The security of source has become an increasingly important issue in quantum cryptography. Based on the framework of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD), the source becomes the only region exploitable by a potential eavesdropper (Eve). Phase randomization is a cornerstone assumption in most discrete-variable (DV) quantum communication protocols (e.g., QKD, quantum coin tossing, weak-coherent-state blind quantum computing, and so on), and the violation of such an assumption is thus fatal to the security of those protocols. In this paper, we show a simple quantum hacking strategy, with commercial and homemade pulsed lasers, by Eve that allows her to actively tamper with the source and violate such an assumption, without leaving a trace afterwards. Furthermore, our attack may also be valid for continuous-variable (CV) QKD, which is another main class of QKD protocol, since, excepting the phase random assumption, other parameters (e.g., intensity) could also be changed, which directly determine the security of CV-QKD.

A rational secret sharing scheme is a game in which each party responsible for reconstructing a secret tries to maximize his or her utility by obtaining the secret alone. Quantum secret sharing schemes, derived either from quantum teleportation or from quantum error correcting code, do not succeed when we assume rational participants. This is because all existing quantum secret sharing schemes consider that the secret is reconstructed by a party chosen by the dealer. In this paper, for the first time, we propose a quantum secret sharing scheme which is resistant to rational parties. The proposed scheme is fair (everyone gets the secret), is correct, and achieves strict Nash equilibrium.

We present a complete set of local unitary invariants for generic multiqubit systems which gives necessary and sufficient conditions for two states being local unitary equivalent. These invariants are canonical polynomial functions in terms of the generalized Bloch representation of the quantum states. In particular, we prove that there are at most 12 polynomial local unitary invariants for two-qubit states and at most 90 polynomials for three-qubit states. Comparison with Makhlin's 18 local unitary invariants is given for two-qubit systems.

We investigate the pairing physics of a three-component spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas in two spatial dimensions. The three atomic hyperfine states of the system are coupled by the recently realized synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which mixes different hyperfine states into helicity branches in a momentum-dependent manner. As a consequence, the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and the hyperfine-state-dependent interactions leads to the emergence of Fulde-Ferrell (FF) pairing states with finite center-of-mass momenta even in the absence of the Fermi-surface asymmetry that is usually mandatory to stabilize an SOC-induced FF state. We show that, for different combinations of spin-dependent interactions, the ground state of the system can either be the conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing state with zero center-of-mass momentum or be the FF pairing states. Of particular interest here is the existence of a three-component FF pairing state in which every two out of the three components form FF pairing. We map out the phase diagram of the system and characterize the properties of the three-component FF state, such as the order parameters, the gapless contours, and the momentum distributions. Based on these results, we discuss possible experimental detection schemes for the interesting pairing states in the system.

We provide a toolbox for continuous-variable quantum-state engineering and characterization of biphoton states produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a transverse pump configuration. We show that the control of the pump beam's incidence spot and angle corresponds to phase-space displacements of conjugate collective continuous variables of the biphoton. In particular, we illustrate with numerical simulations on a semiconductor device how this technique can be used to engineer and characterize arbitrary states of the frequency and time degrees of freedom.

We present evidence for the collective action of ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{3+}$ ion impurities in a highly concentrated ruby crystal coupled to microwave whispering gallery modes (WGMs). The cylindrical geometry of the crystal allows the creation of superradiant or “spin-mode” doublets, with spatial structures similar to that of WGMs. The formation of these spin patterns allows us to observe directly different selection rules, namely, wave number and azimuthal phase matching. The demonstration is made via an avoided level crossing between spin and photon mode doublets as well as absence of coupling between spin modes of different wave numbers. The effect is observable due to strong spin-photon coupling (67 MHz) exceeding both spin ensemble and cavity losses as well as the photon doublet splitting. We demonstrate that a four harmonic oscillator model not only with coupling between photon resonances (0.43 MHz) but also with a spin doublet (73 MHz) is necessary to accurately describe these results.

We propose a procedure for tomographic characterization of continuous-variable quantum operations which employs homodyne detection and single-mode squeezed probe states with a fixed degree of squeezing and antisqueezing and a variable displacement and orientation of squeezing ellipse. Density matrix elements of a quantum process matrix in Fock basis can be estimated by averaging well behaved pattern functions over the homodyne data. We show that this approach can be straightforwardly extended to characterization of quantum measurement devices and multimode operations. The probe states can be mixed, which makes the proposed procedure feasible with current technology.

A long-standing challenge in the foundations of quantum mechanics is the verification of alternative collapse theories despite their mathematical similarity to decoherence. To this end, we suggest a method based on dynamical decoupling. Experimental observation of nonzero saturation of the decoupling error in the limit of fast-decoupling operations can provide evidence for alternative quantum theories. The low decay rates predicted by collapse models are challenging, but high-fidelity measurements as well as recent advances in decoupling schemes for qubits let us explore a similar parameter regime to experiments based on macroscopic superpositions. As part of the analysis we prove that unbounded Hamiltonians can be perfectly decoupled. We demonstrate this on a dilation of a Lindbladian to a fully Hamiltonian model that induces exponential decay.

We give a theoretical study of a double-cavity system in which a mechanical resonator beam is coupled to two cavity modes on both sides through radiation pressures. The indirect coupling between the cavities via the resonator sets up a correlation in the optomechanical entanglements between the two cavities with the common resonator. This correlation initiates an entanglement transfer from the intracavity photon-phonon entanglements to an intercavity photon-photon entanglement. Using numerical solutions, we show two distinct regimes of the optomechanical system, in which the indirect entanglement either builds up and eventually saturates or undergoes a death-and-revival cycle, after a time lapse for initiating the cooperative motion of the left and right cavity modes.

Knowing the dimension of an unknown physical system has practical relevance, as dimensionality plays an important role in various information theoretic tasks. In this work we show that a modified version of Hardy's argument, which reveals the contradiction of quantum theory with local realism, turns out to be useful for inspecting the minimal subsystem dimension of an unknown correlated quantum system. The use of Hardy's test in this task has a novel advantage: the subsystem dimension can be determined without knowing the detailed functioning of the experimental devices; i.e., Hardy's test suffices to be a device-independent dimension witness.

Tight-binding lattices offer a unique platform in which particles may be either static or mobile depending on the potential barrier between the sites. How to harness this mobility in a many-site lattice for useful operations is still an open question. We show how effective linear opticslike operations between arbitrary lattice sites can be implemented by a minimal local control which introduces a local impurity in the middle of the lattice. In particular we show how striking is the difference of the two possible correlations with and without the impurity. Our scheme enables the observation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect between distant wells without moving them next to each other with, e.g., tweezers. Moreover, we show that a tunable Mach-Zehnder interferometer is implemented adding a steplike potential, and we prove the robustness of our linear optics scheme to interparticle interactions.

Absolute cross sections for the single and double K-shell photoionization of carbonlike ${\mathrm{O}}^{2+}$ and nitrogenlike ${\mathrm{O}}^{+}$ ions were measured in the 526–620-eV photon energy range by employing the ion-photon merged-beam technique at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility. High-resolution spectroscopy up to $E/\mathrm{\Delta }E\approx 5300$ was achieved. Rich resonance structures observed in the experimental spectra are analyzed and identified with the aid of R-matrix and multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) methods. For these two atomic oxygen ions of particular astrophysical interest we characterized the strong $1s\to 2p$ and the weaker $1s\to np(n>2)$ resonances observed. A detailed comparison of the energies of the $1s\to 2p$ resonances in the first members of the oxygen isonuclear sequence measured by synchrotron based experiments and the Chandra and XMM-Newton x-ray satellites is presented.

We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of ionization of argon atoms by a linearly polarized two-color laser field (${\lambda }_1=800$ nm, ${\lambda }_2=400$ nm). Changing the relative phase $\phi$ between the two colors, the forward-backward asymmetry of the doubly differential momentum distribution of emitted electrons can be controlled. We find excellent agreement between the measurements and the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in the single-active electron approximation. Surprisingly we also find good agreement between the quantum and classical calculations of electron momentum distributions generated by lasers at optical wavelengths.

We use the functional renormalization group to study the spectrum of three- and four-body states in bosonic systems around the unitary limit. Our effective action includes all energy-independent contact interactions in the four-atom sector, and we introduce a running trimer field to eliminate couplings that involve the atom-atom-dimer channel. The results show behavior qualitatively similar to those from exact approaches. The truncated action we use leads to overbinding of the two four-body states seen in those treatments. It also generates a third state, although only for a very narrow range of two-body scattering lengths.

We study ultracold atoms in an optical lattice with two local minima per unit cell and show that the low-energy states of a multiband Bose-Hubbard (BH) Hamiltonian with only pairwise interactions are equivalent to an effective single-band Hamiltonian with strong three-body interactions. We focus on a double-well optical lattice with a symmetric double well along the $x$ axis and single-well structure along the perpendicular directions. Tunneling and two-body interaction energies are obtained from an exact band-structure calculation and numerically constructed Wannier functions in order to construct a BH Hamiltonian spanning the lowest two bands. Our effective Hamiltonian is constructed from the ground state of the $N$-atom Hamiltonian for each unit cell obtained within the subspace spanned by the Wannier functions of the two lowest bands. The model includes hopping between ground states of neighboring unit cells. We show that such an effective Hamiltonian has strong three-body interactions that can be easily tuned by changing the lattice parameters. Finally, relying on numerical mean-field simulations, we show that the effective Hamiltonian is an excellent approximation of the two-band BH Hamiltonian over a wide range of lattice parameters, in both the superfluid and Mott insulator regions.

We demonstrate experimentally an alternative method for the dynamic generation of atomic spin squeezing, building on the interplay between linear coupling and nonlinear phase evolution. Since the resulting quantum dynamics can be seen as rotation and shear on the generalized Bloch sphere, we call this scheme twist-and-turn. This is closely connected to an underlying instability in the classical limit of this system. The short-time evolution of the quantum state is governed by a fast initial spreading of the quantum uncertainty in one direction, accompanied by squeezing in the orthogonal axis. We find an optimal value of ${\xi }_{\mathrm{S}}^2=-7.1\left(3\right)$ dB in a single Bose-Einstein condensate and scalability of the squeezing to more than ${10}^4$ particles with ${\xi }_{\mathrm{S}}^2=-2.8\left(4\right)$ dB.

Stretched cavity soliton (SCS) in dispersion-managed nonlinear resonators is numerically investigated. SCS is found to stretch and compress twice during a round-trip propagation inside the dispersion-managed resonator, exhibiting a pulse dynamics similar to dispersion-managed mode-locked femtosecond lasers. Even though the breathing ratio is relatively small, the characteristics of SCS are significantly modified by the pulse stretching dynamics in the resonator. The output pulse will have a flatter spectrum around the center frequency. However, the power for the comb lines at the wing of the spectrum decays faster than the conventional sech-shaped CS, making dispersion wave emission harder to be excited in dispersion-managed resonators. Furthermore, stretching of the pulse lowers the nonlinear phase shift and makes it more resistant towards breather soliton instability. When shortening the cavity length to the microresonator scale, we find that ultrashort pulses can be generated through dispersion management, even in a low $Q$-factor cavity.