The first proof of the quantum adiabatic theorem was given as early as 1928. Today, this theorem is increasingly applied in a many-body context, e.g., in quantum annealing and in studies of topological properties of matter. In this setup, the rate of variation $ϵ$ of local terms is indeed small compared to the gap, but the rate of variation of the total, extensive Hamiltonian, is not. Therefore, applications to many-body systems are not covered by the proofs and arguments in the literature. In this Letter, we prove a version of the adiabatic theorem for gapped ground states of interacting quantum spin systems, under assumptions that remain valid in the thermodynamic limit. As an application, we give a mathematical proof of Kubo’s linear response formula for a broad class of gapped interacting systems. We predict that the density of nonadiabatic excitations is exponentially small in the driving rate and the scaling of the exponent depends on the dimension.

We study the diffusive dynamics of a Brownian particle in the proximity of a flat surface under nonequilibrium conditions, which are created by an anisotropic thermal environment with different temperatures being active along distinct spatial directions. By presenting the exact time-dependent solution of the Fokker-Planck equation for this problem, we demonstrate that the interplay between anisotropic diffusion and hard-core interaction with the plain wall rectifies the thermal fluctuations and induces directed particle transport parallel to the surface, without any deterministic forces being applied in that direction. Based on current micromanipulation technologies, we suggest a concrete experimental setup to observe this novel noise-induced transport mechanism. We furthermore show that it is sensitive to particle characteristics, such that this setup can be used for sorting particles of different sizes.

A central requirement for any quantum error correction scheme is the ability to perform quantum nondemolition measurements of an error syndrome, corresponding to a special symmetry property of the encoding scheme. It is in particular important that such a measurement does not introduce extra error mechanisms, not included in the error model of the correction scheme. In this Letter, we ensure such a robustness by designing an interaction with a measurement device that preserves the degeneracy of the measured observable. More precisely, we propose a scheme to perform continuous and quantum nondemolition measurement of photon-number parity in a microwave cavity. This corresponds to the error syndrome in a class of error correcting codes called the cat codes, which have recently proven to be efficient and versatile for quantum information processing. In our design, we exploit the strongly nonlinear Hamiltonian of a high-impedance Josephson circuit, coupling a high-$Q$ cavity storage cavity mode to a low-$Q$ readout one. By driving the readout resonator at its resonance, the phase of the reflected or transmitted signal carries directly exploitable information on parity-type observables for encoded cat qubits of the high-$Q$ mode.

Quantum state transfer from flying photons to stationary matter qubits is an important element in the realization of quantum networks. Self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots provide a promising solid-state platform hosting both single photon and spin, with an inherent light-matter interface. Here, we develop a method to coherently and actively control the single-photon frequency bins in superposition using electro-optic modulators, and measure the spin-photon entanglement with a fidelity of $0.796\pm 0.020$. Further, by Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-type state projection on the frequency, path, and polarization degrees of freedom of a single photon, we demonstrate quantum state transfer from a single photon to a single electron spin confined in an InGaAs quantum dot, separated by 5 m. The quantum state mapping from the photon’s polarization to the electron’s spin is demonstrated along three different axes on the Bloch sphere, with an average fidelity of 78.5%.

Quantum memories matched to single photon sources will form an important cornerstone of future quantum network technology. We demonstrate such a memory in warm Rb vapor with on-demand storage and retrieval, based on electromagnetically induced transparency. With an acceptance bandwidth of $\delta f=0.66\mathrm{GHz}$, the memory is suitable for single photons emitted by semiconductor quantum dots. In this regime, vapor cell memories offer an excellent compromise between storage efficiency, storage time, noise level, and experimental complexity, and atomic collisions have negligible influence on the optical coherences. Operation of the memory is demonstrated using attenuated laser pulses on the single photon level. For a 50 ns storage time, we measure ${\eta }_{\mathrm{e}2\mathrm{e}}^{50\mathrm{ns}}=3.4(3)\%$ end-to-end efficiency of the fiber-coupled memory, with a total intrinsic efficiency ${\eta }_{\mathrm{int}}=17(3)\%$. Straightforward technological improvements can boost the end-to-end-efficiency to ${\eta }_{\mathrm{e}2\mathrm{e}}\approx 35\%$; beyond that, increasing the optical depth and exploiting the Zeeman substructure of the atoms will allow such a memory to approach near unity efficiency. In the present memory, the unconditional read-out noise level of $9\times {10}^{-3}$ photons is dominated by atomic fluorescence, and for input pulses containing on average ${\mu }_1=0.27(4)$ photons, the signal to noise level would be unity.

We consider a one-dimensional classical Coulomb gas of $N$-like charges in a harmonic potential—also known as the one-dimensional one-component plasma. We compute, analytically, the probability distribution of the position $x_{\max }$ of the rightmost charge in the limit of large $N$. We show that the typical fluctuations of $x_{\max }$ around its mean are described by a nontrivial scaling function, with asymmetric tails. This distribution is different from the Tracy-Widom distribution of $x_{\max }$ for Dyson’s log gas. We also compute the large deviation functions of $x_{\max }$ explicitly and show that the system exhibits a third-order phase transition, as in the log gas. Our theoretical predictions are verified numerically.

In this Letter, we present a measurement of the phase-space density distribution (PSDD) of ultracold ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms performing 1D anomalous diffusion. The PSDD is imaged using a direct tomographic method based on Raman velocity selection. It reveals that the position-velocity correlation function $C_{xv}(t)$ builds up on a time scale related to the initial conditions of the ensemble and then decays asymptotically as a power law. We show that the decay follows a simple scaling theory involving the power-law asymptotic dynamics of position and velocity. The generality of this scaling theory is confirmed using Monte Carlo simulations of two distinct models of anomalous diffusion.

We observe multistep condensation of sodium atoms with spin $F=1$, where the different Zeeman components $m_F=0,\pm 1$ condense sequentially as the temperature decreases. The precise sequence changes drastically depending on the magnetization $m_z$ and on the quadratic Zeeman energy $q$ (QZE) in an applied magnetic field. For large QZE, the overall structure of the phase diagram is the same as for an ideal spin-1 gas, although the precise locations of the phase boundaries are significantly shifted by interactions. For small QZE, antiferromagnetic interactions qualitatively change the phase diagram with respect to the ideal case, leading, for instance, to condensation in $m_F=\pm 1$, a phenomenon that cannot occur for an ideal gas with $q>0$.

In a classical world, simultaneous measurements of complementary properties (e.g., position and momentum) give a system’s state. In quantum mechanics, measurement-induced disturbance is largest for complementary properties and, hence, limits the precision with which such properties can be determined simultaneously. It is tempting to try to sidestep this disturbance by copying the system and measuring each complementary property on a separate copy. However, perfect copying is physically impossible in quantum mechanics. Here, we investigate using the closest quantum analog to this copying strategy, optimal cloning. The coherent portion of the generated clones’ state corresponds to “twins” of the input system. Like perfect copies, both twins faithfully reproduce the properties of the input system. Unlike perfect copies, the twins are entangled. As such, a measurement on both twins is equivalent to a simultaneous measurement on the input system. For complementary observables, this joint measurement gives the system’s state, just as in the classical case. We demonstrate this experimentally using polarized single photons.

We consider the contextual fraction as a quantitative measure of contextuality of empirical models, i.e., tables of probabilities of measurement outcomes in an experimental scenario. It provides a general way to compare the degree of contextuality across measurement scenarios; it bears a precise relationship to violations of Bell inequalities; its value, and a witnessing inequality, can be computed using linear programing; it is monotonic with respect to the “free” operations of a resource theory for contextuality; and it measures quantifiable advantages in informatic tasks, such as games and a form of measurement-based quantum computing.

We report an experiment demonstrating the generation of directional thermal radiation with a spectral brightness that is about 9 times greater than that of the ambient pumping reservoir. The experiment is based on the recent proposal for a nontraditional quantum heat engine and uses cold Rb atoms, electromagnetically induced transparency, and photon correlation spectroscopy [Phys. Rev. A 94, 053859 (2016)].

Recent experiments have revealed that beyond-mean-field corrections are much more relevant in weakly interacting dipolar condensates than in their nondipolar counterparts. We show that in quasi-one-dimensional geometries quantum corrections in dipolar and nondipolar condensates are strikingly different due to the peculiar momentum dependence of the dipolar interactions. The energy correction of the condensate presents not only a modified density dependence, but it may even change from attractive to repulsive at a critical density due to the surprising role played by the transversal directions. The anomalous quantum correction translates into a strongly modified physics for quantum-stabilized droplets and dipolar solitons. Moreover, and for similar reasons, quantum corrections of three-body correlations, and hence of three-body losses, are strongly modified by the dipolar interactions. This intriguing physics can be readily probed in current experiments with magnetic atoms.

We propose a method for increasing the purity of interacting quantum systems that takes advantage of correlations present due to the internal interaction. In particular, when this interaction is sufficiently strong, we show that by using the system’s quantum correlations one can achieve cooling beyond established limits of previous conventional algorithmic cooling proposals which assume no interaction.

To date, blind quantum computing demonstrations require clients to have weak quantum devices. Here we implement a proof-of-principle experiment for completely classical clients. Via classically interacting with two quantum servers that share entanglement, the client accomplishes the task of having the number 15 factorized by servers who are denied information about the computation itself. This concealment is accompanied by a verification protocol that tests servers’ honesty and correctness. Our demonstration shows the feasibility of completely classical clients and thus is a key milestone towards secure cloud quantum computing.

We develop a perturbation theory of quantum (and classical) master equations with slowly varying parameters, applicable to systems which are externally controlled on a time scale much longer than their characteristic relaxation time. We apply this technique to the analysis of finite-time isothermal processes in which, differently from quasistatic transformations, the state of the system is not able to continuously relax to the equilibrium ensemble. Our approach allows one to formally evaluate perturbations up to arbitrary order to the work and heat exchange associated with an arbitrary process. Within first order in the perturbation expansion, we identify a general formula for the efficiency at maximum power of a finite-time Carnot engine. We also clarify under which assumptions and in which limit one can recover previous phenomenological results as, for example, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency.

The quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a fundamental limit for the measurement of classical signals with detectors operating in the quantum regime. Using linear-response theory and the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, we derive a general condition for achieving such a fundamental limit. When applied to classical displacement measurements with a test mass, this condition leads to an explicit connection between the QCRB and the standard quantum limit that arises from a tradeoff between the measurement imprecision and quantum backaction; the QCRB can be viewed as an outcome of a quantum nondemolition measurement with the backaction evaded. Additionally, we show that the test mass is more a resource for improving measurement sensitivity than a victim of the quantum backaction, which suggests a new approach to enhancing the sensitivity of a broad class of sensors. We illustrate these points with laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors.

We prove that there is no finite-alphabet nonlocal box that generates exactly those correlations that can be generated using a maximally entangled pair of qubits. More generally, we prove that if some finite-alphabet nonlocal box is strong enough to simulate arbitrary local projective measurements of a maximally entangled pair of qubits, then that nonlocal box cannot itself be simulated using any finite amount of entanglement. We also give a quantitative version of this theorem for approximate simulations, along with a corresponding positive result.

Motivated by the experimental realization of quantum spin models of polar molecule KRb in optical lattices, we analyze the spin $1/2$ dipolar Heisenberg model with competing anisotropic, long-range exchange interactions. We show that, by tilting the orientation of dipoles using an external electric field, the dipolar spin system on square lattice comes close to a maximally frustrated region similar, but not identical, to that of the $J_1\text{−}{J}_2$ model. This provides a simple yet powerful route to potentially realize a quantum spin liquid without the need for a triangular or kagome lattice. The ground state phase diagrams obtained from Schwinger-boson and spin-wave theories consistently show a spin disordered region between the Néel, stripe, and spiral phase. The existence of a finite quantum paramagnetic region is further confirmed by an unbiased variational ansatz based on tensor network states and a tensor renormalization group.

We prove that the entanglement entropy of any state evolved under an arbitrary $1/r^{\alpha }$ long-range-interacting $D$-dimensional lattice spin Hamiltonian cannot change faster than a rate proportional to the boundary area for any $\alpha >D+1$. We also prove that for any $\alpha >2D+2$, the ground state of such a Hamiltonian satisfies the entanglement area law if it can be transformed along a gapped adiabatic path into a ground state known to satisfy the area law. These results significantly generalize their existing counterparts for short-range interacting systems, and are useful for identifying dynamical phase transitions and quantum phase transitions in the presence of long-range interactions.

We generalize the hierarchy construction to generic $2+1\mathrm{D}$ topological orders (which can be non-Abelian) by condensing Abelian anyons in one topological order to construct a new one. We show that such construction is reversible and leads to a new equivalence relation between topological orders. We refer to the corresponding equivalence class (the orbit of the hierarchy construction) as “the non-Abelian family.” Each non-Abelian family has one or a few root topological orders with the smallest number of anyon types. All the Abelian topological orders belong to the trivial non-Abelian family whose root is the trivial topological order. We show that Abelian anyons in root topological orders must be bosons or fermions with trivial mutual statistics between them. The classification of topological orders is then greatly simplified, by focusing on the roots of each family: those roots are given by non-Abelian modular extensions of representation categories of Abelian groups.