Many proposals have been put forth for controlling quantum phenomena, including open-loop, adaptive feedback, and real-time feedback control. Each of these approaches has been viewed as operationally, and even physically, distinct from the others. This work shows that all such scenarios inherently share the same fundamental control features residing in the topology of the landscape relating the target physical observable to the applied controls. This unified foundation may provide a basis for development of hybrid control schemes that would combine the advantages of the existing approaches to achieve the best overall performance.

We report experimental measurements of a high-precision photoreaction spectroscopy in combination with the velocity map imaging method. With such high-precision experimental measurements, we can “observe” detailed photodissociation processes of a specific superexcited state of our choosing. Based on multichannel quantum defect theory, an interesting quantum interference mechanism of dissociation of superexcited ${\mathrm{F}}_2$ into (${\mathrm{F}}^{+}+{\mathrm{F}}^{-}$) ion pairs has been unveiled.

Electron-scattering cross sections have been determined for the furan (C${}_4$H${}_4$O) molecule, both experimentally and theoretically. An absolute total cross section (TCS) has been measured over energies from 0.6 to 400 eV using a linear electron-transmission method. The TCS energy function is dominated with a very broad enhancement, between 1.2 and 9 eV; on the low-energy side, some resonant structures are visible. Integral elastic (ECS) and ionization (ICS) cross sections have been also calculated up to 4 keV in the additivity rule approximation and the binary-encounter-Bethe approach, respectively. Their sum, ECS$+$ICS, is in a very good agreement with the measured TCS above 70 eV.

We study high-energy angle-resolved photoelectron spectra of molecules in strong fields. In an oscillating laser electric field, electrons released earlier in the pulse may return to recollide with the target ion, in a process similar to scattering by laboratory prepared electrons. If midinfrared lasers are used, we show that the images generated by the returning electrons are similar to images observed in typical gas-phase electron diffraction (GED). These spectra can be used to retrieve the positions of atoms in a molecule as in GED. Since infrared laser pulses of durations of a few femtoseconds are already available today, the study of these high-energy photoelectrons offers the opportunity of imaging the structure of transient molecules with temporal resolution of a few femtoseconds.

We show that the high-energy part of the above-threshold-ionization spectrum can be modified considerably if a driving laser pulse composed of several harmonic frequencies is used. To find such a pulse we rely on classical calculation. We present results of the quantum-mechanical calculation confirming classical results.

We present a theoretical investigation into the two-center interference in aligned ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$. The influence of the laser field on the recombination step is investigated by comparing laser-induced harmonic generation with harmonic generation from field-free collisions of Gaussian wave packets with the core. We find that for different Gaussian wave packets colliding with the molecule, the interference minimum occurs at the same alignment angle. The same result is obtained for the laser-induced spectrum when only a single electronic trajectory per harmonic contributes. When multiple electronic trajectories contribute, we find an effect on the minimum position because the interference between short and long trajectories is alignment dependent. The two-center interference and the influence of the Coulombic potential are clearly seen not only in the harmonic intensity and phase but also in the polarization direction and ellipticity. We observe significant ellipticity of the emitted radiation around the two-center interference minimum.

We propose a scheme for the realization of a quantum walker and a quantum simulator for the Dirac equation with ultracold spinor atoms in driven optical lattices. A precise control of the dynamics of the atomic matter wave can be realized using time-dependent external forces. If the force depends on the spin state of the atoms, the dynamics will entangle the inner and outer degrees of freedom, which offers unique opportunities for quantum information and quantum simulation. Here we introduce a method to realize a quantum walker based on the state-dependent transport of spinor atoms and a coherent driving of the internal state. In the limit of weak driving the dynamics are equivalent to that of a Dirac particle in $1+1$ dimensions. Thus it becomes possible to simulate relativistic effects such as Zitterbewegung and Klein tunneling.

We investigate the effects of impurities, either correlated disorder or a single Gaussian defect, on the collective dipole motion of a Bose-Einstein condensate of ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ in an optical trap. We find that this motion is damped at a rate dependent on the impurity strength, condensate center-of-mass velocity, and interatomic interactions. Damping in the Thomas-Fermi regime depends universally on the disordered potential strength scaled to the condensate chemical potential and the condensate velocity scaled to the speed of sound. The damping rate is comparatively small in the weakly interacting regime, and, in this case, is accompanied by strong condensate fragmentation. In situ and time-of-flight images of the atomic cloud provide evidence that this fragmentation is driven by dark soliton formation.

In injected lasers, only synchronization of the order $1/1$ (when a frequency of laser oscillations becomes equal to the master laser frequency) is usually observed. Such locking appears due to single-photon transitions in a laser. We show that with the use of multiple-photon transitions a higher-order synchronization can arise. We present the results of numerical simulations and the preliminary experimental observations, which demonstrate that in the mercury NMR laser, with the use of triple-photon transitions, a frequency of locked laser oscillations becomes three times higher than the frequency of an external rf magnetic field. Such synchronization appears only in the case of a linearly polarized (oscillating) external magnetic field. For the circularly polarized (rotating) external field, only synchronization of the order $1/1$ is possible.

We report a demonstration of nonlocal second-order correlation Talbot effects with incoherent thermal light in a lensless setup containing two optical paths. Self-images of the periodic object, including fractional and phase-reversal Talbot images, are observed at specific distances, in agreement with the theoretical analysis. It is also found that the image quality can be greatly enhanced when higher-order correlations are taken.

We analyze a system comprising a one-dimensional single-mode waveguide (a) coupled directly to a two-level atom (b) side-coupled to a cavity containing a two-level atom and show that in both cases it is possible to invert the atom with a single-photon pulse. In contrast to the semiclassical $\pi$ pulse, the inverting single-photon pulse is unique.

We report efficient second harmonic generation using extremely narrow beams (with diameter of the order of the wavelength) that propagate in the self-collimation (or nondiffractive) regime in a two-dimensional photonic crystal. We design and numerically test an AlGaAs photonic crystal membrane, where both fundamental and generated second harmonic beams propagate without diffraction and without out-of-plane losses. The characteristics of the generated second harmonic that is mainly propagating in the backward direction and the conversion efficiency of the proposed scheme are obtained by nonlinear finite-difference time-domain numerical simulations.

Three protocols of quantum cryptography with a nonmaximally entangled qubit pair [Phys. Rev. A 80, 022323 (2009)] were recently proposed by Shimizu, Tamaki, and Fukasaka. The security of these protocols is based on the quantum-mechanical constraint for a state transformation between nonmaximally entangled states. However, we find that the second protocol is vulnerable under the correlation-elicitation attack. An eavesdropper can obtain the encoded bit $M$ although she has no knowledge about the random bit $R$.

We provide security bounds against coherent attacks for two families of quantum key distribution protocols that use $d$-dimensional quantum systems. In the asymptotic regime, both the secret key rate for fixed noise and the robustness to noise increase with $d$. The finite key corrections are found to be almost insensitive to $d\lesssim 20$.

We study the power of measurements implementable with local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC) measurements in the setting of quantum channel discrimination. More precisely, we consider discrimination procedures that attempt to identify an unknown channel, chosen uniformly from two known alternatives, that take the following form: (i) the input to the unknown channel is prepared in a possibly entangled state with an ancillary system, (ii) the unknown channel is applied to the input system, and (iii) an LOCC measurement is performed on the output and ancillary systems, resulting in a guess for which of the two channels was given. The restriction of the measurement in such a procedure to be an LOCC measurement is of interest because it isolates the entanglement in the initial input-ancillary systems as a resource in the setting of channel discrimination. We prove that there exist channel discrimination problems for which restricted procedures of this sort can be at either of the two extremes: they may be optimal within the set of all discrimination procedures (and simultaneously outperform all strategies that make no use of entanglement), or they may be no better than unentangled strategies (and simultaneously suboptimal within the set of all discrimination procedures).

The state-resolved differential cross sections for both the $1s^2$ ${}^1{S}_0\to 1s2s$ ${}^1{S}_0$ monopolar transition and the $1s^2$ ${}^1{S}_0\to 1s2p$ ${}^1{P}_1$ dipolar transition of atomic helium had been measured over a large momentum transfer region by high-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS). The almost-perfect match of the present measurement with the theoretical calculations gives a stringent test of the theoretical method and the calculated wave functions. Our results demonstrate that high-resolution IXS is a powerful tool for studying the excitations in atoms and molecules.

We describe a general framework based on modal expansion for the study of optical-frequency combs generated with monolithic whispering-gallery-mode resonators. We obtain a set of time-domain rate equations describing the dynamics of each mode as a function of the main characteristics of the cavity, namely, Kerr nonlinearity, absorption, coupling losses, and cavity dispersion (geometrical and material). A stability analysis of the various side modes is performed, which finds analytically the threshold power needed for comb generation. We show that the various whispering gallery modes are excited in a nontrivial way, strongly dependent on the value of the overall cavity dispersion. We demonstrate that the combs are not simply generated through a direct transfer of energy from the pumped mode to all their neighbors but rather through complex intermediate interactions. Anomalous cavity dispersion is also demonstrated to be critical for these cascading processes, and comb generation is thereby unambiguously linked to modulational instability. This theory accurately describes the emergence of spectral modulation and free spectral-range tunability in the comb. It also enables a clear understanding of the various phenomena responsible for the spectral span limitation. Our theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with the numerical simulations, and they successfully explain the internal mechanisms responsible for the generation of hundreds of Kerr modes in monolithic whispering-gallery-mode resonators.

Very recently Girardeau and Minguzzi [Phys. Rev. A 79, 033610 (2009)] have studied an impurity in a one-dimensional gas of hard-core bosons. In particular they dealt with the general case where the mass of the impurity is different from the mass of the bosons and the impurity-boson interaction is not necessarily infinitely repulsive. We show that one of their initial steps is unjustified, contradicting known exact results. Their results in the general case apply only actually when the mass of the impurity is infinite.