In earlier papers, we have applied multiple-scattering techniques to calculate Casimir forces due to scalar fields between different bodies described by delta function potentials. When the coupling to the potentials became weak, closed-form results were obtained. We simplify this weak-coupling technique and apply it to the case of tenuous dielectric bodies, in which case the method involves the summation of van der Waals (Casimir-Polder) interactions. Once again, exact results for finite bodies can be obtained. We present closed formulas describing the interaction between spheres, between cylinders, and between an infinite plate and a rectangular slab of finite size. For such a slab, we consider the torque acting on it and find that nontrivial equilibrium points can occur.

We derive an exact solution for the Casimir force between two arbitrary periodic dielectric gratings and illustrate our method by applying it to two nanostructured silicon gratings. We also reproduce the Casimir force gradient measured recently [H. B. Chan, Y. Bao, J. Zou, R. A. Cirelli, F. Klemens, W. M. Mansfield, and C. S. Pai, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 030401 (2008)] between a silicon grating and a gold sphere taking into account the material dependence of the force. We find good agreement between our theoretical results and the measured values both in absolute force values and the ratios between the exact force and proximity force approximation predictions.

We formulate an exact result, which we refer to as the pumping restriction theorem (PRT). It imposes strong restrictions on the currents generated by periodic driving in a generic dissipative system with detailed balance, and provides a universal nonperturbative approach to explore the stochastic pump effect in nonadiabatically driven systems.

The visualization of chiral $p$-wave superfluidity in Fermi gases near $p$-wave Feshbach resonances is theoretically examined. It is proposed that the superfluidity becomes detectable in the entire BCS-BEC regimes through (i) vortex visualization by the density depletion inside the vortex core and (ii) intrinsic angular momentum in vortex-free states. It is revealed that both (i) and (ii) are closely connected with the Majorana zero energy mode of the vortex core and the edge mode, which survive until the strong coupling BCS regime is approached from the weak coupling limit and vanish in the Bose-Einstein condensation regime.

Fast-sweep projection onto Feshbach molecules has been widely used as a probe of fermionic condensates. By determining the exact dynamics of a pair of atoms in time-varying magnetic fields, we calculate the number of condensed and noncondensed molecules created after fast magnetic field sweeps from the BCS to the Bose-Einstein condensate side of the resonances in ${}^{40}\mathrm{K}$ and ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$, for different sweep rates and a range of initial and final fields. We discuss the relation between the initial fermionic condensate fraction and the molecular condensate fraction measured after the sweep.

By defining “a virtual gap” for the continuous spectrum through the notion of eigendifferential (Weyl’s packet) and using the differential projector operator, we present a rigorous demonstration and discussion of the quantum adiabatic theorem for systems having a nondegenerate continuous spectrum. An explicit formula for a generalized geometrical phase is derived in terms of the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. Examples are given for illustration.

We investigate an $N$-particle Bose-Hubbard dimer with an additional effective decay term in one of the sites. A mean-field approximation for this non-Hermitian many-particle system is derived, based on a coherent state approximation. The resulting nonlinear, non-Hermitian two-level dynamics, in particular, the fixed point structures showing characteristic modifications of the self-trapping transition, are analyzed. The mean-field dynamics is found to be in reasonable agreement with the full many-particle evolution.

Using path-integral techniques, we compute exactly the distribution of the maximal height $H_p$ of $p$ nonintersecting Brownian walkers over a unit time interval in one dimension, both for excursions $p$ watermelons with a wall, and bridges $p$ watermelons without a wall, for all integer $p\ge 1$. For large $p$, we show that $⟨H_p⟩\sim \sqrt{2p}$ (excursions) whereas $⟨H_p⟩\sim \sqrt{p}$ (bridges). Our exact results prove that previous numerical experiments only measured the preasymptotic behaviors and not the correct asymptotic ones. In addition, our method establishes a physical connection between vicious walkers and random matrix theory.

We study the physics of cold polar molecules loaded into an optical lattice in the regime of strong three-body interactions, as put forward recently by Büchler et al. [Nature Phys. 3, 726 (2007)]. To this end, quantum Monte Carlo simulations, exact diagonalization, and a semiclassical approach are used to explore hard-core bosons on the 2D square lattice which interact solely by long-ranged three-body terms. The resulting phase diagram shows a sequence of solid and supersolid phases. Our findings are directly relevant for future experimental implementations and open a new route towards the discovery of a lattice supersolid phase in experiment.

We show that a new state of matter, the $d$-wave Mott-insulator state ($d$–Mott state) (introduced recently by [H. Yao, W. F. Tsai, and S. A. Kivelson, Phys. Rev. B 76, 161104 (2007)]), which is characterized by a nonzero expectation value of a local plaquette operator embedded in an insulating state, can be engineered using ultracold atomic fermions in two-dimensional double-well optical lattices. We characterize and analyze the parameter regime where the $d$–Mott state is stable. We predict the testable signatures of the state in the time-of-flight measurements.

We report the observation of spin segregation, i.e., time-dependent separation of the spin density profiles of two spin states, in a trapped, coherently prepared Fermi gas of ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ with a magnetically tunable scattering length $a_{12}$ close to zero. For $|a_{12}|\simeq 5\mathrm{bohr}$, as the cloud profiles evolve, the measured difference in the densities at the cloud center increases in 200 ms from 0 to $\simeq 60\%$ of the initial mean density and changes sign with $a_{12}$. The data are in disagreement in both amplitude and temporal evolution with a spin-wave theory for a Fermi gas. In contrast, for a Bose gas, an analogous theory has successfully described previous observations of spin segregation. The observed segregated atomic density profiles are far from equilibrium, yet they persist for $\simeq 5\mathrm{s}$, long compared to the axial trapping period of 6.9 ms. We find the zero crossing in $a_{12}=0$, where spin segregation ceases, at $527.5\pm 0.2\mathrm{G}$.

We investigate what a snapshot of a quantum evolution—a quantum channel reflecting open system dynamics—reveals about the underlying continuous time evolution. Remarkably, from such a snapshot, and without imposing additional assumptions, it can be decided whether or not a channel is consistent with a time (in)dependent Markovian evolution, for which we provide computable necessary and sufficient criteria. Based on these, a computable measure of “Markovianity” is introduced. We discuss how the consistency with Markovian dynamics can be checked in quantum process tomography. The results also clarify the geometry of the set of quantum channels with respect to being solutions of time (in)dependent master equations.

We study the dynamics of bright solitons formed in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive atomic interactions perturbed by a weak bichromatic optical lattice potential. The lattice depth is a biperiodic function of time with a zero mean, which realizes a flashing ratchet for matter-wave solitons. We find that the average velocity of a soliton and the soliton current induced by the ratchet depend on the number of atoms in the soliton. As a consequence, soliton transport can be induced through scattering of different solitons. In the regime when matter-wave solitons are narrow compared to the lattice period the dynamics is well described by the effective Hamiltonian theory.

In a neutron polarimetry experiment the mixed-state relative phases between spin eigenstates are determined from the maxima and minima of measured intensity oscillations. We consider evolutions leading to purely geometric, purely dynamical, and combined phases. It is experimentally demonstrated that the sum of the individually determined geometric and dynamical phases is not equal to the associated total phase which is obtained from a single measurement, unless the system is in a pure state.

We present majority and minority radio frequency spectra of strongly interacting imbalanced Fermi gases of ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$. We observed a smooth evolution in the nature of pairing correlations from pairing in the superfluid region to polaron binding in the highly polarized normal region. The imbalance induces quasiparticles in the superfluid region even at very low temperature. This leads to a local bimodal spectral response, which allowed us to determine the superfluid gap $\Delta$ and the Hartree energy $U$.

In this Letter we make progress on a long-standing open problem of Aaronson and Ambainis [Theory Comput. 1, 47 (2005)]: we show that if $U$ is a sparse unitary operator with a gap $\Delta$ in its spectrum, then there exists an approximate logarithm $H$ of $U$ which is also sparse. The sparsity pattern of $H$ gets more dense as $1/\Delta$ increases. This result can be interpreted as a way to convert between local continuous-time and local discrete-time quantum processes. As an example we show that the discrete-time coined quantum walk can be realized stroboscopically from an approximately local continuous-time quantum walk.

A generalization of matrix product states (MPS) for interacting quantum systems in two and three dimensions is introduced. These scale-renormalized matrix-product states (SR-MPS) are based on a coarse graining of the lattice in which the blocks at each level are associated with matrix products that are further transformed (scale renormalized) with other matrices before they are assembled to form blocks at the next level. Using the two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model as a test, it is shown that the SR-MPS converge much more rapidly with the matrix size than a standard MPS. It is also shown that the use of lattice symmetries speeds up the convergence very significantly.

We construct a large class of non-Markovian master equations that describe the dynamics of open quantum systems featuring strong memory effects, which relies on a quantum generalization of the concept of classical semi-Markov processes. General conditions for the complete positivity of the corresponding quantum dynamical maps are formulated. The resulting non-Markovian quantum processes allow the treatment of a variety of physical systems, as is illustrated by means of various examples and applications, including quantum optical systems and models of quantum transport.

A basic question regarding quantum entangled states is whether one can be probabilistically converted to another through local operations and classical communication exclusively. While the answer for bipartite systems is known, we show that for tripartite systems, this question encodes some of the most challenging open problems in mathematics and computer science. In particular, we show that there is no easy general criterion to determine the feasibility, and in fact, the problem is NP hard. In addition, we find obtaining the most efficient algorithm for matrix multiplication to be precisely equivalent to determining the maximum rate to convert the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state to a triangular distribution of three EPR states. Our results are based on connections between multipartite entanglement and tensor rank (also called Schmidt rank), a key concept in algebraic complexity theory.

We analyze the operation of a molecular machine driven by the nonadiabatic variation of external parameters. We derive a formula for the integrated flow from one configuration to another, obtain a “no-pumping theorem” for cyclic processes with thermally activated transitions, and show that in the adiabatic limit the pumped current is given by a geometric expression.