In atomic and molecular phase measurements using laser-induced fluorescence detection, optical cycling can enhance the effective photon detection efficiency and hence improve sensitivity. We show that detecting many photons per atom or molecule, while necessary, is not a sufficient condition to approach the quantum projection limit for detection of the phase in a two-level system. In particular, detecting the maximum number of photons from an imperfectly closed optical cycle reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by a factor of $\sqrt{2}$, compared to the ideal case in which leakage from the optical cycle is sufficiently small. We derive a general result for the SNR in a system in terms of the photon detection efficiency, probability for leakage out of the optical cycle per scattered photon, and the product of the average photon scattering rate and total scattering time per atom or molecule.

A scheme for reducing the relative intensity noise (RIN) of laser source by an injection locked single-mode semiconductor laser array is proposed and demonstrated. Intensity and phase noise of the slave laser under injection locking are first analyzed by rate equations, and the RIN of the injection locked laser array after coherent combining is then estimated. The RIN of the injection-locked $N$-element laser array can be reduced by a factor about $1/N$ over the entire frequency range in the ideal case. Measurements with a two-element distributed feedback laser array confirm the main theoretical predictions and a nearly 3 dB reduction in RIN is obtained. The effect of the key parameters on the RIN of the injection locked array is investigated as well.

The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality (CHSH) is one of the most popular and well-studied witnesses of Bell's theorem, separating classical from quantum correlations. In this work, for every $d\ge 2$, we present a generalization of the CHSH inequality with the property that maximal violation is achieved uniquely by the maximally entangled state of local dimension $d$. This provides an avenue for device-independent certification of maximally entangled states of arbitrary local dimension.

We study topological properties of one-dimensional non-Hermitian systems without chiral symmetry and give phase diagrams characterized by topological invariants ${\nu }_E$ and ${\nu }_{\mathrm{tot}}$, associated with complex energy vorticity and summation of Berry phases of complex bands, respectively. In the absence of chiral symmetry, we find that the phase diagram determined by ${\nu }_E$ is different from ${\nu }_{\mathrm{tot}}$. While the transition between phases with different ${\nu }_E$ is closely related to the band-touching point, the transition between different ${\nu }_{\mathrm{tot}}$ is irrelevant to the band-touching condition. We give an interpretation for the discrepancy from the geometrical view by analyzing the relation of topological invariants with the winding numbers associated with exception points of the system. We then generalize the fidelity approach to study the phase transition in the non-Hermitian system and find that transition between phases with different ${\nu }_{\mathrm{tot}}$ can be well characterized by an abrupt change of fidelity and fidelity susceptibility around the transition point.

Geometric phases have been shown to be feasible in implementing quantum gates to perform quantum information processing. For all the realistic applications, the environmental influence on the geometric phase and decoherence such as memory effects must be properly considered in order to achieve the required precision in geometric quantum computation. In this paper, we study the geometric phase for a generic open quantum system based on a microscopic model. A remarkable feature of the open system's geometric phase obtained from our theoretical formulation is that the geometric phase can be obtained regardless of the existence of the master equations, while the environmental noise features such as memory effects are fully accounted for. We demonstrate that the geometric phases for a general open quantum system can be fundamentally modified by its non-Markovian environments.

The physical implementation of holonomic quantum computation is challenging due to the needed complex controllable interactions in multilevel quantum systems. Here we propose to implement nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation with conventional capacitive coupled superconducting transmon qubits. A universal set of holonomic gates is constructed with the help of the interaction with an auxiliary qubit rather than relying on delicate control over an auxiliary level of multilevel quantum systems. Explicitly, these quantum gates are realized by tunable interactions in an all-resonant way, which leads to high-fidelity gate operations. In this way, the distinct merit of our scheme is that we use only the lowest two levels of a transmon to form the qubit states. In addition, the auxiliary qubits are in their ground states before and after every gate operation, so that the holonomic gates can be constructed successively. Therefore, our scheme provides a promising method towards the practical realization of high-fidelity nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation.

We have observed recently the Stark-tuned three-body Förster resonances $3\times n{P}_{3/2}\left(\right|M\left|\right)\to n{S}_{1/2}+(n+1)S_{1/2}+n{P}_{3/2}\left(\right|M^{*}\left|\right)$ at long-range interactions of a few cold Rb Rydberg atoms [D. B. Tretyakov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 173402 (2017)]. The three-body resonance appears at a different dc electric field with respect to the ordinary two-body resonance $2\times n{P}_{3/2}\left(\right|M\left|\right)\to n{S}_{1/2}+(n+1)S_{1/2}$ and corresponds to a transition when the three interacting atoms change their states simultaneously (two atoms go to the $S$ states, and the third atom remains in the $P$ state but changes its moment projection), with the negligible contribution of the two-body resonance to the population transfer. It thus has a Borromean character and represents an effective three-body operator, which can be used to directly control the three-body interactions in quantum simulations and quantum gates implemented with Rydberg atoms. In this paper we theoretically investigate the coherence of such three-body resonances and we show that high-contrast Rabi-like population oscillations are possible for the localized Rydberg atoms in a certain spatial configuration. This paves the way to implementing three-qubit quantum gates and quantum simulations based on three-body Rydberg interactions.

We experimentally demonstrate composite stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (CSTIRAP), which combines the concepts of composite pulse sequences and adiabatic passage. The technique is applied for population transfer in a rare-earth doped solid. We compare the performance of CSTIRAP with conventional single and repeated STIRAP, either in the resonant or the highly detuned regime. In the latter case, CSTIRAP improves the peak transfer efficiency and robustness, boosting the transfer efficiency substantially compared to repeated STIRAP. We also propose and demonstrate a universal version of CSTIRAP, which shows improved performance compared to the originally proposed composite version. Our findings pave the way towards new STIRAP applications, which require repeated excitation cycles, e.g., for momentum transfer in atom optics, or dynamical decoupling to invert arbitrary superposition states in quantum memories.

We map out the interaction effects on the first six virial coefficients of one-dimensional Fermi gases with zero-range attractive and repulsive interactions and the first four virial coefficients of the two-dimensional analog with attractive interactions. To that end, we use two nonperturbative stochastic methods: projection by complex stochastic quantization, which allows us to determine high-order coefficients at weak coupling and estimate the radius of convergence of the virial expansion, and a path-integral representation of the virial coefficients. To complement our numerical calculations, we present leading-order results in a semiclassical lattice approximation, which we find to be surprisingly close to the expected answers.

We revisit the derivation of Rabi- and Dicke-type models, which are commonly used for the study of quantum light-matter interactions in cavity and circuit QED. We demonstrate that the validity of the two-level approximation, which is an essential step in this derivation, depends explicitly on the choice of gauge once the system enters the ultrastrong-coupling regime. In particular, while in the electric dipole gauge the two-level approximation can be performed as long as the Rabi frequency remains much smaller than the energies of all higher-lying levels, it can dramatically fail in the Coulomb gauge, even for systems with an extremely anharmonic spectrum. We extensively investigate this phenomenon both in the single-dipole (Rabi) and multidipole (Dicke) case, and consider the specific examples of dipoles confined by double-well and square-well potentials, and of circuit QED systems with flux qubits coupled to an LC resonator.

We identify a type of periodic evolution that appears in driven quantum systems. Provided that the instantaneous (adiabatic) energies are equidistant we show how such systems can be mapped to (time-dependent) tilted single-band lattice models. Having established this mapping, the dynamics can be understood in terms of Bloch oscillations in the instantaneous energy basis. In our lattice model the site-localized states are the adiabatic ones, and the Bloch oscillations manifest as a periodic repopulation among these states, or equivalently a periodic change in the system's instantaneous energy. Our predictions are confirmed by considering two different models: a driven harmonic oscillator and a Landau-Zener grid model. To strengthen the link between our energy Bloch oscillations and the original spatial Bloch oscillations we add a random disorder that breaks the translational invariance of the spectrum. This verifies that the oscillating evolution breaks down and instead turns into a diffusive spreading. Finally, we consider a trapped ion setup and demonstrate how the mechanism can be utilized to prepare motional cat state of the ion.

Accurate time-delay measurement has become a crucial issue for space positioning experiments which require increasing precision over large distances. The femtosecond frequency comb has been found to be a good source for its advantages of a large nonambiguity range and coherence length up to tens of kilometers or more. A scheme combining homodyne detection and frequency combs was proposed [B. Lamine et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 123601 (2008)] that leads to a timing sensitivity reaching the shot-noise limit; with a squeezed frequency comb as the input field, the measured timing sensitivity can be further improved to the level of the sub-shot-noise limit. Based on this scheme and a squeezed frequency comb that was measured to have a phase squeezing of 1.5 dB at an analyzing frequency of 2 MHz, a narrow-band interferometric timing measurement is implemented. The minimum measurable timing variation modulation at 2 MHz is reduced from a shot-noise-limited value of $(2.8\pm 0.1)\times {10}^{-20}$ s to $(2.4\pm 0.1)\times {10}^{-20}$ s.

The local conservation of a physical quantity whose distribution changes with time is mathematically described by the continuity equation. The corresponding time parameter, however, is defined with respect to an idealized classical clock. We consider what happens when this classical time is replaced by a nonrelativistic quantum-mechanical description of the clock. From the clock-dependent Schrödinger equation (as an analog of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation) we derive a continuity equation, where, instead of a time derivative, an operator occurs that depends on the flux (probability current) density of the clock. This clock-dependent continuity equation can be used to analyze the dynamics of a quantum system and to study degrees of freedom that may be used as internal clocks for an approximate description of the dynamics of the remaining degrees of freedom. As an illustration, we study a simple model for coupled electron-nuclear dynamics and interpret the nuclei as quantum clock for the electronic motion. We find that whenever the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is valid, the continuity equation shows that the nuclei are the only relevant clock for the electrons.

Entanglement, quantum steering, and nonlocality are distinct quantum correlations which are the resources behind various quantum information and quantum computation applications. However, a central question of determining the precise quantitative relation among them is still unresolved. Here we present a mapping criterion between Bell nonlocality and quantum steering in the bipartite qudit-qubit system, as well as a mapping criterion between quantum steering and quantum entanglement in the bipartite qubit-qudit system, starting from the fundamental concepts of quantum correlations. Precise quantitative mapping criteria are derived analytically. Such mapping criteria are independent of the form of the state. In particular, they cover several previous well-known research results which are only special cases in our simple mapping criteria.

The traditional formalism of nonrelativistic quantum theory allows the state of a quantum system to extend across space, but only restricts it to a single instant in time, leading to distinction between theoretical treatments of spatial and temporal quantum correlations. Here we unify the geometrical description of two-point quantum correlations in space-time. Our study presents the geometry of correlations between two sequential Pauli measurements on a single qubit undergoing an arbitrary quantum channel evolution together with two-qubit spatial correlations under a common framework. We establish a symmetric structure between quantum correlations in space and time. This symmetry is broken in the presence of nonunital channels, which further reveals a set of temporal correlations that are indistinguishable from correlations found in bipartite entangled states.

We construct the (within numerical limits) exact correlation potential of Kohn-Sham density functional theory for a one-dimensional model chain of four hydrogen atoms from a highly accurate, correlated wave function. Specifically we investigate how the correlation potential changes when an external linear electrical field is applied. This model situation is of great interest to Kohn-Sham theory because it is well known that the exact Kohn-Sham exchange potential shows ultranonlocality in this situation, with the exchange potential responding opposite to the applied external potential. Here we show that the correlation potential shows a field-counteracting term as well. However, we also find that self-consistent exact exchange captures a major part of this term, contrary to the exact exchange potential that results from the exact orbitals. The results obtained here are relevant for providing guidance in the construction of improved approximate exchange correlation functionals.

The rotational and torsional dynamics of the prototypical floppy $\mathrm{indole}\left({\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\right)$ molecular cluster was theoretically and computationally analyzed. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation was solved for a reduced-dimensionality description of the cluster, taking into account overall rotations and the internal rotation of the water moiety. Based on our results, it became clear that the coupling between the internal and the overall rotations is small, and that for typical field strengths in alignment and mixed-field-orientation experiments the rigid-rotor approximation can be employed to describe the investigated dynamics. Furthermore, the parameter space over which this is valid and its boundaries where the coupling of the internal and overall rotation can no longer be neglected were explored.

We study the confinement-induced resonance (CIR) of ${}^{173}\mathrm{Yb}$ atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance in a quasi-one-dimensional tube with transversal anisotropy. By solving the two-body scattering problem, we obtain the location of CIR for various anisotropy ratios and magnetic fields. Our results show that the anisotropy of the trapping potential can serve as an additional knob to tune the location of CIR. In particular, one can shift the location of CIR to the region attainable in the current experiment. We also study the energy spectrum of the system and analyze the properties of CIR from the perspective of bound states. We find that as the orbital Feshbach resonance acquires two nearly degenerate scattering channels, which in general have different threshold energies, CIR takes place when the closed-channel bound-state energy becomes degenerate with one of the thresholds.

We unravel the correlated tunneling dynamics of a mass imbalanced few-body Fermi-Fermi mixture upon quenching the tilt of a double well. The nonequilibrium dynamics of both species changes from Rabi oscillations close to the noninteracting limit to a delayed tunneling dynamics for moderate interspecies repulsions. Considering strong interspecies interactions, the lighter species experiences quantum self-trapping due to the heavier species which acts as an effective material barrier, while performing almost perfect Rabi oscillations. The degree of entanglement, inherent in the system, is analyzed and found to be significant at both moderate and strong repulsions. To relate our findings to possible experimental realizations, we simulate in situ single-shot measurements and discuss how a sampling of such images dictates the observed dynamics. Finally, the dependence of the tunneling behavior on the mass ratio, the particle number in each species, and the height of the barrier of the double well is showcased.