Quantum weak measurement, measuring some observable quantities within the selected subensemble of the entire quantum ensemble, can produce many interesting results such as the superluminal phenomena. An outcome of such a measurement is the weak value which has been applied to amplify some weak signals of quantum interactions in lots of previous references. Here, we apply the weak measurement to the system of relativistic cold atoms. According to mass-energy equivalence, the internal energy of an atom will contribute its rest mass and consequently the external momentum of center of mass. This implies a weak coupling between the internal and external degrees of freedom of atoms moving in the free space. After a duration of this coupling, a weak value can be obtained by post-selecting an internal state of atoms. We show that the weak value can change the momentum uncertainty of atoms and consequently help us to experimentally measure the weak effects arising from mass-energy equivalence.

We present a detailed derivation of the master equation describing a general time-dependent quantum system with classical Poisson white noise and outline its various properties. We discuss the limiting cases of Poisson white noise and provide approximations for the different noise strength regimes. We show that using the eigenstates of the noise superoperator as a basis can be a useful way of expressing the master equation. Using this, we simulate various settings to illustrate different effects of Poisson noise. In particular, we show a dip in the fidelity as a function of noise strength where high fidelity can occur in the strong-noise regime for some cases. We also investigate recent claims [J. Jing et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 032110 (2014)] that this type of noise may improve rather than destroy adiabaticity.

A detailed analysis of the quantum Fisher information (QFI) and spin squeezing (SS) of the non-Hermitian one-axis twisting model is conducted. The results show that the non-Hermitian model achieves significant entanglement in many-body systems, which is quite different from the Hermitian case, and achieves more SS than the optimal value of the Hermitian counterpart. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of dephasing, which is induced by external field fluctuations, and find out to what extent it weakens QFI and SS of the non-Hermitian one-axis twisting model.

We derive laws for the distribution of quantum steering among different parties in multipartite Gaussian states under Gaussian measurements. We prove that a monogamy relation akin to the generalized Coffman-Kundu-Wootters inequality holds quantitatively for a recently introduced measure of Gaussian steering. We then define the residual Gaussian steering, stemming from the monogamy inequality, as an indicator of collective steering-type correlations. For pure three-mode Gaussian states, the residual acts as a quantifier of genuine multipartite steering, and is interpreted operationally in terms of the guaranteed key rate in the task of secure quantum secret sharing. Optimal resource states for the latter protocol are identified, and their possible experimental implementation discussed. Our results pin down the role of multipartite steering for quantum communication.

Physical principles constrain the way nonlocal correlations can be distributed among distant parties in a Bell-type experiment. These constraints are usually expressed by monogamy relations that bound the amount of Bell inequality violation observed by a set of parties by the violation observed by a different set of parties. Here we show that the no-signaling principle yields simple and tight monogamy relations for an important class of bipartite and multipartite Bell inequalities. We also link these trade-offs to the guessing probability—a key quantity in device-independent information processing.

We propose a scheme to read out the spin of a single electron quantum bit in a surface Paul trap using oscillating magnetic-field gradients. The readout sequence is composed of cooling, driving, amplification, and detection of the electron's motion. We study the scheme in the presence of noise and trap anharmonicities at liquid-helium temperatures. An analysis of the four procedures shows short measurement times ($25\mu \mathrm{s}$) and high fidelities ($99.7\%$) are achievable with realistic experimental parameters. Our scheme performs the function of fluorescence detection in ion trapping schemes, highlighting the potential to build all-electric quantum computers based on trapped electron-spin qubits.

The thermal operations framework developed in past works is used to model the evolution of microscopic quantum systems in contact with thermal baths. Here we extend this model to bipartite devices with one part acting as a control external to the system-bath setup. We define the operations of such hybrid devices as conditioned thermal operations. We examine the resource under these operations, which we call conditional athermality. In the quasiclassical limit, we quantify this resource and find the conditions for its conversion between different forms.

We investigate the determination of a Hamiltonian parameter in a quantum system undergoing continuous measurement. We demonstrate a computationally rapid method to estimate an unknown and possibly time-dependent parameter, where we maximize the likelihood of the observed stochastic readout. By dealing directly with the raw measurement record rather than the quantum-state trajectories, the estimation can be performed while the data are being acquired, permitting continuous tracking of the parameter during slow drifts in real time. Furthermore, we incorporate realistic nonidealities, such as decoherence processes and measurement inefficiency. As an example, we focus on estimating the value of the Rabi frequency of a continuously measured qubit and compare maximum likelihood estimation to a simpler fast Fourier transform. Using this example, we discuss how the quality of the estimation depends on both the strength and the duration of the measurement; we also discuss the trade-off between the accuracy of the estimate and the sensitivity to drift as the estimation duration is varied.

The need for secrecy and security is essential in communication. Secret sharing is a conventional protocol to distribute a secret message to a group of parties, who cannot access it individually but need to cooperate in order to decode it. While several variants of this protocol have been investigated, including realizations using quantum systems, the security of quantum secret sharing schemes still remains unproven almost two decades after their original conception. Here we establish an unconditional security proof for entanglement-based continuous-variable quantum secret sharing schemes, in the limit of asymptotic keys and for an arbitrary number of players. We tackle the problem by resorting to the recently developed one-sided device-independent approach to quantum key distribution. We demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of our scheme, which can be implemented by Gaussian states and homodyne measurements, with no need for ideal single-photon sources or quantum memories. Our results contribute to validating quantum secret sharing as a viable primitive for quantum technologies.

We present a fully relativistic investigation of the radiative recombination of a twisted electron with a bare heavy nucleus. The twisted electron is described by the wave function which accounts for the interaction with the nucleus in all orders in $\alpha Z$. We use this wave function to derive the probability of the radiative recombination with a single ion being shifted from the twisted electron propagation direction. This probability is utilized for the consideration of a more realistic experimental scenario where the target is infinitely wide (macroscopic). The situation when the incident electron is a coherent superposition of two vortex states is considered as well. For the nonrelativistic case we present analytical expressions which support our numerical calculations. We study in details the influence of the electron twistedness on the polarization and angular distribution of the emitted photon.

We investigate the spin-polarized chain of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal atoms with spin-3/2 described by the fermionic Hubbard model with SU(4) symmetric attractive interaction. The competition of bound pairs, trions, quartets, and unbound atoms is studied analytically and by density-matrix renormalization-group simulations. We find several distinct states where bound particles coexist with the ferromagnetic state of unpaired fermions. In particular, an exotic inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-type superfluid of quartets in a magnetic background of uncorrelated atoms is found for weaker interactions. We show that the system can be driven from this quartet-FFLO state to a molecular state of localized quartets where spatial segregation between molecular crystals and ferromagnetic liquids emerges, and this transition is reflected in the static structure factor.

Neutral helium microscopy is a new technique currently under development. Its advantages are the low energy, charge neutrality, and inertness of the helium atoms, a potential large depth of field, and the fact that at thermal energies the helium atoms do not penetrate into any solid material. This opens the possibility, among others, for the creation of an instrument that can measure surface topology on the nanoscale, even on surfaces with high aspect ratios. One of the most promising designs for helium microscopy is the zone plate microscope. It consists of a supersonic expansion helium beam collimated by an aperture (skimmer) focused by a Fresnel zone plate onto a sample. The resolution is determined by the focal spot size, which depends on the size of the skimmer, the optics of the system, and the velocity spread of the beam through the chromatic aberrations of the zone plate. An important factor for the optics of the zone plate is the width of the outermost zone, corresponding to the smallest opening in the zone plate. The width of the outermost zone is fabrication limited to around 10 nm with present-day state-of-the-art technology. Due to the high ionization potential of neutral helium atoms, it is difficult to build efficient helium detectors. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize the microscope design to maximize the intensity for a given resolution and width of the outermost zone. Here we present an optimization model for the helium zone plate microscope. Assuming constant resolution and width of the outermost zone, we are able to reduce the problem to a two-variable problem (zone plate radius and object distance) and we show that for a given beam temperature and pressure, there is always a single intensity maximum. We compare our model with the highest-resolution zone plate focusing images published and show that the intensity can be increased seven times. Reducing the width of the outermost zone to 10 nm leads to an increase in intensity of more than 8000 times. Finally, we show that with present-day state-of-the-art detector technology (ionization efficiency $1\times {10}^{-3}$), a resolution of the order of 10 nm is possible. In order to make this quantification, we have assumed a Lambertian reflecting surface and calculated the beam spot size that gives a signal 100 cts/s within a solid angle of 0.02 sr, following an existing helium microscope design.

The are several nonequivalent notions of Markovian quantum evolution. In this paper we show that the one based on the so-called CP divisibility of the corresponding dynamical map enjoys the following stability property: the dynamical map ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ is CP divisible if and only if the second tensor power ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t\otimes {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ is CP divisible as well. Moreover, the P divisibility of the map ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t\otimes {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ is equivalent to the CP divisibility of the map ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$. Interestingly, the latter property is no longer true if we replace the P divisibility of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t\otimes {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ by simple positivity and the CP divisibility of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ by complete positivity. That is, unlike when ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ has a time-independent generator, positivity of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t\otimes {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$ does not imply complete positivity of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_t$.

We theoretically investigate the performance of multiphoton catalysis applied on the two-mode squeezed state by examining the entropy of entanglement, logarithmic negativity, Eistein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR), and Hillery-Zubairy (HZ) correlations, and the fidelity of teleportation. It is found that the entanglement increases with the number of catalysis operations if the squeezing parameter is low initially. Our comparisons show that the HZ correlation presents a better performance than the EPR correlation for detecting the entanglement, and the improvement of HZ correlation definitely results in the improvement of entropy of entanglement rather than negativity; the region of enhanced EPR correlation is a subregion of all other entanglement properties. In addition, we consider the performances of the fidelity by comparing such operations applied before or after the amplitude damping channel. It is shown that the catalysis operation of $m=n=1$ before the channel presents the best performance in the initial-low squeezing regime. This may provide a useful insight for a long-distance quantum communication.

Fixed-point quantum search algorithms succeed at finding one of $M$ target items among $N$ total items even when the run time of the algorithm is longer than necessary. While the famous Grover's algorithm can search quadratically faster than a classical computer, it lacks the fixed-point property—the fraction of target items must be known precisely to know when to terminate the algorithm. Recently, Yoder, Low, and Chuang [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 210501 (2014)] gave an optimal gate-model search algorithm with the fixed-point property. Previously, it had been discovered by Roland and Cerf [Phys. Rev. A 65, 042308 (2002)] that an adiabatic quantum algorithm, operating by continuously varying a Hamiltonian, can reproduce the quadratic speedup of gate-model Grover search. We ask, can an adiabatic algorithm also reproduce the fixed-point property? We show that the answer depends on what interpolation schedule is used, so as in the gate model, there are both fixed-point and non-fixed-point versions of adiabatic search, only some of which attain the quadratic quantum speedup. Guided by geometric intuition on the Bloch sphere, we rigorously justify our claims with an explicit upper bound on the error in the adiabatic approximation. We also show that the fixed-point adiabatic search algorithm can be simulated in the gate model with neither loss of the quadratic Grover speedup nor of the fixed-point property. Finally, we discuss natural uses of fixed-point algorithms such as preparation of a relatively prime state and oblivious amplitude amplification.

We report on an all-optical production of a ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ${10}^6$ atoms. We construct a double compressible crossed dipole trap (DCDT) formed by a high-power multimode fiber laser (MCDT) and a single-mode fiber amplifier (SCDT), which are both operated at $1.06\mu \mathrm{m}$. A very cold dense gas is first cooled by polarization gradient cooling in a three-dimensional optical lattice. More than $2\times {10}^7$ atoms are loaded into the enlarged DCDT. Both CDTs are then simultaneously compressed to significantly different sizes followed by evaporation, which is performed by lowering only the MCDT power. The tighter SCDT produces an extremely high collision rate and maintains the trap stiffness, which leads to rapid and efficient evaporation. After 0.4 s, a gas of $5\times {10}^6$ atoms with a phase-space density of 0.2 is confined within the SCDT alone. Further evaporation in 2.8 s yields a nearly pure BEC of $1.2\times {10}^6$ atoms in the $|F{m}_F\rangle =|11\rangle$ state. This number is the largest generated among all-optical methods. Our approach significantly improves the atom number of a condensate and circumvents the severe atom loss previously reported for multimode fiber lasers.

We show that the operational definition of nonclassicality of a quantum state depends on the motion of the observer. We use the relativistic Unruh-DeWitt detector model to witness nonclassicality of the probed field state. It turns out that the witness based on the properties of the $P$ representation of the quantum state depends on the trajectory of the detector. Inertial and noninertial motion of the device have qualitatively different impact on the performance of the witness.

We consider slow-light propagation in an atomic medium with a tripod level scheme. We show that the coexistence of two types of dark-state polaritons leads to the propagation dynamics, which is qualitatively different from that in a $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ medium, and allows therefore for very efficient conversion of signal photons into spin excitations. This efficiency is shown to be very close to 1 even for very long signal light pulses, which could not be entirely compressed into a $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ medium at a comparable strength of the control field.