The level crossing problem and associated geometric terms are neatly formulated by the second-quantized formulation. This formulation exhibits a hidden local gauge symmetry related to the arbitrariness of the phase choice of the complete orthonormal basis set. By using this second-quantized formulation, which does not assume adiabatic approximation, a convenient exact formula for the geometric terms including off-diagonal geometric terms is derived. The analysis of geometric phases is then reduced to a simple diagonalization of the Hamiltonian, and it is analyzed both in the operator and path-integral formulations. If one diagonalizes the geometric terms in the infinitesimal neighborhood of level crossing, the geometric phases become trivial (and thus no monopole singularity) for arbitrarily large but finite time interval $T$. The integrability of Schrödinger equation and the appearance of the seemingly nonintegrable phases are thus consistent. The topological proof of the Longuet-Higgins’ phase-change rule, for example, fails in the practical Born-Oppenheimer approximation where a large but finite ratio of two time scales is involved and $T$ is identified with the period of the slower system. The difference and similarity between the geometric phases associated with level crossing and the exact topological object such as the Aharonov-Bohm phase become clear in the present formulation. A crucial difference between the quantum anomaly and the geometric phases is also noted.

We provide an analysis of basic quantum-information processing protocols under the effect of intrinsic nonidealities in cluster states. These nonidealities are based on the introduction of randomness in the entangling steps that create the cluster state and are motivated by the unavoidable imperfections faced in creating entanglement using condensed-matter systems. Aided by the use of an alternative and very efficient method to construct cluster-state configurations, which relies on the concatenation of fundamental cluster structures, we address quantum-state transfer and various fundamental gate simulations through noisy cluster states. We find that a winning strategy to limit the effects of noise is the management of small clusters processed via just a few measurements. Our study also reinforces recent ideas related to the optical implementation of a one-way quantum computer.

Quantum circuits implementing fault-tolerant quantum error correction (QEC) for the three-qubit bit-flip code and five-qubit code are studied. To describe the effect of noise, we apply a model based on a generalized effective Hamiltonian where the system-environment interactions are taken into account by including stochastic fluctuating terms in the system Hamiltonian. This noise model enables us to investigate the effect of noise in quantum circuits under realistic device conditions and avoid strong assumptions such as maximal parallelism and weak storage errors. Noise thresholds of the QEC codes are calculated. In addition, the effects of imprecision in projective measurements, collective bath, fault-tolerant repetition protocols, and level of parallelism in circuit constructions on the threshold values are also studied with emphasis on determining the optimal design for the fault-tolerant QEC circuit. These results provide insights into the fault-tolerant QEC process as well as useful information for designing the optimal fault-tolerant QEC circuit for particular physical implementation of quantum computer.

Long-range exchange and correlation effects, responsible for the failure of currently used approximate density functionals in describing van der Waals forces, are taken into account explicitly after a separation of the electron-electron interaction in the Hamiltonian into short- and long-range components. We propose a “range-separated hybrid” functional based on a local density approximation for the short-range exchange-correlation energy, combined with a long-range exact exchange energy. Long-range correlation effects are added by a second-order perturbational treatment. The resulting scheme is general and is particularly well adapted to describe van der Waals complexes, such as rare gas dimers.

We theoretically study a process in which helium is doubly ionized by absorbing two soft x-ray $\left(91.45\mathrm{eV}\right)$ photons from attosecond, intense high-order harmonic sources. We directly solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and obtain electron energy distribution in the double continuum. Our results show that between the two peaks in electron energy spectra, expected for usual sequential ionization, an additional component (anomalous component) is present. The total two photon above-threshold double ionization yield including the anomalous component is explained by sequential processes: the two electrons are ejected one by one, absorbing a single photon each. This observation rejects the intuition that nonsequential double ionization would be responsible for the anomalous component. With the help of simple semiclassical stochastic models, we discuss two possible origins of the anomalous component, namely, postionization energy exchange and second ionization during core relaxation, of which the latter is more plausible: the ionization interval is so short that the second electron is ejected while the two electrons are still exchanging energy.

We construct a dynamical model for the time evolution of the boson-fermion coexistence system. The dynamics of bosons and fermions are formulated with the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevsky equation and the Vlasov equation. We thus study the monopole oscillation in the boson-fermion mixture. We find that large damping exists for fermion oscillations in the mixed system even at zero temperature.

We use the standard fermionic and boson-fermion Hamiltonians to study the BCS–BEC crossover near the 202 G resonance in a two-component mixture of fermionic ${}^{40}\mathrm{K}$ atoms employed in the experiment of Regal et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 040403 (2004)]. Our mean-field analysis of many-body equilibrium quantities shows virtually no differences between the predictions of the two approaches, provided they are both implemented in a manner that properly includes the effect of the highest excited bound state of the background scattering potential, rather than just the magnetic-field dependence of the scattering length. Consequently, we rule out the macroscopic occupation of the molecular field as a mechanism behind the fermionic pair condensation and show that the BCS-BEC crossover in ultracold ${}^{40}\mathrm{K}$ gases can be analyzed and understood on the same basis as in the conventional systems of solid state physics.

We describe a nonperturbative (in $Z\alpha$) numerical evaluation of the one-photon electron self-energy for $3P_{1∕2}$, $3P_{3∕2}$, $4P_{1∕2}$, and $4P_{3∕2}$ states in hydrogenlike atomic systems with charge numbers $Z=1$ to 5. The numerical results are found to be in agreement with known terms in the expansion of the self-energy in powers of $Z\alpha$ and lead to improved theoretical predictions for the self-energy shift of these states.

The zero-temperature properties of a dilute two-component Fermi gas in the BCS to Bose-Einstein Condensation crossover are investigated. On the basis of a generalization of the Hylleraas-Undheim method, we construct rigorous upper bounds to the collective frequencies for the radial and the axial breathing mode of the Fermi gas under harmonic confinement in the framework of the hydrodynamic theory. The bounds are compared to experimental data for trapped vapors of ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ atoms.

Quantum theory is compatible with special relativity. In particular, though measurements on entangled systems are correlated in a way that cannot be reproduced by local hidden variables, they cannot be used for superluminal signaling. As Czachor, Gisin, and Polchinski pointed out, this is not generally true of general nonlinear modifications of the Schrödinger equation. Excluding superluminal signaling has thus been taken to rule out most nonlinear versions of quantum theory. The no-superluminal-signaling constraint has also been used for alternative derivations of the optimal fidelities attainable for imperfect quantum cloning and other operations. These results apply to theories satisfying the rule that their predictions for widely separated and slowly moving entangled systems can be approximated by nonrelativistic equations of motion with respect to a preferred time coordinate. This paper describes a natural way in which this rule might fail to hold. In particular, it is shown that quantum readout devices which display the values of localized pure states need not allow superluminal signaling, provided that the devices display the values of the states of entangled subsystems as defined in a nonstandard, although natural, way. It follows that any locally defined nonlinear evolution of pure states can be made consistent with Minkowski causality.

The “self-induced decoherence” (SID) approach suggests that (1) the expectation value of any observable becomes diagonal in the eigenstates of the total Hamiltonian for systems endowed with a continuous energy spectrum, and that (2) this process can be interpreted as decoherence. We evaluate the first claim in the context of a simple spin bath model. We find that even for large environments, corresponding to an approximately continuous energy spectrum, diagonalization of the expectation value of random observables does in general not occur. We explain this result and conjecture that SID is likely to fail also in other systems composed of discrete subsystems. Regarding the second claim, we emphasize that SID does not describe a physically meaningful decoherence process for individual measurements, but only involves destructive interference that occurs collectively within an ensemble of presupposed “values” of measurements. This leads us to question the relevance of SID for treating observed decoherence effects.

Coherent population trapping (CPT) is an important concept in many subfields of physics and chemistry. Here we analyze the collective excitation spectrum of the CPT states in a coupled atom-molecule condensate system. We find that collisions between particles can cause the CPT state to be dynamically unstable, which is a unique feature of the nonlinear system. We obtain a set of analytical criteria for determining the stability properties of the CPT state in the long-wavelength limit. We construct stability diagrams and provide a systematic classification of various instabilities according to collisional interaction strengths.

Based on color-locking noisy field correlation, a time-delayed method is proposed to suppress the thermal effect, and the ultrafast longitudinal relaxation time can be measured even in an absorbing medium. One interesting feature in field-correlation effects is that Rayleigh-enhanced four-wave mixing (RFWM) with color-locking noisy light exhibits spectral symmetry and temporal asymmetry with no coherence spike at $\tau =0$. Due to the interference between the Rayleigh-resonant signal and the nonresonant background, RFWM exhibits hybrid radiation-matter detuning with terahertz damping oscillations. The subtle Markovian high-order correlation effects have been investigated in the homodyne- or heterodyne-detected Rayleigh-enhanced attosecond sum-frequency polarization beats (RASPBs). Analytic closed forms of fourth-order Markovian stochastic correlations are characterized for homodyne (quadratic) and heterodyne (linear) detection, respectively. Based on the polarization interference between two four-wave mixing processes, the phase-sensitive detection of RASPBs has also been used to obtain the real and imaginary parts of the Rayleigh resonance.

We have investigated the behavior of high-order stimulated Raman scattering in a highly-transient regime. We demonstrate efficient collinear generation of vibrational sidebands in molecular hydrogen and methane using two-color pumping with pulses of duration $\tau \sim 100\mathrm{fs}$ tuned to a vibrational Raman transition. A Raman spectrum with a large bandwidth was observed, ranging from the IR to the UV. Under some conditions strong pump depletion was observed and up to five anti-Stokes sidebands were observed to have energies exceeding 10% of the transmitted pump pulse energies. A numerical simulation reproduces qualitatively and quantitatively the experimental results and allows us to explain key experimental features. The simulation also confirms that the molecular coherence in the medium is substantially increased by the two-color pumping and allows us to deduce values for the degree of material excitation. The use of this technique looks promising for efficient subfemtosecond pulse generation.

We consider propagation of a two-level atom coupled to one electromagnetic mode of a high-$Q$ cavity. The atomic center-of-mass motion is treated quantum mechanically and we use a standing wave shape for the mode. The periodicity of the Hamiltonian leads to a spectrum consisting of bands and gaps, which is studied from a Floquet point of view. Based on the band theory, we introduce a set of effective mass parameters that approximately describe the effect of the cavity on the atomic motion, with the emphasis on one associated with the group velocity and on another one that coincides with the conventional effective mass. Propagation of initially Gaussian wave packets is also studied using numerical simulations and the mass parameters extracted thereof are compared with those predicted by the Floquet theory. Scattering and transmission of the wave packet against the cavity are further analyzed, and the constraints for the effective mass approach to be valid are discussed in detail.

Cavity solitons (CSs) are localized structures appearing as intensity peaks in the homogeneous background of the field emitted by a nonlinear microresonator. We experimentally and theoretically study the switch-on process of cavity solitons in semiconductor amplifiers. The switching time has two contributions: a lethargic lapse following the application of the switching pulse and a characteristic buildup time. While the latter is not significantly affected by the control parameters, the former crucially depends on them. Optimization of the parameters leads to a switch-on time of less than one nanosecond, assessing the CS competitiveness for all-optical applications.

We show that an arbitrary relative phase can be extracted from a multiqubit two-component (MTC) entangled state by local Hadamard transformations and measurements along a single basis only. In addition, how to distinguish a MTC entangled state with an arbitrary entanglement degree and relative phase from a class of multiqubit mixed states is discussed.

The angular distribution of Ar $3p$ photoelectrons was measured in the $90–330\mathrm{eV}$ photon energy region using linearly polarized synchrotron radiation. Emphasis was placed in particular on the $2p\to ns∕md$ resonances for which the dipole and the nondipole angular anisotropy parameters were measured and compared with the recent theoretical predictions. The present multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock calculation including the direct photoionization was found to reproduce the observed structures in the angular anisotropy parameters.