We experimentally demonstrate entanglement distillation of the two-mode squeezed state obtained by parametric down-conversion. Applying the photon annihilation operator to both modes, we raise the fraction of the photon-pair component in the state, resulting in the increase of both squeezing and entanglement by about 50%. Because of the low amount of initial squeezing, the distilled state does not experience significant loss of Gaussian character.

We investigate theoretically the suppression of two-body losses when the on-site loss rate is larger than all other energy scales in a lattice. This work quantitatively explains the recently observed suppression of chemical reactions between two rotational states of fermionic KRb molecules confined in one-dimensional tubes with a weak lattice along the tubes [Yan et al., Nature (London) 501, 521 (2013)]. New loss rate measurements performed for different lattice parameters but under controlled initial conditions allow us to show that the loss suppression is a consequence of the combined effects of lattice confinement and the continuous quantum Zeno effect. A key finding, relevant for generic strongly reactive systems, is that while a single-band theory can qualitatively describe the data, a quantitative analysis must include multiband effects. Accounting for these effects reduces the inferred molecule filling fraction by a factor of 5. A rate equation can describe much of the data, but to properly reproduce the loss dynamics with a fixed filling fraction for all lattice parameters we develop a mean-field model and benchmark it with numerically exact time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations.

We analyze several high dimensional generalizations of the toric code at a nonzero temperature. We find that in a large enough dimension, there can be a distinct separation between the critical temperature $T_c$, given by thermodynamic singularities, and the percolation temperature $T_p$, given by the percolation of defects. We argue that the regime $T_p<T<T_c$ is a range of temperatures where a self-correcting quantum memory can operate despite having percolating defects. We present analytic arguments and numerical evidence in support of this scenario, including a mean-field treatment and Monte Carlo simulations. Near $T_c$, simulations observe a large hysteretic behavior, which may have applications by allowing the self-correcting phase to survive in a “superheated” regime.

We present an indirect two-qubit parity meter in planar circuit quantum electrodynamics, realized by discrete interaction with an ancilla and a subsequent projective ancilla measurement with a dedicated, dispersively coupled resonator. Quantum process tomography and successful entanglement by measurement demonstrate that the meter is intrinsically quantum nondemolition. Separate interaction and measurement steps allow the execution of subsequent data-qubit operations in parallel with ancilla measurement, offering time savings over continuous schemes.

Hamiltonian systems with long-range interactions give rise to long-lived out-of-equilibrium macroscopic states, so-called quasistationary states. We show here that, in a suitably generalized form, this result remains valid for many such systems in the presence of dissipation. Using an appropriate mean-field kinetic description, we show that models with dissipation due to a viscous damping or due to inelastic collisions admit “scaling quasistationary states,” i.e., states that are quasistationary in rescaled variables. A numerical study of one-dimensional self-gravitating systems confirms the relevance of these solutions and gives indications of their regime of validity in line with theoretical predictions. We underline that the velocity distributions never show any tendency to evolve towards a Maxwell-Boltzmann form.

In this Letter we propose a new method to infer the topology of the interaction network in pairwise models with Ising variables. By using the pseudolikelihood method (PLM) at high temperature, it is generally possible to distinguish between zero and nonzero couplings because a clear gap separate the two groups. However at lower temperatures the PLM is much less effective and the result depends on subjective choices, such as the value of the ${\ell }_1$ regularizer and that of the threshold to separate nonzero couplings from null ones. We introduce a decimation procedure based on the PLM that recursively sets to zero the less significant couplings, until the variation of the pseudolikelihood signals that relevant couplings are being removed. The new method is fully automated and does not require any subjective choice by the user. Numerical tests have been performed on a wide class of Ising models, having different topologies (from random graphs to finite dimensional lattices) and different couplings (both diluted ferromagnets in a field and spin glasses). These numerical results show that the new algorithm performs better than standard PLM.

The single-particle excitations of a superconductor are coherent superpositions of electrons and holes near the Fermi level, called Bogoliubov quasiparticles. They are Majorana fermions, meaning that pairs of quasiparticles can annihilate. We calculate the annihilation probability at a beam splitter for chiral quantum Hall edge states, obtaining a $1\pm \cos \varphi$ dependence on the phase difference $\varphi$ of the superconductors from which the excitations originated (with the $\pm$ sign distinguishing singlet and triplet pairing). This provides for a nonlocal measurement of the superconducting phase in the absence of any supercurrent.

In 1945, Dirac attempted to develop a “formal probability” distribution to describe quantum operators in terms of two noncommuting variables, such as position $x$ and momentum $p$ [Rev. Mod. Phys. 17, 195 (1945)]. The resulting quasiprobability distribution is a complete representation of the quantum state and can be observed directly in experiments. We measure Dirac’s distribution for the quantum state of the transverse degree of freedom of a photon by weakly measuring transverse $x$ so as to not randomize the subsequent $p$ measurement. Furthermore, we show that the distribution has the classical-like feature that it transforms (e.g., propagates) according to Bayes’ law.

We present results on quantum quenches in lattice systems with a fixed number of particles in a much larger number of sites. Both local and global quenches in this limit generically have power-law work distributions (“edge singularities”). We show that this regime allows for large edge singularity exponents beyond that allowed by the constraints of the usual thermodynamic limit. This large-exponent singularity has observable consequences in the time evolution, leading to a distinct intermediate power-law regime in time. We demonstrate these results first using local quantum quenches in a low-density Kondo-like system, and additionally through global and local quenches in Bose-Hubbard, Aubry-Andre, and hard-core boson systems at low densities.

We propose a class of attacks on quantum key distribution (QKD) systems where an eavesdropper actively engineers new loopholes by using damaging laser illumination to permanently change properties of system components. This can turn a perfect QKD system into a completely insecure system. A proof-of-principle experiment performed on an avalanche photodiode-based detector shows that laser damage can be used to create loopholes. After $\sim 1\mathrm{W}$ illumination, the detectors’ dark count rate reduces 2–5 times, permanently improving single-photon counting performance. After $\sim 1.5\mathrm{W}$, the detectors switch permanently into the linear photodetection mode and become completely insecure for QKD applications.

We describe a method of producing bright atomic solitons of ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ through efficient radio frequency evaporation in a combined magnetic and optical trap. Solitons released in a magnetic waveguide propagate without dispersion, with lifetimes limited by two-body dipolar relaxation. We show how the method can be used to deterministically produce pairs of solitons.

We report a high-accuracy direct measurement of the blackbody radiation shift of the ${}^{133}\mathrm{Cs}$ ground-state hyperfine transition. This frequency shift is one of the largest systematic frequency biases encountered in realizing the current definition of the International System of Units (SI) second. Uncertainty in the blackbody radiation frequency shift correction has led to its being the focus of intense theoretical effort by a variety of research groups. Our experimental measurement of the shift used three primary frequency standards operating at different temperatures. We achieved an uncertainty a factor of five smaller than the previous best direct measurement. These results tend to validate the claimed accuracy of the recently calculated values.

Implementing precise operations on quantum systems is one of the biggest challenges for building quantum devices in a noisy environment. Dynamical decoupling attenuates the destructive effect of the environmental noise, but so far, it has been used primarily in the context of quantum memories. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a general scheme for combining dynamical decoupling with quantum logical gate operations using the example of an electron-spin qubit of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We achieve process fidelities $>98\%$ for gate times that are 2 orders of magnitude longer than the unprotected dephasing time $T_2$.

Precise control of an open quantum system is critical to quantum information processing but is challenging due to inevitable interactions between the quantum system and the environment. We demonstrated experimentally a type of dynamically corrected gates using only bounded-strength pulses on the nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. The infidelity of quantum gates caused by a nuclear-spin bath is reduced from being the second order to the sixth order of the noise-to-control-field ratio, which offers greater efficiency in reducing infidelity. The quantum gates have been protected to the limit essentially set by the spin-lattice relaxation time $T_1$. Our work marks an important step towards fault-tolerant quantum computation in realistic systems.

Boson sampling solves a classically intractable problem by sampling from a probability distribution given by matrix permanents. We propose a scalable implementation of boson sampling using local transverse phonon modes of trapped ions to encode the bosons. The proposed scheme allows deterministic preparation and high-efficiency readout of the bosons in the Fock states and universal mode mixing. With the state-of-the-art trapped ion technology, it is feasible to realize boson sampling with tens of bosons by this scheme, which would outperform the most powerful classical computers and constitute an effective disproof of the famous extended Church-Turing thesis.

We investigate a non-Poissonian version of the asymmetric simple exclusion process, motivated by the observation that coarse graining the interactions between particles in complex systems generically leads to a stochastic process with a non-Markovian (history-dependent) character. We characterize a large family of one-dimensional hopping processes using a waiting-time distribution for individual particle hops. We find that when its variance is infinite, a real-space condensate forms that is complete in space (involves all particles) and time (exists at almost any given instant) in the thermodynamic limit. The mechanism for the onset and stability of the condensate is rather subtle and depends on the microscopic dynamics subsequent to a failed particle hop attempt.

Electron-positron pair production in oscillating electric fields is investigated in the nonperturbative threshold regime. Accurate numerical solutions of quantum kinetic theory for corresponding observables are presented and analyzed in terms of a proposed model for an effective mass of electrons and positrons acquired within the given strong electric field. Although this effective mass cannot provide an exact description of the collective interaction of a charged particle with the strong field, physical observables are identified which carry direct and sensitive signatures of the effective mass.

We describe how sideband cooling techniques may be applied to large spin ensembles in magnetic resonance. Using the Tavis-Cummings model in the presence of a Rabi drive, we solve a Markovian master equation describing the joint spin-cavity dynamics to derive cooling rates as a function of ensemble size. Our calculations indicate that the coupled angular momentum subspaces of a spin ensemble containing roughly $10^{11}$ electron spins may be polarized in a time many orders of magnitude shorter than the typical thermal relaxation time. The described techniques should permit efficient removal of entropy for spin-based quantum information processors and fast polarization of spin samples. The proposed application of a standard technique in quantum optics to magnetic resonance also serves to reinforce the connection between the two fields, which has recently begun to be explored in further detail due to the development of hybrid designs for manufacturing noise-resilient quantum devices.

Stochastic pumps are models of artificial molecular machines which are driven by periodic time variation of parameters, such as site and barrier energies. The no-pumping theorem states that no directed motion is generated by variation of only site or barrier energies [S. Rahav, J. Horowitz, and C. Jarzynski, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 140602 (2008)]. We study stochastic pumps of several interacting particles and demonstrate that the net current of particles satisfies an additional no-pumping theorem.