How to engineer a quantum wavefunction

TL;DR

This paper discusses how quantum wavefunctions can be engineered through analogue quantum simulation, using source and target systems of different materials but of the same empirical type, exemplified by Bose-Hubbard systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel justification for inferences in quantum simulation based on empirical type similarity between source and target systems.

Findings

Justification of wavefunction engineering via empirical type equivalence

Application to Bose-Hubbard systems demonstrating the concept

Clarification of experimental practices in quantum simulation

Abstract

In a conventional experiment, scientists typically aim to learn about target systems by manipulating source systems of the same material type. In an analogue quantum simulation, by contrast, scientists typically aim to learn about target quantum systems of one material type via an experiment on a source quantum system of a different material type. In this paper, we argue that such inferences can be justified by reference to source and target quantum systems being of the same empirical type. We illustrate this novel experimental practice of wavefunction engineering with reference to the example of Bose-Hubbard systems.