The diverging responses to parameter variations of systems at quantum critical points motivate schemes of quantum critical metrology (QCM), which feature sub-Heisenberg scaling of the sensitivity with the system size (e.g., the number of particles). This sensitivity enhancement by quantum criticality is rooted in the formation of Schrödinger cat states, or macroscopic superposition states at the quantum critical points. The cat states, however, are fragile to decoherence caused by coupling to local environments, since the local decoherence of any particle would cause the collapse of the whole cat state. Therefore, it is unclear whether the sub-Heisenberg scaling of QCM is robust against the local decoherence. Here we study the effects of local decoherence on QCM, using a one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model as a representative example. We find that the standard quantum limit is recovered by single-particle decoherence. Using renormalization group analysis, we demonstrate that the noise effects on QCM is general and applicable to many universality classes of quantum phase transitions whose low-energy excitations are described by a ${\varphi }^4$ effective field theory. Since in general the many-body entanglement of the ground states at critical points, which is the basis of QCM, is fragile to quantum measurement by local environments, we conjecture that the recovery of the standard quantum limit by local decoherence is universal for QCM using phase transitions induced by the formation of long-range order. This work demonstrates the importance of protecting macroscopic quantum coherence for quantum sensing based on critical behaviors.

We report measurements of the branching fraction, hyperfine constant, and second-order Zeeman coefficient of the $D_{5/2}$ level in ${}^{171}\mathrm{Yb}^{+}$ with up to a two-orders-of-magnitude reduction in uncertainty compared to previously reported values. We estimate the electric quadrupole reduced matrix element of the $S_{1/2}\leftrightarrow D_{5/2}$ transition to be 12.5(4) $e{a}_0^2$. Furthermore, we determine the transition frequency of the $F_{7/2}\leftrightarrow {}^{1}D{[3/2]}_{3/2}$ at 760 nm with a $\sim$25-fold improvement in uncertainty. These measurements provide benchmarks for quantum-many-body atomic-physics calculations and provide valuable data for efforts to improve quantum information processors based on ${}^{171}{\text{Yb}}^{+}$.

We present an experimental and theoretical study of the response of a dipolar supersolid to a Bragg excitation at high-energy defined by the impulse approximation regime. We experimentally observe a continuous reduction of the response when tuning the contact interaction from an ordinary Bose-Einstein condensate to a supersolid state and ultimately to an incoherent array of droplets. Already in the supersolid regime, the observed reduction is faster than the one theoretically predicted by the Bogoliubov–de Gennes theory. By comparing experiments and theories, we are able to attribute this discrepancy to the presence of coherent phase dynamics induced by the crossing of the phase transition. The phase variations are found to change character along the phase diagram and become predominantly incoherent only when reaching the incoherent-droplet regime.

Two important results of quantum physics are the no-cloning theorem and the monogamy of entanglement. The former forbids the creation of an independent and identical copy of an arbitrary unknown quantum state and the latter restricts the shareability of quantum entanglement among multiple quantum systems. For distinguishable particles, one of these results implies the other. In this Letter, we show that in qubit systems with indistinguishable particles (where each particle cannot be addressed individually) a maximum violation of the monogamy of entanglement is possible by the measures that are monogamous for distinguishable particles. To derive this result, we formulate the degree of freedom trace-out rule for indistinguishable particles corresponding to a spatial location where each degree of freedom might be entangled with the other degrees of freedom. Our result removes the restriction on the shareability of quantum entanglement for indistinguishable particles, without contradicting the no-cloning theorem.

Quantum causality violates classical intuitions of cause and effect and is a unique quantum feature different from other quantum phenomena such as entanglement and quantum nonlocality. In order to avoid the detection loophole in quantum causality, we initiate the study of the detection efficiency requirement for observing quantum causality. We first show that previous classical causal inequalities require detection efficiency at least $95.97\%$ ($89.44\%$) to show violation with quantum (nonsignaling) correlations. Next we derive a classical causal inequality $I_{222}$ and show that it requires lower detection efficiency to be violated, $92.39\%$ for quantum correlations and $81.65\%$ for nonsignaling correlations, hence substantially reducing the requirement on detection. Then we extend this causal inequality to the case of multiple measurement settings and analyze the corresponding detection efficiency. After that, we show that previous quantum causal inequalities require detection efficiency at least $94.29\%$ to violate with nonsignaling correlations. We subsequently derive a quantum causal bound $J_{222}$ that has a lower detection efficiency requirement of $91.02\%$ for violation with nonsignaling correlations. Our work paves the way towards an experimental demonstration of quantum causality and shows that causal inequalities significantly differ from Bell inequalities in terms of the detection efficiency requirement.

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) has become a cornerstone of contemporary quantum applications development. In QAOA, a quantum circuit is trained—by repeatedly adjusting circuit parameters—to solve a problem instance. Several recent findings have reported parameter concentration effects in QAOA and their presence has become one of folklore: while empirically observed, the concentrations have not been defined and analytical approaches remain scarce, focusing on limiting system sizes while neglecting parameter scaling as system size increases. We found that optimal QAOA circuit parameters concentrate as an inverse polynomial in the problem size, providing an optimistic result for improving circuit training. Our results are analytically demonstrated for QAOA at $p=1,2$ (corresponding to 2 and 4 tunable parameters, respectively). The technique is also applicable for higher depths wherein the concentration effect is cross verified numerically. Parameter concentrations allow for training on a fraction $w<n$ of qubits to assert that these parameters are nearly optimal on $n$ qubits, thereby reducing training time.

Two-photon decay of the $2s$ state in H-like ions is investigated. We report that asymmetry in the emission of photons with left- and right-hand circular polarizations can be observed in this transition if the initial state has a certain polarization. This asymmetry can be used to measure the polarization of ion beams.

Despite the increasing interest, the research field which studies the concepts of work and heat at the quantum level has suffered from two main drawbacks: first, the difficulty to properly define and measure the work, heat, and internal energy variation in a quantum system and, second, the lack of experiments. Here, we report a full characterization of the dissipated heat, work, and internal energy variation in a two-level quantum system interacting with an engineered environment. We use the IBMQ quantum computer to implement the driven system's dynamics in a dissipative environment. The experimental data allow us to construct quasiprobability distribution functions from which we recover the correct averages of work, heat, and internal energy variation in the dissipative processes. Interestingly, by increasing the environment coupling strength, we observe a reduction of the pure quantum features of the energy exchange processes that we interpret as the emergence of the classical limit. This makes the present approach a privileged tool to study, understand, and exploit quantum effects in energy exchanges.

Squeezing is a resource that enables precision enhancements in quantum metrology and can be used as a basis for the generation of entanglement by linear optics. While strong squeezing is challenging to generate in optical fields, here we present simple periodic modulation protocols in optomechanical systems that can generate large squeezing of their mechanical degrees of freedom for realistic system parameters. We then proceed to show how such protocols can serve to improve the measurement precision of weak forces and enhance the generation of entanglement between test masses that are subject to any kind of weak interaction. Moreover, these protocols can be reverted to reduce the amount of injected energy, while preserving the generated entanglement and making it more resilient to noise. We present the principle at work, discuss its application in a variety of physical settings, including levitated and tethered mechanical harmonic oscillators, and present example applications to Casimir and gravitational forces.

We consider strong two-body losses in bosonic gases trapped in one-dimensional optical lattices. We exploit the separation of timescales typical of a system in the many-body quantum Zeno regime to establish a connection with the theory of the time-dependent generalized Gibbs ensemble. Our main result is a simple set of rate equations that capture the simultaneous action of coherent evolution and two-body losses. This treatment gives an accurate description of the dynamics of a gas prepared in a Mott insulating state and shows that its long-time behavior deviates significantly from mean-field analyses. The possibility of observing our predictions in an experiment with ${}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ in a metastable state is also discussed.

In this letter we propose a method to realize a kind of spin-orbit coupling in ultracold Bose and Fermi gases that depends on the density of atoms. Our method combines two-photon Raman transition and periodical modulation of spin-dependent interaction, which gives rise to both the direct Raman process and the interaction-assisted Raman process. The interaction-assisted Raman process depends on the density of atoms. These two processes have opposite effects in terms of spin-momentum locking and compete with each other. As the interaction modulation increases, the system undergoes a crossover from the direct Raman process dominated regime to the interaction-assisted Raman process dominated regime. During this crossover, for bosons, both the condensate momentum and the chirality of condensate wave function change sign, and for fermions, the Fermi surface distortion is inverted. We highlight that there exists an emergent spatial reflectional symmetry in the crossover regime, which can manifest itself universally in both Bose and Fermi gases. Our method may pave a way to novel phenomena in the density-dependent spin-orbit coupling gauge field with intrinsic dynamics.

Sound propagation is a macroscopic manifestation of the interplay between the equilibrium thermodynamics and the dynamical transport properties of fluids. Here, for a two-dimensional system of ultracold fermions, we calculate the first and second sound velocities across the whole BCS-BEC crossover, and we analyze the system response to an external perturbation. In the low-temperature regime we reproduce the recent measurements [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 240403 (2020)] of the first sound velocity, which, due to the decoupling of density and entropy fluctuations, is the sole mode excited by a density probe. Conversely, a heat perturbation excites only the second sound, which, being sensitive to the superfluid depletion, vanishes in the deep BCS regime and jumps discontinuously to zero at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid transition. A mixing between the modes occurs only in the finite-temperature BEC regime, where our theory converges to the purely bosonic results.

Although the time-dependent buildup processes of Autler-Townes splitting in attosecond transient absorption spectra have been observed in plenty of experiments, there still exists an open question of when the splitting is maximized, which tells us how fast the system responds to the pump field and how well the adiabatic following is in a slowly varying few-cycle laser pulse. In this Letter we work out a compact formula to quantify the buildup time of the Autler-Townes splitting, which is related to multiple timescales of the laser-atom system, e.g., the Rabi period, the laser cycle, and the pulse duration, according to a universal power law. This scaling law applies not only to singly excited states, but also to doubly excited states in which complex electron-electron interaction gets involved. Our findings have potential applications in calibrating the zero delay in a transient absorption spectroscopy.

We propose a scheme for trapped-atom interferometry using an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate. The condensate is controlled and spatially split into two confined external momentum modes through a series of Bragg pulses. The proposed scheme (i) allows the generation of large entanglement in a trapped-interferometer configuration via one-axis twisting dynamics induced by interatomic interaction and (ii) avoids the suppression of interactions during the interferometer sequence by a careful manipulation of the state before and after phase encoding. The interferometer can be used for the measurement of gravity with a sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit.

We have performed single-active-electron numerical calculations of neon- and argonlike atoms interacting with short, intense, circularly polarized laser pulses at wavelengths between 10 nm and 1000 nm. Our results reveal a surprisingly large change by a factor of about 100 in the ionization ratio of electrons in initial states counter-rotating with respect to the field over corotating electrons in the previously unexplored intermediate few-photon ionization regime. The physical mechanism behind this observation is related to resonant enhanced ionization via states close in energy to the initial states. These doorway states are accessible exclusively from the initial state for counter-rotating electrons within the respective wavelength regime. The results may open a new route for controlling the generation of spin-polarized electrons by ultrashort laser pulses.

We report on direct feedback cooling of single nanoparticles in an optical lattice to near their motional ground state. We find that the laser phase noise triggers severe heating of nanoparticles' motion along the optical lattice. When the laser phase noise is decreased by orders of magnitude, the heating rate is reduced and accordingly the occupation number is lowered to about 3. We establish a model directly connecting the heating rate and the measured laser phase noise and elucidate that the occupation number under the lowest laser phase noise in our system is limited only by photon recoil heating. Our results show that the reduction of the laser phase noise near the oscillation frequency of nanoparticles is crucial for bringing them near the ground state and pave the way to sensitive accelerometers and quantum mechanical experiments with ultracold nanoparticles in an optical lattice.

A high index dielectric spherical particle supports the high-$Q$ resonant Mie modes that result in a regular series of sharp resonances in the radiation pressure. The presence of a perfectly conducting metal surface transforms the Mie modes into extremely high-$Q$ magnetic bonding or electric antibonding modes for the close approach of a sphere to a surface. We show that an electromagnetic plane wave with normal incidence results in repulsive or attractive resonant optical forces relative to a metal for the excitation of electric bonding or magnetic antibonding resonant modes, respectively. A magnitude of resonant optical forces reaches the order of 1 nN of magnitude for micron-sized silicon particles and a power of light $1\text{mW}/\mu {\text{m}}^2$ that exceeds the gravitational force by four orders. However, what is the most remarkable is there are steady positions for a sphere between the pulling and pushing forces that give rise to the resonant binding of the sphere to a metal surface.

The electronic structures of actinide systems are extremely complicated because of strong electron correlations and relativistic effects. The atomic actinide anion poses even more challenges for experimental and theoretical investigations due to the extra loosely bound electron. In this work, we report the electronic structure of ${\mathrm{U}}^{-}$ using the slow-electron velocity-map imaging method. The electron affinity of U was measured to be 314.97(9) meV. Two excited states of ${\mathrm{U}}^{-}$ were observed and their energies were determined to be 84(11) and 160(12) meV above its ground state, respectively. The present study provides convincing evidence that the transition between the first excited state and the ground state of ${\mathrm{U}}^{-}$ is electric dipole (E1) allowed.