arXiv subjects

Maggie Lawrence

Publications and source records attributed to Maggie Lawrence.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum Transport in Disordered Spin Networks: Emergent Timescales and Competing Pathways

Quantum transport in disordered systems poses intriguing fundamental questions about the interplay of disorder, interactions, and decoherence, with important implications for nanoscale energy transfer and quantum information transfer. Here, we investigate the emergence of multiple transport timescales in the dissipative dynamics of a spin impurity coupled to a small, spatially disordered network of spins. Using a two-dimensional tight-binding model with dipolar interactions and local dephasing, we demonstrate that geometric heterogeneity leads to hierarchical coupling strengths and pronounced separation of dynamical timescales. By analyzing different metrics for dynamics, we identify distinct relaxation timescales associated with cluster-level equilibration and global equilibration. A minimal three-site model reveals the physical origin of the longest timescale: strong internal hybridization generates an effective detuning that suppresses transfer to other weakly coupled sites, yielding a parametrically enhanced relaxation time in the weak-dephasing regime. We corroborate this picture with nonequilibrium steady-state transport calculations and simulations of disordered spin configurations, demonstrating orders-of-magnitude slowing of relaxation when hierarchical couplings are present. Our results highlight the central role of geometry and connectivity in spin networks and open quantum systems in general, and provide experimentally relevant predictions for relaxation times in small spin baths.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Design Principles for Enhanced Quantum Transport with Site-Dependent Noise

Environmental noise can enhance transport, an effect known as environmental noise-assisted quantum transport. Most theoretical studies focus on optimizing system parameters under spatially uniform system-environment coupling. Here, instead, we optimize the environmental noise itself by allowing for site-dependent dephasing. We investigate steady-state transport in one-dimensional lattices with either ramped or disordered energy landscapes, considering both short- and long-range coherent tunneling. In the absence of environmental effects, in the thermodynamic limit these systems can exhibit localization, and thus suppressed transport, arising from destructive interference. Using a Lindblad master equation framework, we implement local dephasing optimized to maximize steady-state population flux. We find that for ramp potentials, short-range tunneling favors selective dephasing on alternating sites, whereas long-range tunneling benefits from a dephasing profile that increases with distance from the injection site. In energetically disordered systems, strongly detuned sites require enhanced local dephasing under short-range tunneling to facilitate transport. In all cases, we find that site-optimized dephasing allows higher transport efficiency than uniform dephasing, and it is accompanied by increased spatial delocalization of the steady state. Our results provide microscopic insight into the interplay between coherent dynamics and environmental noise. Dephasing broadens energy levels locally, helping to overcome detuning and destructive interference. More generally, we establish spatially-structured environmental noise as a strategy for controlling both quantum transport and state coherence in open systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Discovery of energy landscapes towards optimized quantum transport: Environmental effects and long-range tunneling

Carrier transport in quantum networks is governed by a variety of factors, including network dimensionality and connectivity, on-site energies, couplings between sites and whether they are short- or long-range, leakage processes, and environmental effects. In this work, we identify classes of quasi-one-dimensional chains with energy profiles that optimize carrier transport under such influences. Specifically, we optimize on-site energies using Optax's optimistic gradient descent and AdaMax algorithms, enabled by the JAX automatic differentiation framework. Focusing on nonequilibrium steady-state transport, we study the system's behavior under combined unitary and nonunitary (dephasing and dissipative) effects using the Lindblad quantum master equation. After validating our optimization scheme on short chains, we extend the study to larger systems where we identify systematic patterns in energy profiles. Our analysis reveals that different types of energy landscapes enhance transport, depending on whether inter-site tunneling couplings in the chain are short- or long-range, the existence of environmental interactions, and the temperature of the environment. Our classification and insights of optimal energy landscapes offer guidance for designing efficient transport systems for electronic, photovoltaic and quantum communication applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Laminar flow characterization using low-field magnetic resonance techniques

Laminar flow velocity profiles depend heavily on fluid rheology. Developing methods of laminar flow characterization, based on low-field magnetic resonance (MR), contributes to the widespread industrial application of the MR technique in rheology. In this paper, we designed a low-cost, palm-sized permanent magnet with a 1H resonance frequency of 20.48 MHz to measure laminar flow. The magnet consists of two disk magnets, which were each tilted at an angle of 1° from a starting separation of 1.4 cm to generate a constant gradient, 65 gauss/cm, in the direction of flow. Subsequently, a series of process methods, for MR measurements, were proposed to characterize Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid flows in a pipe, including phase-based method, magnitude-based method, and velocity spectrum method. The accuracies of the proposed methods were validated by simulations, and experiments of Poiseuille flow and shear-thinning flow on the designed magnet. The new velocity profile methods proposed are advantageous because the MR instrumentation and measurement methods are simple and portable. The sophistication is found in the analysis although the physical principles are straight forward.

physics.flu-dyn↗