A collaboration between the Theory group at MPQ, CREF Rome, and Sapienza University of Rome has shown that multimode all-optical systems driven by two-photon processes can reach thermal equilibrium at the level of single quantum trajectories. The study is published in Physical Review Letters.
(Right) Example of an optical setup implementing this model using nonlinear crystals and spatial light modulators.
Using a Gaussian quantum trajectory approach, the researchers demonstrate that the photon statistics follow a Boltzmann distribution governed by an effective Ising model. This emergent thermal behavior arises from engineered dissipative couplings between modes and is tunable via the optical drive.
Thanks to ultrafast timescales, these systems could serve as optical Boltzmann samplers for solving complex optimization problems, with applications in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Reference:
Contact: Cristiano Ciuti
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