JILA Thesis Defense

Nonequilibrium quantum systems exhibit phenomena not seen in equilibrium but are also less well understood. To study these systems, quantum simulators hold much promise due to their broad tunability and access to measurement observables. In this defense, I present experiments engineering nonequilibrium quantum phases of matter using many strontium atoms in a high-finesse optical cavity. Observations include a first experimental realization of three dynamical phases in quenched BCS superconductors and insights into many-body gap protection in fermionic superfluids.

Abstract

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in astrochemistry and are si

Abstract: 

Abstract: Learning the expectation values of observables is an important task in quantum information, with applications to characterization of quantum devices and quantum optimization algorithms. We propose an estimation method called The Optimal Observable expectation value Learner, or TOOL, that can learn the expectation value of any given observable using the outcomes of any given measurement protocol. We prove that TOOL is minimax optimal for every observable and measurement protocol, and can dramatically outperform classical shadows for many observables of interest.

In this work, we develop theoretical tools to explore
quantum correlations within the AdS/CFT framework. We examine the
holographic realization of optimized correlation measures in two-dimensional
thermal states corresponding to spacetimes with black hole horizons, enhancing
our understanding of how geometry encodes entanglement in AdS/CFT. We
further introduce cutoff-independent regularization techniques to compute these
entropies - addressing divergences due to infinite volume near the AdS

In this talk, I will describe my work on

Atom interferometers are exquisite sensors that have been used to perform inertial measurements with ever increasing precision. However, many worthy scientific endeavors present dynamically harsh environments and strict SWaP requirements that are challenging to accommodate for conventional atom interferometers. In this defense, I present the novel approach of Bloch-band interferometry, which confines Bose-condensed atoms to a multidimensional optical lattice for the entire interferometer sequence.