Although measurement and unitary processes can accomplish any quantum evolution in principle, thinking in terms of dissipation and damping can be powerful. We propose a modification of Grover’s algorithm in which the idea of damping plays a natural role. Remarkably, we find that there is a critical damping value that divides between the quantum $O(\sqrt{N})$ and classical $O(N)$ search regimes. In addition, by allowing the damping to vary in a fashion we describe, one obtains a fixed-point quantum search algorithm in which ignorance of the number of targets increases the number of oracle queries only by a factor of 1.5.

We present a (mathematically rigorous) probabilistic and geometrical proof of the Knizhnik-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov relation between scaling exponents in a Euclidean planar domain $D$ and in Liouville quantum gravity. It uses the properly regularized quantum area measure $d{\mu }_{\gamma }={\epsilon }^{{\gamma }^2/2}{e}^{\gamma h_{\epsilon }(z)}dz$, where $dz$ is the Lebesgue measure on $D$, $\gamma$ is a real parameter, $0\le \gamma <2$, and $h_{\epsilon }(z)$ denotes the mean value on the circle of radius $\epsilon$ centered at $z$ of an instance $h$ of the Gaussian free field on $D$. The proof extends to the boundary geometry. The singular case $\gamma >2$ is shown to be related to the quantum measure $d{\mu }_{{\gamma }^{\prime }}$, ${\gamma }^{\prime }<2$, by the fundamental duality $\gamma {\gamma }^{\prime }=4$.

Microscopic models of classical degrees of freedom coupled to noninteracting fermions occur in many different contexts. Prominent examples from solid state physics are descriptions of colossal magnetoresistance manganites and diluted magnetic semiconductors, or auxiliary field methods for correlated electron systems. Monte Carlo simulations are vital for an understanding of such systems, but notorious for requiring the solution of the fermion problem with each change in the classical field configuration. We present an efficient, truncation-free $O(N)$ method on the basis of Chebyshev expanded local Green functions, which allows us to simulate systems of unprecedented size $N$.

The superfluid transition of a three-dimensional gas of hard-sphere bosons in a disordered medium is studied using quantum Monte Carlo methods. Simulations are performed in continuous space both in the canonical and in the grand-canonical ensemble. At fixed density we calculate the shift of the transition temperature as a function of the disorder strength, while at fixed temperature we determine both the critical chemical potential and the critical density separating normal and superfluid phases. In the regime of strong disorder the normal phase extends up to large values of the degeneracy parameter, and the critical chemical potential exhibits a linear dependence in the intensity of the random potential. The role of interactions and disorder correlations is also discussed.

Atoms from a ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ condensate are suspended against gravity using repeated reflections from a pulsed optical standing wave. Up to 100 reflections are observed, yielding suspension times of over 100 ms. The local gravitational acceleration can be determined from the pulse rate required to achieve suspension. Further, a gravitationally sensitive atom interferometer was implemented using the suspended atoms. This technique could potentially provide a precision measurement of gravity without requiring the atoms to fall a large distance.

We study the relationship of the spectral form factor with quantum as well as classical probabilities to return. Defining a quantum return probability in phase space as a trace over the propagator of the Wigner function allows us to identify and resolve manifolds in phase space that contribute to the form factor. They can be associated with classical invariant manifolds such as periodic orbits, but also to nonclassical structures such as sets of midpoints between periodic points. In contrast to scars in wave functions, these features are not subject to the uncertainty relation and therefore need not show any smearing. They constitute important exceptions from a continuous convergence in the classical limit of the Wigner towards the Liouville propagator. We support our theory with numerical results for the quantum cat map and the harmonically driven quartic oscillator.

We propose a general numerical approach to open quantum systems with a coupling to bath degrees of freedom. The technique combines the methodology of polynomial expansions of spectral functions with the sparse grid concept from interpolation theory. Thereby we construct a Hilbert space of moderate dimension to represent the bath degrees of freedom, which allows us to perform highly accurate and efficient calculations of static, spectral, and dynamic quantities using standard exact diagonalization algorithms. The strength of the approach is demonstrated for the phase transition, critical behavior, and dissipative spin dynamics in the spin-boson model.

We report an experiment that directly measures the Laplace transform of the recurrence probability in one dimension using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) of coherent atoms diffusing in a vapor cell filled with buffer gas. We find a regime where the limiting form of the complex EIT spectrum is universal and only depends on the effective dimensionality in which the random recurrence takes place. In an effective one-dimensional diffusion setting, the measured spectrum exhibits power-law dependence over two decades in the frequency domain with a critical exponent of 0.56 close to the expected value 0.5.

We discuss under what conditions the duality between electric and magnetic fields is a valid symmetry of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. It is shown that Maxwell’s equations in the absence of free charges satisfy duality invariance on an operator level, whereas this is not true for Lorentz forces and atom-field couplings in general. We prove that derived quantities such as Casimir forces, local-field corrected decay rates, as well as van der Waals potentials are invariant with respect to a global exchange of electric and magnetic quantities. This exact symmetry can be used to deduce the physics of new configurations on the basis of already established ones.

Electrons performing Bloch oscillations in an energy band of a dc-biased superlattice in the presence of weak dissipation can potentially generate THz fields at room temperature. The realization of such a Bloch oscillator is a long-standing problem due to the instability of a homogeneous electric field in conditions of negative differential conductivity. We establish the theoretical feasibility of stable THz gain in a long superlattice device in which the bias is quasistatically modulated by microwave fields. The modulation waveforms must have at least two harmonics in their spectra.

We consider schemes for secret key distribution which use as a resource correlations that violate Bell inequalities. We provide the first security proof for such schemes, according to the strongest notion of security, the so-called universally composable security. Our security proof does not rely on the validity of quantum mechanics, it solely relies on the impossibility of arbitrarily fast signaling between separate physical systems. This allows for secret communication in situations where the participants distrust their quantum devices.

Recent progress in experiments on trapped ultracold atoms has made it possible to study the interplay between magnetism and superfluid-insulator transitions in the boson Hubbard model. We report on quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the spin-1 boson Hubbard model in the ground state. For antiferromagnetic interactions favoring singlets, we present exact numerical evidence that the superfluid-insulator transition is first (second) order for even (odd) Mott lobes. Inside even lobes, we search for nematic-to-singlet first order transitions. In the ferromagnetic case where transitions are all continuous, we map the phase diagram and show the superfluid to be ferromagnetic. We compare the quantum Monte Carlo phase diagram with a third order perturbation calculation.

We consider the extension of optical metamaterials to matter waves and then the down scaling of metaoptics to nanometric wavelengths. We show that the generic property of pulsed comoving magnetic fields allows us to fashion the wave-number dependence of the atomic phase shift. It can be used to produce a transient negative group velocity of an atomic wave packet, which results into a negative refraction of the matter wave. Application to slow metastable argon atoms ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{*}({}^{3}P_2)$ shows that the device is able to operate either as an efficient beam splitter or an atomic metalens.

We report on the measurement of four-body recombination rate coefficients in an atomic gas. Our results obtained with an ultracold sample of cesium atoms at negative scattering lengths show a resonant enhancement of losses and provide strong evidence for the existence of a pair of four-body states, which is strictly connected to Efimov trimers via universal relations. Our findings confirm recent theoretical predictions and demonstrate the enrichment of the Efimov scenario when a fourth particle is added to the generic three-body problem.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a transformation of two Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen photon pairs distributed among three parties into a three-photon $W$ state using local operations and classical communication. We then characterize the final state using quantum state tomography on the three-photon state and on its marginal bipartite states. The fidelity of the final state to the ideal $W$ state is $0.778\pm 0.043$ and the expectation value for its witness operator is $-0.111\pm 0.043$ implying the success of the proposed local transformation.

Preparing the ground state of a system of interacting classical particles is an $NP$-hard problem. Thus, there is in general no better algorithm to solve this problem than exhaustively going through all $N$ configurations of the system to determine the one with lowest energy, requiring a running time proportional to $N$. A quantum computer, if it could be built, could solve this problem in time $\sqrt{N}$. Here, we present a powerful extension of this result to the case of interacting quantum particles, demonstrating that a quantum computer can prepare the ground state of a quantum system as efficiently as it does for classical systems.

A Bose-Einstein condensate in an oscillating spatially asymmetric potential is shown to exhibit a directed current for unbiased initial conditions despite time symmetry. This phenomenon occurs only if the interaction between atoms, treated in mean-field approximation, exceeds a critical value. Our findings can be described with a three-mode model. These three-mode model results corroborate well with a many-body study over a time scale which increases with increasing atom number. The duration of this time scale probes the validity of the used mean-field approximation.

We study the statistics of the fluctuating electron temperature in a metallic island coupled to reservoirs via resistive contacts and driven out of equilibrium by either a temperature or voltage difference between the reservoirs. The fluctuations of temperature are well defined provided that the energy relaxation rate inside the island exceeds the rate of energy exchange with the reservoirs. We quantify these fluctuations in the regime beyond the Gaussian approximation and elucidate their dependence on the nature of the electronic contacts.

We investigate the efficiency of power generation by thermochemical engines. For strong coupling between the particle and heat flows and in the presence of a left-right symmetry in the system, we demonstrate that the efficiency at maximum power displays universality up to quadratic order in the deviation from equilibrium. A maser model is presented to illustrate our argument.

We study the unitary time evolution of antiferromagnetic order in anisotropic Heisenberg chains that are initially prepared in a pure quantum state far from equilibrium. Our analysis indicates that the antiferromagnetic order imprinted in the initial state vanishes exponentially. Depending on the anisotropy parameter, oscillatory or nonoscillatory relaxation dynamics is observed. Furthermore, the corresponding relaxation time exhibits a minimum at the critical point, in contrast to the usual notion of critical slowing down, from which a maximum is expected.