arXiv subjects

G. J. Milburn

Publications and source records attributed to G. J. Milburn.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

A Single Trapped Ion as a Time-Dependent Harmonic Oscillator

We show how a single trapped ion may be used to test a variety of important physical models realized as time-dependent harmonic oscillators. The ion itself functions as its own motional detector through laser-induced electronic transitions. Alsing et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 220401 (2005)] proposed that an exponentially decaying trap frequency could be used to simulate (thermal) Gibbons-Hawking radiation in an expanding universe, but the Hamiltonian used was incorrect. We apply our general solution to this experimental proposal, correcting the result for a single ion and showing that while the actual spectrum is different from the Gibbons-Hawking case, it nevertheless shares an important experimental signature with this result.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Gravitationally Induced Decoherence of Optical Entanglement

We propose an experiment in which an entangled pair of optical pulses are propagated through non-uniform gravitational fields. A field operator calculation of this situation predicts decoherence of the optical entanglement under experimentally realistic conditions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Entangling a nanomechanical resonator with a microwave field

We show how the coherent oscillations of a nanomechanical resonator can be entangled with a microwave cavity in the form of a superconducting coplanar resonator. Dissipation is included and realistic values for experimental parameters are estimated.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

A microwave transducer for a nano mechnical resonator

We give a quantum master equation description of the measurement scheme based on a coplanar microwave cavity capacitively coupled to nano mechanical resonator. The system exhibits a rich bifurcation structure that is analogous to sub/second harmonic generation in nonlinear optics. We show how it may be configured as a bifurcation amplifier transducer for weak force detection.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

The Quantum Mellin transform

We uncover a new type of unitary operation for quantum mechanics on the half-line which yields a transformation to ``Hyperbolic phase space''. We show that this new unitary change of basis from the position x on the half line to the Hyperbolic momentum $p_η$, transforms the wavefunction via a Mellin transform on to the critial line $s=1/2-ip_η$. We utilise this new transform to find quantum wavefunctions whose Hyperbolic momentum representation approximate a class of higher transcendental functions, and in particular, approximate the Riemann Zeta function. We finally give possible physical realisations to perform an indirect measurement of the Hyperbolic momentum of a quantum system on the half-line.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Coherent control of single photon states

We define a class of multi-mode single photon states suitable for quantum information applications. We show how standard amplitude modulation techniques may be used to control the pulse shape of single photon states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Hybrid Quantum Computation in Quantum Optics

We propose a hybrid quantum computing scheme where qubit degrees of freedom for computation are combined with quantum continuous variables for communication. In particular, universal two-qubit gates can be implemented deterministically through qubit-qubit communication, mediated by a continuous-variable bus mode ("qubus"), without direct interaction between the qubits and without any measurement of the qubus. The key ingredients are controlled rotations of the qubus and unconditional qubus displacements. The controlled rotations are realizable through typical atom-light interactions in quantum optics. For such interactions, our scheme is universal and works in any regime, including the limits of weak and strong nonlinearities.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quantum information processing via a lossy bus

We describe a method to perform two qubit measurements and logic operations on pairs of qubits which each interact with a harmonic oscillator degree of freedom (the \emph{bus}), but do not directly interact with one another. Our scheme uses only weak interactions between the qubit and the bus, homodyne measurements, and single qubit operations. In contrast to earlier schemes, the technique presented here is extremely robust to photon loss in the bus mode, and can function with high fidelity even when the rate of photon loss is comparable to the strength of the qubit-bus coupling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Quasiprobability methods for multimode conditional optical gates

We present a method for computing the action of conditional linear optical transformations, conditioned on photon counting, for arbitrary signal states. The method is based on the Q-function, a quasi probability distribution for anti normally ordered moments. We treat an arbitrary number of signal and ancilla modes. The ancilla modes are prepared in an arbitrary product number state. We construct the conditional, non unitary, signal transformations for an arbitrary photon number count on each of the ancilla modes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Effective generation of cat and kitten states

We present an effective method of coherent state superposition (cat state) generation using single trapped ion in a Paul trap. The method is experimentally feasible for coherent states with amplitude $α\le 2$ using available technology. It works both in and beyond the Lamb-Dicke regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

A Model for an Irreversible Bias Current in the Superconducting Qubit Measurement Process

The superconducting charge-phase `Quantronium' qubit is considered in order to develop a model for the measurement process used in the experiment of Vion et. al. [Science 296 886 (2002)]. For this model we propose a method for including the bias current in the read-out process in a fundamentally irreversible way, which to first order, is approximated by the Josephson junction tilted-washboard potential phenomenology. The decohering bias current is introduced in the form of a Lindblad operator and the Wigner function for the current biased read-out Josephson junction is derived and analyzed. During the read-out current pulse used in the Quantronium experiment we find that the coherence of the qubit initially prepared in a symmetric superposition state is lost at a time of 0.2 nanoseconds after the bias current pulse has been applied. A timescale which is much shorter than the experimental readout time. Additionally we look at the effect of Johnson-Nyquist noise with zero mean from the current source during the qubit manipulation and show that the decoherence due to the irreversible bias current description is an order of magnitude smaller than that found through adding noise to the reversible tilted washboard potential model. Our irreversible bias current model is also applicable to the persistent current based qubits where the state is measured according to its flux via a small inductance direct current superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Optimal estimation of one parameter quantum channels

We explore the task of optimal quantum channel identification, and in particular the estimation of a general one parameter quantum process. We derive new characterizations of optimality and apply the results to several examples including the qubit depolarizing channel and the harmonic oscillator damping channel. We also discuss the geometry of the problem and illustrate the usefulness of using entanglement in process estimation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Review article: Linear optical quantum computing

Linear optics with photon counting is a prominent candidate for practical quantum computing. The protocol by Knill, Laflamme, and Milburn [Nature 409, 46 (2001)] explicitly demonstrates that efficient scalable quantum computing with single photons, linear optical elements, and projective measurements is possible. Subsequently, several improvements on this protocol have started to bridge the gap between theoretical scalability and practical implementation. We review the original theory and its improvements, and we give a few examples of experimental two-qubit gates. We discuss the use of realistic components, the errors they induce in the computation, and how these errors can be corrected.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Quantum Computation by Communication

We present a new approach to scalable quantum computing--a ``qubus computer''--which realises qubit measurement and quantum gates through interacting qubits with a quantum communication bus mode. The qubits could be ``static'' matter qubits or ``flying'' optical qubits, but the scheme we focus on here is particularly suited to matter qubits. There is no requirement for direct interaction between the qubits. Universal two-qubit quantum gates may be effected by schemes which involve measurement of the bus mode, or by schemes where the bus disentangles automatically and no measurement is needed. In effect, the approach integrates together qubit degrees of freedom for computation with quantum continuous variables for communication and interaction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Spin-detection in a quantum electromechanical shuttle system

We study the electrical transport of a harmonically-bound, single-molecule endohedral fullerene shuttle operating in the Coulomb blockade regime, i.e. single electron shuttling. In particular we examine the dependance of the tunnel current on an ultra-small stationary force exerted on the shuttle. We derive a quantum master equation for the full shuttle system which includes the metallic contacts, the spatially dependent tunnel couplings to the shuttle, the electronic and motional degrees of freedom of the shuttle itself and a coupling of the shuttle's motion to a phonon bath. We analyse the resulting quantum master equation and find that, due to the exponential dependance of the tunnel probability on the shuttle-contact separation, the current is highly sensitive to very small forces. In particular we predict that the spin state of the endohedral electrons of the endohedral fullerene in a large magnetic gradient field can be distinguished from the resulting current signals within a few tens of nanoseconds. This effect could prove useful for the detection of the endohedral spin-state of individual paramagnetic molecules such as N@C60 and P@C60, or the detection of very small static forces acting on a molecular shuttle.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

High fidelity measurement and quantum feedback control in circuit QED

Circuit QED is a promising solid-state quantum computing architecture. It also has excellent potential as a platform for quantum control -- especially quantum feedback control -- experiments. However, the current scheme for measurement in circuit QED is low efficiency and has low signal-to-noise ratio for single shot measurements. The low quality of this measurement makes the implementation of feedback difficult, and here we propose two schemes for measurement in circuit QED architectures that can significantly improve signal-to-noise, and potentially achieve quantum limited measurement. Such measurements would enable the implementation of quantum feedback protocols and we illustrate this with a simple entanglement stabilization scheme.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Quantum Noise in the Electromechanical Shuttle

We consider a type of Quantum Electro-Mechanical System, known as the shuttle system, first proposed by Gorelik et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, 4526, (1998)]. We use a quantum master equation treatment and compare the semi-classical solution to a full quantum simulation to reveal the dynamics, followed by a discussion of the current noise of the system. The transition between tunnelling and shuttling regime can be measured directly in the spectrum of the noise.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Continuous quantum error correction by cooling

We describe an implementation of quantum error correction that operates continuously in time and requires no active interventions such as measurements or gates. The mechanism for carrying away the entropy introduced by errors is a cooling procedure. We evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme by simulation, and remark on its connections to some recently proposed error prevention procedures.

quant-ph↗