The verification of quantum entanglement under the influence of realistic noise and decoherence is crucial for the development of quantum technologies. Unfortunately, a full entanglement characterization is generally not possible with most entanglement criteria such as entanglement witnesses or the partial transposition criterion. In particular, so-called bound entanglement cannot be certified via the partial transposition criterion. Here we present the full entanglement verification of dephased qubit and qutrit Werner states via entanglement quasiprobabilities. Remarkably, we are able to reveal bound entanglement for noisy mixed states in the qutrit case. This example demonstrates the strength of the entanglement quasiprobabilities for verifying the full entanglement of quantum states suffering from noise.

Perturbative anticrossings have long been identified as a potential computational bottleneck for quantum annealing. This bottleneck can appear, for example, when a uniform transverse driver Hamiltonian is applied to each qubit. Previous theoretical research sought to alleviate such anticrossings by adjusting the transverse driver Hamiltonians on individual qubits according to a perturbative approximation. Here we apply this principle to a physical implementation of quantum annealing in a D-Wave 2000Q system. We use samples from the quantum annealing hardware and per-qubit anneal offsets to produce nonuniform driver Hamiltonians. On small instances with severe perturbative anticrossings, our algorithm yields an increase in minimum eigengaps, ground-state success probabilities, and escape rates from metastable valleys. We also demonstrate that the same approach can mitigate biased sampling of degenerate ground states.

It is a challenging task to detect genuine multipartite nonlocality (GMNL). In this paper, the problem is considered via computing the maximal quantum value of Svetlichny operators for three-qubit systems and a tight upper bound is obtained. The constraints on the quantum states for the tightness of the bound are also presented. The approach enables us to give the necessary and sufficient conditions of violating the Svetlichny inequality (SI) for several quantum states, including the white and color noised Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. The relation between the genuine multipartite entanglement concurrence and the maximal quantum value of the Svetlichny operators for mixed GHZ class states is also discussed. As the SI is useful for the investigation of GMNL, our results give an effective and operational method to detect the GMNL for three-qubit mixed states.

The total correlation in a bipartite quantum system is measured by the quantum mutual information $\mathcal{I}$, which consists of quantum discord and classical correlation. However, recent results in quantum information show that coherence, which is a part of total correlation, is more general and more fundamental. The role of coherence in quantum resource theory is worthwhile to investigate. We first study the relationship between quantum discord and coherence by decreasing the difference between them. Then, we consider the dynamics of quantum discord, classical correlation, and quantum coherence under incoherent quantum channels. It is found that coherence indicates the behavior of quantum discord (classical correlation) for times $t<\overline{t}$, and indicates the behavior of classical correlation (quantum discord) for times $t>\overline{t}$. Moreover, the coherence freeze and decay characterize the quantum discord and classical correlation freeze and decay, respectively.

We study ionization dynamics of oriented polar molecules in strong elliptically polarized laser fields. The calculated photoelectron momentum distributions show an irregular half-ring structure from which we track the electron motion and identify two different ionization channels, i.e., the ground-state one and the excited-state one. We show that the excited-state channel is usually temporally delayed by a few hundred attoseconds in comparison with the ground-state one. This dynamical delay is mapped in the momentum distribution, resulting in the irregular half-ring structure. The characteristics of this structure provide potential observables for studying excited-state effects in ionization of polar molecules in strong laser fields.

Spatially anisotropic solitary vortices, i.e., bright anisotropic vortex solitons (AVSs), supported by anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions, were recently predicted in spin-orbit-coupled binary Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs), in the form of two-dimensional semivortices (complexes built of zero-vorticity and vortical components). We demonstrate that the shape of the AVSs—horizontal or vertical, with respect to the in-plane polarization of the atomic dipole moments in the underlying BEC—may be effectively controlled by the strength $\mathrm{\Omega }$ of the Zeeman splitting (ZS). A transition from the horizontal to vertical shape with the increase of $\mathrm{\Omega }$ is found numerically and explained analytically. At the transition point, the AVS assumes the shape of an elliptical ring. The mobility of horizontal AVSs is studied, too, with the conclusion that, with the increase of $\mathrm{\Omega }$, their negative effective mass changes the sign to positive via a point at which the effective mass diverges. Lastly, we report a new species of inverted AVSs, with the zero-vorticity and vortex component placed in lower- and higher-energy components, as defined by the ZS. They are excited states, with respect to the ground states provided by the usual AVSs. Quite surprisingly, inverted AVSs are stable in a large parameter region.

We consider a small number of identical bosons trapped in a two-dimensional isotropic harmonic potential and also the $N$-boson system when it is feasible. The atom-atom interaction is modeled by means of a finite-range Gaussian interaction. The spectral properties of the system are scrutinized and, in particular, we derive analytic expressions for the degeneracies and their breaking for the lower-energy states at small but finite interactions. We demonstrate that the degeneracy of the low-energy states is independent of the number of particles in the noninteracting limit and also for sufficiently weak interactions. In the strongly interacting regime, we show how the many-body wave function develops holes whenever two particles are at the same position in space to avoid the interaction, a mechanism reminiscent of the Tonks-Girardeau gas in one dimension. The evolution of the system as the interaction is increased is studied by means of the density profiles, pair correlations, and fragmentation of the ground state for $N=2$, 3, and 4 bosons.

The Mollow spectrum for the light scattered by a driven two-level atom is derived in the resolvent operator formalism. The derivation is based on the construction of a master equation from the resolvent operator of the atom-field system. We show that the natural linewidth of the excited atomic level remains essentially unmodified, to a very good level of approximation, even in the strong-field regime, where Rabi flopping becomes relevant inside the self-energy loop that yields the linewidth. This ensures that the obtained master equation and the spectrum derived matches that of Mollow.

Coupled semiconductor lasers are systems possessing complex dynamics that are interesting for numerous applications in photonics. In this work, we investigate the existence and the stability of asymmetric phase-locked states of the fundamental active photonic dimer consisting of two coupled lasers. We show that stable phase-locked states of arbitrary asymmetry exist for extended regions of the parameter space of the system and that their field amplitude ratio and phase difference can be dynamically controlled by appropriate current injection. The model includes the important role of carrier density dynamics and shows that the phase-locked state asymmetry is related to operation conditions providing, respectively, gain and loss in the two lasers.

Ensembles of quantum-mechanical spins offer a promising platform for quantum memories, but proper functionality requires accurate control of unavoidable system imperfections. We present an efficient control scheme for a spin ensemble strongly coupled to a single-mode cavity based on a set of Volterra equations relying solely on weak classical control pulses. The viability of our approach is demonstrated in terms of explicit storage and readout sequences that will serve as a starting point towards the realization of more demanding full quantum-mechanical optimal control schemes.

Conjugate metamaterials, in which the permittivity and the permeability are complex conjugates of each other, possess the elements of loss and gain simultaneously. By employing a conjugate metamaterial with a purely imaginary form, we propose a mechanism for realizing both coherent perfect absorber (CPA) and laser modes. Moreover, the general conditions for obtaining CPA and laser modes, including obtaining them simultaneously, are revealed by analyzing the wave scattering properties of a slab made of purely imaginary metamaterials (PIMs). Specifically, in a PIM slab with a subunity effective refractive index, the CPA mode can be simplified as a perfect absorption mode and the incident wave from one side could be perfectly absorbed.

We analyze the quantum evolution of a weakly nonlinear resonator due to a classical near-resonant drive and damping. The resonator nonlinearity leads to squeezing and heating of the resonator state. Using a hybrid phase-space–Fock-space representation for the resonator state within the Gaussian approximation, we derive evolution equations for the four parameters characterizing the Gaussian state. Numerical solution of these four ordinary differential equations is much simpler and faster than simulation of the full density matrix evolution, while providing good accuracy for the system analysis during transients and in the steady state. We show that steady-state squeezing of the resonator state is limited by 3 dB; however, this limit can be exceeded during transients.

The thermodynamics of quantum coherence has attracted growing attention recently, where the thermodynamic advantage of quantum superposition is characterized in terms of quantum thermodynamics. We investigate the thermodynamic effects of quantum coherent driving in the context of the fluctuation theorem. We adopt a quantum-trajectory approach to investigate open quantum systems under feedback control. In these systems, the measurement backaction in the forward process plays a key role, and therefore the corresponding time-reversed quantum measurement and postselection must be considered in the backward process, in sharp contrast to the classical case. The state reduction associated with quantum measurement, in general, creates a zero-probability region in the space of quantum trajectories of the forward process, which causes singularly strong irreversibility with divergent entropy production (i.e., absolute irreversibility) and hence makes the ordinary fluctuation theorem break down. In the classical case, the error-free measurement ordinarily leads to absolute irreversibility, because the measurement restricts classical paths to the region compatible with the measurement outcome. In contrast, in open quantum systems, absolute irreversibility is suppressed even in the presence of the projective measurement due to those quantum rare events that go through the classically forbidden region with the aid of quantum coherent driving. This suppression of absolute irreversibility exemplifies the thermodynamic advantage of quantum coherent driving. Absolute irreversibility is shown to emerge in the absence of coherent driving after the measurement, especially in systems under time-delayed feedback control. We show that absolute irreversibility is mitigated by increasing the duration of quantum coherent driving or decreasing the delay time of feedback control.

Application of the phase-modulated pulsed light for advance spectroscopic measurements is the area of growing interest. The phase modulation of the light causes modulation of the signal. Separation of the spectral components of the modulations allows to distinguish the contributions of various interaction pathways. The lasers with high repetition rate used in such experiments can lead to appearance of the accumulation effects, which become especially pronounced in systems with long-living excited states. Recently it was shown that such accumulation effects can be used to evaluate parameters of the dynamical processes in the material. In this work we demonstrate that the accumulation effects are also important in the quantum characteristics measurements provided by modulation spectroscopy. In particular, we consider a model of quantum two-level system driven by a train of phase-modulated light pulses, organized in analogy with the two-dimensional spectroscopy experiments. We evaluate the harmonics' amplitudes in the fluorescent signal and calculate corrections appearing from the accumulation effects. We show that the corrections can be significant and have to be taken into account at analysis of experimental data.

A nanomagnet precessing in an external magnetic field can be treated as a source of narrow-bandwidth magnetic noise, that leaves characteristic fingerprints in decoherence of a nearby spin qubit undergoing dynamical decoupling. We show how, by measurements of two-qubit coherence, a noise sensor composed of a qubit pair can be used to reconstruct the position of the nanomagnet. Such localization of noise source is possible with only two qubit probes, because the course of coherence decay under appropriately designed dynamical decoupling sequences contains information not only about noises experienced by each qubit, but also about their cross-correlations. We test the applicability of the proposed protocol on an example of two qubits coupled to the nanomagnet via dipolar interaction. We also show how, using a two-qubit sensor possessing a particular symmetry, one can localize the nanomagnet even when the sensor-magnet coupling law is unknown.

We assess two different nonequilibrium quantum Landauer bounds: the traditional approach based on the change in entropy, referred to as the “entropic bound,” and one based on the details of the dynamical map, referred to as the “thermodynamic bound.” By first restricting to a simple exactly solvable model of a single two-level system coupled to a finite-dimensional thermal environment and by exploiting an excitation-preserving interaction, we establish the dominant role played by the population terms in dictating the tightness of these bounds with respect to the dissipated heat and clearly establish that coherences only affect the entropic bound. Furthermore, we show that sharp boundaries between the relative performance of the two quantities emerge and find that there are clear instances where both approaches return a bound weaker than Clausius' statement of the second law, rendering them ineffective. Finally, we show that our results extend to generic interaction terms.

To control and utilize quantum features in small scale for practical applications such as quantum transport, it is crucial to gain a deep understanding of the quantum characteristics of states such as coherence. Here by introducing a technique that simplifies solving the dynamical equation, we study the dynamics of coherence in a system of qubits interacting with each other through a common bath at nonzero temperature. Our results demonstrate that depending on the initial state, the environment temperature affects coherence and excitation transfer in different ways. We show that when the initial state is incoherent, as time goes on, coherence and the probability of excitation transfer increase. But for a coherent initial state, we find a critical value of temperature below which the system loses its coherence in time, which diminishes the probability of excitation transfer. Hence, in order to achieve a higher value of coherence and also a higher probability of excitation transfer, the temperature of the bath should go beyond that critical value. Stationary coherence and the probability of finding excited qubits in a steady state are discussed. We also elaborate on the dependence of the critical value of the bath temperature on system size.

We develop a general theory to estimate magnetic field gradients in quantum metrology. We consider a system of $N$ particles distributed on a line whose internal degrees of freedom interact with a magnetic field. Usually gradient estimation is based on precise measurements of the magnetic field at two different locations, performed with two independent groups of particles. This approach, however, is sensitive to fluctuations of the offset field determining the level splitting of the particles and results in collective dephasing. In this work, we use the framework of quantum metrology to assess the maximal accuracy for gradient estimation. For arbitrary positioning of particles, we identify optimal entangled and separable states, allowing the estimation of gradients with maximal accuracy, quantified by the quantum Fisher information. We also analyze the performance of states from the decoherence-free subspace (DFS), which are insensitive to the fluctuations of the magnetic offset field. We find that these states allow us to measure a gradient directly, without the necessity of estimating the magnetic offset field. Moreover, we show that DFS states attain a precision for gradient estimation comparable to the optimal entangled states. Finally, for the above classes of states, we find simple and feasible measurements saturating the quantum Cramér-Rao bound.

We investigate the time evolution of quantum entanglement between an electron, liberated by a strong few-cycle laser pulse, and its parent ion core. Since the standard procedure is numerically prohibitive in this case, we propose a method to quantify the quantum correlation in such a system: we use the reduced density matrices of the directional subspaces along the polarization of the laser pulse and along the transverse directions as building blocks for an approximate entanglement entropy. We present our results, based on accurate numerical simulations, in terms of several of these entropies, for selected values of the peak electric-field strength and the carrier-envelope phase difference of the laser pulse. The time evolution of the mutual entropy of the electron and the ion-core motion along the direction of the laser polarization is similar to our earlier results based on a simple one-dimensional model. However, taking into account also the dynamics perpendicular to the laser polarization reveals a surprisingly different entanglement dynamics above the laser intensity range corresponding to pure tunneling: the quantum entanglement decreases with time in the over-the-barrier ionization regime.

We develop a quantum simulator architecture that is suitable for the simulation of $\text{U}\left(1\right)$ Abelian gauge theories such as quantum electrodynamics. Our approach relies on the ability to control the hopping of a particle through a barrier by means of the internal quantum states of a neutral or charged impurity particle sitting at the barrier. This scheme is experimentally feasible, as the correlated hopping does not require fine-tuning of the intra- and interspecies interactions. We investigate the applicability of the scheme in a double-well potential, which is the basic building block of the simulator, both at the single-particle and the many-body mean-field level. Moreover, we evaluate its performance for different particle interactions and trapping and, specifically for atom-ion systems, in the presence of micromotion.