ABSTRACT

Non-Technical Description: UMass Boston is in a unique position to perform cutting-edge research in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) and to train a diverse future QISE workforce through its student population as the most diverse public research institution in New England. The project aims to expand UMass Boston?s existing academic and research activities in QISE and make UMass Boston a leading public research institution in this field. It delivers high-quality research products, develops academic activities, and establishes a workforce development infrastructure at UMass Boston in partnership with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research activities include the exploration of quantum correlated and entangled states, and the development of methodologies to manipulate and mitigate errors in quantum bits (qubits) while incorporating machine learning assisted technologies. Results deriving from this project will inform the design of future large-scale quantum processors. This project expands UMass Boston efforts in academics and workforce development and promotes a symbiotic relation with Boston area companies and academic institutions by providing access to experimental capacity for the growing local quantum computing ecosystem and creating training opportunities and internships for UMass Boston undergraduate and graduate students. This project contributes to workforce buildup from the ground up through Community Outreach activities, which are deliberately dedicated to engaging participants from broad and diverse backgrounds.

Technical Description: This project is built around three research focus areas (FAs): (FA-1) Quantum Fundamentals; (FA-2) Quantum Metrology and Control; and (FA-3) Co-Design and Quantum Systems. FA-1 includes the study of symmetric informationally complete states, their measurement and their experimental implementation using the Rydberg atoms platform. An additional direction includes the study of quantum fluctuation theorems, which account for quantum coherence, and the design of their experimental verification using nitrogen-vacancy (NV)-centers. In the context of ultracold quantum gases and correlated quantum many-body systems, the project develops numerical techniques adapted to controlled non-equilibrium diagrammatic Monte-Carlo and for the study of the Grasshopper problem in connection to Bell inequalities and entangled states. Studies of a hybrid molecular ions platform to generate entangled states and to implement quantum gates using conditional transfer of internal atomic states into molecular ion states are being performed. In FA-2, the Rydberg atoms platform is used to coherently transport entangled qubits with dynamic and nonlocal connectivity across two spatial dimensions. Rydberg interactions and their impact on optical tweezers are studied. Results from the latter study inform hardware-efficient algorithm implementation. A complementary direction analyzes noisy quantum algorithms, quantum metrology via NV-centers and error correction in noisy systems to elucidate aspects of superconducting quantum circuits which are critical to realize scalable error-mitigated quantum processors. The latter research is complemented by the development of machine-learning enhanced quantum sensing to develop variational quantum circuits for optimal state preparation and measurement design, which is to be applied to the NV-center setup. FA-3 includes the development of stable and controllable superconducting qubits. The system developed is used to measure and control multiple quantum circuits spread-out across a chip to investigate correlated noises and their impact on large scale quantum processors. Finally, the team is involved in all activities of FA-4 on Education and Workforce Development, ranging from the Quantum Information Certificate (QuIC) and future QISE graduate courses, to outreach activities, to internships and training with industry partners in Greater Boston.

This project is jointly funded by The Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (MPS/OMA) and Technology Frontiers Program (TIP/TF).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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