arXiv subjects

Stuart S. Szigeti

Publications and source records attributed to Stuart S. Szigeti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

GNSS-free quantum gravity-aided navigation and fine-scale marine surveying with a strapdown quantum gravimeter

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are often disrupted or unavailable at sea, and unaided inertial navigation systems (INS) drift without correction. Quantum-sensing-based gravity map matching offers a passive, infrastructure-free aid, but field demonstrations of GNSS-free quantum gravimetric navigation have not been reported. Here we perform gravity map matching and fine-resolution gravity survey with a mobile quantum gravimeter aboard a 29 m surface vessel. We hybridize an atomic sensor with a classical accelerometer for bias stabilization and independently mechanize a navigation-grade IMU, all installed in an uncontrolled cabin with no environmental stabilization or calibration. Operated in both gimbaled and strapdown configurations over identical traversals, the hybrid sensor corrected the inertial solution over an 83 km maritime trajectory by referencing locally measured gravity to a satellite-derived anomaly map. Gravity-aiding constrains INS drift and delivers bounded positioning at nautical-mile-level accuracy, with GNSS excluded throughout the measurement chain. In a separate GNSS-referenced mode, the same system surveyed coastal routes up to Sea State 4, achieving mGal-level agreement with gravimetric maps and sub-mGal repeatability and stability, with gimbaled and strapdown operation performing comparably. Resolved anomalies reach an along-track scale of ~300 m, 50X finer than the satellite map's half-power wavelength. A 56 h stationary test shows atom referencing lowers long-term drift ~70X versus the classical channel alone. These results provide the first same-instrument comparison of gimbaled and strapdown mobile quantum gravimetry and the first fully GNSS-independent gravity-map-matching navigation demonstration using a quantum gravimeter, pointing toward compact, autonomous-platform-ready quantum sensing for GNSS-denied maritime navigation and survey.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Characterizing Multimode Effects in a Guided Matterwave Gyroscope

We theoretically investigate the performance of a compact matterwave vortex gyroscope formed by a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal potential. Unlike conventional atomic gyroscopes that rely on the Sagnac effect, the topological stability of the vortex state yields rotation sensitivity independent of the enclosed area, making the device robust against geometric drifts. Using fully quantum multimode simulations, we quantify two interaction-driven mechanisms that degrade performance: phase diffusion from one-axis-twisting and four-wave mixing from intercomponent scattering. We identify regimes where tuning interaction and trapping parameters produces a trade-off between these effects, and find that reducing the intercomponent scattering length can counterintuitively worsen sensitivity. Finally, we compare the vortex gyroscope to a guided Sagnac interferometer, demonstrating superior scaling, establishing it as a promising candidate for compact precision rotation sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Spin-entanglement of an atomic pair through coupling to their thermal motion

The spin-dynamics of two alkali atoms in an optical tweezer is driven by spin-changing collisions that couple the spin-state of the atoms to their relative motion. This paper experimentally studies the resulting spin-states when the relative motion is in a thermal state with k B T much larger than the energies of the spin-states that take part in the dynamics. We find that an initially unentangled spin-state can evolve into an entangled state. This is contrary to the common case when coupling a quantum system to hot degrees of freedom leads to loss of entanglement and not its generation. Moreover, we show that the generated entanglement is technologically useful as it, in principle, can enhance the sensitivity of measurements beyond the standard quantum limit. This may provide a promising avenue for robust entanglement generation for future technologies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Multimode feedback cooling of the collective modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate

We experimentally demonstrate cavity-free feedback cooling of the three lowest-lying collective modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a prolate harmonic trap. Using shadowgraph imaging as an in situ probe of the atomic density, we measure the time-dependent centers of mass and widths of the condensate in two dimensions and use these measurements to damp oscillations in the two visible dipole modes and the low-frequency quadrupole mode. By inducing oscillations in the condensate, we show that we can efficiently damp the dipole modes to a final mean phonon occupancy per atom of $<1$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Multi-mode cooling of a Bose-Einstein condensate with linear quantum feedback

We theoretically investigate measurement-based feedback control over the motional degrees of freedom of an oblate quasi-2D atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) subject to continuous density monitoring. We develop a linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) model that describes the multi-mode dynamics of the condensate's collective excitations under continuous measurement and control. Crucially, the multi-mode cold-damping feedback control we consider uses a realistic state-estimation scheme that does not rely upon a particular model of the atomic dynamics. We present analytical results showing that collective excitations can be cooled to below single-phonon average occupation (ground-state cooling) across a broad parameter regime and identify the conditions under which the lowest steady-state phonon occupation is asymptotically achieved. Further, we develop multi-objective optimization methods that explore the trade-off between cooling speed and the final energy of the cloud and provide numerical simulations demonstrating the ground-state cooling of the lowest ten motional modes above the condensate ground state. Our investigation provides concrete guidance on the feedback control design and parameters needed to experimentally realize a feedback-cooled BEC.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Quantum-assured magnetic navigation achieves positioning accuracy better than a strategic-grade INS in airborne and ground-based field trials

Modern navigation systems rely critically on GNSS, which in many cases is unavailable or unreliable (e.g. due to jamming or spoofing). For this reason there is great interest in augmenting backup navigation systems such as inertial navigation systems (INS) with additional modalities that reduce positioning error in the absence of reliable GNSS. Magnetic-anomaly navigation is one such approach, providing passive, non-jammable navigation through periodic position fixes obtained by comparing local measurements of Earth's crustal field against known anomaly maps. Despite its potential, existing MagNav efforts have been limited by magnetometer performance and platform noise; solutions addressing these problems have proven either too brittle or impractical for realistic deployment. Here we demonstrate a quantum-assured MagNav solution based on proprietary quantum magnetometers with by a novel denoising and map-matching algorithms. The system fits on fixed-wing drones or in the avionics bay of a commercial airliner. We present trials at altitudes up to 19000 feet, testing onboard and outboard quantum magnetometers comparing against a strategic-grade INS. Our MagNav solution achieves superior performance, delivering up to 46x better positioning error than the velocity-aided INS; the best final positioning accuracy we achieve is 22m or 0.006% of the flight distance. Airborne trials consistently achieve at least 11x advantage over the INS across varying conditions, altitudes, and flight patterns. The system learns model parameters online without special vehicle maneuvers providing robustness to various configuration changes (e.g. changing payload or latitude). Our trials also include the first successful MagNav performed in a ground vehicle using publicly-available anomaly maps, delivering bounded positioning error 7x lower than the INS, with both systems in strapdown configuration.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

An atomic Fabry-Perot interferometer-based acceleration sensor for microgravity environments

We investigate the use of an atomic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with a pulsed non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) source as a space-based acceleration sensor. We derive an analytic approximation for the device's transmission under a uniform acceleration, which we use to compute the device's attainable acceleration sensitivity using the classical Fisher information. In the ideal case of a high-finesse FPI and an infinitely narrow momentum width atomic source, we find that when the total length of the device is constrained to small values, the atomic FPI can achieve greater acceleration sensitivity than a Mach-Zender (MZ) interferometer of equivalent total device length. Under the more realistic case of a finite momentum width atomic source, We identify the ideal cavity length that gives the best sensitivity. Although the MZ interferometer now offers enhanced sensitivity within currently-achievable experimental parameter regimes, our analysis demonstrates that the atomic FPI holds potential as a promising alternative in the future, provided that narrow momentum width atomic sources can be engineered.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dual Open Atom Interferometry for Compact and Mobile Quantum Sensing

We demonstrate an atom interferometer measurement protocol compatible with operation on a dynamic platform. Our method employs two open interferometers, derived from the same atomic source, with different interrogation times to eliminate initial velocity dependence while retaining precision, accuracy, and long term stability. We validate the protocol by measuring gravitational tides, achieving a precision of 4.5 {\mu}Gal in 2000 runs (6.7 h), marking the first demonstration of inertial quantity measurement with open atom interferometry that achieves long-term phase stability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Fundamental Limits of Feedback Cooling Ultracold Atomic Gases

We investigate the fundamental viability of cooling ultracold atomic gases with quantum feedback control. Our study shows that the trade-off between the resolution and destructiveness of optical imaging techniques imposes constraints on the efficacy of feedback cooling, and that rapid rethermalization is necessary for cooling thermal gases. We construct a simple model to determine the limits to feedback cooling set by the visibility of density fluctuations, measurement-induced heating, and three-body atomic recombination. We demonstrate that feedback control can rapidly cool high-temperature thermal clouds in quasi-2D geometries to degenerate temperatures with minimal atom loss compared to traditional evaporation. Our analysis confirms the feasibility of feedback cooling ultracold atomic gases, providing a pathway to new regimes of cooling not achievable with current approaches.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Mutual friction and diffusion of two-dimensional quantum vortices

We present a microscopic open quantum systems theory of thermally-damped vortex motion in oblate atomic superfluids that includes previously neglected energy-damping interactions between superfluid and thermal atoms. This mechanism couples strongly to vortex core motion and causes dissipation of vortex energy due to mutual friction, as well as Brownian motion of vortices due to thermal fluctuations. We derive an analytic expression for the dimensionless mutual friction coefficient that gives excellent quantitative agreement with experimentally measured values, without any fitted parameters. Our work closes an existing two orders of magnitude gap between dissipation theory and experiments, previously bridged by fitted parameters, and provides a microscopic origin for the mutual friction and diffusion of quantized vortices in two-dimensional atomic superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Feedback cooling Bose gases to quantum degeneracy

Degenerate quantum gases are instrumental in advancing many-body quantum physics and underpin emerging precision sensing technologies. All state-of-the-art experiments use evaporative cooling to achieve the ultracold temperatures needed for quantum degeneracy, yet evaporative cooling is extremely lossy: more than 99.9% of the gas is discarded. Such final particle number limitations constrain imaging resolution, gas lifetime, and applications leveraging macroscopic quantum coherence. Here we show that atomic Bose gases can be cooled to quantum degeneracy using real-time feedback, an entirely new method that does not suffer the same limitations as evaporative cooling. Through novel quantum-field simulations and scaling arguments, we demonstrate that an initial low-condensate-fraction thermal Bose gas can be cooled to a high-purity Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by feedback control, with substantially lower atomic loss than evaporative cooling. Advantages of feedback cooling are found to be robust to imperfect detection, finite resolution of the control and measurement, time delay in the control loop, and spontaneous emission. Using feedback cooling to create degenerate sources with high coherence and low entropy enables new capabilities in precision measurement, atomtronics, and few- and many-body quantum physics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Superflow decay in a toroidal Bose gas: The effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations

We theoretically investigate the stochastic decay of persistent currents in a toroidal ultracold atomic superfluid caused by a perturbing barrier. Specifically, we perform detailed three-dimensional simulations to model the experiment of Kumar et al. in [Phys. Rev. A 95 021602 (2017)], which observed a strong temperature dependence in the timescale of superflow decay in an ultracold Bose gas. Our ab initio numerical approach exploits a classical-field framework that includes thermal fluctuations due to interactions between the superfluid and a thermal cloud, as well as the intrinsic quantum fluctuations of the Bose gas. In the low-temperature regime our simulations provide a quantitative description of the experimental decay timescales, improving on previous numerical and analytical approaches. At higher temperatures, our simulations give decay timescales that range over the same orders of magnitude observed in the experiment, however, there are some quantitative discrepancies that are not captured by any of the mechanisms we explore. Our results suggest a need for further experimental and theoretical studies into superflow stability.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Improving cold-atom sensors with quantum entanglement: Prospects and challenges

Quantum entanglement has been generated and verified in cold-atom experiments and used to make atom-interferometric measurements below the shot-noise limit. However, current state-of-the-art cold-atom devices exploit separable (i.e. unentangled) atomic states. This Perspective piece asks the question: can entanglement usefully improve cold-atom sensors, in the sense that it gives new sensing capabilities unachievable with current state-of-the-art devices? We briefly review the state-of-the-art in precision cold-atom sensing, focussing on clocks and inertial sensors, identifying the potential benefits entanglement could bring to these devices, and the challenges that need to be overcome to realize these benefits. We survey demonstrated methods of generating metrologically-useful entanglement in cold-atom systems, note their relative strengths and weaknesses, and assess their prospects for near-to-medium term quantum-enhanced cold-atom sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

High Precision, Quantum-Enhanced Gravimetry with a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We show that the inherently large interatomic interactions of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can enhance the sensitivity of a high precision cold-atom gravimeter beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL). Through detailed numerical simulation, we demonstrate that our scheme produces spin-squeezed states with variances up to 14 dB below the SNL, and that absolute gravimetry measurement sensitivities between 2 and 5 times below the SNL are achievable with BECs between $10^4$ and $10^6$ in atom number. Our scheme is robust to phase diffusion, imperfect atom counting, and shot-to-shot variations in atom number and laser intensity. Our proposal is immediately achievable in current laboratories, since it needs only a small modification to existing state-of-the-art experiments and does not require additional guiding potentials or optical cavities.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantitative acoustic models for superfluid circuits

We experimentally realize a highly tunable superfluid oscillator circuit in a quantum gas of ultracold atoms and develop and verify a simple lumped-element description of this circuit. At low oscillator currents, we demonstrate that the circuit is accurately described as a Helmholtz resonator, a fundamental element of acoustic circuits. At larger currents, the breakdown of the Helmholtz regime is heralded by a turbulent shedding of vortices and density waves. Although a simple phase-slip model offers qualitative insights into the circuit's resistive behavior, our results indicate deviations from the phase-slip model. A full understanding of the dissipation in superfluid circuits will thus require the development of empirical models of the turbulent dynamics in this system, as have been developed for classical acoustic systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Thermally-robust spin correlations between two 85Rb atoms in an optical microtrap

The complex collisional properties of atoms fundamentally limit investigations into a range of processes in many-atom ensembles. In contrast, the bottom-up assembly of few- and many-body systems from individual atoms offers a controlled approach to isolating and studying such collisional processes. Here, we use optical tweezers to individually assemble pairs of trapped $^{85}$Rb atoms, and study the spin dynamics of the two-body system in a thermal state. The spin-2 atoms show strong pair correlation between magnetic sublevels on timescales exceeding one second, with measured relative number fluctuations $11.9\pm0.3$ dB below quantum shot noise, limited only by detection efficiency. Spin populations display relaxation dynamics consistent with simulations and theoretical predictions for $^{85}$Rb spin interactions, and contrary to the coherent spin waves witnessed in finite-temperature many-body experiments and zero-temperature two-body experiments. Our experimental approach offers a versatile platform for studying two-body quantum dynamics and may provide a route to thermally-robust entanglement generation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Controlling chaos in the quantum regime using adaptive measurements

The continuous monitoring of a quantum system strongly influences the emergence of chaotic dynamics near the transition from the quantum regime to the classical regime. Here we present a feedback control scheme that uses adaptive measurement techniques to control the degree of chaos in the driven-damped quantum Duffing oscillator. This control relies purely on the measurement backaction on the system, making it a uniquely quantum control, and is only possible due to the sensitivity of chaos to measurement. We quantify the effectiveness of our control by numerically computing the quantum Lyapunov exponent over a wide range of parameters. We demonstrate that adaptive measurement techniques can control the onset of chaos in the system, pushing the quantum-classical boundary further into the quantum regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Optimal Matterwave Gravimetry

We calculate quantum and classical Fisher informations for gravity sensors based on matterwave interference, and find that current Mach-Zehnder interferometry is not optimally extracting the full metrological potential of these sensors. We show that by making measurements that resolve either the momentum or the position we can considerably improve the sensitivity. We also provide a simple modification that is capable of more than doubling the sensitivity.

quant-ph↗