work unveils the tip of the iceberg of the rich non-Hermitian phenomena in dissipative nanophotonic systems.

TMM-Fast: A Transfer Matrix Computation Package for Multilayer Thin-Film Optimization: tutorial

Alexander Luce, Ali Mahdavi, Florian Marquardt, Heribert Wankerl

Achieving the desired optical response from a multilayer thin-film structure over a broad range of wavelengths and angles of incidence can be challenging. An advanced thin-film structure can consist of multiple materials with different thicknesses and numerous layers. Design and optimization of complex thin-film structures with multiple variables is a computationally heavy problem that is still under active research. To enable fast and easy experimentation with new optimization techniques, we propose the Python package TMM-Fast which enables parallelized computation of reflection and transmission of light at different angles of incidence and wavelengths through the multilayer thin-film.<br>By decreasing computational time, generating datasets for machine learning becomes feasible and evolutionary optimization can be used effectively. Additionally, the sub-package TMM-Torch allows to directly compute analytical<br>gradients for local optimization by using PyTorch Autograd functionality. Finally, an OpenAi Gym environment is presented which allows the user to train reinforcement learning agents on the problem of finding multilayer thin-film configurations.

Anomalous Behaviors of Quantum Emitters in Non-Hermitian Baths

Zongping Gong, Miguel Bello, Daniel Malz, Flore K. Kunst

Both non-Hermitian systems and the behaviour of emitters coupled to structured baths have been studied intensely in recent years. Here we study the interplay of these paradigmatic settings. In a series of examples, we show that a single quantum emitter coupled to a non-Hermitian bath displays a number of unconventional behaviours, many without Hermitian counterpart. We first consider a unidirectional hopping lattice whose complex dispersion forms a loop. We identify peculiar bound states inside the loop as a manifestation of the non-Hermitian skin effect. In the same setting, emitted photons may display spatial amplification markedly distinct from free propagation, which can be understood with the help of the generalized Brillouin zone. We then consider a nearest-neighbor lattice with alternating loss. We find that the long-time emitter decay always follows a power law, which is usually invisible for Hermitian baths. Our work points toward a rich landscape of anomalous quantum emitter dynamics induced by non-Hermitian baths.

Topological interface of light

Flore K. Kunst

Upon combining dissipative and nonlinear effects in a bipartite lattice of cavity polaritons, dissipatively stabilized bulk gap solitons emerge, which create a topological interface.

News & Views

Observing polarization patterns in the collective motion of nanomechanical arrays

Juliane Doster, Tirth Shah, Thomas Fösel, Philipp Paulitschke, Florian Marquardt, Eva Weig

In recent years, nanomechanics has evolved into a mature field, with wide-ranging impact from sensing applications to fundamental physics, and it has now reached a stage which enables the fabrication and study of ever more elaborate devices. This has led to the emergence of arrays of coupled nanomechanical resonators as a promising field of research, serving as model systems to study collective dynamical phenomena such as synchronization or topological transport. From a general point of view, the arrays investigated so far represent scalar fields on a lattice. Moving to a scenario where these could be extended to vector fields would unlock a whole host of conceptually interesting additional phenomena, including the physics of polarization patterns in wave fields and their associated topology. Here we introduce a new platform, a two-dimensional array of coupled nanomechanical pillar resonators, whose orthogonal vibration directions encode a mechanical polarization degree of freedom. We demonstrate direct optical imaging of the collective dynamics, enabling us to analyze the emerging polarization patterns and follow their evolution with drive frequency.

Ising machines: Hardware solvers for combinatorial optimization problems

Naeimeh Mohseni, Peter McMahon, Tim Byrnes

Ising machines are hardware solvers which aim to find the absolute or approximate ground states of the Ising model. The Ising model is of fundamental computational interest because it is possible to formulate any problem in the complexity class NP as an Ising problem with only polynomial overhead. A scalable Ising machine that outperforms existing standard digital computers could have a huge impact for practical applications for a wide variety of optimization problems. In this review, we survey the current status of various approaches to constructing Ising machines and explain their underlying operational principles. The types of Ising machines considered here include classical thermal annealers based on technologies such as<br>spintronics, optics, memristors, and digital hardware accelerators; dynamical-systems solvers implemented with optics and electronics; and superconducting-circuit quantum annealers. We compare and contrast their performance using standard metrics such as the ground-state success probability and time-to-solution, give their scaling relations with problem size, and<br>discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

Symmetry-protected exceptional and nodal points in non-Hermitian systems

Sharareh Sayyad, Marcus Stålhammar, Lukas Rødland, Flore K. Kunst

One of the unique features of non-Hermitian (NH) systems is the appearance of non-Hermitian degeneracies known as exceptional points~(EPs). The occurrence of EPs in NH systems requires satisfying constraints whose number can be reduced in the presence of some symmetries. This results in stabilizing the appearance of EPs. Even though two different types of EPs, namely defective and non-defective EPs, may emerge in NH systems, exploring the possibilities of stabilizing EPs has been only addressed for defective EPs, at which the Hamiltonian becomes non-diagonalizable. In this letter, we show that certain discrete symmetries, namely parity-time, parity-particle-hole, and pseudo-Hermitian symmetry, may guarantee the occurrence of both defective and non-defective EPs. We extend this list of symmetries by including the non-Hermitian time-reversal symmetry in the two-band systems. <br>We further show that the non-defective EPs manifest themselves by i) the diagonalizability of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian at these points and ii) the non-diagonalizability of the Hamiltonian along certain intersections of non-defective EPs. Two-band and four-band models exemplify our findings. Through an example, we further reveal that ordinary (Hermitian) nodal points may coexist with defective EPs in non-Hermitian models when the above symmetries are relaxed.

Modern applications of machine learning in quantum sciences

Anna Dawid, Julian Arnold, Borja Requena, Alexander Gresch, Marcin Płodzień, Kaelan Donatella, Kim Nicoli, Paolo Stornati, Rouven Koch, et al.

In these Lecture Notes, we provide a comprehensive introduction to the most<br>recent advances in the application of machine learning methods in quantum<br>sciences. We cover the use of deep learning and kernel methods in supervised,<br>unsupervised, and reinforcement learning algorithms for phase classification,<br>representation of many-body quantum states, quantum feedback control, and<br>quantum circuits optimization. Moreover, we introduce and discuss more<br>specialized topics such as differentiable programming, generative models,<br>statistical approach to machine learning, and quantum machine learning.<br>

Introduction to quantum optics

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch

These are the lecture notes for a course that I am teaching at Zhiyuan College of Shanghai Jiao<br>Tong University (available at www.youtube.com/derekkorg), though the first draft was created for a previous course I taught at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. It has been designed for students who have only had basic training on quantum mechanics, and hence, the course is suited<br>for people at all levels (say, from the end of the bachelor all the way into the PhD). The notes are<br>a work in progress, meaning that some proofs and many figures are still missing. However, I’ve<br>tried my best to write everything in such a way that a reader can follow naturally all arguments<br>and derivations even with these missing bits. Also a few chapters are left to add, including one<br>on mathematical methods to analyze the dynamics of open systems, and another introducing the plethora of current experimental platforms where the tools and ideas developed in these notes are being currently implemented.

Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering with Feedback

Riccardo Porotti, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt

Efficient approaches to quantum control and feedback are essential for quantum technologies, from sensing to quantum computation. Pure control tasks have been successfully solved using optimization techniques, including methods like gradient-ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) , relying on a differentiable model of the quantum dynamics. For feedback tasks, such methods are not directly applicable, since the aim is to discover strategies conditioned on measurement outcomes. There, model-free reinforcement learning (RL) has recently proven a powerful new ansatz. What is missing is a way to combine the best of both approaches for scenarios that go beyond weak measurements. In this work, we introduce feedback-GRAPE, which borrows concepts from model-free RL to incorporate the response to strong stochastic (discrete or continuous) measurements, while still performing direct gradient ascent through the quantum dynamics. We illustrate its power on a Jaynes-Cummings model with feedback, where it yields interpretable feedback strategies for state preparation and stabilization in the presence of noise. This approach could be employed for discovering strategies in a wide range of feedback tasks, from calibration of multi-qubit devices to linear-optics quantum computation strategies, quantum-enhanced sensing with adaptive measurements, and quantum error correction.

Nonreciprocal and chiral single-photon scattering for giant atoms

Yao-Tong Chen, Lei Du, Lingzhen Guo, Zhihai Wang, Yan Zhang, Yong Li, Jin-Hui Wu

In this work, we investigate the nontrivial single-photon scattering properties of giant atoms cou-<br>pled to waveguides that can be an effective platform for realising nonreciprocal and chiral quantum optics. For the two-level giant-atom setup, we identify the condition for nonreciprocal transmission: the external atomic dissipation is further required other than the breaking of time-reversal symmetry by local coupling phases. Especially, in the non-Markovian regime, unconventional revival peaks periodically appear in the reflection spectrum of such a two-level giant-atom system. To explore more interesting scattering behaviours, we further extend the two-level giant-atom system to ∆-type and<br>∇-type three-level giant atoms coupled to double waveguides without external atomic dissipation.<br>We analyse the different physical mechanisms for the nonreciprocal and chiral scattering properties of the ∆-type and ∇-type giant atoms. Our proposed giant-atom structures have potential applications of high-efficient single-photon targeted router and circulator for quantum information precessing.

Phase Space Crystal Vibrations: Chiral Edge States with Preserved Time-reversal Symmetry

Lingzhen Guo, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt

Chiral transport along edge channels in Chern insulators represents the most robust version of topological transport, but it usually requires breaking of the physical time-reversal symmetry. In this work, we introduce a different mechanism that foregoes this requirement, based on the combination of the symplectic geometry of phase space and interactions. Starting from a honeycomb phase-space crystal of atoms, which can be generated by periodic driving of a one-dimensional interacting quantum gas, we show that the resulting vibrational lattice waves have topological properties. Our work provides a new platform to study topological many-body physics in dynamical systems.

suggested by editors

Experimental high-dimensional Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement with superconducting transmon qutrits

Alba Cervera-Lierta, Mario Krenn, Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Alexey Galda

Multipartite entanglement is one of the core concepts in quantum information science with broad applications that span from condensed matter physics to quantum physics foundations tests. Although its most studied and tested forms encompass two-dimensional systems, current quantum platforms technically allow the manipulation of additional quantum levels. We report the first experimental demonstration of a high-dimensional multipartite entangled state in a superconducting quantum processor. We generate the three-qutrit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state by designing the necessary pulses to perform high-dimensional quantum operations. We obtain the fidelity of 76 ±1%, proving the generation of a genuine three-partite and three-dimensional entangled state.<br>To this date, only photonic devices have been able to create and manipulate these high-dimensional states. Our work demonstrates that another platform, superconducting systems, is ready to exploit<br>high-dimensional physics phenomena and that a programmable quantum device accessed on the<br>cloud can be used to design and execute experiments beyond binary quantum computation.

Tunneling in the Brillouin Zone: Theory of Backscattering in Valley Hall Edge Channels

Tirth Shah, Florian Marquardt, Vittorio Peano

A large set of recent experiments has been exploring topological transport in bosonic systems,e.g. of photons or phonons. In the vast majority, time-reversal symmetry is preserved, and bandstructures are engineered by a suitable choice of geometry, to produce topologically nontrivialbandgaps in the vicinity of high-symmetry points. However, this leaves open the possibility oflarge-quasimomentum backscattering, destroying the topological protection. Up to now, it has beenunclear what precisely are the conditions where this effect can be sufficiently suppressed. In thepresent work, we introduce a comprehensive semiclassical theory of tunneling transitions in momen-tum space, describing backscattering for one of the most important system classes, based on thevalley Hall effect. We predict that even for a smooth domain wall effective scattering centres developat locations determined by both the local slope of the wall and the energy. Moreover, our theoryprovides a quantitative analysis of the exponential suppression of the overall reflection amplitudewith increasing domain wall smoothness.

suggested by editors

Phase Space Crystals: Condensed matter in dynamical systems

Lingzhen Guo

This book aims to develop a general framework of condensed matter theory in phase space, instead of configuration space, of a dynamical system. Different from Euclidean real space, phase space is embedded with symplectic geometry in classical mechanics or noncommutative geometry in quantum mechanics. Arbitrary lattice Hamiltonians and crystalline many-body states in phase space can be created with the Floquet approach. The book covers topics ranging from dynamical systems, Floquet theory, topological physics to quantum many-body physics and time crystals. The book fills in the blanks in the study of dynamical systems by considering many-body physics in the phase space.

Playing Ping Pong with Light: Directional Emission of White Light

Heribert Wankerl, Christopher Wiesmann, Laura Kreiner, Rainer Butendeich, Alexander Luce, Sandra Sobczyk, Maike Lorena Stern, Elmar Wolfgang Lang

Over the last decades, light-emitting diodes (LED) have replaced common light bulbs in almost every application, from flashlights in smartphones to automotive headlights. Illuminating nightly streets requires LEDs to emit a light spectrum that is perceived as pure white by the human eye. The power associated with such a white light spectrum is not only distributed over the contributing wavelengths but also over the angles of vision. For many applications, the usable light rays are required to exit the LED in forward direction, namely under small angles to the perpendicular. In this work, we demonstrate that a specifically designed multi-layer thin film on top of a white LED increases the power of pure white light emitted in forward direction. Therefore, the deduced multi-objective optimization problem is reformulated via a real-valued physics-guided objective function that represents the<br>hierarchical structure of our engineering problem. Variants of Bayesian optimization are employed to maximize this non-deterministic objective function based on ray tracing simulations. Eventually, the investigation of optical properties of suitable multi-layer thin films allowed to identify the mechanism behind the increased directionality of white light: angle and wavelength selective filtering causes the multi-layer thin film to play ping pong with<br>rays of light.

Accelerated Non-Reciprocal Transfer of Energy Around an Exceptional Point

Hugo Ribeiro, Florian Marquardt

We develop perturbative methods to study and control dynamical phenomena related to exceptional points in Non-Hermitian systems. In particular, we show how to find perturbative solutions based on the Magnus expansion that accurately describe the evolution of non-Hermitian systems when encircling an exceptional point. This allows us to use the recently proposed Magnus-based strategy for control to design fast non-reciprocal, topological operations whose fidelity error is orders of magnitude smaller than their much slower adiabatic counterparts.

Arbitrary optical wave evolution with Fourier transforms and phase masks

Victor Lopéz-Pastor, Jeff S. Lundeen, Florian Marquardt

A large number of applications in classical and quantum photonics require the capability of implementing arbitrary linear unitary transformations on a set of optical modes. In a seminal work by Reck et al. it was shown how to build such multiport universal interferometers with a mesh of beam splitters and phase shifters, and this design became the basis for most experimental implementations in the last decades. However, the design of Reck et al. is difficult to scale up to a large number of modes, which would be required for many applications. Here we present a constructive proof that it is possible to realize a multiport universal interferometer on N modes with a succession of 6N Fourier transforms and 6N+1 phase masks, for any even integer N. Furthermore, we provide an algorithm to find the correct succesion of Fourier transforms and phase masks to realize a given arbitrary unitary transformation. Since Fourier transforms and phase masks are routinely implemented in several optical setups and they do not suffer from the scalability issues associated with building extensive meshes of beam splitters, we believe that our design can be useful for many applications in photonics.

Design of quantum optical experiments with logic artificial intelligence

Alba Cervera-Lierta, M. Krenn, Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Logic artificial intelligence (AI) is a subfield of AI where variables can take two defined arguments, True or False, and are arranged in clauses that follow the rules of formal logic. Several problems that span from physical systems to mathematical conjectures can be encoded into these clauses and be solved by checking their satisfiability (SAT). Recently, SAT solvers have become a sophisticated and powerful computational tool capable, among other things, of solving long-standing mathematical conjectures. In this work, we propose the use of logic AI for the design of optical quantum experiments. We show how to map into a SAT problem the experimental preparation of an arbitrary quantum state and propose a logic-based algorithm, called Klaus, to find an interpretable representation of the photonic setup that generates it. We compare the performance of Klaus with the state-of-the-art algorithm for this purpose based on continuous optimization. We also combine both logic and numeric strategies to find that the use of logic AI improves significantly the resolution of this problem, paving the path to develop more formal-based approaches in the context of quantum physics experiments.

Dynamical phase transitions in quantum spin models with antiferromagnetic long-range interactions

Jad C. Halimeh, Maarten Van Damme, Lingzhen Guo, Johannes Lang, Philipp Hauke

In recent years, dynamical phase transitions and out-of-equilibrium criticality have been at the forefront of ultracold gases and condensed matter research. Whereas universality and scaling are established topics in equilibrium quantum many-body physics, out-of-equilibrium extensions of such concepts still leave much to be desired. Using exact diagonalization and the time-dependent variational principle in uniform matrix product states, we calculate the time evolution of the local order parameter and Loschmidt return rate in transverse-field Ising chains with antiferromagnetic power law-decaying interactions, and map out the corresponding rich dynamical phase diagram. Anomalous cusps in the return rate, which are ubiquitous at small quenches within the ordered phase in the case of ferromagnetic long-range interactions, are absent within the accessible timescales of our simulations in the antiferromagnetic case, showing that long-range interactions are not a sufficient condition for their appearance. We attribute this to much weaker domain-wall binding in the antiferromagnetic case. For quenches across the quantum critical point, regular cusps appear in the return rate and connect to the local order parameter changing sign, indicating the concurrence of two major concepts of dynamical phase transitions. Our results consolidate conclusions of previous works that a necessary condition for the appearance of anomalous cusps in the return rate after quenches within the ordered phase is for topologically trivial local spin flips to be the energetically dominant excitations in the spectrum of the quench Hamiltonian. Our findings are readily accessible in modern trapped-ion setups and we outline the associated experimental considerations.

Certification of Genuine Multipartite Entanglement with General and Robust Device-independent Witnesses

Chao Zhang, Wen-Hao Zhang, Pavel Sekatski, Jean-Daniel Bancal, Michael Zwerger, Peng Yin, Gong-Chu Li, Xing-Xiang Peng, Lei Chen, et al.

Genuine multipartite entanglement represents the strongest type of entanglement, which is an essential resource for quantum information<br>processing. Standard methods to detect genuine multipartite entanglement, e.g., entanglement witnesses, state tomography, or quantum state verification, require full knowledge of the Hilbert space dimension and precise calibration of measurement devices, which are usually difficult to acquire in an experiment. The most radical way to overcome these problems is to detect<br>entanglement solely based on the Bell-like correlations of measurement outcomes collected in the experiment, namely, device-independently (DI). However, it is difficult to certify genuine entanglement of practical multipartite states in<br>this way, and even more difficult to quantify it, due to the difficulty to identify optimal multipartite Bell inequalities and protocols tolerant to state impurity. In this work, we explore a general and robust DI method which can be applied to various realistic multipartite quantum state in arbitrary finite dimension, while merely relying on bipartite Bell inequalities. Our method allows us both to certify the presence of genuine multipartite entanglement and to quantify it. Several important classes of entangled states are tested with this method, leading to the detection of genuinely entangled states. We also certify genuine multipartite entanglement in weakly-entangled GHZ states, thus showing that the method applies equally well to less standard states.

Channel discord and distortion

Wei-Wei Zhang, Yuval R. Sanders, Barry C. Sanders

Discord, originally notable as a signature of bipartite quantum correlation, in fact can be nonzero<br>classically, i.e. arising from noisy measurements by one of the two parties. Here we redefine<br>classical discord to quantify channel distortion, in contrast to the previous restriction of classical<br>discord to a state, and we then show a monotonic relationship between classical (channel) discord<br>and channel distortion. We show that classical discord is equivalent to (doubly stochastic) channel<br>distortion by numerically discovering a monotonic relation between discord and total-variation<br>distance for a bipartite protocol with one party having a noiseless channel and the other party<br>having a noisy channel. Our numerical method includes randomly generating doubly stochastic<br>matrices for noisy channels and averaging over a uniform measure of input messages. Connecting<br>discord with distortion establishes discord as a signature of classical, not quantum, channel<br>distortion.

Perturbation theory of nearly spherical dielectric optical resonators

Julius Gohsrich, Tirth Shah, Andrea Aiello

Dielectric spheres of various sizes may sustain electromagnetic whispering-gallery modes resonating at optical frequencies with very narrow linewidths. Arbitrary small deviations from the spherical shape typically shift and broaden such resonances. Our goal is to determine these shifted and broadened resonances. A boundary-condition perturbation theory for the acoustic vibrations of nearly circular membranes was developed by Rayleigh more than a century ago. We extend this theory to describe the electromagnetic excitations of nearly spherical dielectric cavities. This approach permits us to avoid dealing with decaying quasinormal modes. We explicitly find the frequencies and the linewidths of the optical resonances for arbitrarily deformed nearly spherical dielectric cavities, as power series expansions by a small parameter, up to and including second-order terms. We thoroughly discuss the physical conditions for the applicability of perturbation theory.

Optical signatures of the coupled spin-mechanics of a levitated magnetic microparticle

Vanessa Wachter, Victor A. S. V. Bittencourt, Shangran Xie, Sanchar Sharma, Nicolas Joly, Philip Russell, Florian Marquardt, Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy

We propose a platform that combines the fields of cavity optomagnonics and levitated optome-<br>chanics in order to control and probe the coupled spin-mechanics of magnetic dielectric particles. We theoretically study the dynamics of a levitated Faraday-active dielectric microsphere serving as an optomagnonic cavity, placed in an external magnetic field and driven by an external laser. We find that the optically driven magnetization dynamics induces angular oscillations of the particle with low associated damping. Further, we show that the magnetization and angular motion dynamics<br>can be probed via the power spectrum of the outgoing light. Namely, the characteristic frequencies attributed to the angular oscillations and the spin dynamics are imprinted in the light spectrum by two main resonance peaks. Additionally, we demonstrate that a ferromagnetic resonance setup with an oscillatory perpendicular magnetic field can enhance the resonance peak corresponding to<br>the spin oscillations and induce fast rotations of the particle around its anisotropy axis.

Analytic Design of Accelerated Adiabatic Gates in Realistic Qubits: General Theory and Applications to Superconducting Circuits

F Setiawan, Peter Groszkowski, Hugo Ribeiro, Aashish A Clerk

Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) is a general methodology for speeding up adiabatic quantumprotocols, and has many potential applications in quantum information processing. Unfortunately,analytically constructing STAs for systems having complex interactions and more than a few levelsis a challenging task. This is usually overcome by assuming an idealized Hamiltonian (e.g., only alimited subset of energy levels are retained, and the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is made).Here, we develop ananalyticapproach that allows one to go beyond these limitations. Our methodis general and results in analytically-derived pulse shapes that correct both non-adiabatic errorsas well as non-RWA errors. We also show that our approach can yield pulses requiring a smallerdriving power than conventional non-adiabatic protocols. We show in detail how our ideas can beused to analytically design high-fidelity single-qubit “tripod” gates in a realistic superconductingfluxonium qubit.

suggested by editors

Rapid Exploration of Topological Band Structures using Deep Learning

Vittorio Peano, Florian Sapper, Florian Marquardt

The design of periodic nanostructures allows to tailor the transport of photons, phonons, and matter waves for specific applications. Recent years have seen a further expansion of this field by engineering topological properties. However, what is missing currently are efficient ways to rapidly explore and optimize band structures and to classify their topological characteristics for arbitrary unit-cell geometries. In this work, we show how deep learning can address this challenge. We introduce an approach where a neural network first maps the geometry to a tight-binding model. The tight-binding model encodes not only the band structure but also the symmetry properties of the Bloch waves. This allows us to rapidly categorize a large set of geometries in terms of their band representations, identifying designs for fragile topologies. We demonstrate that our method is also suitable to calculate strong topological invariants, even when (like the Chern number) they are not symmetry indicated. Engineering of domain walls and optimization are accelerated by orders of magnitude. Our method directly applies to any passive linear material, irrespective of the symmetry class and space group. It is general enough to be extended to active and nonlinear metamaterials.

Machine Learning and Quantum Devices

Florian Marquardt

These brief lecture notes cover the basics of neural networks and deep learning as well as their applications in the quantum domain, for physicists without prior knowledge. In the first part, we describe training using back-propagation, image classification, convolutional networks and autoencoders.The second part is about advanced techniques like reinforcement learning (for discovering control strategies), recurrent neural networks (for analyzing timetraces), and Boltzmann machines (for learning probability distributions). In the third lecture, we discuss first recent applications to quantum physics, with an emphasis on quantum information processing machines. Finally, the fourth lecture is devoted to the promise of using quantum effects to accelerate machine learning.

Renormalized Mutual Information for Artificial Scientific Discovery

Leopoldo Sarra, Andrea Aiello, Florian Marquardt

We derive a well-defined renormalized version of mutual information that allows to estimate the dependence between continuous random variables in the important case when one is deterministically dependent on the other. This is the situation relevant for feature extraction, where the goal is to produce a low-dimensional effective description of a high-dimensional system. Our approach enables the discovery of collective variables in physical systems, thus adding to the toolbox of artificial scientific discovery, while also aiding the analysis of information flow in artificial neural networks.

Error suppression in adiabatic quantum computing with qubit ensembles

Naeimeh Mohseni, Marek Narozniak, Alexey N Pyrkov, Valentin Ivannikov, Jonathan P Dowling

Incorporating protection against quantum errors into adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) is an important task due to the inevitable presence of decoherence. Here, we investigate an error-protected encoding of the AQC Hamiltonian, where qubit ensembles are used in place of qubits. Our Hamiltonian only involves total spin operators of the ensembles, offering a simpler route towards error-corrected quantum computing. Our scheme is particularly suited to neutral atomic gases where it is possible to realize large ensemble sizes and produce ensemble-ensemble entanglement. We identify a critical ensemble size Nc where the nature of the first excited state becomes a single particle perturbation of the ground state, and the gap energy is predictable by mean-field theory. For ensemble sizes larger than Nc, the ground state becomes protected due to the presence of logically equivalent states and the AQC performance improves with N, as long as the decoherence rate is sufficiently low.

Quantum circuit optimization with deep reinforcement learning

Thomas Fösel, Murphy Yuezhen Niu, Florian Marquardt, Li Li (李力)

A central aspect for operating future quantum computers is quantum circuit optimization, i.e., the search for efficient realizations of quantum algorithms given the device capabilities. In recent years, powerful approaches have been developed which focus on optimizing the high-level circuit structure. However, these approaches do not consider and thus cannot optimize for the hardware details of the quantum architecture, which is especially important for near-term devices. To address this point, we present an approach to quantum circuit optimization based on reinforcement learning. We demonstrate how an agent, realized by a deep convolutional neural network, can autonomously learn generic strategies to optimize arbitrary circuits on a specific architecture, where the optimization target can be chosen freely by the user. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by training agents on 12-qubit random circuits, where we find on average a depth reduction by 27% and a gate count reduction by 15%. We examine the extrapolation to larger circuits than used for training, and envision how this approach can be utilized for near-term quantum devices.

Floquet theory for temporal correlations and spectra in time-periodic open quantum systems: Application to squeezed parametric oscillation beyond the rotating-wave approximation

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Rafael Garcés, Naeimeh Mohseni, German J. de Valcarcel

Open quantum systems can display periodic dynamics at the classical level either due to external periodic modulations or to self-pulsing phenomena typically following a Hopf bifurcation. In both cases, the quantum fluctuations around classical solutions do not reach a quantum-statistical stationary state, which prevents adopting the simple and reliable methods used for stationary quantum systems. Here we put forward a general and efficient method to compute two-time correlations and corresponding spectral densities of time-periodic open quantum systems within the usual linearized (Gaussian) approximation for their dynamics. Using Floquet theory, we show how the quantum Langevin equations for the fluctuations can be efficiently integrated by partitioning the time domain into one-period duration intervals, and relating the properties of each period to the first one. Spectral densities, like squeezing spectra, are computed similarly, now in a two-dimensional temporal domain that is treated as a chessboard with one-period × one-period cells. This technique avoids cumulative numerical errors as well as efficiently saving computational time. As an illustration of the method, we analyze the quantum fluctuations of a damped parametrically driven oscillator (degenerate parametric oscillator) below threshold and far away from rotating-wave approximation conditions, which is a relevant scenario for modern low-frequency quantum oscillators. Our method reveals that the squeezing properties of such devices are quite robust against the amplitude of the modulation or the low quality of the oscillator, although optimal squeezing can appear for parameters that are far from the ones predicted within the rotating-wave approximation.

suggested by editors

Engineering Fast High-Fidelity Quantum Operations With Constrained Interactions

Thales Figueiredo Roque, Aashish A Clerk, Hugo Ribeiro

Understanding how to tailor quantum dynamics to achieve a desired evolution is a crucial problemin almost all quantum technologies. We present a very general method for designing high-efficiencycontrol sequences that are always fully compatible with experimental constraints on available inter-actions and their tunability. Our approach reduces in the end to finding control fields by solvinga set of time-independent linear equations. We illustrate our method by applying it to a numberof physically-relevant problems: the strong-driving limit of a two-level system, fast squeezing in aparametrically driven cavity, the leakage problem in transmon qubit gates, and the acceleration ofSNAP gates in a qubit-cavity system.

Squeezed comb states

Namrata Shukla, Stefan Nimmrichter, Barry C. Sanders

Continuous-variable codes are an expedient solution for quantum information processing and quantum communication involving optical networks. Here we characterize the squeezed comb, a finite superposition of equidistant squeezed coherent states on a line, and its properties as a continuous-variable encoding choice for a logical qubit. The squeezed comb is a realistic approximation to the ideal code proposed by Gottesman et al. [D. Gottesman, A. Kitaev, and J. Preskill, Phys. Rev. A 64, 012310 (2001)], which is fully protected against errors caused by the paradigmatic types of quantum noise in continuous-variable systems: damping and diffusion. This is no longer the case for the code space of finite squeezed combs, and noise robustness depends crucially on the encoding parameters. We analyze finite squeezed comb states in phase space, highlighting their complicated interference features and characterizing their dynamics when exposed to amplitude damping and Gaussian diffusion noise processes. We find that squeezed comb states are more suitable and less error prone when exposed to damping, which speaks against standard error-correction strategies that employ linear amplification to convert damping into easier-to-describe isotropic diffusion noise.

Oscillating bound states for a giant atom

Lingzhen Guo, Anton Frisk Kockum, Florian Marquardt, Göran Johannson

We investigate the relaxation dynamics of a single artificial atom interacting, via multiple coupling points, with a continuum of bosonic modes (photons or phonons) in a one-dimensional waveguide. In the non-Markovian regime, where the traveling time of a photon or phonon between the coupling points is sufficiently large compared to the inverse of the bare relaxation rate of the atom, we find that a boson can be trapped and form a stable bound state. As a key discovery, we further find that a persistently oscillating bound state can appear inside the continuous spectrum of the waveguide if the number of coupling points is more than two since such a setup enables multiple bound modes to coexist. This opens up prospects for storing and manipulating quantum information in larger Hilbert spaces than available in previously known bound states.

Spatial localization and pattern formation in discrete optomechanical cavities and arrays

Joaquín Ruiz-Rivas, Giuseppe Patera, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Eugenio Roldán, German de Valcarcel

We investigate theoretically the generation of nonlinear dissipative structures in optomechanical(OM) systems containing discrete arrays of mechanical resonators. We consider both hybridmodels in which the optical system is a continuous multimode field, as it would happen in an OMcavity containing an array of micro-mirrors, and also fully discrete models in which eachmechanical resonator interacts with a single optical mode, making contact with Ludwig andMarquardt (2013Phys.Rev.Lett.101, 073603). Also, we study the connections between both typesof models and continuous OM models. While all three types of models merge naturally in the limitof a large number of densely distributed mechanical resonators, we show that the spatiallocalization and the pattern formation found in continuous OM models can still be observed for asmall number of mechanical elements, even in the presence of finite-size effects, which we discuss.This opens new venues for experimental approaches to the subject.

Many-body dephasing in a trapped-ion quantum simulator

Harvey B. Kaplan, Lingzhen Guo, Wen Lin Tan, Arinjoy De, Florian Marquardt, Guido Pagano, Christopher Monroe

How a closed interacting quantum many-body system relaxes and dephases as a function of time is a fundamental question in thermodynamic and statistical physics. In this Letter, we analyze and observe the persistent temporal fluctuations after a quantum quench of a tunable long-range interacting transverse-field Ising Hamiltonian realized with a trapped-ion quantum simulator. We measure the temporal fluctuations in the average magnetization of a finite-size system of spin-1/2 particles. We experiment in a regime where the properties of the system are closely related to the integrable Hamiltonian with global spin-spin coupling, which enables analytical predictions for the long-time nonintegrable dynamics. The analytical expression for the temporal fluctuations predicts the exponential suppression of temporal fluctuations with increasing system size. Our measurement data is consistent with our theory predicting the regime of many-body dephasing.

Observation of concentrating paraxial beams

Andrea Aiello, Martin Paúr, Bohumil Stoklasa, Zdeněk Hradil, Jaroslav Řeháček, Luis L Sánchez-Soto

We report the first, to the best of our knowledge, observation of concentrating paraxialbeams of light in a linear nondispersive medium. We have generated this intriguing class of lightbeams, recently predicted by one of us, in both one- and two-dimensional configurations. As wedemonstrate in our experiments, these concentrating beams display unconventional features, suchas the ability to strongly focus in the focal spot of a thin lens like a plane wave, while keepingtheir total energy finite.

Probing the Tavis-Cummings level splitting with intermediate-scale superconducting circuits

Ping Yang, Jan David Brehm, Juha Leppäkangas, Lingzhen Guo, Michael Marthaler, Isabella Boventer, Alexander Stehli, Tim Wolz, Alexey V. Ustinov, et al.

We demonstrate the local control of up to eight two-level systems interacting strongly with a microwave cavity. Following calibration, the frequency of each individual two-level system (qubit) is tunable without influencing the others. Bringing the qubits one by one on resonance with the cavity, we observe the collective coupling strength of the qubit ensemble. The splitting scales up with the square root of the number of the qubits, being the hallmark of the Tavis-Cummings model. The local control circuitry causes a bypass shunting the resonator, and a Fano interference in the microwave readout, whose contribution can be calibrated away to recover the pure cavity spectrum. The simulator's attainable size of dressed states is limited by reduced signal visibility, and -if uncalibrated- by off-resonance shifts of sub-components. Our work demonstrates control and readout of quantum coherent mesoscopic multi-qubit system of intermediate scale under conditions of noise.

Kinetics of Many-Body Reservoir Engineering

Hugo Ribeiro, Florian Marquardt

Recent advances illustrate the power of reservoir engineering in applications to many-body sys-tems, such as quantum simulators based on superconducting circuits. We present a frameworkbased on kinetic equations and noise spectra that can be used to understand both the transientand long-time behavior of many particles coupled to an engineered reservoir in a number-conservingway. For the example of a bosonic array, we show that the non-equilibrium steady state can beexpressed, in a wide parameter regime, in terms of a modified Bose-Einstein distribution with anenergy-dependent temperature.

Condensed matter physics in time crystals

Lingzhen Guo, Pengfei Liang

Time crystals are physical systems whose time translation symmetry is spontaneously broken. Although the spontaneous breaking of continuous time-translation symmetry in static systems is proved impossible for the equilibrium state, the discrete time-translation symmetry in periodically driven (Floquet) systems is allowed to be spontaneously broken, resulting in the so-called Floquet or discrete time crystals. While most works so far searching for time crystals focus on the symmetry breaking process and the possible stabilising mechanisms, the many-body physics from the interplay of symmetry-broken states, which we call the condensed matter physics in time crystals, is not fully explored yet. This review aims to summarise the very preliminary results in this new research field with an analogous structure of condensed matter theory in solids. The whole theory is built on a hidden symmetry in time crystals, i.e., the phase space lattice symmetry, which allows us to develop the band theory, topology and strongly correlated models in phase space lattice. In the end, we outline the possible topics and directions for the future research.

Efficient cavity control with SNAP gates

Thomas Fösel, Stefan Krastanov, Florian Marquardt, Liang Jiang

Microwave cavities coupled to superconducting qubits have been demonstrated to be a promising platform for quantum information processing. A major challenge in this setup is to realize universal control over the cavity. A promising approach are selective number-dependent arbitrary phase (SNAP) gates combined with cavity displacements. It has been proven that this is a universal gate set, but a central question remained open so far: how can a given target operation be realized efficiently with a sequence of these operations. In this work, we present a practical scheme to address this problem. It involves a hierarchical strategy to insert new gates into a sequence, followed by a co-optimization of the control parameters, which generates short high-fidelity sequences. For a broad range of experimentally relevant applications, we find that they can be implemented with 3 to 4 SNAP gates, compared to up to 50 with previously known techniques.

Chimera states in small optomechanical arrays

Karl Pelka, Vittorio Peano, Andre Xuereb

Synchronization of weakly-coupled non-linear oscillators is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has been observedacross the natural sciences. We study the dynamics of optomechanical arrays—networks of mechanically com-pliant structures that interact with the radiation pressure force—which are driven to self-oscillation. Thesesystems offer a convenient platform to study synchronization phenomena and have potential technological ap-plications. We demonstrate that this system supports the existence of long-lived chimera states, where parts ofthe array synchronize whilst others do not. Through a combined numerical and analytical analysis we show thatthese chimera states can only emerge in the presence of disorder.

Maxwell's lesser demon: A Quantum Engine Driven by Pointer Measurements

Stella Seah, Stefan Nimmrichter, Valerio Scarani

We discuss a self-contained spin-boson model for a measurement-driven engine, in which a demongenerates work from random thermal excitations of a quantum spin via measurement and feedbackcontrol. Instead of granting it full direct access to the spin state and to Landauer’s erasure strokes foroptimal performance, we restrict this lesser demon’s action to pointer measurements, i.e. random orcontinuous interrogations of a damped mechanical oscillator that assumes macroscopically distinctpositions depending on the spin state. The engine could reach simultaneously high output powersand efficiencies and can operate in temperature regimes where quantum Otto engines would fail.

Quench dynamics in one-dimensional optomechanical arrays

Sadegh Raeisi, Florian Marquardt

Non-equilibrium dynamics induced by rapid changes of external parameters is relevant for a widerange of scenarios across many domains of physics. For waves in spatially periodic systems, quencheswill alter the bandstructure and generate new excitations. In the case of topological bandstructures,defect modes at boundaries can be generated or destroyed when quenching through a topologicalphase transition. Here, we demonstrate that optomechanical arrays are a promising platform forstudying such dynamics, as their bandstructure can be tuned temporally by a control laser. Westudy the creation of nonequilibrium optical and mechanical excitations in 1D arrays, including abosonic version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. These ideas can be transferred to other systemssuch as driven nonlinear cavity arrays.

Nonreciprocal topological phononics in optomechanical arrays

Claudio Sanavio, Vittorio Peano, André Xuereb

We propose a platform for robust and tunable nonreciprocal phonon transport based on arrays of optomechanical microtoroids. In our approach, time-reversal symmetry is broken by the interplay of photonic spin-orbit coupling, engineered using a state-of-the-art geometrical approach, and the optomechanical interaction. We demonstrate the topologically protected nature of this system by investigating its robustness to imperfections. This type of system could find application in phonon-based information storage and signal-processing devices.

Nonlinear dynamics of weakly dissipative optomechanical systems

Thales Figueiredo Roque, Florian Marquardt, Oleg M. Yevtushenko

Optomechanical systems attract a lot of attention because they provide a novel platform for quantum measurements, transduction, hybrid systems, and fundamental studies of quantum physics. Their classical nonlinear dynamics is surprisingly rich and so far remains underexplored. Works devoted to this subject have typically focussed on dissipation constants which are substantially larger than those encountered in current experiments, such that the nonlinear dynamics of weakly dissipative optomechanical systems is almost uncharted waters. In this work, we fill this gap and investigate the regular and chaotic dynamics in this important regime. To analyze the dynamical attractors, we have extended the "Generalized Alignment Index" method to dissipative systems. We show that, even when chaotic motion is absent, the dynamics in the weakly dissipative regime is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. We argue that reducing dissipation allows chaotic dynamics to appear at a substantially smaller driving strength and enables various routes to chaos. We identify three generic features in weakly dissipative classical optomechanical nonlinear dynamics: the Neimark-Sacker bifurcation between limit cycles and limit tori (leading to a comb of sidebands in the spectrum), the quasiperiodic route to chaos, and the existence of transient chaos.

Deterministic generation of hybrid high-N N00N states with Rydberg ions trapped in microwave cavities

Naeimeh Mohseni, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Shahpoor Saeidian, Jonathan P Dowling

Trapped ions are among the most promising platforms for quantum technologies. They are atthe heart of the most precise clocks and sensors developed to date, which exploit the quantumcoherence of a single electronic or motional degree of freedom of an ion. However, future high-precision quantum metrology will require the use of entangled states of several degrees of freedom.Here we propose a protocol capable of generating high-N00N states where the entanglement is sharedbetween the motion of a trapped ion and an electromagnetic cavity mode, a so-called ‘hybrid’configuration. We prove the feasibility of the proposal in a platform consisting of a trapped ionexcited to its circular-Rydberg-state manifold, coupled to the modes of a high-Q microwave cavity.This compact hybrid architecture has the advantage that it can couple to signals of very differentnature, which modify either the ion’s motion or the cavity modes. Moreover, the exact same setupcan be used right after the state-preparation phase to implement the interferometer required forquantum metrology.

Field theory of monochromatic optical beams II. Classical and quantum paraxial fields

Andrea Aiello

This work is the second part of an investigation aiming at the study of optical wave equations from a field-theoretic point of view. Here, we study classical and quantum aspects of scalar fields satisfying the paraxial wave equation. First, we determine conservation laws for energy, linear and angular momentum of paraxial fields in a classical context. Then, we proceed with the quantization of the field. Finally, we compare our result with the traditional ones.

Field theory of monochromatic optical beams I. classical fields

Andrea Aiello

We study monochromatic, scalar solutions of the Helmholtz and paraxial wave equations from a field-theoretic point of view. We introduce appropriate time-independent Lagrangian densities for which the Euler-Lagrange equations reproduces either Helmholtz and paraxial wave equations with the $z$-coordinate, associated with the main direction of propagation of the fields, playing the same role of time in standard Lagrangian theory. For both Helmholtz and paraxial scalar fields, we calculate the canonical energy-momentum tensor and determine the continuity equations relating ``energy'' and ``momentum'' of the fields. Eventually, the reduction of the Helmholtz wave equation to a useful first-order Dirac form, is presented. This work sheds some light on the intriguing and not so acknowledged connections between angular spectrum representation of optical wavefields, cosmological models and physics of black holes.

Quantum state transfer via acoustic edge states in a 2D optomechanical array

Marc-Antoine Lemonde, Vittorio Peano, Peter Rabl, Dimitris G Angelakis

We propose a novel hybrid platform where solid-state spin qubits are coupled to the acoustic modes ofa two-dimensional array of optomechanical(OM)nano cavities. Previous studies of coupled OMcavities have shown that in the presence of strong optical drivingfields, the interplay between thephoton-phonon interaction and their respective inter-cavity hopping allows the generation oftopological phases of sound and light. In particular, the mechanical modes can enter a Chern insulatorphase where the time-reversal symmetry is broken. In this context, we exploit the robust acoustic edgestates as a chiral phononic waveguide and describe a state transfer protocol between spin qubitslocated in distant cavities. We analyze the performance of this protocol as a function of the relevantsystem parameters and show that a high-fidelity and purely unidirectional quantum state transfer canbe implemented under experimentally realistic conditions. As a specific example, we discuss theimplementation of such topological quantum networks in diamond based OM crystals where pointdefects such as silicon-vacancy centers couple to the chiral acoustic channel via strain.

Collisional quantum thermometry

Stella Seah, Stefan Nimmrichter, Daniel Grimmer, Jader P. Santos, Valerio Scarini, Gabriel T. Landi

We introduce a general framework for thermometry based on collisional models, where ancillas probe thetemperature of the environment through an intermediary system. This allows for the generation of correlatedancillas even if they are initially independent. Using tools from parameter estimation theory, we show through aminimal qubit model that individual ancillas can already outperform the thermal Cramer-Rao bound. In addition,when probed collectively, these ancillas may exhibit superlinear scalings of the Fisher information, especiallyfor weak system-ancilla interactions. Our approach sets forth the notion of metrology in a sequential interactionssetting, and may inspire further advances in quantum thermometry.

Almost thermal operations: inhomogeneous reservoirs

Angeline Shu, Yu Cai, Stella Seah, Stefan Nimmrichter, Valerio Scarini

The resource theory of thermal operations explains the state transformations that are possible ina very specific thermodynamic setting: there is only one thermal bath, auxiliary systems can onlybe in the corresponding thermal state (free states), and the interaction must commute with the freeHamiltonian (free operation). In this paper we study the mildest deviation: the reservoir particlesare subject to inhomogeneities, either in the local temperature (introducing resource states) or inthe local Hamiltonian (generating a resource operation). For small inhomogeneities, the two modelsgenerate the same channel and thus the same state transformations. However, their thermodynamicsis significantly different when it comes to work generation or to the interpretation of the “secondlaws of thermal operations”.

Accelerated adiabatic quantum gates: optimizing speed versus robustness

Hugo Ribeiro, Aashish A. Clerk

We develop new protocols for high-fidelity single qubit gates that exploit and extend theoretical ideas for accelerated adiabatic evolution. Our protocols are compatible with qubit architectures with highly isolated logical states, where traditional approaches are problematic; a prime example are superconducting fluxonium qubits. By using an accelerated adiabatic protocol we can enforce the desired adiabatic evolution while having gate times that are comparable to the inverse adiabatic energy gap (a scale that is ultimately set by the amount of power used in the control pulses). By modelling the effects of decoherence, we explore the tradeoff between speed and robustness that is inherent to shortcuts-to-adiabaticity approaches.

Macroscopicity of quantum mechanical superposition tests via hypothesis falsification

Björn Schrinski, Stefan Nimmrichter, Benjamin A. Stickler, Klaus Hornberger

We establish an objective scheme to determine the macroscopicity of quantum mechanical super-position tests, which is based on the Bayesian hypothesis falsification of macrorealistic modificationsof quantum theory. The measure uses the raw data gathered in an experiment, taking into accountall measurement uncertainties, and can be used to directly assess any conceivable quantum test.We determine the resulting macroscopicity for three recent tests of quantum physics: double-wellinterference of Bose-Einstein condensates, Leggett-Garg tests with atomic random walks, and en-tanglement generation and read-out of nanomechanical oscillators.

Kommt der künstliche Physiker?

Thomas Fösel, Florian Marquardt, Talitha Weiß

2016 besiegte das Computerprogramm AlphaGo einen der weltbesten Go‐Spieler. Damit rückte eine technische Revolution ins Bewusstsein der breiten Öffentlichkeit: Selbstlernende künstliche neuronale Netze sind zunehmend in der Lage, Menschen bei bestimmten Aufgaben zu schlagen. Zahlreiche Anwendungen, von der Bilderkennung bis zur automatischen Übersetzung, revolutionieren momentan die Technik – und auch Physik und Astronomie bieten viele potenzielle Einsatzmöglichkeiten. In der Astronomie können neuronale Netze das automatische Klassifizieren von Galaxien übernehmen. In der Statistischen Physik sind Magnetisierungsmuster von ferro‐ oder paramagnetischen Zuständen ein Beispiel. Ein anderes Beispiel ist die Suche nach Quantenfehler‐Korrekturstrategien in zukünftigen Quantencomputern. Unsere Forschung konnte zeigen, dass künstliche neuronale Netze mittels Reinforcement Learning hier bereits eigenständig neue Korrekturstrategien entwickeln können.

Perturbation theory of optical resonances of deformed dielectric spheres

Andrea Aiello, Jack G. E. Harris, Florian Marquardt

We analyze the optical resonances of a dielectric sphere whose surface has been slightly deformed in an arbitrary way. Setting up a perturbation series up to second order, we derive both the frequency shifts and modified linewidths. Our theory is applicable, for example, to freely levitated liquid drops or solid spheres, which are deformed by thermal surface vibrations, centrifugal forces or arbitrary surface waves. A dielectric sphere is effectively an open system whose description requires the introduction of non-Hermitian operators characterized by complex eigenvalues and not normalizable eigenfunctions. We avoid these difficulties using the Kapur-Peierls formalism which enables us to extend the popular Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory to the case of electromagnetic Debye's potentials describing the light fields inside and outside the near-spherical dielectric object. We find analytical formulas, valid within certain limits, for the deformation-induced first- and second-order corrections to the central frequency and bandwidth of a resonance. As an application of our method, we compare our results with preexisting ones finding full agreement.

Non-exponential decay of a giant artificial atom

Gustav Andersson, Baladitya Suri, Lingzhen Guo, Thomas Aref, Per Delsing

In quantum optics, light–matter interaction has conventionally been studied using small atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields with wavelength several orders of magnitude larger than the atomic dimensions1,2. In contrast, here we experimentally demonstrate the vastly different ‘giant atom’ regime, where an artificial atom interacts with acoustic fields with wavelength several orders of magnitude smaller than the atomic dimensions. This is achieved by coupling a superconducting qubit3 to surface acoustic waves at two points with separation on the order of 100 wavelengths. This approach is comparable to controlling the radiation of an atom by attaching it to an antenna. The slow velocity of sound leads to a significant internal time-delay for the field to propagate across the giant atom, giving rise to non-Markovian dynamics4. We demonstrate the non-Markovian character of the giant atom in the frequency spectrum as well as non-exponential relaxation in the time domain.

Dynamically Generated Synthetic Electric Fields for Photons

Petr Zapletal, Stefan Walter, Florian Marquardt

Static synthetic magnetic fields give rise to phenomena including the Lorentz force and the quantum Hall effect even for neutral particles, and they have by now been implemented in a variety of physical systems. Moving towards fully dynamical synthetic gauge fields allows, in addition, for backaction of the particles' motion onto the field. If this results in a time-dependent vector potential, conventional electromagnetism predicts the generation of an electric field. Here, we show how synthetic electric fields for photons arise self-consistently due to the nonlinear dynamics in a driven system. Our analysis is based on optomechanical arrays, where dynamical gauge fields arise naturally from phonon-assisted photon tunneling. We study open, one-dimensional arrays, where synthetic magnetic fields are absent. However, we show that synthetic electric fields can be generated dynamically, which, importantly, suppress photon transport in the array. The generation of these fields depends on the direction of photon propagation, leading to a novel mechanism for a photon diode, inducing nonlinear nonreciprocal transport via dynamical synthetic gauge fields.

Resonance inversion in a superconducting cavity coupled to artificial atoms and a microwave background

Juha Leppäkangas, Jan David Brehm, Ping Yang, Lingzhen Guo, Michael Marthaler, Alexey V. Ustinov, Martin Weides

We demonstrate how heating of an environment can invert the line shape of a driven cavity. We consider a superconducting coplanar cavity coupled to multiple artificial atoms. The measured cavity transmission is characterized by Fano-type resonances with a shape that is continuously tunable by bias current through nearby (magnetic flux) control lines. In particular, the same dispersive shift of the microwave cavity can be observed as a peak or a dip. We find that this Fano-peak inversion is possible due to a tunable interference between a microwave transmission through a background, with reactive and dissipative properties, and through the cavity, affected by bias-current induced heating. The background transmission occurs due to crosstalk with the multiple control lines. We show how such background can be accounted for by a Jaynes- or Tavis-Cummings model with modified boundary conditions between the cavity and transmission-line microwave fields. A dip emerges when cavity transmission is comparable with background transmission and dissipation. We find generally that resonance positions determine system energy levels, whereas resonance shapes give information on system fluctuations and dissipation.

Initialisation of single spin dressed states using shortcuts to adiabaticity

Johannes Kölbl, Arne Barfuss, Mark Kasperczyk, Lucas Thiel, Aashish Clerk, Hugo Ribeiro, Patrick Maletinsky

We demonstrate the use of shortcuts to adiabaticity protocols for initialisation, readout, and coherent control of dressed states generated by closed-contour, coherent driving of a single spin. Such dressed states have recently been shown to exhibit efficient coherence protection, beyond what their two-level counterparts can offer. Our state transfer protocols yield a transfer fidelity of ~ 99.4(2) % while accelerating the transfer speed by a factor of 2.6 compared to the adiabatic approach. We show bi-directionality of the accelerated state transfer, which we employ for direct dressed state population readout after coherent manipulation in the dressed state manifold. Our results enable direct and efficient access to coherence-protected dressed states of individual spins and thereby offer attractive avenues for applications in quantum information processing or quantum sensing.

Classically Entangled Light

Andrew Forbes, Andrea Aiello, Bienvenu Ndagano

The concept of entanglement is so synonymous with quantum mechanics that the prefix “quantum” is often deemed unnecessary; there is after all only quantum entanglement. But the hallmark of entangled quantum states is nonseparability, a property that is not unique to the quantum world. On the contrary, nonseparability appears in many physical systems, and pertinently, in classical vector states of light: classical entanglement? Here we outline the concept of classical entanglement, highlight where it may be found, how to control and exploit it, and discuss the similarities and differences between quantum and classical entangled systems. Intriguingly, we show that quantum tools may be applied to classical systems, and likewise that classical light may be used in quantum processes. While we mostly use vectorial structured light throughout the text as our example of choice, we make it clear that the concepts outlined here may be extended beyond this with little effort, which we showcase with a few selected case studies.

Cavity optomagnonics with magnetic textures: coupling a magnetic vortex to light

Jasmin Graf, Hannes Pfeifer, Florian Marquardt, Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy

Optomagnonic systems, where light couples coherently to collective excitations in magnetically ordered solids, are currently of high interest due to their potential for quantum information processing platforms at the nanoscale. Efforts so far, both at the experimental and theoretical level, have focused on systems with a homogeneous magnetic background. A unique feature in optomagnonics is however the possibility of coupling light to spin excitations on top of magnetic textures. We propose a cavity-optomagnonic system with a non homogeneous magnetic ground state, namely a vortex in a magnetic microdisk. In particular we study the coupling between optical whispering gallery modes to magnon modes localized at the vortex. We show that the optomagnonic coupling has a rich spatial structure and that it can be tuned by an externally applied magnetic field. Our results predict cooperativities at maximum photon density of the order of C≈10−2 by proper engineering of these structures.

suggested by editors

Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks for Quantum Feedback

Thomas Fösel, Petru Tighineanu, Talitha Weiss, Florian Marquardt

Artificial neural networks are revolutionizing science. While the most prevalent technique involves supervised training on queries with a known correct answer, more advanced challenges often require discovering answers autonomously. In reinforcement learning, control strategies are improved according to a reward function. The power of this approach has been highlighted by spectactular recent successes, such as playing Go. So far, it has remained an open question whether neural-network-based reinforcement learning can be successfully applied in physics. Here, we show how to use this method for finding quantum feedback schemes, where a network-based "agent" interacts with and occasionally decides to measure a quantum system. We illustrate the utility by finding gate sequences that preserve the quantum information stored in a small collection of qubits against noise. This specific application will help to find hardware-adapted feedback schemes for small quantum modules while demonstrating more generally the promise of neural-network based reinforcement learning in physics.

Quantum nondemolition measurement of mechanical motion quanta

Luca Dellantonio, Oleksandr Kyriienko, Florian Marquardt, Anders S. Sørensen

The fields of optomechanics and electromechanics have facilitated numerous advances in the areas of precision measurement and sensing, ultimately driving the studies of mechanical systems into the quantum regime. To date, however, the quantization of the mechanical motion and the associated quantum jumps between phonon states remains elusive. For optomechanical systems, the coupling to the environment was shown to make the detection of the mechanical mode occupation difficult, typically requiring the single-photon strong-coupling regime. Here, we propose and analyse an electromechanical setup, which allows us to overcome this limitation and resolve the energy levels of a mechanical oscillator. We found that the heating of the membrane, caused by the interaction with the environment and unwanted couplings, can be suppressed for carefully designed electromechanical systems. The results suggest that phonon number measurement is within reach for modern electromechanical setups.

Phonon Decoherence of Quantum Dots in Photonic Structures: Broadening of the Zero-Phonon Line and the Role of Dimensionality

Petru Tighineanu, C. L. Dreeßen, C. Flindt, P. Lodahl, A. S. Sorensen

We develop a general microscopic theory describing the phonon decoherence of quantum dots and indistinguishability of the emitted photons in photonic structures. The coherence is found to depend fundamentally on the dimensionality of the structure resulting in vastly different performance for quantum dots embedded in a nanocavity (0D), waveguide (1D), slab (2D), or bulk medium (3D). In bulk, we find a striking temperature dependence of the dephasing rate scaling as T11 implying that phonons are effectively “frozen out” for T≲4  K. The phonon density of states is strongly modified in 1D and 2D structures leading to a linear temperature scaling for the dephasing strength. The resulting impact on the photon indistinguishability can be important even at sub-Kelvin temperatures. Our findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental limits to photon indistinguishability in photonic structures.

Light polarization measurements in tests of macrorealism

Eugenio Roldan, Johannes Kofler, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch

According to the world view of macrorealism, the properties of a given system exist prior to and independent of measurement, which is incompatible with quantum mechanics. Leggett and Garg put forward a practical criterion capable of identifying violations of macrorealism, and so far experiments performed on microscopic and mesoscopic systems have always agreed with quantum mechanics. However, a macrorealist can always assign the cause of such violations to the perturbation that measurements effect on such small systems, and hence a definitive test would require using noninvasive measurements, preferably on macroscopic objects, where such measurements seem more plausible. However, the generation of truly macroscopic quantum superposition states capable of violating macrorealism remains a big challenge. In this work we propose a setup that makes use of measurements on the polarization of light, a property that has been extensively manipulated both in classical and quantum contexts, hence establishing the perfect link between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds. In particular, we use Leggett-Garg inequalities and the criterion of no signaling in time to study the macrorealistic character of light polarization for different kinds of measurements, in particular with different degrees of coarse graining. Our proposal is noninvasive for coherent input states by construction. We show for states with well-defined photon number in two orthogonal polarization modes, that there always exists a way of making the measurement sufficiently coarse grained so that a violation of macrorealism becomes arbitrarily small, while sufficiently sharp measurements can always lead to a significant violation.

Quantum theory of continuum optomechanics

Peter Rakich, Florian Marquardt

We present the basic ingredients of continuum optomechanics, i.e. the suitable extension of cavity-optomechanical concepts to the interaction of photons and phonons in an extended waveguide. We introduce a real-space picture and argue which coupling terms may arise in leading order in the spatial derivatives. This picture allows us to discuss quantum noise, dissipation, and the correct boundary conditions at the waveguide entrance. The connections both to optomechanical arrays as well as to the theory of Brillouin scattering in waveguides are highlighted. Among other examples, we analyze the 'strong coupling regime' of continuum optomechanics that may be accessible in future experiments.

Active locking and entanglement in type II optical parametric oscillators

Joaquín Ruiz-Rivas, Germán J. de Valcarcel, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch

Type II optical parametric oscillators are amongst the highest-quality sources of quantum-correlated light. In particular, when pumped above threshold, such devices generate a pair of bright orthogonally-polarized beams with strong continuous-variable entanglement. However, these sources are of limited practical use, because the entangled beams emerge with different frequencies and a diffusing phase difference. It has been proven that the use of an internal wave-plate coupling the modes with orthogonal polarization is capable of locking the frequencies of the emerging beams to half the pump frequency, as well as reducing the phase-difference diffusion, at the expense of reducing the entanglement levels. In this work we characterize theoretically an alternative locking mechanism: the injection of a laser at half the pump frequency. Apart from being less invasive, this method should allow for an easier real-time experimental control. We show that such an injection is capable of generating the desired phase locking between the emerging beams, while still allowing for large levels of entanglement. Moreover, we find an additional region of the parameter space (at relatively large injections) where a mode with well defined polarization is in a highly amplitude-squeezed state.

Snowflake phononic topological insulator at the nanoscale

Christian Brendel, Vittorio Peano, Oskar Painter, Florian Marquardt

We show how the snowflake phononic crystal structure, which recently has been realized experimentally, can be turned into a topological insulator for mechanical waves. This idea, based purely on simple geometrical modifications, could be readily implemented on the nanoscale.

suggested by editors

Scalable Ion Trap Architecture for Universal Quantum Computation by Collisions

Pengfei Liang, Lingzhen Guo

We propose a scalable ion trap architecture for universal quantum computation, which is composed of an array of ion traps with one ion confined in each trap. The neighboring traps are designed capable of merging into one single trap. The universal two-qubit SWAP−−−−−−√ gate is realized by direct collision of two neighboring ions in the merged trap, which induces an effective spin-spin interaction between two ions. We find that the collision-induced spin-spin interaction decreases with the third power of two ions' trapping distance. Even with a 200 μm trapping distance between atomic ions in Paul traps, it is still possible to realize a two-qubit gate operation with speed in 0.1 kHz regime. The speed can be further increased up into 0.1 MHz regime using electrons with 10 mm trapping distance in Penning traps.

Cavity optomechanics in a levitated helium drop

L. Childress, M. P. Schmidt, A. D. Kashkanova, C. D. Brown, G. I. Harris, Andrea Aiello, Florian Marquardt, J. G. E. Harris

We describe a proposal for a type of optomechanical system based on a drop of liquid helium that ismagnetically levitated in vacuum. In the proposed device, the drop would serve three roles: its optical whispering-gallery modes would provide the optical cavity, its surface vibrations would constitute the mechanical element, and evaporation of He atoms from its surface would provide continuous refrigeration. We analyze the feasibility of such a system in light of previous experimental demonstrations of its essential components: magnetic levitation of mm-scale and cm-scale drops of liquid He, evaporative cooling of He droplets in vacuum, and coupling to high-quality optical whispering-gallery modes in a wide range of liquids. We find that the combination of these features could result in a device that approaches the single-photon strong-coupling regime, due to the high optical quality factors attainable at low temperatures. Moreover, the system offers a unique opportunity to use optical techniques to study the motion of a superfluid that is freely levitating in vacuum (in the case of He-4). Alternatively, for a normal fluid drop of He-3, we propose to exploit the coupling between the drop's rotations and vibrations to perform quantum nondemolition measurements of angular momentum.

L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields

Thomas Fösel, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt

Topology has appeared in different physical contexts. The most prominent application is topologically protected edge transport in condensed matter physics. The Chern number, the topological invariant of gapped Bloch Hamiltonians, is an important quantity in this field. Another example of topology, in polarization physics, are polarization singularities, called L lines and C points. By establishing a connection between these two theories, we develop a novel technique to visualize and potentially measure the Chern number: it can be expressed either as the winding of the polarization azimuth along L lines in reciprocal space, or in terms of the handedness and the index of the C points. For mechanical systems, this is directly connected to the visible motion patterns.

General Linearized Theory of Quantum Fluctuations around Arbitrary Limit Cycles

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Talitha Weiss, Stefan Walter, Germán J. de Valcarcel

The theory of Gaussian quantum fluctuations around classical steady states in nonlinear quantum-optical systems (also known as standard linearization) is a cornerstone for the analysis of such systems. Its simplicity, together with its accuracy far from critical points or situations where the nonlinearity reaches the strong coupling regime, has turned it into a widespread technique, being the first method of choice in most works on the subject. However, such a technique finds strong practical and conceptual complications when one tries to apply it to situations in which the classical long-time solution is time dependent, a most prominent example being spontaneous limit-cycle formation. Here, we introduce a linearization scheme adapted to such situations, using the driven Van der Pol oscillator as a test bed for the method, which allows us to compare it with full numerical simulations. On a conceptual level, the scheme relies on the connection between the emergence of limit cycles and the spontaneous breaking of the symmetry under temporal translations. On the practical side, the method keeps the simplicity and linear scaling with the size of the problem (number of modes) characteristic of standard linearization, making it applicable to large (many-body) systems.

Unraveling beam self-healing

Andrea Aiello, Girish S. Agarwal, Martin Paur, Bohumil Stoklasa, Zdenek Hradil, Jaroslav Rehacek, Pablo de la Hoz, Gerd Leuchs, Luis L. Sanchez-Soto

We show that, contrary to popular belief, diffraction-free beams not only may reconstruct themselves after hitting an opaque obstacle but also, for example, Gaussian beams. We unravel the mathematics and the physics underlying the self-reconstruction mechanism and we provide for a novel definition for the minimum reconstruction distance beyond geometric optics, which is in principle applicable to any optical beam that admits an angular spectrum representation. Moreover, we propose to quantify the self-reconstruction ability of a beam via a newly established degree of self-healing. This is defined via a comparison between the amplitudes, as opposite to intensities, of the original beam and the obstructed one. Such comparison is experimentally accomplished by tailoring an innovative experimental technique based upon Shack-Hartmann wave front reconstruction. We believe that these results can open new avenues in this field. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America

From Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling to explosive desynchronization in arrays of limit-cycle oscillators

Roland Lauter, Aditi Mitra, Florian Marquardt

Phase oscillator lattices subject to noise are one of the most fundamental systems in nonequilibrium physics. We have discovered a dynamical transition which has a significant impact on the synchronization dynamics in such lattices, as it leads to an explosive increase of the phase diffusion rate by orders of magnitude. Our analysis is based on the widely applicable Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model, with local couplings between oscillators. For one-dimensional lattices, we observe the universal evolution of the phase spread that is suggested by a connection to the theory of surface growth, as described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model. Moreover, we are able to explain the dynamical transition both in one and two dimensions by connecting it to an apparent finite-time singularity in a related KPZ lattice model. Our findings have direct consequences for the frequency stability of coupled oscillator lattices.Phase oscillator lattices subject to noise are one of the most fundamental systems in nonequilibrium physics. We have discovered a dynamical transition which has a significant impact on the synchronization dynamics in such lattices, as it leads to an explosive increase of the phase diffusion rate by orders of magnitude. Our analysis is based on the widely applicable Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model, with local couplings between oscillators. For one-dimensional lattices, we observe the universal evolution of the phase spread that is suggested by a connection to the theory of surface growth, as described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model. Moreover, we are able to explain the dynamical transition both in one and two dimensions by connecting it to an apparent finite-time singularity in a related KPZ lattice model. Our findings have direct consequences for the frequency stability of coupled oscillator lattices.

Synchronization of an optomechanical system to an external drive

Ehud Amitai, Niels Loerch, Andreas Nunnenkamp, Stefan Walter, Christoph Bruder

Optomechanical systems driven by an effective blue-detuned laser can exhibit self-sustained oscillations of the mechanical oscillator. These self-oscillations are a prerequisite for the observation of synchronization. Here, we study the synchronization of the mechanical oscillations to an external reference drive. We study two cases of reference drives: (1) an additional laser applied to the optical cavity; (2) a mechanical drive applied directly to the mechanical oscillator. Starting from a master equation description, we derive a microscopic Adler equation for both cases, valid in the classical regime in which the quantum shot noise of the mechanical self-oscillator does not play a role. Furthermore, we numerically show that, in both cases, synchronization arises also in the quantum regime. The optomechanical system is therefore a good candidate for the study of quantum synchronization.

Quantum-coherent phase oscillations in synchronization

Talitha Weiss, Stefan Walter, Florian Marquardt

Recently, several studies have investigated synchronization in quantum-mechanical limit-cycle oscillators. However, the quantum nature of these systems remained partially hidden, since the dynamics of the oscillator's phase was overdamped and therefore incoherent. We show that there exist regimes of underdamped and even quantum-coherent phase motion, opening up new possibilities to study quantum synchronization dynamics. To this end, we investigate the Van der Pol oscillator (a paradigm for a self-oscillating system) synchronized to an external drive. We derive an effective quantum model which fully describes the regime of underdamped phase motion and additionally allows us to identify the quality of quantum coherence. Finally, we identify quantum limit cycles of the phase itself.

Many-Particle Dephasing after a Quench

Thomas Kiendl, Florian Marquardt

After a quench in a quantum many-body system, expectation values tend to relax towards long-time averages. However, temporal fluctuations remain in the long-time limit, and it is crucial to study the suppression of these fluctuations with increasing system size. The particularly important case of nonintegrable models has been addressed so far only by numerics and conjectures based on analytical bounds. In this work, we are able to derive analytical predictions for the temporal fluctuations in a nonintegrable model (the transverse Ising chain with extra terms). Our results are based on identifying a dynamical regime of "many-particle dephasing,"where quasiparticles do not yet relax but fluctuations are nonetheless suppressed exponentially by weak integrability breaking.

Pseudomagnetic fields for sound at the nanoscale

Christian Brendel, Vittorio Peano, Oskar J. Painter, Florian Marquardt

There is a growing effort in creating chiral transport of sound waves. However, most approaches so far have been confined to the macroscopic scale. Here, we propose an approach suitable to the nanoscale that is based on pseudomagnetic fields. These pseudomagnetic fields for sound waves are the analogue of what electrons experience in strained graphene. In our proposal, they are created by simple geometrical modifications of an existing and experimentally proven phononic crystal design, the snowflake crystal. This platform is robust, scalable, and well-suited for a variety of excitation and readout mechanisms, among them optomechanical approaches.

Generalized non-reciprocity in an optomechanical circuit via synthetic magnetism and reservoir engineering

Kejie Fang, Jie Luo, Anja Metelmann, Matthew H. Matheny, Florian Marquardt, Aashish A. Clerk, Oskar Painter

Synthetic magnetism has been used to control charge neutral excitations for applications ranging from classical beam steering to quantum simulation. In optomechanics, radiation-pressure-induced parametric coupling between optical (photon) and mechanical (phonon) excitations may be used to break time-reversal symmetry, providing the prerequisite for synthetic magnetism. Here we design and fabricate a silicon optomechanical circuit with both optical and mechanical connectivity between two optomechanical cavities. Driving the two cavities with phase-correlated laser light results in a synthetic magnetic flux, which, in combination with dissipative coupling to the mechanical bath, leads to non-reciprocal transport of photons with 35 dB of isolation. Additionally, optical pumping with blue-detuned light manifests as a particle non-conserving interaction between photons and phonons, resulting in directional optical amplification of 12 dB in the isolator through-direction. These results suggest the possibility of using optomechanical circuits to create a more general class of non-reciprocal optical devices, and further, to enable new topological phases for both light and sound on a microchip.

Anderson localization of composite excitations in disordered optomechanical arrays

Thales Figueiredo Roque, Vittorio Peano, Oleg M. Yevtushenko, Florian Marquardt

Optomechanical (OMA) arrays are a promising future platform for studies of transport, many-body dynamics, quantum control and topological effects in systems of coupled photon and phonon modes. We introduce disordered OMA arrays, focusing on features of Anderson localization of hybrid photon-phonon excitations. It turns out that these represent a unique disordered system, where basic parameters can be easily controlled by varying the frequency and the amplitude of an external laser field. We show that the two-species setting leads to a non-trivial frequency dependence of the localization length for intermediate laser intensities. This could serve as a convincing evidence of localization in a non-equilibrium dissipative situation.

Noncritical generation of nonclassical frequency combs via spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Giuseppe Patera, Germán J. de Valcarcel

Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (SPOPOs) are optical cavities driven by mode-locked lasers, and containing a nonlinear crystal capable of down-converting a frequency comb to lower frequencies. SPOPOs have received a lot of attention lately because their intrinsic multimode nature makes them compact sources of quantum correlated light with promising applications in modern quantum information technologies. In this work we show that SPOPOs are also capable of accessing the challenging and interesting regime where spontaneous symmetry breaking confers strong nonclassical properties to the emitted light, which has eluded experimental observation so far. Apart from opening the possibility of studying experimentally this elusive regime of dissipative phase transitions, our predictions will have a practical impact, since we show that spontaneous symmetry breaking provides a specific spatiotemporal mode with large quadrature squeezing for any value of the system parameters, turning SPOPOs into robust sources of highly nonclassical light above threshold.

Linear and angular momenta in tightly focused vortex segmented beams of light

Martin Neugebauer, Andrea Aiello, Peter Banzer

We investigate the linear momentum density of light, which can be decomposed into spin and orbital parts, in the complex three-dimensional field distributions of tightly focused vortex segmented beams. The chosen angular spectrum exhibits two spatially separated vortices of opposite charge and orthogonal circular polarization to generate phase vortices in a meridional plane of observation. In the vicinity of those vortices, regions of negative orbital linear momentum occur. Besides these phase vortices, the occurrence of transverse orbital angular momentum manifests in a vortex charge-dependent relative shift of the energy density and linear momentum density.

Classical dynamical gauge fields in optomechanics

Stefan Walter, Florian Marquardt

Artificial gauge fields for neutral particles such as photons, recently attracted a lot of attention in various fields ranging from photonic crystals to ultracold atoms in optical lattices to optomechanical arrays. Here we point out that, among all implementations of gauge fields, the optomechanical setting allows for the most natural extension where the gauge field becomes dynamical. The mechanical oscillation phases determine the effective artificial magnetic field for the photons, and once these phases are allowed to evolve, they respond to the flow of photons in the structure. We discuss a simple three-site model where we identify four different regimes of the gauge-field dynamics. Furthermore, we extend the discussion to a two-dimensional lattice. Our proposed scheme could for instance be implemented using optomechanical crystals.

Topological Quantum Fluctuations and Traveling Wave Amplifiers

Vittorio Peano, Martin Houde, Florian Marquardt, Aashish A. Clerk

It is now well established that photonic systems can exhibit topological energy bands. Similar to their electronic counterparts, this leads to the formation of chiral edge modes which can be used to transmit light in a manner that is protected against backscattering. While it is understood how classical signals can propagate under these conditions, it is an outstanding important question how the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field get modified in the presence of a topological band structure. We address this challenge by exploring a setting where a nonzero topological invariant guarantees the presence of a parametrically unstable chiral edge mode in a system with boundaries, even though there are no bulk-mode instabilities. We show that one can exploit this to realize a topologically protected, quantum-limited traveling wave parametric amplifier. The device is naturally protected against both internal losses and backscattering; the latter feature is in stark contrast to standard traveling wave amplifiers. This adds a new example to the list of potential quantum devices that profit from topological transport.

Noise-induced transitions in optomechanical synchronization

Talitha Weiss, Andreas Kronwald, Florian Marquardt

We study how quantum and thermal noise affects synchronization of two optomechanical limit-cycle oscillators. Classically, in the absence of noise, optomechanical systems tend to synchronize either in-phase or anti-phase. Taking into account the fundamental quantum noise, we find a regime where fluctuations drive transitions between these classical synchronization states. We investigate how this 'mixed' synchronization regime emerges from the noiseless system by studying the classical-to-quantum crossover and we show how the time scales of the transitions vary with the effective noise strength. In addition, we compare the effects of thermal noise to the effects of quantum noise.

Coupled spin-light dynamics in cavity optomagnonics

Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy, Hong X. Tang, Florian Marquardt

Experiments during the past 2 years have shown strong resonant photon-magnon coupling in microwave cavities, while coupling in the optical regime was demonstrated very recently for the first time. Unlike with microwaves, the coupling in optical cavities is parametric, akin to optomechanical systems. This line of research promises to evolve into a new field of optomagnonics, aimed at the coherent manipulation of elementary magnetic excitations in solid-state systems by optical means. In this work we derive the microscopic optomagnonic Hamiltonian. In the linear regime the system reduces to the well-known optomechanical case, with remarkably large coupling. Going beyond that, we study the optically induced nonlinear classical dynamics of a macrospin. In the fast-cavity regime we obtain an effective equation of motion for the spin and show that the light field induces a dissipative term reminiscent of Gilbert damping. The induced dissipation coefficient, however, can change sign on the Bloch sphere, giving rise to self-sustained oscillations. When the full dynamics of the system is considered, the system can enter a chaotic regime by successive period doubling of the oscillations.

Topological phase transitions and chiral inelastic transport induced by the squeezing of light

Vittorio Peano, Martin Houde, Christian Brendel, Florian Marquardt, Aashish A. Clerk

There is enormous interest in engineering topological photonic systems. Despite intense activity, most works on topological photonic states (and more generally bosonic states) amount in the end to replicating a well-known fermionic single-particle Hamiltonian. Here we show how the squeezing of light can lead to the formation of qualitatively new kinds of topological states. Such states are characterized by non-trivial Chern numbers, and exhibit protected edge modes, which give rise to chiral elastic and inelastic photon transport. These topological bosonic states are not equivalent to their fermionic (topological superconductor) counterparts and, in addition, cannot be mapped by a local transformation onto topological states found in particle-conserving models. They thus represent a new type of topological system. We study this physics in detail in the case of a kagome lattice model, and discuss possible realizations using nonlinear photonic crystals or superconducting circuits.

Entanglement rate for Gaussian continuous variable beams

Zhi Jiao Deng, Steven J. M. Habraken, Florian Marquardt

We derive a general expression that quantifies the total entanglement production rate in continuous variable systems, where a source emits two entangled Gaussian beams with arbitrary correlators. This expression is especially useful for situations where the source emits an arbitrary frequency spectrum, e.g. when cavities are involved. To exemplify its meaning and potential, we apply it to a four-mode optomechanical setup that enables the simultaneous up- and down-conversion of photons from a drive laser into entangled photon pairs. This setup is efficient in that both the drive and the optomechanical up- and down-conversion can be fully resonant.

Quantum Nondemolition Measurement of a Quantum Squeezed State Beyond the 3 dB Limit

C. U. Lei, A. J. Weinstein, J. Suh, E. E. Wollman, A. Kronwald, F. Marquardt, A. A. Clerk, K. C. Schwab

We use a reservoir engineering technique based on two-tone driving to generate and stabilize a quantum squeezed state of a micron-scale mechanical oscillator in a microwave optomechanical system. Using an independent backaction-evading measurement to directly quantify the squeezing, we observe 4.7±0.9  dB of squeezing below the zero-point level surpassing the 3 dB limit of standard parametric squeezing techniques. Our measurements also reveal evidence for an additional mechanical parametric effect. The interplay between this effect and the optomechanical interaction enhances the amount of squeezing obtained in the experiment.