Within the framework of the quasistationary quasienergy state (QQES) formalism, the tunneling and multiphoton ionization of atoms and ions subjected to a perturbation by a high intense laser radiation field of an arbitrary polarization and a constant magnetic field are considered. On the basis of the exact solution of the Schrödinger equation and the Green's function for the electron moving in an arbitrary laser field and crossed constant electric and magnetic fields, the integral equation for the complex quasienergy and the energy spectrum of the ejected electron are derived. Using the “imaginary-time” method, the extremal subbarrier trajectory of the photoelectron moving in a nonstationary laser field and a constant magnetic field are considered. Within the framework of the QQES formalism and the quasiclassical perturbation theory, ionization rates when the Coulomb interaction of the photoelectron with the parent ion is taken into account at arbitrary values of the Keldysh parameter are derived. The high accuracy of rates is confirmed by comparison with the results of numerical calculations. Simple analytical expressions for the ionization rate with the Coulomb correction in the tunneling and multiphoton regimes in the case of an elliptically polarized laser beam propagating at an arbitrary angle to the constant magnetic field are derived and discussed. The limits of small and large magnetic fields and low and high frequency of a laser field are considered in details. It is shown that in the presence of a nonstationary laser field perturbation, the constant magnetic field may either decrease or increase the ionization rate. The analytical consideration and numerical calculations also showed that the difference between the ionization rates for an $s$ electron in the case of right- and left-elliptically polarized laser fields is especially significant in the multiphoton regime for not-too-high magnetic fields and decreases as the magnetic field increases. The paper generalizes the results obtained earlier [V. M. Rylyuk, Phys. Rev. A 86, 013402 (2012)].

The collisional and magnetic field quench dynamics of a coupled spin-vortex pair in dipolar spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential are numerically investigated in the mean-field theory. Upon a sudden release of the potential barrier the two layers of condensates collide with each other in the trap center with the chirality of the vortex pair exchanged after each collision, showing the typical signature of in-phase collision for the parallel spin-vortex phase, and out-of-phase collision for the antiparallel phase. When quenching the transverse magnetic field, the vortex center in the single-layered condensate starts to make a helical motion with oval-shaped trajectories and the displacement of the center position is found to exhibit a damped simple harmonic oscillation with an intrinsic frequency and damping rate. The oscillation mode of the spin-vortex pair may be tuned by the initial magnetic field and the height of the Gaussian barrier; e.g., the gyrotropic motions for a parallel spin-vortex pair are out of sync with each other in the two layers, while those for the antiparallel pair exhibit a double-helix structure with the vortex centers moving opposite to each other with the same amplitude.

We investigate prospects of using counter-rotating vortex superposition states in nonequilibrium exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensates for the purposes of Sagnac interferometry. We first investigate the stability of vortex-antivortex superposition states, and show that they survive at steady state in a variety of configurations. Counter-rotating vortex superpositions are of potential interest to gyroscope and seismometer applications for detecting rotations. Methods of improving the sensitivity are investigated by targeting high momentum states via metastable condensation, and the application of periodic lattices. The sensitivity of the polariton gyroscope is compared to its optical and atomic counterparts. Due to the large interferometer areas in optical systems and small de Broglie wavelengths for atomic BECs, the sensitivity per detected photon is found to be considerably less for the polariton gyroscope than with competing methods. However, polariton gyroscopes have an advantage over atomic BECs in a high signal-to-noise ratio, and have other practical advantages such as room-temperature operation, area independence, and robust design. We estimate that the final sensitivities including signal-to-noise aspects are competitive with existing methods.

We present results from Monte Carlo calculations investigating the properties of the homogeneous, spin-balanced unitary Fermi gas in three dimensions. The temperature is varied across the superfluid transition allowing us to determine the temperature dependence of the chemical potential, the energy per particle, and the contact density. Numerical artifacts due to finite volume and discretization are systematically studied, estimated, and reduced.

We present a theoretical investigation of high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) via bichromatic plasmonic near fields with metal nanoparticles. Bichromatic plasmonic near fields, which depend on temporal waveform synthesis, are generated when a metallic nanoparticle subjected to a moderate-intensity $\left(<{10}^{12}\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2\right)$ bichromatic few-cycle pulse. By means of a windowed Fourier transform of the time-dependent acceleration, we show that the differences in energies and level crossing between the adiabatic states of a two-level Hamiltonian are responsible for the cutoff energy of harmonics. Thus, we can manipulate the adiabatic states, and consequently the HHG spectra, by means of the bichromatic plasmonic near fields. In contrast to the case of a monochromatic field alone, a significant cutoff extension can be achieved via optimization of the bichromatic few-cycle pulse. Moreover, the supercontinuum in the bichromatic field shows a higher energy spectrum along with a broader bandwidth, which is beneficial for the efficient generation of broadband-isolated ultrashort extreme ultraviolet pulses from few-cycle laser fields.

We propose a scheme for triggering a dissipation-dominated highly efficient excitation transfer from a single-photon wave packet to a single quantum emitter. This single-photon-induced optical pumping turns dominant dissipative processes, such as spontaneous photon emission by the emitter or cavity decay, into valuable tools for quantum information processing and quantum communication. It works for an arbitrarily shaped single-photon wave packet with sufficiently small bandwidth provided a matching condition is satisfied which balances the dissipative rates involved. Our scheme does not require additional laser pulses or quantum feedback and does not rely on high finesse optical resonators. In particular, it can be used to enhance significantly the coupling of a single photon to a single quantum emitter implanted in a one-dimensional waveguide or even in a free space scenario. We demonstrate the usefulness of our scheme for building a deterministic quantum memory and a deterministic frequency converter between photonic qubits of different wavelengths.

We present a general model of qubit dynamics which entails pure dephasing and dissipative time-local master equations. This allows us to describe the combined effect of thermalization and dephasing beyond the usual Markovian approximation. We investigate the complete positivity conditions and introduce a heuristic model that is always physical and provides the correct Markovian limit. We study the effects of temperature on the non-Markovian behavior of the system and show that the noise additivity property discussed by Yu and Eberly [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 140403 (2006)] holds beyond the Markovian limit.

Although quantum computers are capable of solving problems like factoring exponentially faster than the best-known classical algorithms, determining the resources responsible for their computational power remains unclear. An important class of problems where quantum computers possess an advantage is phase estimation, which includes applications like factoring. We introduce a computational model based on a single squeezed state resource that can perform phase estimation, which we call the power of one qumode. This model is inspired by an interesting computational model known as deterministic quantum computing with one quantum bit (DQC1). Using the power of one qumode, we identify that the amount of squeezing is sufficient to quantify the resource requirements of different computational problems based on phase estimation. In particular, we can use the amount of squeezing to quantitatively relate the resource requirements of DQC1 and factoring. Furthermore, we can connect the squeezing to other known resources like precision, energy, qudit dimensionality, and qubit number. We show the circumstances under which they can likewise be considered good resources.

We give an analytical description of the dynamics of the three-qubit Dicke model using the adiabatic approximation in the parameter regime where the qubit transition frequencies are far off-resonance with the field frequency and the interaction strengths reach the ultrastrong-coupling regimes. Qualitative differences arise upon comparison to single- and two-qubit systems. Simple analytic formulas show that three revival sequences produce a three-frequency beat note in the time evolution of the population. We find an explicit way to estimate the dynamics for qubit-field and qubit-qubit entanglement inside the three-qubit system in the ultrastrong-coupling regime, and the resistance to sudden death proves that the entanglement in the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state is more robust than that in the $W$ state.

We present a way of measuring with high precision the anharmonicity of a quantum oscillator coupled to an optical field via radiation pressure. Our protocol uses a sequence of pulsed interactions to perform a loop in the phase space of the mechanical oscillator, which is prepared in a thermal state. We show how the optical field acquires a phase depending on the anharmonicity. Remarkably, one only needs small initial cooling of the mechanical motion to probe even small anharmonicities. Finally, by applying tools from quantum estimation theory, we calculate the ultimate bound on the estimation precision posed by quantum mechanics and compare it with the precision obtainable with feasible measurements such as homodyne and heterodyne detection on the cavity field. In particular we demonstrate that homodyne detection is nearly optimal in the limit of a large number of photons of the field and we discuss the estimation precision of small anharmonicities in terms of its signal-to-noise ratio.

Isotope shifts of the $2p_{3/2}-2p_{1/2}$ transition in B-like ions are evaluated for a wide range of the nuclear charge number: $Z=8–92$. The calculations of the relativistic nuclear recoil and nuclear size effects are performed using a large-scale configuration-interaction Dirac-Fock-Sturm method. The corresponding QED corrections are also taken into account. The results of the calculations are compared with the theoretical values obtained with other methods. The accuracy of the isotope shifts of the $2p_{3/2}-2p_{1/2}$ transition in B-like ions is significantly improved.

Nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of carbon disulfide ${\mathrm{CS}}_2$ in strong 800-nm laser fields is studied experimentally and theoretically. A knee structure is observed in the intensity-dependent double ionization (DI) yield in linearly polarized laser fields, which exhibits a strong dependence on the laser ellipticity. The electron momentum distributions and energy trajectories after DI in both linearly and circularly polarized laser fields are investigated by employing the two-dimensional classical ensemble method. The results clearly show the evidence of NSDI in the strong-field DI of ${\mathrm{CS}}_2$ molecules. It is demonstrated that, similar to that of atoms, NSDI of ${\mathrm{CS}}_2$ molecules is produced via laser-driven electron recollision with the ion core and presents electron-electron correlations in the process. Analysis indicates that both mechanisms in atomic strong-field NSDI, i.e., recollision impact ionization and recollision excitation with subsequent ionization, may also be contributed to NSDI of ${\mathrm{CS}}_2$ in strong laser fields. Further studies are no doubt necessary for a full understanding of the underlying physical mechanism of molecular strong-field NSDI, due to the multicenter character of the molecular structure and the complex molecular excited states that could be involved in the ionization.

We study time development of a cusp in the lateral-velocity distribution for the process of strong-field ionization. The lateral-velocity distribution is computed using an ab initio quantum mechanical procedure for the moments of time inside and after the end of the laser pulse. We show that at the moment of time corresponding to the midpoint of the laser pulse the lateral-velocity distribution is a smooth Gaussian curve, its parameters agreeing very well with the predictions of the tunelling theories. At the moment of time corresponding to the end of the pulse the lateral-velocity distribution narrows considerably, showing the initial stage of the cusp-formation process due to the Coulomb focusing effect. Following evolution of the ionized wave packet yet further in time we consider the cusp formation in detail.

We address the characterization of dissipative bosonic channels and show that estimation of the loss rate by Gaussian probes (coherent or squeezed) is improved in the presence of Kerr nonlinearity. In particular, enhancement of precision may be substantial for short interaction time, i.e., for media of moderate size, e.g., biological samples. We analyze in detail the behavior of the quantum Fisher information (QFI), and determine the values of nonlinearity maximizing the QFI as a function of the interaction time and of the parameters of the input signal. We also discuss the precision achievable by photon counting and quadrature measurement and present additional results for truncated, few-photon, probe signals. Finally, we discuss the origin of the precision enhancement, showing that it cannot be linked quantitatively to the non-Gaussianity or the nonclassicality of the interacting probe signal.

Although progress has been made recently in defining nontrivial uncertainty limits for the SU(2) group, a description of the intermediate states bound by these limits remains lacking. In this paper we enumerate possible uncertainty relations for the SU(2) group that involve all three observables and that are, moreover, invariant under SU(2) transformations. We demonstrate that these relations however, even taken as a group, do not provide sharp, saturable bounds. To find sharp bounds, we systematically calculate the variance of the SU(2) operators for all pure states belonging to the $N=2$ and $N=3$ polarization excitation manifold (corresponding to spin 1 and spin 3/2). Lastly, and perhaps counter to expectation, we note that even pure states can reach the maximum uncertainty limit.

A particular example is produced to prove that quantum walks can be used to simulate full-fledged discrete gauge theories. A family of two-dimensional walks is introduced and its continuous limit is shown to coincide with the dynamics of a Dirac fermion coupled to arbitrary electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic interpretation is extended beyond the continuous limit by proving that these discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) exhibit an exact discrete local U(1) gauge invariance and possess a discrete gauge-invariant conserved current. A discrete gauge-invariant electromagnetic field is also constructed and that field is coupled to the conserved current by a discrete generalization of Maxwell equations. The dynamics of the DTQWs under crossed electric and magnetic fields is finally explored outside the continuous limit by numerical simulations. Bloch oscillations and the so-called $\mathbf{E}\times \mathbf{B}$ drift are recovered in the weak-field limit. Localization is observed for some values of the gauge fields.

Quantum computing implementations under consideration today typically deal with systems with microscopic degrees of freedom such as photons, ions, cold atoms, and superconducting circuits. The quantum information is stored typically in low-dimensional Hilbert spaces such as qubits, as quantum effects are strongest in such systems. It has, however, been demonstrated that quantum effects can be observed in mesoscopic and macroscopic systems, such as nanomechanical systems and gas ensembles. While few-qubit quantum information demonstrations have been performed with such macroscopic systems, a quantum algorithm showing exponential speedup over classical algorithms is yet to be shown. Here, we show that the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm can be implemented with macroscopic ensembles. The encoding that we use avoids the detrimental effects of decoherence that normally plagues macroscopic implementations. We discuss two mapping procedures which can be chosen depending upon the constraints of the oracle and the experiment. Both methods have an exponential speedup over the classical case, and only require control of the ensembles at the level of the total spin of the ensembles. It is shown that both approaches reproduce the qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, and are robust under decoherence.

We present a quantum key distribution protocol in a model in which the legitimate users gather statistics as in the measurement-device-independent entanglement witness to certify the sources and the measurement devices. We show that the task of measurement-device-independent quantum communication can be accomplished based on monogamy of entanglement, and it is fairly loss tolerate including source and detector flaws. We derive a tight bound for collective attacks on the Holevo information between the authorized parties and the eavesdropper. Then with this bound, the final secret key rate with the source flaws can be obtained. The results show that long-distance quantum cryptography over 144 km can be made secure using only standard threshold detectors.