The control of quantum systems is of fundamental scientific interest andpromises powerful applications and technologies. Impressive progress has beenachieved in isolating the systems from the environment and coherentlycontrolling their dynamics, as demonstrated by the creation and manipulation ofentanglement in various physical systems. However, for open quantum systems,engineering the dynamics of many particles by a controlled coupling to anenvironment remains largely unexplored. Here we report the first realization ofa toolbox for simulating an open quantum system with up to five qubits. Using aquantum computing architecture with trapped ions, we combine multi-qubit gateswith optical pumping to implement coherent operations and dissipativeprocesses. We illustrate this engineering by the dissipative preparation ofentangled states, the simulation of coherent many-body spin interactions andthe quantum non-demolition measurement of multi-qubit observables. By addingcontrolled dissipation to coherent operations, this work offers novel prospectsfor open-system quantum simulation and computation.
展开▼
