Atomic Fock states and quantum computing

The potential impact of quantum computing has stimulated a worldwide effort to develop the necessary experimental and theoretical resources. In the race for the quantum computer, several candidate systems have emerged, but the ultimate system is still unclear. We study theoretically how to realize atomic Fock states both for fermionic and bosonic atoms, mainly in one-dimensional optical traps. We demonstrate a new approach of quantum computing based on ultracold fermionic atomic Fock states in optical traps. With the Pauli exclusion principle, producing fermionic atomic Fock states in optical traps is straightforward. We find that laser culling of fermionic atoms in optical traps can produce a scalable number of ultra-high fidelity qubits. We show how each qubit can be independently prepared, and how to perform the required entanglement operations and detect the qubit states with spatially resolved, single-atom detection with adiabatic trap-splitting and fluorescence imaging. On the other hand, bosonic atoms have a strong tendency to stay together. One must rely on strong repulsive interactions to produce bosonic atomic Fock states. To simulate the physical conditions of producing Fock states with ultracold bosonic atoms, we study a many-boson system with arbitrary interaction strength using the Bethe ansatz method. This approach provides a general framework, enabling the study of Fock state production over a wide range of realistic experimental parameters.