Theoretical studies of low-energy electron collisions with Cl${}_2^{+}$ leading to direct dissociative recombination are presented. The relevant potential energy curves and autoionization widths are calculated by combining electron scattering calculations using the complex Kohn variational method with multireference configuration interaction structure calculations. The dynamics on the four lowest resonant states of all symmetries is studied by the solution of a driven Schrödinger equation. The thermal rate coefficient for dissociative recombination of Cl${}_2^{+}$ is calculated and the influence on the thermal rate coefficient from vibrational excited target ions is investigated.

Using exact diagonalization for a small system of cold bosonic atoms, we analyze the emergence of strongly correlated states in the presence of an artificial magnetic field. This gauge field is generated by a laser beam that couples two internal atomic states, and it is related to Berry's geometrical phase that emerges when an atom follows adiabatically one of the two eigenstates of the atom-laser coupling. Our approach allows us to go beyond the adiabatic approximation, and to characterize the generalized Laughlin wave functions that appear in the strong magnetic-field limit.

We study the interaction of an intense classical field with a two-level system coupled to a bosonic quantized field. We focus on the regime where the classical field and the two-level system characteristic frequencies are the same, while the quantized mode is set off resonance with both. We show that a parameter governing the dynamics of the system is the ratio between the classical field’s intensity and the quantized mode detuning. Depending on this parameter, multiple excitations can be created in the quantized mode in a single cycle of the two-level system. Examples of physical setups allowing for the application of the presented ideas are superconducting circuits in strip-line resonators, laser cooled trapped ions, and neutral atoms coupled to the quantized field of a cavity. We focus on the latter in order to show that, with realistic experimental parameters, it is possible to generate up to four photons in a single Rabi cycle.

We show that in the unconditional security model, a single quantum strong coin flip with security guarantees that are strictly better than in any classical protocol is possible to implement with current technology. Our protocol takes into account all aspects of an experimental implementation, including losses, multiphoton pulses emitted by practical photon sources, channel noise, detector dark counts, and finite quantum efficiency. We calculate the abort probability when both players are honest, as well as the probability of one player forcing his desired outcome. For a channel length up to 21 km and commonly used parameter values, we can achieve honest abort and cheating probabilities that are better than in any classical protocol. Our protocol is, in principle, implementable using attenuated laser pulses, with no need for entangled photons or any other specific resources.

Consider a stabilizer state on $n$ qudits, each of dimension $D$ with $D$ being a prime or squarefree integer, divided into three mutually disjoint sets or parts. Generalizing a result of Bravyi et al. [J. Math. Phys. 47, 062106 (2006)] for qubits ($D=2$), we show that up to local unitaries, the three parts of the state can be written as tensor product of unentangled signle-qudit states, maximally entangled Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs, and tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. We employ this result to obtain a complete characterization of the properties of a class of channels associated with stabilizer error-correcting codes, along with their complementary channels.

In order to witness multipartite correlations beyond pairwise entanglement, we study the spin-squeezing evolution of a spin-1/2 ensemble in environments with quantum phase transitions. Each spin half of the ensemble evolves under its own decoherence channel, which is modeled by a central spin 1/2 surrounded by a spin-1/2 $XY$ chain. We employ four spin-squeezing parameters to describe squeezing, and their expressions at time $t$ are analytically calculated for the spin ensemble in a collective initial state. It is found that spin squeezing of an auxiliary ensemble signals very well the critical regions of the environment. Quantum fluctuations of the environment accelerate the decay of spin squeezing and dramatically change spin squeezing.

We characterize all maximally entangling bipartite unitary operators, acting on systems $A$ and $B$ of arbitrary finite dimensions $d_A\le d_B$, when ancillary systems are available to both parties. Several useful and interesting consequences of this characterization are discussed, including an understanding of why the entangling and disentangling capacities of a given (maximally entangling) unitary can differ and a proof that these capacities must be equal when $d_A=d_B$.

Decoherence arises from the interaction of a quantum system with the environment or, more precisely, from the measurement in which the environment “measures” the quantum system and establishes correlations with it. In this work, we first quantify measurement-induced correlations from both classical and quantum perspectives. Then we quantify decoherence via measurement-induced classical correlations. By virtue of an intrinsic and powerful link between entanglement (as quantified by entanglement of formation) and classical correlations (as quantified by the difference between the total correlations and quantum discord) in pure tripartite systems, we present general analytical formulas for measurement-induced correlations and decoherence measures for qubit systems and, furthermore, reveal a conservation relation for the information-disturbance tradeoff.

We extend the idea of the constrained-search variational method for the construction of wave-function functionals $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ of functions $\chi$. The search is constrained to those functions $\chi$ such that $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ reproduces the density $\rho \left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ while simultaneously leading to an upper bound to the energy. The functionals are thereby normalized and automatically satisfy the electron-nucleus coalescence condition. The functionals $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ are also constructed to satisfy the electron-electron coalescence condition. The method is applied to the ground state of the helium atom to construct functionals $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ that reproduce the density as given by the Kinoshita correlated wave function. The expectation of single-particle operators $W={\sum }_i{r}_i^n,$ $n=-2,-1,1,2,$ $W={\sum }_i\delta \left({\mathbf{r}}_i\right)$ are exact, as must be the case. The expectations of the kinetic energy operator $W=-\frac{1}{2}{\sum }_i{\nabla }_i^2$, the two-particle operators $W={\sum }_n{u}^n,$ $n=-2,-1,1,2$, where $u=|{\mathbf{r}}_i-{\mathbf{r}}_j|$, and the energy are accurate. We note that the construction of such functionals $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ is an application of the Levy-Lieb constrained-search definition of density functional theory. It is thereby possible to rigorously determine which functional $\psi \left[\chi \right]$ is closer to the true wave function.

This paper examines the repulsive Casimir force between a magnetodielectric plate, with static permeability greater than static permittivity, and a diamagnetic plate. As the thickness of the magnetodielectric plate is decreased, the attractive component of the Casimir force decreases more than the repulsive one. This effect makes the net Casimir force repulsive, and a larger repulsive Casimir force is generated compared to the Casimir force between the plates with infinite thickness.

Electron-helium scattering in weakly coupled hot-dense (Debye) plasma has been investigated using the convergent close-coupling method. The Yukawa-type Debye-Hückel potential has been used to describe plasma Coulomb screening effects. Benchmark results are presented for momentum transfer cross sections, excitation, ionization, and total cross sections for scattering from the ground and metastable states of helium. Calculations cover the entire energy range up to 1000 eV for the no screening case and various Debye lengths (5–100 $a_0$). We find that as the screening interaction increases, the excitation and total cross sections decrease, while the total ionization cross sections increase.

We investigate the effect of hyperfine interactions on ultracold molecular collisions in magnetic fields, using ${}^{24}$Mg(${}^{1}S){+}^{14}$NH(${}^3{\Sigma }^{-}$) as a prototype system. We explore the energy and magnetic-field dependence of the cross sections, comparing the results with previous calculations that neglected hyperfine interactions [A.O.G. Wallis and J. M. Hutson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 183201 (2009)]. The main effect of hyperfine interactions for spin relaxation cross sections is that the kinetic energy release of the dominant outgoing channels does not reduce to zero at low fields. This results in reduced centrifugal suppression of the cross sections and increased inelastic cross sections at low energy and low field. We also analyze state-to-state cross sections, for various initial states, and show that hyperfine interactions introduce additional mechanisms for spin relaxation. In particular, there are hyperfine-mediated collisions to outgoing channels that are not centrifugally suppressed. However, for $\mathrm{Mg}+\mathit{NH}$ these unsuppressed channels make only small contributions to the total cross sections. We consider the implications of our results for sympathetic cooling of NH by Mg and conclude that the ratio of elastic to inelastic cross sections remains high enough for sympathetic cooling to proceed.

We study the effect of gas pressure on the generation of high-order harmonics where harmonics due to individual atoms are calculated using the recently developed quantitative rescattering theory, and the propagation of the laser and harmonics in the medium is calculated by solving the Maxwell's wave equation. We illustrate that the simulated spectra are very sensitive to the laser focusing conditions at high laser intensity and high pressure since the fundamental laser field is severely reshaped during the propagation. By comparing the simulated results with several experiments we show that the pressure dependence can be qualitatively explained. The lack of quantitative agreement is tentatively attributed to the failure of the complete knowledge of the experimental conditions.

We study the normal state of a 3$d$ homogeneous dipolar Fermi gas beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation. The correlation energy is found of the same order as the Fock energy, unusually strong for a Fermi-liquid system. As a result, the critical density of mechanical collapse is smaller than that estimated in the Hartree-Fock approximation. With the correlation energy included, an energy functional is proposed for the trapped system, and its property is explored.

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. A 82, 063623 (2010)] Hallwood et al. argued that it is feasible to create large superposition states with strongly interacting bosons in rotating rings. Here we investigate in detail how the superposition states in rotating-ring lattices depend on interaction strength and barrier height. With respect to the latter we find a trade-off between energy gap and quality of the superposition state. Most importantly, we go beyond the $\delta$-function approximation for the barrier potential and show that the energy gap decreases exponentially with the number of particles for weak barrier potentials of finite width. These are crucial issues in the design of experiments to realize superposition states.

On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously in [JETP 112, 246 (2011)], we analyze the atomic polarization created by weak monochromatic light in an optically thick, dense, and cold atomic ensemble. We show that the amplitude of the polarization averaged over a uniform random atomic distribution decreases exponentially beyond the boundary regions. The phase of this polarization increases linearly with increasing penetration into the medium. On these grounds, we determine numerically the wavelength of the light in the dense atomic medium, its extinction coefficient, and the complex refractive index and dielectric constant of the medium. The dispersion of the permittivity is investigated for different atomic densities. It is shown that, for dense clouds, the real part of the permittivity is negative in some spectral domains.

We theoretically investigate the process of coupling cold atoms into the core of a hollow-core photonic-crystal optical fiber using a blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian beam. In contrast to the use of a red-detuned Gaussian beam to couple the atoms, the blue-detuned hollow beam can confine cold atoms to the darkest regions of the beam, thereby minimizing shifts in the internal states and making the guide highly robust to heating effects. This single optical beam is used as both a funnel and a guide to maximize the number of atoms into the fiber. In the proposed experiment, Rb atoms are loaded into a magneto-optical trap (MOT) above a vertically oriented optical fiber. We observe a gravito-optical trapping effect for atoms with high orbital momentum around the trap axis, which prevents atoms from coupling to the fiber: these atoms lack the kinetic energy to escape the potential and are thus trapped in the laser funnel indefinitely. We find that by reducing the dipolar force to the point at which the trapping effect just vanishes, it is possible to optimize the coupling of atoms into the fiber. Our simulations predict that by using a low-power (2.5 mW) and far-detuned (300 GHz) Laguerre-Gaussian beam with a 20-$\mu$m-radius core hollow fiber, it is possible to couple 11% of the atoms from a MOT 9 mm away from the fiber. When the MOT is positioned farther away, coupling efficiencies over 50% can be achieved with larger core fibers.

A general, exact formula is derived for the expectation value of the electromagnetic energy density of an inhomogeneous absorbing and dispersive dielectric medium in thermal equilibrium, assuming that the medium is well approximated as a continuum. From this formula we obtain the formal expression for the Casimir force density. Unlike most previous approaches to Casimir effects in which absorption is either ignored or admitted implicitly through the required analytic properties of the permittivity, we include dissipation explicitly via the coupling of each dipole oscillator of the medium to a reservoir of harmonic oscillators. We obtain the energy density and the Casimir force density as a consequence of the van der Waals interactions of the oscillators and also from Poynting's theorem.

The dynamics of ion acceleration in tightly focused laser beams is investigated in relativistic simulations. Studies are performed to find the optimal parameters which maximize the energy gain, beam quality, and flux. The exit ionic kinetic energy and its uncertainty are improved and the number of accelerated particles is increased by orders of magnitude over our earlier results, especially when working with a longer laser wavelength. Laser beams of powers of 0.1–10 petawatts and focused to subwavelength spot radii are shown to directly accelerate protons and bare nuclei of helium, carbon, and oxygen from a few to several hundred MeV/nucleon. Variation of the volume of the initial ionic ensemble, as well as the introduction of a pulse shape on the laser fields, have been investigated and are shown to influence the exit particle kinetic energies only slightly.

We investigate the nature of the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition driven by disorder for noninteracting ultracold atoms on one-dimensional lattices. We consider two different cases: Anderson-type disorder, with local energies randomly distributed, and pseudodisorder due to a potential incommensurate with the lattice, which is usually called the Aubry-André model. A scaling analysis of numerical data for the superfluid fraction for different lattice sizes allows us to determine quantum critical exponents characterizing the disorder-driven superfluid-insulator transition. We also briefly discuss the effect of interactions close to the noninteracting quantum critical point of the Aubry-André model.