We study the dissociation of Feshbach molecules in ultracold Fermi gases with spin-orbit (SO) coupling. Since SO coupling can induce a quantum transition between Feshbach molecules and the fully polarized Fermi gas, the Feshbach molecules can be dissociated by the SO coupling. We experimentally realize this type of dissociation in ultracold gases of ${}^{40}\text{K}$ atoms with SO coupling created by Raman beams and observe that the dissociation rate is highly nonmonotonic on both the positive and negative Raman-detuning sides. Our results show that the dissociation of Feshbach molecules can be controlled by different degrees of freedoms, i.e., the SO-coupling intensity or the momenta of the Raman beams, as well as the detuning of the Raman beams.

The detection-efficiency loophole poses a significant problem for experimental tests of Bell inequalities. The recently discovered Pusey-Barrett-Rudolph (PBR) theorem suffers from the same vulnerability. In this paper we calculate the critical detection efficiency, below which the PBR argument for the ontic nature of quantum state is inconclusive. This is done for the maximally $\psi$-epistemic models. We use two different definitions of this property. The optimal number of parties for which the critical detection efficiency is the lowest is given. We also approach the problem from the opposite direction. We provide a function that enables us to specify which epistemic models are ruled out by the results of an experiment with a given detection efficiency.

We study the occurrence of errors in a continuously decoupled two-qubit state during a $\sqrt{\mathit{SWAP}}$ quantum operation under decoherence. We consider a realization of this quantum gate based on the Heisenberg exchange interaction, which alone suffices for achieving universal quantum computation. Furthermore, we introduce a continuous-dynamical-decoupling scheme that commutes with the Heisenberg Hamiltonian to protect it from the amplitude damping and dephasing errors caused by the system-environment interaction. We consider two error-protection settings. One protects the qubits from both amplitude damping and dephasing errors. The other features the amplitude damping as a residual error and protects the qubits from dephasing errors only. In both settings, we investigate the interaction of qubits with common and independent environments separately. We study how errors affect the entanglement and fidelity for different environmental spectral densities.

Quantum state joining has been recently experimentally demonstrated [C. Vitelli et al., Nat. Photon. 7, 521 (2013)] which can transfer two input photonic qubits into a photonic ququart. Here, we revisit these processes from a hybrid point of view. By exploring the giant optical circular birefringence induced by quantum-dot spins in one-sided optical microcavities, we introduce some deterministic joining schemes including two quantum-dot spin joining, hybrid photon and quantum-dot spin joining, and two-photon joining. The input quantum information is represented by one photon with polarization and spatial mode degrees of freedom (DOFs). These schemes are also adapted to the inverse processes called quantum state splitting because all the joining procedures are unitary and do not require projection and feed-forward steps. The fused photon is convenient for realizing elementary logic gates such as the controlled-not (cnot) gate, swap gate, and Toffoli gate. These hybrid fusion and splitting schemes provide flexible synthesis of the quantum-dot spin and photon in quantum applications. The transmission superiority of photons and storage superiority of the quantum-dot spin may be combined for quantum network communication or quantum computations.

We present theoretical studies on real-time probing of the electron density evolution of an atom in a strong infrared (IR) laser field with few-cycle near-infrared (NIR) and attosecond extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses. Our results indicate that the electron density near the tunneling barrier is reflected in the additional tunneling ionization yield with a time delayed NIR pulse and the electron density near the nucleus can be probed by the single photoionization yield with a time delayed XUV pulse. It turns out the NIR-probing scheme can be used to study the polarization of the system in an external IR field and the XUV probing can be additionally applied to explore excitation dynamics during and after the IR field interaction.

We study dissociative photoionization of molecular oxygen in a kinematically complete XUV-IR pump-probe experiment. Detecting charged fragments and photoelectrons in coincidence using a reaction microscope, we observe a pump-probe delay-dependent yield of very low energetic ${\mathrm{O}}^{+}$ ions which oscillates with a period of $40\mathrm{fs}$. This feature is caused by a time-dependent vibrational wave packet in the potential of the binding ${\mathrm{O}}_2{}^{+}\left(a{}^4\Pi _u\right)$ state, which is probed by resonant absorption of a single infrared photon to the weakly repulsive ${\mathrm{O}}_2{}^{+}\left(f{}^4\Pi _g\right)$ state. By quantitative comparison of the experimental kinetic-energy-release (KER) and quantum-beat (QB) spectra with the results of a coupled-channel simulation, we are able to discriminate between the calculated adiabatic ${\mathrm{O}}_2^{+}$ potential-energy curves (PECs) of Marian et al. [Marian, Marian, Peyerimhoff, Hess, Buenker, and Seger, Mol. Phys. 46, 779 (1982)] and Magrakvelidze et al. [Magrakvelidze, Aikens, and Thumm, Phys. Rev. A 86, 023402 (2012)]. In general, we find a good agreement between experimental and simulated KER and QB spectra. However, we could not reproduce all features of the experimental data with these PECs. In contrast, adjusting a Morse potential to the experimental data, most features of the experimental spectra are well reproduced by our simulation. By comparing this Morse potential to theoretically predicted PECs, we demonstrate the sensitivity of our experimental method to small changes in the shape of the binding potential.

We compute the spectral density in the normal phase of an interacting homogenous Fermi gas using a $T$-matrix approximation. We fit the quasiparticle peaks of the spectral density to BCS-like dispersion relations and extract estimates of a “pseudogap” energy scale and an effective Fermi wave vector as a function of interaction strength. We find that the effective Fermi wave vector of the quasiparticles vanishes when the inverse scattering length exceeds some positive threshold. We also find that, near unitarity, the quasiparticle lifetimes, estimated from the widths of the peaks in the spectral density, approach values on the order of the inverse Fermi energy. These results are consistent with the “breakdown of Fermi-liquid theory” observed in recent experiments.

The output incoherent spectrum and the photon blockade for the two-photon near-resonant excitation are numerically investigated by using the modified theories which are valid for an arbitrary degree of the qubit-cavity interaction. Owing to the effects of strong coupling of the system, the relaxation coefficients of the system are very sensitive to the coupling strength between the qubit and the cavity mode, which results in the redistribution of the populations and the appearance of the population inversion between the ground state and the first excited state, and it is demonstrated by the intensity of the output incoherent spectrum. The redistribution of the populations leads to one cascaded decay channel being weakened and the other possibly being enhanced significantly. Moreover, by adjusting the detuning between the qubit and the cavity mode, the phenomenon of the intercrossing in the energy levels appears. Through choosing the proper two-photon near-resonant excitation of the external classical driving field, the strong-coupling qubit-cavity system effectively causes one cascaded decay channel to realize the two-photon blockade. It is shown that the two-photon blockade can be further enhanced by one cascaded decay channel.

Using the variational method extended to dissipative systems and numerical simulations, an analytical stability criterion is established allowing the determination of stability domains of parameters for vortices with high topological charge S. Parameters from these domains are used as inputs for numerical self-generation of previously unexplored coexisting stable vortex solitons with topological charge ranging from $S=3$ to $S=20$. The nesting of low-vorticity solitons within those of higher vorticity is discovered. Such a self-organized structuring of light allows for selective dynamic nanophotonic tweezing.

We propose a realistic physical scheme to produce one-dimensional and two-dimensional weak-light solitons in an atomic system with $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry. The system we suggest is a cold three-level atomic gas with two species and is driven by control and probe laser fields. We show that by the interference of two Raman resonances a highly adjustable probe-field refractive index with $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry in one and two dimensions can be realized. We further show that it is possible to produce various light solitons when the weak nonlinearity of the probe field is taken into account. Due to the resonant character of the system, the light solitons obtained in one and two dimensions have extremely low light power (at the level of nanowatts). In addition, we demonstrate that the stability of these light solitons can be actively controlled via $\mathcal{PT}$ phase transition of the system.

We investigate theoretically quantum scattering of two distinguishable photon wave packets from a $\Xi$-type three-level atom in a one-dimensional waveguide. The quantum state of scattered photons is solved analytically, and the solution indicates how the two photons become strongly correlated after the scattering. We determine the two-photon reflection and transmission properties, and analyze the quantum entanglement between the scattered photons. In particular, we show that the degree of entanglement can be enhanced by decreasing the spectral width of the incident photon wave packets.

Nuclear structure corrections to energy levels of light muonic atoms are derived with particular attention to the nuclear mass dependence. The obtained result for the $2P-2S$ transition of $1.717\left(20\right)$ meV serves for determination of the nuclear charge radius from the spectroscopic measurement in muonic deuterium.

We study an ensemble of two-level quantum systems (qubits) interacting with a common electromagnetic field in the proximity of a dielectric slab whose temperature is held different from that of some far surrounding walls. We show that the dissipative dynamics of the qubits driven by this stationary and out of thermal equilibrium field allows the production of steady many-body entangled states, different from the case at thermal equilibrium where steady states are always nonentangled. By studying up to ten qubits, we point out the role of symmetry in the entanglement production, which is exalted in the case of permutationally invariant configurations. In the case of three qubits, we find a strong dependence of tripartite entanglement on the spatial disposition of the qubits, and in the case of six qubits we find several highly entangled bipartitions where entanglement can, remarkably, survive for large qubit-qubit distances up to $100\mu \mathrm{m}$.

We demonstrate the importance of electron correlation effects in the hyperfine structure constants of many low-lying states in ${}^{210}\mathrm{Fr}$ and ${}^{212}\mathrm{Fr}$. This is achieved by calculating the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole hyperfine structure constants using the Dirac-Fock approximation, second-order many-body perturbation theory, and the coupled-cluster method in the singles and doubles approximation in the relativistic framework. By combining our recommended theoretical results with the corresponding experimental values, improved nuclear magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments of the above isotopes are determined. In the present work, it is observed that there are large discrepancies between the hyperfine structure constants of the $7D_{5/2}$ state obtained from the experimental and theoretical studies, whereas good agreement is found for the other $D_{5/2}$ states. Our estimated hyperfine constants for the $8P,6D,10S$, and $11S$ states could be very useful as benchmarks for the measurement of these quantities.

X rays originating from transitions from high Rydberg states to the $M$ shell (here called Rydberg-to-$M$-shell x rays) have been measured in the interaction of ${\text{Xe}}^{q+}\left(q=27–30\right)$ ions with aluminum, molybdenum, and beryllium surfaces in the energy range of 350–600 keV, by using a Si(Li) detector. The transition energy calculation by Cowan's program with relativistic correlation indicates that such x rays are mainly from the transition of the higher quantum states, with the principal quantum number from 6 up to 30, directly to $M$ shell of xenon. The yield of the x ray per vacancy in $M$ shell decreases slightly with increasing the projectile energies and is inversely proportional to the work functions of metallic surfaces used. However, it increases rapidly with the increase of the projectile charge states. All of these experimental facts combined with the transition rate calculations indicate that the measured Rydberg-to-$M$-shell x rays come from the “above the surface” hollow Xe atoms or ions deexcitation, when the inner shells such as $N$ and $O$ have not been filled.

We theoretically investigate the effects of strong couplings in resonant Auger processes under the combination of strong resonant x-ray and nearly resonant optical pulses. The x-ray field couples the ground state with a core-excited state, while the optical field couples the core-excited state with another core-excited state of opposite parity. The Auger electron spectrum changes its shape as the intensities of the x-ray and/or optical fields increase, and at sufficiently high intensities we observe that the splitting, which is induced by the optical field, is superposed on the asymmetric splitting induced by the x-ray field in the Auger electron spectra. The asymmetric splitting itself, which is induced by the strong x-ray pulse, is persistent but modified due to the presence of the strong optical field. Moreover, through the systematic study by including or excluding the individual photoionization processes from the core-excited states and the direct photoionizaton process from the ground state, we clarify the contribution of the respective processes to the total electron yield and the Auger electron spectra. These results show that we can manipulate the resonant Auger processes through the introduction of the second core-excited state and the strong optical field.

We quantify a limitation in the usual accounting of the finite-size effects, where the leading $\left[{\left(Z\alpha \right)}^4\right]$ and subleading $\left[{\left(Z\alpha \right)}^5\right]$ contributions to the Lamb shift are given by the mean-square radius and the third Zemach moment of the charge distribution. In the presence of any nonsmooth behavior of the nuclear form factor at scales comparable to the inverse Bohr radius, the expansion of the Lamb shift in the moments breaks down. This is relevant for some of the explanations of the “proton size puzzle.” We find, for instance, that the de Rújula toy model of the proton form factor does not resolve the puzzle as claimed, despite the large value of the third Zemach moment. Without relying on the radii expansion, we show how tiny, milli-percent (pcm) changes in the proton electric form factor at a MeV scale would be able to explain the puzzle. It shows that one needs to know all the soft contributions to the proton electric form factor to pcm accuracy for a precision extraction of the proton charge radius from atomic Lamb shifts.

The state of quantum systems, their energetics, and their time evolution is modeled by abstract operators. How can one visualize such operators for coupled spin systems? A general approach is presented that consists of several shapes representing linear combinations of spherical harmonics. It is applicable to an arbitrary number of spins and can be interpreted as a generalization of Wigner functions. The corresponding visualization transforms naturally under nonselective spin rotations as well as spin permutations. Examples and applications are illustrated for the case of three spins 1/2.

The generalization of the concept of interaction-free evolutions (IFE) [Napoli et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 062104 (2014)] to the case of time-dependent Hamiltonians is discussed. It turns out that the time-dependent case allows for much richer structures of interaction-free states and interaction-free subspaces. The general condition for the occurrence of IFE is found and exploited to analyze specific situations. Several examples are presented, each one associated to a class of Hamiltonians with specific features.

We study the problem of witnessing entanglement among indistinguishable particles. For this purpose, we derive a set of equations which results in necessary and sufficient conditions for probing multipartite entanglement between arbitrary systems of bosons or fermions. The solution of these equations yields the construction of optimal entanglement witnesses for partial and full entanglement in discrete and continuous variable systems. Our approach unifies the verification of entanglement for distinguishable and indistinguishable particles. We provide general solutions for certain observables to study quantum entanglement in systems with different quantum statistics in noisy environments.