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Dr. Mark Mitchison

Dr. Mark Mitchison

Assistant Professor, Physics


Biography

Mark is a theoretical physicist originally from London. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Leeds in 2011 and his PhD from Imperial College London in 2016. He then carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Ulm and Trinity College Dublin. In 2021, Mark was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Quantum Science and founded the Theory of Controlled Quantum Systems group at Trinity. He is presently focussed on developing and delivering content for the MSc in Quantum Science and Technology, recently established as part of the HEA's Human Capital Initiative. Mark's primary interest is the physics of quantum technologies, which exploit the bizarre quantum-mechanical behaviour of particles such as electrons, atoms and photons to create ultra-precise quantum sensors, quantum simulators of complex materials, and quantum computers. These technologies are currently under intense investigation worldwide in a multitude of different physical forms, ranging from superconducting circuits to atoms trapped by laser light. Mark's research focusses on the role of random noise in quantum technologies: How can noise be suppressed to improve performance? Or can it actually be harnessed to beneficial effect? Can noise can be used as a probe to better understand the underlying physics of the device? Tackling these questions requires pulling together concepts and methods that span mesoscopic and atomic physics, quantum optics, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and quantum information. Mark's research is theoretical in nature but remains firmly rooted in experiment, and has inspired or directly contributed to several high-profile experiments on ultra-cold atoms, trapped ions, and nano-electromechanical systems. His work has repeatedly attracted coverage from the scientific and national press, including the Irish Times, New Scientist, Physics World, and Nature Physics.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • von Lindenfels, D. and Grab, O. and Schmiegelow, C. T. and Kaushal, V. and Schulz, J. and Mitchison, M T. and Goold, J and Schmidt-Kaler, F. and Poschinger, U. G., Spin Heat Engine Coupled to a Harmonic-Oscillator Flywheel, Physical Review Letters, 123, (8), 2019, p080602 - 080608Journal Article, 2019, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Mitchison M.T and Fogarty T and Guarnieri G and Campbell S and Busch T and Goold J, Non-destructive in-situ thermometry of a cold gas via rephrasing impurities , Physical Review Letters, arXiv:2004.02911 , 2020Journal Article, 2020, TARA - Full Text
  • Chiaracane C and Mitchison MT and Purkayastha A and Haack G and Goold J, Quasiperiodic quantum heat engines with a mobility edge, Physical Review Research , 2, (1), 2020, p013093 - 013105Journal Article, 2020, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Purkayastha A and Guarnieri G and Mitchison M T and Fillip R and Goold J , Tunable phonon-induced steady state coherence in a double-quantum-dot charge qubit , npj Quantum Information , 6, (1), 2020, p1 - 7Journal Article, 2020, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Brenes M and Mendoza-Arenas JJ and Purkayastha A and Mitchison MT and Clark SR and Goold J , Tensor-network method to simulate strongly interacting quantum thermal machines, Physical Review X , 10, (3), 2020, p031040-Journal Article, 2020, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Francica G, Binder F C, Guarnieri G, Mitchison M. T, Goold J and Plastina F, Quantum coherence and ergotropy, Physical Review Letters , 125, 2020, p180603Journal Article, 2020, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Rignon-Bret, A. and Guarnieri, G. and Goold, J. and Mitchison, M.T., Thermodynamics of precision in quantum nanomachines, Physical Review E, 103, (1), 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI , URL
  • Miller, H.J.D. and Guarnieri, G. and Mitchison, M.T. and Goold, J., Quantum Fluctuations Hinder Finite-Time Information Erasure near the Landauer Limit, Physical Review Letters, 125, (16), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI , URL
  • Mitchison, M.T. and Fogarty, T. and Guarnieri, G. and Campbell, S. and Busch, T. and Goold, J., In Situ Thermometry of a Cold Fermi Gas via Dephasing Impurities, Physical Review Letters, 125, (8), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Mark T. Mitchison, Quantum thermal absorption machines: refrigerators, engines and clocks, Contemporary Physics, 2019, p1--24Journal Article, 2019
  • Mark T Mitchison, Martin B Plenio, Non-additive dissipation in open quantum networks out of equilibrium, New Journal of Physics, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Paul Erker, Mark T. Mitchison, Ralph Silva, Mischa P. Woods, Nicolas Brunner, Marcus Huber, Autonomous Quantum Clocks: Does Thermodynamics Limit Our Ability to Measure Time?, Physical Review X, 7, (3), 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • T. H. Johnson, F. Cosco, M. T. Mitchison, D. Jaksch, S. R. Clark, Thermometry of ultracold atoms via nonequilibrium work distributions, Phys. Rev. A, 93, (5), 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Mark T. Mitchison, Tomi H. Johnson, Dieter Jaksch, Probing the dynamic structure factor of a neutral Fermi superfluid along the BCS-BEC crossover using atomic impurity qubits, Physical Review A, 94, (6), 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Mark T Mitchison, Mischa P Woods, Javier Prior, Marcus Huber, Coherence-assisted single-shot cooling by quantum absorption refrigerators, New J. Phys., 17, (11), 2015, p115013Journal Article, 2015
  • D. Hangleiter, M. T. Mitchison, T. H. Johnson, M. Bruderer, M. B. Plenio, D. Jaksch, Nondestructive selective probing of phononic excitations in a cold Bose gas using impurities, Phys. Rev. A, 91, (1), 2015Journal Article, 2015
  • J J Mendoza-Arenas, M T Mitchison, S R Clark, J Prior, D Jaksch, M B Plenio, Transport enhancement from incoherent coupling between one-dimensional quantum conductors, New J. Phys., 16, (5), 2014, p053016Journal Article, 2014
  • Maria Popovic, Mark T Mitchison, Aidan Strathearn, Brendon W Lovett, John Goold, Paul R Eastham, Quantum Heat Statistics with Time-Evolving Matrix Product Operators, PRX Quantum, 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • Mark T. Mitchison, John Goold and Javier Prior, Charging a quantum battery with linear feedback control, Quantum , 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • Marlon Brenes, Silvia Pappalardi, Mark T. Mitchison, John Goold, and Alessandro Silva, Out-of-time-order correlations and the fine structure of eigenstate thermalization, Physical Review E, 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • Soldati, Rodolfo R., Mitchison, Mark T., Landi, Gabriel T., Multipartite quantum correlations in a two-mode Dicke model, Physical Review A, 104, (5), 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • Mitchison, Mark T., Fogarty, Thomás, Guarnieri, Giacomo, Campbell, Steve, Busch, Thomas, Goold, John, In Situ Thermometry of a Cold Fermi Gas via Dephasing Impurities, Physical Review Letters, 125, (8), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI
  • Pancotti, Nicola, Scandi, Matteo, Mitchison, Mark T., Perarnau-Llobet, Martí, Speed-Ups to Isothermality: Enhanced Quantum Thermal Machines through Control of the System-Bath Coupling, Physical Review X, 10, (3), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI
  • Physical Implementations of Quantum Absorption Refrigerators in, Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp149-174 , [Mitchison, Mark T., Potts, Patrick P.]Book Chapter, 2018, DOI
  • Mitchison, Mark T, Huber, Marcus, Prior, Javier, Woods, Mischa P, Plenio, Martin B, Realising a quantum absorption refrigerator with an atom-cavity system, Quantum Science and Technology, 1, (1), 2016, p015001Journal Article, 2016, DOI
  • Chiaracane, C. and Purkayastha, A. and Mitchison, M.T. and Goold, J., Dephasing-enhanced performance in quasiperiodic thermal machines, Physical Review B, 105, (13), 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • Mitchison, M.T. and Purkayastha, A. and Brenes, M. and Silva, A. and Goold, J., Taking the temperature of a pure quantum state, Physical Review A, 105, (3), 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • Culhane, O. and Mitchison, M.T. and Goold, J., Extractable work in quantum electromechanics, Physical Review E, 106, (3), 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • Guarnieri, G. and Mitchison, M.T. and Purkayastha, A. and Jaksch, D. and BuÄ a, B. and Goold, J., Time periodicity from randomness in quantum systems, Physical Review A, 106, (2), 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • Bu"a, B., Purkayastha, A., Guarnieri, G., Mitchison, M.T., Jaksch, D., Goold, J., Quantum many-body attractor with strictly local dynamical symmetries, arXiv, 2020Journal Article, 2020
  • Mark T. Mitchison, Ángel Rivas, Miguel A. Martin-Delgado, Robust nonequilibrium surface currents in the three-dimensional Hofstadter model, Physical Review Research, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI
  • Michael J. Kewming, Mark T. Mitchison, Gabriel T. Landi, Diverging current fluctuations in critical Kerr resonators, Physical Review A, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI
  • Mark T. Mitchison, Ángel Rivas, Miguel A. Martin-Delgado, Robust Nonequilibrium Edge Currents with and without Band Topology, Physical Review Letters, 128, (12), 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI
  • Mitchison, M.T., Rivas, A., Martin-Delgado, M.A., Robust nonequilibrium edge currents with and without band topology, arXiv, 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • Popovic, M., Mitchison, M.T., Goold, J., Thermodynamics of decoherence, arXiv, 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • Purkayastha, A., Guarnieri, G., Mitchison, M.T., Filip, R., Goold, J., Tunable phonon induced steady state coherence in a double quantum dot, arXiv, 2019Journal Article, 2019
  • von Lindenfels, D., Gräb, O., Schmiegelow, C.T., Kaushal, V., Schulz, J., Mitchison, M.T., Goold, J., Schmidt-Kaler, F., Poschinger, U.G., A spin heat engine coupled to a harmonic-oscillator flywheel, arXiv, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Sindre Brattegard and Mark T. Mitchison, Thermometry by correlated dephasing of impurities in a one-dimensional Fermi gas, Physical Review A, 109, (2), 2024, p023309-Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Lacerda, A.M. and Kewming, M.J. and Brenes, M. and Jackson, C. and Clark, S.R. and Mitchison, M.T. and Goold, J., Entropy production in the mesoscopic-leads formulation of quantum thermodynamics, Physical Review E, 110, (1), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL
  • Culhane, O. and Kewming, M.J. and Silva, A. and Goold, J. and Mitchison, M.T., Powering an autonomous clock with quantum electromechanics, New Journal of Physics, 26, (2), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL
  • Summer, A. and Chiaracane, C. and Mitchison, M.T. and Goold, J., Calculating the many-body density of states on a digital quantum computer, Physical Review Research, 6, (1), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL
  • Li, J. and Mitchison, M.T. and Moreira, S.V., Entanglement signature in quantum work statistics in the slow-driving regime, Physical Review Research, 6, (3), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL
  • Landi, G.T. and Kewming, M.J. and Mitchison, M.T. and Potts, P.P., Current Fluctuations in Open Quantum Systems: Bridging the Gap between Quantum Continuous Measurements and Full Counting Statistics, PRX Quantum, 5, (2), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL
  • Xuereb, J. and Erker, P. and Meier, F. and Mitchison, M.T. and Huber, M., Impact of Imperfect Timekeeping on Quantum Control, Physical Review Letters, 131, (16), 2023Journal Article, 2023, DOI , URL

Research Expertise

  • Title
    Quantum thermodynamics of precision in electronic devices
    Summary
    Horizon Europe project funded as part of the EU's Quantum Flagship Basic Science for Quantum Science and Technology call. I am the Coordinator of this consortium that initially comprised 5 partners: Trinity, Oxford, Chalmers, TU Vienna, and Murcia. Our goal is to design and experimentally demonstrate electronic measuring devices that exploit quantum effects to achieve higher precision and energy efficiency than would be possible using classical physics. I have also been awarded an additional Hop On Facility grant " ENACT " that augments the consortium with an additional partner in Malta.
    Funding Agency
    Horizon Europe
    Date From
    01/11/2022
    Date To
    31/10/2025
  • Title
    Thermodynamics of precision in quantum measurement and control
    Summary
    Prestigious individual fellowship from the Royal Society and Science Foundation Ireland, which funds my research into the foundational limits of precise measurement and control of quantum systems.
    Funding Agency
    Royal Society and Science Foundation Ireland
    Date From
    01/10/2022
    Date To
    30/09/2027

Nanotechnology, Classical physics, Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics,

Recognition

  • Member of the IOP
  • PhD examiner for the thesis defence of Dr. Emmanuel Schwarzhans at the University of Vienna. 21/04/2023
  • Editorial Board member at Quantum journal. Quantum is a community-run, open-access journal. Its voluntary pay-to-publish model gives a venue for scientists of any background and nationality to publish significant advances in quantum science. 01/04/2022
  • PhD examiner for the thesis defence of Dr. Shishir Khandelwal at the University of Geneva. 28/04/2023
  • 74 verified peer reviews (Web of Science) for journals including APS families, IOP families, NPJ families, and more. I was awarded the IOP Trusted Reviewer award and the EPJD Distinguished Referee award.