arXiv subjects

C. T. Schmiegelow

Publications and source records attributed to C. T. Schmiegelow.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Challenging local realism with human choices

A Bell test is a randomized trial that compares experimental observations against the philosophical worldview of local realism. A Bell test requires spatially distributed entanglement, fast and high-efficiency detection and unpredictable measurement settings. Although technology can satisfy the first two of these requirements, the use of physical devices to choose settings in a Bell test involves making assumptions about the physics that one aims to test. Bell himself noted this weakness in using physical setting choices and argued that human `free will' could be used rigorously to ensure unpredictability in Bell tests. Here we report a set of local-realism tests using human choices, which avoids assumptions about predictability in physics. We recruited about 100,000 human participants to play an online video game that incentivizes fast, sustained input of unpredictable selections and illustrates Bell-test methodology. The participants generated 97,347,490 binary choices, which were directed via a scalable web platform to 12 laboratories on five continents, where 13 experiments tested local realism using photons, single atoms, atomic ensembles, and superconducting devices. Over a 12-hour period on 30 November 2016, participants worldwide provided a sustained data flow of over 1,000 bits per second to the experiments, which used different human-generated data to choose each measurement setting. The observed correlations strongly contradict local realism and other realistic positions in bipartite and tripartite scenarios. Project outcomes include closing the `freedom-of-choice loophole' (the possibility that the setting choices are influenced by `hidden variables' to correlate with the particle properties), the utilization of video-game methods for rapid collection of human generated randomness, and the use of networking techniques for global participation in experimental science.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Bessel beams revisited: a generalized scheme to derive optical vortices

The electromagnetic field of optical vortices is in most cases derived from vector and scalar potentials using either a procedure based on the Lorenz or the Coulomb gauge. The former procedure has been typically used to derive paraxial solutions with Laguerre-Gauss radial profiles, while the latter procedure has been used to derive full solutions of the wave equation with Bessel radial profiles. We investigate the differences in the derivation procedures applying each one to both Bessel and Laguerre-Gauss profiles. We show that the electromagnetic fields thus derived differ in the relative strength of electric and magnetic contributions. The new solution that arises from the Lorenz procedure in the case of Bessel beams restores a field symmetry that previous work failed to resolve. Our procedure is further generalized and we find a spectrum of fields beyond the Lorenz and Coulomb gauge types. Finally, we describe a possible experiment to test our findings.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Scalable creation of long-lived multipartite entanglement

We demonstrate the deterministic generation of multipartite entanglement based on scalable methods. Four qubits are encoded in $^{40}$Ca$^+$, stored in a micro-structured segmented Paul trap. These qubits are sequentially entangled by laser-driven pairwise gate operations. Between these, the qubit register is dynamically reconfigured via ion shuttling operations, where ion crystals are separated and merged, and ions are moved in and out of a fixed laser interaction zone. A sequence consisting of three pairwise entangling gates yields a four-ion GHZ state $\vertψ\rangle=\tfrac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\vert 0000\rangle+\vert 1111\rangle\right)$, and full quantum state tomography reveals a Bell state fidelity of 94.4(3)\%. We analyze the decoherence of this state and employ dynamic decoupling on the spatially distributed constituents to maintain 69(5)\% coherence at a storage time of 1.1~seconds.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Entanglement-based dc magnetometry with separated ions

We demonstrate sensing of inhomogeneous dc magnetic fields by employing entangled trapped ions, which are shuttled in a segmented Paul trap. As \textit{sensor states}, we use Bell states of the type $\left|\uparrow\downarrow\right>+\text{e}^{\text{i}φ}\left|\downarrow\uparrow\right>$ encoded in two $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions stored at different locations. Due to the linear Zeeman effect, the relative phase $φ$ serves to measure the magnetic field difference between the constituent locations, while common-mode fluctuations are rejected. Consecutive measurements on sensor states encoded in the $\text{S}_{1/2}$ ground state and in the $\text{D}_{5/2}$ metastable state are used to separate an ac Zeeman shift from the linear dc Zeeman effect. We measure magnetic field differences over distances of up to $6.2~\text{mm}$, with accuracies of around 300~fT, sensitivities down to $12~\text{pT} / \sqrt{\text{Hz}}$, and spatial resolutions down to $10~\text{nm}$. For optimizing the information gain while maintaining a high dynamic range, we implement an algorithm for Bayesian frequency estimation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Measurement of dipole matrix elements with a single trapped ion

We demonstrate a new method for the direct measurement of atomic dipole transition matrix elements based on techniques developed for quantum information purposes. The scheme consists of measuring dispersive and absorptive off-resonant light-ion interactions and is applicable to many atomic species. We determine the dipole matrix element pertaining to the Ca II H line, i.e. the 4$^2$S$_{1/2} \leftrightarrow $ 4$^2$P$_{1/2}$ transition of $^{40}$Ca$^+$, for which we find the value 2.8928(43) ea$_0$. Moreover, the method allows us to deduce the lifetime of the 4$^2$P$_{1/2}$ state to be 6.904(26) ns, which is in agreement with predictions from recent theoretical calculations and resolves a longstanding discrepancy between calculated values and experimental results.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Two-dimensional spectroscopy for the study of ion Coulomb crystals

Ion Coulomb crystals are currently establishing themselves as a highly controllable test-bed for mesoscopic systems of statistical mechanics. The detailed experimental interrogation of the dynamics of these crystals however remains an experimental challenge. In this work, we show how to extend the concepts of multi-dimensional nonlinear spectroscopy to the study of the dynamics of ion Coulomb crystals. The scheme we present can be realized with state-of-the-art technology and gives direct access to the dynamics, revealing nonlinear couplings even in the presence of thermal excitations. We illustrate the advantages of our proposal showing how two-dimensional spectroscopy can be used to detect signatures of a structural phase transition of the ion crystal, as well as resonant energy exchange between modes. Furthermore, we demonstrate in these examples how different decoherence mechanisms can be identified.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Dynamics and control of fast ion crystal splitting in segmented Paul traps

We theoretically investigate the process of splitting two-ion crystals in segmented Paul traps, i.e. the structural transition from two ions confined in a common well to ions confined in separate wells. The precise control of this process by application of suitable voltage ramps to the trap segments is non-trivial, as the harmonic confinement transiently vanishes during the process. This makes the ions strongly susceptible to background electric field noise, and to static offset fields in the direction of the trap axis. We analyze the reasons why large energy transfers can occur, which are impulsive acceleration, the presence of residual background fields and enhanced anomalous heating. For the impulsive acceleration, we identify the diabatic and adiabatic regimes, which are characterized by different scaling behavior of the energy transfer with respect to time. We propose a suitable control scheme based on experimentally accessible parameters. Simulations are used to verify both the high sensitivity of the splitting result and the performance of our control scheme. Finally, we analyze the impact of trap geometry parameters on the crystal splitting process.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2007

Entanglement generation resonances in XY chains

We examine the maximum entanglement reached by an initially fully aligned state evolving in an XY Heisenberg spin chain placed in a uniform transverse magnetic field. Both the global entanglement between one qubit and the rest of the chain and the pairwise entanglement between adjacent qubits is analyzed. It is shown that in both cases the maximum is not a monotonous decreasing function of the aligning field, exhibiting instead a resonant behavior for low anisotropies, with pronounced peaks (a total of [n/2] peaks in the global entanglement for an $n$-spin chain), whose width is proportional to the anisotropy and whose height remains finite in the limit of small anisotropy. It is also seen that the maximum pairwise entanglement is not a smooth function of the field even in small finite chains, where it may exhibit narrow peaks above strict plateaus. Explicit analytical results for small chains, as well as general exact results for finite n-spin chains obtained through the Jordan-Wigner mapping, are discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Generando entrelazamiento en cadenas XY - (Generating entanglement in XY chains)

Se estudia en este trabajo la capacidad de generar entrelazamiento de una cadena de espines con acoplamiento de Heisenberg XY y un campo magnetico uniforme a partir de un estado inicial en el que los espines estan completamente alineados. Se encuentra que la capacidad de generar estados entrelazados no muestra un comportamiento monotono con el campo presentando, en cambio, plateaus y resonancias. Tambien se muestra que, a pesar de que la anisotropia es necesaria para que se generen estados entrelazados, una mayor anisotropia no implica necesariamente mejores condiciones para generar entrelazamiento que sirva para usarse en una computadora cuantica. Inclusive, se observa que, se genera una cantidad finita de entrelazamiento en el limite de pequena anisotropia. (The maximum entanglement reached by an initially fully aligned state evolving in a XY Heisenberg spin chain placed in a uniform transverse magnetic field is studied. It is shown that the capacity to create entangled states (both of one qubit with the rest of the chain and pairwise between two adjacent qubits) is not a monotonous function of the magnetic field: it presents plateaus and resonances. It is also shown that, though anisotropy in the interaction is necessary for entanglement generation, the best conditions for generating entanglement that may be suitable for use in quantum computation is not that of biggest anisotropy. Moreover finite amounts of entanglement are generated in the small anisotropy limit.)

quant-ph↗