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I demonstrate the potential of reinforcement learning (RL) to prepare quantum states of strongly periodically driven non-linear single-particle models. The ability of Q-Learning to control systems far away from equilibrium is exhibited by steering the quantum Kapitza oscillator to the Floquet-engineered stable inverted position in the presence of a strong periodic drive within several shaking cycles. The study reveals the potential of the intra-period (micromotion) dynamics, often neglected in Floquet engineering, to take advantage over pure stroboscopic control at moderate drive frequencies. Without any knowledge about the underlying physical system, the algorithm is capable of learning solely from tried protocols and directly from simulated noisy quantum measurement data, and is stable to noise in the initial state, and sources of random failure events in the control sequence. Model-free RL can provide new insights into automating experimental setups for out-of-equilibrium systems undergoing complex dynamics, with potential applications in quantum information, quantum optics, ultracold atoms, trapped ions, and condensed matter.
Harmonic oscillators count among the most fundamental quantum systems with important applications in molecular physics, nanoparticle trapping, and quantum information processing. Their equidistant energy level spacing is often a desired feature, but at the same time a challenge if the goal is to deterministically populate specific eigenstates. Here, we show how interference in the transition amplitudes in a bichromatic laser field can suppress the sequential climbing of harmonic oscillator states (Kapitza-Dirac blockade) and achieve selective excitation of energy eigenstates, Schr{o}dinger cats and other non-Gaussian states. This technique can transform the harmonic oscillator into a coherent two-level system or be used to build a large-momentum-transfer beam splitter for matter-waves. To illustrate the universality of the concept, we discuss feasible experiments that cover many orders of magnitude in mass, from single electrons over large molecules to dielectric nanoparticles.
Critical behavior developed near a quantum phase transition, interesting in its own right, offers exciting opportunities to explore the universality of strongly-correlated systems near the ground state. Cold atoms in optical lattices, in particular, represent a paradigmatic system, for which the quantum phase transition between the superfluid and Mott insulator states can be externally induced by tuning the microscopic parameters. In this paper, we describe our approach to study quantum criticality of cesium atoms in a two-dimensional lattice based on in situ density measurements. Our research agenda involves testing critical scaling of thermodynamic observables and extracting transport properties in the quantum critical regime. We present and discuss experimental progress on both fronts. In particular, the thermodynamic measurement suggests that the equation of state near the critical point follows the predicted scaling law at low temperatures.
Adiabatic evolution is a common strategy for manipulating quantum states and has been employed in diverse fields such as quantum simulation, computation and annealing. However, adiabatic evolution is inherently slow and therefore susceptible to decoherence. Existing methods for speeding up adiabatic evolution require complex many-body operators or are difficult to construct for multi-level systems. Using the tools of Floquet engineering, we design a scheme for high-fidelity quantum state manipulation, utilizing only the interactions available in the original Hamiltonian. We apply this approach to a qubit and experimentally demonstrate its performance with the electronic spin of a Nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. Our Floquet-engineered protocol achieves state preparation fidelity of $0.994 pm 0.004$, on the same level as the conventional fast-forward protocol, but is more robust to external noise acting on the qubit. Floquet engineering provides a powerful platform for high-fidelity quantum state manipulation in complex and noisy quantum systems.
Recent theoretical work on time-periodically kicked Hofstadter model found robust counter-propagating edge modes. It remains unclear how ubiquitously such anomalous modes can appear, and what dictates their robustness against disorder. Here we shed further light on the nature of these modes by analyzing a simple type of periodic driving where the hopping along one spatial direction is modulated sinusoidally with time while the hopping along the other spatial direction is kept constant. We obtain the phase diagram for the quasienergy spectrum at flux 1/3 as the driving frequency $omega$ and the hopping anisotropy are varied. A series of topologically distinct phases with counter-propagating edge modes appear due to the harmonic driving, similar to the case of a periodically kicked system studied earlier. We analyze the time dependence of the pair of Floquet edge states localized at the same edge, and compare their Fourier components in the frequency domain. In the limit of small modulation, one of the Floquet edge mode within the pair can be viewed as the edge mode originally living in the other energy gap shifted in quasienergy by $hbar omega$, i.e., by absorption or emission of a photon of frequency $omega$. Our result suggests that counter-propagating Floquet edge modes are generic features of periodically driven integer quantum Hall systems, and not tied to any particular driving protocol. It also suggests that the Floquet edge modes would remain robust to any static perturbations that do not destroy the chiral edge modes of static quantum Hall states.
A particle in an Anderson-localized system, if launched in any direction, should on average return to its starting point and stay there. Despite the central role played by Anderson localization in the modern understanding of condensed matter, this quantum boomerang effect, an essential feature of the localized state, was only recently theoretically predicted and has not previously been observed. We report the experimental observation of the quantum boomerang effect. Using a degenerate gas and a phase-shifted pair of optical lattices, we probe the role of time reversal symmetry breaking, Floquet gauge, and initial state symmetry in supporting or disrupting the boomerang effect. Highlighting the key role of localization, we observe that as stochastic kicking destroys dynamical localization, the quantum boomerang effect also disappears. Measured dynamics are in agreement with analytical and numerical predictions. These results showcase a unique experimental probe of the underlying quantum nature of Anderson localized matter.