Imaging the interface of a qubit and its quantum-many-body environment

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical method to image the interface between a Rydberg qubit and its Bose condensed environment, enabling real-time observation of entanglement buildup and decoherence processes in quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel imaging technique for the qubit-environment interface that can capture transient entangled states before decoherence dominates.

Findings

High-precision absorption imaging can visualize the system-environment interface.

Real-time signals reveal the formation of mesoscopic entangled states.

Decoherence times can be tuned from nanoseconds to microseconds.

Abstract

Decoherence affects all quantum systems, natural or artificial, and is the primary obstacle impeding quantum technologies. We show theoretically that for a Rydberg qubit in a Bose condensed environment, experiments can image the system-environment interface that is central for decoherence. High precision absorption images of the condensed environment will be able to capture transient signals that show the real time build up of a mesoscopic entangled state in the environment. This is possible before decoherence sources other than the condensate itself can kick in, since qubit decoherence time-scales can be tuned from the order of nanoseconds to microseconds by choice of the excited Rydberg principal quantum number {\nu}. Imaging the interface will allow detailed explorations of open quantum system concepts and may offer guidance for coherence protection in challenging scenarios with non-Markovian environments.