Operator quantum error correction is a recently developed theory that provides a generalized and unified framework for active error correction and passive error avoiding schemes. In this Letter, we describe these codes using the stabilizer formalism. This is achieved by adding a gauge group to stabilizer codes that defines an equivalence class between encoded states. Gauge transformations leave the encoded information unchanged; their effect is absorbed by virtual gauge qubits that do not carry useful information. We illustrate the construction by identifying a gauge symmetry in Shor’s 9-qubit code that allows us to remove 3 of its 8 stabilizer generators, leading to a simpler decoding procedure and a wider class of logical operations without affecting its essential properties. This opens the path to possible improvements of the error threshold of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

We present a simple and practical protocol for the solution of a secure multiparty communication task, the secret sharing, and its proof-of-principle experimental realization. In this protocol, a secret is split among several parties in a way that its reconstruction requires the collaboration of the participating parties. In our scheme the parties solve the problem by sequential transformations on a single qubit. In contrast with recently proposed schemes involving multiparticle Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, the approach demonstrated here is much easier to realize and scalable in practical applications.

We consider quantum error correction of quantum noise that is created by a local interaction of qubits with a common bosonic bath. The possible exchange of bath bosons between qubits gives rise to spatial and temporal correlations in the noise. We find that these kinds of noise correlations have a strong negative impact on quantum error correction.

A formulation is developed for the calculation of the electromagnetic-fluctuation forces for dielectric objects of arbitrary geometry at small separations, as a perturbative expansion in the dielectric contrast. The resulting Lifshitz energy automatically takes on the form of a series expansion of the different many-body contributions. The formulation has the advantage that the divergent contributions can be readily determined and subtracted off, and thus makes a convenient scheme for realistic numerical calculations, which could be useful in designing nanoscale mechanical devices.

The integrable structure of Ginibre’s orthogonal ensemble of random matrices is looked at through the prism of the probability $p_{n,k}$ to find exactly $k$ real eigenvalues in the spectrum of an $n\times n$ real asymmetric Gaussian random matrix. The exact solution for the probability function $p_{n,k}$ is presented, and its remarkable connection to the theory of symmetric functions is revealed. An extension of the Dyson integration theorem is a key ingredient of the theory presented.

We address the possible occurrence of ultracold atom ferromagnetism by evaluating the free energy of a spin polarized Fermi gas to second order in its interaction parameter. We find that Hartree-Fock theory underestimates the tendency toward ferromagnetism, predict that the ferromagnetic transition is first order at low temperatures, and point out that the spin coherence time of gases prepared in a ferromagnetic state is strongly enhanced as the transition is approached. We relate our results to recent experiments.

We consider the single-particle correlations and momentum distributions in a gas of strongly interacting, spinless 1D fermions with zero-range interactions. This system represents a fermionic version of the Tonks-Girardeau gas of impenetrable bosons as it can be mapped to a system of noninteracting 1D bosons. We use this duality to show that the $T=0$, single-particle correlations exhibit an exponential decay with distance. This strongly interacting system is experimentally accessible using ultracold atoms and has a Lorentzian momentum distribution at large momenta whose width is given by the linear density.

We describe a nuclear spin gyroscope based on an alkali-metal–noble-gas comagnetometer. Optically pumped alkali-metal vapor is used to polarize the noble-gas atoms and detect their gyroscopic precession. Spin precession due to magnetic fields as well as their gradients and transients can be cancelled in this arrangement. The sensitivity is enhanced by using a high-density alkali-metal vapor in a spin-exchange relaxation free regime. With a $\mathrm{K}\mathrm{\text{−}}{}^3\mathrm{He}$ comagnetometer we demonstrate rotation sensitivity of $5\times {10}^{-7}\mathrm{rad}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1/2}$, equivalent to a magnetic field sensitivity of $2.5\mathrm{fT}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2}$. The rotation signal can be increased by a factor of 10 using ${}^{21}\mathrm{Ne}$ with a smaller magnetic moment. The comagnetometer is also a promising tool in searches for anomalous spin couplings beyond the standard model.

We study a spin-polarized degenerate Fermi gas interacting via a $p$-wave Feshbach resonance in an optical lattice. The strong confinement available in this system allows us to realize one- and two-dimensional gases and, therefore, to restrict the asymptotic scattering states of atomic collisions. When aligning the atomic spins along (or perpendicular to) the axis of motion in a one-dimensional gas, scattering into channels with the projection of the angular momentum of $|m|=1$ (or $m=0$) can be inhibited. In two and three dimensions, we observe the doublet structure of the $p$-wave Feshbach resonance. For both the one-dimensional and the two-dimensional gases, we find a shift of the position of the resonance with increasing confinement due to the change in collisional energy. In a three-dimensional optical lattice, the losses on the Feshbach resonance are completely suppressed.

A general connection between the characteristic function of a Lévy process and loss of coherence of the statistical operator describing the center of mass degrees of freedom of a quantum system interacting through momentum transfer events with an environment is established. The relationship with microphysical models and recent experiments is considered, focusing on the recently observed transition between a dynamics described by a compound Poisson process and a Gaussian process.

We examine the teleportation of an unknown spin-$1/2$ quantum state along a quantum spin chain with an even number of sites. Our protocol, using a sequence of Bell measurements, may be viewed as an iterated version of the 2-qubit protocol of C. H. Bennett et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1895 (1993)]. A decomposition of the Hilbert space of the spin chain into 4 vector spaces, called Bell subspaces, is given. It is established that any state from a Bell subspace may be used as a channel to perform unit fidelity teleportation. The space of all spin-0 many-body states, which includes the ground states of many known antiferromagnetic systems, belongs to a common Bell subspace. A channel-dependent teleportation parameter $\mathcal{O}$ is introduced, and a bound on the teleportation fidelity is given in terms of $\mathcal{O}$.

We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the partial transposition of bipartite harmonic quantum states to be nonnegative. The conditions are formulated as an infinite series of inequalities for the moments of the state under study. The violation of any inequality of this series is a sufficient condition for entanglement. Previously known entanglement conditions are shown to be special cases of our approach.

We study the collisional decay of a strongly driven Bose-Einstein condensate oscillating between two momentum modes. The resulting products of the decay are found to strongly deviate from the usual $s$-wave halo. Using a stochastically seeded classical field method we simulate the collisional manifold. These results are also explained by a model of colliding Bloch states.

The relaxation dynamics of correlated electron transport along molecular chains is studied based on a substantially improved numerically exact path integral Monte Carlo approach. As an archetypical model, we consider a Hubbard chain containing two interacting electrons coupled to a bosonic bath. For this generalization of the ubiquitous spin-boson model, non-Boltzmann equilibrium distributions are found for many-body states. By mapping the multiparticle dynamics onto an isomorphic single particle motion, this phenomenon is shown to be sensitive to particle statistics and, due to its robustness, allows for new control schemes in designed quantum aggregates.

We propose a scheme of multipartite entanglement distillation driven by a complementary pair of stabilizer measurements to distill directly a wider range of states beyond the stabilizer code states (such as the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states). We make our idea explicit by constructing a recurrence protocol for the 3-qubit $W$ state $\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}(|001⟩+|010⟩+|100⟩)$. Noisy $W$ states resulting from typical decoherence can be directly purified in a few steps, if their initial fidelity is larger than a threshold. For general input mixed states, we observe distillations to hierarchical fixed points, i.e., not only to the $W$ state but also to the 2-qubit Bell pair, depending on their initial entanglement.

We study the linear response of a two-state stochastic process, obeying the renewal condition, by means of a stochastic rate equation equivalent to a master equation with infinite memory. We show that the condition of perennial aging makes the response to coherent perturbation vanish in the long-time limit.

We study the phase coherence and visibility of trapped atomic condensates on one-dimensional optical lattices, by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We obtain structures in the visibility similar to the kinks recently observed experimentally by Gerbier et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 050404 (2005); cond-mat/0507087]. We examine these features in detail and offer a connection to the evolution of the density profiles as the depth of the lattice is increased. Our simulations reveal that, as the interaction strength $U$ is increased, the evolution of superfluid and Mott-insulating domains stall for finite intervals of $U$. The density profiles do not change with increasing $U$. We show here that in one dimension the visibility provides unequivocal signatures of the melting of Mott domains with densities larger than 1.

We investigate the advantages of using two independent, linear detectors for continuous quantum measurement. For single-shot measurement, the detection process may be quantum limited if the detectors are twins. For weak continuous measurement, cross correlations allow a violation of the Korotkov-Averin bound for the detector’s signal-to-noise ratio. The joint weak measurement of noncommuting observables is also investigated, and we find the cross correlation changes sign as a function of frequency, reflecting a crossover from incoherent relaxation to coherent, out of phase oscillations. Our results are applied to a double quantum-dot charge qubit, simultaneously measured by two quantum point contacts.

We introduce a two-observer all-versus-nothing proof of Bell’s theorem which reduces the number of required quantum predictions from 9 [A. Cabello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 010403 (2001); Z.-B. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 160408 (2003)] to 4, provides a greater amount of evidence against local realism, reduces the detection efficiency requirements for a conclusive experimental test of Bell’s theorem, and leads to a Bell inequality which resembles Mermin’s inequality for three observers [N. D. Mermin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 1838 (1990)] but requires only two observers.

We demonstrate a new architecture for an optical entangling gate that is significantly simpler than previous realizations, using partially polarizing beam splitters so that only a single optical mode-matching condition is required. We demonstrate operation of a controlled-z gate in both continuous-wave and pulsed regimes of operation, fully characterizing it in each case using quantum process tomography. We also demonstrate a fully resolving, nondeterministic optical Bell-state analyzer based on this controlled-z gate. This new architecture is ideally suited to guided optics implementations of optical gates.