We report tests of local position invariance based on measurements of the ratio of the ground state hyperfine frequencies of ${}^{133}\mathrm{Cs}$ and ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ in laser-cooled atomic fountain clocks. Measurements extending over 14 years set a stringent limit to a possible variation with time of this ratio: $d\ln ({\nu }_{\mathrm{Rb}}/{\nu }_{\mathrm{Cs}})/dt=(-1.39\pm 0.91)\times {10}^{-16}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$. This improves by a factor of 7.7 over our previous report [H. Marion et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 150801 (2003)]. Our measurements also set the first limit to a fractional variation of the Rb/Cs frequency ratio with gravitational potential at the level of $c^{2}d\ln ({\nu }_{\mathrm{Rb}}/{\nu }_{\mathrm{Cs}})/dU=(0.11\pm 1.04)\times {10}^{-6}$, providing a new stringent differential redshift test. The above limits equivalently apply to the fractional variation of the quantity ${\alpha }^{-0.49}(g_{\mathrm{Rb}}/g_{\mathrm{Cs}})$, which involves the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the ratio of the nuclear $g$-factors of the two alkalis. The link with variations of the light quark mass is also presented together with a global analysis combining other available highly accurate clock comparisons.

It is well known that increasing the nonlinearity due to repulsive atomic interactions in a double-well Bose-Einstein condensate suppresses quantum tunneling between the two sites. Here we find analogous behavior in the dynamical tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate between period-one resonances in a single driven potential well. For small nonlinearities we find unhindered tunneling between the resonances, but with an increasing period as compared to the noninteracting system. For nonlinearities above a critical value we generally observe that the tunneling shuts down. However, for certain regimes of modulation parameters we find that dynamical tunneling reemerges for large enough nonlinearities, an effect not present in spatial double-well tunneling. We develop a two-mode model in good agreement with full numerical simulations over a wide range of parameters, which allows the suppression of tunneling to be attributed to macroscopic quantum self-trapping.

We realize fast transport of ions in a segmented microstructured Paul trap. The ion is shuttled over a distance of more than ${10}^4$ times its ground state wave function size during only five motional cycles of the trap ($280\mu \mathrm{m}$ in $3.6\mu \mathrm{s}$). Starting from a ground-state-cooled ion, we find an optimized transport such that the energy increase is as low as $0.10\pm 0.01$ motional quanta. In addition, we demonstrate that quantum information stored in a spin-motion entangled state is preserved throughout the transport. Shuttling operations are concatenated, as a proof-of-principle for the shuttling-based architecture to scalable ion trap quantum computing.

We investigate the dynamics of single and multiple ions during transport between and separation into spatially distinct locations in a multizone linear Paul trap. A single ${}^9\mathrm{Be}^{+}$ ion in a $\sim 2\mathrm{MHz}$ harmonic well was transported $370\mu \mathrm{m}$ in $8\mu \mathrm{s}$, corresponding to 16 periods of oscillation, with a gain of 0.1 motional quanta. Similar results were achieved for the transport of two ions. We also separated chains of up to 9 ions from one potential well to two distinct potential wells. With two ions this was accomplished in $55\mu \mathrm{s}$, with excitations of approximately two quanta for each ion. Fast transport and separation can significantly reduce the time overhead in certain architectures for scalable quantum information processing with trapped ions.

Because of the importance of entanglement for quantum information purposes, a framework has been developed for its characterization and quantification as a resource based on the following operational principle: entanglement among $N$ parties cannot be created by local operations and classical communication, even when $N-1$ parties collaborate. More recently, nonlocality has been identified as another resource, alternative to entanglement and necessary for device-independent quantum information protocols. We introduce an operational framework for nonlocality based on a similar principle: nonlocality among $N$ parties cannot be created by local operations and allowed classical communication even when $N-1$ parties collaborate. We then show that the standard definition of multipartite nonlocality, due to Svetlichny, is inconsistent with this operational approach: according to it, genuine tripartite nonlocality could be created by two collaborating parties. We finally discuss alternative definitions for which consistency is recovered.

We propose a method for solving the time-independent Schrödinger equation based on the von Neumann (vN) lattice of phase space Gaussians. By incorporating periodic boundary conditions into the vN lattice [F. Dimler et al., New J. Phys. 11, 105052 (2009)], we solve a longstanding problem of convergence of the vN method. This opens the door to tailoring quantum calculations to the underlying classical phase space structure while retaining the accuracy of the Fourier grid basis. The method has the potential to provide enormous numerical savings as the dimensionality increases. In the classical limit, the method reaches the remarkable efficiency of one basis function per one eigenstate. We illustrate the method for a challenging two-dimensional potential where the Fourier grid method breaks down.

Because of the technical difficulty of building large quantum computers, it is important to be able to estimate how faithful a given implementation is to an ideal quantum computer. The common approach of completely characterizing the computation process via quantum process tomography requires an exponential amount of resources, and thus is not practical even for relatively small devices. We solve this problem by demonstrating that twirling experiments previously used to characterize the average fidelity of quantum memories efficiently can be easily adapted to estimate the average fidelity of the experimental implementation of important quantum computation processes, such as unitaries in the Clifford group, in a practical and efficient manner with applicability in current quantum devices. Using this procedure, we demonstrate state-of-the-art coherent control of an ensemble of magnetic moments of nuclear spins in a single crystal solid by implementing the encoding operation for a 3-qubit code with only a 1% degradation in average fidelity discounting preparation and measurement errors. We also highlight one of the advances that was instrumental in achieving such high fidelity control.

The ability to distribute quantum entanglement is a prerequisite for many fundamental tests of quantum theory and numerous quantum information protocols. Two distant parties can increase the amount of entanglement between them by means of quantum communication encoded in a carrier that is sent from one party to the other. Intriguingly, entanglement can be increased even when the exchanged carrier is not entangled with the parties. However, in light of the defining property of entanglement stating that it cannot increase under classical communication, the carrier must be quantum. Here we show that, in general, the increase of relative entropy of entanglement between two remote parties is bounded by the amount of nonclassical correlations of the carrier with the parties as quantified by the relative entropy of discord. We study implications of this bound, provide new examples of entanglement distribution via unentangled states, and put further limits on this phenomenon.

In order to achieve reliable quantum-information processing results, we need to protect quantum gates along with the qubits from decoherence. Here we demonstrate experimentally on a nitrogen-vacancy system that by using a continuous-wave dynamical decoupling method, we might not only prolong the coherence time by about 20 times but also protect the quantum gates for the duration of the controlling time. This protocol shares the merits of retaining the superiority of prolonging the coherence time and at the same time easily combining with quantum logic tasks. This method can be useful in tasks where the duration of quantum controlling exceeds far beyond the dephasing time.

We present an approach to building interferometric telescopes using ideas of quantum information. Current optical interferometers have limited baseline lengths, and thus limited resolution, because of noise and loss of signal due to the transmission of photons between the telescopes. The technology of quantum repeaters has the potential to eliminate this limit, allowing in principle interferometers with arbitrarily long baselines.

We reveal the subdiffusive dynamics of paramagnetic colloids subjected to a two state flashing potential generated by periodic modulation of a magnetic bubble lattice. The particles perform a random walklike motion with antipersistent nature, showing for certain field parameters a crossover from subdiffusive to an enhanced diffusive behavior. We elucidate the stationary nature (no aging) of the subdiffusive process and stress its similarity with the random walk on a random walk model.

We study electronic transitions in highly charged Cf ions that are within the frequency range of optical lasers and have very high sensitivity to potential variations in the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$. The transitions are in the optical range despite the large ionization energies because they lie on the level crossing of the $5f$ and $6p$ valence orbitals in the thallium isoelectronic sequence. ${\mathrm{Cf}}^{16+}$ is a particularly rich ion, having several narrow lines with properties that minimize certain systematic effects. ${\mathrm{Cf}}^{16+}$ has very large nuclear charge and large ionization energy, resulting in the largest $\alpha$ sensitivity seen in atomic systems. The lines include positive and negative shifters.

We report the measurement of the time of flight of $\sim 17\mathrm{GeV}$ ${\nu }_{\mu }$ on the CNGS baseline (732 km) with the Large Volume Detector (LVD) at the Gran Sasso Laboratory. The CERN-SPS accelerator has been operated from May 10th to May 24th 2012, with a tightly bunched-beam structure to allow the velocity of neutrinos to be accurately measured on an event-by-event basis. LVD has detected 48 neutrino events, associated with the beam, with a high absolute time accuracy. These events allow us to establish the following limit on the difference between the neutrino speed and the light velocity: $-3.8\times {10}^{-6}<(v_{\nu }-c)/c<3.1\times {10}^{-6}$ (at 99% C.L.). This value is an order of magnitude lower than previous direct measurements.

We use quantum process tomography to characterize a full universal set of all-microwave gates on two superconducting single-frequency single-junction transmon qubits. All extracted gate fidelities, including those for Clifford group generators, single-qubit $\pi /4$ and $\pi /8$ rotations, and a two-qubit controlled-not, exceed $95\%$ ($98\%$), without (with) subtracting state preparation and measurement errors. Furthermore, we introduce a process map representation in the Pauli basis which is visually efficient and informative. This high-fidelity gate set serves as a critical building block towards scalable architectures of superconducting qubits for error correction schemes and pushes up on the known limits of quantum gate characterization.

Analytical solutions to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation describing a driven two-level system are invaluable to many areas of physics, but they are also extremely rare. Here, we present a simple algorithm that generates an unlimited number of exact analytical solutions. We show that a general single-axis driving term and its corresponding evolution operator are determined by a single real function which is constrained only by a certain inequality and initial conditions. Any function satisfying these constraints yields an exact analytical solution. We demonstrate this method by presenting several new exact solutions to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Our general method and many of the new solutions we present are particularly relevant to qubit control in quantum computing applications.

We demonstrate high-fidelity, quantum nondemolition, single-shot readout of a superconducting flux qubit in which the pointer state distributions can be resolved to below one part in 1000. In the weak excitation regime, continuous measurement permits the use of heralding to ensure initialization to a fiducial state, such as the ground state. This procedure boosts readout fidelity to 93.9% by suppressing errors due to spurious thermal population. Furthermore, heralding potentially enables a simple, fast qubit reset protocol without changing the system parameters to induce Purcell relaxation.

We demonstrate initialization by joint measurement of two transmon qubits in 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics. Homodyne detection of cavity transmission is enhanced by Josephson parametric amplification to discriminate the two-qubit ground state from single-qubit excitations nondestructively and with 98.1% fidelity. Measurement and postselection of a steady-state mixture with 4.7% residual excitation per qubit achieve 98.8% fidelity to the ground state, thus outperforming passive initialization.

We provide a new quantum algorithm that efficiently determines the quality of a least-squares fit over an exponentially large data set by building upon an algorithm for solving systems of linear equations efficiently [Harrow et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 150502 (2009)]. In many cases, our algorithm can also efficiently find a concise function that approximates the data to be fitted and bound the approximation error. In cases where the input data are pure quantum states, the algorithm can be used to provide an efficient parametric estimation of the quantum state and therefore can be applied as an alternative to full quantum-state tomography given a fault tolerant quantum computer.

We present an experimental investigation of the dynamic spin response of a strongly interacting Fermi gas using Bragg spectroscopy. By varying the detuning of the Bragg lasers, we show that it is possible to measure the response in the spin and density channels separately. At low Bragg energies, the spin response is suppressed due to pairing, whereas the density response is enhanced. These experiments yield the first independent measurements of the spin-parallel and spin-antiparallel dynamic and static structure factors, which provide insight into the different features of density and spin response functions. At high momentum the spin-antiparallel dynamic structure factor displays a universal high frequency tail, proportional to ${\omega }^{-5/2}$, where $\hslash \omega$ is the probe energy.

In this Letter, we demonstrate that the property of monogamy of Bell violations seen for no-signaling correlations in composite systems can be generalized to the monogamy of contextuality in single systems obeying the Gleason property of no disturbance. We show how one can construct monogamies for contextual inequalities by using the graph-theoretic technique of vertex decomposition of a graph representing a set of measurements into subgraphs of suitable independence numbers that themselves admit a joint probability distribution. After establishing that all the subgraphs that are chordal graphs admit a joint probability distribution, we formulate a precise graph-theoretic condition that gives rise to the monogamy of contextuality. We also show how such monogamies arise within quantum theory for a single four-dimensional system and interpret violation of these relations in terms of a violation of causality. These monogamies can be tested with current experimental techniques.