Recent cold atom experiments have realized models where each hyperfine state at an optical lattice site can be regarded as a separate site in a synthetic dimension. In such synthetic ribbon configurations, manipulation of the transitions between the hyperfine levels provide direct control of the hopping in the synthetic dimension. This effect was used to simulate a magnetic field through the ribbon. Precise control over the hopping matrix elements in the synthetic dimension makes it possible to change this artificial magnetic field much faster than the time scales associated with atomic motion in the lattice. In this paper, we consider such a magnetic-flux quench scenario in synthetic dimensions. Sudden changes have not been considered for real magnetic fields as such changes in a conducting system would result in large induced currents. Hence we first study the difference between a time varying real magnetic field and an artificial magnetic field using a minimal six-site model. This minimal model clearly shows the connection between gauge dependence and the lack of on-site induced scalar potential terms. We then investigate the dynamics of a wave packet in an infinite two- or three-leg ladder following a flux quench and find that the gauge choice has a dramatic effect on the packet dynamics. Specifically, a wave packet splits into a number of smaller packets moving with different velocities. Both the weights and the number of packets depend on the implemented gauge. If an initial packet, prepared under zero flux in an $n$-leg ladder, is quenched to Hamiltonian with a vector potential parallel to the ladder, it splits into at most $n$ smaller wave packets. The same initial wave packet splits into up to $n^2$ packets if the vector potential is implemented to be along the rungs. Even a trivial difference in the gauge choice such as the addition of a constant to the vector potential produces observable effects. We also calculate the packet weights for arbitrary initial and final fluxes. Finally, we show that edge states in a thick ribbon are robust under the quench only when the same gap supports an edge state for the final Hamiltonian.

We obtain photon statistics by using a quantum jump approach tailored to a system in which one or two qubits are coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide. Photons confined in the waveguide have strong interference effects, which are shown to play a vital role in quantum jumps and photon statistics. For a single qubit, for instance, the bunching of transmitted photons is heralded by a jump that increases the qubit population. We show that the distribution and correlations of waiting times offer a clearer and more precise characterization of photon bunching and antibunching. Further, the waiting times can be used to characterize complex correlations of photons which are hidden in $g^{\left(2\right)}\left(\tau \right)$, such as a mixture of bunching and antibunching.

We realize scattering states in a lossy and chaotic two-dimensional microwave cavity which follow bundles of classical particle trajectories. To generate such particlelike scattering states, we measure the system's complex transmission matrix and apply an adapted Wigner-Smith time-delay formalism to it. The necessary shaping of the incident wave is achieved in situ using phase- and amplitude-regulated microwave antennas. Our experimental findings pave the way for establishing spatially confined communication channels that avoid possible intruders or obstacles in wave-based communication systems.

We present a security analysis of conference key agreement (CKA) in the most adversarial model of device independence (DI). Our protocol can be implemented by any experimental setup that is capable of performing Bell tests [specifically, the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) inequality], and security can in principle be obtained for any violation of the MABK inequality that detects genuine multipartite entanglement among the $N$ parties involved in the protocol. As our main tool, we derive a direct physical connection between the $N$-partite MABK inequality and the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality, showing that certain violations of the MABK inequality correspond to a violation of the CHSH inequality between one of the parties and the other $N-1$. We compare the asymptotic key rate for device-independent conference key agreement (DICKA) to the case where the parties use $N-1$ device-independent quantum key distribution protocols in order to generate a common key. We show that for some regime of noise the DICKA protocol leads to better rates.

Nested quantum annealing correction (NQAC) is an error-correcting scheme for quantum annealing that allows for the encoding of a logical qubit into an arbitrarily large number of physical qubits. The encoding replaces each logical qubit by a complete graph of degree $C$. The nesting level $C$ represents the distance of the error-correcting code and controls the amount of protection against thermal and control errors. Theoretical mean-field analyses and empirical data obtained with a D-Wave Two quantum annealer (supporting up to 512 qubits) showed that NQAC has the potential to achieve a scalable effective-temperature reduction, $T_{\mathrm{eff}}\sim C^{-\eta }$, with $0<\eta \le 2$. We confirm that this scaling is preserved when NQAC is tested on a D-Wave 2000Q device (supporting up to 2048 qubits). In addition, we show that NQAC can also be used in sampling problems to lower the effective-temperature of a quantum annealer. Such effective-temperature reduction is relevant for machine-learning applications. Since we demonstrate that NQAC achieves error correction via a reduction of the effective-temperature of the quantum annealing device, our results address the problem of the “temperature scaling law for quantum annealers,” which requires the temperature of quantum annealers to be reduced as problems of larger sizes are attempted to be solved.

Quantum emitters interacting through a waveguide setup have been proposed as a promising platform for basic research on light-matter interactions and quantum information processing. We propose to augment waveguide setups with the use of multiport devices. Specifically, we demonstrate theoretically the possibility of exciting $N$-qubit subradiant, maximally entangled, states with the use of suitably designed $N$-port devices. Our general methodology is then applied based on two different devices: an epsilon-and-mu-near-zero waveguide hub and a nonreciprocal circulator. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the robustness of the system against a number of nonidealities. These findings link and merge the designs of devices for quantum state engineering with classical communication network methodologies.

We introduce a ternary quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol and asymptotic security proof based on three coherent states and homodyne detection. Previous work had considered the binary case of two coherent states and here we nontrivially extend this to three. Our motivation is to leverage the practical benefits of both discrete and continuous (Gaussian) encoding schemes creating a best-of-both-worlds approach; namely, the postprocessing of discrete encodings and the hardware benefits of continuous ones. We present a thorough and detailed security proof in the limit of infinite signal states which allows us to lower bound the secret key rate. We calculate this is in the context of collective eavesdropping attacks and reverse reconciliation postprocessing. Finally, we compare the ternary coherent state protocol to other well-known QKD schemes (and fundamental repeaterless limits) in terms of secret key rates and loss.

In this article we extend the theory of ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules, formed by an atom in a giant dipole state and a ground-state alkali-metal atom, by angular-momentum couplings known from recent works on Rydberg molecules. In addition to $s$-wave scattering, the next higher order of $p$-wave scattering in the Fermi pseudopotential describing the binding mechanism is considered. Furthermore, the singlet and triplet channels of the scattering interaction as well as angular-momentum couplings such as hyperfine interaction and Zeeman interactions are included. Within the framework of Born-Oppenheimer theory, potential energy surfaces are calculated in both first-order perturbation theory and exact diagonalization. Besides the known pure triplet states, mixed-spin character states are obtained, opening up a whole new landscape of molecular potentials. We determine exact binding energies and wave functions of the nuclear rotational and vibrational motion numerically from the various potential energy surfaces.

We report a theoretical study of the optical centrifuge acceleration of an asymmetric top molecule interacting with an electric static field by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in the rigid rotor approximation. A detailed analysis of the mixing of the angular momentum in both the molecular and the laboratory fixed frames allows us to deepen the understanding of the main features of the acceleration process, for instance, the effective angular frequency of the molecule at the end of the pulse. For the case of the ${\mathrm{SO}}_2$ molecular super-rotor, we show numerically that it rotates around one internal axis and that its dynamics is confined to the plane defined by the polarization axis of the laser, in agreement with experimental findings. Furthermore, we consider the orientation patterns induced by the dc field, showing the characteristics of their structure as a function of the strength of the static field and the initial configuration of the fields.

We consider the inertial mass of a vortex in a superfluid. We obtain a vortex mass that is well defined and is determined microscopically and self-consistently by the elementary excitation energy of the kelvon quasiparticle localized within the vortex core. The obtained result for the vortex mass is found to be consistent with experimental observations on superfluid quantum gases and vortex rings in water. We propose a method to measure the inertial rest mass and Berry phase of a vortex in superfluid Bose and Fermi gases.

We study spin mixing dynamics in a chromium dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, after tilting the atomic spins by an angle $\theta$ with respect to the magnetic field. Spin mixing is triggered by dipolar coupling, but, once dynamics has started, it is mostly driven by contact interactions. For the particular case $\theta =\pi /2$, an external spin-orbit coupling term induced by a magnetic gradient is required to enable the dynamics. Then the initial ferromagnetic character of the gas is locally preserved, an unexpected feature that we attribute to large spin-dependent contact interactions.

In a large transverse field, there is an energy cost associated with flipping spins along the axis of the field. This penalty can be employed to relate the transverse-field Ising model in a large field to the $XY$ model in no field (when measurements are performed at the proper stroboscopic times). We describe the details for how this relationship works and, in particular, we also show under what circumstances it fails. We examine wave-function overlap between the two models and observables, such as spin-spin Green's functions. In general, the mapping is quite robust at short times, but will ultimately fail if the run time becomes too long. There is also a tradeoff between the length of time one can run a simulation out to and the time jitter of the stroboscopic measurements that must be balanced when planning to employ this mapping.

We study the dynamics of a general multiemitter system coupled to the squeezed vacuum reservoir and derive a master equation for this system based on the Weisskopf-Wigner approximation. In this theory, we include the effect of positions of the squeezing sources which is usually neglected in the previous studies. We apply this theory to a quasi-one-dimensional waveguide case where the squeezing in one dimension is experimentally achievable. We show that while dipole-dipole interaction induced by ordinary vacuum depends on the emitter separation, the two-photon process due to the squeezed vacuum depends on the positions of the emitters with respect to the squeezing sources. The dephasing rate, decay rate, and the resonance fluorescence of the waveguide-QED in the squeezed vacuum are controllable by changing the positions of emitters. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the stationary maximum entangled NOON state for identical emitters can be reached with arbitrary initial state when the center-of-mass position of the emitters satisfies certain conditions.

We propose an adiabatic method for the robust transfer of light between the two outer waveguides in a three-waveguide directional coupler. Unlike the established technique inherited from stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), the method proposed here is symmetric with respect to an exchange of the left and right waveguides in the structure and permits the transfer in both directions. The technique uses the adiabatic elimination of the middle waveguide together with level crossing and adiabatic passage in an effective two-state system involving only the external waveguides. It requires a strong detuning between the outer and the middle waveguide and does not rely on the adiabatic transfer state (dark state) underlying the STIRAP process. The suggested technique is generalized to an array of $N$ waveguides and verified by numerical beam propagation calculations.

We investigate experimentally and numerically the spectral dynamics of square pulses generated in passively mode-locked fiber lasers under the dissipative soliton resonance. The features of the transition from the single-peak spectral profile to the doublet spectrum with increasing pump power are studied. The used master equation takes into account the gain saturation, the quadratic frequency dispersion of the gain and the refractive index, and the cubic-quintic nonlinearity of the losses and refractive index. Experimental data are obtained for an Er:Yb-doped fiber ring laser. The theoretical and experimental results are in good agreement with each other.

We realize a quantum three-level system with photons distributed among three different spatial and polarization modes. Ambiguous measurements of the state of the qutrit are realized by blocking one out for the three modes at any one time. Using these measurements we construct a test of a Leggett-Garg inequality as well as tests of no-signaling-in-time for the measurements. We observe violations of the Leggett-Garg inequality that cannot be accounted for in terms of signaling. Moreover, we tailor the qutrit dynamics such that both ambiguous and unambiguous measurements are simultaneously nonsignaling, which is an essential step for the justification of the use of ambiguous measurements in Leggett-Garg tests.

We discuss that the nature of projective measurements in quantum mechanics can lead to a nontrivial bias in non-Markovianity measures, quantifying the flow of information between a system and its environment. Consequently, in the current form, envisioned applications are fundamentally limited. In our trapped-ion system, we precisely quantify such bias and perform local quantum probing to demonstrate corresponding limitations. The combination of extended measures and our scalable experimental approach can provide a versatile reference, relevant for understanding more complex systems.

Motivated by experimental progress in strongly coupled atom-photon systems in optical cavities, we study theoretically the quantum dynamics of atoms coupled to a one-dimensional dynamical optical lattice. The dynamical lattice is chosen to have a period that is incommensurate with that of an underlying static lattice, leading to a dynamical version of the Aubry-André model which can cause localization of single-particle wave functions. We show that atomic wave packets in this dynamical lattice generically spread via anomalous diffusion, which can be tuned between superdiffusive and subdiffusive regimes. This anomalous diffusion arises from an interplay between Anderson localization and quantum fluctuations of the cavity field.

We consider a general class of models, where a reinforcement learning (RL) agent learns from cyclic interactions with an external environment via classical signals. Perceptual inputs are encoded as quantum states, which are subsequently transformed by a quantum channel representing the agent's memory, while the outcomes of measurements performed at the channel's output determine the agent's actions. The learning takes place via stepwise modifications of the channel properties. They are described by an update rule that is inspired by the projective simulation (PS) model and equipped with a glow mechanism that allows for a backpropagation of policy changes, analogous to the eligibility traces in RL and edge glow in PS. In this way, the model combines features of PS with the ability for generalization, offered by its physical embodiment as a quantum system. We apply the agent to various setups of an invasion game and a grid world, which serve as elementary model tasks allowing a direct comparison with a basic classical PS agent.