arXiv subjects

Erik Gauger

Publications and source records attributed to Erik Gauger.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Numerically exact open quantum system work statistics with process tensors

Accurately quantifying the thermodynamic work costs of quantum operations is essential for the continued development and optimisation of emerging quantum technologies. This present a significant challenge in regimes of rapid control within complex, non-equilibrium environments - conditions under which many contemporary quantum devices operate and conventional approximations break down. Here, we introduce a process tensor framework that enables the computation of the full numerically exact quantum work statistics of driven open quantum systems. We demonstrate the utility of our approach by applying it to a Landauer erasure protocol operating beyond the weak-coupling, Markovian, and slow-driving limits. The resulting work probability distributions reveal distinct quantum signatures that are missed by low-order moments yet significantly impact the erasure fidelity of the protocol. Our framework delivers non-perturbative accuracy and detail in characterising energy-exchange fluctuations in driven open quantum systems, establishing a powerful and versatile tool for exploring thermodynamics and control in the operating regimes of both near-term and future quantum devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum-private distributed sensing

Quantum networks can enhance both security and privacy conditions for multi-user communication, delegated computation, and distributed sensing tasks. An example quantum protocol is private parameter estimation (PPE) where only the aggregate information is accessible while individual sensor data remain confidential. Specifically, the protocol enables the estimation of a global function of remote sensor parameters without revealing local parameters to any entity. We implement the PPE protocol by distributing a three-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state, among three sensors, which is verified using stabilizer measurements to establish privacy and precision bounds for the sensing task. We demonstrate Heisenberg-limited precision scaling of the global parameter while suppressing the metrological information of the local parameters by up to three orders of magnitude. This work, which integrates privacy in distributed quantum sensing, marks a crucial step towards developing advanced quantum-secure-and-private protocols in complex quantum networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum-limited optical delay sensing across an enhanced dynamic range by frequency-resolving two-photon interference

Optical sensing schemes that rely on two-photon interference provide a powerful platform for precision metrology, although they are inherently constrained by a trade-off between dynamic range and measurement precision. To overcome this limitation, we sample the frequencies of two interfering photons, which extends the sensitivity in the time domain. This enhances the dynamic range of optical delay estimation by up to twenty times compared to the non-resolved estimates. We demonstrate this approach with independent photon sources and show the behaviour of finite frequency resolving detectors. This technique enables scan-free nanometre resolution depth sensing over a millimetre-scale range, with applications in biological and nanomaterial imaging.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Enhancing energy transport utilising permanent molecular dipoles

We study exciton quantum transfer along a molecular chain whilst accounting for the effects of permanent dipoles that are induced by charge displacements in the molecular orbitals. These effects are typically neglected as they do not arise in atomic quantum optics; however, they can play an important role in molecular systems. We also consider novel collective photon-assisted transport and compare it against the scaling of phonon-assisted transport in chains featuring permanent dipoles, and determine a linear scaling with the number of dipoles, akin to single-excitation superradiance. We further demonstrate how permanent dipoles, dipoles can preferentially arrange energy eigenstates to support excitation transport. Finally, we show how permanent dipoles can enhance the ability of the molecular chain to support excitation transport compared to that of systems that do not possess permanent dipoles across a range of environmental and system configurations.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2023

Roadmap on Nanoscale Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The field of nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging (NanoMRI) was started 30 years ago. It was motivated by the desire to image single molecules and molecular assemblies, such as proteins and virus particles, with near-atomic spatial resolution and on a length scale of 100 nm. Over the years, the NanoMRI field has also expanded to include the goal of useful high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of molecules under ambient conditions, including samples up to the micron-scale. The realization of these goals requires the development of spin detection techniques that are many orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional NMR and MRI, capable of detecting and controlling nanoscale ensembles of spins. Over the years, a number of different technical approaches to NanoMRI have emerged, each possessing a distinct set of capabilities for basic and applied areas of science. The goal of this roadmap article is to report the current state of the art in NanoMRI technologies, outline the areas where they are poised to have impact, identify the challenges that lie ahead, and propose methods to meet these challenges. This roadmap also shows how developments in NanoMRI techniques can lead to breakthroughs in emerging quantum science and technology applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

A quantum model of lasing without inversion

Starting from a quantum description of multiple Lambda-type 3-level atoms driven with a coherent microwave field and incoherent optical pumping, we derive a microscopic model of lasing from which we move towards a consistent macroscopic picture. Our analysis applies across the range of system sizes from nanolasers to the thermodynamic limit of conventional lasing. We explore the necessary conditions to achieve lasing without inversion by calculating the non-equilibrium steady state solutions of the model at, and between, its microscopic and macroscopic limits. For the macroscopic picture, we use mean-field theory to present a thorough analysis of the lasing phase transition. In the microscopic case, we exploit the underlying permutation symmetry of the density matrix to calculate exact solutions for N 3-level systems. This allows us to show that the steady state solutions approach the thermodynamic limit as N increases, restoring the sharp non-equilibrium phase transition in this limit. We demonstrate how the lasing phase transition and degree of population inversion can be adjusted by simply varying the phase of the coherent driving field. The high level of quantum control presented by this microscopic model and the framework outlined here have applications to further understanding and developing nanophotonic technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Large scale FRET simulations reveal the control parameters of phycobilisome light harvesting complexes

Phycobilisomes (PBS) are massive structures that absorb and transfer light energy to photochemical reaction centers. Among the range of light harvesting systems, PBS are considered to be excellent solutions for absorption cross-sections but relatively inefficient energy transferring systems. This is due to the combination of a large number of chromophores with intermediate coupling distances. Nevertheless, PBS systems persisted from the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis to present day cyanobacteria and red algae, organisms that account for approximately half of the primary productivity in the ocean. In this study we modeled energy transfer through subsets of PBS structures, using a comprehensive dynamic Hamiltonian model. Our approach was applied, initially, to pairs of phycobilin hexamers and then extended to short rods. By manipulating the distances and angles between the structures we could probe the dynamics of exciton transfer. These simulations suggest that the PBS chromophore network enhances energy distribution over the entire PBS structure, both horizontally and vertically to the rod axis. Furthermore, energy transfer was found to be relatively immune to the effects of distances or rotations, within the range of intermediate coupling distances. Therefore, we suggest that the PBS provides unique advantages and flexibility to aquatic photosynthesis.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2020

The dark side of energy transport along excitonic wires: On-site energy barriers facilitate efficient, vibrationally-mediated transport through optically dark subspaces

We present a novel, counter-intuitive method, based on dark state protection, for significantly improving exciton transport efficiency through `wires' comprising a chain of molecular sites with an intrinsic energy gradient. Specifically, by introducing `barriers' to the energy landscape at regular intervals along the transport path, we find that undesirable radiative recombination processes are suppressed due to a clear separation of sub-radiant and super-radiant eigenstates in the system. This, in turn, can lead to an improvement in transmitted power by many orders of magnitude, even for very long chains. From there, we analyse the robustness of this phenomenon to changes in both system and environment properties to show that this effect can be beneficial over a range of different thermal and optical environment regimes. Finally, we show that the novel energy landscape presented here may provide a useful foundation for overcoming the short length scales over which exciton diffusion typically occurs in organic photo-voltaics and other nanoscale transport scenarios, thus leading to considerable potential improvements in the efficiency of such devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Tracking the polarisation state of light via Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

We provide a statistically robust and accurate framework to measure and track the polarisation state of light employing Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. This is achieved by combining the concepts of maximum likelihood estimation and Fisher information applied to photon detection events. Such an approach ensures that the Cramér-Rao bound is saturated and changes to the polarisation state are established in an optimal manner. Using this method, we show that changes in the linear polarisation state can be measured with 0.6 arcminute precision (0.01 degrees).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Projected gradient descent algorithms for quantum state tomography

Accurate quantum tomography is a vital tool in both fundamental and applied quantum science. It is a task that involves processing a noisy measurement record in order to construct a reliable estimate of an unknown quantum state, and is central to quantum computing, metrology, and communication. To date, many different approaches to quantum state estimation have been developed, yet no one method fits all applications, and all fail relatively quickly as the dimensionality of the unknown state grows. In this work, we suggest that projected gradient descent is a method that can evade some of these shortcomings. We present three novel tomography algorithms that use projected gradient descent and compare their performance with state-of-the-art alternatives, i.e. the diluted iterative algorithm and convex programming. Our results find in favour of the general class of projected gradient descent methods due to their speed, applicability to large states, and the range of conditions in which they perform.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Classical noise assists the flow of quantum energy by `momentum rejuvenation'

An important challenge in quantum science is to fully understand the efficiency of energy flow in networks. Here we present a simple and intuitive explanation for the intriguing observation that optimally efficient networks are not purely quantum, but are assisted by some interaction with a `noisy' classical environment. By considering the system's dynamics in both the site-basis and the momentum-basis, we show that the effect of classical noise is to sustain a broad momentum distribution, countering the depletion of high mobility terms which occurs as energy exits from the network. This picture predicts that the optimal level of classical noise is reciprocally related to the linear dimension of the lattice; our numerical simulations verify this prediction to high accuracy for regular 1D and 2D networks over a range of sizes up to thousands of sites. This insight leads to the discovery that dramatic further improvements in performance occur when a driving field targets noise at the low mobility components.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Sustained Quantum Coherence and Entanglement in the Avian Compass

In artificial systems, quantum superposition and entanglement typically decay rapidly unless cryogenic temperatures are used. Could life have evolved to exploit such delicate phenomena? Certain migratory birds have the ability to sense very subtle variations in Earth's magnetic field. Here we apply quantum information theory and the widely accepted "radical pair" model to analyze recent experimental observations of the avian compass. We find that superposition and entanglement are sustained in this living system for at least tens of microseconds, exceeding the durations achieved in the best comparable man-made molecular systems. This conclusion is starkly at variance with the view that life is too "warm and wet" for such quantum phenomena to endure.

quant-ph↗