We propose an ultrafast femtosecond time scale trichromatic $\pi$-pulse illumination scheme for coherent excitation and manipulation of low-lying Rydberg states in rubidium. Selective population of ${nP}_{3/2}$ levels with principal quantum numbers $n\lesssim 12$ using 75-fs laser pulses is achieved. The density-matrix equations of a four-level ladder system beyond the rotating-wave approximation have to be solved to clarify the balance between the principal quantum numbers, the duration of the laser pulses, and the associated ac-Stark effects for the fastest optimal excitation. The mechanism is robust for femtosecond control using different level configurations for applications in ultrafast quantum information processing and spectroscopy.

Sensing, localizing, and identifying individual nuclear spins or frequency components of a signal in the presence of a noisy environment requires the development of robust and selective methods of dynamical decoupling. An important challenge that remains to be addressed in this context are spurious higher-order resonances in current dynamical decoupling sequences as they can lead to the misidentification of nuclei or of different frequency components of external signals. Here we overcome this challenge with engineered quantum sensing sequences that achieve both enhanced robustness and the simultaneous suppression of higher-order-harmonic resonances. We experimentally demonstrate the principle using a single nitrogen-vacancy center spin sensor which we apply to the unambiguous detection of external protons.

We establish a connection between an arbitrary Hermitian tight-binding model with chiral ($\mathcal{C}$) symmetry and its non-Hermitian counterpart with chiral-time ($\mathcal{CT}$) symmetry. We show that such a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is pseudo-Hermitian. The eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian can be easily obtained from those of its parent Hermitian Hamiltonian. It provides a way to generate a class of non-Hermitian models with a tunable full real band structure by means of additional imaginary potentials. We also present an illustrative example that could achieve a cone structure from the energy band of a two-layer Hermitian square lattice model.

We present a comprehensive treatise on the derivation of the factorization formula describing strong-field photoelectron momentum distributions near the outermost backward rescattering caustic within the adiabatic theory and its validation by calculations. The formula derived holds for ionization by linearly polarized laser pulses of sufficiently low frequency and becomes exact as the frequency tends to zero for a fixed pulse amplitude. The convergence of the results obtained from the formula to accurate photoelectron momentum distributions obtained by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is demonstrated. The formula is shown to work quantitatively in both tunneling and over-the-barrier regimes of ionization for finite-range potentials as well as potentials with a Coulomb tail. This paves the way for future applications of the present theory in strong-field physics. In particular, the explicit analytical form of the returning photoelectron wave packet given here enables one to extract differential cross sections for elastic scattering of a photoelectron on the parent ion from experimental photoelectron momentum distributions.

We develop the research achievement of recent work [Gärttner et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 233002 (2014)], in which an anomalous excitation enhancement is observed in a three-level Rydberg-atom ensemble with many-body coherence. In our theoretical analysis, this effect is ascribed to the existence of a quasidark state as well as its avoided crossings to nearby Rydberg-dressed states. Moreover, we show that with an appropriate control of the optical detuning to the intermediate state, the enhancement can evoke a direct facilitation to atom-light coupling that even breaks through the conventional $\sqrt{N}$ limit of strong-blockaded ensembles. As a consequence, the intensity of the probe laser for intermediate transition can be reduced considerably, increasing the feasibility of experiments with Rydberg-dressed atoms.

We introduce and investigate a system that uses temporal resonance-induced phase-space pathways to create strong coupling between an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and a traveling optical lattice potential. We show that these pathways thread both the classical and quantum phase space of the atom cloud, even when the optical lattice potential is arbitrarily weak. The topology of the pathways, which form weblike patterns, can by controlled by changing the amplitude and period of the optical lattice. In turn, this control can be used to increase and limit the BEC's center-of-mass kinetic energy to prespecified values. Surprisingly, the strength of the atom-lattice interaction and resulting BEC heating of the center-of-mass motion is enhanced by the repulsive interatomic interactions.

The fundamental active photonic dimer consisting of two coupled quantum well lasers is investigated in the context of the rate-equation model. Spectral transition properties and exceptional points are shown to occur under general conditions, not restricted by parity-time symmetry as in coupled-mode models, suggesting a paradigm shift in the field of non-Hermitian photonics. The optical spectral signatures of system bifurcations and exceptional points are manifested in terms of self-termination effects and observable drastic variations of the spectral line shape that can be controlled in terms of optical frequency detuning and inhomogeneous pumping.

We investigate the generation of entanglement (spin squeezing) in an optical-transition atomic clock through the coupling to an optical cavity in its vacuum state. We show that if each atom is prepared in a superposition of the ground state and a long-lived electronic excited state, and viewed as a spin-1/2 system, then the collective vacuum light shift entangles the atoms, resulting in a squeezed distribution of the ensemble collective spin, without any light applied. This scheme reveals that even an electromagnetic vacuum can constitute a useful resource for entanglement and quantum manipulation. By rotating the spin direction while coupling to the vacuum, the scheme can be extended to implement two-axis twisting resulting in stronger squeezing.

We study a quantum Otto engine embedding a working substance composed of a two-level system interacting with a harmonic mode. The physical properties of the substance are described by a generalized quantum Rabi model arising in superconducting circuit realizations. We show that light-matter quantum correlation reduction during the hot bath stage and adiabatic stages act as an indicator for enhanced work extraction and efficiency, respectively. Also, we demonstrate that the anharmonic spectrum of the working substance has a direct impact on the transition from heat engine into refrigerator as the light-matter coupling is increased. These results shed light on the search for optimal conditions in the performance of quantum heat engines.

Quantum entanglement and nonlocality are inequivalent notions: There exist entangled states that nevertheless admit local-realistic interpretations. This paper studies a special class of local-hidden-variable theories, in which the linear structure of quantum measurement operators is preserved. It has been proven that a quantum state has such linear hidden-variable representations if, and only if, it is not entangled. Separable states are known to admit nonclassical correlations as well, which are captured by quantum discord and related measures. In the unified framework presented in this paper, zero-discordant states are characterized as the only states that admit fully consistent classical probability representations. Possible generalization of this framework to the quasiprobability representation of multipartite quantum states is also discussed.

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the quantification of coherence or other coherencelike concepts within the framework of quantum resource theory. However, rigorously defined or not, the notion of coherence or decoherence has already been used by the community for decades since the advent of quantum theory. Intuitively, the definitions of coherence and decoherence should be two sides of the same coin. Therefore, a natural question is raised: How can the conventional decoherence processes, such as the von Neumann–Lüders (projective) measurement postulation or partially dephasing channels, fit into the bigger picture of the recently established theoretical framework? Here we show that the state collapse rules of the von Neumann or Lüders-type measurements, as special cases of genuinely incoherent operations (GIOs), are consistent with the resource theories of quantum coherence. New hierarchical measures of coherence are proposed for the Lüders-type measurement and their relationship with measurement-dependent discord is addressed. Moreover, utilizing the fixed-point theory for $C^{*}$ algebra, we prove that GIOs indeed represent a particular type of partially dephasing (phase-damping) channels which have a matrix representation based on the Schur product. By virtue of the Stinespring dilation theorem, the physical realizations of incoherent operations are investigated in detail and we find that GIOs in fact constitute the core of strictly incoherent operations and generally incoherent operations and the unspeakable notion of coherence induced by GIOs can be transferred to the theories of speakable coherence by the corresponding permutation or relabeling operators.

Experimental detection of entanglement of an arbitrary state of a given bipartite system is crucial for exploring many areas of quantum information processing. But such a detection should be made in a device-independent way if the preparation process of the state is considered to be faithful, in order to avoid detection of a separable state as an entangled one. The recently developed scheme of detecting bipartite entanglement in a measurement-device-independent way [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 060405 (2013)] does require information about the state. Here, by using Auguisiak et al.'s universal entanglement witness scheme for two-qubit states [Phys. Rev. A 77, 030301 (2008)], we provide a universal entanglement detection scheme for two-qubit states in a measurement-device-independent way. We also provide a set of universal witness operators for detecting NPT-ness (negative under partial transpose) of two-qudit states in a measurement-device-independent way. We conjecture that no such universal entanglement witness scheme exists for PPT (positive under partial transpose) entangled states. We also analyze the robustness of some of the experimental schemes—for detecting entanglement in a measurement-device-independent way—under the influence of noise in the inputs (from the referee) as well as in the measurement operator.

We consider how to quantify non-Gaussianity for the correlation of a bipartite quantum state by using various measures such as relative entropy and geometric distances. We first show that an intuitive approach, i.e., subtracting the correlation of a reference Gaussian state from that of a target non-Gaussian state, fails to yield a non-negative measure with monotonicity under local Gaussian channels. Our finding clearly manifests that quantum-state correlations generally have no Gaussian extremality. We therefore propose a different approach by introducing relevantly averaged states to address correlation. This enables us to define a non-Gaussianity measure based on, e.g., the trace-distance and the fidelity, fulfilling all requirements as a measure of non-Gaussian correlation. For the case of the fidelity-based measure, we also present readily computable lower bounds of non-Gaussian correlation.

An atom interferometer using a Bose–Einstein condensate of ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms is utilized for the measurement of magnetic-field gradients. Composite optical pulses are used to construct a spatially symmetric Mach–Zehnder geometry. By using a biased interferometer we demonstrate the ability to measure small residual forces in our system and discriminate between magnetic and inertial effects. These are a residual ambient magnetic-field gradient of $15\pm 2$ mG/cm and an inertial acceleration of $0.08\pm 0.02$ m/${\mathrm{s}}^2$. Our method has important applications in the calibration of precision measurement devices and the reduction of systematic errors.

The energy eigenstates of a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particle in a magnetic field confined to a plane, define a planar spin. If the particle moves adiabatically around a loop in this plane, it picks up a topological Berry phase that can only be an integer multiple of $\pi$. We propose a neutron-interferometry test of the Berry phase for a circulating planar spin induced by a magnetic field caused by a very long current-carrying straight wire perpendicular to the plane. This Berry phase causes destructive interference in the direction of the incoming beam of thermal neutrons moving through a triple-Laue interferometer.

In the lore of quantum metrology, one often hears (or reads) the following no-go theorem: If you put a vacuum into one input port of a balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer, then no matter what you put into the other input port, and no matter what your detection scheme, the sensitivity can never be better than the shot-noise limit (SNL). Often the proof of this theorem is cited to be in C. Caves, Phys. Rev. D 23, 1693 (1981), but upon further inspection, no such claim is made there. Quantum-Fisher-information-based arguments suggestive of this no-go theorem appear elsewhere in the literature, but are not stated in their full generality. Here we thoroughly explore this no-go theorem and give a rigorous statement: the no-go theorem holds whenever the unknown phase shift is split between both of the arms of the interferometer, but remarkably does not hold when only one arm has the unknown phase shift. In the latter scenario, we provide an explicit measurement strategy that beats the SNL. We also point out that these two scenarios are physically different and correspond to different types of sensing applications.

Single-shot qubit readout typically combines high readout contrast with long-lived readout signals, leading to large signal-to-noise ratios and high readout fidelities. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that both readout contrast and readout signal lifetime, and thus the signal-to-noise ratio, can be enhanced by forcing the qubit state to transition through intermediate states. In this work, we demonstrate that the sub-Poissonian relaxation statistics introduced by intermediate states can reduce the single-shot readout error rate by orders of magnitude even when there is no increase in signal-to-noise ratio. These results hold for moderate values of the signal-to-noise ratio ($\mathcal{S}\lesssim 100$) and a small number of intermediate states ($N\lesssim 10$). The ideas presented here could have important implications for readout schemes relying on the detection of transient charge states, such as spin-to-charge conversion schemes for semiconductor spin qubits and parity-to-charge conversion schemes for topologically protected Majorana qubits.

The finite terms Hylleraas- and Kinoshita-type variational wave functions are considered for three-body systems. In the Coulombic case local properties of wave functions are restricted by the Kato's cusp conditions. It is showed that Kato's cusp conditions restrict the possible terms in variational calculations. Constraints for the linear expansion coefficients are also derived and a recursion-type solution is given. Two trial functions with correct cusp conditions are determined for the ground state of the He atom. Local and global properties of these wave function are studied through calculations of mean values, local energy, and quantities related to double photoionization.

Time-resolved ultrafast x-ray scattering from photoexcited matter is an emerging method to image ultrafast dynamics in matter with atomic-scale spatial and temporal resolutions. For a correct and rigorous understanding of current and upcoming imaging experiments, we present the theory of time-resolved x-ray scattering from an incoherent electronic mixture using quantum electrodynamical theory of light-matter interaction. We show that the total scattering signal is an incoherent sum of the individual scattering signals arising from different electronic states, and therefore heterodyning of the individual signals is not possible for an ensemble of gas-phase photoexcited molecules. We scrutinize the information encoded in the total signal for the experimentally important situation when pulse duration and coherence time of the x-ray pulse are short in comparison to the time scale of the vibrational motion and long in comparison to the time scale of the electronic motion, respectively. Finally, we show that in the case of an electronically excited crystal the total scattering signal imprints the interference of the individual scattering amplitudes associated with different electronic states and heterodyning is possible.