arXiv subjects

Callum W. Duncan

Publications and source records attributed to Callum W. Duncan.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Tensor network compression using fluid dynamics as a testbed: Analytical foundations in one dimension

High performance computers produce extreme-scale data sets that require sampling or compression if they are to be used to their full potential. Existing data compression techniques typically exploit features such as sparsity in the data, homogeneity in the data, or {\it a priori} knowledge of what subsets of data are of most interest. Fluid dynamics data in general do not exhibit these features and so are attractive test beds for generic compression techniques that are objective, robust, and tuneable with respect to information lost due to compression. Presented here is a method based on tensor networks, specifically matrix product states or tensor trains, that meets these requirements. The method is demonstrated for compression in one-dimension and is extensible to higher dimensionality. Lossless compression is demonstrated for random Fourier series for sufficiently high bond dimension of the tensor network, with the memory required to store the tensor network scaling directly proportional to the bond dimension. The lossy compression exhibited at lower bond dimension can be well within the relative error of many fluid simulations. The compression algorithm is tested for the time evolution of Burger's equation with excellent results. We additionally demonstrate the capability to perform computations in the compressed form through a tensor network periodic convolution that can be orders of magnitude faster than using fast Fourier transforms and the convolution theorem. In addition to being an attractive method for working with data sets generated by existing computers, the tensor network methods utilised are directly translatable to the emerging paradigm of quantum computing.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2026

A Quantum Gate Architecture via Teleportation and Entanglement

We present a universal quantum computing architecture which combines the measurement-driven aspect of MBQC with the circuit model's algorithm dependent generation of qubit entanglement. Our architecture, which we call QGATE, is tailored for discrete-variable photonic quantum computers with deterministic photon sources capable of generating 1D entangled photonic states. QGATE achieves universal quantum computing on a logical data qubit register via the implementation of Clifford operations, QGATE ancilla, and arbitrary angle single-qubit measurements. We realise unitary evolutions defined by multi-qubit Pauli strings via the generation of entanglement between a sub-set of logical qubits and a mutual QGATE ancilla qubit. Measurement of the QGATE ancilla in the appropriate basis then implements a given term of the desired unitary operation. This enables QGATE to both directly perform Hamiltonian evolutions in terms of a series of multi-qubit Pauli operators, in terms of projectors for an arbitrary sparse Hamiltonian, or realise multi-controlled gates enabling direct translation of circuit models to QGATE. We consider examples inspired by quantum chemistry and computational fluid dynamics. We propose an example photonic implementation of QGATE and calculate thresholds of $10.36\pm0.02\%$ or $25.98\pm0.28\%$ on the photonic loss for logical qubits constructed from foliated rotated surface codes, dependent on the deployment of intra-layer or inter-layer fusion respectively.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Quantum-gas microscopy and Talbot interferometry of the Bose-glass phase

Disordered potentials fundamentally affect transport and coherence in quantum systems, giving rise to a Bose-glass phase in interacting bosonic systems -- an insulating yet compressible phase lacking long-range coherence. Directly measuring a reduced coherence length of the Bose glass has been an outstanding challenge. We address this by employing Talbot interferometry combined with single-atom-resolved detection in a quantum-gas microscope. Using ultracold bosonic atoms in a two-dimensional lattice with site-resolved, reproducible disorder, we identify the Bose-glass phase through in-situ density distributions and particle-number fluctuations, quantified via the Edwards-Anderson parameter, and through the visibility of interference patterns after time-of-flight. By driving the system across the Bose-glass phase, we further observe signatures of non-ergodic dynamics. Our studies provide a starting point to further explore disordered systems in and out of equilibrium, and are relevant for understanding the dynamics and stability of disordered and glass-like quantum states in solid-state systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Mott-insulating phases of the Bose-Hubbard model on quasi-1D ladder lattices

We calculate the phase diagram of the Bose-Hubbard model on a half-filled ladder lattice including the effect of finite on-site interactions. This shows that the rung-Mott insulator (RMI) phase persists to finite interaction strength, and we calculate the RMI-superfluid phase boundary in the thermodynamic limit. We show that the phases can still be distinguished using the number and parity variances, which are observables accessible in a quantum-gas microscope. Phases analogous to the RMI were found to exist in other quasi-1D lattice structures, with the lattice connectivity modifying the phase boundaries. This shows that the the presence of these phases is the result of states with one-dimensional structures being mapped onto higher dimensional systems, driven by the reduction of hopping rates along different directions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Tensor network approaches for plasma dynamics

The dynamics of plasmas are governed by a set of non-linear differential equations which remain challenging to solve directly for large 2D and 3D problems. Here we investigate how tensor networks could be applied to plasmas described by the Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations and investigate parameter regimes which show promise for efficient simulations. We show for low-dimensional problems that the simplest form of tensor networks known as a Matrix Product State performs sufficiently well, however in regimes with a strong permanent magnetic field or high-dimensional problems one may need to consider alternative tensor network geometries. We conclude the study of the Vlasov-Maxwell system with the application of tensor networks to an industrially relevant test case and validate our results against state of the art plasma solvers based on Particle-In-Cell codes. We also extend the application of tensor networks to the alternative plasma description of Magnetohydrodynamics and outline how this can be encoded using Matrix Product States.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Taming quantum systems: A tutorial for using shortcuts-to-adiabaticity, quantum optimal control, and reinforcement learning

Precise manipulation of quantum effects at the atomic and nanoscale has become an essential task in ongoing scientific and technological endeavours. Quantum control methods are thus routinely exploited for research in areas such as quantum materials, quantum chemistry, and atomic and molecular physics, as well as in the development of quantum technologies like computing, simulation, and sensing. Here, we present a pedagogical introduction to the basics of quantum control methods in tutorial form, with the aim of providing newcomers to the field with the core concepts and practical tools to use these methods in their research. We focus on three areas: shortcuts to adiabaticity, quantum optimal control, and machine-learning-based control. We lay out the basic theoretical elements of each area in a pedagogical way and describe their application to a series of example cases. For these, we include detailed analytical derivations as well as extensive numerical results. As an outlook, we discuss quantum control methods in the broader context of quantum technologies development and complex quantum systems research, outlining potential connections and synergies between them.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Tensor network methods for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation on fine grids

The Gross-Pitaevskii equation and its generalisations to dissipative and dipolar gases have been very useful in describing dynamics of cold atomic gases, as well as polaritons and other nonlinear systems. For some of these applications the numerically accessible grid spacing can become a limiting factor, especially in describing turbulent dynamics and short-range effects of dipole-dipole interactions. We explore the application of tensor networks to these systems, where (in analogy to related work in fluid and plasma dynamics), they allow for physically motivated data compression that makes simulations possible on large spatial grids which would be unfeasible with direct numerical simulations. Analysing different non-equilibrium cases involving vortex formation, we find that these methods are particularly efficient, especially in combination with a matrix product operator representation of the quantum Fourier transform, which enables a spectral approach to calculation of both equilibrium states and time-dependent dynamics. The efficiency of these methods has interesting physical implications for the structure in the states that are generated by these dynamics, and provides a path to describe cold gas experiments that are challenging for existing methods.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Exact counterdiabatic driving for finite topological lattice models

Adiabatic protocols are often employed in state preparation schemes but require the system to be driven by a slowly varying Hamiltonian so that transitions between instantaneous eigenstates are exponentially suppressed. Counterdiabatic driving is a technique to speed up adiabatic protocols by including additional terms calculated from the instantaneous eigenstates that counter diabatic excitations. However, this approach requires knowledge of the full eigenspectrum meaning that the exact analytical form of counterdiabatic driving is only known for a subset of problems, e.g., the harmonic oscillator and transverse field Ising model. We extend this subset of problems to include the general family of one-dimensional non-interacting lattice models with open boundary conditions and arbitrary on-site potential, tunnelling terms, and lattice size. We formulate this approach for all states of lattice models, including bound and in-gap states which appear, e.g., in topological insulators. We also derive targeted counterdiabatic driving terms which are tailored to enforce the dynamical state to remain in a specific state. As an example, we consider state transfer using the topological edge states of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. The derived analytical counterdiabatic driving Hamiltonian can be utilised to inform control protocols in many-body lattice models or to probe the non-equilibrium properties of lattice models.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Critical states and anomalous mobility edges in two-dimensional diagonal quasicrystals

We study the single-particle properties of two-dimensional quasicrystals where the underlying geometry of the tight-binding lattice is crystalline but the on-site potential is quasicrystalline. We will focus on the 2D generalised Aubry-André model which has a varying form to its quasiperiodic potential, through a deformation parameter and varied irrational periods of cosine terms, which allows a continuous family of on-site quasicrystalline models to be studied. We show that the 2D generalised Aubry-André model exhibits single-particle mobility edges between extended and localised states and a localisation transition in a similar manner to the prior studied one-dimensional limit. However, we find that such models in two dimensions are dominated across large parameter regions by critical states. The presence of critical states results in anomalous mobility edges between both extended and critical and localised and critical states in the single-particle spectrum, even when there is no mobility edge between extended and localised states present. Due to this, these models exhibit anomalous diffusion of initially localised states across the majority of parameter regions, including deep in the normally localised regime. The presence of critical states in large parameter regimes and throughout the spectrum will have consequences for the many-body properties of quasicrystals, including the formation of the Bose glass and the potential to host a many-body localised phase.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2023

Anyon braiding on a fractal lattice with a local Hamiltonian

There is a growing interest in searching for topology in fractal dimensions with the aim of finding different properties and advantages compared to the integer dimensional case. It has previously been shown that the Laughlin state can be adapted to fractal lattices. A key element in doing so is to replace the uniform background charge by a background charge that resides only on the lattice sites. This motivates the study of Hofstadter type models on fractal lattices, in which the magnetic field is present only at the lattice sites. Here, we study such models for hardcore bosons on finite lattices derived from the Sierpinski carpet and on square lattices with open boundary conditions. We find that the system sizes that we can investigate with exact diagonalization are generally too small to judge whether these local models are topological or not. Studying the particle densities on the lattices derived from the Sierpinski carpet, we find that the densities tend to accumulate in the regions that are locally similar to a square lattice. Such accumulation seems to be incompatible with the uniform densities in fractional quantum Hall systems, which might suggest that the models are not topological. Our computations provide guidance for future searches for topology in finite systems. We also propose a scheme to implement both fractal lattices and our proposed local Hamiltonian with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, which could allow for quantum simulators to go beyond the numerical results presented here.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Interacting Bosons on Crystalline and Quasiperiodic Ladders in a Magnetic Field

We study a variety of Hofstadter ladders in order to probe the interplay between interactions, an applied magnetic field and crystalline or quasiperiodic geometries. Rotational motion will be induced on charged particles when a magnetic field is present, which can result in exotic distributions of current on a lattice. Typically, the geometry of a ladder lattice is assumed to be homogeneous. In this work, however, we will also study ladders that possess non-uniform bond lengths, in order to study the formation of localised currents. By using Density Matrix Renormalisation Group (DMRG) to characterise the quantum phases, we confirm the presence of the usual vortex and Meissner distributions of current, in which particles circulate within the bulk and around the edge respectively. Furthermore, it is also possible to observe variations to these patterns; which combine both vortex and Meissner order, and the onset of incompressible domains for certain fillings of the lattice. If the bond lengths of a ladder fluctuate, we find substantial differences to the structure of currents. This is a consequence of an inhomogeneous, effective magnetic flux, resulting in preferential localisation of currents throughout the lattice bulk, towards the smaller bond lengths. We then find that incompressible domains can significantly grow in size extent across the parameter space, with currents no longer possessing an extended structure across the longitudinal direction of the ladder.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Counterdiabatic Optimised Local Driving

Adiabatic protocols are employed across a variety of quantum technologies, from implementing state preparation and individual operations that are building blocks of larger devices, to higher-level protocols in quantum annealing and adiabatic quantum computation. The problem of speeding up these processes has garnered a large amount of interest, resulting in a menagerie of approaches, most notably quantum optimal control and shortcuts to adiabaticity. The two approaches are complementary: optimal control manipulates control fields to steer the dynamics in the minimum allowed time while shortcuts to adiabaticity aim to retain the adiabatic condition upon speed-up. We outline a new method which combines the two methodologies and takes advantage of the strengths of each. The new technique improves upon approximate local counterdiabatic driving with the addition of time-dependent control fields. We refer to this new method as counterdiabatic optimised local driving (COLD) and we show that it can result in a substantial improvement when applied to annealing protocols, state preparation schemes, entanglement generation and population transfer on a lattice. We also demonstrate a new approach to the optimisation of control fields which does not require access to the wavefunction or the computation of system dynamics. COLD can be enhanced with existing advanced optimal control methods and we explore this using the chopped randomised basis method and gradient ascent pulse engineering.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Barriers to Macroscopic Superfluidity and Insulation in a 2D Aubry-André Model

We study the ground state phases of interacting bosons in the presence of a 2D Aubry-André potential. By using a a mean-field percolation analysis, we focus on several superlattice and quasicrystalline regimes of the 2D Aubry-André model, including generalisations that account for a tilting or skewing of the potential. We show that barriers to the onset of macroscopic phases naturally arise from weakly modulated domains in the 2D Aubry-André model. This leads to the formation of mixed phases, in which the macroscopic properties are dominated by a minority of the system. The phase diagrams then exhibit substantially different features when compared against crystalline systems, including a lobe-like or wave-like appearance of the Bose glass, sharp extrusions and extended domains with weak percolation. By studying the 2D Aubry-André model across multiple regimes, we have shown that the unique properties of mixed phases are not distinct to a small set of parameters.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Bulk Localised Transport States in Infinite and Finite Quasicrystals via Magnetic Aperiodicity

Robust edge transport can occur when particles in crystalline lattices interact with an external magnetic field. This system is well described by Bloch's theorem, with the spectrum being composed of bands of bulk states and in-gap edge states. When the confining lattice geometry is altered to be quasicrystaline, then Bloch's theorem breaks down. However, we still expect to observe the basic characteristics of bulk states and current carrying edge states. Here, we show that for quasicrystals in magnetic fields, there is also a third option; the bulk localised transport states. These states share the in-gap nature of the well-known edge states and can support transport along them, but they are fully contained within the bulk of the system, with no support along the edge. We consider both finite and infinite systems, using rigorous error controlled computational techniques that are not prone to finite-size effects. The bulk localised transport states are preserved for infinite systems, in stark contrast to the normal edge states. This allows for transport to be observed in infinite systems, without any perturbations, defects, or boundaries being introduced. We confirm the in-gap topological nature of the bulk localised transport states for finite and infinite systems by computing common topological measures; namely the Bott index and local Chern marker. The bulk localised transport states form due to a magnetic aperiodicity arising from the interplay of length scales between the magnetic field and quasiperiodic lattice. Bulk localised transport could have interesting applications similar to those of the edge states on the boundary, but that could now take advantage of the larger bulk of the lattice. The infinite size techniques introduced here, especially the calculation of topological measures, could also be widely applied to other crystalline, quasicrystalline, and disordered models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

The Mean-Field Bose Glass in Quasicrystalline Systems

We confirm the presence of a mean-field Bose glass in 2D quasicrystalline Bose-Hubbard models. We focus on two models where the aperiodic component is present in different parts of the problem. First, we consider a 2D generalisation of the Aubry-André model, where the lattice geometry is that of a square with a quasiperiodic onsite potential. Second, we consider the randomly disordered vertex model, which takes aperiodic tilings with non-crystalline rotational symmetries, and forms lattices from the vertices and lengths of the tiles. For the disordered vertex models, the mean-field Bose glass forms across large ranges of the chemical potential, and we observe no significant differences from the case of a square lattice with uniform random disorder. Small variations in the critical points in the presence of random disorder between quasicrystalline and crystalline lattice geometries can be accounted for by the varying coordination number and the different rotational symmetries present. In the 2D Aubry-André model, substantial differences are observed from the usual phase diagrams of crystalline disordered systems. We show that weak modulation lines can be predicted from the underlying potential and may stabilise or suppress the mean-field Bose glass in certain regimes. This results in a lobe-like structure for the mean-field Bose glass in the 2D Aubry-André model, which is significantly different from the case of random disorder. Together, the two quasicrystalline models studied in this work show that the mean-field Bose glass phase is present, as expected for 2D quasiperiodic models. However, a quasicrystalline geometry is not sufficient to result in differences from crystalline realisations of the Bose glass, whereas a quasiperiodic form of disorder can result in different physics, as we observe in the 2D Aubry-André model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Topological models in rotationally symmetric quasicrystals

We investigate the physics of quasicrystalline models in the presence of a uniform magnetic field, focusing on the presence and construction of topological states. This is done by using the Hofstadter model but with the sites and couplings denoted by the vertex model of the quasicrystal, giving the Hofstadter vertex model. We specifically consider two-dimensional quasicrystals made from tilings of two tiles with incommensurate areas, focusing on the five-fold Penrose and the eight-fold Ammann-Beenker tilings. This introduces two competing scales; the uniform magnetic field and the incommensurate scale of the cells of the tiling. Due to these competing scales the periodicity of the Hofstadter butterfly is destroyed. We observe the presence of topological edge states on the boundary of the system via the Bott index that exhibit two way transport along the edge. For the eight-fold tiling we also observe internal edge-like states with non-zero Bott index, which exhibit two way transport along this internal edge. The presence of these internal edge states is a new characteristic of quasicrystalline models in magnetic fields. We then move on to considering interacting systems. This is challenging, in part because exact diagonalization on a few tens of sites is not expected to be enough to accurately capture the physics of the quasicrystalline system, and in part because it is not clear how to construct topological flatbands having a large number of states. We show that these problems can be circumvented by building the models analytically, and in this way we construct models with Laughlin type fractional quantum Hall ground states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Mean-field phases of an ultracold gas in a quasicrystalline potential

The recent experimental advancement to realise ultracold gases scattering off an eight-fold optical potential [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 110404 (2019)] heralds the beginning of a new technique to study the properties of quasicrystalline structures. Quasicrystals possess long-range order but are not periodic, and are still little studied in comparison to their periodic counterparts. Here, we consider an ultracold bosonic gas in an eight-fold symmetric lattice and assume a toy model where the atoms occupy the ground states of the local minima of the potential. The ground state phases of the system are studied, with particular interest in the local nature of the phases. The usual Mott-insulator, density wave, and supersolid phases of the standard and extended Bose-Hubbard model are observed. For non-zero long-range interactions, we find that density wave states can spontaneously break the eight-fold symmetry, and may even possess no rotational symmetry. We find the local variation in the number of nearest neighbours to play a vital role in the phase transitions, local structure, and global symmetries of the ground states. This variation in the number of nearest neighbours is not a unique property of the considered eight-fold lattice, and we expect our results to be generalisable to any quasicrystalline potential where there are only small position dependent variations in the site energy, tunnelling and interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Synthetic mean-field interactions in photonic lattices

Photonic lattices are usually considered to be limited by their lack of methods to include interactions. We address this issue by introducing mean-field interactions through optical components which are external to the photonic lattice. The proposed technique to realise mean-field interacting photonic lattices relies on a Suzuki-Trotter decomposition of the unitary evolution for the full Hamiltonian. The technique realises the dynamics in an analogous way to that of a step-wise numerical implementation of quantum dynamics, in the spirit of digital quantum simulation. It is a very versatile technique which allows for the emulation of interactions that do not only depend on inter-particle separations or do not decay with particle separation. We detail the proposed experimental scheme and consider two examples of interacting phenomena, self-trapping and the decay of Bloch oscillations, that are observable with the proposed technique.

physics.optics↗