We propose a scheme to realize a (2+1)-dimensional vectorial Thirring model in a coherent atomic system via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We show that under EIT conditions the probe field envelopes obey coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, which are reduced to a Thirring model when system parameters are suitably chosen. We present spatial soliton-pair solutions exhibiting many interesting features, including controllability (i.e., the soliton property of one component can be adjusted by the propagation constant of another component in which the soliton remains unchanged), diversity (i.e., many different types of soliton-pair solutions can be found, including bright-bright, dark-bright, dark-dark, darklike-dark, dark-dipole, darklike-multidark, and high-dimensional bright-bright, dark-darklike soliton pairs), and stability. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the stability of soliton pairs in the system can be strengthened by adjusting the propagation constant. Comparing with previous studies, in addition to supporting much more stable (1+1)-dimensional and (2+1)-dimensional spatial soliton-pair solutions, the present scheme needs only a single atomic species and hence is easy to realize experimentally.

We investigate the ionization dynamics of atoms irradiated by an intense laser field using a semiclassical model that includes magnetic Lorentz force in the rescattering process. We find that the electrons tunneled with different initial transverse momenta (i.e., perpendicular to the instantaneous electric field direction) distributed on a specific circle in the momentum plane can finally converge to the same transverse momentum after experiencing Coulomb forward scattering. These electron trajectories lead to a bright spot structure in the two-dimensional transverse momentum distribution, and particularly in the long-wavelength limit, a nonzero momentum peak in the direction antiparallel to the laser propagation (or radiation pressure) direction. By analyzing the subcycle dynamics of rescattering trajectories, we unveil the underlying mechanism of the anti-intuitive peak. Beyond the strong-field approximation and the dipole approximation, we quantitatively predict the spot center and the peak position. Our results are compared with a recent experiment and some theoretical predictions are given.

We consider wave transport phenomena in a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric extension of the periodically kicked quantum rotator model and reveal that dynamical localization assists the unbroken $\mathcal{PT}$ phase. In the delocalized (quantum resonance) regime, $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry is always in the broken phase and ratchet acceleration arises as a signature of unidirectional non-Hermitian transport. An optical implementation of the periodically kicked $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian, based on transverse beam propagation in a passive optical resonator with combined phase and loss gratings, is suggested to visualize acceleration modes in fractional Talbot cavities.

We introduce the concept of “absolutely classical” spin states, in analogy to absolutely separable states of bipartite quantum systems. Absolutely classical states are states that remain classical (i.e., a convex sum of projectors on coherent states of a spin $j$) under any unitary transformation applied to them. We investigate the maximal size of the ball of absolutely classical states centered on the maximally mixed state and derive a lower bound for its radius as a function of the total spin quantum number. We also obtain a numerical estimate of this maximal radius and compare it to the case of absolutely separable states.

The construction of large-scale quantum networks relies on the development of practical quantum repeaters. Many approaches have been proposed with the goal of outperforming the direct transmission of photons, but most of them are inefficient or difficult to implement with current technology. Here, we present a protocol that uses a semihierarchical structure to improve the entanglement distribution rate while reducing the requirement of memory time to a range of tens of milliseconds. This protocol can be implemented with a fixed distance of elementary links and fixed requirements on quantum memories, which are independent of the total distance. This configuration is especially suitable for scalable applications in large-scale quantum networks.

We identify the families of states that maximize some recently proposed quantifiers of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering and the volume of the quantum steering ellipsoid (QSE). The optimal measurements which maximize genuine EPR steering measures are discussed and we develop a way to find them using the QSE. We thus explore the links between genuine EPR steering and the QSE and introduce states that can be the most useful for one-sided device-independent quantum cryptography for a given amount of noise.

Resource consumption of the conventional surface code is expensive, in part due to the need to separate the defects that create the logical qubit far apart on the physical qubit lattice. We propose that instantiating the deformation-based surface code using superstabilizers will make it possible to detect short error chains connecting the superstabilizers, allowing us to place logical qubits close together. Additionally, we demonstrate the process of conversion from the defect-based surface code, which works as arbitrary state injection, and a lattice-surgery-like controlled not (cnot) gate implementation that requires fewer physical qubits than the braiding cnot gate. Finally, we propose a placement design for the deformation-based surface code and analyze its resource consumption; large-scale quantum computation requires $\frac{25d^2+170d+289}{4}$ physical qubits per logical qubit, where $d$ is the code distance of the standard surface code, whereas the planar code requires $16d^2-16d+4$ physical qubits per logical qubit, for a reduction of about 50%.

This work reports absolute cross-section measurements for the production of ethylene dications by electron impact, with the energy ranging between 25 and 800 eV. Separation of the entangled ${\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_4^{2+}$ and ${\mathrm{CH}}_2^{+}$ fragments with the same mass-to-charge ratio, in the time-of-flight spectrum, is properly carried out using the DETOF technique. This separation shows that stable ${\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_4^{2+}$ can be produced either by two primary vacancies or by a single primary vacancy in an inner valence shell, with its subsequent de-excitation through Auger-like decay. Our findings show that the latter process can be an important player in dication formation, prevailing in the case of ethylene at projectile energies above 500 eV.

We consider the ionization of neon induced by a femtosecond laser pulse composed of overlapping, linearly polarized bichromatic extreme ultraviolet and infrared fields. In particular, we study the effects of infrared light on a two-pathway ionization scheme for which Ne $2s^{2}2p^{5}3s{}^{1}P$ is used as the intermediate state. Using time-dependent calculations, supported by a theoretical approach based on the strong-field approximation, we analyze the ionization probability and the photoelectron angular distributions associated with the different sidebands of the ionization spectrum. Complex oscillations of the angular distribution anisotropy parameters as a function of the infrared light intensity are revealed. Finally, we demonstrate that coherent control of the asymmetry is achievable by tuning the infrared frequency to a nearby electronic transition.

We report on calculations of harmonic generation by neon in a mixed (800-nm + time-delayed 400-nm) laser pulse scheme. In contrast with previous studies we employ a short (few-cycle) 400-nm pulse, finding that this affords control of the interference between electron trajectories contributing to the cutoff harmonics. The inclusion of the 400-nm pulse enhances the yield and cutoff energy, both of which exhibit a strong dependence on the time delay between the two pulses. Using a combination of time-dependent $R$-matrix theory and a classical trajectory model, we assess the mechanisms leading to these effects.

Due to the topological nature of the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) model, interesting edge states have been found existing in one-dimensional periodic and quasiperiodic lattices. In this article, we investigate continuous-time quantum walks of identical particles initially located on either edge of commensurate AAH lattices in detail. It is shown that the quantum walker is delocalized among the whole lattice until the strength of periodic modulation is strong enough. The inverse participation ratios (IPRs) for all of the eigenstates are calculated. It is found that the localization properties of the quantum walker is mainly determined by the IPRs of the topologically protected edge states. More interestingly, the edge states are shown to have an evident “repulsion” effect on quantum walkers initiated from the lattice sites inside the bulk. Furthermore, we examine the role of nearest-neighbor interaction on the quantum walks of two identical fermions. Clear enhancement of the repulsion effect by strong interaction has been shown.

Coarsening dynamics theory describes equilibration of a broad class of systems. By studying the relaxation of a periodic array of microcondensates immersed in a Fermi gas, which mediates long-range spin interactions to simulate frustrated classical magnets, we show that coarsening dynamics can be suppressed by geometrical frustration. The system is found to eventually approach a metastable state which is robust against random field noise and characterized by finite correlation lengths together with the emergence of topologically stable ${\mathrm{Z}}_2$ vortices. We find universal scaling laws with no thermal-equilibrium analog that relate the correlation lengths and the number of vortices to the degree of frustration in the system.

We investigate genuine multipartite nonlocality of pure permutationally invariant multimode Gaussian states of continuous variable systems, as detected by the violation of Svetlichny inequality. We identify the phase space settings leading to the largest violation of the inequality when using displaced parity measurements, distinguishing our results between the cases of even and odd total number of modes. We further consider pseudospin measurements and show that, for three-mode states with asymptotically large squeezing degree, particular settings of these measurements allow one to approach the maximum violation of Svetlichny inequality allowed by quantum mechanics. This indicates that the strongest manifestation of genuine multipartite quantum nonlocality is in principle verifiable on Gaussian states.

In this paper we propose a superadiabatic protocol where quantum state transfer can be achieved with arbitrarily high accuracy and minimal control across long spin chains with an odd number of spins. The quantum state transfer protocol only requires the control of the couplings between the qubits on the edge and the spin chain. We predict fidelities above 0.99 for an evolution of nanoseconds using typical spin-exchange coupling values of $\mu \mathrm{eV}$. Furthermore, by building a superadiabatic formalism on top of this protocol, we propose an effective superadiabatic protocol that retains the minimal control over the spin chain and further improves the fidelity.

A version of the configuration interaction (CI) method is developed which treats highly excited many-electron basis states perturbatively, so that their inclusion does not affect the size of the CI matrix. This removes, at least in principle, the main limitation of the CI method in dealing with many-electron atoms or ions. We perform calculations of the spectra of iodine and its ions, tungsten, and ytterbium as examples of atoms with open $s, p, d$, and $f$ shells. Good agreement of the calculated data with experiment illustrates the power of the method. Its advantages and limitations are discussed.

We report on two-photon photoassociation (PA) spectroscopy of ultracold heteronuclear LiRb molecules. This is used to determine the binding energies of the loosely bound levels of the electronic ground singlet and the lowest triplet states of LiRb. We observe strong two-photon PA lines with power broadened linewidths greater than 20 GHz at relatively low laser intensity of $30\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^2$. The implication of this observation on direct atom to molecule conversion using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage is discussed and the prospect for electronic ground-state molecule production is theoretically analyzed.

We experimentally investigate dissociative double ionization of CO by a phase-controlled orthogonal two-color (OTC) laser pulse. Directional breaking of doubly ionized CO as a function of both kinetic energy and emission direction of the nuclear fragments is observed in the polarization plane steered by the laser phase. It is attributed to the dominating sequential double ionization at the maximum strength and nonsequential double ionization at a relatively weak strength of the spatiotemporally shaped oscillating laser field pointing to various directions. Our results are interesting not only for two-dimensional control of directional bond breaking, but also strengthen our understanding of strong-field sequential and nonsequential double ionization of molecules which are spatiotemporally streaked to various directions and kinetic energies by an OTC laser pulse.

Topological matter is a popular topic in both condensed matter and cold-atom research. In the past decades, a variety of models have been identified with fascinating topological features. Some, but not all, of the models can be found in materials. As a fully controllable system, cold atoms trapped in optical lattices provide an ideal platform to simulate and realize these topological models. Here we present a proposal for synthesizing topological models in cold atoms based on a one-dimensional spin-dependent optical lattice potential. In our system, features such as staggered tunneling, staggered Zeeman field, nearest-neighbor interaction, beyond-near-neighbor tunneling, etc. can be readily realized. They underlie the emergence of various topological phases. Our proposal can be realized with current technology and hence has potential applications in quantum simulation of topological matter.

The nonequilibrium dynamics of small boson ensembles in a one-dimensional optical lattice is explored upon a sudden quench of an additional harmonic trap from strong to weak confinement. We find that the competition between the initial localization and the repulsive interaction leads to a resonant response of the system for intermediate quench amplitudes, corresponding to avoided crossings in the many-body eigenspectrum with varying final trap frequency. In particular, we show that these avoided crossings can be utilized to prepare the system in a desired state. The dynamical response is shown to depend on both the interaction strength as well as the number of atoms manifesting the many-body nature of the tunneling dynamics.

Starting with the two-band description of an orbital Feshbach resonance, we study superfluid properties of a trapped ${}^{173}\mathrm{Yb}$ Fermi gas under the assumptions of a local-density approximation for the trapping potential and a mean-field approximation for the intraband Cooper pairings. In particular, we investigate the competition and interplay between the pair-breaking effect that is caused by the interband detuning energy, and the pair-breaking and thermal-broadening effects that are simultaneously caused by the temperature. We predict several experimental signatures that are directly caused by this interplay including a spatial separation of superfluid and normal phases within the trap, and could play decisive roles in probing two-band superfluidity in these systems.