non-equilibrium phases of matter and their applications to quantum information
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
"Broadly speaking, the goal of my PhD project is to investigate non-equilibrium phases of matter and their applications to quantum information. To provide some focus, we plan to partly concentrate our efforts on discrete time crystals (DTCs), a recently discovered non-equilibrium phase. DTCs are periodically-driven, or 'Floquet', systems, and as part of the PhD we hope
to develop some tools to study these systems. We are also currently collaborating with experimentalists on observations of DTCs, and we plan to continue this throughout the PhD."
to develop some tools to study these systems. We are also currently collaborating with experimentalists on observations of DTCs, and we plan to continue this throughout the PhD."
Planned Impact
Quantum technologies promise a transformation of the fields of measurement, communication and information processing. They present a particular opportunity since they are disruptive technologies: not only do they offer a chance for rapid growth but they also allow lesser participants in a field (such as the UK in IT) to become major players through appropriate risk-taking and manpower development. Students graduating from the InQuBATE Skills Hub will have the right mindset to work in the industries where quantum technologies will be applied, and help to break down the traditional barriers between those sectors to make this transformation happen. They will have all the necessary technical and transferable skills, plus a network of contacts with our partners, their fellow cohort members and the academic supervisors.
Our commercial partners are keen to help our students realise their potential and achieve the impact we expect of them, through the training they offer and their contributions to the centre's research. They include companies who have already developed quantum technologies to products in quantum communication (Toshiba) and optimization (D-Wave), large corporates who are investing in quantum technology because they see its potential to transform their businesses in aerospace, defence, instrumentation and internet services (Lockheed Martin, Google,) and government agencies with key national responsibilities (NPL). We want to see the best communication of our students' research, so our students will benefit from the existing training programme set up with a leading scientific publisher (Nature Publishing Group); we also want to see more of the future companies that lead this field based the UK, so we have partnered with venture capital group DFJ Esprit to judge and mentor the acceleration of our students' innovations toward the market.
Our commercial partners are keen to help our students realise their potential and achieve the impact we expect of them, through the training they offer and their contributions to the centre's research. They include companies who have already developed quantum technologies to products in quantum communication (Toshiba) and optimization (D-Wave), large corporates who are investing in quantum technology because they see its potential to transform their businesses in aerospace, defence, instrumentation and internet services (Lockheed Martin, Google,) and government agencies with key national responsibilities (NPL). We want to see the best communication of our students' research, so our students will benefit from the existing training programme set up with a leading scientific publisher (Nature Publishing Group); we also want to see more of the future companies that lead this field based the UK, so we have partnered with venture capital group DFJ Esprit to judge and mentor the acceleration of our students' innovations toward the market.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/P510270/1 | 01/04/2016 | 31/08/2022 | |||
| 2075659 | Studentship | EP/P510270/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2021 | Oliver Lunt |
| Description | Most of us learn in school about different "phases of matter". The main three you might have heard of are "solids", "liquids", and "gases". But it turns out that there are many more phases of matter, often with interesting properties which potentially could be useful for technological applications. For this reason, physicists have long been interested in discovering which phases of matter can exist, and what their distinguishing properties are. Mostly the focus has been on "equilibrium" phases of matter, where the fundamental properties of the phase do not change in time---if you put a lump of rock in a vacuum and left it for a million years, it will still look like a lump of rock when you come back. However, in recent years interest has developed in "non-equilibrium" phases of matter. These phases are in some ways much like conventional phases of matter, in that they are "emergent phenomena" arising from the interactions of many particles, and that they are stable against small changes to the underlying microscopic details. The main difference is that these "non-equilibrium" phases involve time in a fundamental way. If you leave some H20 molecules in close proximity to each other at room temperature, they will quickly form a liquid, namely water, and stay that way. On the other hand, these "non-equilibrium phases" require some external time-dependent input, such as a drive from a laser beam, upon which they start to display examples of this collective behaviour which characterizes phases of matter. The interesting thing is that, by relaxing the requirement of equilibrium, we have opened up a whole new zoo of phases of matter, which fundamentally weren't possible in equilibrium. Probably the most famous example of a non-equilibrium phase is a "time crystal", proposed in 2012, and first probed in experiments in 2017. Technically, time crystals are defined as systems which "spontaneously break time-translation symmetry", in analogy to how conventional spatial crystals spontaneously break spatial-translation symmetry. Time crystals should be seen as the first stepping stone to exploring this new world of non-equilibrium phases of matter. This award has funded some work which was done in collaboration with John Morton's experimental spin qubit group at UCL. In their lab they had observed signatures of what looked like time-crystalline behaviour, but in a system with quite different properties to previous experiments, namely one with strong dissipation. This suggested a novel mechanism for forming a time crystal. We worked with them to propose a theoretical model for their experiment. |
| Exploitation Route | This work explores different mechanisms to produce novel phases of matter. However, given that the idea of a non-equilibrium phase of matter has only really existed since 2012, this field remains quite unexplored. Thus this work can be seen as a stepping stone to discovering new non-equilibrium phases of matter, some of which may have useful technological properties. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Chemicals,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.09884 |