Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “monitored quantum systems”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Reshaping the Quantum Arrow of Time

While the microscopic laws of physics are often symmetric under time reversal, most natural processes that we observe are not. The emergent asymmetry between typical and time-reversed processes is referred to as the arrow of time. In quantum physics, an arrow of time emerges when a sequence of measurements is performed on a system. We introduce quantum control tools that can yield dynamics more consistent with time flowing backward than forward. The control tools are based on the explicit construction of a Hamiltonian that can replicate the stochastic trajectories of a monitored quantum system. Such a Hamiltonian can reverse the effect of monitoring and, via a feedback process, generate trajectories consistent with a reversed arrow of time. It can also be used to simulate the backward-in-time dynamics of an open quantum system. Finally, we design a feedback-driven continuous measurement engine powered by the energy pumped into the system by the monitoring process. We show that the engine can operate under experimentally realizable conditions with feedback delay and finite-efficiency measurements.

Entropy production↗
DOE OSTI2023

Neural-network decoders for measurement induced phase transitions

Open quantum systems have been shown to host a plethora of exotic dynamical phases. Measurement-induced entanglement phase transitions in monitored quantum systems are a striking example of this phenomena. However, naive realizations of such phase transitions requires an exponential number of repetitions of the experiment which is practically unfeasible on large systems. Recently, it has been proposed that these phase transitions can be probed locally via entangling reference qubits and studying their purification dynamics. In this work, we leverage modern machine learning tools to devise a neural network decoder to determine the state of the reference qubits conditioned on the measurement outcomes. We show that the entanglement phase transition manifests itself as a stark change in the learnability of the decoder function. We study the complexity and scalability of this approach in both Clifford and Haar random circuits and discuss how it can be utilized to detect entanglement phase transitions in generic experiments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Time reversal symmetry of generalized quantum measurements with past and future boundary conditions

Here we expand the time reversal symmetry arguments of quantum mechanics, originally proposed by Wigner in the context of unitary dynamics, to contain situations including generalized measurements for monitored quantum systems. We propose a scheme to derive the time-reversed measurement operators by considering the Schrödinger picture dynamics of a qubit coupled to a measuring device, and show that the time-reversed measurement operators form a Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM) set. We present three particular examples to illustrate time reversal of measurement operators: (1) the Gaussian spin measurement, (2) a dichotomous POVM for spin, and (3) the measurement of qubit fluorescence. We then propose a general rule to unravel any rank two qubit measurement, and show that the backward dynamics obeys the retrodicted equations of the forward dynamics starting from the time reversed final state. We demonstrate the time reversal invariance of dynamical equations using the example of qubit fluorescence. We also generalize the discussion of a statistical arrow of time for continuous quantum measurements introduced by Dressel et al. (Phys Rev Lett 119:220507, 2017): we show that the backward probabilities can be computed from a process similar to retrodiction from the time-reversed final state, and extend the definition of an arrow of time to ensembles prepared with pre- and post-selections, where we obtain a non-vanishing arrow of time in general. We discuss sufficient conditions for when time’s arrow vanishes and show our method also captures the contributions to time’s arrow due to natural physical processes like relaxation of an atom to its ground state. As a special case, we recover the time reversibility of the weak value as its complex conjugate using our method, and discuss how our conclusions differ from the time-symmetry argument of Aharonov–Bergmann–Lebowitz rule.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Quantum speed limits under continuous quantum measurements

The pace of evolution of physical systems is fundamentally constrained by quantum speed limits (QSL), which have found broad applications in quantum science and technology. We consider the speed of evolution for quantum systems undergoing stochastic dynamics due to continuous measurements. It is shown that that there are trajectories for which standard QSL are violated, and we provide estimates for the range of velocities in an ensemble of realizations of continuous measurement records. We determine the dispersion of the speed of evolution and characterize the full statistics of single trajectories. By characterizing the dispersion of the Bures angle, we further show that continuous quantum measurements induce Brownian dynamics in Hilbert space.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Random Quantum Circuits

Quantum circuits—built from local unitary gates and local measurements—are a new playground for quantum many-body physics and a tractable setting to explore universal collective phenomena far from equilibrium. These models have shed light on longstanding questions about thermalization and chaos, and on the underlying universal dynamics of quantum information and entanglement. In addition, such models generate new sets of questions and give rise to phenomena with no traditional analog, such as dynamical phase transitions in quantum systems that are monitored by an external observer. Quantum circuit dynamics is also topical in view of experimental progress in building digital quantum simulators that allow control of precisely these ingredients. Randomness in the circuit elements allows a high level of theoretical control, with a key theme being mappings between real-time quantum dynamics and effective classical lattice models or dynamical processes. Many of the universal phenomena that can be identified in this tractable setting apply to much wider classes of more structured many-body dynamics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scrambling and operator entanglement in local non-Hermitian quantum systems

The breakdown of Lieb-Robinson bounds in local, non-Hermitian quantum systems opens up the possibility for a rich landscape of quantum many-body phenomenology. We elucidate this by studying information scrambling and quantum chaos in non-Hermitian variants of paradigmatic local quantum spin-chain models. We utilize a mixture of exact diagonalization and tensor network techniques for our numerical results and focus on three dynamical quantities: (i) out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), (ii) operator entanglement of the dynamics, and (iii) entanglement growth following a quench from product initial states. We show that while OTOCs fail to capture information scrambling in a simple, local, non-Hermitian transverse-field Ising model, the closely related operator entanglement is a robust measure of dynamical properties of interest. Moreover, we show that the short-time growth of operator entanglement can generically detect entanglement phase transitions in these systems while its long-time average is shown to be a reliable indicator of quantum chaos and entanglement phases. This allows us to extend operator entanglement-based diagnostics from previous works on closed and open quantum systems, to the new arena of monitored quantum dynamics. Finally, we remark on the efficacy of these dynamical quantities in detecting integrability/chaos in the presence of continuous monitoring.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking Induced by Quantum Monitoring

Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) is responsible for structure formation in scenarios ranging from condensed matter to cosmology. SSB is broadly understood in terms of perturbations to the Hamiltonian governing the dynamics or to the state of the system. Here, we study SSB due to quantum monitoring of a system via continuous quantum measurements. The acquisition of information during the measurement process induces a measurement back-action that seeds SSB. In this setting, by monitoring different observables, an observer can tailor the topology of the vacuum manifold, the pattern of symmetry breaking and the nature of the resulting domains and topological defects.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Plasmon–Exciton Interactions Probed Using Spatial Coentrapment of Nanoparticles by Topological Singularities

We study plasmon-exciton interaction by using topological singularities to spatially confine, selectively deliver, cotrap and optically probe colloidal semiconductor and plasmonic nanoparticles. The interaction is monitored in a single quantum system in the bulk of a liquid crystal medium where nanoparticles are manipulated and nanoconfined far from dielectric interfaces using laser tweezers and topological configurations containing singularities. When quantum dot-in-a-rod particles are spatially colocated with a plasmonic gold nanoburst particle in a topological singularity core, its fluorescence increases because blinking is significantly suppressed and the radiative decay rate increases by nearly an order of magnitude owing to the Purcell effect. We argue that the blinking suppression is the result of the radiative rate change that mitigates Auger recombination and quantum dot ionization, consequently reducing nonradiative recombination. Our work demonstrates that topological singularities are an effective platform for studying and controlling plasmon-exciton interactions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Learnability Transitions in Monitored Quantum Dynamics via Eavesdropper’s Classical Shadows

Monitored quantum dynamics—unitary evolution interspersed with measurements—has recently emerged as a rich domain for phase structure in quantum many-body systems away from equilibrium. Here we study monitored dynamics from the point of view of an eavesdropper who has access to the classical measurement outcomes, but not to the quantum many-body system. We show that a measure of information flow from the quantum system to the classical measurement record—the —undergoes a phase transition in correspondence with the measurement-induced phase transition (MIPT). This transition determines the eavesdropper’s (in)ability to learn properties of an unknown initial quantum state of the system, given a complete classical description of the monitored dynamics and arbitrary classical computational resources. We make this learnability transition concrete by defining classical shadow protocols that the eavesdropper may apply to this problem, and show that the MIPT manifests as a transition in the sample complexity of various shadow-estimation tasks, which become harder in the low-measurement phase. We focus on three applications of interest: Pauli expectation values (where we find the MIPT appears as a point of optimal learnability for typical Pauli operators), many-body fidelity, and global charge in U ( 1 ) -symmetric dynamics. Our work unifies different manifestations of the MIPT under the umbrella of and gives this notion a general operational meaning via classical shadows. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurement-induced multipartite-entanglement regimes in collective spin systems

We study the competing effects of collective generalized measurements and interaction-induced scrambling in the dynamics of an ensemble of spin-1/2 particles at the level of quantum trajectories. This setup can be considered as analogous to the one leading to measurement-induced transitions in quantum circuits. We show that the interplay between collective unitary dynamics and measurements leads to three regimes of the average Quantum Fisher Information (QFI), which is a witness of multipartite entanglement, as a function of the monitoring strength. While both weak and strong measurements lead to extensive QFI density (i.e., individual quantum trajectories yield states displaying Heisenberg scaling), an intermediate regime of classical-like states emerges for all system sizes where the measurement effectively competes with the scrambling dynamics and precludes the development of quantum correlations, leading to sub-Heisenberg-limited states. We characterize these regimes and the crossovers between them using numerical and analytical tools, and discuss the connections between our findings, entanglement phases in monitored many-body systems, and the quantum-to-classical transition.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Monitored Fluctuating Hydrodynamics

We introduce a hydrodynamic framework for describing monitored classical stochastic processes. We study the conditional ensembles for these monitored processes—i.e., we compute spacetime correlation functions conditioned on a fixed, typical measurement record. In the presence of global symmetries we show that these conditional ensembles can undergo measurement-induced “sharpening” phase transitions as a function of the monitoring rate; moreover, even weak monitoring can give rise to novel critical phases, derived entirely from a classical perspective. We give a simple hydrodynamic derivation of the known “charge-fuzzy phase” for weakly monitored diffusive many-body quantum systems. We show that although the unmonitored symmetric and asymmetric exclusion processes are in different universality classes of transport, the fluctuations in their conditional ensembles flow to the same fixed point with emergent relativistic invariance under monitoring. On the other hand, weakly monitored systems with non-Abelian symmetries enter a novel strongly coupled fixed point with nontrivial dynamical exponent, which we characterize. Our formalism naturally accounts for monitoring general observables, such as currents or density gradients, and allows for a direct calculation of information-theoretic diagnostics of sharpening transitions, including the Shannon entropy of the measurement record.

classical statistical mechanics↗
DOE OSTI2016

A tamper-indicating quantum seal

Technical means for identifying when tampering occurs is a critical part of many containment and surveillance technologies. Conventional fiber optic seals provide methods for monitoring enclosed inventories, but they are vulnerable to spoofing attacks based on classical physics. We address these vulnerabilities with the development of a quantum seal that offers the ability to detect the intercept-resend attack using quantum integrity verification. Our approach represents an application of entanglement to provide guarantees in the authenticity of the seal state by verifying it was transmitted coherently. We implement these ideas using polarization-entangled photon pairs that are verified after passing through a fiber-optic channel testbed. Using binary detection theory, we find the probability of detecting inauthentic signals is greater than 0.9999 with a false alarm chance of 10 –9 for a 10 second sampling interval. In addition, we show how the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect concurrently provides a tight bound on redirection attack, in which tampering modifies the shape of the seal. Our measurements limit the tolerable path length change to sub-millimeter disturbances. As a result, these tamper-indicating features of the quantum seal offer unprecedented security for unattended monitoring systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Covalent Drug Binding in Live Cells Monitored by Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser Spectroscopy: Photoactive Yellow Protein as a Model System

The detection of drug-target interactions in live cells enables analysis of therapeutic compounds in a native cellular environment. Recent advances in spectroscopy and molecular biology have facilitated the development of genetically encoded vibrational probes like nitriles that can sensitively report on molecular interactions. Nitriles are powerful tools for measuring electrostatic environments within condensed media like proteins, but such measurements in live cells have been hindered by low signal-to-noise ratios. In this study, we design a spectrometer based on a double-beam quantum cascade laser (QCL)-based transmission infrared (IR) source with balanced detection that can significantly enhance sensitivity to nitrile vibrational probes embedded in proteins within cells compared to a conventional FTIR spectrometer. Here, using this approach, we detect small-molecule binding in Escherichia coli, with particular focus on the interaction between para-Coumaric acid (pCA) and nitrile-incorporated photoactive yellow protein (PYP). This system effectively serves as a model for investigating covalent drug binding in a cellular environment. Notably, we observe large spectral shifts of up to 15 cm –1 for nitriles embedded in PYP between the unbound and drug-bound states directly within bacteria, in agreement with observations for purified proteins. Such large spectral shifts are ascribed to the changes in the hydrogen-bonding environment around the local environment of nitriles, accurately modeled through high-level molecular dynamics simulations using the AMOEBA force field. Our findings underscore the QCL spectrometer’s ability to enhance sensitivity for monitoring drug–protein interactions, offering new opportunities for advanced methodologies in drug development and biochemical research.

chromophores↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deployed quantum link characterization via Bayesian ancilla-assisted process tomography

The development of large-scale quantum networks requires reliable quantum channels, the quality of which can be quantified by the framework of quantum process tomography. Here, in this work, we leverage ancilla-assisted process tomography (AAPT) and Bayesian inference to probe a 1.6 km deployed fiber-optic link. We send one of the two polarization-entangled photons at Alice in one building to Bob in another, exploiting the local qubit as an ancilla system to characterize the corresponding quantum channel. Monitoring over a 24 h period returns a steady process fidelity of 97.6(1)%, while controllable spectral filtering with passbands from 0.025 to 4.38 THz finds fidelities that first increase, and then level off with bandwidth, suggesting both stable operation with time and minimal polarization mode dispersion. To our knowledge, these results represent the first AAPT of a deployed quantum link, revealing a valuable tool for in situ analysis of entanglement-based quantum networks.

Rahman, Arefur [Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (Un↗
NASA NTRS2022

A Strategic Lens on Quantum Sensing for Space Applications

As classical technologies approach their theoretical power limits, quantum technologies, including computing, communications, and sensing, are often credited as the next science and engineering revolution. Quantum sensors are the basis of quantum computing and communications technologies, but also have unique uses for security, medical, and space-related applications. Regarding NASA’s agency goals, quantum sensing can improve climate change monitoring, enable navigations systems for deep space, and enhance fundamental astrophysics research. This report outlines the findings from an independent intern project on the ways NASA can strategically invest in quantum sensing technologies. This report also outlines policy barriers to developing the technology, largely related to communication difficulties, unfamiliarity with quantum, and lengthy approval processes. The information on tools and challenges relevant to quantum technology was gathered from literature reviews, online research, and discussions with NASA individuals. This report concludes with strategic recommendations to answer the question: what policies should NASA implement to effectively research and develop quantum sensing technologies?

Holland Frieling↗
DOE OSTI2026

Universal monitored dynamics in multimode bosonic systems

We propose a route to study monitored many-body dynamics in multimode bosonic systems using circuit quantum electrodynamics. In this experimental setting, we construct several bosonic models comprising brickwork circuits built from beam-splitter gates, local parity measurements, and optional on-site Hubbard interactions, and diagnose their monitored dynamics via ancilla purification and a learnability-based probe. Under parity measurements, generic gate sets exhibit behavior that is largely consistent with a conventional measurement-induced phase transition, while a special class of beam-splitter circuits shows an apparent critical-like high-measurement regime in which purification times scale linearly with system size. We show that for realistic noise, gate, and measurement rates, these signatures are observable with near-term circuit QED hardware.

Patel, Shivam [Rutgers U., Piscataway]↗
DOE OSTI2019

Heralded Bell State of Dissipative Qubits Using Classical Light in a Waveguide

Maximally entangled two-qubit states (Bell states) are of central importance in quantum technologies. We show that heralded generation of a maximally entangled state of two intrinsically open qubits can be realized in a one-dimensional (1d) system through strong coherent driving and continuous monitoring. In contrast to the natural idea that dissipation leads to decoherence and so destroys quantum effects, continuous measurement and strong interference in our 1d system generate a pure state with perfect quantum correlation between the two open qubits. Though the steady state is a trivial product state which has zero coherence or concurrence, we show that, with carefully tuned parameters, a Bell state can be generated in the system's quantum jump trajectories, heralded by a reflected photon. Surprisingly, this maximally entangled state survives the strong coherent state input—a classical state that overwhelms the system. This simple method to generate maximally entangled states using classical coherent light and photon detection may, since our qubits are in a 1d continuum, find application as a building block of quantum networks.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗