We study the generation of atom vortex beams in the case where a Bose-Einstein condensate, released from a trap and moving in free space, is diffracted from a properly tailored light mask with a spiral transverse profile. We show how such a diffraction scheme could lead to the production of an atomic Ferris wheel beam.

We investigate the cooling produced by a loss process nonselective in energy on a one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas with repulsive contact interactions in the quasicondensate regime. By performing nonlinear classical-field calculations for a homogeneous system, we show that the gas reaches a nonthermal state where different modes have acquired different temperatures. After losses have been turned off, this state is robust with respect to the nonlinear dynamics, described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We argue that the integrability of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation is linked to the existence of such long-lived nonthermal states and illustrate this by showing that such states are not supported within a nonintegrable model of two coupled 1D gases of different masses. We go beyond a classical-field analysis, taking into account the quantum noise introduced by the discreteness of losses, and show that the nonthermal state is still produced and its nonthermal character is even enhanced. Finally, we extend the discussion to gases trapped in a harmonic potential and present experimental observations of a long-lived nonthermal state within a trapped 1D quasicondensate following an atom-loss process.

The Pancharatnam phase belongs to the family of geometric Berry phases. We use this optical phase to control the phase of our atom interferometer, which involves diffraction of the atom wave by laser standing waves in the Bragg regime. The Pancharatnam phase of the reflected beam of one standing wave controls the phase imprinted on the atom wave by the diffraction process. In addition to the expected phase shift, the experimental data exhibits the signature of several defects which are described and quantified. From this analysis, we estimate that a Pancharatnam phase shifter can be reliably used to control the phase of an atom interferometer in the sub-mrad regime. Moreover, as the geometric nature of the Pancharatnam phase renders this phase achromatic, its use in multispecies atom interferometers may be of great interest.

In the absence of external excitation, light trapped within a dielectric medium generally decays by leaking out, and also by getting absorbed within the medium. We analyze the leaky modes of solid dielectric spheres by examining solutions of Maxwell's equations for simple homogeneous, isotropic, linearly dispersive media that admit complex-valued oscillation frequencies. We show that, under appropriate circumstances, these leaky modes constitute a complete set into which an initial electromagnetic field distribution inside a dielectric sphere can be expanded. We provide the outline of a completeness proof, and also present results of numerical calculations that illustrate the close relationship between the leaky modes and the resonances of solid dielectric spherical cavities.

Hybrid systems of cold atoms and optical cavities are promising systems for increasing the stability of laser oscillators used in quantum metrology and atomic clocks. In this paper we map out the atom-cavity dynamics in such a system and demonstrate limitations as well as robustness of the approach. We investigate the phase response of an ensemble of cold ${}^{88}\mathrm{Sr}$ atoms inside an optical cavity for use as an error signal in laser frequency stabilization. With this system we realize a regime where the high atomic phase shift limits the dynamical locking range. The limitation is caused by the cavity transfer function relating input field to output field. The cavity dynamics is shown to have only little influence on the prospects for laser stabilization, making the system robust towards cavity fluctuations and ideal for the improvement of future narrow linewidth lasers.

Superluminal propagation of light is a well-established phenomenon and has motivated immense research interest that has led to state-of-the-art knowledge and potential applications in the emerging technology of quantum optics and photonics. This study presents a theoretical analysis of the gain-assisted superluminal light propagation in a four-level $N$-type atomic system by exploiting the scheme of electromagnetically induced gain and superluminal propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) along the gain-assisted atomic-metal interface simultaneously. In addition, a theoretical demonstration is presented on the comparison between Fresnel's rotary photon drag and SPP drag in view of light polarization state rotation by rotating the coherent atomic medium and the atomic-metal interface, respectively. Analogous to photon drag in the superluminal anomalous dispersion region where light polarization rotation occurs opposite the rotation of the gain-assisted atomic medium, the rotation of the atomic-metal interface also rotates the polarization state of SPPs opposite the rotation of the interface. This further confirms the superluminal nature of SPPs propagating along the interface with negative group velocity. Rabi frequencies of the control and pump fields considerably modify both photon and SPP drag coefficients. Metal conductivity also controls SPP propagation.

The quantum Rabi model is in the scientific spotlight due to the recent theoretical and experimental progress. Nevertheless, a full-fledged classification of its coupling regimes remains as a relevant open question. We propose a spectral classification dividing the coupling regimes into three regions based on the validity of perturbative criteria on the quantum Rabi model, which allows us the use of exactly solvable effective Hamiltonians. These coupling regimes are (i) the perturbative ultrastrong coupling regime which comprises the Jaynes-Cummings model, (ii) a region where nonperturbative ultrastrong and nonperturbative deep strong coupling regimes coexist, and (iii) the perturbative deep strong coupling regime. We show that this spectral classification depends not only on the ratio between the coupling strength and the natural frequencies of the unperturbed parts, but also on the energy to which the system can access. These regimes additionally discriminate the completely different behaviors of several static physical properties, namely the total number of excitations, the photon statistics of the field, and the cavity-qubit entanglement. Finally, we explain the dynamical properties which are traditionally associated with the deep strong coupling regime, such as the collapses and revivals of the state population, in the frame of the proposed spectral classification.

We address the problem of whether parties who cannot communicate but share nonsignaling quantum correlations between the outcomes of sharp measurements can distinguish, just from the value of a correlation observable, whether their outcomes were produced by sequential compatible measurements on single systems or by measurements on spatially separated subsystems. We show that there are quantum correlations between the outcomes of sequential measurements which cannot be attained with spatially separated systems. We present examples of correlations between spatially separated systems whose quantum maximum tends to the sequential maximum as the number of parties increases and examples of correlations between spatially separated systems whose quantum maximum fails to violate the noncontextual bound while its corresponding sequential version does.

We propose a dissipative scheme for one-step generation of continuous-variable quadripartite cluster states in a circuit QED setup consisting of four superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators and a gap-tunable superconducting flux qubit. With external driving fields to adjust the desired qubit-resonator and resonator-resonator interactions, we show that continuous-variable quadripartite cluster states of the four resonators can be generated with the assistance of energy relaxation of the qubit. By comparison with the previous proposals, the distinct advantage of our scheme is that only one step of quantum operation is needed to realize the quantum state engineering. This makes our scheme simpler and more feasible in experiment. Our result may have useful application for implementing quantum computation in solid-state circuit QED systems.

We calculated the magnetic dipole and the electric quadrupole hyperfine interaction constants of $3s3p{}^{3,1}{P}_1^o$ states and the isotope shift, including mass and field shift, factors for transitions from these two states to the ground state $3\mathrm{s}{}^{21}{S}_0$ in ${\mathrm{Al}}^{+}$ ions using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method. The effects of the electron correlations and the Breit interaction on these physical quantities were investigated in detail based on the active space approach. It is found that the core-core and the higher order correlations are considerable for evaluating the uncertainties of the atomic parameters concerned. The uncertainties of the hyperfine interaction constants in this work are less than 1.6%. Although the isotope shift factors are highly sensitive to the electron correlations, reasonable uncertainties were obtained by exploring the effects of the electron correlations. Moreover, we found that the relativistic nuclear recoil corrections to the mass shift factors are very small and insensitive to the electron correlations for ${\mathrm{Al}}^{+}$. These atomic parameters present in this work are valuable for extracting the nuclear electric quadrupole moments and the mean-square charge radii of Al isotopes.

We investigate interference and correlation effects when several detuned emitters are placed along a one-dimensional photonic waveguide. Such a setup allows multiple interactions between the photons and the strongly coupled emitters, and underlies proposed devices for quantum information processing. We show, first, that a pair of detuned two-level systems (2LS) separated by a half wavelength mimic a driven $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-type three-level system (3LS) in both the single- and two-photon sectors. There is an interference-induced transparency peak at which the fluorescence is quenched, leaving the transmitted photons completely uncorrelated. Slightly away from this separation, we find that the inelastic scattering (fluorescence) is large, leading to nonlinear effects such as nonreciprocity (rectification). We connect this nonreciprocity to inelastic scattering caused by driving a dark pole and so derive a condition for maximum rectification. Finally, by placing a true 3LS midway between the two 2LS, we show that elastic scattering produces only transmission, but inelastic scattering nevertheless occurs (the fluorescence is not quenched) causing substantial photon correlations.

The determination of a clear theoretical demarcation between a true or a false quadratic or higher-order low-intensity optical effect induced by an externally applied static or quasistatic (dc) vector field in anisotropic crystals is the scope of the present work. A complete set of necessary and sufficient conditions required for the practical possibility of direct detection, measurement, and tabulation of only those pure optical contributions is finally obtained. The dc electro-optic effect stands out as the most representative of all of these low-power dc optical effects. However, although the dc Kerr effect remains the main topic of application of the analytical treatment developed in this work, the current theoretical formalism is extended to include other dc conventional crystal optics effects, such as electrogyration, electroabsorption, and externally induced ray or energy propagation. Even more, the theoretical conditions are further generalized to apply to any pure higher-order crystal optics effect induced by external dc fields. These can be electric, magnetic, force, and even temperature or concentration gradient fields. The current treatment does not extend to multiple-beam high-intensity nonlinear optics effects induced by optical (ac) fields. Compared to previously published expressions, a more general Fresnel equation is also provided here together with the most general Jones vectors describing the eigenpolarizations of the single probing beam of light. All the generalizations and extensions mentioned in this article are valid as long as the field-dependent coefficients of the particular optical effect under consideration satisfy the equation of a positive-definite complex Hermitian form.

We introduce a scheme for remote entanglement generation for the photon polarization. The technique is based on transferring the initial frequency correlations to specific polarization-frequency correlations by local dephasing and their subsequent removal by frequency up-conversion. On fundamental level, our theoretical results show how to create and transfer entanglement, to particles which never interact, by means of local operations. This possibility stems from the multipath interference and its control in frequency space. For applications, the developed techniques and results allow for the remote generation of entanglement with distant parties without Bell state measurements and open the perspective to probe frequency-frequency entanglement by measuring the polarization state of the photons.

We derive the analytical solution of the model of a two-state system interacting with an external coherent field, in which the Hamiltonian is pseudo-Hermitian. We describe in detail the non-Hermitian generalization of the famed Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana model, but similar generalizations can be derived in a very simple fashion for the other analytically soluble two-state models. The analytical solutions possess a non-Hermitian dynamical invariant, which replaces the probability conservation condition in the Hermitian case. Implementations in waveguide optics and nonlinear frequency conversion are suggested.

It is commonly claimed that only Hamiltonians with a spectrum unbounded both above and below can give purely exponential decay. Because such Hamiltonians have no ground state, they are considered unphysical. Here we show that Hamiltonians that are bounded below can give purely exponential decay. This is possible when, instead of looking at the global survival probability, one considers a subsystem only: We show that the reduced state of the subsystem can exhibit a Markovian dynamics, and some (local) observables can decay exponentially. We conclude that purely exponential decay might not be as unphysical as previously thought.

We propose and implement a lattice scheme for coherently manipulating atomic spins. Using a vector light shift and a superlattice structure, we demonstrate experimentally its capability on addressing spins in double wells and square plaquettes with subwavelength resolution. The quantum coherence of spin manipulations is verified through measuring atom tunneling and spin exchange dynamics. Our experiment presents a building block for engineering many-body quantum states in optical lattices for realizing quantum simulation and computation tasks.

We consider two different types of conditions which were proposed to test macrorealism in the context of a system described by a single dichotomic variable $Q$. This is the view that a macroscopic system evolving in time possesses definite properties which can be determined without disturbing the future or past state. The Leggett-Garg (LG) inequalities, the most commonly studied test, are only necessary conditions for macrorealism, but, building on earlier work J. J. Halliwell, Phys. Rev. A 93, 022123 (2016), it is shown that when the four three-time LG inequalities are augmented with a certain set of two-time inequalities also of the LG form, Fine's theorem applies and these augmented conditions are then both necessary and sufficient. A comparison is carried out with a very different set of necessary and sufficient conditions for macrorealism, namely the no-signaling in time (NSIT) conditions proposed by J. Kofler and C. Brukner, Phys. Rev. A 87, 052115 (2013) and L. Clemente and J. Kofler, Phys. Rev. A 91, 062103 (2015), which ensure that all probabilities for $Q$ at one and two times are independent of whether earlier or intermediate measurements are made in a given run, and do not require (but imply) the LG inequalities. We argue that tests based on the LG inequalities have the form of very weak classicality conditions and can be satisfied in the face of moderate interference effects, but those based on NSIT conditions have the form of much stronger coherence witness conditions, satisfied only for zero interference. The two tests differ in their implementation of noninvasive measurability and so are testing different notions of macrorealism: the augmented LG tests are indirect, entailing a combination of the results of different experiments with only compatible quantities measured in each experimental run, in close analogy with Bell tests, and are primarily tests for macrorealism per se; in contrast, the NSIT tests entail sequential measurements of incompatible quantities and are primarily tests for noninvasiveness.

Arbitrary rotation of a qubit can be performed with a three-pulse sequence, for example, $ZYZ$ rotations. However, this requires precise control of the relative phase and timing between the pulses, making it technically challenging in optical implementation in a short time scale. Here we show any $ZYZ$ rotations can be implemented with a single laser pulse, that is, a chirped pulse with a temporal hole. The hole of this shaped pulse induces a nonadiabatic interaction in the middle of the adiabatic evolution of the chirped pulse, converting the central part of an otherwise simple $Z$ rotation to a $Y$ rotation, constructing $ZYZ$ rotations. The result of our experiment performed with shaped femtosecond laser pulses and cold rubidium atoms shows strong agreement with the theory.

We consider above-threshold ionization of hydrogen atoms in ultrastrong laser fields. We use a time-dependent Dirac equation as a calculational tool. This framework allows one to include relativistic effects such as nondipole effects, effects of the relativistic kinematics, and electron spin effects. Inclusion of the spin effects allows one to consider the spin-flip process accompanying above-threshold ionization. We present and discuss electron momenta distributions for ionization processes with and without spin flips. Electron momenta distributions for the ionization process without a spin flip show a gradual increase of the role of the nondipole effects with increasing electric field. Electron spectra for the spin-flip ionization exhibit cusplike singularities, and the absence of features (such as the presence of dips) in the case of the ionization without a spin flip. We explain these features by invoking perturbation theory arguments.