We study optomechanical entanglement between an optical cavity field and a movable mirror coupled to a non-Markovian environment. The non-Markovian quantum-state diffusion approach and the non-Markovian master equation are shown to be useful in investigating entanglement generation between the cavity field and the movable mirror. The simple model presented in this paper demonstrates several interesting properties of optomechanical entanglement that are associated with environment memory effects. It is evident that the effective environment central frequency can be used to modulate the optomechanical entanglement. In addition, we show that the maximum entanglement may be achieved by properly choosing the effective detuning, which is significantly dependent on the strength of the memory effect of the environment.

A family of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) on the line with an exact discrete $\text{U}\left(N\right)$ gauge invariance is introduced. It is shown that the continuous limit of these DTQWs, when it exists, coincides with the dynamics of a Dirac fermion coupled to usual $\text{U}\left(N\right)$ gauge fields in two-dimensional spacetime. A discrete generalization of the usual $\text{U}\left(N\right)$ curvature is also constructed. An alternate interpretation of these results in terms of superimposed $\text{U}\left(1\right)$ Maxwell fields and $\text{SU}\left(N\right)$ gauge fields is discussed in the Appendix. Numerical simulations are also presented, which explore the convergence of the DTQWs towards their continuous limit and which also compare the DTQWs with classical (i.e., nonquantum) motions in classical $\text{SU}\left(2\right)$ fields. The results presented in this paper constitute a first step towards quantum simulations of generic Yang-Mills gauge theories through DTQWs.

Ensemble density-functional theory (eDFT) suffers from the so-called “ghost-interaction” error when approximate exchange-correlation functionals are used. In this work, we present a rigorous ghost-interaction correction (GIC) scheme in the context of range-separated eDFT. The method relies on an exact decomposition of the ensemble short-range exchange-correlation energy into a multideterminantal exact exchange term, which involves the long-range interacting ensemble density matrix, instead of the Kohn-Sham (KS) one, and a complementary density-functional correlation energy. A generalized adiabatic connection formula is derived for the latter. In order to perform practical calculations, the complementary correlation functional is simply modeled by its ground-state local density approximation (LDA), while long-range interacting ground- and excited-state wave functions are obtained self-consistently by combining a long-range configuration-interaction calculation with a short-range LDA potential. We show that the GIC reduces the curvature of approximate range-separated ensemble energies drastically while providing considerably more accurate excitation energies, even for charge-transfer and double excitations. Interestingly, the method performs well also in the context of standard KS-eDFT, which is recovered when the range-separation parameter is set to 0.

The intermonomer three-dimensional potential-energy surface (3D PES) of the thiazyl-hydride–helium (HSN-He) weakly bound molecular system is generated using the explicitly correlated coupled-cluster method with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations. The 3D PES is mapped in Jacobi coordinates. This potential-energy surface shows a unique potential well at planar configurations. The depth of this potential is $74.4\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. This 3D PES is incorporated into a close-coupling and coupled-states quantum dynamical treatment of nuclear motions to deduce the rotational (de-)excitation of HSN by He for energies up to $1400\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. After averaging over a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, the collisional rate coefficients are derived for temperatures ranging from 5 to 200 K. These data are essential for the identification of HSN molecules in astrophysical media. A comparison between thionitrosyl-hydride—He and HSN-He is performed.

Photoionization of an atom in the presence of a uniform static electric field provides the unique opportunity to expand and visualize the atomic wave function at a macroscopic scale. In a number of seminal publications dating back to the 1980s, Fabrikant, Demkov, Kondratovich, and Ostrovsky showed that this goal could be achieved by projecting slow (meV) photoionized electrons onto a position-sensitive detector and underlined the distinction between continuum and resonant contributions. The uncovering of resonant signatures was achieved fairly recently in experiments on the nonhydrogenic lithium atoms [Cohen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 183001 (2013)]. The purpose of the present article is the general description of these findings, with emphasis on the various manifestations of resonant character. From this point of view, lithium has been chosen as an illustrative example between the two limiting cases of hydrogen, where resonance effects are more easily identified, and heavy atoms like xenon, where resonant effects were not observed.

We present a semiclassical two-step model for strong-field ionization that accounts for path interferences of tunnel-ionized electrons in the ionic potential beyond perturbation theory. Within the framework of a classical trajectory Monte Carlo representation of the phase-space dynamics, the model employs the semiclassical approximation to the phase of the full quantum propagator in the exit channel. By comparison with the exact numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for strong-field ionization of hydrogen, we show that for suitable choices of the momentum distribution after the first tunneling step, the model yields good quantitative agreement with the full quantum simulation. The two-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions, the energy spectra, and the angular distributions are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding quantum results. Specifically, the model quantitatively reproduces the fanlike interference patterns in the low-energy part of the two-dimensional momentum distributions, as well as the modulations in the photoelectron angular distributions.

Anyons are particles with fractional statistics that exhibit a nontrivial change in the wave function under an exchange of particles. Anyons can be considered to be a general category of particles that interpolate between fermions and bosons. We determined the position of the critical points of the one-dimensional anyon-Hubbard model, which was mapped to a modified Bose-Hubbard model where the tunneling depends on the local density and the interchange angle. We studied the latter model by using the density-matrix renormalization-group method and observed that gapped (Mott insulator) and gapless (superfluid) phases characterized the phase diagram, regardless of the value of the statistical angle. The phase diagram for higher densities was calculated and showed that the Mott lobes increase (decrease) as a function of the statistical angle (global density). The position of the critical point separating the gapped and gapless phases was found using quantum information tools, namely the block von Neumann entropy. We also studied the evolution of the critical point with the global density and the statistical angle and showed that the anyon-Hubbard model with a statistical angle $\theta =\pi /4$ is in the same universality class as the Bose-Hubbard model with two-body interactions.

An asymmetric resonant cavity can be used to form a path that is much longer than the cavity size. We demonstrate this capability for a deformed microdisk equipped with two linear waveguides, by constructing a multiply reflected periodic orbit that is confined by total internal reflection within the deformed microdisk and outcoupled by the two linear waveguides. Resonant mode analysis reveals that the modes corresponding to the periodic orbit are characterized by high-quality factors. From measured spectral and far-field data, we confirm that the fabricated devices can form a path about 9.3 times longer than the average diameter of the deformed microdisk.

The coupling of resonant light and surface plasmons in metal layer–coated optical microcavities results in the formation of hybrid photon-plasmon modes. Here, we comprehensively investigate the hybridization mechanism of photon-plasmon modes based on optoplasmonic microtubular cavities. By changing the thicknesses of both the cavity wall and the metal layer, weakly, moderately, and strongly hybridized resonant modes are demonstrated depending on the photon-plasmon coupling strength. An effective potential approach is applied to illustrate the hybridization of photon-plasmon modes relying on the competition between light confinement by the cavity wall and the potential barrier introduced by the metal layer. Our work reveals the basic physical mechanisms for the generation of hybrid modes in metal-coated whispering-gallery-mode microcavities, and is of importance for the study of enhanced light-matter interactions and potential sensing applications.

Quantum features of correlated optical modes define a major aspect of the nonclassicality in quantized radiation fields. However, the phase-sensitive detection of a two-mode light field is restricted to interferometric setups and local intensity measurements. Even the full reconstruction of the quantum state of a single radiation mode relies on such detection layouts and the preparation of a well-defined reference light field. In this work, we establish the notion of the essential quantum correlations of two-mode light fields. It refers to those quantum correlations which are measurable by a given device, i.e., the accessible part of a nonclassical Glauber-Sudarshan phase-space distribution, which does not depend on a global phase. Assuming a simple four-port interferometer and photon-number-resolving detectors, we derive the reconstruction method and nonclassicality criteria based on the Laplace-transformed moment-generating function of the essential quasiprobability. With this technique, we demonstrate that the essential quantum correlations of a polarization tomography scheme are observable even if the detectors are imperfect and cannot truly resolve the photon statistics.

We theoretically study the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a three-level quantum emitter coupled to a spherical metallic nanoparticle. We consider the case in which the quantum emitter is driven by a single laser field along one of the optical transitions. We show that the development of the spectrum depends on the relative orientation of the dipole moments of the optical transitions in relation to the metal nanoparticle. In addition, we demonstrate that the location and width of the peaks in the spectrum are strongly modified by the exciton-plasmon coupling and the laser detuning, allowing one to achieve a controlled strongly subnatural spectral line. A strong antibunching of the fluorescent photons along the undriven transition is also obtained. Our results may be used for creating a tunable source of photons which could be used for a probabilistic entanglement scheme in the field of quantum information processing.

The self-reconfiguration property of a speckle pattern is characterized by having the same autocorrelation profile before and after the obstacle from the point at which the intensity speckle distribution is reestablished; i.e., the speckle pattern becomes homogeneous with no signature of the obstacle. We have presented a theoretical model that gives us in a more detailed way the dependence of this effect with the spatial coherence length of the speckle field. This study shows a linear dependence of the reconfiguration distance with the spatial coherence length of the speckle. Additionally, the experimental data are in good agreement with the theory.

We study both the steady and the dynamic optical response of cold atoms trapped in an optical lattice and driven to the three-level $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ configuration. These atoms are found to exhibit gain without population inversion when an incoherent pump is applied to activate spontaneously generated coherence. Gain-assisted double photonic band gaps characterized by reflectivities over 100% then grow up near the probe resonance due to the periodic distribution of the atomic density. These band gaps along with the neighboring allowed bands of transmissivities over 100% can be tuned by modulating the control field in amplitude, frequency, and, especially, phase. Consequently it is viable to realize a reflector, an amplifier, or a splitter when a weak incident light pulse is totally reflected in the photonic band gaps, totally transmitted in the allowed bands, or equally reflected and transmitted in the intersecting regions. Our results have potential applications in all-optical networks with respect to fabricating dynamically switchable devices for manipulating photon flows at low-light levels.

Parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetric systems have two distinguished phases, e.g., one with real-energy eigenvalues and the other with complex-conjugate eigenvalues. To enter one phase from the other, it is believed that the system must pass through an exceptional point, which is a non-Hermitian degenerate point with coalesced eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Here we reveal an anomalous $\mathcal{PT}$ transition that takes place away from an exceptional point in a nonlinear system: as the nonlinearity increases, the original linear system evolves along two distinct $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric trajectories, each of which can have an exceptional point. However, the two trajectories collide and vanish away from these exceptional points, after which the system is left with a $\mathcal{PT}$-broken phase. We first illustrate this phenomenon using a coupled-mode theory and then exemplify it using paraxial wave propagation in a transverse periodic potential.

Sources of photon pairs based on the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process are commonly used for long-distance quantum communication and quantum information processing. The key feature for improving the range of transmission is engineering their spectral properties. Our analysis shows the way for full control of spectral correlation within a fiber-coupled photon pair. The result of extensive numerical simulations allows us to specify the settings for the generation of pairs featuring positive-energy correlation, which can potentially improve the signal-to-noise ratio in practical implementation of quantum communication protocols. We analytically and numerically analyze the characteristics of a source based on a $\beta$-barium borate crystal cut for type-II phase matching at the degenerated frequencies $755\mathrm{nm} \to 1550\mathrm{nm}+1550\mathrm{nm}$. The presented framework is general and can be applied to other crystals.

In one-dimensional systems a twisted superfluid phase is found which is induced by a spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Using the density-matrix renormalization group allows us to show that the excitation energy gap closes exponentially causing a quasidegenerate ground state. The two degenerate ground states are connected by the time-reversal symmetry which manifests itself in an alternating complex phase of the long-range correlation function. The quantum phase transition to the twisted superfluid is driven by pair tunneling processes in an extended Bose-Hubbard model. The phase boundaries of several other phases are discussed including a supersolid, a pair superfluid, and a pair supersolid phase as well as a highly unconventional Mott insulator with a degenerate ground state and a staggered pair correlation function.

A single qubit driven by an appropriate sequence of control pulses can serve as a spectrometer of local noise affecting its energy splitting. We show that by driving and observing two spatially separated qubits, one can reconstruct the spectrum of cross correlations of noises acting at various locations. When the qubits are driven by the same sequence of pulses, the real part of a cross-correlation spectrum can be reconstructed, while applying two distinct sequences to the two qubits allows for reconstruction of the imaginary part of this spectrum. The latter quantity contains information on either causal correlations between environmental dynamics at distinct locations or the occurrence of propagation of noisy signals through the environment. We illustrate the former case by modeling the noise spectroscopy protocol for qubits coupled to correlated two-level systems. While entanglement between the qubits is not necessary, its presence enhances the signal from which the spectroscopic information is reconstructed.

We present an experimentally feasible scheme to implement holonomic quantum computation in the ultrastrong-coupling regime of light-matter interaction. The large anharmonicity and the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ symmetry of the quantum Rabi model allow us to build an effective three-level $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-structured artificial atom for quantum computation. The proposed physical implementation includes two gradiometric flux qubits and two microwave resonators where single-qubit gates are realized by a two-tone driving on one physical qubit, and a two-qubit gate is achieved with a time-dependent coupling between the field quadratures of both resonators. Our work paves the way for scalable holonomic quantum computation in ultrastrongly coupled systems.

In this work, we consider the systematic error of quantum metrology by weak measurements under decoherence. We derive the systematic error of maximum likelihood estimation in general to the first-order approximation of a small deviation in the probability distribution and study the robustness of standard weak measurement and postselected weak measurements against systematic errors. We show that, with a large weak value, the systematic error of a postselected weak measurement when the probe undergoes decoherence can be significantly lower than that of a standard weak measurement. This indicates another advantage of weak-value amplification in improving the performance of parameter estimation. We illustrate the results by an exact numerical simulation of decoherence arising from a bosonic mode and compare it to the first-order analytical result we obtain.

The correlated emission lasing (CEL) is experimentally demonstrated in harmonic oscillators coupled via a single three-level artificial atom [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 223603 (2015)] in which two-mode entanglement only exists in a certain time period when the harmonic oscillators are resonant with the atomic transitions. Here we examine this system and show that it is possible to obtain the steady-state entanglement when the two harmonic oscillators are resonant with Rabi sidebands. Applying dressed atomic states and Bogoliubov-mode transformation, we obtain the analytical results of the variance sum of a pair of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-like operators. The stable entanglement originates from the dissipation process of the Bogoliubov modes because the atomic system can act as a reservoir in dressed state representation. We also show that the entanglement is robust against the dephasing rates of the superconducing atom, which is expected to have important applications in quantum information processing.