We report the experimental investigation of a regime of microscopic Fabry-Perot resonators in which competing light-induced forces—photothermal expansion and photothermal refraction—acting oppositely and on different timescales lead to self-sustained persistent oscillations. Previously concealed as ordinary thermo-optic bistability—a common feature in low-loss resonator physics—these dynamics are visible as fast pulsations in cavity transmission or reflection measurements at sufficiently high time resolution. Their underlying mathematical description is shared by many slow-fast phenomena in chemistry, biology, and neuroscience. Our observations are relevant in particular to microcavity applications in atom optics and cavity quantum electrodynamics, even in nominally rigid structures that have not undergone lithography.

The quantum Rabi model describes the interaction between a two-level quantum system and a single bosonic mode. We propose a method to perform a quantum simulation of the quantum Rabi model, introducing an implementation of the two-level system provided by the occupation of Bloch bands in the first Brillouin zone by ultracold atoms in tailored optical lattices. The effective qubit interacts with a quantum harmonic oscillator implemented in an optical dipole trap. Our realistic proposal allows one to experimentally investigate the quantum Rabi model for extreme parameter regimes, which are not achievable with natural light-matter interactions. When the simulated wave function exceeds the validity region of the simulation, we identify a generalized version of the quantum Rabi model in a periodic phase space.

We propose related schemes to generate arbitrarily shaped single photons, i.e., photons with an arbitrary temporal profile, and coherent state superpositions using simple optical elements. The first system consists of two coupled cavities, a memory cavity and a shutter cavity, containing a second-order optical nonlinearity and electro-optic modulator (EOM), respectively. Photodetection events of the shutter cavity output herald preparation of a single photon in the memory cavity, which may be stored by immediately changing the optical length of the shutter cavity with the EOM after detection. On-demand readout of the photon, with arbitrary shaping, can be achieved through modulation of the EOM. The second scheme consists of a memory cavity with two outputs, which are interfered, phase shifted, and measured. States that closely approximate a coherent state superposition can be produced through postselection for sequences of detection events, with more photon detection events leading to a larger superposition. We furthermore demonstrate that no-knowledge feedback can be easily implemented in this system and used to preserve the superposition state, as well as provide an extra control mechanism for state generation.

We propose a procedure to obtain exact analytical solutions to the time-dependent Schrödinger equations involving explicit time-dependent Hermitian Hamiltonians from solutions to time-independent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian systems and the time-dependent Dyson relation, together with the time-dependent quasi-Hermiticity relation. We illustrate the working of this method for a simple Hermitian Rabi-type model by relating it to a non-Hermitian time-independent system corresponding to the one-site lattice Yang-Lee model.

A dramatic symmetry breaking in $K$-shell photoionization of the ${\mathrm{CF}}_4$ molecule in which a core-hole vacancy is created in one of four equivalent fluorine atoms is displayed in the molecular frame angular distribution of the photoelectrons. Observing the photoejected electron in coincidence with an ${\mathrm{F}}^{+}$ atomic ion after Auger decay is shown to select the dissociation path where the core hole was localized almost exclusively on that atom. A combination of measurements and ab initio calculations of the photoelectron angular distribution in the frame of the recoiling ${\mathrm{CF}}_3{}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{F}}^{+}$ atoms elucidates the underlying physics that derives from the Ne-like valence structure of the F($1s^{-1}$) core-excited atom.

We describe a compact and reliable method to calculate the Fisher information for the estimation of a dynamical parameter in a continuously measured linear Gaussian quantum system. Unlike previous methods in the literature, which involve the numerical integration of a stochastic master equation for the corresponding density operator in a Hilbert space of infinite dimension, the formulas here derived depend only on the evolution of first and second moments of the quantum states and thus can be easily evaluated without the need of any approximation. We also present some basic but physically meaningful examples where this result is exploited, calculating analytical and numerical bounds on the estimation of the squeezing parameter for a quantum parametric amplifier and of a constant force acting on a mechanical oscillator in a standard optomechanical scenario.

We investigate the role of coarsened measurement reference, which originates from the coarsened reference time and basis, in quantum metrology. When the measurement is based on one common reference basis, the disadvantage of coarsened measurement can be removed by symmetry. Owing to the coarsened reference basis, the entangled state cannot perform better than the product state for a large number of probe particles in estimating the phase. Given a finite uncertainty of the coarsened reference basis, the optimal number of probe particles is obtained. Finally, we prove that the maximally entangled state always achieves better frequency precision in the case of non-Markovian dephasing than that in the case of Markovian dephasing. The product state is more resistant to the interference of the coarsened reference time than the entangled state.

We uncover a superscattering behavior of a pseudospin-1 wave from weak scatterers in the subwavelength regime where the scatterer size is much smaller than the wavelength. The phenomenon manifests itself as unusually strong scattering characterized by extraordinarily large values of the cross section even for arbitrarily weak scatterer strength. We establish analytically and numerically that the physical origin of superscattering is revival resonances, for which the conventional Born theory breaks down. The phenomenon can be experimentally tested using synthetic photonic systems.

The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) diagnoses quantum chaos and the scrambling of quantum information via the spread of entanglement. The OTOC encodes forward and reverse evolutions and has deep connections with the flow of time. So do fluctuation relations such as Jarzynski's equality, derived in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. I unite these two powerful, seemingly disparate tools by deriving a Jarzynski-like equality for the OTOC. The equality's left-hand side equals the OTOC. The right-hand side suggests a protocol for measuring the OTOC indirectly. The protocol is platform-nonspecific and can be performed with weak measurement or with interference. Time evolution need not be reversed in any interference trial. The equality enables fluctuation relations to provide insights into holography, condensed matter, and quantum information and vice versa.

We analyze the problem of how different ground states associated with the same set of Hamiltonian parameters evolve after a sudden quench. To realize our analysis we define a quantitative approach to the local distinguishability between different ground states of a magnetically ordered phase in terms of the trace distance between the reduced density matrices obtained by projecting two ground states in the same subset. Before the quench, regardless of the particular choice of subset, any system in a magnetically ordered phase is characterized by ground states that are locally distinguishable. On the other hand, after the quench, the maximum distinguishability shows an exponential decay in time. Hence, in the limit of very long times, all the information about the particular initial ground state is lost even if the systems are integrable. We prove our claims in the framework of the magnetically ordered phases that characterize both the $XY$ and the $N$-cluster Ising models. The fact that we find similar behavior in models within different classes of symmetry makes us confident about the generality of our results.

An exact canonical master equation of the Lindblad form is derived for a central spin interacting uniformly with a sea of completely unpolarized spins. The Kraus operators for the dynamical map are also derived. The non-Markovianity of the dynamics in terms of the divisibility breaking of the dynamical map and the increase of the trace distance fidelity between quantum states is shown. Moreover, it is observed that the irreversible entropy production rate is always negative (for a fixed initial state) whenever the dynamics exhibits non-Markovian behavior. In continuation with the study of witnessing non-Markovianity, it is shown that the positive rate of change of the purity of the central qubit is a faithful indicator of the non-Markovian information backflow. Given the experimental feasibility of measuring the purity of a quantum state, a possibility of experimental demonstration of non-Markovianity and the negative irreversible entropy production rate is addressed. This gives the present work considerable practical importance for detecting the non-Markovianity and the negative irreversible entropy production rate.

We discuss the data-pattern tomography for reconstruction of entangled states of light. We show that for a moderate number of probe coherent states it is possible to achieve high accuracy of representation not only for single-mode states but also for two-mode entangled states. We analyze the stability of these representations to the noise and demonstrate the conservation of the purity and entanglement. Simulating the probe and signal measurements, we show that systematic error inherent for representation of realistic signal response with finite sets of responses from probe states still allows one to infer reliably the signal states preserving entanglement.

We develop a comprehensive framework to model and optimize the performance of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) with a local local oscillator (LLO), when phase reference sharing and QKD are jointly implemented. We first analyze the limitations of the only existing approach, called LLO-sequential, and show that it requires high modulation dynamics and can only tolerate small phase noise. Our main contribution is to introduce two designs to perform LLO CV-QKD, respectively called LLO-delayline and LLO-displacement, and to study their performance. Both designs rely on a self-coherent approach, in which phase reference information and quantum information are coherently obtained from a single optical wavefront. We show that these designs can lift some limitations of the existing LLO-sequential approach. The LLO-delayline design can in particular tolerate much stronger phase noise and thus appears to be an appealing alternative to LLO-sequential in terms of network integrability. We also investigate, with the LLO-displacement design, how phase reference information and quantum information can be multiplexed within a single optical pulse. By studying the trade-off between phase reference recovery and phase noise induced by displacement, we, however, demonstrate that this design can only tolerate low phase noise. On the other hand, the LLO-displacement design has the advantage of minimal hardware requirements and provides a simple approach to multiplex classical and quantum communications, opening a practical path towards the development of ubiquitous coherent classical-quantum communications systems compatible with next-generation network requirements.

The calculation of triple-differential cross sections for the electron-impact ionization of $10a^{\prime }$ and $2a^{\prime \prime }$ orbitals of the formic acid (HCOOH) molecule has been carried out by the multicenter distorted-wave method. The coplanar asymmetric kinematics is considered at incident energies of 100 and $250\text{eV}$, where previous experiments and theories are available for comparison. The present calculations reproduce the experimental measurements satisfactorily and the results suggest that the nuclear distribution has important contributions on the cross sections at large momentum transfers.

Motivated by experiments with cold atoms, we investigate a mobile impurity immersed in a Fermi sea in three dimensions at zero temperature by means of the functional renormalization group. We first perform the derivative expansion of the effective action to calculate the ground-state energy and Tan's contact across the polaron-molecule transition for several mass imbalances. Next we study quasiparticle properties of the impurity by using a real-time method recently developed in nuclear physics, which allows one to go beyond the derivative expansion. We obtain the spectral function of the polaron and the effective mass and quasiparticle weight of attractive and repulsive polarons, and clarify how they are affected by mass imbalances.

We investigate the zero-temperature metal-insulator transition in a one-dimensional two-component Fermi gas in the presence of a quasiperiodic potential resulting from the superposition of two optical lattices of equal intensity but incommensurate periods. A mobility edge separating (low-energy) Anderson localized and (high-energy) extended single-particle states appears in this continuous-space model beyond a critical intensity of the quasiperiodic potential. To discern the metallic phase from the insulating phase in the interacting many-fermion system, we employ unbiased quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations combined with the many-particle localization length familiar from the modern theory of the insulating state. In the noninteracting limit, the critical optical-lattice intensity for the metal-insulator transition predicted by the QMC simulations coincides with the Anderson localization transition of the single-particle eigenstates. We show that weak repulsive interactions induce a shift of this critical point towards larger intensities, meaning that repulsion favors metallic behavior. This shift appears to be linear in the interaction parameter, suggesting that even infinitesimal interactions can affect the position of the critical point.

We demonstrate how quantum interference may lead to the appearance of robust edgelike states of a single ultracold atom in a two-dimensional optical ribbon. We show that these states can be engineered within the manifold of either local ground states of the sites forming the ribbon or states carrying one unit of angular momentum. In the former case, we show that the implementation of edgelike states can be extended to other geometries, such as tilted square lattices. In the latter case, we suggest using the winding number associated to the angular momentum as a synthetic dimension.

Topological phase imprinting is a well-established technique for deterministic vortex creation in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates of alkali-metal atoms. It was recently shown that counterdiabatic quantum control may accelerate vortex creation in comparison to the standard adiabatic protocol and suppress the atom loss due to nonadiabatic transitions. Here we apply this technique, assisted by an optical plug, for vortex pumping to theoretically show that sequential phase imprinting up to 20 cycles generates a vortex with a very large winding number. Our method significantly increases the fidelity of the pump for rapid pumping compared to the case without the counterdiabatic control, leading to the highest angular momentum per particle reported to date for the vortex pump. Our studies are based on numerical integration of the three-dimensional multicomponent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which conveniently yields the density profiles, phase profiles, angular momentum, and other physically important quantities of the spin-1 system. Our results motivate the experimental realization of the vortex pump and studies of the rich physics it involves.

We calculate the emission spectra, the Glauber $g^{\left(2\right)}$ function, and the entanglement of formation for two-level emitters coupled to a single cavity mode and subject to an external laser excitation. To evaluate these quantities we couple the system to environmental degrees of freedom, which leads to dissipative dynamics. Because of the periodic time dependence of the system Hamiltonian, the coefficients of the Markovian master equation are constant only if Floquet states are used as the computational basis. Studying the emission spectra, we show that the dynamic Stark effect first appears in second order of the laser intensity. For the Glauber function, we find clearly distinguished parameter regimes of super- and sub-Poissonian light emission and explain the additional features appearing for finite laser intensity in terms of the quasienergy spectrum of the driven emitter-cavity system. Finally, we analyze the temperature and emitter-cavity-coupling regimes where entanglement among the emitters is generated and show that the laser excitation leads to a decrease of entanglement.