Date Thesis Awarded

5-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Physics

Advisor

George Vahala

Committee Members

Seth Aubin

George Vahala

Matthew Haug

Abstract

Recent work in mathematical physics and nonlinear optics has shown that Hamiltonians that are non-Hermitian but still symmetric under parity and time reversal can describe eigenstates of a system with real eigenvalues. Other research has also showed that the nonlinear Schrodinger equation can be generalized to describe PT-symmetric systems, which generates novel solutions not described by its Hermitian equivalent. The Hermitian form of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation can also be extended to describe a particular case of the general PT-symmetric NLS, suggesting a connection between the two. I attempted to generate a unitary operator that will be useful for unitary quantum algorithms describing a coupled set of nonlinear Schroedinger equations and the PT-symmetric version of the NLS.

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