The zero-temperature dynamical structure factor $S(q,\omega )$ of one-dimensional hard rods is computed using state-of-the-art quantum Monte Carlo and analytic continuation techniques, complemented by a Bethe ansatz analysis. As the density increases, $S(q,\omega )$ reveals a crossover from the Tonks-Girardeau gas to a quasisolid regime, along which the low-energy properties are found in agreement with the nonlinear Luttinger liquid theory. Our quantitative estimate of $S(q,\omega )$ extends beyond the low-energy limit and confirms a theoretical prediction regarding the behavior of $S(q,\omega )$ at specific wave vectors ${\mathcal{Q}}_n=n2\pi /a$, where $a$ is the core radius, resulting from the interplay of the particle-hole boundaries of suitably rescaled ideal Fermi gases. We observe significant similarities between hard rods and one-dimensional ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ at high density, suggesting that the hard-rods model may provide an accurate description of dense one-dimensional liquids of quantum particles interacting through a strongly repulsive, finite-range potential.

We study the existence and the stability of solitons in quadratic nonlinear media with spatially localized non-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric tunable modulation of the linear refractive index. The properties of nonlinear modes bifurcating from a linear limit of a small fundamental harmonic field are investigated. The modes bifurcating from the linear mode of the second harmonic may exist even above the real phase breaking threshold. The stability intervals for different values of the propagation constant and gain-loss gradient are obtained. Examples of dynamics and excitations of solitons obtained by numerical simulations are also given.

In this study, interaction between core-shells nanoparticles and quantum dots is discussed via the full-quantum-theory method. The electromagnetic field of the nanoparticles is derived by the quasistatic approximation method and the results for different regions of the nanoparticles are quantized from the time-harmonic to the wave equation. Utilizing the optical field quantization, the nanoparticles’ and quantum dots’ deriving amplitudes contributing to the excitation waves are determined. In the current model, two counterpropagating waves with two different frequencies are applied. We derived the Maxwell-Bloch equations from the Heisenberg-Langevin equations; thus the nanoparticles–quantum dots interaction is perused. Moreover, by full quantum analyzing of the analytical expression, the quantum-plasmonic coupling relation and the Purcell factor are achieved. We show that the spontaneous emission of quantum dots can be dramatically manipulated by engineering the plasmon-plasmon interaction in the core-shells nanoparticles. This issue is a very attractive point for designing a wide variety of quantum-plasmonic sensors. Through the investigation of the nanoparticle plasmonic interaction effects on absorbed power, the results show that the nanoparticles’ and quantum dots’ absorption saturation state can be switched to each other just by manipulation of their deriving amplitudes. In fact, we manage the interference between the two waves’ deriving amplitudes just by the plasmonic interactions effect.

We report theoretical and experimental evidence of chaotic pulses with excitable-like properties in an optoradiofrequency oscillator based on a self-injected dual-frequency laser. The chaotic attractor involved in the dynamics produces pulses that, albeit chaotic, are quite regular: They all have similar amplitudes, and are almost periodic in time. Thanks to these features, the system displays properties that are similar to those of excitable systems. In particular, the pulses exhibit a threshold-like response, of well-defined amplitude, to perturbations, and it appears possible to define a refractory time. At variance with excitability in injected lasers, here the excitable-like pulses are not accompanied by phase slips.

Quantum annealing is explored as a resource for quantum information beyond solution of classical combinatorial problems. Envisaged as a generator of robust interferometric probes, we examine a Hamiltonian of $N\gg 1$ uniformly coupled spins subject to a transverse magnetic field. The discrete many-body problem is mapped onto dynamics of a single one-dimensional particle in a continuous potential. This reveals all the qualitative features of the ground state beyond typical mean-field or large classical spin models. It illustrates explicitly a graceful warping from an entangled unimodal to bimodal ground state in the phase transition region. The transitional “Goldilocks” probe has a component distribution of width $N^{2/3}$ and exhibits characteristics for enhanced phase estimation in a decoherent environment. In the presence of realistic local noise and collective dephasing, we find this probe state asymptotically saturates ultimate precision bounds calculated previously. By reducing the transverse field adiabatically, the Goldilocks probe is prepared in advance of the minimum gap bottleneck, allowing the annealing schedule to be terminated “early.” Adiabatic time complexity of probe preparation is shown to be linear in $N$.

We study the compatibility of measurements on finite-dimensional compact convex state space in the framework of general probabilistic theory. Our main emphasis is on formulation of necessary and sufficient conditions for two-outcome measurements to be compatible and we use these conditions to show that there exist incompatible measurements whenever the state space is not a simplex. We also formulate the linear programming problem for the compatibility of two-outcome measurements.

Surface and color codes are two forms of topological quantum error correction in two spatial dimensions with complementary properties. Surface codes have lower-depth error detection circuits and well-developed decoders to interpret and correct errors, while color codes have transversal Clifford gates and better code efficiency in the number of physical qubits needed to achieve a given code distance. A formal equivalence exists between color codes and folded surface codes, but it does not guarantee the transferability of any of these favorable properties. However, the equivalence does imply the existence of constant-depth circuit implementations of logical Clifford gates on folded surface codes. We achieve and improve this result by constructing two families of folded surface codes with transversal Clifford gates. This construction is presented generally for qudits of any dimension. The specific application of these codes to universal quantum computation based on qubit fusion is also discussed.

An optimal dynamic decoupling of a quantum system coupled to a noisy environment must take into account also the imperfections of the control pulses. We present a formalism which describes, in a closed-form expression, the evolution of the system, including the spectral function of both the environment and control noise. We show that by measuring these spectral functions, our expression can be used to optimize the decoupling pulse sequence. We demonstrate this approach with an ensemble of optically trapped ultracold rubidium atoms, and use quantum process tomography to identify the effect of the environment and control noise. Our approach is applicable and important for any realistic implementation of quantum information processing.

We present a worldline method for the calculation of Casimir energies for scalar fields coupled to magnetodielectric media. The scalar model we consider may be applied in arbitrary geometries, and it corresponds exactly to one polarization of the electromagnetic field in planar layered media. Starting from the field theory for electromagnetism, we work with the two decoupled polarizations in planar media and develop worldline path integrals, which represent the two polarizations separately, for computing both Casimir and Casimir-Polder potentials. We then show analytically that the path integrals for the transverse-electric polarization coupled to a dielectric medium converge to the proper solutions in certain special cases, including the Casimir-Polder potential of an atom near a planar interface, and the Casimir energy due to two planar interfaces. We also evaluate the path integrals numerically via Monte Carlo path-averaging for these cases, studying the convergence and performance of the resulting computational techniques. While these scalar methods are only exact in particular geometries, they may serve as an approximation for Casimir energies for the vector electromagnetic field in other geometries.

Nanosecond electrical explosion of fine metal wires in vacuum generates calibrated, radially expanded gas cylinders of metal atoms surrounded by a low-density fast expanding plasma corona. An integrated-phase technique, based on laser interferometry, provides the dynamic dipole polarizability of metal atoms. These data were previously unavailable for tungsten atoms. An extremely high melting temperature and significant premelt electronic emission make these measurements particularly complicated for this refractory metal. Most attempts to vaporize tungsten wire by electrical current pulse result in the disintegration of the sample into macro- and microfragments. However, application of a very fast-rising current, $\sim 1\mathrm{kA}/\mathrm{ns}$, can vaporize a thin 10–15 μm-diameter tungsten wire and generate a calibrated gas-plasma cylinder. Adding a dielectric coating to the wire leads to increased energy deposition to the wire core and a reduction of the surrounding plasma corona. Employing the integrated-phase technique on a fast-exploding coated tungsten wire, we find that the dynamic dipole polarizability of tungsten atoms at a wavelength of 532 nm equals $15\pm 1.3{\AA }^3$.

Radiative double electron capture (RDEC), the one-step process occurring in ion-atom collisions, has been investigated for bare fluorine ions colliding with carbon. RDEC is completed when two target electrons are captured to a bound state of a projectile simultaneously with the emission of a single photon. This work is a follow-up to our earlier measurement of RDEC for bare oxygen projectiles, thus providing a recipient system free of electron-related Coulomb fields in both cases and allowing for the comparison between the two collision systems as well as with available theoretical studies. The most significant mechanisms of x-ray emission that may contribute to the RDEC energy region as background processes are also addressed.

In the presence of a complex classical dynamics associated with a mixed phase space, a quantum wave function can tunnel between two stable islands through the chaotic sea, an effect that has no classical counterpart. This phenomenon, referred to as chaos-assisted tunneling, is characterized by large fluctuations of the tunneling rate when a parameter is varied. To date, the full extent of this effect as well as the associated statistical distribution have never been observed in a quantum system. Here, we analyze the possibility of characterizing these effects accurately in a cold-atom experiment. Using realistic values of the parameters of an experimental setup, we examine through analytical estimates and extensive numerical simulations a specific system that can be implemented with cold atoms, the atomic modulated pendulum. We assess the efficiency of three possible routes to observe in detail chaos-assisted tunneling properties. Our main conclusion is that due to the fragility of the symmetry between positive and negative momenta as a function of quasimomentum, it is very challenging to use tunneling between classical islands centered on fixed points with opposite momentum. We show that it is more promising to use islands symmetric in position space, and characterize the regime where it could be done. The proposed experiment could be realized with current state-of-the-art technology.

Noise measurement is a powerful tool to investigate many phenomena from laser characterization to quantum behavior of light. In this paper, we report on intensity noise measurements obtained when a laser beam is transmitted through a large cloud of cold atoms. While this measurement could possibly be used to investigate complex processes such as the influence of atomic motion, one is first limited by the conversion of the intrinsic laser frequency noise to intensity noise via the atomic resonance. This conversion is studied here in detail. We show that, while experimental intensity noise spectra collapse onto the same curve at low Fourier frequencies, some differences appear at higher frequencies when the probe beam is detuned from the center of the resonance line. A simple model, based on a mean-field approach, which corresponds to describing the atomic cloud by a dielectric susceptibility, is sufficient to understand the main features. Using this model, the noise spectra allow extracting some quantitative information on the laser noise as well as on the atomic sample.

We devise a method to shortcut the adiabatic evolution of a spin-1 Bose gas with an external magnetic field as the control parameter. An initial many-body state with almost all bosons populating the Zeeman sublevel $m=0$ is evolved to a final state very close to a macroscopic spin-singlet condensate, a fragmented state with three macroscopically occupied Zeeman states. The shortcut protocol, obtained by an approximate mapping to a harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian, is compared to linear and exponential variations of the control parameter. We find a dramatic speedup of the dynamics when using the shortcut protocol.

The ultimate goal of quantum information science is to build a global quantum network, which enables quantum resources to be distributed and shared between remote parties. Such a quantum network can be realized using only fiber elements, thus deriving the advantages of low transmission loss, low cost, scalability, and integrability through mature fiber communication techniques such as dense wavelength division multiplexing. Hence high-quality entangled-photon sources based on fibers are in high demand. Here we report multiplexed polarization- and time-bin-entangled photon-pair sources based on the dispersion-shifted fiber operating at room temperature. The associated high quality of entanglement is characterized using interference, Bell's inequality, and quantum state tomography. The simultaneous presence of both types of entanglement in multichannel pairs of a 100-GHz dense wavelength division multiplexing device indicates a great capacity in distributing entangled photons over multiple users. Our design provides a versatile platform and takes a big step toward constructing an all-fiber quantum network.

In this paper we develop a method capable of modeling the space-time focusing of nondiffracting pulses. These pulses can possess arbitrary peak velocities and, in addition to being resistant to diffraction, can have their peak intensities and focusing positions chosen a priori. More specifically, we can choose multiple locations (spatial ranges) of space and time focalization; also, the pulse intensities can be chosen in advance. The pulsed wave solutions presented here can have very interesting applications in many different fields, such as free-space optical communications, remote sensing, medical apparatus, etc.

We show that a self-focusing mode for intense laser pulses comprising less than about ten optical cycles is resistant to the transverse modulational instability. For such pulses, a method of pulse self-compression based on adiabatic decrease of the duration of a solitonlike wave packet and transverse cumulating of energy during the self-focusing in Kerr-like media with anomalous dispersion is proposed. This method can be used for generation of high-quality, high-energy, few-cycle pulses down to a single-cycle duration.

We explore the possibility of engineering quantum states of a charged mechanical oscillator by coupling it to a stream of atoms in superpositions of high-lying Rydberg states. Our scheme relies on the driving of a two-phonon resonance within the oscillator by coupling it to an atomic two-photon transition. This approach effectuates a controllable open system dynamics on the oscillator that in principle permits versatile dissipative creation of squeezed and other nonclassical states which are central to sensing applications or for studies of fundamental questions concerning the boundary between classical and quantum-mechanical descriptions of macroscopic objects. We show that these features survive thermal coupling of the oscillator with the environment. We perform a detailed feasibility study finding that current state-of-the-art parameters result in atom-oscillator couplings which are too weak to efficiently implement the proposed oscillator state preparation protocol. Finally, we comment on ways to circumvent the present limitations.

We investigate two-mode photon correlations in a quantum-dot-microcavity laser with special emphasis on the effects induced by a direct coupling of two competing modes due to the dissipative character of the laser resonator. Numerical results based on a microscopic semiconductor theory reveal an enhanced autocorrelation of both modes and an enhanced anticorrelation between the modes. A detailed analysis is given in terms of dark and bright modes. It is shown that above the lasing threshold the original modes build up a bright mode coupled to the quantum dots and a dark mode, which interacts only indirectly with the quantum dots. We demonstrate that a populated dark mode can enable an efficient transfer of photons between the two original cavity modes, mediating an effective coupling between them.

In this work we develop a theory of surface electromagnetic waves localized at the interface of periodic metal-dielectric structures. We have shown that the anisotropy of plasma frequency in metal layers lifts the degeneracy of plasma oscillations and opens a series of photonic band gaps. This results in appearance of surface waves with singular density of states—we refer to them as Tamm-Langmuir waves. Such naming is natural since we have found that their properties are very similar to the properties of both bulk Langmuir and surface Tamm waves. Depending on the anisotropy parameters, Tamm-Langmuir waves can be either forward or backward waves. Singular density of states and high sensitivity of the dispersion to the anisotropy of the structure makes Tamm-Langmuir waves very promising for potential applications in nanophotonics and biosensing.