We introduce a simple scheme to implement synthetic dimensions in ultracold atomic gases, which only requires two basic and ubiquitous ingredients: the harmonic trap, which confines the atoms, combined with a periodic shaking. In our approach, standard harmonic oscillator eigenstates are reinterpreted as lattice sites along a synthetic dimension, while the coupling between these lattice sites is controlled by the applied time modulation. The phase of this modulation enters as a complex hopping phase, leading straightforwardly to an artificial magnetic field upon adding a second dimension. We show that this artificial gauge field has important consequences, such as the counterintuitive reduction of average energy under resonant driving, or the realization of quantum Hall physics. Our approach offers significant advantages over previous implementations of synthetic dimensions, providing an intriguing route towards higher-dimensional topological physics and strongly-correlated states.

The normal and the lateral Casimir interactions between corrugated ideal metallic plates in the presence of an amplifying or an absorptive dielectric slab is studied by the path-integral quantization technique. The effect of the amplifying slab, which is located between corrugated conductors, is to increase the normal and lateral Casimir interactions, while the presence of the absorptive slab diminishes the interactions. These effects are more pronounced if the thickness of the slab increases and, also, if the slab comes closer to one of the bounding conductors. When both bounding ideal conductors are flat, the normal Casimir force is nonmonotonic in the presence of the amplifying slab and the system has a stable mechanical equilibrium state, while the force is attractive and is weakened by intervening the absorptive dielectric slab in the cavity. Upon replacing one of the flat conductors with a flat ideal permeable plate the force becomes nonmonotonic and the system has an unstable mechanical equilibrium state in the presence of either an amplifying or an absorptive slab. When the left-side plate is a conductor and the right one is permeable, the force is nonmonotonic in the presence of a double-layer dissipative-amplifying dielectric slab with a stable mechanical equilibrium state, while it is purely repulsive in the presence of a double-layer amplifying-dissipative dielectric slab.

Light scattering in a magnetic medium with uncorrelated inclusions is theoretically studied in the approximation of the ladder diagram. Correlation between polarizations of electromagnetic waves that are produced by an infinitely distant dipole source is considered. Here a white-noise disorder model with Gaussian distribution is taken into account. In such a medium the magneto-optical interaction leads to correlation between perpendicular light polarizations. A spatial field correlation matrix with nonzero nondiagonal elements is obtained in the first order on gyration.

We study numerically the formation of spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals with competing nonlocal nonlinearities. We demonstrate that at a sufficiently high input power the interplay between focusing and thermally induced defocusing may lead to the formation of two-peak fundamental spatial solitons. These solitons have a constant spatial phase and hence represent supermodes of the self-induced extended waveguide structure. We show that these two-peak solitons are stable in propagation and exhibit an adiabatic transition to a single-peak state under weak absorption.

Maximum-likelihood quantum-state tomography yields estimators that are consistent, provided that the likelihood model is correct, but the maximum-likelihood estimators may have bias for any finite data set. The bias of an estimator is the difference between the expected value of the estimate and the true value of the parameter being estimated. This paper investigates bias in the widely used maximum-likelihood quantum-state tomography. Our goal is to understand how the amount of bias depends on factors such as the purity of the true state, the number of measurements performed, and the number of different bases in which the system is measured. For this, we perform numerical experiments that simulate optical homodyne tomography of squeezed thermal states under various conditions, perform tomography, and estimate bias in the purity of the estimated state. We find that estimates of higher purity states exhibit considerable bias, such that the estimates have lower purities than the true states.

Information causality states that the information obtainable by a receiver cannot be greater than the communication bits from a sender, even if they utilize no-signaling resources. This physical principle successfully explains some boundaries between quantum and postquantum nonlocal correlations, where the obtainable information reaches the maximum limit. We show that no-signaling resources of pure partially entangled states produce randomness (or noise) in the communication bits, and achievement of the maximum limit is impossible, i.e., the information causality principle is insufficient for the full identification of the quantum boundaries already for bipartite settings. The nonlocality inequalities such as so-called the Tsirelson inequality are extended to show how such randomness affects the strength of nonlocal correlations. As a result, a relation followed by most of quantum correlations in the simplest Bell scenario is revealed. The extended inequalities reflect the cryptographic principle such that a completely scrambled message cannot carry information.

We analyze the resource overhead of recently proposed methods for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation using concatenated codes. Namely, we examine the concatenation of the 7-qubit Steane code with the 15-qubit Reed-Muller code, which allows for the construction of the 49- and 105-qubit codes that do not require the need for magic state distillation for universality. We compute a lower bound for the adversarial noise threshold of the 105-qubit code and find it to be $8.33\times {10}^{-6}.$ We obtain a depolarizing noise threshold for the 49-qubit code of $9.69\times {10}^{-4}$ which is competitive with the 105-qubit threshold result of $1.28\times {10}^{-3}$. We then provide lower bounds on the resource requirements of the 49- and 105-qubit codes and compare them with the surface code implementation of a logical $T$ gate using magic state distillation. For the sampled input error rates and noise model, we find that the surface code achieves a smaller overhead compared to our concatenated schemes.

A pair of atoms interacts with nonresonant light via its anisotropic polarizability. This effect can be used to tune the scattering properties of the atoms. Although the light-atom interaction varies with interatomic separation as $1/R^3$, the effective $s$-wave potential decreases more rapidly as $1/R^4$ such that the field-dressed scattering length can be determined without any formal difficulty. The scattering dynamics are essentially governed by the long-range part of the interatomic interaction and can thus be accurately described by an asymptotic model [A. Crubellier et al., New J. Phys. 17, 045020 (2015)]. Here we use the asymptotic model to determine the field-dressed scattering length from the $s$-wave radial component of a particular threshold wave function. Applying our theory to the scattering of two strontium isotopes, we calculate the variation of the scattering length with the intensity of the nonresonant light. Moreover, we predict the intensities at which the scattering length becomes infinite for any pair of atoms.

We study strong-field tunneling of atoms in intense elliptically polarized laser fields in natural tunneling geometry. We obtain the temporal- and spatial-dependent tunneling ionization rates, the transverse and longitudinal momentum distributions, and the position distributions of the tunnel exit in parabolic coordinates. The tunneling electron wave packets at the tunnel exit are three dimensionally characterized for both momentum and spatial distributions. The conjunction between the tunneling point and the classical propagation of the widely used semiclassical model are naturally connected. We further calculate the ellipticity-dependent photoelectron momentum distributions on the detector, which are validated by comparison with the exact results through numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The theory clarifies crucial questions about strong-field tunneling ionization, which has important implications for the attoclock with elliptical or circular fields, photoelectron holography, molecular orbital imaging, etc.

The progress in building large quantum states and networks requires sophisticated detection techniques to verify the desired operation. To achieve this aim, a cost- and resource-efficient detection method is the time multiplexing of photonic states. This design is assumed to be efficiently scalable; however, it is restricted by inevitable losses and limited detection efficiencies. Here, we investigate the scalability of time-multiplexed detectors under the effects of fiber dispersion and losses. We use the distinguishability of Fock states up to $n=20$ after passing the time-multiplexed detector as our figure of merit and find that, for realistic setup efficiencies of $\eta =0.85$, the optimal size for time-multiplexed detectors is 256 bins.

The occurrence of extreme events in a spatially extended microcavity laser has been recently reported [Selmi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 013901 (2016)] to be correlated to emergence of spatiotemporal chaos. In this dissipative system, the role of spatial coupling through diffraction is essential to observe the onset of spatiotemporal complexity. We investigate further the formation mechanism of extreme events by comparing the statistical and dynamical analyses. Experimental measurements together with numerical simulations allow us to assign the quasiperiodicity mechanism as the route to spatiotemporal chaos in this system. Moreover, by investigating the fine structure of the maximum Lyapunov exponent, of the Lyapunov spectrum, and of the Kaplan-Yorke dimension of the chaotic attractor, we are able to deduce that intermittency plays a key role in the proportion of extreme events measured. We assign the observed mechanism of generation of extreme events to quasiperiodic extended spatiotemporal intermittency.

We examine conditions under which an open quantum system composed of a driven degenerated parametric oscillator cavity and a driven two-level atom coupled to a waveguide could decay to a pure dark state rather than the expected mixed state. The calculations are carried out analytically in a low-dimensional Hilbert space truncated at the double-excitation states of the combined system. The validity of the truncation is confirmed by the exact numerical analysis. It is found that one way to produce the pure state is to chirally couple the cavity and the atom to the waveguide. Another way to produce the pure state is to drive the cavity and the atom with unequal detunings. In both cases, if the driving fields are weak, the produced state is a coherent superposition of only the single-excitation and ground states of the combined system. In addition, we have found a direct correspondence between the generation of the dark state and the photon blockade effect. In other words, the generation of the dark state acts as a blockade to the number of photons so that only a single photon can be present in the cavity. We investigate the normalized second-order correlation function of the cavity field and find that the conditions under which the correlation function vanishes coincide with the conditions for the creation of the pure dark state. This system is, therefore, suggested as an alternative scheme for the generation of single-photon states.

The performance of open-system quantum annealing is adversely affected by thermal excitations out of the ground state. While the presence of energy gaps between the ground and excited states suppresses such excitations, error correction techniques are required to ensure full scalability of quantum annealing. Quantum annealing correction (QAC) is a method that aims to improve the performance of quantum annealers when control over only the problem (final) Hamiltonian is possible, along with decoding. Building on our earlier work [S. Matsuura et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 220501 (2016)], we study QAC using analytical tools of statistical physics by considering the effects of temperature and a transverse field on the penalty qubits in the ferromagnetic $p$-body infinite-range transverse-field Ising model. We analyze the effect of QAC on second ($p=2$) and first ($p\ge 3$) order phase transitions, and construct the phase diagram as a function of temperature and penalty strength. Our analysis reveals that for sufficiently low temperatures and in the absence of a transverse field on the penalty qubit, QAC breaks up a single, large free-energy barrier into multiple smaller ones. We find theoretical evidence for an optimal penalty strength in the case of a transverse field on the penalty qubit, a feature observed in QAC experiments. Our results provide further compelling evidence that QAC provides an advantage over unencoded quantum annealing.

Classically simulating the dynamics of anyonic excitations in two-dimensional quantum systems is likely intractable in general because such dynamics are sufficient to implement universal quantum computation. However, processes of interest for the study of quantum error correction in anyon systems are typically drawn from a restricted class that displays significant structure over a wide range of system parameters. We exploit this structure to classically simulate, and thereby demonstrate the success of, an error-correction protocol for a quantum memory based on the universal Fibonacci anyon model. We numerically simulate a phenomenological model of the system and noise processes on lattice sizes of up to $128\times 128$ sites, and find a lower bound on the error-correction threshold of approximately 0.125 errors per edge, which is comparable to those previously known for Abelian and (nonuniversal) non-Abelian anyon models.

Generating robust entanglement among solid-state spins is key for applications in quantum information processing and precision sensing. Here we show a dissipative approach to generate such entanglement among the hyperfine coupled electron nuclear spins using the rapid optical decay of electronic excited states. The combined dark state interference effects of the optical and microwave driving fields in the presence of spontaneous emission from the short-lived excited state leads to a dissipative formation of an entangled steady state. We show that the dissipative entanglement is generated for any initial state conditions of the spins and is resilient to external field fluctuations. We analyze the scheme for both continuous and pulsed driving fields in the presence of realistic noise sources.

Recently, Chau [Phys. Rev. A 92, 062324 (2015)] introduced an experimentally feasible qudit-based quantum-key-distribution (QKD) scheme. In that scheme, one bit of information is phase encoded in the prepared state in a $2^n$-dimensional Hilbert space in the form $\left(\right|i\rangle \pm |j\rangle )/\sqrt{2}$ with $n\ge 2$. For each qudit prepared and measured in the same two-dimensional Hilbert subspace, one bit of raw secret key is obtained in the absence of transmission error. Here we show that by modifying the basis announcement procedure, the same experimental setup can generate $n$ bits of raw key for each qudit prepared and measured in the same basis in the noiseless situation. The reason is that in addition to the phase information, each qudit also carries information on the Hilbert subspace used. The additional $(n-1)$ bits of raw key comes from a clever utilization of this extra piece of information. We prove the unconditional security of this modified protocol and compare its performance with other existing provably secure qubit- and qudit-based protocols on market in the one-way classical communication setting. Interestingly, we find that for the case of $n=2$, the secret key rate of this modified protocol using nondegenerate random quantum code to perform one-way entanglement distillation is equal to that of the six-state scheme.

We study the photoionization properties of the ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ versus ${\mathrm{C}}_{240}$ molecule in a spherical jellium frame of the density-functional method. Two prototypical approximations of the exchange-correlation (xc) functional are used: (i) the Gunnarsson-Lundqvist parametrization [Gunnarsson and Lundqvist, Phys. Rev. B 13, 4274 (1976)] with a correction for the electron self-interaction (SIC) introduced artificially from the outset and (ii) a gradient-dependent augmentation of approximation (i) using the van Leeuwen and Baerends model potential [van Leeuwen and Baerends, Phys. Rev. A 49, 2421 (1994)], in lieu of SIC, that restores electrons' asymptotic properties intrinsically within the formalism. Ground-state results from the two schemes for both molecules show differences in the shapes of mean-field potentials and bound-level properties. The choice of an xc scheme also significantly alters the dipole single-photoionization cross sections obtained by an ab initio method that incorporates linear-response dynamical correlations. Differences in the structures and ionization responses between ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ and ${\mathrm{C}}_{240}$ uncover the effect of molecular size on the underlying physics. Analysis indicates that the collective plasmon resonances with the gradient-based xc option produce results noticeably closer to the experimental data available for ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$.

The Casimir force between two hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) constructed by alternative metal-dielectric layers is investigated. Due to the existence of the hyperbolic dispersion, the electromagnetic response of HMMs becomes extremely dramatic, which is embodied by the nearly total reflection in such frequency region. As a result, the Casimir force between HMMs is much greater than that between ordinary dielectrics. In addition, it is shown that the Casimir force is proportional to the bandwidth of this hyperbolic dispersion, which is dependent on the filling factor as well as the characteristic frequencies of ingredient materials. Therefore, the relations between the force and these parameters are discussed. We show that the Casimir force can be controlled by tuning the bandwidth possessing hyperbolic dispersion of the structures. This work provides promising applications of HMMs on microelectromechanical systems and nanoelectromechanical systems.