Laserphysik und Quantenoptik

This module covers applications of neutral atom platforms for performing quantum computations and quantum simulations, in a seminar format. The main focus will be on state-of-the-art machines and their achievements, including quantum error correction, far-from equilibrium dynamics, strongly interacting fermions and high-temperature superconductivity, lattice gauge theories, quantum spin systems including quantum spin liquids, quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories. Both theoretical as well as experimental aspects will be covered, ranging from the assembly of neutral atom quantum simulation platforms (Rydberg tweezer arrays, optical lattices, quantum gas microscopes), its operation (cooling, state preparation, readout techniques) to understanding its limitations (decoherence, error correction, detection techniques).

This lecture provides an introduction to quantum computing and quantum error correction. We will cover the basics of quantum computers, starting from the quantum mechanical concepts necessary to understand quantum computing. We will cover elementary examples of quantum operations and quantum circuits and see how quantum algorithms work. We will proceed learning about different experimental platforms suitable for quantum computing and what are the criteria they have to fulfill. We will see that in practice, all quantum computing platforms are prone to errors, and learn how to describe such errors theoretically. We will discuss quantum error correction, which was introduced to detect and correct errors occurring in quantum computation, and see different examples for quantum error correction codes that have been devised in the past years. We will see that due to the existence of the so-called threshold, there is hope that scalable quantum computation is feasible even in the presence of errors.