We propose a pump-probe signal, whereby the sample is excited by a classical pulse, and—after a variable time delay—probed by a photon from an entangled pair, which is finally detected in coincidence with its twin. This setup offers an improved time and frequency resolution compared to a classical pump-probe signal, and can be used to enhance or suppress selected resonances.

Non-Markovian effects in the evolution of open quantum systems have recently attracted widespread interest, particularly in the context of assessing the efficiency of energy and charge transfer in nanoscale biomolecular networks and quantum technologies. With the aid of many-body simulation methods, we uncover and analyze an ultrafast environmental process that causes energy relaxation in the reduced system to depend explicitly on the phase relation of the initial-state preparation. Remarkably, for particular phases and system parameters, the net energy flow is uphill, transiently violating the principle of detailed balance, and implying that energy is spontaneously taken up from the environment. A theoretical analysis reveals that nonsecular contributions, significant only within the environmental correlation time, underlie this effect. This suggests that environmental energy harvesting will be observable across a wide range of coupled quantum systems.

We resolve the real-time dynamics of a purely dissipative $s=1/2$ quantum spin or, equivalently, hard-core boson model on a hypercubic $d$-dimensional lattice. The considered quantum dissipative process drives the system to a totally symmetric macroscopic superposition in each of the $S^3$ sectors. Different characteristic time scales are identified for the dynamics and we determine their finite-size scaling. We introduce the concept of cumulative entanglement distribution to quantify multiparticle entanglement and show that the considered protocol serves as an efficient method to prepare a macroscopically entangled Bose-Einstein condensate.

We analyze the spin dynamics of an out-of-equilibrium large spin dipolar atomic Bose gas in an optical lattice. We observe a smooth crossover from a complex oscillatory behavior to an exponential behavior throughout the Mott-to-superfluid transition. While both of these regimes are well described by our theoretical models, we provide data in the intermediate regime where dipolar interactions, contact interactions, and superexchange mechanisms compete. In this strongly correlated regime, spin dynamics and transport are coupled, which challenges theoretical models for quantum magnetism.

Both longitudinal and transverse relaxations exist in the practical environment. Their simultaneous eliminations are extremely demanding in real applications. Previous experimental work has focused mainly on the suppression of transverse relaxation. In this paper we investigate the performance of three important dynamical decoupling schemes—quadratic dynamical decoupling, periodic dynamical decoupling, and concatenated dynamical decoupling—in an environment with hybrid errors. We propose a method to engineer arbitrary environment by modulating the control field. The technique developed here is universal and can be applied to other quantum information processing systems. Three-dimensional filter functions technique is utilized to analyze the fidelity decay of a one-qubit state protected by dynamical decoupling sequences. This enables us to quantitatively compare the performance of different dynamical decoupling sequences and demonstrate the superiority of quadratic dynamical decoupling in experiments for the first time. Our work reveals that quadratic dynamical decoupling is optimal conditioned on the appropriate noise properties. The difference of constructing dynamical decoupling sequences with various Pauli pulses is also investigated.

Photoemission spectroscopy is one of the most frequently used tools for characterizing the electronic structure of condensed matter systems. We discuss a scheme for simulating photoemission from finite systems based on time-dependent density-functional theory. It allows for the first-principles calculation of relative electron binding energies, ionization cross sections, and anisotropy parameters. We extract these photoemission spectroscopy observables from Kohn-Sham orbitals propagated in real time. We demonstrate that the approach is capable of estimating photoemission intensities, i.e., peak heights. It can also reliably predict the angular distribution of photoelectrons. For the example of benzene we contrast calculated angular distribution anisotropy parameters to experimental reference data. Self-interaction free Kohn-Sham theory yields meaningful outer valence single-particle states in the right energetic order. We discuss how to properly choose the complex absorbing potential that is used in the simulations.

We find very good agreement between our theoretically evaluated lifetimes of the $5d{}^2{D}_{3/2}$ and $5d{}^2{D}_{5/2}$ states of Cs with the experimental values reported by DiBerardino et al. [Phys. Rev. A 57, 4204 (1998)], which were demonstrated to disagree with an earlier rigorous theoretical study [Safronova and Clark, Phys. Rev. A 69, 040501(R) (2004)] and with the other available precise measurement [Hoeling et al., Opt. Lett. 21, 74 (1996)]. In this work, we carry out calculations of the radiative transition matrix elements using many variants of relativistic many-body methods, mainly in the coupled-cluster theory framework, and analyze the propagation of electron correlation effects to elucidate their roles in accurate evaluations of the matrix elements. We also demonstrate contributions explicitly from Dirac-Coulomb interactions, frequency-independent Breit interaction, and lower order quantum electrodynamics effects. Uncertainties in these matrix elements due to different possible sources of errors are estimated. By combining our calculated radiative matrix elements with the experimental values of the transition wavelengths, we obtain the transition probabilities due to both the allowed and the lower order forbidden channels. Adding these quantities together, the lifetimes of the above two states are determined precisely and plausible reasons for the reported inconsistencies between the earlier theoretical calculations and the experimental results are pointed out.

We explore the conditions for resolving high-order electronic recollisions in high-order-harmonic spectroscopy. We identify intrinsic phase mismatch and time-frequency uncertainty as the two fundamental limitations against the spectral distinguishability of these multiple rescatterings. Our numerical computations show that flat-top mid-infrared driving fields are the optimal candidates for the study of multiple recollision phenomena.

We derive from first principles the momentum exchange between a photon and a quantum mirror upon reflection, by considering the boundary conditions imposed by the mirror surface on the photon wave equation. We show that the system generally ends up in an entangled state, unless the mirror position uncertainty is much smaller than the photon wavelength, when the mirror behaves classically. Our treatment leads us directly to the conclusion that the photon momentum has the known value $\hslash \mathbf{k}$. This implies that when the mirror is immersed in a dielectric medium the photon radiation pressure is proportional to the medium refractive index $n$. Our work thus contributes to the longstanding Abraham-Minkowski debate about the momentum of light in a medium. We interpret the result by associating the Minkowski momentum (which is proportional to $n$) with the canonical momentum of light, which appears naturally in quantum formulations.

We observe strong collective coupling between an optical cavity and the forbidden spin singlet to triplet optical transition ${}^{1}S_0$ to ${}^{3}P_1$ in an ensemble of ${}^{88}\text{Sr}$. Despite the transition being 1000 times weaker than a typical dipole transition, we observe a well-resolved vacuum Rabi splitting. We use the observed vacuum Rabi splitting to make nondestructive measurements of atomic population with the equivalent of projection-noise limited sensitivity between subsequent measurements and with minimal heating [$<0.01$ (photon recoils)/atom]. This technique may be used to enhance the performance of optical lattice clocks by generating entangled states and reducing dead time.

Quantum nonlocality is a counterintuitive phenomenon that lies beyond the purview of causal influences. Recently, Bell inequalities have been generalized to the case of quantum inputs, leading to a powerful family of semiquantum Bell inequalities that are capable of detecting any entangled state. Here, we focus on a different problem and investigate how the local indistinguishability of quantum inputs and postselection may affect the requirements to detect semiquantum nonlocality. To this end, we consider a semiquantum nonlocal game based on locally indistinguishable qubit inputs, and derive its postselected local and quantum bounds by using a connection to the local distinguishability of quantum states. Interestingly, we find that the postselected local bound is independent of the measurement efficiency, and the achievable postselected Bell violation increases with decreasing measurement efficiency.

We have observed $L_{23}^2-M^3$ Auger decay in argon where a double vacancy is filled by two valence electrons and a single electron is ejected from the atom. A well-resolved spectrum of these two-to-one electron transitions is compared to the result of the second-order perturbation theory and its decay branching ratio is determined.

For $N$ spin-polarized fermions with harmonic pair interactions in a one-dimensional trap an odd-even effect is found. The spectrum of the one-particle reduced density matrix of the system's ground state differs qualitatively for $N$ odd and $N$ even. This effect only occurs for strong attractive and repulsive interactions. Since it does not exist for bosons, it must originate from the repulsive nature implied by the fermionic exchange statistics. In contrast to the spectrum, the one-particle density and correlation function for strong attractive interactions do not show any sensitivity on the number parity. This also suggests that reduced-density-matrix-functional theory has a more subtle $N$ dependency than density-functional theory.

We propose a scheme of the exact fast forwarding of standard quantum dynamics for a charged particle. The present idea allows the acceleration of both the amplitude and the phase of the wave function throughout the fast-forward time range and is distinct from that of Masuda and Nakamura [Proc. R. Soc. A 466, 1135 (2010)], which enabled acceleration of only the amplitude of the wave function on the way. We apply the proposed method to the quantum tunneling phenomena and obtain the electromagnetic field to ensure the rapid penetration of wave functions through a tunneling barrier. Typical examples described here are (1) an exponential wave packet passing through the $\delta$-function barrier and (2) the opened Moshinsky shutter with a $\delta$-function barrier just behind the shutter. We elucidate the tunneling current in the vicinity of the barrier and find a remarkable enhancement of the tunneling rate (tunneling power) due to the fast forwarding. In the case of a very high barrier, in particular, we present the asymptotic analysis and exhibit a suitable driving force to recover a recognizable tunneling current. The analysis is also carried out on the exact acceleration of macroscopic quantum tunneling with use of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which accommodates a tunneling barrier.

We suggest a simple method to engineer a tight-binding quantum network based on proper coupling to an auxiliary non-Hermitian cluster. In particular, it is shown that effective complex non-Hermitian hopping rates can be realized with only complex onsite energies in the network. Three applications of the Hamiltonian engineering method are presented: the synthesis of a nearly transparent defect in an Hermitian linear lattice; the realization of the Fano-Anderson model with complex coupling; and the synthesis of a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric tight-binding lattice with a bound state in the continuum.

We present a concept of non-Gaussian measurement composed of a non-Gaussian ancillary state, linear optics, and adaptive heterodyne measurement, and on the basis of this we also propose a simple scheme of implementing a quantum cubic gate on a traveling light beam. In analysis of the cubic gate in the Heisenberg representation, we find that nonlinearity of the gate is independent from nonclassicality; the nonlinearity is generated solely by a classical nonlinear adaptive control in a measurement-and-feedforward process, while the nonclassicality is attached by the non-Gaussian ancilla that suppresses excess noise in the output. By exploiting the noise term as a figure of merit, we consider the optimum non-Gaussian ancilla that can be prepared within reach of current technologies and discuss performance of the gate. It is a crucial step towards experimental implementation of the quantum cubic gate.

We present two complete maximally hyperentangled state analysis protocols for photons entangled in the polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom. The first protocol is a hyperentangled Bell state analysis scheme for two photons, and the second is a hyperentangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state analysis scheme for three photons. In each scheme, a set of mutually orthogonal hyperentangled basis states are completely and deterministically discriminated with the aid of cross-Kerr nonlinearities and linear optics. We also generalize the schemes to unambiguously analyze the $N$-photon hyperentangled GHZ state. Compared with previous protocols, our schemes greatly simplify the discrimination process and reduce the requirements on nonlinearities by using the measured spatial-mode state to assist in the analysis of the polarization state. These advantages make our schemes useful for practical applications in long-distance high-capacity quantum communication.

Among the most popular and well-studied quantum characterization, verification, and validation techniques is randomized benchmarking (RB), an important statistical tool used to characterize the performance of physical logic operations useful in quantum information processing. In this work we provide a detailed mathematical treatment of the effect of temporal noise correlations on the outcomes of RB protocols. We provide a fully analytic framework capturing the accumulation of error in RB expressed in terms of a three-dimensional random walk in “Pauli space.” Using this framework we derive the probability density function describing RB outcomes (averaged over noise) for both Markovian and correlated errors, which we show is generally described by a $\mathrm{\Gamma }$ distribution with shape and scale parameters depending on the correlation structure. Long temporal correlations impart large nonvanishing variance and skew in the distribution towards high-fidelity outcomes—consistent with existing experimental data—highlighting potential finite-sampling pitfalls and the divergence of the mean RB outcome from worst-case errors in the presence of noise correlations. We use the filter-transfer function formalism to reveal the underlying reason for these differences in terms of effective coherent averaging of correlated errors in certain random sequences. We conclude by commenting on the impact of these calculations on the utility of single-metric approaches to quantum characterization, verification, and validation.

Recent advances in theoretical calculations of ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ dissociation energies and ultra-accurate measurements of ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ transition frequencies give possibilities not only for testing QED and relativistic effects, but also for searching for physics beyond the standard model. In this paper we show that at the level of ${10}^{-4}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$ the uncertainty of the Doppler-limited ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ line position determination is dominated by collisional line-shape effects. We question the paradigm that the unperturbed transition energy can be determined from linear extrapolation of the line shift to zero pressure.

We present a time-dependent calculation of the velocity-dependent forces which act on an excited atomic dipole in relative motion with respect to ground state atoms of a different kind. Both its interaction with a single atom and with a dilute atomic plate are evaluated. In either case, the total force consists of a conservative van der Waals component and a nonconservative Röntgen component. On physical grounds, the former corresponds to the velocity-dependent recoil experienced by the excited atom in the processes of absorption and emission of the photons that it exchanges with the ground-state atoms on a periodic basis. The latter corresponds to the time-variation of the Röntgen momentum, which is also mediated by the periodic exchange of quasiresonant photons. We find that, at leading order, all these interactions are linear in velocity. In the nonretarded regime the van der Waals force dominates, being antiparallel to the velocity. On the contrary, in the retarded regime the velocity-dependent forces oscillate in space, van der Waals and Röntgen forces are of the same order in the atom-atom interaction, and the Röntgen component dominates in the atom-surface interaction.