Solid-state multiple quantum NMR in quantum information processing: exactly solvable models

1H multiple quantum NMR in alternating quasi-one-dimensional spin chains of hambergite

Multiple quantum (MQ) dynamics was investigated in quasi-one-dimensional ¹H zigzag spin chains in hambergite (Be₂BO₃OH) single crystals. Due to the non-linear arrangement of the spins, dipolar coupling strengths alternate along the chain. To solve the problem of MQ NMR experiments taking too much time due to extremely long ¹H spin-lattice relaxation times, the samples were exposed to gamma irradiation to produce the defects accelerating the relaxation. The influence of the radiation dose was investigated. The experimental dependencies of MQ coherence intensities on the MQ excitation time in alternating spin chains were obtained and compared with the theory for inhomogeneous spin chains with nearest neighbor interactions developed earlier. The correspondence of the observed MQ dynamics to the alternating spin chain was demonstrated.

Orientational dependencies of dynamics and relaxation of multiple quantum NMR coherences in one-dimensional systems

Dynamics and relaxation, or decoherence, of multiple quantum (MQ) coherences are investigated experimentally and theoretically for different orientations of a single crystal of fluorapatite with respect to the external magnetic field. Dynamics of MQ coherences is studied as a function of the preparation period of the MQ NMR experiment. Their relaxation, or decoherence, during the evolution period is also investigated. Universal curves for dynamics and relaxation are obtained and describe the experimental data for different orientations of the investigated sample. Those curves prove the dipolar nature of the observed relaxation process. The contribution of the heteronuclear interactions to the dipolar relaxation is also investigated. The source of discrepancies between experimental data and theoretical results in the experiments with a large angle between the nuclear spin chains and the external magnetic field are discussed.

Relating Out-of-Time-Order Correlations to Entanglement via Multiple-Quantum Coherences

Out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) characterize the scrambling, or delocalization, of quantum information over all the degrees of freedom of a system and thus have been proposed as a proxy for chaos in quantum systems. Recent experimental progress in measuring OTOCs calls for a more thorough understanding of how these quantities characterize complex quantum systems, most importantly in terms of the buildup of entanglement. Although a connection between OTOCs and entanglement entropy has been derived, the latter only quantifies entanglement in pure systems and is hard to access experimentally. In this work, we formally demonstrate that the multiple-quantum coherence spectra, a specific family of OTOCs well known in NMR, can be used as an entanglement witness and as a direct probe of multiparticle entanglement. Our results open a path to experimentally testing the fascinating idea that entanglement is the underlying glue that links thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and quantum gravity.

Controlling the Dynamics of Quadrupolar Spin-1 Nuclei by Means of Average Hamiltonian Theory When Irradiated with Modified Composite Quadrupolar Echo Pulse Sequences

The importance of the average Hamiltonian theory and its antecedent the Magnus expansion are discussed. The investigation of its convergence in different situations is very important. In this paper, we introduced a well-established approach to minimize the zeroth-order average Hamiltonian for modified composite pulse sequence in quadrupolar spectroscopy of spin-1. We designed two modified composite pulse sequences constructed by modifying the timing sequence in the original composite pulse sequences.17 We tested various configurations of times associated with the free evolution of the spin system in the modified composite pulses. We found that by decreasing the time delays between the pulses associated with the free evolution of spin system, the line shapes become increasingly better until we obtained the new modified composite pulses showing improvement of the signal compared to the original composite pulse sequences.17 This promising work is expected to play an important role not only for recording high resolution spectra of amino acids, pharmaceutical samples, and peptides but also for probing structural and dynamic information in biomolecules. The generality of the present theoretical scheme points to potential applications in solid-state NMR, to problems in chemical physics, quantum mechanics and theoretical developments, chemistry, and physical chemistry, and in interdisciplinary research areas whenever they include spin dynamics approach.

Experimental realization of the Yang-Baxter Equation via NMR interferometry

The Yang-Baxter equation is an important tool in theoretical physics, with many applications in different domains that span from condensed matter to string theory. Recently, the interest on the equation has increased due to its connection to quantum information processing. It has been shown that the Yang-Baxter equation is closely related to quantum entanglement and quantum computation. Therefore, owing to the broad relevance of this equation, besides theoretical studies, it also became significant to pursue its experimental implementation. Here, we show an experimental realization of the Yang-Baxter equation and verify its validity through a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) interferometric setup. Our experiment was performed on a liquid state Iodotrifluoroethylene sample which contains molecules with three qubits. We use Controlled-transfer gates that allow us to build a pseudo-pure state from which we are able to apply a quantum information protocol that implements the Yang-Baxter equation.

Nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processing

For the past decade, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been established as a main experimental technique for testing quantum protocols in small systems. This Theme Issue presents recent advances and major challenges of NMR quantum information possessing (QIP), including contributions by researchers from 10 different countries. In this introduction, after a short comment on NMR-QIP basics, we briefly anticipate the contents of this issue.