We propose a way for implementing quantum information transfer with two superconducting flux qubits by coupling them to a resonator. This proposal does not require adjustment of the level spacings or uniformity in the device parameters. Moreover, neither adiabatic passage nor a second-order detuning is needed by this proposal, thus the operation can be performed much faster when compared with the previous proposals.

Recently, Pedrosa and Rosas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 010402 (2009)] investigated the quantum states of an electromagnetic field in time-dependent linear media using a Hermitian linear invariant. The wave function obtained by them is represented in terms of an arbitrary weight function $g({\lambda }_l)$. Since the type of wave function varies depending on the choice of $g({\lambda }_l)$ in their problem, it may be a difficult task to construct a coherent state that resembles the classical state from their theory. We suggest, on the basis of a non-Hermitian linear invariant, another quantum state that is a kind of coherent state. The expectation value of canonical variables in this alternate state follows an exact classical trajectory. For a simple case in which the time dependence of the parameters $\epsilon (t)$, $\mu (t)$, and $\sigma (t)$ disappears, we showed that the quantum energy expectation value in the alternate quantum state recovers exactly to the classical energy in the limit $\hslash \to 0$. This alternate state leads to the correspondence between the quantum and the classical behaviors of physical observables in a high-energy limit.

An entangled state prepared in a decoherence-free subspace, together with a Ramsey-type measurement, can probe parity violation in heavy alkali-metal ions such as Ba${}^{+}$ or Ra${}^{+}$. Here we propose an experiment with Ba${}^{+}$ as an example to measure the small parity-violating effect in this system. It has been shown that a measurement on a maximally correlated system will reduce the uncertainty as compared to that on a single ion measurement, and also provides a feasible solution to measure the nuclear-spin-dependent part of the total parity-violating light shift in an ionic system.

We show that self-similar optical waves with a kink structure exist in a wide class of resonant nonlinear media, adequately treated in the two-level approximation. The self-similar structure of the present kinks is reflected in the time evolution of the field profile, atomic dipole moment, and one-atom inversion. We develop an analytical theory of such kinks. We show that the discovered kinks are accelerating nonlinear waves, asymptotically attaining their shape and the speed of light. We also numerically explore the formation and eventual disintegration of our kinks due to energy relaxation processes. Thus, the present kinks can be viewed as intermediate asymptotics of the system.

Most experimental realizations of quantum key distribution are based on the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (the so-called BB84) protocol. In a typical optical implementation of this scheme, the sender uses an active source to produce the required BB84 signal states. While active state preparation of BB84 signals is a simple and elegant solution in principle, in practice passive state preparation might be desirable in some scenarios, for instance, in those experimental setups operating at high transmission rates. Passive schemes might also be more robust against side-channel attacks than active sources. Typical passive devices involve parametric down-conversion. In this paper, we show that both coherent light and practical single-photon sources are also suitable for passive generation of BB84 signal states. Our method does not require any externally driven element, but only linear optical components and photodetectors. In the case of coherent light, the resulting key rate is similar to the one delivered by an active source. When the sender uses practical single-photon sources, however, the distance covered by a passive transmitter might be longer than that of an active configuration.

We propose to use a permutation symmetric sample of multilevel atoms to simulate the properties of topologically ordered states. The Rydberg blockade interaction is used to prepare states of the sample which are equivalent to resonating valence bond states, Laughlin states, and string-net condensates and to create and study the properties of their quasi-particle-like fundamental excitations.

We study the evolution of the entanglement of noninteracting qubits coupled to reservoirs under monitoring of the reservoirs by means of continuous measurements. We calculate the average of the concurrence of the qubits wave function over all quantum trajectories. For two qubits coupled to independent baths subjected to local measurements, this average decays exponentially with a rate depending on the measurement scheme only. This contrasts with the known disappearance of entanglement after a finite time for the density matrix in the absence of measurements. For two qubits coupled to a common bath, the mean concurrence can vanish at discrete times. Our analysis applies to arbitrary quantum jump or quantum state diffusion dynamics in the Markov limit. We discuss the best measurement schemes to protect entanglement in specific examples.

Solutions of the restricted Hartree-Fock equations are obtained for small molecules using a combination of variationally optimized atomic orbitals centered on the nuclei and corrections computed on a Cartesian mesh. The problem of finding the corrections is reduced to the problem of solving the Hartree-Fock equations with inhomogeneous terms. An iterative method is developed in which the equation is treated as an inhomogeneous Helmholtz equation with the potential terms transferred to the inhomogeneous term. Terms in the equation that arise from rapid variation of the orbitals in the neighborhoods of the nuclei are treated analytically. The Helmholtz equation can then be solved using a fast Fourier transform method. Results for a number of small molecules that are accurate at the millihartree level are presented. The method for solving the inhomogeneous Hartree-Fock equation should be applicable to other problems of quantum chemistry.

We present the optimization of the two-color synthesis method for generating an intense isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) in the multicycle regime. By mixing an infrared assistant pulse with a Ti:sapphire main pulse, we show that an IAP can be produced using a multicycle two-color pulse with a duration longer than 30 fs. We also discuss the influence of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) and the relative intensity on the generation of IAPs. By optimizing the wavelength of the assistant field, IAP generation becomes insensitive to the CEP slip. Therefore, the optimized two-color method enables us to relax the requirements of pulse duration and easily produce the IAP with a conventional multicycle laser pulse. In addition, it enables us to markedly suppress the ionization of the harmonic medium. This is a major advantage for efficiently generating intense IAPs from a neutral medium by applying the appropriate phase-matching and energy-scaling techniques.

We propose to turn two resonant distant cavities effectively into one by coupling them via an optical fiber which is coated with two-level atoms [J. D. Franson et al., Phys. Rev. A 70, 062302 (2004)]. The purpose of the atoms is to destructively measure the evanescent electric field of the fiber on a time scale which is long compared to the time it takes a photon to travel from one cavity to the other. Moreover, the boundary conditions imposed by the setup should support a small range of standing waves inside the fiber, including one at the frequency of the cavities. In this way, the fiber provides an additional decay channel for one common cavity field mode but not for the other. If the corresponding decay rate is sufficiently large, this mode decouples effectively from the system dynamics. A single nonlocal resonator mode is created.

Based on the stochastic theory developed by Kubo and Anderson, we present an exact result of the decoherence function of a qubit in telegraphlike noises under dynamical decoupling control. We prove that for telegraphlike noises, the decoherence can be suppressed at most to the third order of the time and the periodic Carr-Purcell-Merboom-Gill sequences are the most efficient scheme in protecting the qubit coherence in the short-time limit.

The polarizabilities of the three lowest states of the beryllium atom are determined from a large basis configuration interaction calculation. The polarizabilities of the $2s^2$ ${}^1{S}^e$ ground state ($37.73$$a_0^3$) and the $2s2p$ ${}^3{P}_0^o$ metastable state ($39.04$$a_0^3$) are found to be very similar in size and magnitude. This leads to an anomalously small blackbody radiation shift at $300$ K of $-$$0.018(4)$ Hz for the $2s^2$ ${}^1{S}^e$–$2s2p$ ${}^3{P}_0^o$ clock transition. Magic wavelengths for simultaneous trapping of the ground and metastable states are also computed.

We develop the scattering approach to calculate the exact dispersive Casimir-Polder potential between a ground-state atom and a rectangular grating. Our formalism allows, in principle, for arbitrary values of the grating amplitude and period, and of the atom-grating distance. We compute numerically the potential for a Rb atom on top of a Si grating and compare the results with the potential for a flat surface taken at the local atom-surface distance (proximity force approximation). Except for very short separation distances, the potential is nearly sinusoidal along the direction transverse to the grooves.

Charge transfer in collisions of $\alpha$ particles with ground-state H embedded in a Debye plasma is studied in the low-energy region from $10$${}^{-4}$ eV to $5$ keV. The screened Coulomb interaction is described by the Debye-Hückel potential. The relevant molecular potentials and coupling matrix elements are obtained using a modified multireference single-and double-excitation configuration interaction package. Total and state-selective cross sections in the nonradiative charge-transfer collisions from $60$ eV to $5$ keV are calculated using the quantum-mechanical molecular-orbital close-coupling method. Both optical-potential and semiclassical methods have been used in the investigation of the radiative charge transfer from $10$${}^{-4}$ to $1$ eV and $1$ to $10$${}^2$ eV, respectively. The total cross sections for the no-screening case are in good agreement with the existing data. The effects of the screened Coulomb potential on the electron-capture cross sections are discussed.

In a previous publication [K. Gokhberg and L. S. Cederbaum, J. Phys. B 42, 231001 (2009)] we presented the interatomic Coulombic electron capture process—an efficient electron capture mechanism by atoms and ions in the presence of an environment. In the present work we derive and discuss the mechanism in detail. We demonstrate thereby that this mechanism belongs to a family of interatomic electron capture processes driven by electron correlation. In these processes the excess energy released in the capture event is transferred to the environment and used to ionize (or to excite) it. This family includes the processes where the capture is into the lowest or into an excited unoccupied orbital of an atom or ion and proceeds in step with the ionization (or excitation) of the environment, as well as the process where an intermediate autoionizing excited resonance state is formed in the capturing center which subsequently deexcites to a stable state transferring its excess energy to the environment. Detailed derivation of the asymptotic cross sections of these processes is presented. The derived expressions make clear that the environment assisted capture processes can be important for many systems. Illustrative examples are presented for a number of model systems for which the data needed to construct the various capture cross sections are available in the literature.

The nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling and the nonlinear Rabi oscillations of superfluid Fermi gases between Bloch bands in an accelerating optical lattice are discussed. Within the hydrodynamic theory and a two-level model, the tunneling probability of superfluid Fermi gases between Bloch bands is obtained. We find that, as the system crosses from the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) side to the BCS side, the tunneling rate is closely related to the particle density: when the density is smaller (larger) than a critical value, the tunneling rate at unitarity is larger (smaller) than that in the BEC limit. This is well explained in terms of an effective interaction and an effective potential. Furthermore, the nonlinear Rabi oscillations of superfluid Fermi gases between the bands are discussed by imposing a periodic modulation on the level bias and the strength of the lattice. Analytical expressions of the critical density for suppressing or enhancing the Rabi oscillations are obtained. It is shown that, as the system crosses from the BEC side to the BCS side, the critical density strongly depends on the modulation parameters (i.e., the modulation amplitude and the modulation frequency). For a fixed density, a high-frequency or low-frequency modulation can suppress or enhance the Rabi oscillations both at unitarity and in the BEC limit. For an intermediate modulation frequency, the Rabi oscillations are chaotic along the entire BEC-BCS crossover, especially, on the BCS side. Interestingly, we find that the modulation of the lattice strength only with an intermediate modulation frequency has significant effect on the Rabi oscillations both in the BEC limit and at unitarity; that is, an intermediate-frequency modulation can enhance the Rabi oscillations, especially on the BCS side.

We employ a mean-field theory to study ground-state properties and transport of a two-dimensional gas of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal atoms governed by the Kondo lattice Hamiltonian plus a parabolic confining potential. In a homogenous system, this mean-field theory is believed to give a qualitatively correct description of heavy-fermion metals and Kondo insulators: It reproduces the Kondo-like scaling of the quasiparticle mass in the former and the same scaling of the excitation gap in the latter. In order to understand ground-state properties in a trap, we extend this mean-field theory via local-density approximation. We find that the Kondo insulator gap manifests as a shell structure in the trapped density profile. In addition, a strong signature of the large Fermi surface expected for heavy-fermion systems survives the confinement and could be probed in time-of-flight experiments. From a full self-consistent diagonalization of the mean-field theory, we are able to study dynamics in the trap. We find that the mass enhancement of quasiparticle excitations in the heavy-Fermi liquid phase manifests as slowing of the dipole oscillations that result from a sudden displacement of the trap center.

We study the Bose-Fermi mixture with infinite boson-boson repulsion and finite boson-fermion repulsion. Using a generalized Jordan-Wigner transformation, we show that the system can be mapped to a repulsive Hubbard model and thus can be solved exactly for the case with equal boson and fermion masses. Using the Bethe-ansatz solutions, we investigate the ground-state properties of the mixture system. Our results indicate that the system with commensurate filling $n=1$ is a charge insulator but still a superfluid with nonvanishing superfluid density. We also briefly discuss the case with unequal boson and fermion masses.

We propose using mode locking to enable coherent nonlinear optical effects in inhomogenously broadened spin ensembles. We carry out detailed calculations for quantum dot systems in which increased spin coherence via mode locking has been recently observed [A. Greilich et al., Science 313, 341 (2006); 317, 1896 (2007)]. We show how, in the presence of spin locking, a strong pulse-matching effect occurs, providing a powerful tool for high-bandwidth linear optical processing. We then go on to study “slow light” in this system and show that high-bandwidth pulses can be controllably delayed by a time comparable to the pulse width.