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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
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Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor
Published on: November 11, 2013
Slow phase relaxation as a route to quantum computing beyond the quantum chaos border
J Flores1, S Yu Kun, T H Seligman
1Centro de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
Summary
Phase memory can significantly exceed energy relaxation times in large quantum systems. This discovery, supported by decades of nuclear experiments, could address scalability challenges in quantum computing.
Area of Science:
- Quantum Physics
- Quantum Computing
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Background:
- Quantum systems often exhibit energy relaxation that limits coherence times.
- The relationship between phase memory and energy relaxation in large Hilbert spaces is not fully understood.
- Decades of nuclear magnetic resonance experiments contain relevant, yet underexplored, data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential for phase memory to surpass energy relaxation times in systems with large Hilbert spaces.
- To explore the implications of this phenomenon for the development of scalable quantum computers.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing data from 50 years of nuclear magnetic resonance experiments.
- Theoretical modeling of quantum systems with exponentially large Hilbert spaces.
Main Results:
- Phase memory times can be substantially longer than energy relaxation times in systems with exponentially large Hilbert spaces.
- This effect has been implicitly documented in historical nuclear experimental data.
Conclusions:
- The extended phase memory offers a potential pathway to mitigate decoherence in quantum systems.
- This finding could significantly reduce challenges in scaling quantum computers to a practical number of qubits.
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