Wavelengths, transition rates, and line strengths are calculated for the multipole ($E1$, $M1$, $E2$, $M2$, $E3$, and $M3$) transitions between the excited [Cd]$4f^{13}5p^6\mathit{nl}$, [Cd]$4f^{14}5p^5\mathit{nl}$ configurations and the ground [Cd]$4f^{14}5p^6$ state in Er-like ${\mathrm{W}}^{6+}$ ion ([Cd]=[Kr]$4d^{10}5s^2$). In particular, the relativistic many-body perturbation theory (RMBPT), including the Breit interaction, is used to evaluate energies and transition rates for multipole transitions in this hole-particle system. This method is based on the relativistic many-body perturbation theory that agrees with multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) calculations in lowest order, and includes all second-order correlation corrections and corrections from negative-energy states. The calculations start from a [Cd]$4f^{14}5p^6$ Dirac-Fock (DF) potential. First-order perturbation theory is used to obtain intermediate-coupling coefficients, and second-order RMBPT is used to determine the multipole matrix elements needed for calculations of other atomic properties such as line strengths and transition rates. In addition, core multipole polarizability is evaluated in random-phase and DF approximations. The comparison with available data is demonstrated.

The Breit-Pauli $R$-matrix (BPRM) method was employed to calculate x-ray line polarization resulting from electron-impact excitation to excited-state magnetic sublevels (MS) of complex ions. In the development of this work, the calculation of MS electron-impact excitation cross sections in the present BPRM method is computationally efficient when the angular integration of the scattering polar angle is performed in an analytical manner. The BPRM method is then applied to calculate the line polarization of 3C ($\lambda =15.01$ Å) and 3D ($\lambda =15.26$ Å), two well-known x-ray lines of 17 (an ion with a medium nuclear charge and ion charge). We demonstrate in this work the resonance effects in MS cross sections, which contribute to the energy dependence in the polarization. The BPRM calculations of Fe XVII are further compared with the results calculated by the Dirac $R$-matrix (DRM) method. Generally, most of the results calculated from the BPRM method and the DRM method are in good agreement. This comparison confirms the earlier DRM calculations of resonance effects in MS electron-impact excitation cross sections of 3C and 3D, and thus demonstrates the applicability of the BPRM method to the calculation of x-ray line polarization of 3C and 3D, important for the analysis of x-ray spectra observed on an electron beam ion trap.

We study the electron emission produced by swift protons impinging grazingly on a Be(0001) surface. The process is described within a collisional formalism using the band-structure-based (BSB) approximation to represent the electron-surface interaction. The BSB model provides an accurate description of the electronic band structure of the solid and the surface-induced potential. Within this approach we derive both bulk and surface electronic states, with these latter characterized by a strong localization at the crystal surface. We found that such surface electronic states play an important role in double-differential energy- and angle-resolved electron emission probabilities, producing noticeable structures in the electron emission spectra.

The angular distribution of electrons ionized from an atom by a chirped few-cycle attosecond pulse is analyzed using perturbation theory (PT), keeping terms in the transition amplitude up to second order in the pulse electric field. The dependence of the asymmetry in the ionized electron distributions on both the chirp and the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the pulse are explained using a simple analytical formula that approximates the exact PT result. This approximate formula (in which the chirp dependence is explicit) reproduces reasonably well the chirp-dependent oscillations of the electron angular distribution asymmetries found numerically by Peng et al. [Phys. Rev. A 80, 013407 (2009)]. It can also be used to determine the chirp rate of the attosecond pulse from the measured electron angular distribution asymmetry.

High-order harmonic generation (HHG) by hydrogenlike atoms or ions in the field of counterpropagating laser beams of standing-wave configuration, with linear polarizations and relativistic intensities, is studied. The relativistic quantum theory of HHG in such field configurations (homogeneous), at which the impeding factor of relativistic magnetic drift of superstrong laser fields can be eliminated, is presented.

We study the Anderson localization of Bogoliubov quasiparticles (elementary many-body excitations) in a weakly interacting Bose gas of chemical potential $\mu$ subjected to a disordered potential $V$. We introduce a general mapping (valid for weak inhomogeneous potentials in any dimension) of the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations onto a single-particle Schrödinger-like equation with an effective potential. For disordered potentials, the Schrödinger-like equation accounts for the scattering and localization properties of the Bogoliubov quasiparticles. We derive analytically the localization lengths for correlated disordered potentials in the one-dimensional geometry. Our approach relies on a perturbative expansion in $V/\mu$, which we develop up to third order, and we discuss the impact of the various perturbation orders. Our predictions are shown to be in very good agreement with direct numerical calculations. We identify different localization regimes: For low energy, the effective disordered potential exhibits a strong screening by the quasicondensate density background, and localization is suppressed. For high-energy excitations, the effective disordered potential reduces to the bare disordered potential, and the localization properties of quasiparticles are the same as for free particles. The maximum of localization is found at intermediate energy when the quasicondensate healing length is of the order of the disorder correlation length. Possible extensions of our work to higher dimensions are also discussed.

Within the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism we derive a Ginzburg-Landau theory for the Bose-Hubbard model which describes the real-time dynamics of the complex order parameter field. Analyzing the excitations in the vicinity of the quantum phase transition, it turns out that particle-hole dispersions in the Mott phase map continuously onto corresponding amplitude-phase excitations in the superfluid phase, which have been detected recently by Bragg spectroscopy measurements.

We investigate the atomic diffraction of Bose-Einstein condensates in quantized light fields. Situations in which the light fields are in number states or coherent states are studied theoretically. Analytical derivation and numerical calculation are carried out to simulate the dynamics of the atomic motion. In the condition that atoms are scattered by light in the number states with imbalanced photon-number distribution, the atomic transitions between different momentum modes would sensitively depend on the transition order and the photon-number distribution. The number-state nature of the light fields modifies the period of atomic momentum oscillations and makes forward and backward atomic transitions unequal. For light fields in coherent states, whether or not the intensities of the light fields are balanced, the atomic diffraction is symmetric and independent of the transition order.

We study the evolution of bosons in a periodically driven optical lattice during a slow change of the driving amplitude. Both the regime of high-frequency and low-frequency driving are investigated. In the low-frequency regime, resonant absorption of energy is observed. In the high-frequency regime, the dynamics is compared to a system with an effective Hamiltonian in which the atoms are “dressed” by the driving field. This “dressing” can dramatically change the amplitude and sign of the effective tunneling. A particular focus of this study is the investigation of the time scales necessary for the evolving quantum state to follow almost adiabatically to the ground state of the effective many-body system.

The branching classical trajectory method for inelastic atomic collision processes is proposed. The approach is based on two features: (i) branching of a classical trajectory in a nonadiabatic region and (ii) the nonadiabatic transition probability formulas particularly adapted for a classical trajectory treatment. In addition to transition probabilities and inelastic cross sections, the proposed approach allows one to calculate incoming and outgoing currents. The method is applied to inelastic Na $+$ H collisions providing the results in reasonable agreement with full quantum calculations.

We extend a recently introduced method for computing Casimir forces between arbitrarily shaped metallic objects [M. T. H. Reid et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 040401 (2009)] to allow treatment of objects with arbitrary material properties, including imperfect conductors, dielectrics, and magnetic materials. Our original method considered electric currents on the surfaces of the interacting objects; the extended method considers both electric and magnetic surface current distributions, and obtains the Casimir energy of a configuration of objects in terms of the interactions of these effective surface currents. Using this new technique, we present the first predictions of Casimir interactions in several experimentally relevant geometries that would be difficult to treat with any existing method. In particular, we investigate Casimir interactions between dielectric nanodisks embedded in a dielectric fluid; we identify the threshold surface-surface separation at which finite-size effects become relevant, and we map the rotational energy landscape of bound nanoparticle diclusters.

In this paper we detail some results advanced in a recent letter [Prado et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 073008 (2009).] showing how to engineer reservoirs for two-level systems at absolute zero by means of a time-dependent master equation leading to a nonstationary superposition equilibrium state. We also present a general recipe showing how to build nonadiabatic coherent evolutions of a fermionic system interacting with a bosonic mode and investigate the influence of thermal reservoirs at finite temperature on the fidelity of the protected superposition state. Our analytical results are supported by numerical analysis of the full Hamiltonian model.

The monogamy of entanglement is one of the basic quantum mechanical features, which says that when two partners Alice and Bob are more entangled then either of them has to be less entangled with the third party. Here we qualitatively present the converse monogamy of entanglement: given a tripartite pure system and when Alice and Bob are weakly entangled, then either of them is generally strongly entangled with the third party. Our result leads to the classification of tripartite pure states based on bipartite reduced density operators, which is an effective way to this longstanding problem compared to the means by stochastic local operations and classical communications. We also systematically indicate the structure of the classified states and generate them.

We define the task of quantum tagging, that is, authenticating the classical location of a classical tagging device by sending and receiving quantum signals from suitably located distant sites, in an environment controlled by an adversary whose quantum information processing and transmitting power is unbounded. We define simple security models for this task and briefly discuss alternatives. We illustrate the pitfalls of naive quantum cryptographic reasoning in this context by describing several protocols which at first sight appear unconditionally secure but which, as we show, can in fact be broken by teleportation-based attacks. We also describe some protocols which cannot be broken by these specific attacks, but do not prove they are unconditionally secure. We review the history of quantum tagging protocols, and show that protocols previously proposed by Malaney and Chandran et al. are provably insecure.

Transmitting quantum states and entanglement through quantum channels is one of the key requirements for the development of quantum computation. Quantum discord has received much attention in quantum computation. We transfer quantum discord through two parallel XXZ spin chains with phase shift. The maximum discord can be enhanced by the phase shift. It will take more time to obtain an enhanced maximum discord in some cases, but for other cases, both the maximum and speed are enhanced by the phase shift. In the thermodynamic limit, the effect of the phase shift disappears and the maximum discord exponentially decays with increasing of the receiving position. Our results on spin chains are generalized to a family of linear Hamiltonians.

Energy-dependent photoelectron angular distributions from two-color two-photon above threshold ionizations are investigated to determine the partial-wave characteristics of free-free electronic transitions in helium. Sideband photoelectron energies ranging from 0.18 to 13.0 eV are measured with different wavelengths of the perturbative infrared dressing field as well as different individually selected high-order harmonics. Using the experimentally measured cross-section ratios and anisotropy parameters together with analytical expressions derived from second-order perturbation theory, the partial-wave branching fractions going to the $S$ and $D$ waves in the positive and negative sidebands are determined as a function of photoelectron kinetic energy. The results provide a sensitive test for theoretical models of two-color two-photon above threshold ionization in atoms and molecules.

We consider the normal phase of a strongly interacting Fermi gas, which can have either an equal or an unequal number of atoms in its two accessible spin states. Due to the unitarity-limited attractive interaction between particles with different spin, noncondensed Cooper pairs are formed. The starting point in treating preformed pairs is the Nozières-Schmitt-Rink (NSR) theory, which approximates the pairs as being noninteracting. Here, we consider the effects of the interactions between the Cooper pairs in a Wilsonian renormalization-group scheme. Starting from the exact bosonic action for the pairs, we calculate the Cooper-pair self-energy by combining the NSR formalism with the Wilsonian approach. We compare our findings with the recent experiments by Harikoshi et al. [Science 327, 442 (2010)] and Nascimbène et al. [Nature (London) 463, 1057 (2010)], and find very good agreement. We also make predictions for the population-imbalanced case, which can be tested in experiments.

We derive and discuss the complete set of exact solutions to the one-dimensional Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations for small-amplitude excitations around general gray-soliton solutions to the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Our results extend the previously known case of the motionless dark-soliton background. We derive our nonzero-frequency solutions using a variant of the factorization method for Schrödinger equations with reflectionless potentials. We also discuss the zero-mode solutions at length.

The ability to tune the quasi-phase-matching (QPM) frequency is a highly desirable though lacking feature of many nonlinear devices. To this end, we consider QPM in a special class of active nonlinear metamaterials (MMs), whose properties can be controlled postfabrication. By application of a tunable, periodic perturbation in the linear susceptibility (magnetic or electric) of a MM, a single nonlinear device can be constructed to operate over an exceedingly broad bandwidth. We propose a nonlinear MM for QPM second-order harmonic generation at terahertz frequencies, predicted to have a tunable bandwidth of over 100%.

We report the existence of a kind of squeezing in photonic crystal fibers which is conceptually intermediate between four-wave-mixing-induced squeezing in which all the participant waves are monochromatic waves, and self-phase-modulation-induced squeezing for a single pulse in a coherent state. This hybrid squeezing occurs when an arbitrary short soliton emits quasimonochromatic resonant radiation near a zero-group-velocity-dispersion point of the fiber. Photons around the resonant frequency become strongly correlated due to the presence of the classical soliton, and a reduction of the quantum noise below the shot-noise level is predicted.