Atoms Interlinked by Light: Programmable Interactions and Entanglement

Monika Schleier-Smith,  Stanford University

Title: Atoms Interlinked by Light: Programmable Interactions and Entanglement

Abstract: The power of quantum information lies in its capacity to be non-local, encoded in correlations among entangled particles.  Yet the interactions between particles are typically local, forming a bottleneck in the production of entanglement.  To circumvent this limitation in the laboratory, we trap an array of atom clouds in an optical resonator, in which photons act as messengers conveying information between distant atoms.  We have developed a versatile experimental toolbox for programming the network of interactions and correlations arising from these photon-mediated interactions, including a broadly applicable protocol for preparing entangled graph states with arbitrary connectivity.  I will present experiments illustrating implications for multiparameter quantum sensing and for quantum simulations of phenomena ranging from topological physics to quantum gravity.