Measurements on a single quantum system at different times reveal rich nonclassical correlations similar to those observed in spatially separated multipartite systems. Here we introduce a theory framework that unifies the description of temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal resources for quantum correlations. We identify and experimentally demonstrate simple cases where an exact mapping between the domains is possible. We then identify correlation resources in arbitrary situations, where not all spatial quantum states correspond to a process and not all temporal measurements have a spatial analog. These results provide a starting point for the systematic exploration of multipoint temporal correlations as a powerful resource for quantum information processing.

A magnetic monopole is a hypothetical elementary particle with an isolated magnetic pole. Its existence would directly lead to the quantization of electric charges. In recent years, analogs of magnetic monopoles, represented by topological defects in parameter spaces, have been studied in a wide range of physical systems. These works mainly focused on Abelian Dirac monopoles in spin-1/2 or non-Abelian Yang monopoles in spin-3/2 systems. Here we propose to realize three types of spin-1 topological monopoles and study their geometric properties using the parameter space formed by three hyperfine states of ultracold atoms coupled by radio-frequency fields. These spin-1 monopoles, characterized by different monopole charges, possess distinct Berry curvature fields and spin textures, which are directly measurable in experiments. The topological phase transitions between different monopoles are accompanied by the emergence of a spin “vortex” and can be intuitively visualized using Majorana's stellar representation. We show how to determine the Berry curvature, hence the geometric phase and monopole charge from dynamical effects. Our scheme provides a simple and highly tunable platform for observing and manipulating spin-1 topological monopoles, paving the way for exploring new topological quantum matter.

We propose a scheme to exchange optical vortices of slow light using the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level double-$\mathrm{\Lambda }$ atom-light coupling scheme illuminated by a pair of probe fields as well as two control fields of larger intensity. We study the light-matter interaction under the situation where one control field carries an optical vortex, and another control field has no vortex. We show that the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the vortex control beam can be transferred to a generated probe field through a four-wave-mixing process and without switching on and off of the control fields. Such a mechanism of OAM transfer is much simpler than in a double-tripod scheme in which the exchange of vortices is possible only when two control fields carry optical vortices of opposite helicity. The losses appearing during such OAM exchange are then calculated. It is found that the one-photon detuning plays an important role in minimizing the losses. An approximate analytical expression is obtained for the optimal one-photon detuning for which the losses are minimum while the intensity of generated probe field is maximum. The influence of phase mismatch on the exchange of optical vortices is also investigated. We show that in presence of phase mismatch the exchange of optical vortices can still be efficient.

Single-photon-sensitive cameras can now be used as massively parallel coincidence counters for entangled photon pairs. This enables measurement of biphoton joint probability distributions with orders-of-magnitude greater dimensionality and faster acquisition speeds than traditional raster scanning of point detectors; to date, however, there has been no general formula available to optimize data collection. Here we analyze the dependence of such measurements on count rate, detector noise properties, and threshold levels. We derive expressions for the biphoton joint probability distribution and its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), valid beyond the low-count regime up to detector saturation. The analysis gives operating parameters for global optimum SNR that may be specified prior to measurement. We find excellent agreement with experimental measurements within the range of validity and discuss discrepancies with the theoretical model for high thresholds. This work enables optimized measurement of the biphoton joint probability distribution in high-dimensional joint Hilbert spaces.

It was recently predicted [M. I. Bakunov, A. V. Maslov, and M. V. Tsarev, Phys. Rev. A 95, 063817 (2017)] that simultaneous optical rectification and multiphoton absorption of an ultrashort laser pulse in an electro-optic crystal can generate a quasistatic electromagnetic precursor propagating ahead of the laser pulse. We explore this phenomenon by finite-difference-time-domain modeling of Maxwell's equations supplemented with the constitutive relations of the optically ionized crystal. In particular, we elucidate the effects of the laser beam width and the pump depletion on the precursor generation. We show that focusing of the laser beam does not destroy the formation of the precursor, and the detrimental effect of the pump depletion can be eliminated by chirping the pump laser pulse.

In noncentrosymmetric media, optical rectification is known to be a general mechanism of the generation of terahertz electromagnetic waves. Here, we show that effective terahertz radiation is possible via a different mechanism in a hydrogen-bonded organic molecular ferroelectric 5,6-dichloro-2-methylbenzimidazole (DCMBI). By the irradiation of a femtosecond laser pulse on a single crystal of DCMBI at room temperature, we observe a strong terahertz radiation. The emitted terahertz wave consists of three oscillatory components, the frequencies of which agree with those of Raman- and infrared-active phonon modes. This suggests that the terahertz radiation is attributed to polarization modulations by infrared-active phonons excited via impulsive stimulated Raman scattering processes. By taking into account the Raman polarizability tensor and dipole moment for each phonon, we succeeded in reproducing not only the spectrum of the terahertz radiation, but also its time characteristic. The analysis method is discussed in detail. Our result provides an alternative method for the light-induced terahertz radiation in organic ferroelectrics.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers the possibility for two individuals to communicate a securely encrypted message. A common technical requirement is the monitoring of signal disturbance in a QKD system to bound the information leakage toward an unwanted eavesdropper. Recently, the round-robin differential-phase-shift (RRDPS) protocol, which encodes bits of information in a high-dimensional state space, was proposed to introduce an upper bound on the amount of Eve's information based on dimensionality of prepared quantum states and randomized measurement settings. Since its introduction, many realizations of the RRDPS protocol were demonstrated using trains of coherent pulses (time bin encoding). Given that this realization of the protocol requires active and random choice of many delays in a delayed Mach-Zehnder interferometer, its implementation can be technically demanding. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an implementation of the RRDPS protocol using the photonic orbital angular momentum degree of freedom in dimensions $L=3$–8, 16, 32, and 64. In particular, we show that Alice's generation stage and Bob's detection stage can each be reduced to a single phase element, greatly simplifying the implementation. Our scheme offers a practical path to using RRDPS protocol in free-space quantum channels.

For systems of controllable qubits, we provide a method for experimentally obtaining a useful class of multitime correlators using sequential generalized measurements of arbitrary strength. Specifically, if a correlator can be expressed as an average of nested (anti)commutators of operators that square to the identity, then that correlator can be determined exactly from the average of a measurement sequence. As a relevant example, we provide quantum circuits for measuring multiqubit out-of-time-order correlators using optimized control-$Z$ or $\mathit{ZX}$-90 two-qubit gates common in superconducting transmon implementations.

We study incompatibility of measurements and its relation to steering and nonlocality in a class of finite-dimensional general probabilistic theories (GPTs). The basic idea is to represent finite collections of measurements as affine maps of a state space into a polysimplex and show that incompatibility is characterized by properties of these maps. We introduce the notion of an incompatibility witness and show its relation to incompatibility degree. We find the largest incompatibility degree attainable by pairs of two-outcome quantum measurements and characterize state spaces for which incompatibility degree attains maximal values possible in GPTs. As examples, we study the spaces of classical and quantum channels and show their close relation to polysimplices. This relation explains the superquantum nonclassical effects that were observed on these spaces.

Quantum channels with no quantum capacity can be activated by specific kinds of channels. This activation effect might be useful to overcome noise of channels by attaching other channels, which can enhance the capacity of a given channel. We show that such an activation is possible by specific positive-partial-transpose channels and Gaussian lossy channels whose quantum capacities are known. We also test the more general case involving a Gaussian thermal attenuator whose exact value of quantum capacity has been unknown so far. By employing a recently suggested narrow upper bound on the quantum capacity of the thermal attenuator, we confirm the fact that an activation of quantum capacity occurs as well. This result is applicable for realistic situations in which Gaussian channels describe the noises of communication systems.

Entanglement plays an important role in our ability to understand, simulate, and harness quantum many-body phenomena. In this work, we investigate the entanglement spectrum for open one-dimensional (1D) systems and propose a natural quantifier for how much a 1D quantum state is entangled while being subject to decoherence. We demonstrate our method using a simple case of single-particle evolution and find that the open system entanglement spectrum is composed of generalized concurrence values, as well as quantifiers of the state's purity. Our proposed entanglement spectrum can be directly obtained using a correct scaling of a matrix product state decomposition of the system's density matrix. Our method thus offers observables that are easily acquired in the study of interacting 1D systems and sheds light on the approximations employed in matrix product state simulations of open system dynamics.

The spins of gaseous alkali-metal atoms are commonly assumed to oscillate at a constant hyperfine frequency, which for many years has been used to define a standard unit of time, the second. Indeed, under standard experimental conditions, the spins oscillate independently, only weakly perturbed and slowly decaying due to random spin-spin collisions. Here we consider a different, unexplored regime of very dense gas, where collisions, more frequent than the hyperfine frequency, dominate the dynamics. We find that the hyperfine oscillations become significantly longer lived, and their frequency becomes dependent on the state of the ensemble, manifesting strong nonlinear dynamics. We reveal that the nonlinearity originates from a many-body interaction which synchronizes the electronic spins, driving them into a single collective mode. The conditions for experimental realizations of this regime are outlined.

We theoretically investigate how quasiparticle properties of an attractive Fermi polaron are affected by nonzero temperature and finite impurity concentration in three dimensions and in free space. By applying both non-self-consistent and self-consistent many-body $T$-matrix theories, we calculate the polaron energy (including decay rate), effective mass, and residue, as functions of temperature and impurity concentration. The temperature and concentration dependencies are weak on the BCS side with a negative impurity-medium scattering length. Toward the strong attraction regime across the unitary limit, we find sizable dependencies. In particular, with increasing temperature the effective mass quickly approaches the bare mass and the residue is significantly enhanced. At temperature $T\sim 0.1T_F$, where $T_F$ is the Fermi temperature of the background Fermi sea, the residual polaron-polaron interaction seems to become attractive. This leads to a notable down-shift in the polaron energy. We show that, by taking into account the temperature and impurity concentration effects, the measured polaron energy in the first Fermi polaron experiment [Schirotzek , Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 230402 (2009)] could be better theoretically explained.

There exists a growing interest in the properties of the light generated by hybrid systems involving a mesoscopic number of emitters as a means of providing macroscopic quantum light sources. In this work, the quantum correlations of the light emitted by a collection of emitters coupled to a generic optical cavity are studied theoretically using an effective Hamiltonian approach. Starting from the single-emitter level, we analyze the persistence of photon antibunching as the ensemble size increases. Not only is the photon blockade effect identifiable, but photon antibunching originated from destructive interference processes, the so-called unconventional antibunching, is also present. We study the dependence of these two types of negative correlations on the spectral detuning between cavity and emitters, as well as its evolution as the time delay between photon detections increases. Throughout this work, the performance of plasmonic nanocavities and dielectric microcavities is compared: despite the distinct energy scales and the differences introduced by their respectively open and closed character, the bunching and antibunching phenomenology presents remarkable similarities in both types of cavities.

Given a set of quantum gates and a target unitary operation, the most elementary task of quantum compiling is the identification of a sequence of the gates that approximates the target unitary to a determined precision $\varepsilon$. The Solovay-Kitaev theorem provides an elegant solution which is based on the construction of successively tighter “nets” around unity comprised of successively longer sequences of gates. The procedure for the construction of the nets, according to this theorem, requires accessibility to the inverse of the gates as well. In this work, we propose a method for constructing nets around unity without this requirement. The algorithmic procedure is applicable to sets of gates which are diffusive enough, in the sense that sequences of moderate length cover the space of unitary matrices in a uniform way. We prove that the number of gates sufficient for reaching a precision $\varepsilon$ scales as $log{(1/\varepsilon )}^{log3/log2}$ while the precompilation time is increased as compared to that of the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm by the exponential factor $3/2$.

The nonrelativistic ionization energy levels of a helium atom are calculated for $S$, $P$, $D$, and $F$ states. The calculations are based on the variational method of “exponential” expansion. The convergence of the calculated energy levels is studied as a function of the number of basis functions $N$. This allows us to claim that the obtained energy values (including the values for the states with a nonzero angular momentum) are accurate up to 28–35 significant digits. Calculations of the nonrelativistic ionization energy of the negative hydrogen ion ${\mathrm{H}}^{-}$ are also presented.

Electron-impact excitation cross sections from the ground state $1s^{2}2s^{2}2p_{1/2}$ to the excited states ${\left[{\left(1s^{2}2s2p_{1/2}\right)}_{0}2p_{3/2}\right]}_{3/2}$, ${\left[{\left(1s^{2}2s2p_{3/2}\right)}_{1}2p_{3/2}\right]}_{5/2}$, ${\left[{\left(1s2s^{2}2p_{1/2}\right)}_{0}2p_{3/2}\right]}_{3/2}$, and ${\left[{\left(1s2s^{2}2p_{3/2}\right)}_{1}2p_{3/2}\right]}_{5/2}$ of highly charged boronlike ${\mathrm{Ca}}^{15+}$, ${\mathrm{Xe}}^{49+}$, and ${\mathrm{W}}^{69+}$ ions have been calculated with the fully relativistic distorted-wave method. The degrees of linear polarization of the corresponding radiation lines are further obtained. It is found that the Breit interaction makes the lines corresponding to the $2p\to 2s$ transition depolarized, and it makes the ones corresponding to the $2p\to 1s$ transition more polarized. These characteristics are very different from the results obtained for the linear polarization of the same radiation lines but formed via the dielectronic recombination process [Phys. Rev. A 91, 042705 (2015)], in which the Breit interaction has no effect on the linear polarization.

We predict an observable Wigner time delay in outer atomic shell photoionization near inner shell thresholds. The near-threshold increase of time delay is caused by intershell correlation and serves as a sensitive probe of this effect. The time delay increase is present even when the inner and outer shell thresholds are hundreds of electron volts apart. We illustrate this observation by several prototypical examples in noble gas atoms from Ne to Kr. In our study, we employ the random phase approximation with exchange and its relativistic generalization. We also support our findings by a simplified, yet quite insightful, treatment within the lowest-order perturbation theory.

We analyze the stability of inhomogeneous superfluid phases in a system consisting of identical fermions confined in two layers that are immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The fermions in the two layers interact via an induced interaction mediated by the BEC, which gives rise to pairing. We present zero-temperature phase diagrams varying the chemical potential difference between the two layers and the range of the induced interaction, and show that there is a large region where an inhomogeneous superfluid phase is the ground state. This region grows with increasing range of the induced interaction and it can be much larger than for a corresponding system with a short-range interaction. The range of the interaction is controlled by the healing length of the BEC, which makes the present system a powerful tunable platform to stabilize inhomogeneous superfluid phases. We furthermore analyze the melting of the superfluid phases in the layers via phase fluctuations as described by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism and show that the normal, homogeneous, and inhomogeneous superfluid phases meet in a tricritical point. The superfluid density of the inhomogeneous superfluid phase is reduced by inherent gapless excitations, and we demonstrate that this leads to a significant suppression of the critical temperature as compared to the homogeneous superfluid phase.

The Bloch states of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in pure nonlinear lattices (NLs) are dynamically unstable so that they cannot show superfluidity. We overcome this problem by finding that the two-component BECs in NLs can be stabilized by coherent linear coupling. Furthermore, in the limit of strong coherent coupling, the lowest Bloch band in the whole Brillouin zone can be dynamically stable. We also find a hysteretic behavior with looplike structure in the Bloch band resembling the so-called “swallowtail” loop. The dynamical stabilization and the looplike band structure can be realized in experiments by current technology. Our results are obtained from a discrete model, and major results are also confirmed by a continuum model.