Recent realizations of quantum gas microscopy offer the possibility of continuous monitoring of the dynamics of a quantum many-body system at the single-particle level. By analyzing effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians for interacting bosons in an optical lattice and continuum, we demonstrate that the backaction of quantum measurement shifts the quantum critical point and gives rise to a unique critical phase beyond the terrain of the standard universality class. We perform mean-field and strong-coupling-expansion analyses and show that non-Hermitian contributions shift the superfluid–Mott-insulator transition point. Using a low-energy effective field theory, we discuss critical behavior of the one-dimensional interacting Bose gas subject to the measurement backaction. We derive an exact ground state of the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and find a unique critical behavior beyond the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid universality class. We propose experimental implementations of postselections using a quantum gas microscope to simulate the non-Hermitian dynamics and argue that our results can be investigated with current experimental techniques in ultracold atoms.

We propose to couple single atomic qubits to photons incident on a cavity containing an atomic ensemble of a different species that mediates the coupling via Rydberg interactions. Subject to a classical field and the cavity field, the ensemble forms a collective dark state which is resonant with the input photon, while excitation of a qubit atom leads to a secondary “dark” state that splits the cavity resonance. The two different dark-state mechanisms yield zero and $\pi$ reflection phase shifts and can be used to implement quantum gates between atomic and optical qubits.

We search for mirror and cavitylike features of a linear chain of atoms in which one of the atoms is specially chosen as a probe atom that is initially prepared in its excited state or is continuously driven by a laser field. Short chains are considered, composed of only three and five atoms. The analysis demonstrates the importance of the interatomic dipole-dipole interaction, which may lead to a collective ordering of the emission along some specific directions. We examine the conditions under which the radiative modes available for the emission are only those contained inside a cone centered about the interatomic axis. Particular interest is in achieving one-way emission along the interatomic axis, in either the left (backward) or the right (forward) direction, which is referred to as a mirrorlike behavior of the atomic chain. A direction-dependent quantity called the directivity function, which determines how effective the system is in concentrating the radiation in a given direction, is introduced. We show that the function depends crucially on the distance between the atoms and find that there is a threshold for the interatomic distances above which a strongly directional emission can be achieved. The one-sided emission as a manifestation of the mirrorlike behavior and a highly focused emission along the interatomic axis as a characteristic of a single-mode cavity are demonstrated to occur in the stationary field. Below the threshold the directivity function is spherically symmetric. However, we find that the population can be trapped in one of the atoms, and sometimes in all atoms, indicating that at these short distances the system decays to a state for which there are no radiative modes available for emission.

We investigate the nonlinear optical susceptibility of an alkali-metal atom with tripod electronic configuration responsible for generating cross-phase modulation and self-phase modulation under the condition of double-double electromagnetically induced transparency. Our investigation demonstrates an enhancement in the nonlinear optical susceptibility of an alkali-metal atom by a factor of 1000 in the region of the second transparency window. This enhancement is in comparison with the atom's susceptibility in the first transparency window for the same parameters under the same conditions. Nonlinear-absorption enhancement arises by canceling Raman-gain generation, which arises when the probe and signal fields have equal intensities. At the center of the second transparency window, we obtain the condition required to attain a nonvanishing nonlinear optical susceptibility. In the bare-state picture, the coupling field must be off resonant from a bare-to-bare-state transition, while working in the semiclassical dressed picture required the signal field to be tuned off resonantly with a bare-to-dressed-state transition. The relation that governs the values of coupling- and signal-field detuning are also obtained. Our scheme exhibits the fact that the second transparency window has advantages over the first transparency window with respect to obtaining an enhanced Kerr effect, and our calculation includes simulation of both low-temperature and Doppler-broadened regimes.

The force estimation problem in quantum metrology with an arbitrary non-Markovian Gaussian bath is considered. No assumptions are made on the bath spectrum and coupling strength with the probe. Considering the natural global unitary evolution of both bath and probe and assuming initial global Gaussian states, we are able to solve the main issues of any quantum metrological problem: the best achievable precision determined by the quantum Fisher information, the best initial state, and the best measurement. Studying the short-time behavior and comparing with regular Markovian dynamics we observe an increase in quantum Fisher information. We emphasize that this phenomenon is due to the ability to perform measurements below the correlation time of the bath, activating non-Markovian effects. This brings huge consequences for the sequential preparation-and-measurement scenario because the quantum Fisher information becomes unbounded when the initial probe mean energy goes to infinity, whereas its Markovian counterpart remains bounded by a constant. The long-time behavior shows the complexity and potential variety of non-Markovian effects, somewhere between the exponential decay characteristic of Markovian dynamics and the sinusoidal oscillations characteristic of resonant narrow bands.

We apply the method of direct perturbation theory for the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation upon the Dirac-Pauli Hamiltonian subject to external electromagnetic fields. The exact FW transformations exist and agree with those obtained by Eriksen's method for two special cases. In the weak-field limit of static and homogeneous electromagnetic fields, by mathematical induction on the orders of $1/c$ in the power series, we rigorously prove the long-held speculation: the FW transformed Dirac-Pauli Hamiltonian is in full agreement with the classical counterpart, which is the sum of the orbital Hamiltonian for the Lorentz force equation and the spin Hamiltonian for the Thomas-Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation.

We critically evaluate the most widespread assumption in the theoretical description of coherent control strategies for open quantum systems. We show that, for non-Markovian open systems dynamics, this fixed-dissipator assumption leads to a serious pitfall generally causing difficulties in the effective modeling of the controlled system. We show that at present, to avoid these problems, a full microscopic description of the controlled system in the presence of noise may often be necessary. We illustrate our findings with a paradigmatic example.

We show the emergence of spontaneous synchronization between a pair of detuned quantum oscillators within a harmonic network. Our model does not involve any nonlinearity, driving, or external dissipation, thus providing the simplest scenario for the occurrence of local coherent dynamics in an extended harmonic system. A sufficient condition for synchronization is established by building upon the Rayleigh normal mode approach to vibrational systems. Our results show that mechanisms favoring synchronization, even between oscillators that are not directly coupled to each other, are transient energy depletion and crosstalk. We also address the possible buildup of quantum correlations during synchronization and show that indeed entanglement may be generated in detuned systems, starting from uncorrelated states and without any direct coupling between the two oscillators.

There is growing belief that the next decade will see the emergence of sensing devices based on the laws of quantum physics that outperform some of our current sensing devices. For example, in frequency estimation, using a probe prepared in an entangled state can, in principle, lead to a precision gain compared to a probe prepared in a separable state. Even in the presence of some forms of decoherence, it has been shown that the precision gain can increase with the number of probe particles $N$. Usually, however, the entangled and separable state preparation and readout times are assumed to be negligible. We find that a probe in a maximally entangled (GHZ) state can give an advantage over a separable state only if the entangled state preparation and readout times are lower than a certain threshold. When the probe system suffers dephasing, this threshold is much lower (and more difficult to attain) than it is for an isolated probe. Further, we find that in realistic situations the maximally entangled probe gives a precision advantage only up to some finite number of probe particles $N_{\text{cutoff}}$ that is lower for a dephasing probe than it is for an isolated probe.

We report on a systematic investigation of the dissociation dynamics of ${{\mathrm{H}}_2}^{+}$ in intense laser fields, and study how the kinetic energy spectrum of the dissociating proton can be modulated by the wavelength and intensity of the driving laser field. In the experiment, ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ is dissociatively ionized by an intense laser pulse with varying carrier wavelengths ranging from 800 to 1800 nm and varying peak intensities. A model based on Floquet theory and Landau-Zener theory is adopted to explain the experimental observations. The intensity effect is further explored in a few-cycle pump-probe experiment. We observed a significant intensity-dependent proton kinetic energy shift, which can also be well explained by the theoretical simulation. The wavelength- and intensity-dependent proton spectra reveal the mechanism of selective excitation of vibrational levels of ${{\mathrm{H}}_2}^{+}$ in intense laser fields.

We develop a systematic method for deriving a quantum optical multimode Hamiltonian for the interaction of photons and phonons in nanophotonic dielectric materials by applying perturbation theory to the electromagnetic Hamiltonian. The Hamiltonian covers radiation pressure and electrostrictive interactions on equal footing. As a paradigmatic example, we apply our method to a cylindrical nanoscale waveguide and derive a Hamiltonian description of Brillouin quantum optomechanics. We show analytically that in nanoscale waveguides radiation pressure dominates over electrostriction, in agreement with recent experiments. The calculated photon-phonon coupling parameters are used to infer gain parameters of Stokes-Brillouin scattering in good agreement with experimental observations.

We demonstrate experimentally that a dense cloud of cold atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light can induce large group delays on a laser pulse when the laser is tightly focused on it and is close to an atomic resonance. Delays as large as $-10\mathrm{ns}$ are observed, corresponding to “superluminal” propagation with negative group velocities as low as $-300\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}$. Strikingly, this large delay is associated with a moderate extinction owing to the very small size of the dense cloud. It implies that a large phase shift is imprinted on the continuous laser beam. Our system may thus be useful for applications to quantum technologies, such as variable delay line for individual photons or phase imprint between two beams at the single-photon level.

The scattering properties of the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric dielectric dual nanosphere structure are investigated through scattering matrix formalism. We calculate the extinction, scattering, and absorption cross sections of the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric scatterer illuminated by the monochromatic linearly polarized plane wave with different incident direction. When the size parameter of distance between the dielectric spheres' centers is small, the $\mathcal{PT}$ scatterer is in the unbroken phase due to strong interaction between the active and dissipated spheres. The extinction cross section of the $\mathcal{PT}$ scatterer is always the same when the plane wave is incident from opposite directions with the same polarization. It implies that the light transmission is reciprocal whether the $\mathcal{PT}$ scatterer is in the broken or unbroken phase, because the $\mathcal{PT}$ scatterer is a linear optical scattering system for which the Lorentz reciprocity holds. However, the scattering cross section is different when the plane wave is incident from the loss and gain regions, respectively, and the scattering asymmetry is large when the interaction between active and dissipated spheres is strong. In addition, we find that the absorption cross section of the scattering structure is always negative in the broken phase due to the dominated light scattering of the active sphere.

Multiphoton detachment of ${\mathrm{F}}^{-}$ by strong few-cycle laser pulses was studied by Shearer and Monteith using a Keldysh-type approach [Phys. Rev. A 88, 033415 (2013)]. We believe that this work contained errors in the calculation of the detachment amplitude and photoelectron spectra. We describe the necessary corrections to the theory and show that the results, in particular, the interference features of the photoelectron spectra, appear noticeably different. Corrected results are also in better agreement with the detachment probabilities determined by the $R$-matrix with time dependence method [Hassouneh et al., Phys. Rev. A 91, 031404(R) (2015)].

Streaked photoemission from nanostructures is characterized by size- and material-dependent nanometer-scale variations of the induced nanoplasmonic response to the electronic field of the streaking pulse and thus holds promise of allowing photoelectron imaging with both subfemtosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution. In order to scrutinize the driven collective electronic dynamics in 10–200-nm-diameter gold nanospheres, we calculated the plasmonic field induced by streaking pulses in the infrared and visible spectral range and developed a quantum-mechanical model for streaked photoemission by extreme ultraviolet pulses. Our simulated photoelectron spectra reveal a significant amplitude enhancement and phase shift of the photoelectron streaking trace relative to calculations that exclude the induced plasmonic field. Both are most pronounced for streaking pulses tuned to the plasmon frequency and retrace the plasmonic electromagnetic field enhancement and phase shift near the nanosphere surface.

We present an open-system interaction formalism for the Dirac equation. Overcoming a complexity bottleneck of alternative formulations, our framework enables efficient numerical simulations (utilizing a typical desktop) of relativistic dynamics within the von Neumann density matrix and Wigner phase-space descriptions. Employing these instruments, we gain important insights into the effect of quantum dephasing for relativistic systems in many branches of physics. In particular, the conditions for robustness of Majorana spinors against dephasing are established. Using the Klein paradox and tunneling as examples, we show that quantum dephasing does not suppress negative energy particle generation. Hence, the Klein dynamics is also robust to dephasing.

The initial state of a system-bath composite is needed as the input for prediction from any quantum evolution equation to describe subsequent system-only reduced dynamics or the noise on the system from joint evolution of the system and the bath. The conventional wisdom is to write down an uncorrelated state as if the system and the bath were prepared in the absence of each other; yet, such a factorized state cannot be the exact description in the presence of system-bath interactions. Here, we show how to go beyond the simplistic factorized-state prescription using ideas from quantum tomography: We employ the maximum-entropy principle to deduce an initial system-bath state consistent with the available information. For the generic case of weak interactions, we obtain an explicit formula for the correction to the factorized state. Such a state turns out to have little correlation between the system and the bath, which we can quantify using our formula. This has implications, in particular, on the subject of subsequent non-completely positive dynamics of the system. Deviation from predictions based on such an almost uncorrelated state is indicative of accidental control of hidden degrees of freedom in the bath.

We study a one-dimensional quantum $\mathit{XY}$ model with periodically modulated real and complex transverse fields. It is shown that both models can be mapped onto a pseudospin system in the $k$ space with the aid of an extended Bogoliubov transformation. This allows us to introduce the geometric quantity, the Chern number, to identify the nature of quantum phases. Based on the exact solution, we find that the spatially modulated real and complex fields rearrange the phase boundaries from that of the ordinary Ising model, which can be characterized by the Chern numbers defined in the context of Dirac and biorthonormal inner products, respectively.

In the Leggett-Garg approach to testing macrorealism, the two-time correlation functions, which are normally obtained by sequential measurements of a dichotomic variable $Q$, need to be measured in a noninvasive way in order to exclude certain types of alternative classical explanation. Here, it is shown, for a class of macrorealistic theories, that the correlation functions are readily expressed in terms of a time integral of the velocity corresponding to $Q$ and that this expression can be determined from a single final-time measurement of an auxiliary system in continual weak interaction with the primary system. The protocol has the form of a “waiting detector,” which clicks only when $Q$ changes sign. It shares features with both ideal negative measurements and weak measurements and we argue that it is essentially noninvasive, under certain reasonable assumptions. We show that the noninvasiveness persists to a quantum model of the process.