arXiv subjects

Haixing Miao

Publications and source records attributed to Haixing Miao.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Designing optimal linear detectors -- a bottom-up approach

This paper develops a systematic approach to realising linear detectors with an optimised sensitivity, allowing for the detection of extremely weak signals. First, general constraints are derived on a specific class of input-output transfer functions of a linear detector. Then a physical realization of transfer functions in that class is found using the quantum network synthesis technique, which allows for the inference of the physical setup directly from the input-output transfer function. By exploring a minimal realization which has the minimum number of internal modes, it is shown that the optimal such detectors are internal squeezing schemes. Then, investigating non-minimal realizations, which is motivated by the parity-time symmetric systems, a quantum non-demolition measurement is systematically recovered.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Design of a tabletop interferometer with quantum amplification

The sensitivity of laser interferometers is fundamentally limited by the quantum nature of light. Recent theoretical studies have opened a new avenue to enhance their quantum-limited sensitivity by using active parity-time-symmetric and phase-insensitive quantum amplification. These systems can enhance the signal response without introducing excess noise in the ideal case. However, such active systems must be causal, stable, and carefully tuned to be practical and applicable to precision measurements. In this paper, we show that phase-insensitive amplification in laser interferometers can be implemented in a tabletop experiment. The layout consists of two coupled cavities and an active medium comprised of a silicon nitride membrane and an auxiliary pump field. Our design relies on existing membrane and cryogenic technology and can demonstrate three distinct features: (i) the self-stabilized dynamics of the optical system, (ii) quantum enhancement of its sensitivity in the presence of the amplifier, and (iii) optical control of the amplifier gain. These features are needed to enhance the sensitivity of future interferometric gravitational-wave and axion detectors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Compact Michelson interferometers with subpicometer sensitivity

The network of interferometric gravitational-wave observatories has successfully detected tens of astrophysical signals since 2015. In this paper, we experimentally investigate compact sensors that have the potential to improve the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors to intermediate-mass black holes. We use only commercial components, such as sensing heads and lasers, to assemble the setup and demonstrate its subpicometer precision. The setup consists of a pair of Michelson interferferometers that use deep frequency modulation techniques to obtain a linear, relative displacement readout over multiple interference fringes. We implement a laser-frequency stabilisation scheme to achieve a sensitivity of 0.3\,$\text{pm} / \sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ above 0.1\,Hz. The device has also the potential to improve other experiments, such as torsion balances and commercial seismometers.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Quantum scrambling in a toy model of photodetectors

Quantum measurement is a process that involves the interaction between a quantum system and a macroscopic measurement apparatus containing many degrees of freedom. The photodetector is such an apparatus with many electrons interacting with the incoming quantum photon. Therefore the incoming photon will spread and get scrambled in the photodetector, that is, the operator of the initial incoming local photons will grow and becomes highly non-local through the interaction process. Investigating this scrambling process in detail is useful for understanding the interaction between the quantum system and the measurement apparatus. In this paper, we study the quantum scrambling process in an effective toy model of photodetectors in three different physical scenarios, by numerically simulating the evolution of the out-of-time correlators (OTOC). In particular, the integrability of the effective model is explored through level spacing statistics, and the effect of the spatially/temporarily distributed disorders on the system evolution is carefully investigated using the OTOC. Looking into these detailed dynamical processes paves the way to the quantum simulation and manipulation of photondetector, which would provide insights into understanding the wave-function collapse processes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Semi-classical gravity phenomenology under the causal-conditional quantum measurement prescription

The semi-classical gravity sourced by the quantum expectation value of the matter's energy-momentum tensor will change the evolution of the quantum state of matter. This effect can be described by the Schroedinger-Newton (SN) equation, where the semi-classical gravity contributes a gravitational potential term depending on the matter quantum state. This state-dependent potential introduces the complexity of the quantum state evolution and measurement in SN theory, which is different for different quantum measurement prescriptions. Previous theoretical investigations on the SN-theory phenomenology in the optomechanical experimental platform were carried out under the so-called post/pre-selection prescription. This work will focus on the phenomenology of SN theory under the causal-conditional prescription, which fits the standard intuition on the continuous quantum measurement process. Under the causal-conditional prescription, the quantum state of the test mass mirrors is conditionally and continuously prepared by the projection of the outgoing light field in the optomechanical system. Therefore a gravitational potential depends on the quantum trajectory is created and further affects the system evolution. In this work, we will systematically study various experimentally measurable signatures of SN theory under the causal-conditional prescription in an optomechanical system, for both the self-gravity and the mutual gravity scenarios. Comparisons between the SN phenomenology under three different prescriptions will also be carefully made. Moreover, we find that quantum measurement can induce a classical correlation between two different optical fields via classical gravity, which is difficult to be distinguished from the quantum correlation of light fields mediated by quantum gravity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Boosting the sensitivity of high frequency gravitational wave detectors by PT-symmetry

The kilo-Hertz gravitational waves radiated by the neutron star merger remnants carry rich information about the physics of high-density nuclear matter states, and many important astrophysical phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts and black hole formation. Current laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO, VIRGO, and KAGRA have limited signal response at the kilo-Hertz band, thereby unable to capture these important physical phenomena. This work proposes an alternative protocol for boosting the sensitivity of the gravitational wave detectors at high frequency by implementing an optomechanical quantum amplifier. With the auxiliary quantum amplifier, this design has the feature of Parity-Time (PT) symmetry so that the detection band will be significantly broadened within the kilo-Hertz range. In this work, we carefully analyze the quantum-noise-limited sensitivity and the dynamical stability of this design. Based on our protocol, our result shows that the quantum-noise-limited sensitivity will be improved by one order of magnitude around 3kHz, which indicates the potential of our design for a future search of neutron star merger signals.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Scalable Simulation of Quantum Measurement Process with Quantum Computers

Recent development in quantum information sciences and technologies, especially building programmable quantum computers, provide us new opportunities to study fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics. We propose qubit models to emulate the quantum measurement process, in which the quantum information of a qubit is mapped to a collection of qubits acting as the measurement device. One model is motivated by single-photon detection and the other by spin measurement. Both models are scalable to generate Schrödinger cat-like state, and their corresponding quantum circuits are shown explicitly. Large-scale simulations could be realized in near-term quantum computers, while classical computers cannot perform the same task efficiently. Due to the scalability of the models, such simulations can help explore the quantum-to-classical boundary, if exists, in the quantum measurement problem. Besides, our protocol to generate cat states may have important applications in quantum computing and metrology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Enhancing the sensitivity of interferometers with stable phase-insensitive quantum filters

We present a new quantum control strategy for increasing the shot-noise-limited sensitivity of optical interferometers. The strategy utilizes active phase-insensitive quantum filtering of the signal inside the interferometer and does not rely on optical squeezing. On the example of the coupled-cavity resonators, employed in the gravitational-wave detectors, we show that fully causal and stable phase-insensitive filters can improve the interferometer sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude. The role of the phase-insensitive component in such systems is to provide frequency-dependent compensation for the unwanted dispersion introduced by the position-sensing optical cavity. The system's stability is achieved by limiting the frequency band of this compensation. We demonstrate that stable optomechanical PT-symmetric filters comprise a special subclass of such phase-insensitive devices and find entirely new solutions which overcome the sensitivity of PT-symmetric filters. This scheme is robust against optical loss at the output of the detectors and in the cavities.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

A six degree-of-freedom fused silica seismometer: Design and tests of a metal prototype

Ground vibrations couple to the longitudinal and angular motion of the aLIGO test masses and limit the observatory sensitivity below 30\,Hz. Novel inertial sensors have the potential to improve the aLIGO sensitivity in this band and simplify the lock acquisition of the detectors. In this paper, we experimentally study a compact 6D seismometer that consists of a mass suspended by a single wire. The position of the mass is interferometrically read out relative to the platform that supports the seismometer. We present the experimental results, discuss limitations of our metallic prototype, and show that a compact 6D seismometer made out of fused silica and suspended with a fused silica fibre has the potential to improve the aLIGO low frequency noise.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Enhancing high frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors with sloshing-Sagnac interferometer

Sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors is limited in the high-frequency band by quantum shot noise and eventually limited by the optical loss in signal recycling cavity. This limit is the main obstacle on the way to detect gravitational waves from the binary neutron star mergers in the current and the future generation detectors, as it does not depend on either the arm length, or the injected squeezing level. In this paper, we come up with the sloshing Sagnac interferometer topology, which can be obtained from the Michelson interferometer by optically connecting the end mirrors into an additional optical cavity. This transforms the interferometer into a triply-coupled cavity system capable of beating the loss-induced high-frequency limit of the signal-recycled Michelson interferometer. With advanced LIGO+ comparable parameters, a sloshing-Sagnac scheme can achieve 7 times better sensitivity at 2.5\,kHz or 4 times better signal to noise ratio for a typical waveform of binary neutron post merge. Being an evolution of Michelson interferometer, the sloshing-Sagnac interferometer can possibly be used as a topology for the future generation detectors and upgrade of current detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Signatures of the quantum nature of gravity in the differential motion of two masses

We show that a signature of the quantum nature of gravity is the quantum mechanical squeezing of the differential motion of two identical masses with respect to their common mode. This is because the gravitational interaction depends solely on the relative position of the two masses. In principle, this squeezing is equivalent to quantum entanglement between the masses. In practice, detecting the squeezing is more feasible than detecting the entanglement. To that end, we propose an optical interferometric scheme to falsify hypothetical models of gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

A two-carrier scheme: evading the 3dB quantum penalty of heterodyne readout in gravitational-wave detectors

Precision measurements using traditional heterodyne readout suffer a 3dB quantum noise penalty compared with homodyne readout. The extra noise is caused by the quantum fluctuations in the image vacuum. We propose a two-carrier gravitational-wave detector design that evades the 3dB quantum penalty of heterodyne readout. We further propose a new way of realising frequency-dependent squeezing utilising two-mode squeezing in our scheme. It naturally achieves more precise audio frequency signal measurements with radio frequency squeezing. In addition, the detector is compatible with other quantum nondemolition techniques.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Enhancing interferometer sensitivity without sacrificing bandwidth and stability: beyond single-mode and resolved-sideband approximation

Quantum noise limits the sensitivity of precision measurement devices, such as laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatories and axion detectors. In the shot-noise-limited regime, these resonant detectors are subject to a trade-off between the peak sensitivity and bandwidth. One approach to circumvent this limitation in gravitational-wave detectors is to embed an anomalous-dispersion optomechanical filter to broaden the bandwidth. The original filter cavity design, however, makes the entire system unstable. Recently, we proposed the coherent feedback between the arm cavity and the optomechanical filter to eliminate the instability via PT-symmetry. The original analysis based upon the Hamiltonian formalism adopted the single-mode and resolved-sideband approximations. In this paper, we go beyond these approximations and consider realistic parameters. We show that the main conclusion concerning stability remains intact, with both Nyquist analysis and a detailed time-domain simulation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Direct approach to realising quantum filters for high-precision measurements

Quantum noise sets a fundamental limit to the sensitivity of high-precision measurements. Suppressing it can be achieved by using non-classical states and quantum filters, which modify both the noise and signal response. We find a novel approach to realising quantum filters directly from their frequency-domain transfer functions, utilising techniques developed by the quantum control community. It not only allows us to construct quantum filters that defy intuition, but also opens a path towards the systematic design of optimal quantum measurement devices. As an illustration, we show a new optical realisation of an active unstable filter with anomalous dispersion, proposed for improving the quantum-limited sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

A Broadband Signal Recycling Scheme for Approaching the Quantum Limit from Optical Losses

Quantum noise limits the sensitivity of laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. Given the state-of-the-art optics, the optical losses define the lower bound of the best possible quantum-limited detector sensitivity. In this work, we come up with a broadband signal recycling scheme which gives potential solution to approaching this lower bound by converting the signal recycling cavity to be a broadband signal amplifier using an active optomechanical filter. We will show the difference and advantage of such a scheme compared with the previous white light cavity scheme using the optomechanical filter in [Phys.Rev.Lett.115.211104 (2015)]. The drawback is that the new scheme is more susceptible to the thermal noise of the mechanical oscillator.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Towards observing the neutron star collapse with gravitational wave detectors

Gravitational waves from binary neutron star inspirals have been detected along with the electromagnetic transients coming from the aftermath of the merger in GW170817. However, much is still unknown about the post-merger dynamics that connects these two sets of observables. This includes if, and when, the post-merger remnant star collapses to a black hole, and what are the necessary conditions to power a short gamma-ray burst, and other observed electromagnetic counterparts. Observing the collapse of the post-merger neutron star would shed led on these questions, constraining models for the short gamma-ray burst engine and the hot neutron star equation of state. In this work, we explore the scope of using gravitational wave detectors to measure the timing of the collapse either indirectly, by establishing the shut-off of the post-merger gravitational emission, or---more challengingly---directly, by detecting the collapse signal. For the indirect approach, we consider a kilohertz high-frequency detector design that utilises a previously studied coupled arm cavity and signal recycling cavity resonance. This design would give a signal-to-noise ratio of 0.5\,-\,8.6 (depending on the variation of waveform parameters) for a collapse gravitational wave signal occurring at 10\,ms post-merger of a binary at 50\,Mpc and with total mass $2.7 M_\odot$. For the direct approach, we propose a narrow-band detector design, utilising the sensitivity around the frequency of the arm cavity free spectral range. The proposed detector achieves a signal-to-noise ratio of 0.3\,-\,1.9, independent of the collapse time. This detector is limited by both the fundamental classical and quantum noise with the arm cavity power chosen as 10\,MW.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Gravitational wave detectors with broadband high frequency sensitivity

The binary neutron star coalescence GW170817 was observed by gravitational wave detectors during the inspiral phase but sensitivity in the 1-5 kHz band was insufficient to observe the expected nuclear matter signature of the merger itself, and the process of black hole formation. This provides strong motivation for improving 1--5 kHz sensitivity which is currently limited by photon shot noise. Resonant enhancement by signal recycling normally improves the signal to noise ratio at the expense of bandwidth. The concept of optomechanical white light signal recycling (WLSR) has been proposed, but all schemes to date have been reliant on the development of suitable ultra-low mechanical loss components. Here for the first time we show demonstrated optomechanical resonator structures that meet the loss requirements for a WLSR interferometer with strain sensitivity below 10$^{-24}$ Hz$^{-1/2}$ at a few kHz. Experimental data for two resonators are combined with analytic models of 4km interferometers similar to LIGO, to demonstrate sensitivity enhancement across a much broader band of neutron star coalescence frequencies than dual-recycled Fabry-Perot Michelson detectors of the same length. One candidate resonator is a silicon nitride membrane acoustically isolated from the environment by a phononic crystal. The other is a single-crystal quartz lens that supports bulk acoustic longitudinal waves. Optical power requirements could prefer the membrane resonator, although the bulk acoustic wave resonator gives somewhat better thermal noise performance. Both could be implemented as add-on components to existing detectors.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Quantum-enhanced interferometry for axion searches

We propose an experiment to search for axions and axion-like-particles in the galactic halo using quantum-enhanced interferometry. This proposal is related to the previously reported ideas (Phys. Rev. D 98, 035021, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 161301, Phys. Rev. D 100, 023548) but searches for axions in the mass range from $10^{-16}$ eV up to $10^{-8}$ eV using two coupled optical cavities. We also show how to apply squeezed states of light to enhance the sensitivity of the experiment similar to the gravitational-wave detectors. The proposed experiment has a potential to be further scaled up to a multi-km long detector. We show that such an instrument has a potential to set constrains of the axion-photon coupling coefficient of $\sim 10^{-18}$ GeV$^{-1}$ for axion masses of $10^{-16}$ eV or detect the signal.

physics.ins-det↗