Correlation engineering via nonlocal dissipation

Controlling the spread of correlations in quantum many-body systems is a key challenge at the heart of quantum science and technology. Correlations are usually destroyed by dissipation arising from coupling between a system and its environment. Here, we show that dissipation can instead be used to engineer a wide variety of spatiotemporal correlation profiles in an easily tunable manner. We describe how dissipation with any translationally invariant spatial profile can be realized in cold atoms trapped in an optical cavity. A uniform external field and the choice of spatial profile can be used to design when and how dissipation creates or destroys correlations. We demonstrate this control by generating entanglement preferentially sensitive to a desired spatial component of a magnetic field. We thus establish nonlocal dissipation as a route toward engineering the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of quantum information, with potential applications in quantum metrology, state preparation, and transport.

Automated summary

Controlling the spread of correlations in quantum many-body systems is a challenging task in quantum science and technology. In this study, the use of dissipation for engineering various spatiotemporal correlation profiles was demonstrated. By implementing dissipation with different spatial profiles in cold atoms trapped in an optical cavity, it was shown that correlations can be created or destroyed by carefully choosing the external field and spatial distribution. The results indicate the potential of nonlocal dissipation in manipulating the dynamics of quantum information in far-from-equilibrium scenarios, with applications in quantum metrology, state preparation, and transport.