Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “superconducting quantum computing”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 919 records · Page 51

Spin–orbit configuration interaction study of spectral properties of PbO

Relativistic calculations of the structural and spectral properties of the PbO molecule can provide fundamental information about the importance of a proper treatment of angular momentum coupling among electrons in order to achieve accurate computational results for spectral properties. Specifically, the nature of these couplings in PbO is expected to be intermediate between the LS- and jj-coupling limits because of its light/heavy element composition. This article reports potential energy curves, transition energies, electric dipole transition moments, permanent dipole moments and spectroscopic constants of PbO calculated using a multireference single plus double excitations spin–orbit configuration interaction approach in the context of relativistic effective core potentials and their concomitant spin–orbit coupling operators. The calculated results are in general agreement with both available experimental results as well as earlier calculations. New values for properties of excited states are also reported. It is noteworthy that certain properties show larger deviations from previous calculations. Furthermore, these deviations are attributed to direct and indirect relativistic effects resulting from diatomic electron–electron angular momentum coupling effects, which are included consistently in the calculations reported herein.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Effect of Strain on the Resistivity and Thermal Conductivity of High Purity Niobium

High purity niobium (Nb) is a technologically important material for large-scale accelerator and nano-scale quantum computing applications in microwave frequency range. The high thermal conductivity and low resistivity of Nb are critical to the high performance at temperature range of 0.01–4.0 K. The presence of interstitials such as O, N, H, and C act as scattering centers and alter the mean free path, reducing resistivity and thermal conductivity, and contributing significantly to Nb's thermal performance for temperatures of 2.0 K and above. The residual resistivity ratio (RRR), defined as the ratio of the normal state resistivity at 300 K to that at 4.2 K (Nb, T c = 9.2 K), is an accepted direct estimate of the impurity content of fully recrystallized Nb. Complete re-crystallization of Nb is challenging unless very high temperatures are employed, which is often impractical, hence, in practice, dislocation and dislocation structures impact the thermal performance of Nb due to strong phonon scattering contributions. Furthermore, this paper reports on the degradation of thermal conductivity and RRR of high purity Nb large grain, single crystal with fixed impurity, varying strain, and dislocation content levels. Experimental thermal conductivity data fits the Boltzmann transport equation incorporating dislocation density.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Solitons in lattice field theories via tight-binding supersymmetry

Reflectionless potentials play an important role in constructing exact solutions to classical dynamical systems (such as the Korteweg-de Vries equation), non-perturbative solutions of various large-N field theories (such as the Gross-Neveu model), and closely related solitonic solutions to the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in the theory of superconductivity. These solutions rely on the inverse scattering method, which reduces these seemingly unrelated problems to identifying reflectionless potentials of an auxiliary one-dimensional quantum scattering problem. There are several ways of constructing these potentials, one of which is quantum mechanical supersymmetry (SUSY). In this paper, motivated by recent experimental platforms, we generalize this framework to develop a theory of lattice solitons. We first briefly review the classical inverse scattering method in the continuum limit, focusing on the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation and SU(N) Gross-Neveu model in the large N limit. We then generalize this methodology to lattice versions of interacting field theories. Our analysis hinges on the use of trace identities, which are relations connecting the potential of an equation of motion to the scattering data. For a discrete Schrödinger operator, such trace identities had been known as far back as Toda; however, we derive a new set of identities for the discrete Dirac operator. We then use these identities in a lattice Gross-Neveu and chiral Gross-Neveu (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio) model to show that lattice solitons correspond to reflectionless potentials associated with the discrete scattering problem. These models are of significance as they are equivalent to a mean-field theory of a lattice superconductor. To explicitly construct these solitons, we generalize supersymmetric quantum mechanics to tight-binding models. We show that a matrix transformation exists that maps a tight-binding model to an isospectral one which shares the same structure and scattering properties. The corresponding soliton solutions have both modulated hopping and onsite potential, the former of which has no analogue in the continuum limit. We explicitly compute both topological and non-topological soliton solutions as well as bound state spectra in the aforementioned models.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Nonlinear soliton confinement in weakly coupled antiferromagnetic spin chains

In this work, we analyze the low-energy dynamics of quasi-one-dimensional, large-$\textit{S}$ quantum antiferromagnets with easy-axis anisotropy, using a semiclassical nonlinear sigma model. The saddle point approximation leads to a sine-Gordon equation which supports soliton solutions. These correspond to the movement of spatially extended domain walls. Long-range magnetic order is a consequence of a weak interchain coupling. Below the ordering temperature, the coupling to nearby chains leads to an energy cost associated with the separation of two domain walls. From the kink-antikink two-soliton solution, we compute the effective confinement potential. At distances large compared to the size of the solitons the potential is linear, as expected for pointlike domain walls. At small distances the gradual annihilation of the solitons weakens the effective attraction and renders the potential quadratic. From numerically solving the effective one-dimensional Schrödinger equation with this nonlinear confinement potential we compute the soliton bound state spectrum. We apply the theory to CaFe 2 O 4 , an anisotropic $\textit{S}$ = 5/2 magnet based upon antiferromagnetic zigzag chains. Using inelastic neutron scattering, we are able to resolve seven discrete energy levels for spectra recorded slightly below the Néel temperature $T_N$ ≈ 200 K. These modes are well described by our nonlinear confinement model in the regime of large spatially extended solitons.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Development of Quantum Interconnects (QuICs) for Next-Generation Information Technologies

Just as “classical” information technology rests on a foundation built of interconnected information-processing systems, quantum information technology (QIT) must do the same. A critical component of such systems is the “interconnect,” a device or process that allows transfer of information between disparate physical media, for example, semiconductor electronics, individual atoms, light pulses in optical fiber, or microwave fields. While interconnects have been well engineered for decades in the realm of classical information technology, quantum interconnects (QuICs) present special challenges, as they must allow the transfer of fragile quantum states between different physical parts or degrees of freedom of the system. The diversity of QIT platforms (superconducting, atomic, solid-state color center, optical, etc.) that will form a “quantum internet” poses additional challenges. As quantum systems scale to larger size, the quantum interconnect bottleneck is imminent, and is emerging as a grand challenge for QIT. For these reasons, it is the position of the community represented by participants of the NSF workshop on “Quantum Interconnects” that accelerating QuIC research is crucial for sustained development of a national quantum science and technology program. Given the diversity of QIT platforms, materials used, applications, and infrastructure required, a convergent research program including partnership between academia, industry, and national laboratories is required.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Phase-shift speckle-shearing interferometry

We have numerically simulated the process of measuring stress – strain states by the method of speckle-shearing interferometry using the phase-shift technique. A computer model with the possibility of setting its strain and roughness is developed, which includes a model of a diffusely reflecting test object corresponding to the characteristics of a real membrane, as well as a speckle interferometer model that allows speckle interferograms to be obtained for different speckle sizes and angles between interfering beams. The process of reconstructing the object surface topogram from model speckle interferograms by the phase-shift technique is implemented. Using the developed models, a two-dimensional shearogram are obtained, which is a derivative of the strain field of a circular membrane. Comparison of the results of numerical simulation with experimental data shows that the differences (rms deviations) do not exceed 0.02 μm. It is also shown that the error of interferogram reconstruction by the phase-shift technique increases significantly when the test object strains exceed 12 μm. (paper)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Measurement-induced criticality in random quantum circuits

We investigate the critical behavior of the entanglement transition induced by projective measurements in (Haar) random unitary quantum circuits. Using a replica approach, we map the calculation of the entanglement entropies in such circuits onto a two-dimensional statistical-mechanics model. In this language, the area- to volume-law entanglement transition can be interpreted as an ordering transition in the statistical-mechanics model. We derive the general scaling properties of the entanglement entropies and mutual information near the transition using conformal invariance. We analyze in detail the limit of infinite on-site Hilbert space dimension in which the statistical-mechanics model maps onto percolation. In particular, we compute the exact value of the universal coefficient of the logarithm of subsystem size in the n th Rényi entropies for n ≥ 1 in this limit using relatively recent results for the conformal field theory describing the critical theory of two-dimensional (2D) percolation, and we discuss how to access the generic transition at finite on-site Hilbert space dimension from this limit, which is in a universality class different from 2D percolation. Here, we also comment on the relation to the entanglement transition in random tensor networks, studied previously in Vasseur et al. [Phys. Rev. B 100, 134203 (2019)].

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Adaptive variational quantum eigensolvers for highly excited states

Highly excited states of quantum many-body systems are central objects in the study of quantum dynamics and thermalization that challenge classical computational methods due to their volume-law entanglement content. In this work, we explore the potential of variational quantum algorithms to approximate such states. We propose an adaptive variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) for excited states (X) that self-generates a variational ansatz for arbitrary eigenstates of a many-body Hamiltonian H by attempting to minimize the energy variance with respect to H. We benchmark the method by applying it to an Ising spin chain with integrable and nonintegrable regimes, where we calculate various quantities of interest, including the total energy, magnetization density, and entanglement entropy. We also compare the performance of adaptive VQE-X to an adaptive variant of the folded-spectrum method. For both methods, we find a strong dependence of the algorithm's performance on the choice of operator pool used for the adaptive construction of the ansatz. In particular, an operator pool including long-range two-body gates accelerates the convergence of both algorithms in the nonintegrable regime. Here, we also study the scaling of the number of variational parameters with system size, finding that an exponentially large number of parameters may be necessary to approximate individual highly excited states. Nevertheless, we argue that these methods lay a foundation for the use of quantum algorithms to study finite-energy-density properties of many-body systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Spin-Triplet Pairing State Evidenced by Half-Quantum Flux in a Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor

Building future fault-tolerant quantum computers may rely on a basic but so far elusive building-block-type of materials, superconductors with spin-triplet pairing, which were considered to be very rare. Now physicists demonstrate that they can be found in materials with low symmetry, different from most common crystalline materials. The new finding focuses on a particular type of crystals, the structure of which does not have inversion symmetry. For more than a decade, this material class (noncentrosymmetric superconductor) has been inferred to be a potential rich mine of spin-triplet superconductors. It is conceived that the spin-triplet pairing is promised by the broken inversion symmetry, however key experimental evidences remain lacking. Xu et al. applied a newly developed method to examine a prototype noncentrosymmetric superconductor, α-BiPd. Their experiment reveals the presence of the highly unusual half-integer quantization of magnetic flux in polycrystalline rings of α-BiPd, which is a smoking-gun evidence for spin-triplet pairing. This new finding ignites hopes that spin-triplet pairing may be a common presence among the dozens of known noncentrosymmetric superconductors as theoretically expected, which can now be unambiguously identified by the unique phenomenon of half-quantum magnetic flux.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Precursor of pair-density wave in doping Kitaev spin liquid on the honeycomb lattice

Abstract We study the effects of doping the Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice where the spins interact via the bond-directional interaction J K , which is known to have a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. The effect of hole doping is studied within the t - J K model on a three-leg cylinder using density-matrix renormalization group. Upon light doping, we find that the ground state of the system has a dominant quasi-long-range charge-density-wave correlations but short-range single-particle correlations. In the pairing channel, the even-parity superconducting correlation is dominant with d -wave-like symmetry, which oscillates in sign as a function of separation with a period equal to that of the spin-density wave and two times the charge-density wave. Although these correlations fall rapidly (possibly exponentially) at long distances, this is never-the-less the example where a pair-density wave is the leading instability in the pairing channel on the honeycomb lattice.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Extending the thermodynamic form factor bootstrap program: multiple particle-hole excitations, crossing symmetry, and reparameterization invariance

In this study, we further the thermodynamic bootstrap program which involves a set of recently developed ideas used to determine thermodynamic form factors of local operators in integrable quantum field theories. These form factors are essential building blocks for dynamic correlation functions at finite temperatures or non-equilibrium stationary states. In this work we extend this program in three ways. Firstly, we demonstrate that the conjectured annihilation pole axiom is valid in the low energy particle-hole excitations. Secondly, we introduce a crossing relation, which establishes a connection between form factors with different excitation content. Typically, the crossing relation is a consequence of Lorentz invariance, but due to the finite energy density of the considered states, Lorentz invariance is broken. Nonetheless a crossing relation involving excitations with both particles and holes can established using the finite volume representation of the thermodynamic form factors. Finally, we demonstrate that the thermodynamic form factors satisfy a reparameterization invariance, an invariance which encompasses crossing. Reparameterization invariance exploits the fact that the details of the representation of the thermodynamic state are unimportant. In the course of developing these results, we demonstrate the internal consistency of the thermodynamic form factor bootstrap program in a number of ways. Finally, we provide explicit computations of form factors of conserved charges and densities with crossed excitations and show our results can be used to infer information about thermodynamic form factors in the Lieb-Liniger model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Natural orbitals for the ab initio no-core configuration interaction approach

Ab initio no-core configuration interaction (NCCI) calculations for the nuclear many-body problem have traditionally relied upon an antisymmetrized product (Slater determinant) basis built from harmonic oscillator orbitals. The accuracy of such calculations is limited by the finite dimensions which are computationally feasible for the truncated many-body space. We therefore seek to improve the accuracy obtained for a given basis size by optimizing the choice of single-particle orbitals. Natural orbitals, which diagonalize the one-body density matrix, provide a basis which maximizes the occupation of low-lying orbitals, thus accelerating convergence in a configuration-interaction basis, while also possibly providing physical insight into the single-particle structure of the many-body wave function. We describe the implementation of natural orbitals in the NCCI framework and examine the nature of the natural orbitals thus obtained, the properties of the resulting many-body wave functions, and the convergence of observables. After taking 3 He as an illustrative testbed, we explore aspects of NCCI calculations with natural orbitals for the ground state of the p-shell neutron halo nucleus 6 He .

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Mechanical Purcell filters for microwave quantum machines

In circuit quantum electrodynamics, measuring the state of a superconducting qubit introduces a loss channel, which can enhance spontaneous emission through the Purcell effect, thus decreasing the qubit lifetime. This decay can be mitigated by performing the measurement through a Purcell filter, which strongly suppresses signal propagation at the qubit transition frequency. If the filter is also well-matched at the readout cavity frequency, it will protect the qubit from decoherence channels without sacrificing measurement bandwidth. In this work, we propose and analyze design for a mechanical Purcell filter, which we also fabricate and characterize at room temperature. The filter is composed of an array of nanomechanical resonators in thin-film lithium niobate, connected in a ladder topology, with series and parallel resonances arranged to produce a bandpass response. Their modest footprint, steep band edges, and lack of cross talk make these filters an appealing alternative to analogous electromagnetic versions currently used in microwave quantum machines.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Broadband Optical Detection Using the Spin Seebeck Effect

The generation, control, and detection of spin currents in solid-state devices are critical for Joule-heating minimization, spin-based computation, and electrical-energy generation from thermal gradients. Although incorporation of spin functionality into technologically important architectures is still in its infancy, advantages over all-electric devices are increasingly becoming clear. Here, we utilize the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) in Pt/Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 devices to detect light from 390 to 2200 nm. We find that the device responsivity is remarkably flat across this technologically important wavelength range, closely following the Pt absorption coefficient. As expected from a SSE-generation mechanism, we observe that the photovoltage and Pt heating dynamics are in strong agreement. To precisely determine the optically created thermal gradient produced from a pointlike heat source, we introduce a field-modulation method for measuring the SSE. Furthermore, our results show that broadband optical detection can be performed with devices based solely on spin-current generation and detection.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Emergent properties of magnons coupled to microwave photons (Final Technical Report)

Studying the emergent properties of hybrid quantum material platforms holds great promise for advancing quantum technologies and transforming our ability to control quantum mechanical interactions. A key development in recent years is the recognition that magnons – the elementary quanta of spin waves – can serve as fundamental building blocks in quantum systems. Understanding the mechanisms behind the generation and control of hybrid quasiparticles based on magnons could pave the way for engineering new materials for quantum coherent processing and quantum computing. This research project focused on the precise control of light-matter interactions in magnetic hybrid systems and nanostructures, where light is carried by microwave photons and matter by magnons in engineered magnetic metamaterials. Furthermore, we investigated hybridized magnon interactions in magnetic nanostructures and devices. To this end, the project has developed new measurement techniques and systematically studied novel material systems for efficient magnon-photon coupling. A key focus was uncovering the fundamental mechanisms governing magnon-photon and magnon-phonon interactions – critical for utilizing magnons as coherent information transducers between carriers. Specifically, this research addressed: 1. Investigate the dispersion and collective properties of magnon hybrid systems in new material systems. 2. Develop magnonic hybrids with non-zero wavevectors and achieve effective control of magnon-polariton properties through engineered magnonic behaviors. 3. Determine how spin-orbit torques interact with electromagnetic fields in the strong coupling regime. This work generated new insights into the physics of magnonic hybrid systems and their emergent properties by broadening the range of material platforms and measurement techniques used to study magnon-photon and magnon-magnon coupling. The findings deepen our understanding of magnon-polaritons and lay the groundwork for novel spintronic devices with potential applications in quantum information science.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Anisotropic Hydrolysis Susceptibility in Deformed Polydimethylsiloxanes

Chemical reactions involving the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) backbone can induce significant network rearrangements and ultimately degrade macro-scale mechanical properties of silicone components. Using two levels of quantum chemical theory, we identify a possible electronic driver for chemical susceptibility in strained PDMS chains and explore the complicated interplay between hydrolytic chain scissioning reactions, mechanical deformations of the backbone, water attack vector, and chain mobility. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that susceptibility to hydrolysis varies significantly with the vector for water attacks on silicon backbone atoms, which matches strain-induced anisotropic changes in the backbone electronic structure. Efficient semiempirical density functional tight binding (DFTB) calculations are shown to reproduce DFT predictions for select reaction pathways and facilitate more exhaustive explorations of configuration space. We show that concerted strains of the backbone must occur over at least a few monomer units to significantly increase hydrolysis susceptibility. In addition, we observe that sustaining tension across multiple monomer lengths by constraining molecular degrees of freedom further enhances hydrolysis susceptibility, leading to barrierless scission reactions for less substantial backbone deformations than otherwise. We then compute chain scission probabilities as functions of the backbone degrees of freedom, revealing complicated configurational interdependencies that impact the likelihood for hydrolytic degradation. As a result, the trends identified in our study suggest simple physical descriptions for the synergistic coupling between local mechanical deformation and environmental moisture in hydrolytic degradation of silicones.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Emergence of antiferromagnetic correlations and Kondolike features in a model for infinite layer nickelates

We report a determinant quantum Monte Carlo study of a two-band model, inspired by infinite-layer nickelates, focusing on the influence of interlayer hybridization between $3d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$ orbitals derived from Ni (or Ni and O) in one layer and rare-earth (R) 5d orbitals in the other layer, hereafter the Ni and R layers, respectively. For a filling with one electron shared between the two layers on average, interlayer hybridization leads to “self-doped" holes in the Ni layer and the absence of antiferromagnetic ordering, but rather the appearance of spin-density and charge-density stripe-like states. As the interlayer hybridization increases, both the Ni and R layers develop antiferromagnetic correlations, even though either layer individually remains away from half-filling. For hybridization within an intermediate range, roughly comparable to the intralayer nearest-neighbor hopping t Ni , the model develops signatures of Kondo-like physics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Many-Body Physics in the NISQ Era: Quantum Programming a Discrete Time Crystal

Recent progress in the realm of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices represents an exciting opportunity for many-body physics by introducing new laboratory platforms with unprecedented control and measurement capabilities. We explore the implications of NISQ platforms for many-body physics in a practical sense: we ask which physical phenomena, in the domain of quantum statistical mechanics, they may realize more readily than traditional experimental platforms. While a universal quantum computer can simulate any system, the eponymous noise inherent to NISQ devices practically favors certain simulation tasks over others in the near term. As a particularly well-suited target, we identify discrete time crystals (DTCs), novel nonequilibrium states of matter that break time translation symmetry. These can only be realized in the intrinsically out-of-equilibrium setting of periodically driven quantum systems stabilized by disorder-induced many-body localization. While promising precursors of the DTC have been observed across a variety of experimental platforms—ranging from trapped ions to nitrogen-vacancy centers to NMR crystals—none have all the necessary ingredients for realizing a fully fledged incarnation of this phase, and for detecting its signature long-range spatiotemporal order. We show that a new generation of quantum simulators can be programmed to realize the DTC phase and to experimentally detect its dynamical properties, a task requiring extensive capabilities for programmability, initialization, and readout. Specifically, the architecture of Google’s Sycamore processor is a remarkably close match for the task at hand. We also discuss the effects of environmental decoherence, and how they can be distinguished from ‘internal’ decoherence coming from closed-system thermalization dynamics. Already with existing technology and noise levels, we find that DTC spatiotemporal order would be observable over hundreds of periods, with parametric improvements to come as the hardware advances.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗