Celso J. Villas-Boas

Continuous-variable quantum computing utilizes continuous parameters of a quantum system to encode information, promising efficient solutions to complex problems. Trapped-ion systems provide a robust platform with long coherence times and precise qubit control, enabling the manipulation of quantum information through its motional and electronic degrees of freedom. In this work, quantum operations that can be generated in trapped-ion systems are employed to investigate applications aimed at state preparation in continuous-variable quantum systems.

Warehouse optimization stands as a critical component for enhancing operational efficiency within the industrial sector. By strategically streamlining warehouse operations, organizations can achieve significant reductions in logistical costs such as the necessary footprint or traveled path, and markedly improve overall workflow efficiency including retrieval times or storage time. Despite the availability of numerous algorithms designed to identify optimal solutions for such optimization challenges, certain scenarios demand computational resources that exceed the capacities of conventional computing systems. In this context, we adapt a formulation of a warehouse optimization problem specifically tailored as a binary optimization problem and implement it in a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Interference underpins some of the most practical and impactful properties of both the classical and quantum worlds. In this work we experimentally investigate a new formalism to describe interference effects, based on collective states which have enhanced or suppressed coupling to a two-level system. We employ a single trapped ion, whose electronic state is coupled to two of the ion's motional modes in order to simulate a multi-mode light-matter interaction. We observe the emergence of phononic bright and dark states for both a single phonon and a superposition of coherent states and demonstrate that a view of interference which is based solely on their decomposition in the collective basis is able to intuitively describe their coupling to a single atom. This work also marks the first time that multi-mode bright and dark states have been formed with the bounded motion of a single trapped ion and we highlight the potential of the methods discussed here for use in quantum information processing.

In this paper we describe one of the most promising platforms for the construction of a universal quantum computer, which consists of a chain of $N$ ions trapped in a harmonic potential, whose internal states work out as qubits, and are coupled to collective vibrational modes of the chain. From such coupling, it is possible to build interactions between different ions of the chain, that is, qubit-qubit interactions that, together with individual operations on the ions, allow building a quantum computer as first proposed by Cirac and Zoller in the 1990s [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4091 (1995)]. Here we discuss from the physics involved in trapping ions in electromagnetic potentials to the Hamiltonian engineering needed to generate a universal set of logic gates, fundamental for the execution of more complex quantum algorithms. Finally, we present the current state of the art of quantum computing in trapped ion systems, highlighting recent advances made by companies and government projects that use such architecture, such as IonQ and AQTION.

We investigate superpositions of two-mode squeezed states (TMSSs), which have potential applications to quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Firstly we study some properties of these nonclassical states such as the statistics of each mode and the degree of entanglement between the two modes, which can be higher than that of a TMSS with the same degree of squeezing. The states we consider can be prepared by inducing two-mode Jaynes-Cummings and anti-Jaynes-Cummings interactions in a system of two modes and a spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ particle, for instance in the trapped ion domain, as described here. We show that when two harmonic oscillators are prepared in a superposition of two TMSSs, each reduced single-mode state can be advantageously employed to sense arbitrary displacements of the mode in phase space. The Wigner function of this reduced state exhibits a symmetrical peak centered at the phase-space origin, which has the convenient peculiarity of getting narrower in both quadratures simultaneously as the average photon number increases. This narrow peakcan be used as the pointer of our quantum sensor, with its position in phase space indicating the displacement undergone by the oscillator.