Engineered Dissipation for Quantum Information Science

Abstract

Quantum information processing relies on precise control of non-classical states in the presence of many uncontrolled environmental degrees of freedom -- requiring careful orchestration of how the relevant degrees of freedom interact with that environment. These interactions are often viewed as detrimental, as they dissipate energy and decohere quantum states. Nonetheless, when controlled, dissipation is an essential tool for manipulating quantum information: Dissipation engineering enables quantum measurement, quantum state preparation, and quantum state stabilization. The progress of quantum device technology, marked by improvements of characteristic coherence times and extensible architectures for quantum control, has coincided with the development of such dissipation engineering tools which interface quantum and classical degrees of freedom. This Review presents dissipation as a fundamental aspect of the measurement and control of quantum devices and highlights the role of dissipation engineering for quantum error correction and quantum simulation that enables quantum information processing on a practical scale.