We prove that the nonretarded Casimir-Polder potential of a particle in an energy eigenstate (hence in thermal nonequilibrium) is independent of the environment temperature for a well-conducting body of arbitrary shape. This is true even when the thermal photon numbers at the relevant atomic transition energies are large. A compact expression is obtained for the temperature-independent potential, which can greatly simplify calculations in nontrivial geometries for experimentally relevant systems such as Rydberg atoms and polar molecules. We give criteria for the validity of our temperature-independent result and derive general expressions for its leading corrections. They are illustrated by numerical studies of a particle near a gold sphere or inside a gold cylindrical cavity.

We illustrate how dynamical transitions in nonlinear semiclassical models can be recognized as phase transitions in the corresponding—inherently linear—quantum model, where, in a statistical-mechanics framework, the thermodynamic limit is realized by letting the particle population go to infinity at fixed size. We focus on lattice bosons described by the Bose-Hubbard (BH) model and discrete self-trapping (DST) equations at the quantum and semiclassical levels, respectively. After showing that the Gaussianity of the quantum ground states is broken at the phase transition, we evaluate finite-population effects by introducing a suitable scaling hypothesis; we work out the exact value of the critical exponents and provide numerical evidence confirming our hypothesis. Our analytical results rely on a general scheme obtained from a large-population expansion of the eigenvalue equation of the BH model. In this approach the DST equations resurface as solutions of the zeroth-order problem.

Systems entangled in high dimensions have recently been proposed as important tools for various quantum information protocols, such as multibit quantum key distribution and loophole-free tests of nonlocality. It is therefore important to have precise knowledge of the nature of such entangled quantum states. We tomographically reconstruct the quantum state of the two photons produced by parametric downconversion that are entangled in a $d$-dimensional orbital angular momentum basis. We determine exactly the density matrix of the entangled two-qu$d$it state with $d$ ranging from 2 to 8. The recording of higher-dimensional states is limited only by the number of data points required and therefore the length of time needed to complete the measurements. We find all the measured states to have fidelities and linear entropies that satisfy the criteria required for a violation of the appropriate high-dimensional Bell inequality. Our results therefore precisely characterize the nature of the entanglement, thus establishing the suitability of such states for applications in quantum information science.

A localized charged particle oscillating near a reflecting boundary is considered as a model for noncancellation of vacuum fluctuations. Although the mean velocity of the particle is sinusoidal, the velocity variance produced by vacuum fluctuations can either grow or decrease linearly in time, depending upon the product of the oscillation frequency and the distance to the boundary. This amounts to heating or cooling arising from noncancellation of electric field fluctuations, which are otherwise anticorrelated in time. Similar noncancellations arise in quantum field effects in time-dependent curved space-times. We give some estimates of the magnitude of the effect, and discuss its potential observability. We also compare the effects of vacuum fluctuations with the shot noise due to emission of a finite number of photons. We find that the two effects can be comparable in magnitude, but have distinct characteristics, and hence could be distinguished in an experiment.

We investigate the phenomenon that a Berry phase evolving linearly in time induces a frequency shift of the resonance transition between two eigenstates, regardless of whether or not they are superposed. Using the magnetic-field-insensitive two-photon microwave—radio-frequency transition, which is free of any other dynamical frequency shift, we demonstrate that the frequency shift caused by a uniform rotation of the magnetic field corresponds to the derivative of the Berry phase with respect to time and depends on the direction of rotation of the magnetic field.

We present the simplest possible formula for the propagator of the general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian, including linear terms. The method is based on the use of a linear time-dependent invariant and requires only the solution of a linear homogeneous second-order ordinary differential equation corresponding to the classical quadratic Hamiltonian. We give an example for the case of the Paul trap.

Experiments in coherent nuclear and electron magnetic resonance and optical spectroscopy correspond to control of quantum-mechanical ensembles, guiding them from initial states to target states by unitary transformations. The control inputs (pulse sequences) that accomplish these unitary transformations should take as little time as possible so as to minimize the effects of relaxation and decoherence, and to optimize the sensitivity of the experiments. Here, we give an efficient synthesis of a class of unitary transformations on a three coupled spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ system with equal Ising coupling strengths. We show a significant time saving compared with conventional methods.

The Casimir force between graphene sheets and metamaterials is studied. Theoretical results based on the Lifshitz theory for layered, planar, two-dimensional systems in media are presented. We consider graphene-graphene, graphene-metamaterial, and metal-graphene-metamaterial configurations. We find that quantum effects of the temperature-dependent force are not apparent until the submicron range. In contrast to results with bulk dielectric and bulk metallic materials, no Casimir repulsion is found when graphene is placed on top of a magnetically active metamaterial substrate, regardless of the strength of the low-frequency magnetic response. In the case of the metal-graphene-metamaterial setting, repulsion between the metamaterial and the metal-graphene system is possible only when the dielectric response from the metal contributes significantly.

Exact and asymptotic line shape expressions are derived from the semiclassical density matrix representation describing a set of closed three-level $\Lambda$ atomic or molecular states including decoherences, relaxation rates, and light shifts. An accurate analysis of the exact steady-state dark-resonance profile describing the Autler-Townes doublet, the electromagnetically induced transparency or coherent population trapping resonance, and the Fano-Feshbach line shape leads to the linewidth expression of the two-photon Raman transition and frequency shifts associated to the clock transition. From an adiabatic analysis of the dynamical optical Bloch equations in the weak field limit, a pumping time required to efficiently trap a large number of atoms into a coherent superposition of long-lived states is established. For a highly asymmetrical configuration with different decay channels, a strong two-photon resonance based on a lower states population inversion is established when the driving continuous-wave laser fields are greatly unbalanced. When time separated resonant two-photon pulses are applied in the adiabatic pulsed regime for atomic or molecular clock engineering, where the first pulse is long enough to reach a coherent steady-state preparation and the second pulse is very short to avoid repumping into a new dark state, dark-resonance fringes mixing continuous-wave line shape properties and coherent Ramsey oscillations are created. Those fringes allow interrogation schemes bypassing the power broadening effect. Frequency shifts affecting the central clock fringe computed from asymptotic profiles and related to the Raman decoherence process exhibit nonlinear shapes with the three-level observable used for quantum measurement. We point out that different observables experience different shifts on the lower-state clock transition.

We present results of measurements and calculations of elastic electron scattering from pyrimidine in the energy range 3–50 eV. Absolute differential and integral elastic cross sections have been measured using a crossed electron-molecule beam spectrometer and the relative flow technique. The measured cross sections are compared with results of calculations using the well-known Schwinger variational technique and an independent-atom model. Agreement between the measured differential cross sections and the results of the Schwinger calculations is good at lower energies but less satisfactory at higher energies where inelastic channels that should be open are kept closed in the calculations.

We consider ultracold collisions of ground-state heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers that are susceptible to four-center chemical reactions $2AB\to A_2+B_2$ even at submicrokelvin temperatures. These reactions depend strongly on species, temperature, electric field, and confinement in an optical lattice. We calculate ab initio van der Waals coefficients for these interactions and use a quantum formalism to study the scattering properties of such molecules under an external electric field and optical lattice. We also apply a quantum threshold model to explore the dependence of reaction rates on the various parameters. We find that, among the heteronuclear alkali-metal fermionic species, LiNa is the least reactive, whereas LiCs is the most reactive. For the bosonic species, LiK is the most reactive in zero field, but all species considered, LiNa, LiK, LiRb, LiCs, and KRb, share a universal reaction rate once a sufficiently high electric field is applied. For indistinguishable bosons, the inelastic/reactive rate increases as $d^2$ in the quantum regime, where $d$ is the dipole moment induced by the electric field. This is a weaker power-law dependence than for indistinguishable fermions, for which the rate behaves as $d^6$.

In this work we evaluate the production of excitons of a lithium fluoride crystal induced by proton impact in the intermediate and high energy regime (from 100 keV to 1 MeV). A simple model is proposed to account for the influence of the Coulomb grid of the target by dressing crystal ions to transform them in what we call onions. The excited states of these onions can be interpreted as excitons. Within this model, total cross section and stopping power are calculated by using the first Born and the continuum distorted-wave (CDW) eikonal initial-state (EIS) approximations. We found that between 7 and 30 excitons per incident proton are produced in grazing collisions with LiF surfaces, becoming a relevant mechanism of inelastic transitions.

We examine the prospects for utilizing the optical bichromatic force (BCF) to greatly enhance laser deceleration and cooling for near-cycling transitions in small molecules. We discuss the expected behavior of the BCF in near-cycling transitions with internal degeneracies, then consider the specific example of decelerating a beam of calcium monofluoride molecules. We have selected CaF as a prototype molecule both because it has an easily accessible near-cycling transition and because it is well suited to studies of ultracold molecular physics and chemistry. We also report experimental verification of one of the key requirements, the production of large bichromatic forces in a multilevel system with significant energy level splittings, by performing tests in an atomic beam of metastable helium.

We discuss a candidate solution for the controlled trapping and manipulation of two individual Rydberg atoms by means of a magnetic Ioffe-Pritchard trap that is superimposed by a constant electric field. In such a trap Rydberg atoms experience a permanent electric dipole moment that can be of the order of several hundred debye. The interplay of electric dipolar repulsion and three-dimensional magnetic confinement leads to a well controllable equilibrium configuration with tunable trap frequency and atomic distance. We thoroughly investigate the trapping potentials and analyze the interaction-induced stabilization of two such trapped Rydberg atoms. Possible limitations and collapse scenarios are discussed.

The release of conduction-band electrons from a metal surface by a subfemtosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse and their propagation through the solid provoke a dielectric response in the solid that acts back on the photoelectron wave packet. We calculated the (wake) potential associated with this photoelectron self-interaction in terms of bulk and surface plasmon excitations and show that it induces a considerable, XUV-frequency-dependent temporal shift in laser-streaked XUV photoemission spectra, suggesting the observation of the ultrafast solid-state dielectric response in contemporary streaked photoemission experiments.

The modification in the dynamics of the electron-impact ionization process of a ${\mathrm{Li}}^{+}$ ion due to an intense linearly polarized monochromatic laser field ($n\gamma e,2e$) is studied theoretically using coplanar geometry. Significant laser modifications are noted due to multiphoton effects both in the shape and magnitude of the triple-differential cross sections (TDCSs) with respect to the field-free (FF) situation. The net effect of the laser field is to suppress the FF cross sections in the zeroth-order approximation [Coulomb-Volkov (CV)] of the ejected electron wave function, while in the first order [modified Coulomb-Volkov (MCV)], the TDCSs are found to be enhanced or suppressed depending on the kinematics of the process. The strong FF recoil dominance for the ($e$,2$e$) process of an ionic target at low incident energy is destroyed in the presence of the laser field. The FF binary-to-recoil ratio changes remarkably in the presence of the laser field, particularly at low incident energies. The difference between the multiphoton CV and the FF results indicates that for the ionic target, the Kroll-Watson sum rule does not hold well at the present energy range in contrast to the neutral atom (He) case. The TDCSs are found to be quite sensitive with respect to the initial phase of the laser field, particularly at higher incident energies. A significant qualitative difference is noted in the multiphoton ejected energy distribution (double-differential cross sections) between the CV and the MCV models. Variation of the TDCSs with respect to the laser phase is also studied.

We explore Loschmidt echo in two regimes of one-dimensional interacting Bose gases: the strongly interacting Tonks-Girardeau (TG) regime, and the weakly interacting mean-field regime. We find that the Loschmidt echo of a TG gas decays as a Gaussian when small (random and time independent) perturbations are added to the Hamiltonian. The exponent is proportional to the number of particles and the magnitude of a small perturbation squared. In the mean-field regime the Loschmidt echo shows richer behavior: it decays faster for larger nonlinearity, and the decay becomes more abrupt as the nonlinearity increases; it can be very sensitive to the particular realization of the noise potential, especially for relatively small nonlinearities.

We compare and contrast the mean-field and many-body properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a double-well potential with a single impurity atom. The mean-field solutions display a rich structure of bifurcations, as parameters such as the boson-impurity interaction strength and the tilt between the two wells are varied. In particular, we study a pitchfork bifurcation in the lowest mean-field stationary solution, which occurs when the boson-impurity interaction exceeds a critical magnitude. This bifurcation, which is present for both repulsive and attractive boson-impurity interactions, corresponds to the spontaneous formation of an imbalance in the number of particles between the two wells. If the boson-impurity interaction is large, the bifurcation is associated with the onset of a Schrödinger-cat state in the many-body ground state. We calculate the coherence and number fluctuations between the two wells, and also the entanglement entropy between the bosons and the impurity. We find that the coherence can be greatly enhanced at the bifurcation.

We introduce a plasmonic analog for the dynamics of a quantum particle under a linear restoring force bouncing off an impenetrable barrier (“quantum paddle ball”). Paddle-ball-type plasmonic potentials are constructed in quadratically modulated metal-dielectric-metal structures with transverse metallic reflecting walls. We show, both analytically and numerically, the full-wave nature of the phenomenon, including plasmon bouncing and complete wave revivals after interference at the boundary. We show that the plasmon paddle-ball dynamics is effectively wavelength independent, opening opportunities for subwavelength manipulations of polychromatic and ultrashort-pulse plasmons.

We analyze how to exploit Brillouin scattering of light from sound for the purpose of cooling optomechanical devices and present a quantum-mechanical theory for Brillouin cooling. Our analysis shows that significant cooling ratios can be obtained with standard experimental parameters. A further improvement of cooling efficiency is possible by increasing the dissipation of the optical anti-Stokes resonance.