The experimental realization of large-scale many-body systems in atomic-optical architectures has seen immense progress in recent years, rendering full tomography tools for state identification inefficient, especially for continuous systems. To work with these emerging physical platforms, new technologies for state identification are required. Here we present first steps towards efficient experimental quantum-field tomography. Our procedure is based on the continuous analogues of matrix-product states, ubiquitous in condensed-matter theory. These states naturally incorporate the locality present in realistic physical settings and are thus prime candidates for describing the physics of locally interacting quantum fields. To experimentally demonstrate the power of our procedure, we quench a one-dimensional Bose gas by a transversal split and use our method for a partial quantum-field reconstruction of the far-from-equilibrium states of this system. We expect our technique to play an important role in future studies of continuous quantum many-body systems.
The experimental realization of large-scale many-body systems in atomic-optical architectures has seen immense progress in recent years, rendering full tomography tools for state identification inefficient, especially for continuous systems. To work with these emerging physical platforms, new technologies for state identification are required. Here we present first steps towards efficient experimental quantum-field tomography. Our procedure is based on the continuous analogues of matrix-product states, ubiquitous in condensed-matter theory. These states naturally incorporate the locality present in realistic physical settings and are thus prime candidates for describing the physics of locally interacting quantum fields. To experimentally demonstrate the power of our procedure, we quench a one-dimensional Bose gas by a transversal split and use our method for a partial quantum-field reconstruction of the far-from-equilibrium states of this system. We expect our technique to play an important role in future studies of continuous quantum many-body systems.
Quantum state tomography provides a powerful and versatile framework for characterizing quantum states across diverse quantum systems. However, tomography is still largely restricted to systems with a few degrees of freedom, while for continuous systems, it is typically tailored to quantum-optical platforms. For other many-body systems described by continuous quantum fields such as ultracold atomic gases, tomographic technique is not as well-established. The present thesis addresses this gap by providing new approaches to measurement and tomography of ultracold Bose gases trapped in one (1D) and two dimensions (2D). These systems serve as analog quantum field theory (QFT) simulators and exhibit novel physics absent in higher dimensions. We begin by systematically assessing state-of-the-art method for extracting the relative phase field in parallel 1D Bose gases with matter-wave interference. In particular, we derive a formula for the systematic phase shift due to longitudinal dynamics, a factor that is often ignored in previous modeling of the measurement. We further examine how the single-shot readout error propagates to correlation and distribution functions of the relative phase. Then, we broaden the scope of experimentally accessible quantities by developing a new methodology to extract the common phase field---the sum of the phase fields of the two parallel gases---from the already available density ripple data. We rigorously benchmark this new readout with numerical simulations and experimental data in 1D systems and further generalize it to 2D systems. By combining the relative and common phases information, we improve Gaussian state tomography in parallel 1D Bose gases and apply it to probe new physical phenomena in quantum field simulators. Specifically, we focus on two applications: (i) field-space entanglement detection at finite temperatures and out of equilibrium, and (ii) probing non-linear relaxation in near-integrable quantum systems. This thesis bridges theory and experiment in the simulation of QFTs and reveals new opportunities for exploring many-body quantum effects in ultracold bosonic gases.
We introduce the concept of quantum field tomography, the efficient and reliable reconstruction of unknown quantum fields based on data of correlation functions. At the basis of the analysis is the concept of continuous matrix product states (cMPS), a complete set of variational states grasping states in one-dimensional quantum field theory. We innovate a practical method, making use of and developing tools in estimation theory used in the context of compressed sensing such as Prony methods and matrix pencils, allowing us to faithfully reconstruct quantum field states based on low-order correlation functions. In the absence of a phase reference, we highlight how specific higher order correlation functions can still be predicted. We exemplify the functioning of the approach by reconstructing randomized cMPS from their correlation data and study the robustness of the reconstruction for different noise models. Furthermore, we apply the method to data generated by simulations based on cMPS and using the time-dependent variational principle. The presented approach is expected to open up a new window into experimentally studying continuous quantum systems, such as those encountered in experiments with ultra-cold atoms on top of atom chips. By virtue of the analogy with the input–output formalism in quantum optics, it also allows for studying open quantum systems.
In recent years, a close connection between the description of open quantum systems, the input–output formalism of quantum optics, and continuous matrix product states (cMPS) in quantum field theory has been established. The latter constitute a variational class of one-dimensional quantum field states and have been shown to provide an efficient ansatz for performing tomography of open quantum systems. So far, however, the connection between cMPS and open quantum systems has not yet been developed for quantum transport experiments in the condensed-matter context. In this work, we first present an extension of the tomographic possibilities of cMPS by demonstrating the validity of reconstruction schemes based on low-order counting probabilities compared to previous schemes based on low-order correlation functions. We then show how fermionic quantum transport settings can be formulated within the cMPS framework. Our procedure, via the measurements of low-order correlation functions only, allows us to gain access to quantities that are not directly measurable with present technology. Emblematic examples are high-order correlations functions and waiting time distributions (WTD). The latter are of particular interest since they offer insights into short-time scale physics. We demonstrate the functioning of the method with actual data, opening up the way to accessing WTD within the quantum regime.
In recent years, a close connection between the description of open quantum systems, the input–output formalism of quantum optics, and continuous matrix product states (cMPS) in quantum field theory has been established. The latter constitute a variational class of one-dimensional quantum field states and have been shown to provide an efficient ansatz for performing tomography of open quantum systems. So far, however, the connection between cMPS and open quantum systems has not yet been developed for quantum transport experiments in the condensed-matter context. In this work, we first present an extension of the tomographic possibilities of cMPS by demonstrating the validity of reconstruction schemes based on low-order counting probabilities compared to previous schemes based on low-order correlation functions. We then show how fermionic quantum transport settings can be formulated within the cMPS framework. Our procedure, via the measurements of low-order correlation functions only, allows us to gain access to quantities that are not directly measurable with present technology. Emblematic examples are high-order correlations functions and waiting time distributions (WTD). The latter are of particular interest since they offer insights into short-time scale physics. We demonstrate the functioning of the method with actual data, opening up the way to accessing WTD within the quantum regime.
Improving the understanding of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems such as gases of interacting atoms or electrons is one of the most important challenges in modern condensed matter physics, materials research, and chemistry.Enormous progress has been made in the past decades in developing both classical and quantum approaches to calculate, simulate, and experimentally probe the properties of such systems.In this work, we use a combination of classical and quantum methods to experimentally explore the properties of an interacting quantum gas by creating experimental realizations of continuous matrix product states-a class of states that has proven extremely powerful as a variational ansatz for numerical simulations.By systematically preparing and probing these states using a circuit quantum electrodynamics system, we experimentally determine a good approximation to the ground-state wave function of the Lieb-Liniger Hamiltonian, which describes an interacting Bose gas in one dimension.Since the simulated Hamiltonian is encoded in the measurement observable rather than the controlled quantum system, this approach has the potential to apply to a variety of models including those involving multicomponent interacting fields.Our findings also hint at the possibility of experimentally exploring general properties of matrix product states and entanglement theory.The scheme presented here is applicable to a broad range of systems exploiting strong and tunable light-matter interactions.
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices provide an extremely clean and controllable setting to explore quantum many-body phases of matter. Here we give a brief review of the strong-correlation physics that has been realized using such ultracold atoms in optical lattices ranging from the realization of Hubbard models to studies of quantum magnetism and the detection of single atoms with lattice site resolution. All this has opened up fundamentally new opportunities for the investigation of quantum many-body systems. Introduction Over the past years, ultracold atoms in optical lattices have emerged as versatile new systems to explore the physics of quantum many-body systems. On the one hand, they can be helpful in gaining a better understanding of known phases of matter and their dynamical behavior; on the other hand, they allow one to realize completely novel quantum systems that have not been studied before in nature [1, 2, 3]. Commonly, the approach of exploring quantum many-body systems in such a way is referred to as “quantum simulations.” Examples of some of the first strongly interacting many-body phases that have been realized both in lattices and in the continuum include the quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator [4, 5, 6], fermionic Mott insulators [7, 8], the achievement of a Tonks- Girardeau gas [9, 10], and the realization of the Bose-Einsten condensate (BEC)– Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) crossover (see also Chapter 12) in Fermi gas mixture [11] using Feshbach resonances [12]. In almost all of these experiments, detection was limited to time-of-flight imaging or more refined derived techniques that mainly characterized the momentum distribution of the quantum gas [2]. For several years, researchers in the field have therefore aspired to employ in situ single-particle detection methods for the analysis of ultracold quantum gases. Only recently has it become possible to implement such imaging techniques, marking a milestone for the characterization and manipulation of ultracold quantum gases [13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. In our discussion, we will focus on one of the most successful of these techniques based on high-resolution fluorescence imaging. Despite being a rather new technique, such quantum gas microscopy has already proven to be an enabling technology for probing and manipulating quantum many-body systems. For the first time, controllable and strongly interacting many-body systems, as realized with ultracold atoms, could be observed on a local scale [17, 16].