Using a pair of coupled $RLC$ cavities we experimentally demonstrate that amplification action can be tamed by a spatially inhomogeneous gain. Under specific conditions we observe the counterintuitive phenomenon of stabilization of the system even when the overall gain provided is increased. This behavior is directly related to lasing shutdown via asymmetric pumping, recently proposed in M. Liertzer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 173901 (2012)]. The analysis of other simple systems reveals the universal nature of the lasing shutdown phenomenon as having its roots in managing impedance matching.

When a quantum system interacts with multiple reservoirs, the environmental effects are usually treated in an additive manner. We show that this assumption breaks down for non-Markovian environments that have finite memory times. Specifically, we demonstrate that quantum interferences between independent environments can qualitatively modify the dynamics of the physical system. We illustrate this effect with a two-level system coupled to two structured photonic reservoirs, discuss its origin using a nonequilibrium diagrammatic technique, and show an example when the application of this interference can result in an improved dark state preparation in a $\Lambda$ system.

We show that three unsharp binary qubit measurements are enough to violate a generalized noncontextuality inequality, the Liang-Spekkens-Wiseman inequality, in a state-dependent manner. For the case of trine spin axes we calculate the optimal quantum violation of this inequality. In addition, we show that unsharp qubit measurements do not allow a state-independent violation of this inequality. We thus provide a minimal state-dependent proof of measurement contextuality requiring one qubit and three unsharp measurements. Our result rules out generalized noncontextual models of these measurements which were previously conjectured to exist. More importantly, this class of generalized noncontextual models includes the traditional Kochen-Specker (KS) noncontextual models as a proper subset, so our result rules out a larger class of models than those ruled out by a violation of the corresponding KS inequality in this scenario.

Spatial light modulators are versatile devices employed in a vast range of applications to modify the transverse phase or amplitude profile of an incident light beam. Most experiments are designed to use a specific polarization which renders optimal sensitivity for phase or amplitude modulation. Here we take a different approach and apply the formalism of quantum information to characterize how a phase modulator affects a general polarization state. In this context, the spatial modulators can be exploited as a resource to couple the polarization and the transverse spatial degrees of freedom. Using a quasimonochromatic single-photon beam obtained from a pair of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion, we performed quantum process tomography in order to obtain a general analytic model for a quantum channel that describes the action of the device on the polarization qubits. We illustrate the application of these concepts by demonstrating the implementation of a controllable phase flip channel. This scheme can be applied in a straightforward manner to characterize the resulting polarization states of different types of phase or amplitude modulators and motivates the combined use of polarization and spatial degrees of freedom in innovative applications.

Proposals for quantum information processing often require the development of new quantum technologies. However, here we build quantum memory by ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices with existing state-of-the-art technology. Under a parabolic external field, we demonstrate that an arbitrary initial state at an end of the optical lattices can time evolve and revive, with very high fidelity, at predictable discrete time intervals. Physically, the parabolic field can catalyze a breathing pattern. The initial state is “memorized” by the pattern and can be retrieved at any of the revival time moments. In comparison with usual time-independent memory, we call this a dynamical memory. Furthermore, we show that the high fidelity of the quantum state at revival time moments is fault tolerant against the fabrication defects and even time-dependent noise.

One-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks show a rich spectrum of topological phases that have so far been exclusively analyzed using the Floquet operator in momentum space. In this work, we introduce an alternative approach to topology which is based on the scattering matrix of a quantum walk, adapting concepts from time-independent systems. For quantum walks with gaps in the quasienergy spectrum at 0 and $\pi$, we find three different types of topological invariants, which apply dependent on the symmetries of the system. These determine the number of protected boundary states at an interface between two quantum-walk regions. Quantum walks with an unequal number of leftward and rightward shifts per cycle are characterized by the number of perfectly transmitting unidirectional modes they support, which is equal to their nontrivial quasienergy winding. Our classification provides a unified framework that includes all known types of topology in one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks and is very well suited for the analysis of finite-size and disorder effects. We provide a simple scheme to directly measure the topological invariants in an optical quantum-walk experiment.

We investigate the process of two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of the metastable helium ${}^{1,3}S$ $1s2s$ states. The process has been simulated within a fully $ab$ $initio$ numerical framework, solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in full dimensionality for the two interacting electrons, in a $B$-spline-based methodology. The presence of doubly excited (autoionizing) states in the direct TPDI regime causes resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization, and we demonstrate this effect by accessing the ${}^{1,3}P$ $2s2p$ doubly excited states. Fully converged theoretical calculations are presented, and a well-defined cross section is extracted for the direct TPDI process and compared in the context of its analogous process in the helium ground state. In addition, the resonance-enhanced two-photon double-ionization mechanism is explored, and we discuss how this process differs from both direct and sequential ionization processes.

We report experimental observation of light filamentation in carbon disulfide (${\mathrm{CS}}_2$). Accurate measurements of the nonlinear index show an unusual saturation law of the Kerr effect, which is used to build a model of light propagation in ${\mathrm{CS}}_2$, which describes the filamentation in good agreement with experimental observations.

The use of plane-wave approximation in molecular-orbital tomography via high-order-harmonic generation has been questioned since it was proposed, owing to the fact that it ignores the essential property of the continuum-wave function. To address this problem, we develop a theory to retrieve the valence molecular orbital directly, utilizing a molecular continuum-wave function which takes into account the influence of the parent ion field on the continuum electrons. By transforming this wave function into momentum space, we show that the mapping from the relevant molecular orbital to the high-order-harmonic spectra is still invertible. As an example, the highest orbital of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ is successfully reconstructed and it shows good agreement with the ab initio orbital. Our work clarifies the long-standing controversy and strengthens the theoretical basis of molecular-orbital tomography.

A different technique is used to study the radiative decay of a metastable state in multiply ionized atoms. With use of a unitary Penning trap to selectively capture Kr${}^{17+}$ ions from an ion source at NIST, the decay of the 3d ${}^2{D}_{5/2}$ metastable state is measured in isolation at low energy, without any active cooling. The highly ionized atoms are trapped in the fine structure of the electronic ground configuration with an energy spread of 4(1) eV, which is narrower than within the ion source by a factor of about 100. By observing the visible 637-nm photon emission of the forbidden transition from the 3d ${}^{2}D$${}_{5/2}$ level to the ground state, we measured its radiative lifetime to be $\tau =24.48\mathrm{ms}\pm 0.{28}_{\mathrm{stat}.}\mathrm{ms}\pm 0.{14}_{\mathrm{syst}.}$ ms. Remarkably, various theoretical predictions for this relativistic Rydberg atom are in agreement with our measurement at the 1% level.

Recent results obtained in quantum measurements indicate that the fundamental relations between three physical properties of a system can be represented by complex conditional probabilities. Here, it is shown that these relations provide a fully deterministic and universally valid framework on which all of quantum mechanics can be based. Specifically, quantum mechanics can be derived by combining the rules of Bayesian probability theory with only a single additional law that explains the phases of complex probabilities. This law, which I introduce here as the law of quantum ergodicity, is based on the observation that the reality of physical properties cannot be separated from the dynamics by which they emerge in measurement interactions. The complex phases are an expression of this inseparability and represent the dynamical structure of transformations between the different properties. In its quantitative form, the law of quantum ergodicity describes a fundamental relation between the ergodic probabilities obtained by dynamical averaging and the deterministic relations between three properties expressed by the complex conditional probabilities. The complete formalism of quantum mechanics can be derived from this one relation, without any axiomatic mathematical assumptions about state vectors or superpositions. It is therefore possible to explain all quantum phenomena as the consequence of a single fundamental law of physics.

We consider a point particle in one dimension initially confined to a finite spatial region whose state is frequently monitored by projection operators onto that region. In the limit of infinitely frequent monitoring, the state never escapes from the region—this is the Zeno effect. In the corresponding classical problem, by contrast, the state diffuses out of the region with the frequent monitoring simply removing probability. The aim of this paper is to show how the Zeno effect disappears in the classical limit in this and similar examples. We give a general argument showing that the Zeno effect is suppressed in the presence of a decoherence mechanism which suppresses interference between histories. We show how this works explicitly in two examples involving projections onto a one-dimensional subspace and identify the key time scales for the process. We extend this understanding to our main problem of interest, the case of a particle in a spatial region, by coupling it to a decohering environment. Smoothed projectors are required to give the problem proper definition and this implies the existence of a momentum cutoff and minimum length scale. We show that the escape rate from the region approaches the classically expected result, and hence the Zeno effect is suppressed, as long as the environmentally induced fluctuations in momentum are sufficiently large. We establish the time scale on which an arbitrary initial state develops sufficiently large fluctuations to satisfy this condition. We link our results to earlier work on the $\hslash \to 0$ limit of the Zeno effect. We illustrate our results by plotting the probability flux lines for the density matrix (which are equivalent to Bohm trajectories in the pure-state case). These illustrate both the Zeno and anti-Zeno effects very clearly, and their suppression. Our results are closely related to our earlier paper [Phys. Rev. A 88, 022128 (2013)], demonstrating the suppression of quantum-mechanical reflection by decoherence.

We report measurements of the Stark shift of the cesium $6s{}^2{S}_{1/2}\to 7p{}^2{P}_{3/2}$ and $6s{}^2{S}_{1/2}\to 7p{}^2{P}_{1/2}$ transitions at $\lambda =456$ and 459 nm, respectively, in an atomic beam. From these, we determine the static scalar polarizability for both $7P$ states and the tensor polarizability for the $7P_{3/2}$ state. The fractional uncertainty of the scalar polarizabilities is $\sim$0.18%, while that of the tensor term is 0.66%. These measurements allow a precise determination of the reduced radial matrix elements $\langle 7P_{1/2}\left|\right|r\left|\right|6D_{3/2}\rangle =17.92\left(3\right)a_0$ and $\langle 7P_{3/2}\left|\right|r\left|\right|6D_{5/2}\rangle =24.28\left(6\right)a_0$, providing a sensitive test and critical confirmation of theoretical models of the Cs atom, which has played a central role in parity nonconservation measurements.

We consider the scattering of an acoustic wave from a vortex induced by optical superradiance. The vortex is created by pumping a large amount of angular momentum with a Laguerre-Gaussian light beam in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We derive the mean-field dynamical equations of the light-superfluid system, and obtain the equations governing the elementary excitation of the system, which result in a massless Klein-Gordon equation with source terms. This equation describes the propagation of the sound wave in an effective space-time. Employing a simplifying draining bathtub model for the vortex, we investigate the scattering of the acoustic wave in the vortex phase and obtain a condition for the acoustic superradiance. We conclude that Laguerre-Gaussian-beam-induced sudden transition from homogeneous to vortex state in the superfluid leads to a prominent observation of the acoustic superradiance.

We study isolated quantum systems with two-body interactions after a quench. In these systems, the energy shell is a Gaussian of width $\sigma$, and it gives the maximum possible spreading of the energy distribution of the initial states. When the distribution achieves this shape, the fidelity decay can be Gaussian until saturation. This establishes a lower bound for the fidelity decay in realistic systems. An ultimate bound for systems with many-body interactions is also derived based on the analysis of full random matrices. We find excellent agreement between numerical and analytical results. We also provide the conditions under which the short-time dynamics of few-body observables is controlled by $\sigma$. The analyses are developed for systems, initial states, and observables accessible to experiments.

We analyze the quantum jumps of an atom interacting with a cavity field, where strong coupling makes the cavity transmission depend on the time-dependent atomic state. In our analysis we employ a Bayesian approach that conditions the population of the atomic states at time $t$ on the cavity transmission observed both before and after $t$, and we show that the state assignment by this approach is more decisive than the usual conditional quantum states based on only earlier measurement data. We also provide an iterative protocol which, together with the atomic state populations, simultaneously estimates the atomic jump rates and the transmission signal distributions from the measurement data. Finally, we take into account technical fluctuations in the observed signal, e.g., due to spatial motion of the atom within the cavity, by representing atomic states by several hidden states, thereby significantly improving the state's recovery.

We demonstrate that arbitrary time evolutions of many-body quantum systems can be reversed even in cases when only part of the Hamiltonian can be controlled. The reversed dynamics obtained via optimal control—contrary to standard time-reversal procedures—is extremely robust to external sources of noise. We provide a lower bound on the control complexity of a many-body quantum dynamics in terms of the dimension of the manifold supporting it, elucidating the role played by integrability in this context.

Not all quantum protocols require entanglement to outperform their classical alternatives. The nonclassical correlations that lead to a quantum advantage are conjectured to be captured by quantum discord. Here we demonstrate that discord has an immediate practical application: it allows a client who lacks the ability to generate entanglement or conduct quantum measurements to certify whether an untrusted party has entangling gates. We implement our protocol in the discrete-variable regime with photonic qubits and show its success in the presence of high levels of noise and imperfect gate operations. Our technique offers a practical method to test claims of quantum processing and to benchmark entangling operations for physical architectures in which only highly mixed states are available.