Engineering tunable decoherence-free subspaces with collective atom-cavity interactions

Abstract: We propose schemes to design and control a time-dependent decoherence-free subspace (DFS) in a dissipative atom-cavity system. These schemes use atoms with three internal energy levels, which allows for the DFS to be multi-dimensional--a condition important for quantum sensing, simulation, and computation. We consider the use of tunable external driving lasers to transfer the system from a coherent spin state to a highly degenerate DFS. We find that the typical state in the DFS is highly entangled. Throughout evolution the state is kept in an instantaneous DFS, thereby allowing for pure states to be prepared. We develop adiabatic shortcuts to carry out this evolution with higher purity and fidelity than standard adiabatic and dissipative methods.