Simone Gasparinetti

Autonomous quantum machines (AQMs) execute tasks without requiring time-dependent external control. Motivations for AQMs include the restrictions imposed by classical control on quantum machines' coherence times and geometries. Most AQM work is theoretical and abstract; yet an experiment recently demonstrated AQMs' usefulness in qubit reset, crucial to quantum computing. To further reduce quantum computing's classical control, we propose realizations of (fully and partially) quantum-autonomous gates on three platforms: Rydberg atoms, trapped ions, and superconducting qubits. First, we show that a Rydberg-blockade interaction or an ultrafast transition can quantum-autonomously effect entangling gates on Rydberg atoms. One can perform $Z$ or entangling gates on trapped ions mostly quantum-autonomously, by sculpting a linear Paul trap or leveraging a ring trap. Passive lasers control these gates, as well as the Rydberg-atom gates, quantum-autonomously. Finally, circuit quantum electrodynamics can enable quantum-autonomous $Z$ and $XY$ gates on superconducting qubits. The gates can serve as building blocks for (fully or partially) quantum-autonomous circuits, which may reduce classical-control burdens.

Thermal Markovian dynamics is typically obtained by coupling a system to a sufficiently hot bath with a large heat capacity. Here we present a scheme for inducing Markovian dynamics using an arbitrarily small and cold heat bath. The scheme is based on injecting phase noise to the small bath. Several unique signatures of small bath are studied. We discuss realizations in ion traps and superconducting qubits and show that it is possible to create an ideal setting where the system dynamics is indifferent to the internal bath dynamics.