Shortcuts to Adiabaticity (STA) refers to a class of quantum control schemes enabling the fast variation of a system Hamiltonian while still reaching an adiabatically connected final state. Here we experimentally study the transfer of ultracold atoms trapped in an optical potential. We show that the standard implementation of STA suffers from an inherent problem: the driving profiles are suited for the position of the atoms, while in practice the control is over the trap coordinate. This, in turn, imposes unrealistic boundary conditions on the optical trap trajectory.
We present two possible solutions for this problem and implement them in the lab. They yield a significant cancellation of the sloshing mode, which is associated with the deviation from the STA conditions. Our new driving protocols reduce the duration of an efficient optical transfer to the extreme nonadiabatic regime where it is on the order of the inverse trapping frequency. There, fundamental quantum speed limits are expected to become important.

More information can be found in: Ness, G., Shkedrov, C., Florshaim, Y., & Sagi, Y. (2018). Realistic Shortcuts to Adiabaticity in Optical Transfer. New J. Phys. 20, 095002.