In a multipartite scenario quantum entanglement manifests its most dramatic form when the state is genuinely entangled. Such a state is more beneficial for information theoretic applications if it contains distillable entanglement in every bipartition. It is, therefore, of significant operational interest to identify subspaces of multipartite quantum systems that contain such properties a priori. In this article we introduce the notion of unextendible biseparable bases (UBB) that provides an adequate method to construct genuinely entangled subspaces (GES). We provide explicit construction of two types of UBBs—party symmetric and party asymmetric—for every 3-qudit quantum system, with local dimension $d\ge 3$. Furthermore, we show that the GES resulting from the symmetric construction is indeed a bidistillable subspace, i.e., all the states supported on it contain distillable entanglement across every bipartition.

The measures of distances between points in a Hilbert space are one of the basic theoretical concepts used to characterize properties of a quantum system with respect to some etalon state. These are not only used in studying fidelity of signal transmission and basic quantum phenomena but also applied in measuring quantum correlations, and also in quantum machine learning. The values of quantum distance measures are very difficult to determine without completely reconstructing the state. Here we demonstrate an interferometric approach to measuring distances between quantum states that in some cases can outperform quantum state tomography. We propose a direct experimental method to estimate such distance measures between two unknown two-qubit mixed states such as Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity (or the Bures distance), the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, and the trace distance. The fidelity is estimated via the measurement of the upper and lower bounds of the fidelity, which are referred to as the superfidelity and subfidelity, respectively. Our method is based on the multiparticle interactions (i.e., interference) between copies of the unknown pairs of qubits.

Activation of quantum capacity is a surprising phenomenon according to which the quantum capacity of a certain channel may increase by combining it with another channel with zero quantum capacity. Superactivation describes an even more particular occurrence, in which both channels have zero quantum capacity, but their composition has a nonvanishing one. We investigate these effects for all single-mode phase-insensitive Gaussian channels, which include thermal attenuators and amplifiers, assisted by a two-mode positive-partial-transpose channel. Our result shows that activation phenomena are special but not uncommon. We can reveal superactivation in a broad range of thermal attenuator channels, even when the transmissivity is quite low, or the thermal noise is high. This means that we can transmit quantum information reliably through very noisy Gaussian channels with the help of another Gaussian channel, whose quantum capacity is also zero. We further show that no superactivation is possible for entanglement-breaking Gaussian channels in physically relevant circumstances by proving the nonactivation property of the coherent information of bosonic entanglement-breaking channels with finite input energy.

Quantum entanglement plays an important role in quantum information processes, such as quantum computation and quantum communication. Experiments in laboratories are unquestionably crucial to increase our understanding of quantum systems and inspire new insights into future applications. However, there are no general recipes for the creation of arbitrary quantum states with many particles entangled in high dimensions. Here we exploit a recent connection between quantum experiments and graph theory and answer this question for a plethora of classes of entangled states. We find experimental setups for Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, $W$ states, general Dicke states, and asymmetrically high-dimensional multipartite entangled states. This result sheds light on the producibility of arbitrary quantum states using photonic technology with probabilistic pair sources and allows us to understand the underlying technological and fundamental properties of entanglement.

Recent proposals and advances in quantum simulations, quantum cryptography, and quantum communications substantially rely on quantum entanglement formation. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that dissipation destroys quantum coherence, coupling with a dissipative environment can also generate entanglement. We consider a system composed of two quantum-dot qubits coupled with a common, damped surface plasmon mode; each quantum dot is also coupled to a separate photonic cavity mode. Cavity quantum electrodynamics calculations show that upon optical excitation by a femtosecond laser pulse, entanglement of the quantum-dot excitons occurs, and the time evolution of the $g^{\left(2\right)}$ pair correlation function of the cavity photons is an indicator of the entanglement. We also show that the degree of entanglement is conserved during the time evolution of the system. Furthermore, if coupling of the photonic cavity and quantum-dot modes is large enough, the quantum-dot entanglement can be transferred to the cavity modes to increase the overall entanglement lifetime. This latter phenomenon can be viewed as a signature of entangled, long-lived quantum-dot exciton-polariton formation. The preservation of total entanglement in the strong-coupling limit of the cavity–quantum-dot interactions suggests a novel means of entanglement storage and manipulation in high-quality optical cavities.

We use the concept of quantum entanglement to analyze the Schwinger effect on an entangled state of a qubit and a boson mode coupled with the electric field. As a consequence of the Schwinger production of particle-antiparticle pairs, the electric field decreases both the correlation and the entanglement between the qubit and the particle mode. This work exposes a profound difference between bosons and fermions. In the boson case, entanglement between the qubit and the antiparticle mode cannot be caused by the Schwinger effect on the preexisting entanglement between the qubit and the particle mode, though correlation can. In the fermion case, both can.

Digital signatures ensure the integrity of a classical message and the authenticity of its sender. Despite their far-reaching use in modern communication, currently used signature schemes rely on computational assumptions and will be rendered insecure by a quantum computer. We present a quantum digital signatures (QDS) scheme whose security is instead based on the impossibility of perfectly and deterministically distinguishing between quantum states. Our continuous-variable (CV) scheme relies on phase measurement of a distributed alphabet of coherent states and allows for secure message authentication against a quantum adversary performing collective beamsplitter and entangling-cloner attacks. Crucially, in the CV setting we allow for an eavesdropper on the quantum channels and yet retain shorter signature lengths than previous protocols with no eavesdropper. This opens up the possibility to implement CV QDS alongside existing CV quantum key distribution platforms with minimal modification.

The definition of the scattering volume for $p$-wave collisions needs to be generalized in the presence of dipolar interactions for which the potential decreases with the interparticle separation as $1/R^3$. Here, we propose a way to define the scattering volume characterizing the short-range interactions in odd-parity waves, by analyzing the $p$-wave component of the two-body threshold wave function. Our approach uses an asymptotic model and introduces explicitly the anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction, which governs the ultracold collision dynamics at long range. The short-range interactions, which are essential to describe threshold resonances, are taken into account by a single parameter related to the nodal structure of the wave functions at short distances.

Interactions in a spin-polarized ultracold Fermi gas are governed by $p$-wave collisions and can be characterized by the $p$-wave scattering volume. Control of these collisions by Feshbach resonances is hampered by huge inelastic losses. Here, we suggest nonresonant light control of $p$-wave collisions, exploiting the anisotropic coupling of nonresonant light to the polarizability of the atoms. The $p$-wave scattering volume can be controlled by strong nonresonant light, in close analogy to the $s$-wave scattering length. For collision partners that are tightly trapped, the nonresonant light induces an energy shift directly related to the scattering volume (as defined by A. Crubellier, R. González-Férez, C. P. Koch, and E. Luc-Koenig, preceding paper, Phys. Rev. A 99, 032709 (2019). This effect could be used to climb the ladder of the trap. We also show that controlling the scattering volume implies control, at least roughly, over the orientation at short interatomic distances of the interparticle axis relative to the polarization direction of the light. Our proposal is based on an asymptotic model that explicitly accounts for the anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction which governs the ultracold collision dynamics at long range.

Isotope effects on the ionization of hydrogen molecular ions in strong laser fields are studied by numerically simulating the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Though the isotopes of hydrogen molecular ions have identical Born-Oppenheimer potential curves, the distinct ionization scenarios are observed for single-photon, multiphoton, and tunneling ionization. For multiphoton and tunneling ionization, the ionization rate of ${{\mathrm{H}}_2}^{+}$ is larger than that of ${{\mathrm{D}}_2}^{+}$ and ${{\mathrm{T}}_2}^{+}$. The ratio of the intensity-dependent tunneling ionization probabilities of ${{\mathrm{H}}_2}^{+}$ (${{\mathrm{D}}_2}^{+}$) and ${{\mathrm{T}}_2}^{+}$ can be qualitatively explained by the adiabatic tunneling theories if a few-femtosecond ultrashort pulse is used. For tens of femtosecond laser pulses, the nuclear movement is unavoidable and the time-dependent Schrödinger equation simulation is necessary in order to calculate the ionization probability accurately. For single-photon ionization, the electron-nuclei joint energy spectra are distinct though the total ionization probabilities are similar. The elastic constant of potential curves can be retrieved by comparing the single-photon-induced electron-nuclei joint energy spectra of different isotopic molecular ions, which offers a potential technique to image molecules.

Time crystals in periodically driven systems have initially been studied assuming either the ability to quench the Hamiltonian between different many-body regimes, the presence of disorder or long-range interactions. Here we propose the simplest scheme to observe discrete time crystal dynamics in a one-dimensional driven quantum system of the Ising type with short-range interactions and no disorder. The system is subject only to a periodic kick by a global magnetic field, and no extra Hamiltonian quenching is performed. We analyze the emerging time crystal stabilizing mechanisms via extensive numerics as well as using an analytic approach based on an off-resonant transition model. Due to the simplicity of the driven Ising model, our proposal can be implemented with current experimental platforms including trapped ions, Rydberg atoms, and superconducting circuits.

We investigate superfluidity in nonrelativistic fermionic systems in which the pairing interaction includes a contribution from the exchange of a dynamical bosonic mode. We show that the dynamical boson exchange (DBE), which causes a retarded pairing interaction and thus violates the Galilean invariance of the fermion sector, generically leads to a quantum reduction of the superfluid density and hence a nonzero normal fraction even at zero temperature. For spin-singlet pairing, the DBE also leads to a nonvanishing spin susceptibility at zero temperature, providing a mechanism for the coexistence of pairing and magnetization. While these effects are negligible for weak pairing, they become sizable at strong pairing. For the double superfluidity in ultracold Fermi-Bose mixtures, the superfluid density reduction for the fermion sector induced by the DBE just gives rise to the Andreev-Bashkin drag effect, indicating a strong entrainment between the two superfluid components. The DBE may also provide a new source for the superfluid fraction reduction of neutron matter, which is crucial for models of neutron star glitches based on neutron superfluidity.

In a recent work by Gong and Ueda [Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 250601 (2018)], the classification of (1+1)-dimensional quench dynamics for the ten Altland-Zirnbauer classes is achieved, and entanglement-spectrum crossings of the time-dependent states for the topological classes (AIII, DIII, CII, BDI, and D) are discovered as a consequence of the bulk-edge correspondence. We note that their classification scheme for the (1+1)-dimensional bulk topology as well as the adoption of entanglement-spectrum crossings as a diagnosis of topological edge states focus on the limit that the spectrum of the postquench Hamiltonian is flat. When band dispersion of the postquench Hamiltonian is considered, even though the bulk topology is still stable, the entanglement-spectrum crossing at the edge might be unstable due to the fact that the band dispersion can be regarded as a “symmetry-breaking disorder” in the frequency domain. Such a symmetry-breaking disorder lowers the symmetry for the edge side, and the conventional bulk-edge correspondence could not be applied directly for the quench dynamics. We show that because of the reduction of symmetry by finite energy dispersion the gapless entanglement-spectrum crossing in the flatband limit in classes AIII, DIII, and CII is unstable and could be gapped without closing the bulk gap. The entanglement-spectrum crossing in classes BDI and D is still stable against energy dispersion. We show that the quench process for classes BDI and D can be understood as a ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ fermion parity pump, and the entanglement-spectrum crossing for this case is protected by the conservation of fermion parity.

We investigate how to describe the dissipative spin dynamics of the driven-dissipative Dicke model, describing $N$ two-level atoms coupled to a cavity mode, after adiabatic elimination of the cavity mode. To this end, we derive a Redfield master equation which goes beyond the standard secular approximation and large detuning limits. We show that the secular (or rotating wave) approximation and the large detuning approximation both lead to inadequate master equations, that fail to predict the Dicke transition or the damping rates of the atomic dynamics. In contrast, the full Redfield theory correctly predicts the phase transition and the effective atomic damping rates. Our work provides a reliable framework to study the full quantum dynamics of atoms in a multimode cavity, where a quantum description of the full model becomes intractable.

The recently introduced concept of Stokes fluctuations generalizes both the Hanbury Brown–Twiss effect and the notion of scintillation. Here we apply this new framework to the specific example of a Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam. We derive formulas for Stokes scintillations and Stokes fluctuation correlations, which explicitly express the dependence of these quantities on the GSM source parameters. It is found that the normalized Stokes scintillations vary significantly with position. Also, they can be either positively or negatively correlated.

We consider estimating the length of an incoherently radiating quasimonochromatic extended object of length much smaller than the traditional diffraction limit, the Rayleigh length. This is the simplest abstraction of the problems of estimating the diameter of a star in astronomical imaging or the dimensions of a cellular feature in biological imaging. We find, as expected by the Rayleigh criterion, that the Fisher information (FI) of the object's length, per integrated photon, vanishes in the limit of small sub-Rayleigh length for an ideal image-plane direct-detection receiver. With an image-plane Hermite-Gaussian (HG) mode sorter followed by direct detection, we show that this normalized FI does not diminish with decreasing object length. The FI per photon of both detection strategies gradually decreases as the object length greatly exceeds the Rayleigh limit, due to the relative inefficiency of information provided by photons emanating from near the center of the object about its length. We evaluate the quantum Fisher information per unit integrated photon and find that the HG mode sorter exactly achieves this limit at all values of the object length. Further, a simple binary mode sorter maintains the advantage of the full mode sorter at highly sub-Rayleigh lengths. In addition to this FI analysis, we quantify improvement in terms of the actual mean-square error of the length estimate using predetection mode sorting. We consider the effect of imperfect mode sorting and show that the performance improvement over direct detection is robust over a range of sub-Rayleigh lengths.

Continuous-wave pumped optical microresonators have been vastly exploited to generate a frequency comb (FC) utilizing the Kerr nonlinearity. Most of the nonlinear materials used to build photonic platforms exhibit nonlinear losses such as multiphoton absorption, free-carrier absorption, and free-carrier dispersion which can strongly affect their nonlinear performances. In this work, we model the Kerr FC based on a modified Lugiato-Lefever equation (LLE) along with the rate equation and develop analytical formulations to make a quick estimation of the steady state, bistability, self-pulsation, and modulation instability (MI) gain and bandwidth in the presence of nonlinear losses. The analytical model is valid over a broad wavelength range as it includes the effects of all nonlinear losses. Higher-order $\left(>3\right)$ characteristic polynomials of intracavity power describing the steady-state homogeneous solution of the modified LLE are discussed in detail. We derive the generalized analytical expressions for the threshold (normalized) pump detuning that initiates the optical bistability when nonlinear losses are present. Free-carrier dispersion-led nonlinear cavity detuning is observed through the reverse Kerr tilt of the resonant peaks. We further deduce the expressions of the threshold pump intensity and the range of possible cavity detuning for the initiation of the MI considering the presence of nonlinear losses. The proposed model will be helpful in explaining several numerical and experimental results which have been previously reported and thereby will be able to provide a better understanding of the comb dynamics.

The introduction of a scattering center to microdisk lasers has been considered as an effective way to tailor their far-field emissions. However, this approach is practically limited by its nearby modes with higher quality ($Q$) factors and worse directionalities. In this research, by applying the simple concept of parity-time ($\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$) symmetry, we demonstrate that the resonances with well-designed directionalities can be selectively excited in optical microcavities. Taking the annular microcavities as examples, the unidirectional laser emissions and single-mode operations have been realized simultaneously by breaking the $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry. More interestingly, we find that the $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric modulations on the imaginary parts of the refractive index in a circular microdisk can affect the internal ray dynamics and thus generate highly directional laser emission. This research can boost both the fundamental studies and the practical applications of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric systems.

We study the eigenenergies of a one-dimensional quantum-dot chain with its each dot side coupling to two additional dots. It is found that when the $\mathcal{P}T$-symmetric complex potentials are introduced to the side-coupled dots, the eigenlevel degeneracy is broken. However, further increasing the complex potentials induces a kind of two-degree degeneracy of the eigenlevels. This is accompanied by the $\mathcal{P}T$-symmetry breaking, with the appearance of the complex part of the eigenlevels. These changes exactly affect the quantum transport properties of the chain. First, in the case of weak $\mathcal{P}T$-symmetric complex potentials, a group of transmission function peaks arise at the center of the transmission function spectrum. When the eigenlevel degeneracy takes place, the degenerated eigenlevels decouple from the leads and the corresponding peaks disappear in the transmission function spectra. We believe that this work provides helpful information for a better understanding of the eigenenergies and quantum transport properties in non-Hermitian systems.