Sagnac interferometers with massive particles promise unique advantages in achieving high-precision measurements of rotation rates over their optical counterparts. Recent proposals and experiments are exploring nonballistic Sagnac interferometers where trapped atoms are transported along a closed path. This is achieved by using superpositions of internal quantum states and their control with state-dependent potentials. We address emergent questions regarding the dynamical behavior of Bose-Einstein condensates in such an interferometer and its impact on rotation sensitivity. We investigate complex dependencies on atomic interactions as well as trap geometries, rotation rates, and speed of operation. We find that temporal transport profiles obtained from a simple optimization strategy for noninteracting particles remain surprisingly robust also in the presence of interactions over a large range of realistic parameters. High sensitivities can be achieved for short interrogation times far from the adiabatic regime. This highlights a route to building fast and robust guided-ring Sagnac interferometers with fully trapped atoms.

We discuss the mechanism by which the inclusion of multielectron polarization improves the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the oriented CO molecule in a strong external laser pulse within the single-active-electron (SAE) approximation. A challenging problem of using the SAE approximation is that the active electron, instead of undergoing ionization, may be driven by the external field to lower-lying orbitals. For the oriented CO molecule, dipole coupling to the lower-lying bound states of the potential depends on the orientation angle, thereby affecting the orientation-dependent ionization dynamics. By including multielectron polarization, the external field is turned off within the molecular radius, thereby minimizing dipole coupling of the highest occupied molecular orbital to the lower-lying states of the potential. We discuss how turning off the external field within an appropriate molecular radius without accounting for the induced dipole term in the effective potential beyond this radial cutoff distance, constitutes an effective and accurate approach to describe strong-field ionization of CO and to minimize dipole coupling to lower-lying bound states.

Far-field radiation by a finite-length electric dipole is studied in the hyperbolic medium. To account for the arbitrary orientation of the dipole, the results are presented when the dipole and the optic are parallel to each other and when they are perpendicular to each other. Analytical as well as numerical results for both the ordinary and extraordinary wave are presented. The results indicate a strong dependence upon the length of the dipole, in contrast to the case of the uniaxial dieletric medium. When the dipole was parallel to the optic axis, radiations are emitted in a cone around the symmetry axis. When the dipole was perpendicular to the optic axis, extraordinary waves are emitted along only four directions, whereas ordinary waves are emitted in every direction perpendicular to the dipole. The results indicate a stronger role of the length of the dipole in the hyperbolic media as compared to the uniaxial dielectric media.

Achieving unidirectional emission and manipulating waves in a microcavity are crucial for information processing and data transmission in next-generation photonic circuits (PCs). Here we show how to impose twin microcavities with opposite chirality by incorporating parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry to realize unidirectional emission. Our numerical calculation results show that the opposite chirality in microcavities stems from the asymmetric coupling of the clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) components carried by the attached waveguide to the left- or right-sided microcavities, respectively. Notably, by engineering $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry in the coupled system via the gain-loss control, the clockwise component of the lossy cavity could be selectively suppressed, which leads to the unidirectional emission with an extinction ratio of up to −52 dB. Furthermore, the chirality and $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking enabled unidirectional emission is extremely sensitive to external scatters, allowing the detection of nanoparticles with an ultrasmall radius of 5–50 nm by recording the extinction ratio change. The proposed system provides a simple yet general way to manipulate the standing waves in a microcavity and will be essential for advancing the potentials of the microcavity in PCs.

In the paper, we propose a protocol for the one-step interconversions between the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states and the $W$ states with deterministic success probabilities. The Rydberg interactions among three Rydberg atoms are utilized here to structure nonlocal operations for the interconversions. Additionally, we construct a Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant for a four-level system and afterwards use it to reversely design the Rabi frequencies of the effective Hamiltonian. The numerical simulations indicate that the protocol is robust against the spontaneous emission, the dephasing, the thermal noise, the systematic errors on Rabi frequencies, and the frequency mismatching. Therefore, the protocol may contribute to the research of the interconversions between entanglements.

A recently developed finite-element approach for fully numerical atomic structure calculations [S. Lehtola, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 119, e25945 (2019)] is extended to the description of atoms with spherically symmetric densities via fractionally occupied orbitals. Specialized versions of Hartree-Fock as well as local density and generalized gradient approximation density functionals are developed, allowing extremely rapid calculations at the basis-set limit on the ground and low-lying excited states, even for heavy atoms. The implementation of range separation based on the Yukawa or complementary error function (erfc) kernels is also described, allowing complete basis-set benchmarks of modern range-separated hybrid functionals with either integer or fractional occupation numbers. Finally, the computation of atomic effective potentials at the local density or generalized gradient approximation levels for the superposition of atomic potentials (SAP) approach [S. Lehtola, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 15, 1593 (2019)] that has been shown to be a simple and efficient way to initialize electronic structure calculations is described. The present numerical approach is shown to afford beyond micro-Hartree accuracy with a small number of numerical basis functions, and to reproduce the literature results for the ground states of atoms and their cations for $1\le Z\le 86$. Our results indicate that the literature values deviate by up to 10 $\mu E_h$ from the complete basis-set limit. The numerical scheme for the erfc kernel is shown to work by comparison to results from large Gaussian basis-set calculations from the literature. Spin-restricted ground states are reported for Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Slater calculations with fractional occupations for $1\le Z\le 118$.

The energy-dependent frame transformation theory of Gao and Greene [H. Gao and C. H. Greene, Phys. Rev. A 42, 6946 (1990)] is extended to yield a quantitatively accurate description of the dissociative recombination process. Evidence is presented to show that direct application of the original theory leads to inaccurate cross sections. A major revision, based on an interaction-free backpropagation of the Born-Oppenheimer solutions, markedly improves the frame transformation theory, reducing its average error by orders of magnitude. The original theory and its extension are tested on the previously explored two-dimensional (2D) model that is tailored to describe the singlet ungerade states of molecular hydrogen. The 2D model can be solved exactly (within the numerical accuracy) without implementing the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. These exact results then serve as a benchmark for the frame transformation theory developed in this paper.

A system consisting of a number of trapped two-level atoms in the presence of external inhomogeneous magnetic field undergoes dephasing: classically, since each atom feels a different field along its trajectory, the pseudospin rotation rates differ; as a result the average spin decays. It has been demonstrated in recent years that in the case of systems initiated in the atomic coherent state such spin dephasing can be prevented by tuning the interaction between the atoms to induce so-called spin self-rephasing. While the effect has been studied theoretically from a semiclassical point of view, a quantum-mechanical description is limited. In this paper we provide a numerical simulation of an ab initio model and provide realistic examples of spin self-rephasing used to counteract the effect of inhomogeneous magnetic field. We found that the spin self-rephasing method can be also used to prevent atomic squeezed states from decoherence: while the dephasing inhibition is lower as compared with the case of coherent states, it is still comparatively large and may be useful in real interferometric scenarios.

A theory is presented that describes the atom and field dynamics for two atoms in a chiral waveguide. A source-field approach is used that enables one to identify the various physical processes contributing to these dynamics. Each atom is prepared in an arbitrary state at $t=0$ and the field intensity and correlation functions are calculated, fully accounting for retardation. When the atoms are prepared in identical superposition states, the effects of constructive and destructive interference play a significant role on both the field intensity and second-order correlation function. It is also shown that the results can be taken over to provide a solution for the related problem of a single-photon pulse incident on an atom prepared in an arbitrary initial state.

We studied numerically the generation of the coherent frequency combs at second-harmonic generation in ${\chi }^{\left(2\right)}$ microresonators via the conventional frequency scan method. It was demonstrated that under particular conditions it is possible to generate two-color flat-top solitonic pulses, platicons, using a pump amplitude modulation or a controllable mode interaction approach, if the signs of the group velocity dispersion coefficients at pump frequency and its second harmonic are opposite but absolute values of these coefficients are rather close. It was revealed that platicons may be observed on both sides of the linear microresonator resonance (at positive, as well as negative pump frequency detunings). For the efficient platicon excitation, one needs simultaneous accurate matching of both the microresonator free spectral ranges and resonant eigenfrequencies. Platicon generation processes were simulated numerically, excitation conditions and platicon generation domains were found for different generation methods, and the properties of generated platicons were studied for the different combinations of the medium parameters.

We consider the problem of energy transport in a chain of coupled dissipative quantum systems in the presence of non-Markovian dephasing. We use a model of non-Markovianity which is experimentally realizable in the context of controlled quantum systems. We show that non-Markovian dephasing can significantly enhance quantum transport, and we characterize this phenomenon in terms of internal coupling strengths of the chain for some chain lengths. Finally, we show that the phenomenon of dephasing-assisted quantum transport is also enhanced in the non-Markovian scenario when compared to the Markovian case. Our work brings together engineered environments, which are a reality in quantum technologies, and energy transport, which is typically discussed in terms of complex molecular systems. We then expect that it may motivate experimental work and further theoretical investigations on resources which can enhance transport efficiency in a controllable way. This can help in the design of quantum devices with lower dissipation rates, an important concern in any practical application.

A family of separability criteria based on correlation matrix (tensor) is provided. Interestingly, it unifies several criteria known before like, e.g., computable cross-norm or realignment criterion (CNNR), de Vicente criterion, and derived recently separability criterion based on symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measures (SIC POVMs). It should be stressed that, unlike the well-known correlation matrix criterion or criterion based on local uncertainty relations, our criteria are linear in the density operator and hence one may find unexplored classes of entanglement witnesses and positive maps. Interestingly, there is a natural generalization to multipartite scenario using multipartite correlation matrix. We illustrate the detection power of the above criteria on several well-known examples of quantum states.

Simultaneous quantum and classical communication integrates both continuous variable quantum key distribution and classical coherent optical communication by using the same communication infrastructure. Given its compelling benefits, we proposed a protocol relying on both two-way classical communication and on measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution, in which the superposition-modulation-based coherent states depend on the information bits of both the secret key and on the classical communication ciphertext, which are measured by an untrusted relay node. The proposed scheme strikes a beneficial balance between its level of security and its grade of practicability. Explicitly, on the one hand, the secret key obtained is secure against all attacks on the detectors, and it is eminently suitable for bidirectional classical communication in the metropolitan network as a benefit of its relay-based configuration. Our results show a convincing bit error rate vs secret key rate trade-off for transmission over dozens of kilometers in the quantum channel, hence striking an excellent integrity (bit error rate) vs security trade-off.

A bipartite quantum interaction corresponds to the most general quantum interaction that can occur between two quantum systems in the presence of a bath. In this work, we determine bounds on the capacities of bipartite interactions for entanglement generation and secret-key agreement between two quantum systems. Our upper bound on the entanglement generation capacity of a bipartite quantum interaction is given by a quantity called the bidirectional max-Rains information. Our upper bound on the secret-key-agreement capacity of a bipartite quantum interaction is given by a related quantity called the bidirectional max-relative entropy of entanglement. We also derive tighter upper bounds on the capacities of bipartite interactions obeying certain symmetries. Observing that reading of a memory device is a particular kind of bipartite quantum interaction, we leverage our bounds from the bidirectional setting to deliver bounds on the capacity of a task that we introduce, called private reading of a wiretap memory cell. Given a set of point-to-point quantum wiretap channels, the goal of private reading is for an encoder to form codewords from these channels, in order to establish a secret key with a party who controls one input and one output of the channels, while a passive eavesdropper has access to one output of the channels. We derive both lower and upper bounds on the private reading capacities of a wiretap memory cell. We then extend these results to determine achievable rates for the generation of entanglement between two distant parties who have coherent access to a controlled point-to-point channel, which is a particular kind of bipartite interaction.

We introduce a combined molecular-dynamics and quantum-trajectories code to simulate the effects of near-resonant optical fields on state-vector evolution and particle motion in a collisional system. In contrast to collisionless systems, in which the quantum dynamics of multilevel, laser-driven particles with spontaneous emission can be described with the optical Bloch equations (OBEs), particle velocities in sufficiently collisional systems change on timescales comparable to those of the laser-induced, quantum-state dynamics. These transient velocity changes can cause the time-averaged velocity dependence of the quantum state to differ from the OBE solution. We use this multiscale code to describe laser cooling in a strontium ultracold neutral plasma. Important phenomena described by the simulation include suppression of electromagnetically induced transparencies through rapid velocity changing collisions and thermalization between cooled and uncooled directions for anisotropic laser cooling.

We present a pulse-shaper-based holographic technique for the time-resolved and phase-sensitive observation of ultrafast quantum dynamics. The technique combines bichromatic white light polarization pulse shaping with the tomographic reconstruction of photoelectron wave packets. The physical scheme is based on the interference of a probe wave packet from $N+1$ resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization via the target states and a reference wave packet from $M+1$ multiphoton ionization of the ground state. To create the wave packets, we employ carrier-envelope phase stable bichromatic ($M\omega$:$N\omega$) pump-probe pulse sequences. The scheme is demonstrated on femtosecond Rydberg wave-packet dynamics in potassium atoms using corotating circularly polarized ($2\omega$:$3\omega$) pulse sequences. The interference of continuum states with different angular momenta yields a crescent-shaped photoelectron wave packet rotating in the laser polarization plane due to the interplay of the optical phase and the accumulated quantum phase. Carrier-envelope phase control of the rotation provides access to the photoelectron asymmetry, enabling background-free detection of the crescent's angular motion which maps the bound-electron dynamics.

Analytic solutions for steady-state expectation values of atomic quantities and second-order correlations are obtained for a fully quantum treatment of two stationary dipole-coupled atoms driven in a standard geometric configuration by a near-resonant laser. Explicit expressions for the spatial and coherence properties of the far-field scattered light intensity are derived, valid for the full range of system parameters. A comprehensive survey of the steady-state scattering behavior is given, with key features precisely characterized, including suppression of scattering, and the regime in which the dipole-dipole coupling has significant effect. A regime is also found where the incoherent scattered light develops spatial interference fringes. We examine in detail a decorrelation approximation that has potential application for larger systems of atoms that are intractable in a full quantum treatment. Finally, we introduce the concept of an effective driving field and show that it can provide a direct and intuitive physical interpretation of key aspects of the system behavior.

We analyze the temporal behavior of the survival probability of an unstable ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ Feshbach molecule close to the BCS-BEC crossover. We find different instances of nonexponential decay as the magnetic field approaches the resonance value, at which the molecule becomes stable. We observe a transition from an exponential decay towards a regime dominated by a stretched-exponential law.