Abstract:
Quantum devices could perform some informational tasks with much better performances than classical systems, with profound implications for cryptography, chemistry, material science, and many areas of physics. However, to reach this goal we need to control large quantum systems, where the many-body dynamics might scramble the quantum information, heating up the system to its thermal state.
There are then two key questions:
- How does a closed quantum system thermalize (thus losing its “quantum power”)?
- How can we preserve quantum information in the presence of strong interactions, disorder, and noise?
Using spins as an exemplary experimental system, I will show how to choreograph their dynamics in order to prevent the system from heating up, even in the presence of strong interactions among spins. I will further show how we can turn disorder from a source of noise to a tool that enables probing the system at the angstrom level. An exemplary application is the creation and characterization of a robust time crystal.

Bio:
Paola Cappellaro is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Research Lab for Electronics, where she leads the Quantum Engineering Group. She received her Ph.D in 2006 from MIT and she then joined Harvard University as a postdoctoral associate in the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP), before going back to MIT as a faculty in 2009.
Prof. Cappellaro is an expert in NMR, ESR, coherent control and quantum information science. She is a specialist in spin-based quantum information processing and precision measurements in the solid state. With collaborators, she developed the concept and first demonstrations of NV-diamond magnetometers. Cappellaro's major contributions have been in developing control techniques for nuclear and electronic spin qubits, including NV-diamond, inspired by NMR techniques and quantum information ideas. The goal is the realization of practical quantum nano-devices, such as sensors and simulators, more powerful than their classical counterparts, as well as the acquisition of a deeper knowledge of quantum systems and their environment. Her work has been recently recognized by the Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and a Merkator Fellowship.