Design and Implementation of an Entanglement Harvesting Experiment With Superconducting Flux Qubits

Abstract

Recent studies in relativistic quantum information have predicted that it is possible to entangle two qubits tunably coupled to the same quantum field in its vacuum state, by allowing the qubits to couple to the field for a very short amount of time, even if the coupling time forbids the formation of a lightlike connection between the qubits. This is made possible due to the correlations already present in the vacuum field. To date, no experiments have been performed to demonstrate this phenomenon.

Recent work by the superconducting quantum devices (SQD) group has produced a novel device, namely the superconducting flux qubit with a tunable ultrastrong coupler, has the properties especially suited for an entanglement harvesting experiment. The device, which allows light-matter interaction strength to be tuned from weak to ultrastrong coupling, opens the possibility of a realistic implementation of the experiment.

In this thesis, we propose a circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiment using the newly designed device to detect the harvesting of entanglement from a one-dimensional quantum field. First, we derive the necessary theoretical model that allows us to analyze the feasibility of such an experiment. Then, we analyze the feasibility of the experiment and calculate the optimal parameters that allow the most entanglement to be harvested. Finally, using the optimal parameters, we propose a design for the experiment and validate the design through simulations.