This is a Reply to the Comment from F. Cinti and M. Boninsegni on our recent work on the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition in a two-dimensional dipolar system [Bombín, Mazzanti, and Boronat, Phys. Rev. A 100, 063614 (2019)]. The main criticism about our work expressed in that Comment is that we did not explicitly report the two spatial contributions to the total superfluid fraction. Here we analyze our results for a point of the phase diagram corresponding to the stripe phase, close to the gas-to-stripe transition line, and for a temperature below the BKT critical temperature. The scaling with the system size of the contribution to the superfluid fraction, coming from the direction in which spatial order appears, shows that it remains finite in the thermodynamic limit, as we already stated in our original work. This allow us to state that the stripe phase is superfluid at low temperatures. Furthermore, we offer some comments that help to understand where the differences between the results of Cinti and Boninsegni and ours come from.

We consider a quantum charged particle moving in the $xy$ plane under the action of a uniform perpendicular constant magnetic field, in the presence of a parabolic binding potential. The magnetic-moment operator has a continuous spectrum, and its eigenfunctions in the momentum representation are expressed in terms of modified Bessel functions. The probability distribution of the magnetic moment in the thermodynamic equilibrium state is calculated. At zero temperature, it has a simple exponential form in the diamagnetic region, with a sharp jump to zero at the origin. With an increase of temperature, a paramagnetic wing of the distribution becomes more and more pronounced. In the high-temperature regime, the diamagnetic and paramagnetic wings of the distribution have almost identical forms, described with a high precision by simple exponential functions with very large extensions. Therefore, diamagnetic and paramagnetic contributions almost cancel each other. The remaining non-zero diamagnetic value is due to a small asymmetry of the distribution nearby the origin, where some nonexponential fine structure is observed. The total width of the distribution function strongly depends on the strength of the binding potential. Strong fluctuations of the magnetic moment (described in terms of the variance) are discovered in all temperature regimes.

The formulation of models describing quantum versions of heat engines plays an important role in the quest toward establishing the laws of thermodynamics in the quantum regime. Of particular importance is the description of stroke-based engines, which can operate at finite time. In this paper we put forth a framework for describing stroboscopic, two-stroke engines, in generic quantum chains. The framework is a generalization of the so-called SWAP engine and is based on a collisional model, which alternates between pure heat and pure work strokes. The transient evolution towards a limit cycle is also fully accounted for. Moreover, we show that once the limit cycle has been reached, the energy of the internal sites of the chain no longer changes, with the heat currents being associated exclusively to the boundary sites. Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we show that this type of engine offers multiple ways of optimizing the output power, without affecting the efficiency. Finally, we also show that there exists an entire class of models, characterized by a specific type of interchain interaction, which always operate at Otto efficiency, irrespective of the operating conditions of the reservoirs.

Impacts of quantum stochasticity on the dynamics of an ultrarelativistic electron beam head-on colliding with a linearly polarized ultraintense laser pulse are theoretically investigated in a quasiclassical regime. Generally, the angular distribution of the electron beam keeps symmetrically in transverse directions in this regime, even under the ponderomotive force of the laser pulse. Here we show that under certain conditions an asymmetric angular distribution of the electron beam arises due to the quantum stochasticity effect, via simulations employing Landau-Lifshitz equation, quantum-modified Landau-Lifshitz equation, and quantum stochastic radiation reaction forms, to describe the radiative electron dynamics. The asymmetry is robust against a variety of laser and electron parameters, providing an experimentally detectable signature for the nature of quantum stochasticity of photon emission with laser and electron beams currently available.

We analyze the stabilizability of entangled two-mode Gaussian states in three benchmark dissipative models: local damping, dissipators engineered to preserve two-mode squeezed states, and cascaded oscillators. In the first two models, we determine principal upper bounds on the stabilizable entanglement, while in the last model arbitrary amounts of entanglement can be stabilized. All three models exhibit a tradeoff between state entanglement and purity in the entanglement maximizing limit. Our results are derived from the Hamiltonian-independent stabilizability conditions for Gaussian systems. Here, we sharpen these conditions with respect to their applicability.

We propose a nonadiabatic non-Abelian geometric quantum operation scheme to realize universal quantum computation with mesoscopic Rydberg atoms. A single control atom entangles a mesoscopic ensemble of target atoms through long-range interactions between Rydberg states. We demonstrate theoretically that both the single-qubit and two-qubit quantum gates can achieve high fidelities around or above $99.9\%$ in ideal situations. Besides, to address the experimental issue of Rabi frequency fluctuation (Rabi error) in Rydberg atom and ensemble, we apply the dynamical-invariant-based zero systematic-error sensitivity (ZSS) optimal control theory to the proposed scheme. Our numerical simulations show that the average fidelity could be $99.98\%$ for single ensemble qubit gate and $99.94\%$ for two-qubit gate even when the Rabi frequency of the gate laser acquires $10\%$ fluctuations. We also find that the optimized scheme can also reduce errors caused by higher order perturbation terms in deriving the Hamiltonian of the ensemble atoms. To address the experimental issue of decoherence error between the ground state and Rydberg levels in Rydberg ensemble, we introduce a dispersive coupling regime between Rydberg and ground levels, based on which the Rydberg state is adiabatically discarded. The numerical simulation demonstrate that the quantum gate is enhanced. By combining strong Rydberg atom interactions, nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation, dynamical invariant and optimal control theory together, our scheme shows another route to construct fast and robust quantum gates with mesoscopic atomic ensembles. Our study contributes to the ongoing effort in developing quantum information processing with Rydberg atoms trapped in optical lattices or tweezer arrays.

We propose a method for slowing particles by laser fields that potentially has the ability to generate large forces without the associated momentum diffusion that results from the random directions of spontaneously scattered photons. In this method, time-resolved laser pulses with periodically modified detunings address an ultranarrow electronic transition to reduce the particle momentum through repeated absorption and stimulated emission cycles. We implement a shortcut to adiabaticity approach that is based on Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory. This affords our scheme the advantages of adiabatic transfer, where there can be an intrinsic insensitivity to the precise strength and detuning characteristics of the applied field, with the advantages of rapid transfer that are necessary for obtaining a short slowing distance. For typical parameters of a thermal oven source that generates a particle beam with a central velocity on the order of meters per second, this could result in slowing the particles to near stationary in less than a millimeter. We compare the slowing scheme to widely implemented slowing techniques that rely on radiation pressure forces and show the advantages that potentially arise when the excited-state decay rate is small. Thus, this scheme is a particularly promising candidate to slow narrow-linewidth systems that lack closed cycling transitions, such as occurs in certain molecules.

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is theoretically investigated, with numerical and algebraic approaches, in assemblies of a few spinful ultracold neutral fermionic atoms, interacting via repulsive contact potentials and confined in a single rapidly rotating two-dimensional harmonic trap. Going beyond the commonly used second-order correlations in the real configuration space, the methodology in this paper will assist the analysis of experimental observations by providing benchmark results for $N$-body spin-unresolved, as well as spin-resolved, momentum correlations measurable in time-of-flight experiments with individual particle detection. Our analysis shows that the few-body lowest-Landau-level (LLL) states with good magic angular momenta exhibit inherent ordered quantum structures in the $N$-body correlations, similar to those associated with rotating Wigner molecules (WMs), familiar from the field of semiconductor quantum dots under high magnetic fields. The application of a small perturbing stirring potential induces, at the ensuing avoided crossings, formation of symmetry-broken states exhibiting ordered polygonal-ring structures, explicitly manifest in the single-particle density profile of the trapped particles. Away from the crossings, an LLL state obtained from exact diagonalization of the microscopic Hamiltonian, found to be well described by a (1,1,1) Halperin two-component variational wave function, represents also a spinful rotating WM. Analysis of the calculated LLL wave function enables a two-dimensional generalization of the Girardeau one-dimensional “fermionization” scheme, originally invoked for mapping of bosonic-type wave functions to those of spinless fermions.

We develop the theory of weak wave turbulence in systems described by the Schrödinger-Helmholtz equations in two and three dimensions. This model contains as limits both the familiar cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation, and the Schrödinger-Newton equations. The latter, in three dimensions, are a nonrelativistic model of fuzzy dark matter which has a nonlocal gravitational self-potential, and in two dimensions they describe nonlocal nonlinear optics in the paraxial approximation. We show that in the weakly nonlinear limit the Schrödinger-Helmholtz equations have a simultaneous inverse cascade of particles and a forward cascade of energy. We interpret the inverse cascade as a nonequilibrium condensation process, which is a precursor to structure formation at large scales (for example the formation of galactic dark matter haloes or optical solitons). We show that for the Schrödinger-Newton equations in two and three dimensions, and in the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the particle and energy fluxes are carried by small deviations from thermodynamic distributions, rather than the Kolmogorov-Zakharov cascades that are familiar in wave turbulence. We develop a differential approximation model to characterize such “warm cascade” states.

We study theoretically a laser-driven one-dimensional chain of atoms interfaced with the guided optical modes of a nanophotonic waveguide. The period of the chain and the orientation of the laser field can be chosen such that emission occurs predominantly into a single guided mode. We find that the fluorescence excitation line shape changes as the number of atoms is increased, eventually undergoing a splitting that provides evidence for the waveguide-mediated all-to-all interactions. Remarkably, in the regime of strong driving the light emitted into the waveguide is nonclassical with a significant negativity of the associated Wigner function. We show that both the emission properties and the non-Gaussian character of the light are robust against voids in the atom chain, enabling the experimental study of these effects with present-day technology. Our results offer a route towards novel types of fiber-coupled quantum light sources and an interesting perspective for probing the physics of interacting atomic ensembles through light.

In this paper we propose to use a quantum speed limit (QSL) as a measure of robustness of states, defining a state with a bigger QSL as more robust. From this perspective, it is important to have an explicitly computable QSL, because then we can formulate an engineering problem of the Hamiltonian that makes a target state robust against decoherence. Hence we derive an explicitly computable QSL that is applicable to general Markovian open quantum systems. This QSL is tighter than another explicitly computable QSL, in an important setup such that decoherence is small. Also, the Hamiltonian engineering problem with this QSL is a quadratic convex optimization problem, and thus it is efficiently solvable. The idea of robust state characterization and the Hamiltonian engineering, in terms of the QSL, is demonstrated with several examples.

We present a detailed study of the spectrum and dispersion of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in two coupled elongated Bose-Einstein condensates. We develop an analytically solvable model that approximates two infinite homogeneous condensates and compare its predictions to a numerical simulation of a realistic trapped system. While the comparisons show a reasonable agreement between the two models, they also manifest the existence of several anomalous Bogoliubov modes in the spectrum. These modes show degeneracy in both energy and momentum together with self-localization in the coordinate space.

Double-quantum two-dimensional (2D) coherent spectroscopy (MDCS) is a powerful optical method that is used to study the optical properties of atomic and complex molecular systems and semiconductor materials. Double-quantum 2D spectra and particularly the peak line shapes on the spectra can also provide information about many-body interactions. We model 2D spectra by solving the optical Bloch equations and show the effects of correlation between coupled resonances, which also explains the discrepancies between the experimental results reported by multiple groups.

We propose a method to achieve photon pair propagation in an array of three-level superconducting circuits. Assuming experimentally accessible three-level artificial atoms with strong anharmonicity coupled via microwave transmission lines in both one and two dimensions we analyze the circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) of the system. We explicitly show that, for a suitable choice of the coupling ratio between different levels, the single-photon propagation is suppressed and the propagation of photon pairs emerges. This propagation of photon pairs leads to the pair superfluid of polaritons associated with the system. We compute the complete phase diagram of the polariton quantum matter revealing the pair superfluid phase which is sandwiched between the vacuum and the Mott insulator state corresponding to the polariton density equal to 2 in the strong-coupling regime.

At the moment, the most efficient method to compute the state of a periodically driven quantum system is using Floquet theory and the Floquet eigenbasis. The wide application of this basis set method is limited by a lack of unique ordering of the Floquet eigenfunctions, an ambiguity in their definition at resonance, and an instability against infinitesimal perturbation at resonance. We address these problems by redefining the eigenbasis using a revised definition of the average energy as a quantum number. As a result of this redefinition, we also obtain a Floquet-Ritz variational principle, and justify the truncation of the Hilbert space.

We address the properties of continuous-time quantum walks with Hamiltonians of the form $\mathcal{H}=L+\lambda L^2$, with $L$ the Laplacian matrix of the underlying graph and the perturbation $\lambda L^2$ motivated by its potential use to introduce next-nearest-neighbor hopping. We consider cycle, complete, and star graphs as paradigmatic models with low and high connectivity and/or symmetry. First, we investigate the dynamics of an initially localized walker. Then we devote attention to estimating the perturbation parameter $\lambda$ using only a snapshot of the walker dynamics. Our analysis shows that a walker on a cycle graph spreads ballistically independently of the perturbation, whereas on complete and star graphs one observes perturbation-dependent revivals and strong localization phenomena. Concerning the estimation of the perturbation, we determine the walker preparations and the simple graphs that maximize the quantum Fisher information. We also assess the performance of position measurement, which turns out to be optimal, or nearly optimal, in several situations of interest. Besides fundamental interest, our study may find applications in designing enhanced algorithms on graphs.

We present a theoretical study of atomic laser-assisted photoionization emission. We consider an atom driven by a linearly polarized extreme ultraviolet laser in two scenarios: (i) a single attosecond pulse (in both the streaking and the sideband regimes) and (ii) an attosecond pulse train. The process takes place assisted by a linearly polarized infrared laser field. In all these cases the energy- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectrum (PES) is determined by a leading contribution, related to the intracycle factor [Gramajo et al., J. Phys. B 51, 055603 (2018)], complemented by other ones, derived from the periodicity and symmetry properties of the dipole transition matrix with respect to the infrared field. Each of these terms imprint particular features in the PES that can be straightforwardly understood in terms of generalized energy conservation laws. We investigate in detail these PES structures, in particular, for the case of argon initially in the $3s$ quantum state. Our theoretical scheme, based on the strong-field approximation, can be applied, however, to other atomic species and field configurations as well.

The study of the quantum to classical transition is of fundamental as well as technological importance, and focuses on mesoscopic devices, with a size for which either classical physics or quantum physics can be brought to dominate. A particularly diverse selection of such devices is available in cavity quantum optomechanics. We show that these can be leveraged for the study of dynamical tunneling in a quantum chaotic system. This effect probes the quantum to classical transition deeply, since tunneling rates sensitively depend on the ability of the quantum system to resolve the underlying classical phase space. We show that the effective Planck's constant, which determines this phase space resolution, can be varied over orders of magnitude as a function of tunable parameters in an optomechanical experiment. Specifically, we consider a membrane-in-the-middle configuration of a mechanical oscillator within an optical cavity, where the intracavity field is modulated periodically by the external laser source. We demonstrate that a mixed regular and chaotic phase space can be engineered in one spatial dimension, through a significant quartic optomechanical interaction. For that case, we explore the expected dynamical tunneling rates using Floquet theory and map out values of the effective Planck's constant that should be within practical reach.