The transition from quantum to classical physics remains an intensely debated question even though it has been investigated for more than a century. Further clarifications could be obtained by preparing macroscopic objects in spatial quantum superpositions and proposals for generating such states for nanomechanical devices either in a transient or a probabilistic fashion have been put forward. Here, we introduce a method to deterministically obtain spatial superpositions of arbitrary lifetime via dissipative state preparation. In our approach, we engineer a double-well potential for the motion of the mechanical element and drive it towards the ground state, which shows the desired spatial superposition, via optomechanical sideband cooling. We propose a specific implementation based on a superconducting circuit coupled to the mechanical motion of a lithium-decorated monolayer graphene sheet, introduce a method to verify the mechanical state by coupling it to a superconducting qubit, and discuss its prospects for testing collapse models for the quantum to classical transition.

Polycapillary x-ray focusing devices are built from hundreds of thousands of bent microcapillaries that are stacked into hexagonal arrays. We show that intrinsic point defects of the optics (e.g., missing or larger capillaries) lead to the formation of multiple x-ray images of an object positioned in the focal plane. These images can be recorded in parallel, and can provide spatial resolution that is limited by the defect size and not by the focal spot size. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we demonstrate submicron resolution, which has not yet been achieved with polycapillary focusing optics. Tailored optics with a controlled distribution of “defects” could be used for multimodal nanoscale x-ray imaging with laboratory setups.

We report observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale satellites of parallel electric fields ($E_{\parallel }$) associated with magnetic reconnection in the subsolar region of the Earth’s magnetopause. $E_{\parallel }$ events near the electron diffusion region have amplitudes on the order of $100\mathrm{mV}/\mathrm{m}$, which are significantly larger than those predicted for an antiparallel reconnection electric field. This Letter addresses specific types of $E_{\parallel }$ events, which appear as large-amplitude, near unipolar spikes that are associated with tangled, reconnected magnetic fields. These $E_{\parallel }$ events are primarily in or near a current layer near the separatrix and are interpreted to be double layers that may be responsible for secondary reconnection in tangled magnetic fields or flux ropes. These results are telling of the three-dimensional nature of magnetopause reconnection and indicate that magnetopause reconnection may be often patchy and/or drive turbulence along the separatrix that results in flux ropes and/or tangled magnetic fields.

We experimentally study a driven-dissipative Josephson junction array, realized with a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate residing in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Engineered losses on one site act as a local dissipative process, while tunneling from the neighboring sites constitutes the driving force. We characterize the emerging steady states of this atomtronic device. With increasing dissipation strength $\gamma$ the system crosses from a superfluid state, characterized by a coherent Josephson current into the lossy site, to a resistive state, characterized by an incoherent hopping transport. For intermediate values of $\gamma$, the system exhibits bistability, where a superfluid and an incoherent branch coexist. We also study the relaxation dynamics towards the steady state, where we find a critical slowing down, indicating the presence of a nonequilibrium phase transition.

We study the effect of dilute pinning on the jamming transition. Pinning reduces the average contact number needed to jam unpinned particles and shifts the jamming threshold to lower densities, leading to a pinning susceptibility, ${\chi }_p$. Our main results are that this susceptibility obeys scaling form and diverges in the thermodynamic limit as ${\chi }_p\propto |\varphi -{\varphi }_c^{\infty }{|}^{-{\gamma }_p}$ where ${\varphi }_c^{\infty }$ is the jamming threshold in the absence of pins. Finite-size scaling arguments yield these values with associated statistical (systematic) errors ${\gamma }_p=1.018\pm 0.026(0.291)$ in $d=2$ and ${\gamma }_p=1.534\pm 0.120(0.822)$ in $d=3$. Logarithmic corrections raise the exponent in $d=2$ to close to the $d=3$ value, although the systematic errors are very large.

There has been considerable recent interest in the mean-field dynamics of various atom-interferometry schemes designed for precision sensing. In the field of quantum metrology, the standard tools for evaluating metrological sensitivity are the classical and quantum Fisher information. In this Letter, we show how these tools can be adapted to evaluate the sensitivity when the behavior is dominated by mean-field dynamics. As an example, we compare the behavior of four recent theoretical proposals for gyroscopes based on matter-wave interference in toroidally trapped geometries. We show that while the quantum Fisher information increases at different rates for the various schemes considered, in all cases it is consistent with the well-known Sagnac phase shift after the matter waves have traversed a closed path. However, we argue that the relevant metric for quantifying interferometric sensitivity is the classical Fisher information, which can vary considerably between the schemes.

We develop new pulse schemes to significantly speed up adiabatic state transfer protocols. Our general strategy involves adding corrections to an initial control Hamiltonian that harness nonadiabatic transitions. These corrections define a set of dressed states that the system follows exactly during the state transfer. We apply this approach to stimulated Raman adiabatic passage protocols and show that a suitable choice of dressed states allows one to design fast protocols that do not require additional couplings, while simultaneously minimizing the occupancy of the “intermediate” level.

We propose genetic algorithms, which are robust optimization techniques inspired by natural selection, to enhance the versatility of digital quantum simulations. In this sense, we show that genetic algorithms can be employed to increase the fidelity and optimize the resource requirements of digital quantum simulation protocols while adapting naturally to the experimental constraints. Furthermore, this method allows us to reduce not only digital errors but also experimental errors in quantum gates. Indeed, by adding ancillary qubits, we design a modular gate made out of imperfect gates, whose fidelity is larger than the fidelity of any of the constituent gates. Finally, we prove that the proposed modular gates are resilient against different gate errors.

We theoretically investigate the dynamics of a trapped ion immersed in a spatially localized buffer gas. For a homogeneous buffer gas, the ion’s energy distribution reaches a stable equilibrium only if the mass of the buffer gas atoms is below a critical value. This limitation can be overcome by using multipole traps in combination with a spatially confined buffer gas. Using a generalized model for elastic collisions of the ion with the buffer-gas atoms, the ion’s energy distribution is numerically determined for arbitrary buffer-gas distributions and trap parameters. Three regimes characterized by the respective analytic form of the ion’s equilibrium energy distribution are found. Final ion temperatures down to the millikelvin regime can be achieved by adiabatically decreasing the spatial extension of the buffer gas and the effective ion trap depth (forced sympathetic cooling).

We propose a scheme that enables the deterministic generation of single phonons at gigahertz frequencies triggered by single photons in the near infrared. This process is mediated by a quantum dot embedded on chip in an optomechanical circuit, which allows for the simultaneous control of the relevant photonic and phononic frequencies. We devise new optomechanical circuit elements that constitute the necessary building blocks for the proposed scheme and are readily implementable within the current state-of-the-art of nanofabrication. This will open new avenues for implementing quantum functionalities based on phonons as an on-chip quantum bus.

The theory of tokamak stability to nonlinear “ballooning” displacements of elliptical magnetic flux tubes is presented. Above a critical pressure profile the energy stored in the plasma may be lowered by finite (but not infinitesimal) displacements of such tubes (metastability). Above a higher pressure profile, the linear stability boundary, such tubes are linearly and nonlinearly unstable. The predicted saturated flux tube displacement can be of the order of the pressure gradient scale length. Plasma transport from these displaced flux tubes may explain the rapid loss of confinement in some experiments.

Surface defects are believed to govern the adsorption behavior of reducible oxides. We challenge this perception on the basis of a combined scanning-tunneling-microscopy and density-functional-theory study, addressing the Au adsorption on reduced ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2-x}(111)$. Despite a clear thermodynamic preference for oxygen vacancies, individual Au atoms were found to bind mostly to regular surface sites. Even at an elevated temperature, aggregation at step edges and not decoration of defects turned out to be the main consequence of adatom diffusion. Our findings are explained with the polaronic nature of the Au-ceria system, which imprints a strong diabatic character onto the diffusive motion of adatoms. Diabatic barriers are generally higher than those in the adiabatic regime, especially if the hopping step couples to an electron transfer into the ad-gold. As the population of O vacancies always requires a charge exchange, defect decoration by Au atoms becomes kinetically hindered. Our study demonstrates that polaronic effects determine not only electron transport in reducible oxides but also the adsorption characteristics and therewith the surface chemistry.

We propose a description of nonequilibrium systems via a simple protocol that combines exchange-correlation potentials from density functional theory with self-energies of many-body perturbation theory. The approach, aimed to avoid double counting of interactions, is tested against exact results in Hubbard-type systems, with respect to interaction strength, perturbation speed and inhomogeneity, and system dimensionality and size. In many regimes, we find significant improvement over adiabatic time dependent density functional theory or second Born nonequilibrium Green’s function approximations. We briefly discuss the reasons for the residual discrepancies, and directions for future work.

Many-body localization (MBL) has emerged as a novel paradigm for robust ergodicity breaking in closed quantum many-body systems. However, it is not yet clear to which extent MBL survives in the presence of dissipative processes induced by the coupling to an environment. Here we study heating and ergodicity for a paradigmatic MBL system—an interacting fermionic chain subject to quenched disorder—in the presence of dephasing. We find that, even though the system is eventually driven into an infinite-temperature state, heating as monitored by the von Neumann entropy can progress logarithmically slowly, implying exponentially large time scales for relaxation. This slow loss of memory of initial conditions makes signatures of nonergodicity visible over a long, but transient, time regime. We point out a potential controlled realization of the considered setup with cold atomic gases held in optical lattices.

One century ago pioneering dielectric results obtained for water and $n$-alcohols triggered the advent of molecular rotation diffusion theory considered by Debye to describe the primary dielectric absorption in these liquids. Comparing dielectric, viscoelastic, and light scattering results, we unambiguously demonstrate that the structural relaxation appears only as a high-frequency shoulder in the dielectric spectra of water. In contrast, the main dielectric peak is related to a supramolecular structure, analogous to the Debye-like peak observed in monoalcohols.

We implement and optimize a particle-swap Monte Carlo algorithm that allows us to thermalize a polydisperse system of hard spheres up to unprecedentedly large volume fractions, where previous algorithms and experiments fail to equilibrate. We show that no glass singularity intervenes before the jamming density, which we independently determine through two distinct nonequilibrium protocols. We demonstrate that equilibrium fluid and nonequilibrium jammed states can have the same density, showing that the jamming transition cannot be the end point of the fluid branch.