Nuclear Spins as Quantum Test-beds

The quantum dynamics of nuclear spins of bulk-samples at ordinary room temperatures can be controlled via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).  Over past few decades, NMR has opened up numerous applications in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine and more recently in quantum information. While spin-based quantum registers are promising architectures for quantum processors, the conventional NMR is regarded more as a quantum test-bed, which can be used to study various quantum phenomena.  In my talk after a short introduction to NMR, I will describe how it can be used to study certain fundamental aspects of quantum Physics such as Leggett-Garg inequality (LGI).  This study involves looking at how the states of a dynamic system are correlated at different times and then deducing whether the system is behaving in a classical or quantum mechanical way.  In the second part I will describe some simple experiments to demonstrate quantum contextuality.  Quantum measurements are said to be contextual since no theory can predict the outcomes of the measurements.

	About the Speaker : T. S. Mahesh obtained his Ph.D. from IISc. He was a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Cory in MIT and Prof. Suter in the University of Dortmund where he was a Humboldt Fellow. His major research interests are in nuclear 
magnetic resonance and using that as a test bed to demonstrate various 
aspects of quantum information processing. Some of his recent work include 
looking at the electromagnetically induced transparency, storing 
entanglement of nuclear spins, decoupling of spin clusters and investigation 
of Leggett-Garg inequality. He is currently a faculty in IISER, Pune.