We discuss the emergence of spontaneous synchronization for an open spin-pair system interacting only via a common environment. Under suitable conditions, and even in the presence of detuning between the natural precession frequencies of the two spins, they are shown to reach a long-lasting transient behavior where they oscillate in phase. We explore the connection between the emergence of such a behavior and the establishment of robust quantum correlations between the two spins, analyzing differences between dissipative and dephasing effects. In particular, in the regime in which synchronization occurs, quantum correlations are more robust for shorter synchronization times and this is related to a separation between system decay rates.

It is known that weak measurement can significantly amplify the mean of measurement results, sometimes out of the range limited in usual quantum measurement. This fact, as actively demonstrated recently in both theory and experiment, implies the possibility to estimate a very small parameter using the weak measurement technique. But does the weak measurement really bring about the increase of “information” for parameter estimation? This paper clarifies that, in a general situation, the answer is NO; more precisely, the weak measurement cannot further decrease the lower bound of the estimation error, i.e., the so-called Cramér-Rao bound, which is proportional to the inverse of the quantum Fisher information.

We present a general formalism to describe continuous-variable (CV) quantum teleportation of discrete-variable (DV) states with gain tuning, taking into account experimental imperfections. Here the teleportation output is given by independently transforming each density matrix element of the initial state. This formalism allows us to accurately model various teleportation experiments and to analyze the gain dependence of their respective figures of merit. We apply our formalism to the recent experiment on CV teleportation of qubits [S. Takeda et al., Nature 500, 315 (2013)] and investigate the optimal gain for the transfer fidelity. We also propose and model an experiment for CV teleportation of DV entanglement. It is shown that, provided the experimental losses are within a certain range, DV entanglement can be teleported for any nonzero squeezing by optimally tuning the gain.

We review and generalize the recently introduced framework of entropy vectors for detecting and quantifying genuine multipartite entanglement in high-dimensional multicomponent quantum systems. We show that these ideas can be extended to discriminate among other forms of multipartite entanglement. In particular, we develop methods to test whether density matrices are decomposable, i.e., separable with respect to certain given partitions of the subsystems; $k$-separable, i.e., separable with respect to $k$ partitions of the subsystems; or $k$-partite entangled, i.e., there is entanglement among a subset of at least $k$ parties. We also discuss how to assess the dimensionality of entanglement in all these cases.

We present a number of arguments to demonstrate that a quantum analog of the Cherenkov effect occurs when two nondispersive half spaces are in relative motion. We show that they experience friction beyond a threshold velocity which, in their center-of-mass frame, is the phase speed of light within their medium, and the loss in mechanical energy is radiated through the medium before getting fully absorbed in the form of heat. By deriving various correlation functions inside and outside the two half spaces, we explicitly compute this radiation and discuss its dependence on the reference frame.

Ponderomotive energy shifts experienced by Rydberg atoms in optical fields are known to be well approximated by the classical quiver energy of a free electron. We examine such energy shifts quantum mechanically and elucidate how they relate to the ponderomotive shift of a free electron in off-resonant fields. We derive and evaluate corrections to the ponderomotive free-electron polarizability in the length and velocity (transverse or Coulomb) gauges, which agree exactly as mandated by the gauge invariance. We also show how the free electron value emerges from the Dirac equation through summation over the Dirac sea states. We find that the free-electron ac Stark shift comes as an expectation value of a term proportional to the square of the vector potential in the velocity gauge. On the other hand, the same dominant contribution can be obtained to first order via a series expansion of the exact energy shift from the second-order perturbation theory in the length gauge. Finally, we numerically examine the validity of the free-electron approximation. The correction to the free-electron value becomes smaller with increasing principal quantum number, and it is well below a percent for 60$s$ states of Rb and Sr away from the resonances.

The differential oscillator strengths for the photoabsorption spectra of the Ce atom encapsulated inside C${}_{82}$ fullerene have been investigated using the time-dependent density-functional theory. The geometry optimization was performed for the C${}_{82}$ and Ce@C${}_{82}$ molecules. The final position of the Ce atom was found at 1.85 Å off the center of the C${}_{82}$ molecule along the C${}_2$ axis. The photoabsorption spectra demonstrate a great suppression of the 4$f$ autoionization process for the encaged Ce atom. This calculation confirms the experimental result which showed no confinement resonance in the photoionization measurement of the Ce@C${}_{82}$ endohedral fullerene.

We have recently demonstrated static trapping of ammonia isotopologues in a decelerator that consists of a series of ring-shaped electrodes to which oscillating high voltages are applied [Quintero-Pérez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 133003 (2013)]. In this paper we provide further details about this traveling-wave decelerator and present new experimental data that illustrate the control over molecules that it offers. We analyze the performance of our setup under different deceleration conditions and demonstrate phase-space manipulation of the trapped molecular sample.

We have investigated the correlated electron dynamics in nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of xenon by the orthogonally polarized two-color pulses consisting of 800- and 1600-nm laser fields. The two-electron momentum distributions are sensitively dependent on the relative phase of the two pulses. By tracing the history of double ionization trajectories, we find that the revisit time of the returning electron wave packet is controlled with attosecond accuracy. After recollision, one electron is ionized immediately while the other electron is either released immediately or excited with subsequent field ionization. The release time of the excited electron is also steered with attosecond resolution by changing the relative phase of the orthogonal two-color pulses. The attosecond-resolved control of the revisit time of the returning electron wave packet and the release time of the excited electron is responsible for the phase dependence of the correlated behaviors of the two electrons. These results indicate that we can trace the emission of the two electrons in NSDI on attosecond time scales.

We have recently tested the topological phase predicted by He and McKellar and by Wilkens: this phase appears when an electric dipole propagates in a transverse magnetic field. In the present paper, we first recall the physical origin of this phase and its relations to the Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher phases. We then explain possible detection schemes and we briefly describe the lithium atom interferometer we have used for this purpose. Finally, we analyze in great detail the phase shifts induced by electric and magnetic fields acting on such an interferometer, taking into account experimental defects. The experiment and its results are described in the following paper.

In this paper, we describe an experimental test of the He-McKellar-Wilkens (HMW) topological phase with our lithium atom interferometer. The expected value of the HMW phase shift in our experiment is small and its measurement was difficult because of stray phase shifts due to small experimental defects. We start by describing our setup and we characterize the effects of the electric and magnetic fields needed to observe the HMW effect. Then we develop a model of our interferometer signals including all the defects we have identified. After various tests of this model, we use it to suppress the majority of the stray phase shifts. We thus obtain a series of measurements of the HMW phase: the results are 31% larger than expected and this discrepancy is probably due to some limitations of our model.

Spinor Bose-Einstein condensates provide a unique example in which the Bogoliubov theory fails to describe the metastability associated with first-order quantum phase transitions. This problem is resolved by developing the spinor Beliaev theory which takes account of quantum fluctuations of the condensate. It is these fluctuations that generate terms of higher than the fourth order in the order-parameter field which are needed for the first-order phase transitions. Besides the conventional first-order phase transitions which are accompanied by metastable states, we find a class of first-order phase transitions which are not accompanied by metastable states. The absence of metastability in these phase transitions holds to all orders of approximation since the metastability is prohibited by the symmetry of the Hamiltonian at the phase boundary. Finally, the possibility of macroscopic quantum tunneling from a metastable state to the ground state is discussed.

We consider a Fermi gas at unitarity trapped by a highly elongated harmonic potential and solve the equations of two fluid hydrodynamics at finite temperature. The propagation of sound waves as well as the discretized solutions in the presence of weak axial trapping are considered. The relevant thermodynamic functions entering the hydrodynamic equations are discussed in the superfluid and normal regimes in terms of universal scaling functions. Both first sound and second sound solutions are calculated as a function of temperature and the role of the superfluid density is explicitly pointed out. The density fluctuations in the second sound wave are found to be large enough to be measured as a consequence of the finite thermal expansion coefficient of the gas. Emphasis is given to the comparison with recent experimental data.

We calculate the normal mass density of a paired Fermi gas at unitarity. The dominant contribution near the superfluid transition is from fermionic quasiparticle excitations and is, thus, sensitive to the pairing gap. A comparison with the recent experiment of Sidorenkov et al. [Nature (London) 498, 78 (2013)] suggests that the superfluid gap near the transition temperature is larger than the BCS value, but the data do not permit a quantitative inference of the gap. Calculations of the quenched moment of inertia of a BCS superfluid in a harmonic trap are in reasonable agreement with the earlier experiment of Riedl et al. [New J. Phys. 13, 035003 (2011)].

We propose that the dispersion management of coherent atomic matter waves can be exploited to overcome quantum back-action in condensate-based optomechanical sensors. The effective mass of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate modulated by an optical lattice can become negative, resulting in a negative-frequency optomechanical oscillator, a negative environment temperature, and optomechanical properties opposite to those of a positive-mass system. This enables a quantum-mechanics-free subsystem insulated from quantum back-action.

We study the dynamical properties of the Dicke model for increasing spin length, as the system approaches the limit of a classical spin. First, we describe the emergence of collective excitations above the ground state that converge to the coupled spin-oscillator oscillations found in the classical limit. The corresponding Green functions reveal quantum dynamical signatures close to the superradiant quantum phase transition. Second, we identify signatures of classical quasiperiodic orbits in the quantum time evolution using numerical time propagation of the wave function. The resulting phase-space plots are compared to the classical trajectories. We complete our study with the analysis of individual eigenstates close to the quasiperiodic orbits.

We propose a theoretical scheme to generate flux-qubit clusters using $\mathit{XY}$ interactions. In our scheme, two neighboring qubits are coupled via a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). All flux qubits are always biased at their optimal points. The $\mathit{XY}$ interaction can be controlled by the bias current applied to the SQUID for the two coupled qubits with the same resonance frequencies or by the frequency of a microwave pulse applied to the SQUID for the two coupled qubits with unequal resonance frequencies. The generation of a $d$-dimensional cluster state needs only $2d$ steps. Existing technology allows us to rapidly modulate the bias current and easily control the frequency of the pulse, and thus our scheme is experimentally feasible.

One of the most striking features of the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms is the Rydberg blockade effect, which allows only a single excitation to the Rydberg state within the volume of the blockade sphere. Here we present a method that spatially visualizes this phenomenon in an inhomogeneous gas of ultracold rubidium atoms. In our experiment we scan the position of one of the excitation lasers across the cold cloud and determine the number of Rydberg excitations detected as a function of position. Comparing this distribution to the one obtained for the number of ions created by a two-photon ionization process via the intermediate $5P$ level, we demonstrate that the blockade effect modifies the width of the Rydberg excitation profile. Furthermore, we study the dynamics of the Rydberg excitation and find that the time scale for the excitation depends on the atomic density at the beam position.

We study the Rabi model composed of three qubits coupled to a harmonic oscillator without involving the rotating-wave approximation. We show that the ground state of the three-qubit Rabi model can be analytically treated by using the transformation method, and the transformed ground state agrees well with the exactly numerical simulation under a wide range of qubit-oscillator coupling strengths for different detunings. We use the pairwise entanglement to characterize the ground-state entanglement between any two qubits and show that it has an approximately quadratic dependence on the qubit-oscillator coupling strength. Interestingly, we find that there is no qubit-qubit entanglement for the ground state if the qubit-oscillator coupling strength is large enough.