Associate Professor Fiona Burnell

This group is using MSI for two projects:

• Study of dynamics of open quantum systems. The project specifically involves what can be said about these dynamics in the case that the open quantum system has many particles and is described by a time evolution that is "generic," in the sense that its spectral statistics are described by an appropriate random matrix theory. This project involves Singular Value Decomposition of the generator of infinitesimal time translations, which uses MSI resources. The resulting data can be analyzed to draw conclusions about relaxation rates of (among other things) local observables. The group is also interested in understanding how to create dynamically stable quantum channels, for which interesting properties (such as the ability to teleport quantum information between distant sites on a chain) are stable for very long times. This will use a variety of methods, including Markov Chain monte carlo techniques for classical simulation, as well as some SVD for smaller systems.  
• Evaluate electronic transport (i.e. charge currents) through 1D systems with disorder. The project uses the software KWANT. Current focus is on graphene nanoribbons with hopping disorder, which preserves a symmetry called chiral symmetry. The current focus is on graphene nanoribbons with hopping disorder, which preserves a symmetry called chiral symmetry. Thus far, the project has used simulations of transport in these graphene nanoribbons to gain information about the scaling behavior of transport quantities in the presence of disorder. These scaling relations have revealed the existence of interesting disordered multi-critical points, which are being investigated further.