QUEVADIS - Quantum Engineering via Dissipation

In recent years an impressive amount of research focused on investigating and engineering quantum systems of many degrees of freedom. The interest comes on the one hand from the field of quantum information science (QIS), where these systems are regarded as resources for information processing purposes. On the other hand the quantum many-body physics (QMP) community is attracted by the intriguing quantum effects that matter can exhibit at small temperatures (related to quantum phase transitions and quantum orders) as well as by the idea of designing and simulating quantum systems. The common adversary to all the exciting quantum features is the coupling between the system of interest and its environment. The resulting dissipation and decoherence typically destroys or washes out the desired quantum effects. Hence, sophisticated means of avoiding dissipation or circumventing its influence have been developed.