ABSTRACT: Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of recent work done on initialization of a neutral atom quantum register. We will review what has been learned about the nature of the many-body state in a 1-dimensional optical lattice, the Mott-Insulator phase transition, the effects of an external trap, and other characteristics. A brief description of what our understanding of the many-body state says about recent experimental results on damping in a displaced trapped 1-d system will be followed by a number of the outstanding questions that remain to be answered with regard to neutral atom quantum computing. In concluding I will attempt to further generalize the issues raised about neutral atom quantum computing to other proposed systems and how some of these issues tie closely to quantum architectures.

Contact: Bei-Lok Hu