For Thursday 29 March 2018 we will discuss ideas related to the control and preparation of quantum states (sometimes called a shortcut to adiabaticity), in particular, using techniques such as Machine Learning to optimize experimental protocols for producing interesting signals. This was motivated by the following article:

• P. B. Wigley et al: Fast machine-learning online optimization of ultra-cold-atom experiments. Scientific Reports volume 6, Article number: 25890 (2016)

A related article describes a video game developed to try to get human participants to improve the global optimization of quantum control:

• J. Jakob et al.: Exploring the quantum speed limit with computer games. Nature volume 532, pages 210–213 (14 April 2016)

Here they report that humans were able to find better solutions than the optimization algorithms they applied. This was described in a TEDxAarhus talk: