Negative-ion resonance structures, cusps, and possibly broad shape resonances were observed in the electron impact excitation of the $4s4p\hspace{0.5em}{}^1{P}_1$ and $4s4p\hspace{0.5em}{}^3{P}_{0,1,2}$ states of zinc near the thresholds of the lowest autoionizing states. Angle differential scattered electron excitation functions show strong contributions from the decay of negative-ion resonances built on a $3d$ excited ion core with final state spin-dependent decay. Most resonances have a $3d^9{\mathit{ns}}^{2}4p^2$ electron configuration, and they appear in one or both of the ${}^1{P}_1$ and ${}^3{P}_{0,1,2}$ states but with different branching ratios and angular behaviors.

Quantum-mechanical analysis of ion motion in a rotating-radio-frequency (rrf) trap or in a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating field is carried out. Rrf traps were introduced by Hasegawa and Bollinger [Phys. Rev. A 72, 043404 (2005)]. The classical motion of a single ion in this trap is described by only trigonometric functions, whereas in the conventional linear radio-frequency (rf) traps it is by the Mathieu functions. Because of the simple classical motion in the rrf trap, it is expected that the quantum-mechanical analysis of the rrf traps is also simple compared to that of the linear rf traps. The analysis of Penning traps with a quadrupole rotating field is also possible in a way similar to the rrf traps. As a result, the Hamiltonian in these traps is the same as the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and energy levels and wave functions are derived as exact results. In these traps, it is found that one of the vibrational modes in the rotating frame can have negative energy levels, which means that the zero-quantum-number state (“ground” state) is the highest energy state.

The ultrafast dynamics of microplasmas generated by femtosecond laser pulses in noble gases has been investigated using four-wave mixing (FWM). The time dependence of the FWM signal is observed to reach higher intensity levels faster for Xe, with progressively lower scattering intensity and longer time dynamics for the noble gas series Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne, and He. The temporal dynamics is interpreted in terms of a tunnel ionization and impact cooling mechanism. A formalism to interpret the observed phenomena is presented here with comparison to the measured laser intensity and gas pressure trends.

We study the propagation of sound in a homogeneous dipolar gas at zero temperature, which is known as zero sound. We find that undamped zero sound propagation is possible only in a range of solid angles around the direction of polarization of the dipoles. Above a critical dipole moment, we find an unstable mode, by which the gas collapses locally perpendicular to the dipoles’ direction.

We show that the four-wave mixing (FWM) processes in a multi-Zeeman level atomic system can be enhanced and suppressed by changing the polarization of one of the pump beams. Different polarization states of the pump beams will act on different transition pathways among the multi-Zeeman levels with different transition strengths, which affect the FWM efficiencies. An additional dress field applied to the adjacent transition can cause energy level splitting and therefore control the enhancement and suppression of the FWM processes in the system. The experimental results are in good agreement with our theoretical calculations.

We theoretically investigate optical injection in semiconductor ring lasers and disclose several dynamical regimes. Through numerical simulations and bifurcation continuation, two separate parameter regions in which two different injection-locked solutions coexist are revealed, in addition to a region in which a frequency-locked limit cycle coexists with an injection-locked solution. Finally, an antiphase chaotic regime without the involvement of any carrier dynamics is revealed. Parallels are drawn with the onset of chaos in the periodically forced Duffing oscillator.

Performance of quantum process estimation is naturally limited by fundamental, random, and systematic imperfections of preparations and measurements. These imperfections may lead to considerable errors in the process reconstruction because standard data-analysis techniques usually presume ideal devices. Here, by utilizing generic auxiliary quantum or classical correlations, we provide a framework for the estimation of quantum dynamics via a single measurement apparatus. By construction, this approach can be applied to quantum tomography schemes with calibrated faulty-state generators and analyzers. Specifically, we present a generalization of the work begun by M. Mohseni and D. A. Lidar [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 170501 (2006)] with an imperfect Bell-state analyzer. We demonstrate that for several physically relevant noisy preparations and measurements, classical correlations and a small data-processing overhead suffice to accomplish the full system identification. Furthermore, we provide the optimal input states whereby the error amplification due to inversion of the measurement data is minimal.

We introduce a family of two-dimensional (2D) topological subsystem quantum error-correcting codes. The gauge group is generated by two-local Pauli operators, so that two-local measurements are enough to recover the error syndrome. We study the computational power of code deformation in these codes and show that boundaries cannot be introduced in the usual way. In addition, we give a general mapping connecting suitable classical statistical mechanical models to optimal error correction in subsystem stabilizer codes that suffer from depolarizing noise.

The existence and nature of tripartite entanglement of a noninteracting Fermi gas (NIFG) is investigated. Three classes of parametrized entanglement witnesses (EWs) are introduced with the aim of detecting genuine tripartite entanglement in the three-body reduced density matrix and discriminating between the presence of the two types of genuine tripartite entanglement, $W\backslash B$ and $\mathrm{GHZ}\backslash W$ (the convex set of $B$ states is comprised of mixed states of product and biseparable states; that of $W$ states is comprised of mixed states of $B$ states and $W$-type pure entangled states; and the GHZ (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger) set contains generic mixtures of any kind for a tripartite system). By choosing appropriate EW operators, the problem of finding GHZ and $W$ EWs is reduced to linear programming. Specifically, we devise $W$ EWs based on a spin-chain model with periodic boundary conditions, and we construct a class of parametrized GHZ EWs by linearly combining projection operators corresponding to all the different state-vector types arising for a three-fermion system. A third class of EWs is provided by a GHZ stabilizer operator capable of distinguishing $W\backslash B$ from $\mathrm{GHZ}\backslash B$ entanglement, which is not possible with $W$ EWs. Implementing these classes of EWs, it is found that all states containing genuine tripartite entanglement are of $W$ type, and hence states containing $\mathrm{GHZ}\backslash W$ genuine tripartite entanglement do not arise. Some genuine tripartite entangled states that have a positive partial transpose (PPT) with respect to some bipartition are detected. Finally, it is demonstrated that a NIFG does not exhibit “pure” $W\backslash B$ genuine tripartite entanglement: three-party entanglement without any separable or biseparable admixture does not occur.

We propose a mechanism to produce a superposition of atomic and molecular states by a train of ultrashort laser pulses combined with weak control fields. By adjusting the repetition rate of the pump pulses and the intensity of the coupling laser, one can suppress a transition while simultaneously enhancing the desired transitions. As an example, various superpositions of vibrational states of the ${\mathrm{K}}_2$ molecule are shown.

We show that a ferroelectric quantum phase transition can be driven by the dipolar interaction of polar molecules in the presence a microwave field. The obtained ferroelectricity crucially depends on the harmonic confinement potential, and the macroscopic dipole moment persists even when the external field is turned off adiabatically. The transition is shown to be second order for fermions and for bosons of a smaller permanent dipole moment, but is first order for bosons of a larger moment. Our results suggest the possibility of manipulating the microscopic rotational state of polar molecules by tuning the trap’s aspect ratio (and other mesoscopic parameters), even though the later’s energy scale is smaller than the former’s by six orders of magnitude.

If the dynamics of an open quantum system is non-Markovian, its asymptotic state strongly depends on the initial conditions, even if the dynamics possesses an invariant state. This is the very essence of memory effects. In particular, the asymptotic state can remember and partially preserve its initial entanglement. Interestingly, even if the non-Markovian evolution relaxes to an equilibrium state, this state needs not be invariant. Therefore, the noninvariance of equilibrium becomes a clear sign of non-Markovianity.

Within a semiclassical description of above-threshold ionization (ATI) we identify the interplay between intracycle and intercycle interferences. The former is imprinted as a modulation envelope on the discrete multiphoton peaks formed by the latter. This allows one to unravel the complex interference pattern observed for the full solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) in terms of diffraction at a grating in the time domain. These modulations can be clearly seen in the dependence of the ATI spectra on the laser wavelength. Shifts in energy modulation result from the effect of the long Coulomb tail of the atomic potential.

We propose a mechanism to understand the infrared (IR) laser assisted atomic ionization by attosecond pulses (AP). Atomic structures in an IR laser field are described by Floquet states and atoms can be ionized to a Floquet state by a single AP through different Floquet components. The interference of ionization through different Floquet components results in the oscillation of the ionization yield as a function of the arriving time of the AP. The proposed mechanism explains the recent experimental observations [Johnsson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 233001 (2007)]. Furthermore, we find that, for a specified photoelectron energy, the ionization yield always oscillates as a function of the relative phase between the AP and the IR laser for both He and Ar atoms.

A diode-laser system at $467$ nm is built in order to drive the ${}^2{S}_{1/2}\to {}^2{F}_{7/2}$ electric octupole transition at $467$ nm in ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$. The frequency of the laser is stabilized to a reference cavity made of ultra low expansion glass and is demonstrated to have a relative instability of better than $2\times {10}^{-15}$ at $1$ s and a stable linear drift rate with variations below $10$ mHz/s over several hours. The system is applied for spectroscopy of a single trapped laser-cooled ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$ ion. We obtain excitation spectra of the octupole transition with a resonant excitation probability of about $65\%$ and an essentially Fourier transform-limited resolution of $13$ Hz.

A scheme for the generation of a Tonks-Girardeau (TG) gas of polaritons with purely dissipative interaction is described. We put forward a master equation approach for the description of stationary light in atomic four-level media and show that, under suitable conditions, two-particle decays are the dominant photon loss mechanism. These dissipative two-photon losses increase the interaction strength by at least one order of magnitude as compared to dispersive two-photon processes and can drive the polaritons into the TG regime. Characteristic correlations of the TG gas, including quantities that distinguish it from free fermions, can be measured via standard quantum optical techniques. Our scheme thus allows one to feasibly generate highly correlated photon states, which can be of considerable use in quantum-information processing and precision measurements.

We consider the Casimir interaction between a ferromagnetic and a nonmagnetic mirror and show how the Casimir effect gives rise to a magnetic anisotropy in the ferromagnetic layer. The anisotropy is out of plane if the nonmagnetic plate is optically isotropic. If the nonmagnetic plate shows a uniaxial optical anisotropy (with optical axis in the plate plane), we find an in-plane magnetic anisotropy. In both cases, the energetically most favorable magnetization orientation is given by the competition between polar, longitudinal, and transverse contributions to the magneto-optical Kerr effect and will therefore depend on the interplate distance. Numerical results will be presented for a magnetic plate made out of Fe and nonmagnetic plates of Au (optically isotropic), quartz, calcite, and barium titanate (all uniaxially birefringent).

In this article, we provide an alternative and general way to construct the result of the action of any particle-conserving bosonic or fermionic operator represented in second quantized form on a state vector, without resorting to the matrix representation of operators or even its elements. This approach is based on our proposal to compactly enumerate the configurations (i.e., determinants for fermions, permanents for bosons) that are the elements of the state vector. This extremely simplifies the calculation of the action of an operator on a state vector. The computations of statical properties and the evolution dynamics of a system become much more efficient, and applications to systems made of more particles become feasible. Explicit formulations are given for spin-polarized fermionic systems and spinless bosonic systems, as well as to general (two-component) fermionic systems, two-component bosonic systems, and mixtures thereof.

We discuss intensity effects in collisions between beams of optical photons from a high-power laser and relativistic electrons. Our main focus is on the modifications of the emission spectra due to realistic finite-beam geometries. By carefully analyzing the classical limit we precisely quantify the distinction between strong-field QED Compton scattering and classical Thomson scattering. A purely classical, but fully covariant, calculation of the bremsstrahlung emitted by an electron in a plane-wave laser field yields radiation into harmonics, as expected. This result is generalized to pulses of finite duration and explains the appearance of line broadening and harmonic substructure as an interference phenomenon. The ensuing numerical treatment confirms that strong focusing of the laser leads to a broad continuum while higher harmonics become visible only at moderate focusing, and hence lower intensity. We present a scaling law for the backscattered photon spectral density which facilitates averaging over electron beam phase space. Finally, we propose a set of realistic parameters such that the observation of intensity-induced spectral red shift, higher harmonics, and their substructure becomes feasible.