Optimal trajectories for fast quantum harmonic transport

The transport of atomic ions trapped within a harmonic potential arises necessarily in the course of building a trapped ion quantum computer. We may define this problem in terms of a differential equation and its corresponding boundary conditions to satisfy which are sufficient to guarantee the motional quantum state of the ion is unaltered. However, the solution space to this problem is uncountably large, and the various solutions differ in many qualitative and quantitative aspects. We present an easily-computed functional of transport trajectories with intuitively interpretable terms which may be used to compare solutions to the quantum harmonic transport problem, but does not require an expensive quantum-mechanical simulation of the ion dynamics. Furthermore, we prove the convexity of this cost function under easily satisfied conditions in a Fourier Series parameterization of the problem. We then numerically optimize the cost function to discover optimal trajectories for the quantum harmonic transport problem.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Buercklin, Samuel Adam.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Isaac L. Chuang.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121733

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121733