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arXiv:1711.02911 · Science Advances

Breaking the quantum adiabatic speed limit by jumping along geodesics

Kebiao Xu, Tianyu Xie, Fazhan Shi, Zhenyu Wang, Xiangkun Xu, Pengfei Wang, Ya Wang, Martin Bodo Plenio, Jiangfeng Du

Published Jun 1, 2019• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum adiabatic evolutions find a broad range of applications in quantum physics and quantum technologies. The traditional form of the quantum adiabatic theorem limits the speed of adiabatic evolution by the minimum energy gaps of the system Hamiltonian. Here, we experimentally show using a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond that, even in the presence of vanishing energy gaps, quantum adiabatic evolution is possible. This verifies a recently derived necessary and sufficient quantum adiabatic theorem and offers paths to overcome the conventionally assumed constraints on adiabatic methods. By fast modulation of dynamic phases, we demonstrate near-unit-fidelity quantum adiabatic processes in finite times. These results challenge traditional views and provide deeper understanding on quantum adiabatic processes, as well as promising strategies for the control of quantum systems.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.aax3800

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Quantum adiabatic evolutions find a broad range of applications in quantum physics and quantum technologies. The traditional form of the quantum adiabatic theorem limits the speed of adiabatic evolution by the minimum energy gaps of the system Hamiltonian. Here, we experimentally show using a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond that, even in the presence of vanishing energy gaps, quantum adiabatic evolution is possible. This verifies a recently derived necessary and sufficient quantum adiabatic theorem and offers paths to overcome the conventionally assumed constraints on adiabatic methods. By fast modulation of dynamic phases, we demonstrate near-unit-fidelity quantum adiabatic processes in finite times. These results challenge traditional views and provide deeper understanding on quantum adiabatic processes, as well as promising strategies for the control of quantum systems.
Adiabatic time-optimal quantum controls are extensively used in quantum technologies to break the constraints imposed by short coherence times. However, practically it is crucial to consider the trade-off between the quantum evolution speed and instantaneous energy cost of process because of the constraints in the available control Hamiltonian. Here, we experimentally show that using a transmon qubit that, even in the presence of vanishing energy gaps, it is possible to reach a highly time-optimal adiabatic quantum driving at low energy cost in the whole evolution process. This validates the recently derived general solution of the quantum Zermelo navigation problem, paving the way for energy-efficient quantum control which is usually overlooked in conventional speed-up schemes, including the well-known counter-diabatic driving. By designing the control Hamiltonian based on the quantum speed limit bound quantified by the changing rate of phase in the interaction picture, we reveal the relationship between the quantum speed limit and instantaneous energy cost. Consequently, we demonstrate fast and high-fidelity quantum adiabatic processes by employing energy-efficient driving strengths, indicating a promising strategy for expanding the applications of time-optimal quantum controls in superconducting quantum circuits.
A major drawback of adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) is fulfilling the energy gap constraint, which requires the total evolution time to scale inversely with the square of the minimum energy gap. Failure to satisfy this condition violates the adiabatic approximation, potentially undermining computational accuracy. Recently, several approaches have been proposed to circumvent this constraint. One promising approach is to use the family of adiabatic shortcut procedures to fast-forward AQC. One caveat, however, is that it requires an additional Hamiltonian that is very challenging to implement experimentally. Here, we investigate an alternate pathway that avoids any extra Hamiltonian in the evolution to fast-forward the adiabatic dynamics by traversing geodesics of a quantum system. We find that jumping along geodesics offers a striking mechanism to highly suppress the density of excitations in many-body systems. Particularly, for the spin-1/21/21/2 XY model, we analytically prove and numerically demonstrate a rate-independent defect plateau, which contrasts with well-established results for the Kibble-Zurek and anti-Kibble-Zurek mechanisms.
The quantum adiabatic theorem, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, asserts that a gapped quantum system remains in its instantaneous eigenstate during sufficiently slow evolution, provided no resonances occur. Here we challenge this principle and show that adiabaticity can be violated even in arbitrarily slow processes. We introduce two new parameters, Instantaneous Transition Accumulation (ITA) and Instantaneous Transition Probability (ITP), to redefine the framework of adiabatic evolution. These parameters, grounded in cross-Berry connections and eigenstate amplitudes, reveal the dynamic and geometric factors governing adiabaticity. Using a new Phase Difference Manipulation (PDM) method, we control ITP and ITA to induce adiabaticity violation in a Landau-Zener (LZ) process. We experimentally demonstrate this counterintuitive phenomenon in a photonic waveguide system, where a slow LZ process defies adiabaticity, switching energy levels despite a fivefold slower evolution speed than a conventional adiabatic process. This discovery reshapes our understanding of quantum evolution and holds potential for quantum computing, topological physics, and photonic technologies.
The quantum adiabatic theorem, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, asserts that a gapped quantum system remains in its instantaneous eigenstate during sufficiently slow evolution, provided no resonances occur. Here, we show that adiabaticity can be violated even in arbitrarily slow processes. We introduce two new parameters, instantaneous transition accumulation and instantaneous transition probability, to redefine the framework of adiabatic evolution. These parameters, grounded in cross-Berry connections and eigenstate amplitudes, reveal the dynamic and geometric factors governing adiabaticity. Using a new phase-difference manipulation method, we control instantaneous transition probability and instantaneous transition accumulation to induce adiabaticity violation in a Landau-Zener process. We experimentally demonstrate this counterintuitive phenomenon in a photonic waveguide system, where a slow Landau-Zener process defies adiabaticity, switching energy levels despite a fivefold slower evolution speed than a conventional adiabatic process. This discovery reshapes our understanding of quantum evolution and holds potential for quantum computing, topological physics, and photonic technologies.
Thouless pumping is a celebrated topological effect that enables quantized particle transport and holds promise for applications in quantum technologies. However, the standard adiabatic pumping theory dictate that the Hamiltonian must be varied continuously and slowly throughout the whole pumping process. In this work, we show that Thouless pumping can be realized by using only discrete sampling of the Hamiltonian, removing the conventional constraint of continuous and slow change of control. Specifically, we select particular parameter points of the Hamiltonian for conventional continuous quantum adiabatic evolution, and then apply the Hamiltonian at these parameter points which induces a geodesic evolution for the pseudospin with a given quasimomentum. This realizes an adiabatic evolution for the Thouless pumping according to a necessary and sufficient condition for quantum adiabatic evolution.