We investigate the properties of the Lieb lattice, that is, a face-centered square lattice, subjected to external gauge fields. We show that an Abelian gauge field leads to a peculiar quantum Hall effect, which is a consequence of the single Dirac cone and the flat band characterizing the energy spectrum. Then we explore the effects of an intrinsic spin-orbit term—a non-Abelian gauge field—and demonstrate the occurrence of the quantum spin Hall effect in this model. Besides, we obtain the relativistic Hamiltonian describing the Lieb lattice at low energy and derive the Landau levels in the presence of external Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields. Finally, we describe concrete schemes for realizing these gauge fields with cold fermionic atoms trapped in an optical Lieb lattice. In particular, we provide a very efficient method to reproduce the intrinsic (Kane-Mele) spin-orbit term with assisted-tunneling schemes. Consequently, our model could be implemented in order to produce a variety of topological states with cold atoms.

Linear amplifiers are necessarily affected by a minimal amount of noise, which is needed in order to preserve the linearity and the unitarity prescribed by quantum mechanics. Such a limitation might be partially overcome if the process is realized by conditioning its operation on a trigger event, for instance, the result of a measurement. Here we present a detailed analysis of a noiseless amplifier, implemented using linear optics, a down-conversion-based single-photon source, and single-photon detection. Our results demonstrate an amplification adding a level of noise lower than the minimum allowed by quantum mechanics for deterministic amplifiers. This is made possible by the nondeterministic character of our device, whose success rate is sufficiently low not to violate any fundamental limit. We compare our experimental data to a model taking into account the main imperfections of the setup and find a good agreement.

We investigate the interaction between two rubidium atoms in highly excited Rydberg states, and find that very long-range potential wells exist. These wells are shown to support many bound states. We calculate the properties of the wells and bound levels, and show that their lifetimes are limited by that of the constituent Rydberg atoms. We also show how these micrometer-sized bound states can be populated via photoassociation (PA), and how the signature of the admixing of various $\ell$ characters producing the potential wells could be probed. We discuss sharp variations of the PA rate, which could act as a switching mechanism with potential application to quantum information processing.

We address the feasibility of imaging geometric and orbital structures of a polyatomic molecule on an attosecond time scale using the laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED) technique. We present numerical results for the highest molecular orbitals of the CO${}_2$ molecule excited by a near-infrared few-cycle laser pulse. The molecular geometry (bond lengths) is determined within 3% of accuracy from a diffraction pattern which also reflects the nodal properties of the initial molecular orbital. Robustness of the structure determination is discussed with respect to vibrational and rotational motions with a complete interpretation of the laser-induced mechanisms.

We use the Gutzwiller ansatz and analyze the phase diagram of the extended Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with on-site ($U$) and nearest-neighbor ($V$) repulsions. For $d$-dimensional hypercubic lattices, when $2\mathit{dV}<U$, it is well known that the ground state alternates between the charge-density-wave (CDW) and Mott insulators, and the supersolid (SS) phase occupies small regions around the CDW insulators. However, when $2\mathit{dV}>U$, in this Rapid Communication, we show that the ground state has only CDW insulators, and more importantly, the SS phase occupies a much larger region in the phase diagram, existing up to very large hopping values which could be orders of magnitude higher than that of the well-known case. In particular, the SS-superfluid phase boundary increases linearly as a function of hopping when $2\mathit{dV}\gtrsim 1.5U$, for which the prospects of observing the SS phase with dipolar Bose gases loaded into optical lattices is much higher.

The induced interaction among the majority spin species, due to the presence of the minority species, is computed for the case of a population-imbalanced resonantly interacting Fermi gas. It is shown that this interaction leads to an instability, at low temperatures, of the recently observed polaron Fermi liquid phase of strongly imbalanced Fermi gases to a $p$-wave superfluid state. We find that the associated transition temperature, while quite small in the weakly interacting BCS regime, is experimentally accessible in the strongly interacting unitary regime.

Correlations of a Bose gas released from an optical lattice are measured using superradiant scattering. Conditions are chosen so that, after initial incident light pumping at the Bragg angle for diffraction, superradiant scattering into the Bragg diffracted mode is preponderant due to matter-wave amplification and mode competition. A temporal analysis of the superradiant scattering gain reveals periodical oscillations and damping due to the initial lack of coherence between lattice sites. Such damping is used for characterizing first-order spatial correlations in our system with a precision of one lattice period.

A strongly interacting, and entangling, heavy nonrecoiling external particle effects a significant change of the environment. Described locally, the corresponding entanglement event is a generalized electric Aharonov-Bohm effect, which differs from the original one in a crucial way. We propose a gedanken interference experiment. The predicted shift of the interference pattern is due to a self-induced or “private” potential difference experienced while the particle is in vacuum. We show that all nontrivial Born-Oppenheimer potentials are “private” potentials. We apply the Born-Oppenheimer approximation to interference states. Using our approach, we calculate the relative phase of the external heavy particle as well as its uncertainty throughout an interference experiment or entanglement event. We thus complement the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for interference states.

We analyze two recently proposed measures of non-Markovianity: one based on the concept of divisibility of the dynamical map and the other one based on distinguishability of quantum states. We provide a model to show that these two measures need not agree. In addition, we discuss possible generalizations and intricate relations between these measures.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement is a criterion that is more demanding than just certifying entanglement. We theoretically and experimentally analyze the low-resource generation of bipartite continuous-variable entanglement, as realized by mixing a squeezed mode with a vacuum mode at a balanced beam splitter, i.e., the generation of so-called vacuum-class entanglement. We find that in order to observe EPR entanglement the total optical loss must be smaller than $33.3$ $\%$. However, arbitrarily strong EPR entanglement is generally possible with this scheme. We realize continuous-wave squeezed light at $1550$ nm with up to $9.9$ dB of nonclassical noise reduction, which is the highest value at a telecom wavelength so far. Using two phase-controlled balanced homodyne detectors we observe an EPR covariance product of $0.502\pm 0.006<1$, where $1$ is the critical value. We discuss the feasibility of strong Gaussian entanglement and its application for quantum key distribution in a short-distance fiber network.

The number of entanglement classes in stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) classifications increases with the number of qubits and is already infinite for four qubits. Criteria for explicitly discriminating and classifying pure states of four and more qubits are highly desirable and therefore at the focus of intense theoretical research. We develop a general criterion for the discrimination of pure $N\text{−}$partite entangled states in terms of polynomial $\mathrm{SL}(d,\mathrm{C}){}^{\otimes N}$ invariants. By means of this criterion, existing SLOCC classifications of four-qubit entanglement are reproduced. Based on this we propose a polynomial classification scheme in which entanglement types are identified through “tangle patterns.” This scheme provides a practicable way to classify states of arbitrary multipartite systems. Moreover, the use of polynomials induces a corresponding quantification of the different types of entanglement.

Although the theory of quantum error correction is intimately related to classical coding theory and, in particular, one can construct quantum error-correction codes (QECCs) from classical codes with the dual-containing property, this does not necessarily imply that the computational complexity of decoding QECCs is the same as their classical counterparts. Instead, decoding QECCs can be very much different from decoding classical codes due to the degeneracy property. Intuitively, one expects degeneracy would simplify the decoding since two different errors might not and need not be distinguished in order to correct them. However, we show that general quantum decoding problem is NP-hard regardless of the quantum codes being degenerate or nondegenerate. This finding implies that no considerably fast decoding algorithm exists for the general quantum decoding problems and suggests the existence of a quantum cryptosystem based on the hardness of decoding QECCs.

We study a quantum process reconstruction based on the use of mutually unbiased projectors (MUB projectors) as input states for a $D$-dimensional quantum system, with $D$ being a power of a prime number. This approach connects the results of quantum-state tomography using mutually unbiased bases with the coefficients of a quantum process, expanded in terms of MUB projectors. We also study the performance of the reconstruction scheme against random errors when measuring probabilities at the MUB projectors.

Ab initio quantum chemistry molecular calculations followed by a semiclassical dynamical treatment in the keV collision energy range have been developed for the study of the charge-transfer process in collisions of ${\mathrm{C}}^{2+}$ ions with hydrogen chloride. The mechanism has been investigated in detail in connection with avoided crossings between states involved in the reaction. A simple mechanism driven by a strong nonadiabatic coupling matrix element has been pointed out for this process. A comparative analysis with the halogen fluoride target corresponding to a similar electronic configuration shows a quite different charge-transfer mechanism leading to a very different behavior of the cross sections. Such behavior may be correlated to specific nonadiabatic interactions observed in these collision systems.

Single ionization of argon by 195-eV electron impact is studied in an experiment, where the absolute triple-differential cross sections are presented as three-dimensional electron emission images for a series of kinematic conditions. Thereby a comprehensive set of experimental data for electron-impact ionization of a many-electron system is produced to provide a benchmark for comparison with theoretical predictions. Theoretical models using a hybrid first-order and second-order distorted-wave Born plus $R$-matrix approach are employed to compare their predictions with the experimental data. While the relative shape of the calculated cross section is generally in reasonable agreement with experiment, the magnitude appears to be the most significant problem with the theoretical treatment for the conditions studied in the present work. This suggests that the most significant challenge in the further development of theory for this process may lie in the reproduction of the absolute scale rather than the angular dependence of the cross section.

Photoelectron ionization spectra of an autoionization system with one discrete level interacting with a neighbor two-level atom are discussed. The formula for long-time ionization spectra is derived. According to this formula, the spectra can be composed of up to eight peaks. Moreover, the Fano-like zeros for weak optical pumping are identified in these spectra. The conditional ionization spectra depending on the state of the neighbor atom exhibit oscillations at the Rabi frequency. Dynamical spectral zeros occurring once per the Rabi period are revealed in these spectra.

Itinerant ferromagnetism in cold Fermi gases with repulsive interactions is studied applying the Jastrow-Slater approximation generalized to finite polarization and temperature. For two components at zero temperature, a second-order transition is found at ${\mathit{ak}}_F\simeq 0.90$ compatible with results of quantum-Monte-Carlo (QMC) calculations. Thermodynamic functions and observables, such as the compressibility and spin susceptibility and the resulting fluctuations in number and spin, are calculated. For trapped gases, the resulting cloud radii and kinetic energies are calculated and compared to recent experiments. Spin-polarized systems are recommended for effective separation of large ferromagnetic domains. Collective modes are predicted and tricritical points are calculated for multicomponent systems.

We introduce a lattice model for fermions in a spatially periodic magnetic field that also has spatially periodic hopping amplitudes. We discuss how this model might be realized with cold atoms in an artificial magnetic field on a square optical lattice. When there is an average flux of half a flux quantum per plaquette, the spectrum of low-energy excitations can be described by massless Dirac fermions in which the usually doubly degenerate Dirac cones split into cones with different “speeds of light.” These gapless birefringent Dirac fermions arise because of broken chiral symmetry in the kinetic energy term of the effective low-energy Hamiltonian. We characterize the effects of various perturbations to the low-energy spectrum, including staggered potentials, interactions, and domain-wall topological defects.

We develop the auxiliary field formalism corresponding to a dilute system of spin-1/2 fermions. This theory represents the Fermi counterpart of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) theory developed recently by F. Cooper et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 240402 (2010)] to describe a dilute gas of Bose particles. Assuming tunable interactions, this formalism is appropriate for the study of the crossover from the regime of Bardeen-Cooper-Schriffer (BCS) pairing to the regime of BEC in ultracold fermionic atom gases. We show that when applied to the Fermi case at zero temperature, the leading-order auxiliary field (LOAF) approximation gives the same equations as obtained in the standard BCS variational picture. At finite temperature, LOAF leads to the theory discussed by Sá de Melo, Randeria, and Engelbrecht [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3202 (1993); Phys. Rev. B 55, 15153 (1997)]. As such, LOAF provides a unified framework to study the interacting Fermi gas. The mean-field results discussed here can be systematically improved on by calculating the one-particle irreducible action corrections, order by order.

We introduce discrete systems in the form of straight (infinite) and ring-shaped chains, with two symmetrically placed nonlinear sites. The systems can be implemented in nonlinear optics (as waveguiding arrays) and Bose-Einstein condensates (by means of an optical lattice). A full set of exact analytical solutions for symmetric, asymmetric, and antisymmetric localized modes is found, and their stability is investigated in a numerical form. The symmetry-breaking bifurcation, through which the asymmetric modes emerge from the symmetric ones, is found to be of the subcritical type. It is transformed into a supercritical bifurcation if the nonlinearity is localized in relatively broad domains around two central sites, and also in the ring of a small size, i.e., in effectively nonlocal settings. The family of antisymmetric modes does not undergo bifurcations and features both stable and unstable portions. The evolution of unstable localized modes is investigated by means of direct simulations. In particular, unstable asymmetric states, which exist in the case of the subcritical bifurcation, give rise to breathers oscillating between the nonlinear sites, thus restoring an effective dynamical symmetry between them.