The celebrated Bell-Kochen-Specker no-go theorem asserts that quantum mechanics does not present the property of realism; the essence of the theorem is the lack of a joint probability distribution for some experiment settings. We exploit the information theoretic form of the theorem using information measure instead of probabilistic measure and indicate that quantum mechanics does not present such kind of entropic realism either. The entropic form of Gleason's no-disturbance principle is developed and characterized by the intersection of several entropic cones. Entropic contextuality and entropic nonlocality are investigated in depth in this framework as well. We show how one can construct monogamy relations using entropic cone and basic Shannon-type inequalities. The general criterion for several entropic tests to be monogamous is also developed; using the criterion, we demonstrate that entropic nonlocal correlations, entropic contextuality tests, and entropic nonlocality and entropic contextuality are monogamous. Finally, we analyze the entropic monogamy relations for the multiparty and many-test case, which may play a crucial role in quantum network communication.

We develop a real-time full configuration-interaction quantum Monte Carlo approach to model driven-dissipative open quantum systems with Markovian system-bath coupling. The method enables stochastic sampling of the Liouville–von Neumann time evolution of the density matrix thanks to a massively parallel algorithm, thus providing estimates of observables on the nonequilibrium steady state. We present the underlying theory and introduce an initiator technique and importance sampling to reduce the statistical error. Finally, we demonstrate the efficiency of our approach by applying it to the driven-dissipative two-dimensional $XYZ$ spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ model on a lattice.

One of the ambitious goals of artificial intelligence is to build a machine that outperforms human intelligence, even if limited knowledge and data are provided. Reinforcement learning (RL) provides one such possibility to reach this goal. In this work, we consider a specific task from quantum physics, i.e., quantum state transfer in a one-dimensional spin chain. The mission for the machine is to find transfer schemes with the fastest speeds while maintaining high transfer fidelities. The first scenario we consider is when the Hamiltonian is time independent. We update the coupling strength by minimizing a loss function dependent on both the fidelity and the speed. Compared with a scheme proven to be at the quantum speed limit for the perfect state transfer, the scheme provided by RL is faster while maintaining the infidelity below $5\times {10}^{-4}$. In the second scenario where a time-dependent external field is introduced, we convert the state transfer process into a Markov decision process that can be understood by the machine. We solve it with the deep Q-learning algorithm. After training, the machine successfully finds transfer schemes with high fidelities and speeds, which are faster than previously known ones. These results show that reinforcement learning can be a powerful tool for quantum control problems.

The impact of electron interaction with $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_4$, $\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{H}}_4$, and $\mathrm{Ge}{\mathrm{H}}_4$ molecules (i.e., tetrahedral molecules) is described here to calculate elastic differential, integral, and momentum-transfer cross sections as well as total (elastic plus inelastic) cross sections using a parameter-free spherical complex optical potential approach in the fixed nuclei approximation at energies from 0.1 to 100 eV. The optical potential is constructed from a near-Hartree-Fock one-center expansion of projectile-target interaction wave function. We demonstrate that the qualitative features of the scattering parameters [such as a Ramsauer-Townsend (RT) minimum and shape resonance] as observed in recent experiments, are very well reproduced in the present spherical model. The value of the RT minimum has been correlated with the scattering length to the dipole polarizability of the target molecule. The calculated cross sections are compared with available theoretical calculations and experimental measurements in this energy region.

The quantum-field-theoretical problem of the vacuum decay into electron-positron pairs induced by external force fields is mapped onto the framework of a quantum-mechanical scattering process. This mapping permits us to generalize the Hund conjecture, which relates the long-time pair-creation rate for a static and spatially localized electric field to the transmission coefficient, to general space-time dependent forces that can induce multiphoton transitions. This leads to conceptual as well as computational simplifications as the vacuum's decay rate can be obtained from the laser-assisted scattering of quantum-mechanical wave packets with the force field. Using this mapping we find an analytical expression for the pair-creation rate for the case where the laser's polarization direction is perpendicular to the supercritical static force field.

We describe the production of large ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ Bose-Einstein condensates in a hybrid trap characterized by a weak magnetic field quadrupole and a tightly focused infrared beam. The use of small magnetic field gradients makes the trap compatible with the state-of-the-art magnetic shields. By taking advantage of the deep cooling and high efficiency of gray molasses to improve the initial trap loading conditions, we produce condensates composed of as many as 7 million atoms in less than $30\mathrm{s}$.

Although quantum metrology allows us to make precision measurements beyond the standard quantum limit, it mostly works on the measurement of only one observable due to the Heisenberg uncertainty relation on the measurement precision of noncommuting observables for one system. In this paper, we study the schemes of joint measurement of multiple observables which do not commute with each other using the quantum entanglement between two systems. We focus on analyzing the performance of a SU(1,1) nonlinear interferometer on fulfilling the task of joint measurement. The results show that the information encoded in multiple noncommuting observables on an optical field can be simultaneously measured with a signal-to-noise ratio higher than the standard quantum limit, and the ultimate limit of each observable is still the Heisenberg limit. Moreover, we find a resource conservation rule for the joint measurement.

We present a rigorous security analysis of continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV MDI QKD) in a finite-size scenario. The security proof is obtained in two steps: by first assessing the security against collective Gaussian attacks, and then extending to the most general class of coherent attacks via the Gaussian de Finetti reduction. Our result combines recent state-of-the-art security proofs for CV QKD with findings about min-entropy calculus and parameter estimation. In doing so, we improve the finite-size estimate of the secret key rate. Our conclusions confirm that CV MDI protocols allow for high rates on the metropolitan scale, and may achieve a nonzero secret key rate against the most general class of coherent attacks after ${10}^7$–${10}^9$ quantum signal transmissions, depending on loss and noise, and on the required level of security.

We introduce a reliable scheme for continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) by using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). As a spectrally efficient multiplexing technique, OFDM allows a large number of closely spaced orthogonal subcarrier signals used to carry data on several parallel data streams or channels. We place emphasis on modulator impairments which would inevitably arise in the OFDM system and analyze how these impairments affect the OFDM-based CV-QKD system. Moreover, we also evaluate the security in the asymptotic limit and the Pirandola-Laurenza-Ottaviani-Banchi upper bound. Results indicate that although the emergence of imperfect modulation would bring about a slight decrease in the secret key bit rate of each subcarrier, the multiplexing technique combined with CV-QKD results in a desirable improvement on the total secret key bit rate which can raise the numerical value about an order of magnitude.

We present a framework to prepare superpositions of bit strings, i.e., many-body spin configurations, with deterministic programmable probabilities. The spin configurations are encoded in the degenerate ground states of the lattice-gauge representation of an all-to-all connected Ising spin glass. The ground-state manifold is invariant under variations of the gauge degrees of freedom, which take the form of four-body parity constraints. Our framework makes use of these degrees of freedom by individually tuning them to dynamically prepare programmable superpositions. The dynamics combines an adiabatic protocol with controlled diabatic transitions. We derive an effective model that allows one to determine the control parameters efficiently even for large system sizes.

The principle of superposition is an intriguing feature of quantum mechanics, which is regularly exploited in many different circumstances. A recent work [M. Oszmaniec et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 110403 (2016)] shows that the fundamentals of quantum mechanics restrict the process of superimposing two unknown pure states, even though it is possible to superimpose two quantum states with partial prior knowledge. The prior knowledge imposes geometrical constraints on the choice of input states. We discuss an experimentally feasible protocol to superimpose multiple pure states of a $d$-dimensional quantum system and carry out an explicit experimental realization for two single-qubit pure states with partial prior information on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor.

It is well known that the majorization condition is the necessary and sufficient condition for the deterministic transformations of both pure bipartite entangled states by local operations and coherent states under incoherent operations. In this paper, we present two explicit protocols for these transformations. We first present a permutation-based protocol which provides a method for the single-step transformation of $d$-dimensional coherent states. We also obtain generalized solutions of this protocol for some special cases of $d$-level systems. Then, we present an alternative protocol where we use $d^{\prime }$-level ($d^{\prime }<d$) subspace solutions of the permutation-based protocol to achieve the complete transformation as a sequence of coherent-state transformations. We show that these two protocols also provide solutions for deterministic transformations of pure bipartite entangled states.

Quantum entanglement serves as a valuable resource for many important quantum operations. A pair of entangled qubits can be shared between two agents by first preparing a maximally entangled qubit pair at one agent, and then sending one of the qubits to the other agent through a quantum channel. In this process, the deterioration of entanglement is inevitable since the noise inherent in the channel contaminates the qubit. To address this challenge, various quantum entanglement distillation (QED) algorithms have been developed. Among them, recurrence algorithms have advantages in terms of implementability and robustness. However, the efficiency of recurrence QED algorithms has not been investigated thoroughly in the literature. This paper puts forth two recurrence QED algorithms that adapt to the quantum channel to tackle the efficiency issue. The proposed algorithms have guaranteed convergence for quantum channels with two Kraus operators, which include phase-damping and amplitude-damping channels. Analytical results show that the convergence speed of these algorithms is improved from linear to quadratic and one of the algorithms achieves the optimal speed. Numerical results confirm that the proposed algorithms significantly improve the efficiency of QED.

Out-of-scattering-plane $(e,2e)$ measurements and calculations are reported for the three singlet helium $2\ell 2{\ell }^{\prime }$ autoionizing levels, with 80, 100, 120, 150, and 488 eV incident-electron energies, and scattering angles ${60}^{\circ }, 50.8^{\circ }, {45}^{\circ }, 39.2^{\circ }$, and $20.5^{\circ }$, respectively. The kinematics are the same in all cases: the momentum transfer is $K=2.1$ a.u., and ejected electrons are detected in a plane that contains the momentum-transfer direction and is perpendicular to the scattering plane. The results are presented as $(e,2e)$ angular distributions energy integrated over each level. They are compared with fully nonperturbative $B$-spline $R$-matrix and hybrid second-order distorted-wave + $R$-matrix calculations.

We present a theoretical analysis showing how chirp can be used to sculpt two-color driving laser field waveforms in order to enhance high-order harmonic generation (HHG) and/or extend HHG cutoff energies. Specifically, we consider driving laser field waveforms composed of two ultrashort pulses having different carrier frequencies in each of which a linear chirp is introduced. Two pairs of carrier frequencies of the component pulses are considered: ($\omega , 2\omega$) and ($\omega , 3\omega$). Our results show how changing the signs of the chirps in each of the two component pulses leads to drastic changes in the HHG spectra. Our theoretical analysis is based on numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and on a semiclassical analytical approach that affords a clear physical interpretation of how our optimized waveforms lead to enhanced HHG spectra.

With the highly intense x-ray light generated by x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), molecular samples can be ionized many times in a single pulse. Here we report on a computational study of molecular spectroscopy at the high x-ray intensity provided by XFELs. Calculated photoelectron, Auger electron, and x-ray fluorescence spectra are presented for a single water molecule that reaches many electronic hole configurations through repeated ionization steps. The rich details shown in the spectra depend on the x-ray pulse parameters in a nonintuitive way. We discuss how the observed trends can be explained by the competition of microscopic electronic transition processes. A detailed comparison between spectra calculated within the independent-atom model and within the molecular-orbital framework highlights the chemical sensitivity of the spectral lines of multiple-hole configurations. Our results demonstrate how x-ray multiphoton ionization-related effects such as charge-rearrangement-enhanced x-ray ionization of molecules and frustrated absorption manifest themselves in the electron and fluorescence spectra.

We study superconducting properties of population-imbalanced ultracold Fermi mixtures in the honeycomb lattice that can be effectively described by the spin-imbalanced attractive Hubbard model in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field. We use the mean-field theory approach to obtain ground-state phase diagrams including the unconventional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, which is characterized by atypical behavior of the Cooper-pair total momentum. We show that the momentum changes its value as well as direction with a change of the system parameters. We discuss the influence of Van Hove singularities on the possibility of the reentrant FFLO phase occurrence, without a BCS precursor.

We study Wilson loops as a necessary tool for unambiguous identification of non-Abelian synthetic gauge fields, with attention to certain crucial but often overlooked features, such as the requirement of at least three distinct loops. We devise a method to determine the complete Wilson loop matrix from the time-evolved amplitudes of the internal atomic states of laser-coupled ultracold atoms that does not require lattice confinement. The analysis is done in the context of a cyclic model that can realize both Abelian and non-Abelian structures within a single configuration with continuous variation possible between U(1) and U(2) gauge groups by varying the detuning of the laser fields.