Researchers at INO, together with colleagues from the University of Pisa and NEST at Scuola Normale have realized perfectly adiabatic – or “superadiabatic” – quantum control of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (published in Nature Physics on December 18th). The control of quantum states is extremely important im many technologies ranging from magnetic resonance imaging to quantum computing, and can be achieved in different ways. On the one hand, one aims to maximize the speed of the control in order to reduce the effects of decoherence due to coupling to the environment. In the paper published now it is shown, amongst other things, how one can reach the maximum speed for such control, also known as the “quantum speed limit”. On the other hand, often one also requires a high level of robustness against variations or inaccuracies in the experimental parameters. That robustness can be achieved by adiabatic control, in which the quantum system always stays close to the lowest energy state. Perfect adiabaticity, however, has until now been believed to be possible only in the limit of infinitely slow control. A few years ago, it was suggested in a number of theoretical papers that there should be control protocols that allow perfectly adiabatic control in a finite (and even very short) time. Such protocols have now been calculated and experimentally realized in the laboratory. They could be of great interest in many areas of research and in technological applications.
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