Absolute total cross sections for electron scattering from Ar and Xe at electron energies ranging from 7 meV to 20 eV were obtained with the experimental technique employing the threshold-photoelectron source. The measured total cross sections are in good agreement with those obtained by other groups down to 100 meV, above which several experimental works have been reported. Scattering lengths for electron scattering from Ar, Kr, and Xe were determined from the present total cross sections and our recent results for Kr using the modified effective range theory. The values of the scattering length obtained in the present analysis differ from the values determined from the previous swarm experiments and beam experiments. The resonant structures in the total cross sections due to Feshbach resonances of Ar, Kr, and Xe with an improved energy resolution were also measured. Analyses of the resonant structure were carried out based on the spin-dependent resonant scattering theory in order to determine the values of the natural width of Feshbach resonances of Ar, Kr, and Xe precisely.

Exact analytic expressions are derived for the dipole moment and nonlinear current of a one-dimensional quantum particle subject to a short-range attractive potential and an arbitrary time-dependent electric field. An efficient algorithm for the current evaluation is described and a robust implementation suitable for numerical simulations is demonstrated.

Following core $1s$ ionization and resonant excitation of argon atoms, we measure the recoil energy of the ions due to momentum conservation during the emission of Auger electrons. We show that such ion momentum spectroscopy can be used to disentangle to some degree complex decay patterns, involving both radiative and nonradiative decays.

Recent work on ultracold polar molecules, governed by a generalization of the $t$-$J$ Hamiltonian, suggests that molecules may be better suited than atoms for studying $d$-wave superfluidity due to stronger interactions and larger tunability of the system. We compute the phase diagram for polar molecules in a checkerboard lattice consisting of weakly coupled square plaquettes. In the simplest experimentally realizable case where there is only tunneling and an $XX$-type spin-spin interaction, we identify the parameter regime where $d$-wave superfluidity occurs. We also find that the inclusion of a density-density interaction destroys the superfluid phase and that the inclusion of a spin-density or an Ising-type spin-spin interaction can enhance the superfluid phase. We also propose schemes for experimentally realizing the perturbative calculations exhibiting enhanced $d$-wave superfluidity.

We propose a three-level atomic system where quantum coherence is generated by a classical standing-wave field coupled to the two upper excited decaying levels. Quantum coherence results in cancellation of the spontaneously emitted spectral lines depending on the choice of the phase of the standing wave. We exploit this phenomenon for precision measurement of the atomic position in the standing wave. Measurement of the conditional position probability distribution shows one to eight peaks per unit wavelength of the standing wave. Only one controllable parameter, that is, the phase of the driving standing wave, is enough to control these atomic positions. Along with the other results, the result of obtaining a single peak is remarkable as it enhances the efficiency of our system by a factor of 8.

In this paper, we study theoretically bipartite and tripartite continuous variable entanglement as well as normal-mode splitting in a single-atom cavity optomechanical system with intensity-dependent coupling. The system under consideration is formed by a Fabry-Pérot cavity with a thin vibrating end mirror and a two-level atom in the Gaussian standing wave of the cavity mode. We first derive the general form of the Hamiltonian describing the tripartite intensity-dependent atom-field-mirror coupling due to the presence of the cavity mode structure. We then restrict our treatment to the first vibrational sideband of the mechanical resonator and derive a tripartite atom-field-mirror Hamiltonian. We show that when the optical cavity is intensely driven, one can generate bipartite entanglement between any pair in the tripartite system and that, due to entanglement sharing, atom-mirror entanglement is efficiently generated at the expense of optical-mechanical and optical-atom entanglement. We also find that in such a system, when the Lamb-Dicke parameter is large enough, one can simultaneously observe the normal mode splitting into three modes.

We study the dynamical decoupling of multiqubit states from environment. For a system of $m$ qubits, the nested Uhrig dynamical decoupling (NUDD) sequence can efficiently suppress generic decoherence induced by the system-environment interaction to order $N$ using ${(N+1)}^{2m}$ pulses. We prove that the NUDD sequence is universal, i.e., it can restore the coherence of an $m$-qubit quantum system independent of the details of the system-environment interaction. We also construct a general mapping between dynamical decoupling problems and discrete quantum walks in certain functional spaces.

Transitions between quantum states by photon absorption or emission are intimately related to the symmetries of the system which lead to selection rules and the formation of dark states. In a circuit quantum electrodynamics setup, in which two resonant superconducting qubits are coupled through an on-chip cavity and driven via the common cavity field, one single-excitation state remains dark. Here, we demonstrate that this dark state can be excited using local phase control of individual qubit drives to change the symmetry of the excitation field. We observe that the dark state decay via spontaneous emission into the cavity is suppressed, a characteristic signature of subradiance. This local control technique could be used to prepare and study highly correlated quantum states of cavity-coupled qubits.

The quantumness of the correlation known as quantum correlation is usually measured by quantum discord. So far various quantum discords can be roughly understood as indirect measure by some special discrepancy of two quantities. We present a direct measure of quantum correlation by revealing the difference between the structures of classically and quantum correlated states. Our measure explicitly includes the contributions of the inseparability and local nonorthogonality of the eigenvectors of a density matrix. Besides its relatively easy computability, our measure can provide a unified understanding of quantum correlation of all the present versions.

Following the idea of the continuity approach by D. L. Zhou [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 180505 (2008)], we obtain the degrees of irreducible multiparty correlations in two families of $n$-qutrit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-type states. For the pure states in one of the families, the irreducible 2-party, $n$-party, and $(n-m)$-party ($0<m<n-2$) correlations are nonzero, which is different from the $n$-qubit case. We also derive the correlation distributions in the $n$-qutrit maximal slice state, which can be uniquely determined by its $(n-1)$-qutrit-reduced density matrices among pure states. It is proved that there is no irreducible $n$-qutrit correlation in the maximal slice state. This enlightens us to give a discussion about how to characterize the pure states with irreducible $n$-party correlation in arbitrarily high-dimensional systems by the way of the continuity approach.

The goal in function property testing is to determine whether a black-box Boolean function has a certain property or is $\epsilon$-far from having that property. The performance of the algorithm is judged by how many calls need to be made to the black box in order to determine, with high probability, which of the two alternatives is the case. Here we present two quantum algorithms, the first to determine whether the function is linear and the second to determine whether it is symmetric (invariant under permutations of the arguments). Both require order ${\epsilon }^{-2/3}$ calls to the oracle, which is better than known classical algorithms. In addition, in the case of linearity testing, if the function is linear, the quantum algorithm identifies which linear function it is. The linearity test combines the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm and amplitude amplification, while the test to determine whether a function is symmetric uses projective measurements and amplitude amplification.

We demonstrate a high-accuracy dual-comb spectrometer centered at 3.4 $\mu$m. The amplitude and phase spectra of the $P$, $Q$, and partial $R$ branches of the methane ${\nu }_3$ band are measured at 25  to 100 MHz point spacing with resolution under 10 kHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 3500. A fit of the absorbance and phase spectra yields the center frequency of 132 rovibrational lines. The systematic uncertainty is estimated to be 300 kHz, which is ${10}^{-3}$ of the Doppler width and a 10-fold improvement over Fourier transform spectroscopy. These data quantify the accuracy and resolution achievable with direct comb spectroscopy in the midinfrared.

We calculate permanent electric dipole moments (PDMs), as well as spontaneous and black body lifetimes, of alkaline-earth-metal–Li (AEM-Li) ultracold polar molecules to study anisotropic long-range dipole-dipole interactions in a single quantum state. We obtain potential energy curves for the ${}^2\Sigma$ ground state of MgLi, CaLi, SrLi, and BaLi molecules at the coupled cluster singles and doubles with partial triples [CCSD(T)] level of electron correlation. Calculated spectroscopic constants for the isotopes: ${}^{24}$Mg${}^7$Li, ${}^{40}$Ca${}^7$Li, ${}^{88}$Sr${}^7$Li, and ${}^{138}$Ba${}^7$Li, show good agreement with available theoretical and experimental results. We obtain PDM curves using finite field perturbation theory at the CCSD(T) level. We find that AEM-Li molecules have moderate values of PDM at the equilibrium bond distance (MgLi: 0.90 D, CaLi: 1.15 D, SrLi: 0.33 D, and BaLi: –0.42 D) and hence might be suitable candidates for the proposed study in a single quantum state. Radiative lifetime calculations of the $\nu$ $=$ 0 state (${}^{24}$Mg${}^6$Li: 22 s, ${}^{40}$Ca${}^6$Li: 39 s, ${}^{88}$Sr${}^6$Li: 380 s, and ${}^{138}$Ba${}^6$Li: 988 s) are found to be longer than the typical time scale associated with ultracold experiments with these molecules. The uncertainty in the lifetime calculations are estimated to be less than 10$\%$.

Calculation of the cross-section for the process of double-electron capture by a bare nucleus with emission of a single photon is presented. The double-electron capture is evaluated within the framework of quantum electrodynamics. The line-profile approach is employed. Since the radiative double-electron capture is governed by the electron correlation, corrections to the interelectron interaction were calculated with high accuracy, partly to all orders of the perturbation theory.

We examine spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in optical superlattices theoretically using a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that takes spin effects into account. Assuming that a small number of spin-1 bosons is loaded in an optical potential, we study single-particle tunneling that occurs when one lattice site is ramped up relative to a neighboring site. Spin-dependent effects modify the tunneling events in a qualitative and quantitative way. Depending on the asymmetry of the double well, different types of magnetic order occur, making the system of spin-1 bosons in an optical superlattice a model for mesoscopic magnetism. We use a double-well potential as a unit cell for a one-dimensional superlattice. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous magnetic fields are applied, and the effects of the linear and the quadratic Zeeman shifts are examined. We also investigate the bipartite entanglement between the sites and construct states of maximal entanglement. The entanglement in our system is due to both orbital and spin degrees of freedom. We calculate the contribution of orbital and spin entanglements and show that the sum of these two terms gives a lower bound for the total entanglement.

We study the quantum phase transition between the superfluid and the Mott insulator in the one-dimensional (1D) Bose-Hubbard model. Using the time-evolving block-decimation method, we numerically calculate the tunneling splitting of two macroscopically distinct states with different winding numbers. From the scaling of the tunneling splitting with respect to the system size, we determine the critical point of the superfluid-to-Mott-insulator transition for arbitrary integer filling factors. We find that the critical values versus the filling factor in 1D, 2D, and 3D are well approximated by a simple analytical function. We also discuss the condition for determining the transition point from a perspective of the instanton method.

Superfluid properties of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in toroidal quasi-one-dimensional traps are investigated in the presence of periodic scattering length modulations along the ring. The existence of several types of stable periodic waves, ranging from almost uniform to very fragmented chains of weakly interacting and equally spaced solitons, is demonstrated. We show that these waves may support persistent atomic currents and sound waves with spectra of Bogoliubov type. Fragmented condensates can be viewed as arrays of Josephson junctions and the current as a BEC manifestation of the dc-Josephson effect. The influence of linear defects on BEC superfluidity has been also investigated. We found that for subcritical velocities, linear defects that are static with respect to the lattice (while the condensate moves in respect to both the optical lattice and the defect) preserve the BEC superfluidity.

A line pair for a resonant photo-pumping x-ray-laser scheme is proposed in which the wavelength matching between the aluminum $K{\alpha }_2$ line (λ $=$ 0.833 95 nm) and the 2$p^6$-(2$p_{1/2}$,4$d_{3/2}$)${}_1$ transition of the neonlike zinc ions (λ $=$ 0.834 00 nm) is used. The population kinetics code of the neonlike zinc ions in plasma under irradiation of the aluminum $K$α line shows that substantial amplification gain can be generated in the transition of (2$p_{1/2}$,3$p_{1/2}$)${}_0$-(2$p_{1/2}$,4$d_{3/2}$)${}_1$ at a wavelength of 3.5 nm. We also investigate the experimental arrangement of this scheme, which implies that this scheme is feasible with the present ultra-short-pulse-laser technology.

We propose a scheme for the generation of entangled states for two atoms trapped in separate cavities coupled to each other. The scheme is based on the competition between the unitary dynamics induced by the classical fields and the collective decays induced by the dissipation of two delocalized field modes. Under certain conditions, the symmetric or asymmetric entangled state is produced in the steady state. The analytical result shows that the distributed steady entanglement can be achieved with high fidelity independent of the initial state and is robust against parameter fluctuations. We also find out that the linear scaling of entanglement fidelity has a quadratic improvement compared to distributed entangled state preparation protocols based on unitary dynamics.

We study the localization properties of noninteracting waves propagating in a speckle-like potential superposed on a one-dimensional lattice. Using a combined decimation-renormalization procedure, we estimate the localization length for a tight-binding Hamiltonian where site energies are square-sinc-correlated random variables. By decreasing the width of the correlation function, the disorder patterns approach a $\delta$-correlated disorder, and the localization length becomes almost energy independent in the strong disorder limit. We show that this regime can be reached for a size of the speckle grains on the order of (lower than) four lattice steps.