Hot Schrödinger cat states.

Authors

Ian Yang, Thomas Agrenius, Vasilisa Usova, Oriol Romero-Isart, Gerhard Kirchmair

Published in

Science advances. Volume 11. Issue 14. Pages eadr4492. Apr 04, 2025. Epub Apr 04, 2025.

Abstract

The observation of quantum phenomena often necessitates sufficiently pure states, a requirement that can be challenging to achieve. In this study, our goal is to prepare a nonclassical state originating from a mixed state, using dynamics that preserve the initial low purity of the state. We generate a quantum superposition of displaced thermal states within a microwave cavity using only unitary interactions with a transmon qubit. We measure the Wigner functions of these "hot" Schrödinger cat states for an initial purity as low as 0.06. This corresponds to a cavity mode temperature of up to 1.8 kelvin, 60 times hotter than the cavity's physical environment. Our realization of highly mixed quantum superposition states could be implemented with other continuous-variable systems, e.g., nanomechanical oscillators, for which ground-state cooling remains challenging.

PMID:
40184464
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 05 Apr 2025.

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