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They could not be seen, caught and turned on. Now you can all three.
In quantum systems, sometimes it is not the noise and not a weak tuning, but modes that seem to fall out of control. Physicists call them dark mods: the external field does not see such a state, so the necessary quantum effects are blocked. Researchers from the Japanese Center for Quantum Computation RIKEN showed how to temporarily turn dark mods into controlled and return the system to lost control of phonons.
The work is devoted to non-Hermitary quantum systems. In simple form, the so-called open systems, where losses, strengthening or exchange of energy with the environment play an important role. Physicists are actively studying such systems due to unusual topological effects. Topology in quantum physics helps to maintain the desired properties even with small perturbations, so such effects are seen as the basis for more sustainable management of quantum states.
In such systems, you can control photons, that is, particles of light, and phonons, that is, oscillations. For example, topological operations allow you to accumulate chiral phases and direct the phonons in one direction. One of the authors of the work, RIKEN physicist Franco Nori, noted that such operations open access to unusual and useful quantum phenomena.
The main problem is that there are many modes of movement and excitation within the quantum system. Some of the modes remains bright: the external field interacts with them and allows you to control processes. Dark fashions behave differently. The outer field cannot directly hook such states, so dark fashions become invisible to control.
When dark fashions appear in the system, two important processes break down at once. The transformation between different regimes is stopped, and the topological transmission of phonons is blocked. According to Nori, the usual ways of setting up do not return these effects because dark fashions remain separated from the managed part of the system.
The RIKEN team suggested not to fight dark fashions directly, but to change their behavior. The researchers used an engineering approach to dark fashions and introduced artificial quantum information into the system. In scientific work, this mechanism is described through synthetic magnetism, which allows you to accurately control the transition between modes, where dark fashions block the transmission of phonons, and modes where transmission becomes possible again.
After such a transition, dark fashions temporarily begin to behave as bright. The system is again able to perform topological operations, and the phonons can pass between regimes in a controlled manner. An important part of the result is the controllability of the process: the researchers did not just observe the effect, but showed a way to turn on the transition between locking and transmission on demand.
One of the authors of the work, the postdoc RIKEN Dan-Gao Lai, noted that the transitions created make possible topological operations, which were previously inaccessible due to dark fashions. The method was more stable than the team expected, which reinforces interest in further applying the approach in quantum optometic networks.
The authors believe that engineering work with dark mods can help by creating scalable quantum devices and searching for new topological phenomena. The next step is to verify how this effect can be used to process quantum information. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
In quantum systems, sometimes it is not the noise and not a weak tuning, but modes that seem to fall out of control. Physicists call them dark mods: the external field does not see such a state, so the necessary quantum effects are blocked. Researchers from the Japanese Center for Quantum Computation RIKEN showed how to temporarily turn dark mods into controlled and return the system to lost control of phonons.
The work is devoted to non-Hermitary quantum systems. In simple form, the so-called open systems, where losses, strengthening or exchange of energy with the environment play an important role. Physicists are actively studying such systems due to unusual topological effects. Topology in quantum physics helps to maintain the desired properties even with small perturbations, so such effects are seen as the basis for more sustainable management of quantum states.
In such systems, you can control photons, that is, particles of light, and phonons, that is, oscillations. For example, topological operations allow you to accumulate chiral phases and direct the phonons in one direction. One of the authors of the work, RIKEN physicist Franco Nori, noted that such operations open access to unusual and useful quantum phenomena.
The main problem is that there are many modes of movement and excitation within the quantum system. Some of the modes remains bright: the external field interacts with them and allows you to control processes. Dark fashions behave differently. The outer field cannot directly hook such states, so dark fashions become invisible to control.
When dark fashions appear in the system, two important processes break down at once. The transformation between different regimes is stopped, and the topological transmission of phonons is blocked. According to Nori, the usual ways of setting up do not return these effects because dark fashions remain separated from the managed part of the system.
The RIKEN team suggested not to fight dark fashions directly, but to change their behavior. The researchers used an engineering approach to dark fashions and introduced artificial quantum information into the system. In scientific work, this mechanism is described through synthetic magnetism, which allows you to accurately control the transition between modes, where dark fashions block the transmission of phonons, and modes where transmission becomes possible again.
After such a transition, dark fashions temporarily begin to behave as bright. The system is again able to perform topological operations, and the phonons can pass between regimes in a controlled manner. An important part of the result is the controllability of the process: the researchers did not just observe the effect, but showed a way to turn on the transition between locking and transmission on demand.
One of the authors of the work, the postdoc RIKEN Dan-Gao Lai, noted that the transitions created make possible topological operations, which were previously inaccessible due to dark fashions. The method was more stable than the team expected, which reinforces interest in further applying the approach in quantum optometic networks.
The authors believe that engineering work with dark mods can help by creating scalable quantum devices and searching for new topological phenomena. The next step is to verify how this effect can be used to process quantum information. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
