A shortcut to adiabaticity is a recipe for generating adiabatic evolution at an arbitrary pace. Shortcuts have been developed for quantum, classical and (most recently) stochastic dynamics. A shortcut might involve a counterdiabatic (CD) Hamiltonian that causes a system to follow the adiabatic evolution at all times, or it might utilize a fast-forward (FF) potential, which returns the system to the adiabatic path at the end of the process. We develop a general framework for constructing shortcuts to adiabaticity from flow fields that describe the desired adiabatic evolution. Our approach encompasses quantum, classical and stochastic dynamics, and provides surprisingly compact expressions for both CD Hamiltonians and FF potentials. We illustrate our method with numerical simulations of a model system, and we compare our shortcuts with previously obtained results. We also consider the semiclassical connections between our quantum and classical shortcuts. Our method, like the FF approach developed by previous authors, is susceptible to singularities when applied to excited states of quantum systems; we propose a simple, intuitive criterion for determining whether these singularities will arise, for a given excited state.
A shortcut to adiabaticity is a recipe for generating adiabatic evolution at an arbitrary pace. Shortcuts have been developed for quantum, classical and (most recently) stochastic dynamics. A shortcut might involve a counterdiabatic (CD) Hamiltonian that causes a system to follow the adiabatic evolution at all times, or it might utilize a fast-forward (FF) potential, which returns the system to the adiabatic path at the end of the process. We develop a general framework for constructing shortcuts to adiabaticity from flow fields that describe the desired adiabatic evolution. Our approach encompasses quantum, classical and stochastic dynamics, and provides surprisingly compact expressions for both CD Hamiltonians and FF potentials. We illustrate our method with numerical simulations of a model system, and we compare our shortcuts with previously obtained results. We also consider the semiclassical connections between our quantum and classical shortcuts. Our method, like the FF approach developed by previous authors, is susceptible to singularities when applied to excited states of quantum systems; we propose a simple, intuitive criterion for determining whether these singularities will arise, for a given excited state.
Adiabatic invariants -- quantities that are preserved under the slow driving of a system's external parameters -- are important in classical mechanics, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Adiabatic processes allow a system to be guided to evolve to a desired final state. However, the slow driving of a quantum system makes it vulnerable to environmental decoherence, and for both quantum and classical systems, it is often desirable and time-efficient to speed up a process. {\it Shortcuts to adiabaticity} are strategies for preserving adiabatic invariants under rapid driving, typically by means of an auxiliary field that suppresses excitations, otherwise generated during rapid driving. Several theoretical approaches have been developed to construct such shortcuts. In this dissertation we focus on two different approaches, namely {\it counterdiabatic} driving and {\it fast-forward} driving, which were originally developed for quantum systems. The counterdiabatic approach introduced independently by Dermirplak and Rice [{\it J. Phys. Chem. A}, 107:9937, 2003], and Berry [{\it J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.}, 42:365303, 2009] formally provides an exact expression for the auxiliary Hamiltonian, which however is abstract and difficult to translate into an experimentally implementable form. By contrast, the fast-forward approach developed by Masuda and Nakamura [{\it Proc. R. Soc. A}, 466(2116):1135, 2010] provides an auxiliary potential that may be experimentally implementable but generally applies only to ground states. The central theme of this dissertation is that classical shortcuts to adiabaticity can provide useful physical insights and lead to experimentally implementable shortcuts for analogous quantum systems. We start by studying a model system of a tilted piston to provide a proof of principle that quantum shortcuts can successfully be constructed from their classical counterparts. In the remainder of the dissertation, we develop a general approach based on {\it flow-fields} which produces simple expressions for auxiliary terms required for both counterdiabatic and fast-forward driving. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach for classical, quantum as well as stochastic systems. We establish strong connections between counterdiabatic and fast-forward approaches, and also between shortcut protocols required for classical, quantum and stochastic systems. In particular, we show how the fast-forward approach can be extended to highly excited states of quantum systems.
In fast-forward quantum shortcuts to adiabaticity, a designed potential U FF (q, t ) steers a wave function to evolve from the nth eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian Ĥ (0) to the nth eigenstate of a final Hamiltonian Ĥ (τ ), in finite time τ .Previously proposed strategies for constructing U FF are (in the absence of special symmetries) limited to the ground state n = 0. We develop a method that overcomes this limitation, thereby substantially expanding the applicability of this shortcut to adiabaticity, and we illustrate its effectiveness with numerical simulations.Semiclassical analysis provides insight and establishes a close correspondence to the analogous classical fast-forward method.
Transitionless quantum driving achieves adiabatic evolution in a hurry, using a counterdiabatic Hamiltonian to stifle nonadiabatic transitions. Here this shortcut to adiabaticity is cast in terms of a generator of adiabatic transport. This yields a classical analog of transitionless driving, and provides a strategy for constructing quantal counterdiabatic Hamiltonians. As an application of this framework, exact classical and quantal counterdiabatic terms are obtained for a particle in a box and for even-power-law potentials in one degree of freedom.
We propose a simple construction of shortcuts to adiabaticity tracking instantaneous stationary states in classical spin systems without knowing tracked stationary states. In our construction, control fields of counterdiabatic driving are composed of state-dependent magnetic fields, which can be easily determined with an aid of numerical calculations. Easiness of our construction is a remarkable feature since it is usually a hard task to determine explicit expression of required counterdiabatic terms in many-body systems. We also argue that our method can be applied to solve combinatorial optimization problems by considering classical spin dynamics under a time-dependent Hamiltonian, which mimics the procedure of quantum annealing.
Shortcut to adiabaticity (STA) is a speedway to produce the same final state that would result in an adiabatic, infinitely slow process. Two typical techniques to engineer STA are developed by either introducing auxiliary counterdiabatic fields or finding new Hamiltonians that own dynamical invariants to constraint the system into the adiabatic paths. In this paper, an efficient method is introduced to naturally cover the above two techniques with a unified Lie algebraic framework and neatly remove the design difficulties and loose assumptions in the two techniques. A general STA scheme for different potential expansions concisely achieves with the aid of squeezing transformations.
Adiabatic quantum state evolution can be accelerated through a variety of shortcuts to adiabaticity . In one approach, a counterdiabatic quantum Hamiltonian, Ĥ CD, is constructed to suppress nonadiabatic excitations. In the analogous classical problem, a counterdiabatic classical Hamiltonian, H CD, ensures that the classical action remains constant even under rapid driving. Both the quantum and classical versions of this problem have been solved for the special case of scale-invariant driving, characterized by linear expansions, contractions, or translations of the system. Here we investigate an example of a non-scale-invariant system, a tilted piston . We solve exactly for the classical counterdiabatic Hamiltonian, H CD ( q, p, t ), which we then quantize to obtain a Hermitian operator, Ĥ CD ( t ). Using numerical simulations, we find that Ĥ CD effectively suppresses nonadiabatic excitations under rapid driving. These results offer a proof of principle, beyond the special case of scale-invariant driving, that quantum shortcuts to adiabaticity can successfully be constructed from their classical counterparts.