ECE Departmental Seminar

Storage Rings as Quantum Computers

Dr. Kevin Brown
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Friday, 8/16/19, 11:00am
Light Engineering 250

Abstract: There are multiple ways that quantum computer elements have been realized and have been proposed to be realized. These include ion traps, Josephson junctions, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spin states and optical systems. In this presentation, I will present a new idea; using a storage ring as a quantum computer. The key to building a storage ring quantum computer is to create an ultracold beam in the form of an “ion Coulomb crystal”. In a classical Coulomb crystal, a chain of ions is bound into a lattice structure in which the ions remain locked in sequence despite the mutual Coulomb repulsion force between the positively charged ions. In an ion Coulomb crystal, the thermal vibrations of the ions are cooled to extremely low temperature, so that the quantum states in the motion of the ions are observable. There are a number of challenges in realizing such a system, although much can be learned from ion trap systems, since the storage ring is essentially an unbounded ion trap where the ion chains have a finite velocity.