Dr. Rejish Nath and his team at IISER Pune involving his students Yashwant Chougale and Sagarika Basak have recently reported their work on quantum dynamics in the journal Physical Review Letters. Here, the team describes their main findings from this work.

The movements of classical objects are easy to visualize, and also highly controllable. On the other hand, the same of quantum objects such as atoms, molecules, ions and so on are non-trivial. To control and manipulate the dynamics of such objects, one requires sophisticated equipment, currently being developed as quantum technologies. Quantum dynamics not necessarily takes place in a Euclidean space, but in a more intriguing Hilbert space of quantum states.

The team studied the quantum dynamics of an array of ultra-cold Rydberg atoms. Their studies show that a high degree of control over the atomic state dynamics is possible using a parametrically driven external field, in particular, the quantum state which an atom occupies. 

This will open up lot of possibilities from understanding the novel quantum phenomena to developing quantum technologies including quantum computers.

This research has received funding from Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research, UKIERI-UGC Thematic Partnership, and Government of India's Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Image Courtesy:Yashwant Chougale