QDev Seminar: Graham Norris

Many interesting systems in many-body physics and open quantum systems cannot be fully simulated using classical computers due to exploding memory requirements. We can overcome this limitation with analog quantum simulation, where techniques developed for building quantum computers are used to construct fixed-purpose simulators of physical systems. By using engineered quantum systems to emulate other quantum systems, we avoid the memory bottleneck of classical computers and can also realize simulations before general-purpose quantum computers are available.

In this talk, I will present the details of my work on analog quantum simulations of energy transport during photosynthesis. I have extended the previous work in our group from steady-state to time-resolved measurements which required novel characterization techniques and which provide abundant information about our sample. I will present evidence that we observed clear signatures of quantum coherence in our experiments, validating our approach and preparing a path for more advanced quantum simulations in the future.