arXiv subjects

Nik O. Gjonbalaj

Publications and source records attributed to Nik O. Gjonbalaj.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Shortcuts to Analog Preparation of Non-Equilibrium Quantum Lakes

The dynamical preparation of exotic many-body quantum states is a persistent goal of analog quantum simulation, often limited by experimental coherence times. Recently, it was shown that fast, non-adiabatic Hamiltonian parameter sweeps can create finite-size ``lakes'' of quantum order in certain settings, independent of what is present in the ground state phase diagram. Here, we show that going further out of equilibrium via external driving can substantially accelerate the preparation of these quantum lakes. Concretely, when lakes can be prepared, existing counterdiabatic driving techniques -- originally designed to target the ground state -- instead naturally target the lakes state. We demonstrate this both for an illustrative single qutrit and a model of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Rydberg quantum spin liquid. In the latter case, we construct experimental drive sequences that accelerate preparation by almost an order of magnitude at fixed laser power. We conclude by using a Landau-Ginzburg model to provide a semi-classical picture for how our method accelerates state preparation.

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arXiv2026

Unified Probe of Quantum Chaos and Ergodicity from Hamiltonian Learning

Developing measures of quantum ergodicity and chaos stands as a foundational task in the study of quantum many-body systems. In this work, we propose metrics for these effects based on Hamiltonian learning that unify multiple advantages of existing metrics. In particular, we show how ergodicity and chaos improve the robustness of Hamiltonian learning to small errors and furthermore demonstrate that this robustness can be used as a metric for such phenomena. We analytically and numerically show that our metrics not only distinguish between integrable and ergodic regimes in various spin chains but also quantify chaos and ergodicity, allowing us to locate regions of parameter space displaying maximal ergodicity and maximal sensitivity to local perturbations. Our approach not only provides conceptual ways to study quantum chaos and ergodicity but also presents viable experimental methods for quantum simulators.

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arXiv2026

Engineering quantum criticality and dynamics on an analog-digital simulator

Understanding emergent phenomena in out-of-equilibrium interacting many-body systems is an exciting frontier in physical science. While quantum simulators represent a promising approach to this long-standing problem, in practice it can be challenging to directly realize the required interactions, measure arbitrary observables, and mitigate errors. Here we use coherent mapping between the Rydberg and hyperfine qubits in a neutral atom array simulator to engineer and probe complex quantum dynamics. We combine efficient analog dynamics with fully programmable state preparation and measurement, leverage non-destructive readout for loss information and atomic qubit reuse, and use an atom reservoir for replacing lost atoms. With this analog-digital approach, we first demonstrate dynamical engineering of ring-exchange and particle hopping dynamics via Floquet driving and measure the spectral function of single excitations by evolving initial superposition states. Extending these techniques to a 271-site kagome lattice, we employ closed-loop optimization to target an out-of-equilibrium critical quantum spin liquid of the Rokhsar-Kivelson type. We observe the key features of such a state, including the absence of local order, many-body coherences between nearly equal-amplitude dimer configurations over up to 18 sites, and universal correlations consistent with predictions from field theory. Together, these results pave the way for using dynamical control in analog-digital quantum simulators to study complex quantum many-body systems.

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arXiv2026

A New Angle on Quantum Subspace Diagonalization for Quantum Chemistry

Quantum subspace diagonalization and quantum Krylov algorithms offer a feasible, pre- or early-fault tolerant alternative to quantum phase estimation for using quantum computers to estimate the low-lying spectra of quantum systems. However, despite promising proof-of-principle results, such methods suffer from high sensitivity to noise (including intrinsic sources such as sampling noise), making their utility for realistic industry-relevant problems an open question. To improve the potential applicability of such methods, we introduce a new variant of thresholding for noisy generalized eigenvalue problems that arise in quantum subspace diagonalization that has the potential to better control sensitivity to noise. Our approach leverages eigenvector-preserving transformations (rotations) of the generalized eigenvalue problem prior to thresholding. We study this effect in practical settings by applying this rotation thresholding scheme to an iterative quantum Krylov algorithm for several chemical systems, including the industry-relevant Fe(III)-NTA chelate complex. We develop a particular heuristic to select the rotation angle from noisy data and find for certain systems and noise regimes that the samples required to reach a target error for ground state estimation can be reduced by a factor of up to 100. Furthermore, with oracle access to the optimal transformation, more dramatic improvements are possible and we observe reductions in sample requirements by up to $10^4$, motivating the continued development of methods that can realize these improvements in practice. While we develop our approach in the context of quantum subspace diagonalization, the improved thresholding scheme we develop could be advantageous in any context where one must solve noisy, ill-conditioned generalized eigenvalue problems.

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arXiv2024

Modifying cooperative decay via disorder in atom arrays

Atomic arrays can exhibit collective light emission when the transition wavelength exceeds their lattice spacing. Subradiant states take advantage of this phenomenon to drastically reduce their overall decay rate, allowing for long-lived states in dissipative open systems. We build on previous work to investigate whether or not disorder can further decrease the decay rate of a singly-excited atomic array. More specifically, we consider spatial disorder of varying strengths in a 1D half waveguide and in 1D, 2D, and 3D atomic arrays in free space and analyze the effect on the most subradiant modes. While we confirm that the dilute half waveguide exhibits an analog of Anderson localization, the dense half waveguide and free space systems can be understood through the creation of close-packed, few-body subradiant states similar to those found in the Dicke limit. In general, we find that disorder provides little advantage in generating darker subradiant states in free space on average and will often accelerate decay. However, one could potentially change interatomic spacing within the array to engineer specific subradiant states.

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arXiv2022

Counter-diabatic driving in the classical $β$-Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou chain

Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STAs) have been used to make rapid changes to a system while eliminating or minimizing excitations in the system's state. In quantum systems, these shortcuts allow us to minimize inefficiencies and heating in experiments and quantum computing protocols, but the theory of STAs can also be generalized to classical systems. We focus on one such STA, approximate counter-diabatic (ACD) driving, and numerically compare its performance in two classical systems: a quartic anharmonic oscillator and the $β$ Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) lattice. In particular, we modify an existing variational technique to optimize the approximate driving and then develop classical figures of merit to quantify the performance of the driving. We find that relatively simple forms for the ACD driving can dramatically suppress excitations regardless of system size. ACD driving in classical nonlinear oscillators could have many applications, from minimizing heating in bosonic gases to finding optimal local dressing protocols in interacting field theories.

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