Hamiltonian Engineering in Quantum Spin Networks

Abstract

Quantum simulation presents itself as one of the biggest advantages of developing quantum computers. Simulating a quantum system classically is almost impossible beyond a certain system size whereas a controllable quantum system inherently has the resources and computing space to simulate another system. Analog quantum simulation is one of the ways of quantum simulation through which a known system mimics an unknown system. A key aspect of this is the ability to generate the target Hamiltonian using control operations which is referred to as Hamiltonian engineering. One way of doing this is to apply pulse sequences over a length of time such that the average Hamiltonian over this period is the desired one. In this thesis, we discuss the method of filtered Hamiltonian engineering which works in a similar fashion. Using this technique, we create a star topology from a general network of spins. Quantum communication between two parties is an important task for its applications in information theory as well as for its use in a quantum computer. A typical solution to this is using teleportation through the means of shared entangled qubits. Teleportation is not ideal for short-range communication such as between two units in a quantum computer. It has been shown that information can be transported from one node of a quantum spin network to another by natural evolution of the system over time. Such networks are better suited for solid-state based computing architectures as well as for short-range communication. The Hamiltonian that permits such transport however places stringent requirements on the parameters of the network. While individual control of spins cannot be avoided in most cases, excess control can introduce noise. In this thesis, we work on a few models of spin networks that permit information transport with minimal requirements on the parameters of the network.