Optimally driven quantum systems

Albert Verdeny

Published Sep 1, 2015• 0 citations

Abstract

Periodically driven quantum systems offer an exceptional platform for quantum simulations due to the possibility to approximate their dynamics in terms of time-independent effective Hamiltonians. This, together with the recent experimental advances, has situated driven systems at center stage of engineered quantum-mechanical devices. The aim of this thesis is to develop theoretical methods in order to design optimal quantum simulations with driven systems. By applying the derived tools to experimentally relevant models, the applicability and significance of the methods are furthermore demonstrated. First, we introduce a method to derive accurate effective Hamiltonians by merging two seemingly unrelated tools: Floquet theory and flow equations. With this, the required analytical identification of the effective Hamiltonian in terms of the system's parameters is achieved. Second, we identify structural properties that determine the accessible effective dynamics of a system of particles on shaken optical lattices, which is arguably one of the most remarkable systems for many-body quantum simulations. In particular, we identify fundamental symmetries of the underlying lattice geometry that determine the emergence of new tunneling processes. Third, we develop an optimal control scheme to design polychromatic driving protocols that optimally simulate specifically targeted dynamics. We apply this scheme to demonstrate an optimal realization of Raman transitions with a Lambda system, a building block in many quantum simulations. Then, we employ it to implement a topological Chern insulator through suitably engineering the geometry-dependent tunneling of particles on a shaken hexagonal lattice. Hereby, a realistic route to experimentally test strongly-correlated topological phases of matter is provided. By determining structural properties of driven systems and suitable driving protocols, the methods described in this thesis open substantial possibilities for the development of optimal quantum simulations and, ultimately, reliable quantum technologies.

DOI: 10.25560/29425

Related papers

Periodically driven many-body quantum systems : Quantum Ratchets, Topological States and the Floquet-Boltzmann Equation

Maximilian Genske

Controlling and manipulating complex many-body quantum systems will be a key ingredient \nfor the development of next-generation technologies. While the realisation of a \nuniversal quantum machine is still out of reach, in recent years experimental systems of \nultracold atoms have already evolved into a vivid field of research for quantum simulation. \nCrucially, such systems even allow for the successful quantum engineering of targeted \nmany-body systems by means of coherent periodic driving. The essential properties of \nthese Floquet systems encompass two main aspects: fast driving facilitates the simulation \nof effective static systems, and interactions lead to unique heating effects as energy is only \nconserved modulo the driving frequency. Within this thesis we theoretically study both \nof these aspects in respective model systems. \nIn part I of this thesis, we investigate the dynamics of excitations of a bosonic Mott \ninsulator in a designed one-dimensional Floquet system. Here, periodic driving in combination \nwith breaking all mirror symmetries of the system can induce directed motion of \nparticles. In the limit of small excitation densities, the effectively non-interacting quantum \nratchet determines the motion of holes and doublons in the Mott insulator and can in fact \nbe used to manipulate the dynamics of such. This little quantum machine can also be \nused to drive particles against an external force, where transport is possible but requires \nthe fulfilment of a commensurability condition for long times. \nIn part II, we discuss the role of interactions for periodically driven systems by means \nof a Floquet version of the Boltzmann equation. Starting from the Keldysh approach, \nwe develop this semiclassical formalism based on a clear separation of time scales. The \nresult is a description of the dynamics and the scattering of Floquet quasiparticles in \nsuch systems. Here, the property of discrete energy violation is naturally encoded in our \nformalism predicting the heating of interacting Floquet systems to infinite temperatures in \nthe long-time limit. As a first application of this approach, we investigate a cold atom setup \nrealising the Haldane model by means of periodic shaking. While homogeneous systems \nheat up globally, a confining potential evokes thermoelectric transport effects resulting \nfrom spatially dependent heating characteristics. Moreover, we show that the interplay \nof intrinsic heating, macroscopic diffusion and non-trivial topological properties of the \nHaldane model lead to an anomalous Floquet-Nernst effect, which describes anomalous \nparticle transport as the result of developing temperature gradients. \nIn part III, we elaborate on the quantum simulator aspect of ultracold atoms by providing \na theoretical framework for a possible simulation of a topological edge state in a \none-dimensional optical lattice. In this case, the one-dimensional Dirac equation with \nspatially varying mass is important, which captures the topological properties of a corresponding \nsystem of the BDI symmetry class. We analytically discuss such system and \ninvestigate the role of mean-field interaction effects. We also identify the emergence of \ndynamical instabilities in a realisation with bosonic atoms.

Oct 1, 20171 citation

Tunable Chern insulator with optimally shaken lattices

Albert Verdeny, Florian Mintert

Driven optical lattices permit the engineering of effective dynamics with well-controllable tunneling properties. By specifically designing polychromatic driving forces, we describe how an optimal realization of a tunable Chern insulator can be achieved with a system of interacting particles on a shaken hexagonal lattice. Its implementation does not require shallow lattices and favors the study of strongly correlated phases with nontrivial topology.

arXiv:1502.07350Physical Review ADec 9, 201520 citations

Driven open quantum systems

Sebastian Restrepo

Time-periodic quantum systems are present all over science and technology. They have been successfully studied using Floquet theory, and a broad diversity of interesting phenomena such as coherent destruction of tunnelling, dynamical localization and creation of new phases of matter have been discovered. Furthermore, periodic driving has also been introduced as a tool for engineering novel quantum systems that have no static analogue. Besides these remarkable achievements for isolated systems, in reality, systems always interact with their surroundings. Taking the effect of the environment into account, time-periodic quantum systems have been mainly described using the Floquet-Markov approach, which consists in deriving a weak coupling master equation in the Floquet basis. In this thesis, we focus on how to overcome these standard approximations in the description of driven open quantum systems. We start by providing a general review on the topics of isolated driven systems, open quantum systems and the Floquet-Markov approach, before presenting the main results of this work. Under the effect of high-frequency driving, we provide an analytic solution to a large class of open quantum systems. Our method relies on discrete symmetries of the system-bath Hamiltonian and grants access to the time evolution operator of the full system, including bath degrees of freedom. The solution can be interpreted as the stroboscopic evolution of a family of observables under the influence of an effective static Hamiltonian. This provides a flexible simulation procedure of nontrivial Hamiltonians. The results are exemplified with the driven spin-boson model, where a coherent control of dissipation is observed. By a novel combination of Floquet theory, full counting statistics and a Markovian embedding strategy (reaction coordinate mapping), more intricate scenarios with additional driven system-environment interactions are addressed. Hereby, we can access the dynamics and thermodynamics of a periodically driven thermal machine. For the particular case where the working medium is a two-level system, we identify four different operating regimes, including a heat engine and a refrigerator. As the coupling strength is increased, their efficiency and coefficient of performance decrease and the refrigerator regime disappears. Notably, our model reproduces the setup of laser cooling of trapped ions in a specific parameter limit. Following the same combination of methods, we investigate electron pumping through a single quantum dot with periodically modulated energy and tunnelling amplitudes. In the high-frequency regime, the direction of the current can be controlled with the driving phase and a rectification effect that is exclusive to the non-Markovian character of the model is observed. In the low-frequency regime, we apply an additional transformation to view the model as three independent transport channels and observe that the coupling strength also controls the current direction. Studying charge fluctuations we validate that our model behaves as a single-electron source.

Jan 1, 20190 citations

Fundamental limitations and design of effective Hamiltonians in driven lattices

Albert Verdeny, Florian Mintert

Driven lattices permit the engineering of effective Hamiltonians with well-controllable tunneling properties. We discuss the design of such effective Hamiltonians and identify fundamental constraints imposed by the underlying lattice geometry. With the specific example of a hexagonal lattice we show how suitably chosen driving forces allow the realization of non-trivial topological phases and overcome limitations of monochromatic driving.

Feb 25, 20150 citations

Geometry and Adiabatic Control of Periodically Driven Quantum Systems

Paul Manuel Schindler

Periodically driven quantum systems have emerged as one of the most versatile tools for quantum simulation, enabling the engineering of eﬀective Hamiltonians, topological phases, and inherently nonequilibrium phenomena such as discrete time crystals. Yet fundamental challenges persist: from a spectral ambiguity that precludes a unique Floquet ground state to an inability to manipulate Floquet eigenstates beyond the adiabatic regime. This thesis demonstrates that counterdiabatic driving—a technique from adiabatic quantum control—provides a unifying framework to address these challenges. We first show that the periodic lab-frame Hamiltonian generates counterdiabatic driving for the Floquet eigenstates, revealing Floquet theory as an inverse counterdiabatic driving problem. Exploiting this equivalence, we develop geometric Floquet theory: a reformulation based on the parallel-transport gauge, which uniquely decomposes Floquet dynamics into a geometric contribution, encoded in Berry phases, and a dynamical contribution, generated by the average-energy operator. The average-energy operator provides an unambiguous sorting of the quasienergy spectrum, identifies a unique Floquet ground state at all drive frequencies, and serves as a sensitive diagnostic for heating and symmetry-breaking transitions. Inherently nonequilibrium phenomena—the 𝜋-quasienergy splitting of discrete time crystals and the anomalous edge modes of Floquet topological insulators—are traced to geometric phases. On the practical side, we exploit the intrinsic robustness of prethermal discrete time crystals for a highly frequency-selective DTC-based AC magnetic field sensing scheme and demonstrate it experimentally on a nuclear spin quantum simulator. We then generalize counterdiabatic driving to periodically driven systems. In particular, we derive a non-perturbative variational principle for the Floquet adiabatic gauge potential; this yields local, experimentally feasible control protocols for transitionless manipulation of Floquet states. We demonstrate this formalism on Floquet state preparation in an ultracold atom quantum simulator and many-body state transfer across a quantum phase transition, with significant improvements over unassisted protocols in both cases.

Jan 1, 20260 citations

Floquet engineering of tight-binding Hamiltonians in momentum space lattices

Dominique Ronco, Floriane Arrouas, Nicolas Ombredane +4 more

Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms provides a versatile platform to emulate condensed-matter models. In particular, momentum-space lattices enable the realization of programmable tight-binding Hamiltonians. Here, we generalize this approach by exploiting quantum resonances of a periodically driven (shaken) rotor within the Floquet framework. Using first-order time-dependent perturbation theory, we derive analytical relations between the lattice modulation and the effective tight-binding parameters, and identify explicit solutions for several resonances. We further apply optimal-control techniques to enhance the multi-period Floquet fidelity and extend the accessible parameter regimes. Experimentally, we implement this scheme with a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium-87 atoms in a dynamically modulated optical lattice. We demonstrate the simulation of the Rice-Mele model, including band-structure measurements and topological edge states, as well as momentum Bloch oscillations, and superlattice configurations with controlled periodicity. Our results establish quantum resonances as a powerful resource for Floquet engineering of tight-binding models in momentum space.

arXiv:2604.24722Apr 27, 20260 citations