Space-time focusing was demonstrated by a neutron accelerator. Test experiments were performed by using very slow neutrons at High-Flux Reactor at Institut Laue-Langevin. Focusing of neutrons at the detector position through the accelerator was observed. Focusing neutrons enables us to transport the neutrons while maintaining density from source to experimental position. This will be a powerful technique for measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of neutrons, which require a high density of neutrons.

We investigate theoretically the deterministic generation of quantum states with negative Wigner functions, by using giant nonlinearities due to collisional interactions between Rydberg polaritons. The state resulting from the polariton interactions may be transferred with high fidelity into a photonic state, which can be analyzed using homodyne detection followed by quantum tomography. Besides generating highly nonclassical states of the light, this method can also provide a very sensitive probe for the physics of the collisions involving Rydberg states.

We demonstrate the deceleration of heavy polar molecules in low-field-seeking states by combining a cryogenic source and a traveling-wave Stark decelerator. The cryogenic source provides a high-intensity beam with low speed and temperature, and the traveling-wave decelerator provides large deceleration forces and high phase-space acceptance. We prove these techniques using YbF molecules and find the experimental data to be in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. These methods extend the scope of Stark deceleration to a very wide range of molecules.

Violation of fundamental symmetries in atoms is the subject of intense experimental and theoretical interest. $P$-odd, $T$-even transitions have been observed and are in excellent agreement with electroweak theory. Searches for permanent electric dipole moments have placed bounds on $T$-odd, $P$-odd interactions, constraining proposed extensions to the standard model of elementary particles. Here we propose a search for $T$-odd, $P$-even (TOPE) interactions in atoms. We consider open-shell atoms, such as rare-earth-metal atoms, which have dense, chaotic excitation spectra with strong level repulsion. The strength of the level repulsion depends on the underlying symmetries of the atomic Hamiltonian. TOPE interactions lead to enhanced level repulsion. We demonstrate how a statistical analysis of many chaotic spectra can determine the strength of level repulsion; in particular, the variance of the number of levels in an energy range has been shown to be a useful measure. We estimate that, using frequency comb spectroscopy, a sufficient number of chaotic levels could be measured to match or exceed the current experimental bounds on TOPE interactions.

Two known nonorthogonal quantum states can be cloned either deterministically or probabilistically. In this paper, we investigate quantum cloning by combining these two extreme cases, i.e., a trade-off between the copy fidelity and the success probability. For a special set of two known nonorthogonal quantum states, we start with an explicit unitary transformation and derive the copy fidelity as a function of the success probability. The result shows that the higher is the copy fidelity, the less is the success probability. This quantum cloning may have important applications in quantum cryptography.

Quantum entanglement is a fascinating phenomenon, especially if it is observed at the macroscopic scale. Importantly, macroscopic quantum correlations can be revealed only by accurate measurement outcomes and strategies. Here, we formulate feasible entanglement witnesses for bright squeezed vacuum in the form of the macroscopically populated polarization triplet Bell states. Their testing involves efficient photodetection and the measurement of the Stokes operators' variances. We also calculate the measures of entanglement for these states such as the Schmidt number and the logarithmic negativity. Our results show that the bright squeezed vacuum degree of polarization entanglement scales as the mean photon number squared. We analyze the applicability of an operational analog of the Schmidt number.

The experimental implementation of a quantum algorithm requires the decomposition of unitary operators. Here we treat unitary-operator decomposition as an optimization problem, and use a genetic algorithm—a global-optimization method inspired by nature's evolutionary process—for operator decomposition. We apply this method to NMR quantum information processing, and find a probabilistic way of performing universal quantum computation using global hard pulses. We also demonstrate the efficient creation of the singlet state (a special type of Bell state) directly from thermal equilibrium, using an optimum sequence of pulses.

The role of retardation in the entanglement dynamics of two distant atoms interacting with a multimode field of a ring cavity is discussed. The retardation is associated with a finite time required for light to travel between the atoms located at a finite distance and between the atoms and the cavity boundaries. We explore features in the concurrence indicative of retardation and show how these features evolve depending on the initial state of the system, distance between the atoms, and the number of modes to which the atoms are coupled. In particular, we consider the short-time and the long-time dynamics for both the multi- and subwavelength distances between the atoms. It is found that the retardation effects can qualitatively modify the entanglement dynamics of the atoms not only at multi- but also at subwavelength distances. We follow the temporal evolution of the concurrence and find that at short times of the evolution the retardation induces periodic sudden changes of entanglement. To analyze where the entanglement lies in the space spanned by the state vectors of the system, we introduce the collective Dicke states of the atomic system that explicitly account for the sudden changes as a periodic excitation of the atomic system to the maximally entangled symmetric state. At long times, the retardation gives rise to periodic beats in the concurrence that resemble the phenomenon of collapses and revivals in the Jaynes-Cummings model. In addition, we identify parameter values and initial conditions at which the atoms remain separable or are entangled without retardation during the entire evolution time, but exhibit the phenomena of sudden birth and sudden death of entanglement when the retardation is included.

Cross sections for electron-impact excitation and capture to individual magnetic sublevels of Cu-like to Se-like gold ions have been calculated by using a fully relativistic distorted-wave (RDW) method. These magnetic cross sections have further been used to obtain the degrees of linear polarization for the first two strongest $5f\to 3d$ radiative lines. A detailed comparison has been made between polarizations of these lines from the electron-impact excitation process and those of the same lines but from the dielectronic recombination process. It is found that for a Cu-like gold ion the polarization in the electron-impact excitation process increases sharply before starting to decrease at higher incident electron energies, and it reaches the maximum at around twice the threshold energy. The situations for other gold ions are very similar. However, as for the dielectronic recombination process, the polarization changes among a very large range with different gold ions. Therefore, the obvious differences between the polarizations from different formation processes can be employed in diagnosing the formation mechanism of the corresponding lines.

We study the ground-state phase diagram of spinless and spin-1 bosons in optical superlattices using a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that includes spin-dependent interactions. We decouple the unit cells of the superlattice via a mean-field approach and take into account the dynamics within the unit cell exactly. The system supports Mott-insulating as well as superfluid phases. The transitions between these phases are second order for spinless bosons and second or first order for spin-1 bosons. Antiferromagnetic interactions energetically penalize high-spin configurations and elongate all Mott lobes, especially the ones corresponding to an even atom number on each lattice site. We find that the quadratic Zeeman effect lifts the degeneracy between different polar superfluid phases leading to additional metastable phases and first-order phase transitions. Finally, we show that an energy offset between the two sites of the unit cell induces a staircase of single-atom tunneling resonances, which surprisingly survives well into the superfluid regime.

We propose to generate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement between groups of atoms in a two-well Bose-Einstein condensate using a dynamical process similar to that employed in quantum optics. A local nonlinear $S$-wave scattering interaction has the effect of creating spin squeezing at each well, while a tunneling coupling, analogous to a beam splitter in optics, introduces an interference between these fields that causes interwell entanglement. We consider two internal modes at each well so that the entanglement can be detected by measuring a reduction in the variances of the sums of local Schwinger spin observables. As is typical of continuous variable (CV) entanglement, the entanglement is predicted to increase with atom number. It becomes sufficiently strong at higher numbers of atoms so that the EPR paradox and steering nonlocality can be realized. The entanglement is predicted using an analytical approach and, for larger atom numbers, using stochastic simulations based on a truncated Wigner function approximation. We find generally that strong tunneling is favorable, and that entanglement persists and is even enhanced in the presence of realistic nonlinear losses.

We consider how to generate and detect Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement and the steering paradox between groups of atoms in two separated potential wells in a Bose-Einstein condensate. We present experimental criteria for this form of entanglement and propose experimental strategies for detecting entanglement using two- or four-mode ground states. These approaches use spatial and/or internal modes. We also present higher-order criteria that act as signatures to detect the multiparticle entanglement present in this system. We point out the difference between spatial entanglement using separated detectors and other types of entanglement that do not require spatial separation. The four-mode approach with two spatial and two internal modes results in an entanglement signature with spatially separated detectors, conceptually similar to the original EPR paradox.

We determine the trajectories of vortex singularities that arise after a single vortex is broken by a discretely symmetric impulse in the context of Bose-Einstein condensates in a harmonic trap. The dynamics of these singularities are analyzed to determine the form of the imprinted motion. We find that the symmetry-breaking process introduces two effective forces: a repulsive harmonic force that causes the daughter trajectories to be ejected from the parent singularity and a Magnus force that introduces a torque about the axis of symmetry. For the analytical noninteracting case we find that the parent singularity is reconstructed from the daughter singularities after one period of the trapping frequency. The interactions between singularities in the weakly interacting system do not allow the parent vortex to be reconstructed. Analytic trajectories were compared to the actual minima of the wave function, showing less than $0.5\%$ error for an impulse strength of $v=0.00005$. We show that these solutions are valid within the impulse regime for various impulse strengths using numerical integration of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We also show that the actual duration of the symmetry-breaking potential does not significantly change the dynamics of the system as long as the strength is below $v=0.0005$.

A three-dimensional study of the ring vortex solitons is conducted for both attractive and repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates subject to harmonic potential confinement. A family of stationary ring vortex solitons, which is defined by the radial excitation number and the winding number of the intrinsic vorticity, are obtained numerically for a given atomic interaction strength. We find that stabilities of the ground and radially excited states of the ring vortex soliton are dependent on the winding number differently. The ground state of the ring vortex soliton with the large winding number is unstable dynamically against random perturbation. The radially excited state of the ring vortex soliton with large winding number corresponds to the increased collapse threshold and therefore can be made stable for sufficiently small atomic interaction strengths. The ground and radially excited states also demonstrate different dynamic evolutions under large atomic interaction strengths. The former exhibits simultaneous symmetric splitting in the transverse plane, while the latter displays periodic expand-merge cycles in the longitudinal direction.

The ground-state energy of a binary mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates can be estimated for large atomic samples by making use of suitably regularized Thomas-Fermi density profiles. By exploiting a variational method on the trial densities the energy can be computed by explicitly taking into account the normalization condition. This yields analytical results and provides the basis for further improvement of the approximation. As a case study, we consider a binary mixture of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms in two different hyperfine states in a double-well potential and discuss the energy crossing between density profiles with different numbers of domain walls, as the number of particles and the interspecies interaction vary.

We numerically study the nonlocal solitons in dual-periodic parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetric optical lattices built into a nonlocal self-focusing medium. We state the existence, stability, and propagation dynamics of such $\mathcal{PT}$-gap solitons in detail. Simulated results show that there exist stable gap solitons. The energy flow density and the stable region of the $\mathcal{PT}$-gap solitons in both the propagation constant and the degree of nonlocality are also examined.

We propose a way to realize a multiqubit tunable phase gate of one qubit simultaneously controlling $n$ target qubits with atoms in cavity QED. In this proposal, classical pulses interact with atoms outside a cavity only, thus the experimental challenge of applying a pulse to an intracavity single atom without affecting other atoms in the same cavity is avoided. Because of employing a first-order large detuning, the gate can be performed fast when compared with the use of a second-order large detuning. Furthermore, the gate operation time is independent of the number of qubits. This proposal is quite general and can be applied to various superconducting qubits coupled to a resonator, nitrogen-vacancy centers coupled to a microsphere cavity, or quantum dots in cavity QED.

In their recent paper, Bellm et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 022710 (2012)] performed ($e$,2$e$) experiments on thymine at an incident energy of 250 eV. They wrote in the conclusion that a model based on the first Born approximation using the completely neglected differential overlap description is in very good agreement with the experimental data. On the contrary, we argue that this model fails to describe experiments on water performed at the same incident energy and is unable to explain any shift of the binary or recoil peaks.

We propose a family of surface codes with general lattice structures, where the error tolerances against bit and phase errors can be controlled asymmetrically by changing the underlying lattice geometries. The surface codes on various lattices are found to be efficient in the sense that their threshold values universally approach the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov bound. We find that the error tolerance of the surface codes depends on the connectivity of the underlying lattices; the error chains on a lattice of lower connectivity are easier to correct. On the other hand, the loss tolerance of the surface codes exhibits an opposite behavior; the logical information on a lattice of higher connectivity has more robustness against qubit loss. As a result, we come upon a fundamental trade-off between error and loss tolerances in the family of surface codes with different lattice geometries. We also provide the physical aspects of the present results from the viewpoint of statistical physics, which leads to an equality that captures well both the error and loss tolerances of these surface codes.

Quantum Lyapunov control was developed in order to transform a quantum system from arbitrary initial states to a target state. The idea is to find control fields that steer the Lyapunov function to zero as $t\to \infty$, meanwhile the quantum system is driven to the target state. In order to shorten the time required to reach the target state, we propose two designs to optimize Lyapunov control in this paper. The first design makes the Lyapunov function decrease as fast as possible with a constraint on the total power of control fields, and the second design has the same purpose but with a constraint on each control field. Examples of a three-level system demonstrate that the evolution time for Lyapunov control can be significantly shortened, especially when high control fidelity is required. Besides, this optimal Lyapunov-based quantum control is robust against uncertainties in the free Hamiltonian and decoherence in the system compared to conventional Lyapunov control. We apply our optimal design to cool a nanomechanical resonator where a shorter cooling time is found with respect to the cooling time by the conventional Lyapunov design.