A scheme to generate long-range spin-spin interactions between three-level ions in a chain is presented, providing a feasible experimental route to the rich physics of well-known $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ models. In particular, we demonstrate different signatures of quantum chaos which can be controlled and observed in experiments with trapped ions.

We propose a new scheme for quantum computation using flying qubits—propagating photons in a one-dimensional waveguide interacting with matter qubits. Photon-photon interactions are mediated by the coupling to a four-level system, based on which photon-photon $\pi$-phase gates (controlled-not) can be implemented for universal quantum computation. We show that high gate fidelity is possible, given recent dramatic experimental progress in superconducting circuits and photonic-crystal waveguides. The proposed system can be an important building block for future on-chip quantum networks.

We propose the implementation of Galileo group symmetry operations or, in general, linear coordinate transformations in a quantum simulator. With an appropriate encoding, unitary gates applied to our quantum system give rise to Galilean boosts or spatial and time parity operations in the simulated dynamics. This framework provides us with a flexible toolbox that enhances the versatility of quantum simulation theory, allowing the direct access to dynamical quantities that would otherwise require full tomography. Furthermore, this method enables the study of noncausal kinematics and phenomena beyond special relativity in a quantum controllable system.

We demonstrate dynamic stabilization of a strongly interacting quantum spin system realized in a spin-1 atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. The spinor Bose-Einstein condensate is initialized to an unstable fixed point of the spin-nematic phase space, where subsequent free evolution gives rise to squeezing and quantum spin mixing. To stabilize the system, periodic microwave pulses are applied that rotate the spin-nematic many-body fluctuations and limit their growth. The stability diagram for the range of pulse periods and phase shifts that stabilize the dynamics is measured and compares well with a stability analysis.

We study the structure of topological phases and their boundaries in the projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) formalism. We show how topological order in a system can be identified from the structure of the PEPS transfer operator and subsequently use these findings to analyze the structure of the boundary Hamiltonian, acting on the bond variables, which reflects the entanglement properties of the system. We find that in a topological phase, the boundary Hamiltonian consists of two parts: A universal nonlocal part which encodes the nature of the topological phase and a nonuniversal part which is local and inherits the symmetries of the topological model, which helps to infer the structure of the boundary Hamiltonian and thus possibly of the physical edge modes.

We show that the relativistic motion of a quantum system can be used to generate quantum gates. The nonuniform acceleration of a cavity is used to generate well-known two-mode quantum gates in continuous variables. Observable amounts of entanglement between the cavity modes are produced through resonances that appear by repeating periodically any trajectory.

The ultimate stability of atomic clocks is limited by the quantum noise of the atoms. To reduce this noise it has been suggested to use entangled atomic ensembles with reduced atomic noise. Potentially this can push the stability all the way to the limit allowed by the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, which is denoted the Heisenberg limit. In practice, however, entangled states are often more prone to decoherence, which may prevent reaching this performance. Here we present an adaptive measurement protocol that in the presence of a realistic source of decoherence enables us to get near-Heisenberg-limited stability of atomic clocks using entangled atoms. The protocol may thus realize the full potential of entanglement for quantum metrology despite the detrimental influence of decoherence.

Atomic clocks are typically operated by locking a local oscillator (LO) to a single atomic ensemble. In this Letter, we propose a scheme where the LO is locked to several atomic ensembles instead of one. This results in an exponential improvement compared to the conventional method and provides a stability of the clock scaling as $(\alpha N{)}^{-m/2}$ with $N$ being the number of atoms in each of the $m$ ensembles and $\alpha$ a constant depending on the protocol being used to lock the LO.

We study two-component (or pseudospin-$1/2$) Bose gases in a strong synthetic magnetic field. Using exact diagonalization, we show that a bosonic analog of an integer quantum Hall state with no intrinsic topological order appears at the total filling factor $\nu =1+1$ when the strengths of intracomponent and intercomponent interactions are comparable with each other. This provides a prime example of a symmetry-protected topological phase in a controlled setting of quantum gases. The real-space entanglement spectrum of this state is found to be comprised of counterpropagating chiral modes consistent with the edge theory derived from an effective Chern-Simons theory.

The quantum state $\psi$ is a mathematical object used to determine the probabilities of different outcomes when measuring a physical system. Its fundamental nature has been the subject of discussions since the inception of quantum theory. Is it ontic, that is, does it correspond to a real property of the physical system? Or is it epistemic, that is, does it merely represent our knowledge about the system? Assuming a natural continuity assumption and a weak separability assumption, we show here that epistemic interpretations of the quantum state are in contradiction with quantum theory. Our argument is different from the recent proof of Pusey, Barrett, and Rudolph and it already yields a nontrivial constraint on $\psi$-epistemic models using a single copy of the system in question.

The lattice Boltzmann equation is derived from the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook kinetic equation using the Euler-Maclaurin integration formula. Unlike previous attempts to connect the lattice Boltzmann method with the kinetic theory, the result is free of any relaxation-type approximation. It shows that the conventional lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook simulations of hydrodynamics belong to a parameter domain which is disconnected from the kinetic theory domain.

A general inequality between entanglement entropy and a number of topologically ordered states is derived, even without using the properties of the parent Hamiltonian or the formalism of topological quantum field theory. Given a quantum state $|\psi ⟩$, we obtain an upper bound on the number of distinct states that are locally indistinguishable from $|\psi ⟩$. The upper bound is determined only by the entanglement entropy of some local subsystems. As an example, we show that $\log N\le 2\gamma$ for a large class of topologically ordered systems on a torus, where $N$ is the number of topologically protected states and $\gamma$ is the constant subcorrection term of the entanglement entropy. We discuss applications to quantum many-body systems that do not have any low-energy topological quantum field theory description, as well as tradeoff bounds for general quantum error correcting codes.

Elastic light-by-light scattering ($\gamma \gamma \to \gamma \gamma$) is open to study at the Large Hadron Collider thanks to the large quasireal photon fluxes available in electromagnetic interactions of protons ($p$) and lead (Pb) ions. The $\gamma \gamma \to \gamma \gamma$ cross sections for diphoton masses $m_{\gamma \gamma }>5\mathrm{GeV}$ amount to 12 fb, 26 pb, and 35 nb in $p\mathrm{\text{−}}p$, $p\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathrm{Pb}$, and Pb-Pb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=14$, 8.8, and 5.5 TeV, respectively. Such a measurement has no substantial background in Pb-Pb collisions where one expects about 20 signal events per run, after typical detector acceptance and reconstruction efficiency selections.

We demonstrate a planar, tunable superconducting qubit with energy relaxation times up to $44\mu \mathrm{s}$. This is achieved by using a geometry designed to both minimize radiative loss and reduce coupling to materials-related defects. At these levels of coherence, we find a fine structure in the qubit energy lifetime as a function of frequency, indicating the presence of a sparse population of incoherent, weakly coupled two-level defects. We elucidate this defect physics by experimentally varying the geometry and by a model analysis. Our “Xmon” qubit combines facile fabrication, straightforward connectivity, fast control, and long coherence, opening a viable route to constructing a chip-based quantum computer.

The question of how irreversibility can emerge as a generic phenomenon when the underlying mechanical theory is reversible has been a long-standing fundamental problem for both classical and quantum mechanics. We describe a mechanism for the appearance of irreversibility that applies to coherent, isolated systems in a pure quantum state. This equilibration mechanism requires only an assumption of sufficiently complex internal dynamics and natural information-theoretic constraints arising from the infeasibility of collecting an astronomical amount of measurement data. Remarkably, we are able to prove that irreversibility can be understood as typical without assuming decoherence or restricting to coarse-grained observables, and hence occurs under distinct conditions and time scales from those implied by the usual decoherence point of view. We illustrate the effect numerically in several model systems and prove that the effect is typical under the standard random-matrix conjecture for complex quantum systems.

During recent years, dynamical decoupling (DD) has gained relevance as a tool for manipulating and interrogating quantum systems. This is particularly relevant for spins involved in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), where DD sequences can be used to prolong quantum coherences, or to selectively couple or decouple the effects imposed by random environmental fluctuations. In this Letter, we show that these concepts can be exploited to selectively recouple diffusion processes in restricted spaces. The ensuing method provides a novel tool to measure restriction lengths in confined systems such as capillaries, pores or cells. The principles of this method for selectively recoupling diffusion-driven decoherence, its standing within the context of diffusion NMR, extensions to the characterization of other kinds of quantum fluctuations, and corroborating experiments, are presented.

We propose and theoretically investigate a hybrid system composed of a crystal of trapped ions coupled to a cloud of ultracold fermions. The ions form a periodic lattice and induce a band structure in the atoms. This system combines the advantages of high fidelity operations and detection offered by trapped ion systems with ultracold atomic systems. It also features close analogies to natural solid-state systems, as the atomic degrees of freedom couple to phonons of the ion lattice, thereby emulating a solid-state system. Starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian, we derive the low energy Hamiltonian, including the atomic band structure, and give an expression for the atom-phonon coupling. We discuss possible experimental implementations such as a Peierls-like transition into a period-doubled dimerized state.

For quantum lattice systems with local interactions, the Lieb-Robinson bound serves as an alternative for the strict causality of relativistic systems and allows the proof of many interesting results, in particular, when the energy spectrum exhibits an energy gap. In this Letter, we show that for translation invariant systems, simultaneous eigenstates of energy and momentum with an eigenvalue that is separated from the rest of the spectrum in that momentum sector can be arbitrarily well approximated by building a momentum superposition of a local operator acting on the ground state. The error satisfies an exponential bound in the size of the support of the local operator, with a rate determined by the gap below and above the targeted eigenvalue. We show this explicitly for the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki model and discuss generalizations and applications of our result.

We study the distribution of particle number in extended subsystems of a one-dimensional noninteracting Fermi gas confined in a potential well at zero temperature. Universal features are identified in the scaled bulk and edge regions of the trapped gas where the full counting statistics are given by the corresponding limits of the eigenvalue statistics in Gaussian unitary random matrix ensembles. The universal limiting behavior is confirmed by the bulk and edge scaling of the particle number fluctuations and the entanglement entropy.

We study the simultaneous estimation of multiple phases as a discretized model for the imaging of a phase object. We identify quantum probe states that provide an enhancement compared to the best quantum scheme for the estimation of each individual phase separately as well as improvements over classical strategies. Our strategy provides an advantage in the variance of the estimation over individual quantum estimation schemes that scales as $\mathcal{O}(d)$, where $d$ is the number of phases. Finally, we study the attainability of this limit using realistic probes and photon-number-resolving detectors. This is a problem in which an intrinsic advantage is derived from the estimation of multiple parameters simultaneously.