2001/06/18 by P. Oscar Boykin, Tal Mor, Vwani Roychowdhury +3 · 9 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.241641898
21 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2001/06/18 · openalex publication_date 2002/03/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present here algorithmic cooling (via polarization heat bath)-a powerful method for obtaining a large number of highly polarized spins in liquid nuclear-spin systems at finite temperature. Given that spin-half states represent (quantum) bits, algorithmic cooling cleans dirty bits beyond the Shannon's bound on data compression, by using a set of rapidly thermal-relaxing bits. Such auxiliary bits could be implemented by using spins that rapidly get into thermal equilibrium with the environment, e.g., electron spins. Interestingly, the interaction with the environment, usually a most undesired interaction, is used here to our benefit, allowing a cooling mechanism. Cooling spins to a very low temperature without cooling the environment could lead to a breakthrough in NMR experiments, and our "spin-refrigerating" method suggests that this is possible. The scaling of NMR ensemble computers is currently one of the main obstacles to building larger-scale quantum computing devices, and our spin-refrigerating method suggests that this problem can be resolved.