I present a series of experimental and theoretical advances in the field of quantum state estimation. Techniques for measuring the quantum state of light that were originally developed for distinguishable photons fail when the particles are indistinguishable. I develop new methods for handling indistinguishability in quantum state estimation. The technique I present provides the first complete description of states of experimentally indistinguishable photons. It allows me to derive the number of parameters needed to describe an arbitrary state and to quantify distinguishability. I demonstrate its use by applying it to the measurement of the quantum polarization state of two and three-photon systems. State characterization is optimal when no redundant information is collected about the state of the system. I present the results of the first optimal characterization of the polarization state of a two-photon system. I show an improved estimation power over the previous state of the art. I also show how the optimal measurements lead to a new description of the quantum state in terms of a discrete Wigner function. It is often desirable to describe the quantum state of a system in terms of properties that are not themselves quantum-mechanical observables. This usually requires a full characterization of the state followed by a calculation of the properties from the parameters characterizing the state. I apply a technique that allows such properties to be determined directly, without a full characterization of the state. This allows one such property, the purity, to be determined in a single measurement, regardless of the size of the system, while the conventional method of determining purity requires a number of measurements that scales exponentially with the system size.

I present a series of experimental and theoretical advances in the field of quantum state estimation. Techniques for measuring the quantum state of light that were originally developed for distinguishable photons fail when the particles are indistinguishable. I develop new methods for handling indistinguishability in quantum state estimation. The technique I present provides the first complete description of states of experimentally indistinguishable photons. It allows me to derive the number of parameters needed to describe an arbitrary state and to quantify distinguishability. I demonstrate its use by applying it to the measurement of the quantum polarization state of two and three-photon systems. State characterization is optimal when no redundant information is collected about the state of the system. I present the results of the first optimal characterization of the polarization state of a two-photon system. I show an improved estimation power over the previous state of the art. I also show how the optimal measurements lead to a new description of the quantum state in terms of a discrete Wigner function. It is often desirable to describe the quantum state of a system in terms of properties that are not themselves quantum-mechanical observables. This usually requires a full characterization of the state followed by a calculation of the properties from the parameters characterizing the state. I apply a technique that allows such properties to be determined directly, without a full characterization of the state. This allows one such property, the purity, to be determined in a single measurement, regardless of the size of the system, while the conventional method of determining purity requires a number of measurements that scales exponentially with the system size.

Hydrogen quantum state resolved energy losses upon scattering from copper are studied using molecular beam techniques and quantum state-specific detection methods. Also clean copper and hydrogen and oxygen covered copper surfaces were studied using electron spectroscopy. There are many questions about the nature of molecule-surface dynamics and the processes. The relative role of the different degrees of freedom in the reaction and the importance of non-adiabatic effects have been two of these questions. These two questions motivated this work. Energy loss in the elastic scattering of H₂(v=1. J=1) and H₂(v=0, J=1) molecular quantum states is measured as a function of incident translational energy at two surface temperatures. The energy loss process is shown to agree to the Baule classical model for energy ranges 74-150 meV for the excited vibrationally state and 74-125 for the ground vibrational state. Results suggest that translational energy is more effective that vibrational energy in the observed process. Theoretical models have been able to explain several processes using nonadiabatic models where friction coefficient tensor is included. Results in this thesis suggest that the energy loss in the elastic scattering is a nonadiabatic one. Electron spectroscopy studies showed that the surface plasmon intensity is very sensitive to surface contamination. Using this property, surface-only sensitive virtual temperature programmed desorption (VTPD) is developed. A better understanding of unique behavior of hydrogen covered Cu(100) was gained. / text

Within the field of Quantum Information Processing, we study two subjects: For quantum state tomography, one common assumption is that the experimentalist possesses a stationary source of identical states. We challenge this assumption and propose a method to detect and characterize the drift of nonstationary quantum sources. We distinguish diffusive and systematic drifts and examine how quickly one can determine that a source is drifting. Finally, we give an implementation of this proposed measurement for single photons. For quantum computing, fault-tolerant protocols assume that errors are of certain types. But how do we detect errors of the wrong type? The problem is that for large quantum states, a full state description is impossible to analyze, and so one cannot detect all types of errors. We show through a quantum state estimation example (on up to 25 qubits) how to attack this problem using model selection. We use, in particular, the Akaike Information Criterion. Our example indicates that the number of measurements that one has to perform before noticing errors of the wrong type scales polynomially both with the number of qubits and with the error size. This dissertation includes previously published co-authored material.

In the last few decades, the study of many-body quantum systems far from equilibrium has risen to prominence, with exciting developments on both experimental and theoretical physics fronts. In this dissertation, we will focus particularly on the adiabatic gauge potential (AGP), which is the generator of adiabatic deformations between quantum eigenstates and also related to "fidelity susceptibility", as our lens into the general phenomenon. In the first two projects, the AGP is studied in the context of counter-diabatic driving protocols which present a way of generating adiabatic dynamics at an arbitrary pace. This is quite useful as adiabatic evolution, which is a common strategy for manipulating quantum states, is inherently a slow process and is, therefore, susceptible to noise and decoherence from the environment. However, obtaining and implementing the AGP in many-body systems is a formidable task, requiring knowledge of the spectral properties of the instantaneous Hamiltonians and control of highly nonlocal multibody interactions. We show how an approximate gauge potential can be systematically built up as a series of nested commutators, remaining well-defined in the thermodynamic limit. Furthermore, the resulting counter-diabatic driving protocols can be realized up to arbitrary order without leaving the available control space using tools from periodically-driven (Floquet) systems. In the first project, this driving protocol was successfully implemented on the electronic spin of a nitrogen vacancy in diamond as a proof of concept and in the second project, it was extended to many-body systems, where it was shown the resulting Floquet protocols significantly suppress dissipation and provide a drastic increase in fidelity. In the third project, the AGP is studied in the context of quantum chaos wherein it is found to be an extremely sensitive probe. We are able to detect transitions from non-ergodic to ergodic behavior at perturbation strengths orders of magnitude smaller than those required for standard measures. Using this alternative probe in two generic classes of spin chains, we show that the chaotic threshold decreases exponentially with system size and that one can immediately detect integrability-breaking (chaotic) perturbations by analyzing infinitesimal perturbations even at the integrable point. In some cases, small integrability-breaking is shown to lead to anomalously slow relaxation of the system, exponentially long in system size. This work paves the way for further studies in various areas such as quantum computation, quantum state preparation and quantum chaos.

O objetivo principal da presente Tese é expor um método de Tomografia de Estado Quântico desenvolvido para ser aplicado em sistemas de núcleos quadrupolares isolados. O espaço de Hilbert de tais sistemas pode ser usado para processar a informação quântica de um sistema equivalente constituído por vários q-bits. O método proposto baseia-se na aplicação de pulsos de radiofrqüência não-seletivos que possuem a propriedade de promover rotações globais do estado quântico do sistema. Utilizando uma descrição analítica dessas rotações foi possível generalizar o método proposto para núcleos quadrupolares com qualquer número quântico de spin. O método também pode ser adaptado para sistemas de núcleos acoplados, embora para esses casos seja necessário utilizar períodos de evolução sob a hamiltoniana de interação livre para determinar alguns dos elementos da correspondente matriz densidade. Como aplicação do método de Tomografia de Estado Quântico, utilizaram-se núcleos de 23Na dissolvidos em um cristal líquido liotrópico para obter os resultados experimentais das implementações do algoritmo de Deutsch e do algoritmo de busca de Grover, além da medida da dinâmica de relaxação de vários estados pseudo-puros. Também foram realizadas simulações do método proposto para o caso de um sistema quadrupolar de spin 7/2 e para três spins 1/2 homonucleares acoplados. / The main purpose of the present thesis is to propose a Quantum State Tomography method developed to be applied in quadrupolar isolated nuclei systems. The Hilbert space of such systems can be used to process the quantum information of an equivalent system formed by many qubits. The proposed method is based on the application of non-selective radiofrequency pulses that produce global rotations of the system quantum state. Using an analytical description of those rotations, it was possible to generalize the proposed method to quadrupolar nuclei with any spin quantum number. The method can also be adapted to coupled nuclear systems, although in such cases it is necessary the use of evolution periods under the free interaction hamiltonian in order to determine some of the density matrix elements. As an application of the method, 23Na nuclei dissolved in a lyotropic liquid crystal were used to obtain the experimental results of the Deutsch and Grover algorithms, together with the measurement of the relaxation dynamics of some pseudo-pure states. Simulations of the proposed method applied to the quadrupolar spin 7/2 nucleus and to three homonuclear coupled spin 1/2 were also obtained.

O objetivo principal da presente Tese é expor um método de Tomografia de Estado Quântico desenvolvido para ser aplicado em sistemas de núcleos quadrupolares isolados. O espaço de Hilbert de tais sistemas pode ser usado para processar a informação quântica de um sistema equivalente constituído por vários q-bits. O método proposto baseia-se na aplicação de pulsos de radiofrqüência não-seletivos que possuem a propriedade de promover rotações globais do estado quântico do sistema. Utilizando uma descrição analítica dessas rotações foi possível generalizar o método proposto para núcleos quadrupolares com qualquer número quântico de spin. O método também pode ser adaptado para sistemas de núcleos acoplados, embora para esses casos seja necessário utilizar períodos de evolução sob a hamiltoniana de interação livre para determinar alguns dos elementos da correspondente matriz densidade. Como aplicação do método de Tomografia de Estado Quântico, utilizaram-se núcleos de 23Na dissolvidos em um cristal líquido liotrópico para obter os resultados experimentais das implementações do algoritmo de Deutsch e do algoritmo de busca de Grover, além da medida da dinâmica de relaxação de vários estados pseudo-puros. Também foram realizadas simulações do método proposto para o caso de um sistema quadrupolar de spin 7/2 e para três spins 1/2 homonucleares acoplados. / The main purpose of the present thesis is to propose a Quantum State Tomography method developed to be applied in quadrupolar isolated nuclei systems. The Hilbert space of such systems can be used to process the quantum information of an equivalent system formed by many qubits. The proposed method is based on the application of non-selective radiofrequency pulses that produce global rotations of the system quantum state. Using an analytical description of those rotations, it was possible to generalize the proposed method to quadrupolar nuclei with any spin quantum number. The method can also be adapted to coupled nuclear systems, although in such cases it is necessary the use of evolution periods under the free interaction hamiltonian in order to determine some of the density matrix elements. As an application of the method, 23Na nuclei dissolved in a lyotropic liquid crystal were used to obtain the experimental results of the Deutsch and Grover algorithms, together with the measurement of the relaxation dynamics of some pseudo-pure states. Simulations of the proposed method applied to the quadrupolar spin 7/2 nucleus and to three homonuclear coupled spin 1/2 were also obtained.

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A quantum state represents neither properties of a physical system nor anyone s knowledge of its properties. The important question is not what quantum states represent but how they are used as informational bridges. Knowing about some physical situations (its backing conditions), an agent may assign a quantum state to form expectations about other possible physical situations (its advice conditions). Quantum states are objective: only expectations based on correct state assignments are gen- erally reliable. If a quantum state represents anything, it is the objective probabilistic relations between its backing conditions and its advice con- ditions. This paper o¤ers an account of quantum states and their function

Neutral atom systems are an appealing platform for the development and testing of quantum control and measurement techniques. This dissertation presents experimental investigations of control and measurement tools using as a testbed the 16-dimensional hyperfine manifold associated with the electronic ground state of cesium atoms. On the control side, we present an experimental realization of a protocol to implement robust unitary transformations in the presence of static and dynamic perturbations. We also present an experimental realization of inhomogeneous quantum control. Specifically, we demonstrate our ability to perform two different unitary transformations on atoms that see different light shifts from an optical addressing field. On the measurement side, we present experimental realizations of quantum state and process tomography. The state tomography project encompasses a comprehensive evaluation of several measurement strategies and state estimation algorithms. Our experimental results show that in the presence of experimental imperfections, there is a clear tradeoff between accuracy, efficiency and robustness in the reconstruction. The process tomography project involves an experimental demonstration of efficient reconstruction by using a set of intelligent probe states. Experimental results show that we are able to reconstruct unitary maps in Hilbert spaces with dimension ranging from d=4 to d=16. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a unitary process in d=16 is successfully reconstructed in the laboratory.