We reveal that Hopf solitons can be stabilized in rotating atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The Hopfion is a matter-wave vortex complex which carries two independent winding numbers. Such a topological solitonic structure results from a superfluid flow of atoms simultaneously quantized in poloidal and toroidal directions. In the framework of a dissipative mean-field model we observe different unstable evolution scenarios of the Hopfions. We demonstrate energetic and dynamical stability of the Hopf solitons under experimentally feasible conditions.

Weak single-photon nonlinearities have many potential applications in quantum computing and quantum information. Here we demonstrate a relatively simple system for producing low-power cross-phase modulation using metastable xenon inside a high-finesse cavity. The use of a noble gas such as xenon eliminates the contamination of the high-finesse mirrors that can occur when using alkali metal vapors such as rubidium. Cross-phase shifts of 5 mrad with 4.5-fJ control pulses were demonstrated. Numerical solutions of the master equation are in good agreement with the experimental results, and they predict that cross-phase shifts greater than 1 mrad per control photon should be achievable by reducing the size of the cavity.

This work analyzes the temporal coherence and correlation of counterpropagating twin photons generated in a quasiphase matched nonlinear crystal by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We find out different pictures depending on the pump pulse duration relative to two characteristic temporal scales, determined, respectively, by the temporal separation between the counterpropagating and the co-propagating wave packets. When the pump duration is intermediate between the two scales, we show a transition from a highly entangled state to an almost separable state, with strongly asymmetric spectral properties of the photons.

We discuss three formally different formulas for normalization of quasinormal modes currently in use for modeling optical cavities and plasmonic resonators and show that they are complementary and provide the same result. Regardless of the formula used for normalization, one can use the norm to define an effective mode volume for use in Purcell factor calculations.

The precise structural details of metallic nanogaps within optical antennae are found to dramatically modify the plasmonic response, producing a complex pattern of electromagnetic modes that can be directly observed in scattering experiments. We analyze this situation theoretically in the nanoparticle-on-mirror construct, which forms a plasmonic nanogap sensitive to even atomic-scale restructuring of nanoparticle morphology. We focus on the effect of nanoparticle faceting, which allows the formation of ultrathin cavities between the particle and the underlying metallic film in the nanoparticle-on-mirror geometry. Two different sets of modes are identified: longitudinal antenna modes, which are strongly radiative and excited for all facet width ranges, and transverse cavity modes produced at large facets and exhibiting extreme confinement. The interaction and hybridization of antenna and cavity modes is determined by their symmetry and the precise morphology of the nanogap edges. Understanding such complex optics from nanoparticle-on-mirror structures is important to elucidate a wide variety of emerging photochemical and optoelectronic processes.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors can reach the quantum noise limit of the optical readout field in various configurations. We demonstrate that two-mode intensity squeezed states produce a further enhancement in sensitivity compared with a classical optical readout when the quantum noise is used to transduce an SPR sensor signal in the Kretschmann configuration. The quantum noise reduction between the twin beams when incident at an angle away from the plasmonic resonance, combined with quantum noise resulting from quantum anticorrelations when on resonance, results in an effective SPR-mediated modulation that yields a measured sensitivity 5 dB better than that with a classical optical readout in this configuration. The theoretical potential of this technique points to resolving particle concentrations with more accuracy than is possible via classical approaches to optical transduction.

We show that the expectation value of squared correlations measured along random local directions is an identifier of quantum entanglement in pure states, which can be directly experimentally assessed if two copies of the state are available. Entanglement can therefore be detected by parties who do not share a common reference frame and whose local reference frames, such as polarizers or Stern-Gerlach magnets, remain unknown. Furthermore, we also show that in every experimental run, access to only one qubit from the macroscopic reference is sufficient to identify entanglement, violate a Bell inequality, and, in fact, observe all phenomena observable with macroscopic references. Finally, we provide a state-independent entanglement witness solely in terms of random correlations and emphasize how data gathered for a single random measurement setting per party reliably detects entanglement. This is only possible due to utilized randomness and should find practical applications in experimental confirmation of multiphoton entanglement or space experiments.

By using a condition of average trace preservation we rederive a general class of non-Markovian Gaussian diffusive unravelings [L. Diósi and L. Ferialdi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 200403 (2014)], here valid for arbitrary non-Hermitian system operators and noise correlations. The conditions under which the generalized stochastic Schrödinger equation has the same symmetry properties (invariance under unitary changes of operator base) as a microscopic system-bath Hamiltonian dynamics are determined. While the standard quantum diffusion model (standard noise correlations) always shares the same invariance symmetry, the generalized stochastic dynamics can be mapped with an arbitrary bosonic environment only if some specific correlation constraints are fulfilled. These features are analyzed for different non-Markovian unravelings equivalent on average. Results based on quantum measurement theory that leads to specific cases of the generalized dynamics [J. Gambetta and H. M. Wiseman, Phys. Rev. A 66, 012108 (2002)] are studied from the perspective of the present analysis.

Nonlocal correlations are usually understood through the outcomes of alternative measurements (on two or more parts of a system) that cannot altogether actually be carried out in an experiment. Indeed, a joint input-output — e.g., measurement-setting–outcome — behavior is nonlocal if and only if the outputs for all possible inputs cannot coexist consistently. It has been argued that this counterfactual view is how Bell's inequalities and their violations are to be seen. I propose an alternative perspective which refrains from setting into relation the results of mutually exclusive measurements, but that is based solely on data actually available. My approach uses algorithmic complexity instead of probability and randomness, and implies that nonlocality has consequences similar to those in the probabilistic view. Our view is conceptually simpler than the traditional reasoning.

Measuring incomplete sets of mutually unbiased bases constitutes a sensible approach to the tomography of high-dimensional quantum systems. The unbiased nature of these bases optimizes the uncertainty hypervolume. However, imposing unbiasedness on the probabilities for the unmeasured bases does not generally yield the estimator with the largest von Neumann entropy, a popular figure of merit in this context. Furthermore, this imposition typically leads to mock density matrices that are not even positive definite. This provides a strong argument against perfunctory applications of linear estimation strategies. We propose to use instead the physical state estimators that maximize the Shannon entropy of the unmeasured outcomes, which quantifies our lack of knowledge fittingly and gives physically meaningful statistical predictions.

The multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method was employed to calculate the total and excitation energies, oscillator strengths, and hyperfine structure constants for low-lying levels of Sm i. In the first-order perturbation approximation, we systematically analyzed correlation effects from individual electrons and electron pairs. It was found that the core correlations are of importance for the physical quantities concerned. Based on the analysis, the important configuration state wave functions were selected to constitute atomic state wave functions. By using this computational model, our excitation energies, oscillator strengths, and hyperfine structure constants are in better agreement with experimental values than earlier theoretical works.

Hyperfine structures of ${}^{211}\mathrm{Fr}$ due to the interactions of magnetic dipole $\left(\mu \right)$, electric quadrupole $\left(Q\right)$, and magnetic octupole $\left(\mathrm{\Omega }\right)$ moments with the electrons are investigated using the relativistic coupled-cluster theory with the single, double, and important valence triple excitations approximations. The validity of our calculations is substantiated by comparing these values with the available experimental results. Its $Q$ value has also been elevated by combining the measured hyper-fine-structure constant of the $7p{}^2{P}_{3/2}$ state with our improved calculation. Considering the preliminary value of $\mathrm{\Omega }$ from the nuclear shell model, its contributions to the hyperfine structures up to the $7d{}^2{D}_{5/2}$ low-lying states in ${}^{211}\mathrm{Fr}$ are estimated. Hyperfine energy-level splittings of many states have been assessed to find the suitability for carrying out their precise measurements so that $\mathrm{\Omega }$ of ${}^{211}\mathrm{Fr}$ can be inferred from them unambiguously.

The present article reports calculations of total, momentum transfer, differential, excitation, and ionization cross sections for electron scattering from the carbonyl fluoride (${\mathrm{F}}_2\mathrm{CO}$) molecule. Total cross sections (TCSs) are presented over an extensive energy range from 0.5 to 5000 eV. The ab initio R-matrix and spherical complex optical potential methods were used to perform low-energy computations and intermediate- to high-energy calculations, respectively. The TCSs computed through these two formalisms are in good agreement in the 24–26 eV energy range. The consistency of the data in this overlapping region has allowed us to predict total cross sections over an extensive energy range. Electronic excitation, momentum transfer, and differential cross sections were also calculated using the $R$-matrix method at low incident energies. In the present study, a low-energy resonance at 3.67 eV was detected with a ${}^{2}B_1$ symmetry, indicating the probability of anion formation by the dissociative electron attachment process and further decay to neutral and negative ion fragments. The total ionization cross section for ${\mathrm{F}}_2\mathrm{CO}$ was also evaluated using the complex scattering potential–ionization contribution method and the binary encounter Bethe method up to 5 keV.

We study the stability of solitary vortices in a two-dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with a spatially localized region of self-attraction. Solving the respective Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations and running direct simulations of the underlying Gross-Pitaevskii equation reveals that vortices with a topological charge up to $S=6$ (at least) are stable above a critical value of the chemical potential (i.e., below a critical number of atoms, which sharply increases with $S$). The largest nonlinearity-localization radius admitting stabilization of higher-order vortices is estimated analytically and accurately identified in numerical form. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a setting which gives rise to stable higher-order vortices, $S>1$, in a trapped self-attractive BEC. The same setting may be realized in nonlinear optics too.

Non-Gaussian quantum states are key resources for quantum optics with continuous-variable oscillators. The non-Gaussian states can be deterministically prepared by a continuous evolution of the mechanical oscillator isolated in a nonlinear potential. We propose feasible and deterministic transfer of non-Gaussian quantum states of mechanical oscillators to a traveling light beam, using purely all-optical methods. The method relies on only basic feasible and high-quality elements of quantum optics: squeezed states of light, linear optics, homodyne detection, and electro-optical feedforward control of light. By this method, a wide range of novel non-Gaussian states of light can be produced in the future from the mechanical states of levitating particles in optical tweezers, including states necessary for the implementation of an important cubic phase gate.

A superconducting qubit device suitable for interacting with a flying electron has recently been proposed [Okamoto and Nagatani, Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 062604 (2014)]. Either a clockwise or counterclockwise directed loop of half magnetic flux quantum encodes a qubit, which naturally interacts with any single charged particle with arbitrary kinetic energy. Here, the device's properties, sources of errors, and possible applications are studied in detail. In particular, applications include detection of a charged particle essentially without applying a classical force to it. Furthermore, quantum states can be transferred between an array of the proposed devices and the charged particle.

A linearly polarized electromagnetic wave is found to form divergent and rotation fields after focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror. These distributions are generated within a subwavelength scale around the focus and at times when the electric field at the focus vanishes. We theoretically and experimentally show that not only the direction but also the structure of the distributions varies with the incident polarization. In addition, the distributions move in one direction with a phase velocity faster than the speed of light.

We study the effect of delayed coherent optical feedback on the pulse timing jitter in passively-mode-locked semiconductor lasers with the help of a semi-analytical method which we develop to calculate the timing fluctuations in these lasers. Through the proposed method physical insights into the feedback dependence of the timing jitter are gained and the greatly reduced computation times allow for the investigation of the dependence of timing fluctuations over greater parameter domains. We show that resonant feedback leads to a reduction in the timing jitter and that a frequency-pulling region forms about the main resonances, within which a timing jitter reduction is observed. The width of these frequency-pulling regions increases linearly with short feedback delay times. We derive an analytic expression for the timing jitter, which predicts a monotonic decrease in the timing jitter for resonant feedback of increasing delay lengths, when timing jitter effects are fully separated from amplitude jitter effects. For long feedback cavities the decrease in timing jitter scales approximately as $1/\tau$ with increasing feedback delay time $\tau$. This behavior is not related to the stability of the system but is instead due to the influence of the noise, on the timing jitter, being reduced since the solution space is larger for increasing $\tau$.

The Glauber-Sudarshan diagonal “weight” function provides a natural divide between the quantum-optical notion of classical and nonclassical states of continuous-variable systems. Based on this demarcation, a channel is said to be nonclassicality breaking if it outputs only classical states for any input state. We focus on multimode bosonic Gaussian channels and classify those that are nonclassicality breaking by introducing a criterion that needs to be satisfied by the matrices representing these channels. The criterion can be interpreted as a nonclassicality benchmark for these channels since it quantifies the threshold noise at which there is a complete nonclassical to classical transition of the output states, i.e., it quantifies the robustness of the nonclassicality of the outputs of the channel against Gaussian noise. We then prove a striking “duality” between nonclassicality-breaking and entanglement-breaking bosonic Gaussian channels.

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation has received increasing attention due to its robustness against control errors. However, all the previous schemes have to use at least two sequentially implemented gates to realize a general one-qubit gate. In this paper we put forward a scheme by which one can directly realize an arbitrary holonomic one-qubit gate with a single-shot implementation, avoiding the extra work of combining two gates into one. Based on a three-level model driven by laser pulses, we show that any single-qubit holonomic gate can be realized by varying the detuning, amplitude, and phase of lasers. Our scheme is compatible with previously proposed nonadiabatic holonomic two-qubit gates, combining with which the arbitrary holonomic one-qubit gates can play universal nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation. We also investigate the effects of some unavoidable realistic errors on our scheme.