In their well-known paper, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen called the nonlocal correlation in quantum entanglement a “spooky action at a distance.” If the spooky action does exist, what is its speed? All previous experiments along this direction have locality and freedom-of-choice loopholes. Here, we strictly closed the loopholes by observing a 12 h continuous violation of the Bell inequality and concluded that the lower bound speed of spooky action was 4 orders of magnitude of the speed of light if Earth’s speed in any inertial reference frame was less than ${10}^{-3}$ time the speed of light.

We introduce a notion of spectral singularity that applies for a general class of nonlinear Schrödinger operators involving a confined nonlinearity. The presence of the nonlinearity does not break the parity-reflection symmetry of spectral singularities but makes them amplitude dependent. Nonlinear spectral singularities are, therefore, associated with a resonance effect that produces amplified waves with a specific amplitude-wavelength profile. We explore the consequences of this phenomenon for a complex $\delta$-function potential that is subject to a general confined nonlinearity.

We analyze interacting ultracold bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional superlattice potential with alternating tunneling rates $t_1$ and $t_2$ and inversion symmetry, which is the bosonic analogue of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. A $Z_2$ topological order parameter is introduced which is quantized for the Mott insulating (MI) phases. Depending on the ratio $t_1/t_2$ the $n=1/2$ MI phase is topologically nontrivial, which results in many-body edge states at open boundaries. In contrast to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model the bosonic counterpart lacks chiral symmetry and the edge states are no longer midgap. This leads to a generalization of the bulk-edge correspondence, which we discuss in detail. The edge states can be observed in cold atom experiments by creating a step in the effective confining potential, e.g., by a second heavy atom species, which leads to an interface between two MI regions with filling $n=1$ and $n=1/2$. The shape and energy of the edge states as well as the conditions for their occupation are determined analytically in the strong coupling limit and in general by density-matrix renormalization group simulations.

It is a fundamental problem in physics of what principle limits the correlations as predicted by our current description of nature, based on quantum mechanics. One possible explanation is the “global exclusivity” principle recently discussed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 060402 (2013). In this work we show that this principle actually has a much stronger restriction on the probability distribution. We provide a tight constraint inequality imposed by this principle and prove that this principle singles out quantum correlations in scenarios represented by any graph. Our result implies that the exclusivity principle might be one of the fundamental principles of nature.

In classical mechanics, performing a measurement without reading the measurement outcome is equivalent to not exploiting the measurement at all. A nonselective measurement in the classical realm carries no information. Here we show that the situation is remarkably different when quantum mechanical systems are concerned. A nonselective measurement on one part of a maximally entangled pair can allow communication between two parties. In the proposed protocol, the signal is encoded in the choice of the measurement basis of one of the communicating parties, while the outcomes of the measurement are irrelevant for the communication and therefore may be discarded. Different choices for the (nonselective) measurement correspond to different signals. The implication of the study of measurements in quantum mechanics is considered. The scheme is studied in a Hilbert space of prime dimension.

For scattering by potentials with attractive inverse-cube ($-C_3/r^3$) tails, the threshold law for elastic collisions is presented. The expansion of the scattering phase shift contains all terms up to and including $O(k^2)$ and only relies on the value of the threshold quantum number’s remainder $\Delta \in [0,1)$, which accounts for short-range deviations of the full potential from the pure $-C_3/r^3$ form. In contrast to previous approaches, the threshold law presented provides a connection to the regular solution at zero energy as well as to the position of a weakly bound $s$-wave state.

We show that optically encoded two-qubit Bell states can be unambiguously discriminated with a success probability of more than 50% in both single-rail and dual-rail encodings by using active linear-optical resources that include Gaussian squeezing operations. These results are in contrast to the well-known upper bound of 50% for unambiguous discrimination of dual-rail Bell states using passive, static linear optics and arbitrarily many vacuum modes. We present experimentally feasible schemes that improve the success probability to 64.3% in dual-rail and to 62.5% in single-rail for a uniform random distribution of Bell states. Conceptually, this demonstrates that neither interactions that induce nonlinear mode transformations (such as Kerr interactions) nor auxiliary entangled photons are required to go beyond the one-half limit. We discuss the optimality of our single-rail scheme and talk about an application of our dual-rail scheme in quantum communication.

A long-standing problem in quantum mesoscopic physics is which operator order corresponds to noise expressions like $⟨I(-\omega )I(\omega )⟩$, where $I(\omega )$ is the measured current at frequency $\omega$. Symmetrized order describes a classical measurement while nonsymmetrized order corresponds to a quantum detector, e.g., one sensitive to either emission or absorption of photons. We show that both order schemes can be embedded in quantum weak-measurement theory taking into account measurements with memory, characterized by a memory function which is independent of a particular experimental detection scheme. We discuss the resulting quasiprobabilities for different detector temperatures and how their negativity can be tested on the level of second-order correlation functions already. Experimentally, this negativity can be related to the squeezing of the many-body state of the transported electrons in an ac-driven tunnel junction.

We report on the detailed study of multicomponent spin waves in an $s=3/2$ Fermi gas where the high spin leads to novel tensorial degrees of freedom compared to $s=1/2$ systems. The excitations of a spin-nematic state are investigated from the linear to the nonlinear regime, where the tensorial character is particularly pronounced. By tuning the initial state we engineer the tensorial spin-wave character, such that the magnitude and the sign of the counterflow spin currents are effectively controlled. A comparison of our data with numerical and analytical results shows good agreement.

The normal Casimir force between a sinusoidally corrugated gold coated plate and a sphere was measured at various angles between the corrugations using an atomic force microscope. A strong dependence on the orientation angle of the corrugation is found. The measured forces were found to deviate from the proximity force approximation and are in agreement with the theory based on the gradient expansion including correlation effects of geometry and material properties. We analyze the role of temperature. The obtained results open new opportunities for control of the Casimir effect in micromechanical systems.

Using the joint distribution for proper time delays of a chaotic cavity derived by Brouwer, Frahm, and Beenakker [Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4737 (1997)], we obtain, in the limit of the large number of channels $N$, the large deviation function for the distribution of the Wigner time delay (the sum of proper times) by a Coulomb gas method. We show that the existence of a power law tail originates from narrow resonance contributions, related to a (second order) freezing transition in the Coulomb gas.

We address the question of what physical resources are required and sufficient to store classical information. While there is no lower bound on the required energy or space to store information, we find that there is a nonzero lower bound for the product $P=⟨E⟩⟨r^2⟩$ of these two resources. Specifically, we prove that any physical system of mass $m$ and $d$ degrees of freedom that stores $S$ bits of information will have a lower bound on the product $P$ that is proportional to $d^2/m\mathbf{(}\exp (S/d)-1{\mathbf{)}}^2$. This result is obtained in a nonrelativistic, quantum mechanical setting, and it is independent of earlier thermodynamical results such as the Bekenstein bound on the entropy of black holes.

We propose a multimode quantum memory protocol able to store the quantum state of the field in a microwave resonator into an ensemble of electronic spins. The stored information is protected against inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble by spin-echo techniques resulting in memory times orders of magnitude longer than previously achieved. By calculating the evolution of the first and second moments of the spin-cavity system variables for current experimental parameters, we show that a memory based on nitrogen vacancy center spins in diamond can store a qubit encoded on the $|0⟩$ and $|1⟩$ Fock states of the field with 80% fidelity and outperform classical memory strategies for storage times $\le 69\mu \mathrm{s}$.

We describe a quantum algorithm that generalizes the quantum linear system algorithm [Harrow et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 150502 (2009)] to arbitrary problem specifications. We develop a state preparation routine that can initialize generic states, show how simple ancilla measurements can be used to calculate many quantities of interest, and integrate a quantum-compatible preconditioner that greatly expands the number of problems that can achieve exponential speedup over classical linear systems solvers. To demonstrate the algorithm’s applicability, we show how it can be used to compute the electromagnetic scattering cross section of an arbitrary target exponentially faster than the best classical algorithm.

We develop a systematic approach to the linear-noise approximation for stochastic reaction systems with distributed delays. Unlike most existing work our formalism does not rely on a master equation; instead it is based upon a dynamical generating functional describing the probability measure over all possible paths of the dynamics. We derive general expressions for the chemical Langevin equation for a broad class of non-Markovian systems with distributed delay. Exemplars of a model of gene regulation with delayed autoinhibition and a model of epidemic spread with delayed recovery provide evidence of the applicability of our results.

We investigate the ground state (GS) of a collisionless Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a soft one-dimensional optical lattice (OL), which is formed by two counterpropagating optical beams perturbed by the BEC density profile through the local-field effect (LFE). We show that LFE gives rise to an envelope-deformation potential, a nonlocal potential resulting from the phase deformation, and an effective self-interaction of the condensate. As a result, stable photon-atomic (polaritonic) lattice solitons, including an optical component, in the form of the deformation of the soft OL, in a combination with a localized matter-wave component, are generated in the blue-detuned setting, without any direct interaction between atoms. These self-trapped modes, which realize the system’s GS, are essentially different from the gap solitons supported by the interplay of the OL potential and collisional interactions between atoms. A transition to tightly bound modes from loosely bound ones occurs with the increase of the number of atoms in the BEC.

We demonstrate the unambiguous entangling operation of a photonic quantum-logic gate driven by an ultrabright solid-state single-photon source. Indistinguishable single photons emitted by a single semiconductor quantum dot in a micropillar optical cavity are used as target and control qubits. For a source brightness of 0.56 photons per pulse, the measured truth table has an overlap with the ideal case of $68.4\pm 0.5\%$, increasing to $73.0\pm 1.6\%$ for a source brightness of 0.17 photons per pulse. The gate is entangling: At a source brightness of 0.48, the Bell-state fidelity is above the entangling threshold of 50% and reaches $71.0\pm 3.6\%$ for a source brightness of 0.15.

We experimentally demonstrate all-optical interaction-free switching using the quantum Zeno effect, achieving a high contrast of $35:1$. The experimental data match a zero-parameter theoretical model for several different regimes of operation, indicating a good understanding of the switch’s characteristics. We also discuss extensions of this work that will allow for significantly improved performance, and the integration of this technology onto chip-scale devices, which can lead to ultra-low-power all-optical switching, a long-standing goal with applications to both classical and quantum information processing.

In the framework of the Cartan classification of Hamiltonians, a kind of topological classification of Fermi surfaces is established in terms of topological charges. The topological charge of a Fermi surface depends on its codimension and the class to which its Hamiltonian belongs. It is revealed that six types of topological charges exist, and they form two groups with respect to the chiral symmetry, with each group consisting of one original charge and two descendants. It is these nontrivial topological charges which lead to the robust topological protection of the corresponding Fermi surfaces against perturbations that preserve discrete symmetries.

We demonstrate that the optimal states in lossy quantum interferometry may be efficiently simulated using low rank matrix product states. We argue that this should be expected in all realistic quantum metrological protocols with uncorrelated noise and is related to the elusive nature of the Heisenberg precision scaling in the asymptotic limit of a large number of probes.