We study an interferometric method for the measurement of the statistics of work performed on a driven quantum system, which has been put forward recently [Dorner et al., Phys. Rev.Lett. 110 230601 (2013), Mazzola et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 230602 (2013)]. The method allows replacing two projective measurements of the energy of the driven system with qubit tomography of an ancilla that is appropriately coupled to it. We highlight that this method could be employed to obtain the work statistics of closed as well as open driven system, even in the strongly dissipative regime. We then illustrate an implementation of the method in a circuit QED set-up, which allows one to experimentally obtain the work statistics of a parametrically driven harmonic oscillator. Our implementation is an extension of the original method, in which two ancilla-qubits are employed and the work statistics is retrieved through two-qubit state tomography. Our simulations demonstrate the experimental feasibility.
We study qubit decoherence under generalized dispersive readout, i.e., we
investigate a qubit coupled to a resonantly driven dissipative harmonic
oscillator. We provide a complete pictureby allowing for arbitrarily large
qubit-oscillator detuning and by considering also a coupling to the square of
the oscillator coordinate, which is relevant for flux qubits. Analytical
results for the decoherence time are obtained by a transformation of the
qubit-oscillator Hamiltonian to the dispersive frame and a subsequent master
equation treatment beyond the Markov limit. We predict a crossover from
Markovian decay to a decay with Gaussian shape. Our results are corroborated by
the numerical solution of the full qubit-oscillator master equation in the
original frame.
We propose a startling hybrid quantum architecture for simulating a
localization-delocalization transition. The concept is based on an array of
superconducting flux qubits which arecoupled to a diamond crystal containing
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. The underlying description is a
Jaynes-Cummings-lattice in the strong-coupling regime. However, in contrast to
well-studied coupled cavity arrays the interaction between lattice sites is
mediated here by the qubit rather than by the oscillator degrees of freedom.
Nevertheless, we point out that a transition between a localized and a
delocalized phase occurs in this system as well. We demonstrate the possibility
of monitoring this transition in a non-equilibrium scenario, including
decoherence effects. The proposed scheme allows the monitoring of
localization-delocalization transitions in Jaynes-Cummings-lattices by use of
currently available experimental technology. Contrary to cavity-coupled
lattices, our proposed recourse to stylized qubit networks facilitates (i) to
investigate localization-delocalization transitions in arbitrary dimensions and
(ii) to tune the inter-site coupling in-situ.