Faculty Candidate Chandrasekhar Ramanathan, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT

Topic: "Quantum Simulation With Nuclear Spins"  (Video)

Abstract: It has been almost three decades since Feynman showed that a quantum computer is required to efficiently simulate a quantum system. While building a quantum computer remains a grand challenge, recent advances in the control of quantum systems have led to a resurgence of interest in quantum simulations. In addition to providing insight into quantum phenomena, quantum simulators could help tackle problems in diverse areas such as condensed-matter physics, cosmology and quantum chemistry. Many quantum simulations require a more limited degree of control compared to a quantum computer. In this talk I will discuss how to build quantum simulators using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. While we can perform any small-scale simulation using liquid state NMR, the highly-coupled spin networks in solids allow us to perform a more limited set of large-scale analog quantum simulations. I will illustrate these ideas with experimental examples, and discuss the key challenges to developing large scale, general purpose quantum simulators.