Past exam of the laser science and quantum information processing course of the University of Oxford / 2021 / 4 / b / Solution

Without interaction, the two-qubit Hamiltonian operator is $H_a\otimes I+I\otimes H_b$, so its evolution factors as $U_a\otimes U_b$. It maps each product state to another product state, and cannot implement an entangling two-qubit gate such as a CNOT gate.

In an ion trap, the Coulomb interaction couples the ions' displacements into collective vibrational normal modes. The qubit states are internal atomic states; lasers coupling internal excitation to creation or annihilation of a shared vibrational quantum allow that motion to carry conditional information between ions. Thus the physical mediator is a collective motional normal mode of the Coulomb-coupled chain, rather than a direct resonant exchange between isolated internal qubit transitions. Ground-state cooling and resolved motional sidebands support the ideal pulse model used here.