It is shown that, when a Monte Carlo algorithm is used for estimation of any physical quantity $A$, a simple and fast additional procedure can be implemented that simultaneously estimates the sensitivity of $A$ to any problem parameter. The proposed approach is general and systematic in the sense that: (i) it includes domain-deformation sensitivities, i.e., cases where a change in the parameter modifies the domain over which the sampled random variables are defined and (ii) a simple generic procedure is presented to address all remaining free choices in terms of variance minimization.

We consider a class of one-dimensional chains of weakly coupled many level systems. We present a theory which predicts energy diffusion within these chains for almost all initial states, if some concrete conditions on their Hamiltonians are met. By numerically solving the time dependent Schrödinger equation, we verify this prediction. Close to equilibrium we analyze this behavior in terms of heat conduction and compute the respective coefficient directly from the theory.

We observe the suppression of the 1D transport of an interacting elongated Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential with an amplitude that is small compared to the typical energy per atom, dominated by the interaction energy. Numerical calculations reproduce our observations well. We propose a scenario for disorder-induced trapping of the condensate in agreement with our findings.

We investigate the one-dimensional expansion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical guide in the presence of a random potential created with optical speckles. With the speckle the expansion of the condensate is strongly inhibited. A detailed investigation has been carried out varying the experimental conditions and checking the expansion when a single optical defect is present. The experimental results are in good agreement with numerical calculations based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, possible routes towards Anderson-like localization of Bose-Einstein condensates in disordered potentials. The dependence of this quantum interference effect on the nonlinear interactions and the shape of the disorder potential is investigated. Experiments with an optical lattice and a superimposed disordered potential reveal the lack of Anderson localization. A theoretical analysis shows that this absence is due to the large length scale of the disorder potential as well as its screening by the nonlinear interactions. Further analysis shows that incommensurable superlattices should allow for the observation of the crossover from the nonlinear screening regime to the Anderson localized case within realistic experimental parameters.

We model the kinetics of ligand-receptor systems, where multiple ligands may bind and unbind to the receptor, either randomly or in a specific order. Equilibrium occupation and first occurrence of complete filling of the receptor are determined and compared. At equilibrium, receptors that bind ligands sequentially are more likely to be saturated than those that bind in random order. Surprisingly however, for low cooperativity, the random process first reaches full occupancy faster than the sequential one. This is true except near a critical binding energy where a “kinetic trap” arises and the random process dramatically slows down when the number of binding sites $N\ge 8$. These results demonstrate the subtle interplay between cooperativity and sequentiality for a wide class of kinetic phenomena, including chemical binding, nucleation, and assembly line strategies.

We experimentally study the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate from a magnetic lattice, realized by a set of 372 parallel gold conductors which are microfabricated on a silicon substrate. The conductors generate a periodic potential for the atoms with a lattice constant of $4\mu \mathrm{m}$. After exposing the condensate to the lattice for several milliseconds we observe diffraction up to fifth order by standard time of flight imaging techniques. The experimental data can be quantitatively interpreted with a simple phase imprinting model. The demonstrated diffraction grating offers promising perspectives for the construction of an integrated atom interferometer.

Recently, it has been observed that transmission of light through subwavelength apertures, which is usually negligible, can be significantly enhanced when surface plasmons are resonantly excited. Here we introduce the idea that similar effects can be expected for cold atoms in structures supporting surface matter waves. We show that surface matter waves are possible in properly designed structures, and then we theoretically demonstrate 100% transmission of rubidium atoms through an array of slits much narrower than the de Broglie wavelength of the atoms. Our results open up the possibility of using surface matter waves to control the flow of neutral atoms.

We study a quasi-two-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas where the confinement in the third direction is due to a strong harmonic trapping. We investigate the behavior of such a system when the chemical potential is varied and find strong modifications of the superfluid properties due to the discrete harmonic oscillator states. We show that such quasi-two-dimensional behavior can be created and observed with current experimental capabilities.

We report on the observation of sympathetic cooling of a cloud of fermionic ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ atoms which are thermally coupled to evaporatively cooled bosonic ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$. Using this technique we obtain a mixture of quantum-degenerate gases, where the Rb cloud is colder than the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation and the Li cloud is colder than the Fermi temperature. From measurements of the thermalization velocity we estimate the interspecies $s$-wave triplet scattering length $|a_{\mathrm{mx}}|={20}_{-6}^{+9}{a}_B$. We found that the presence of residual rubidium atoms in the $|2,1⟩$ and the $|1,-1⟩$ Zeeman substates gives rise to important losses due to inelastic collisions.

Fractal geometry of critical curves appearing in 2D critical systems is characterized by their harmonic measure. For systems described by conformal field theories with central charge $c\le 1$, scaling exponents of the harmonic measure have been computed by Duplantier [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1363 (2000)] by relating the problem to boundary two-dimensional gravity. We present a simple argument connecting the harmonic measure of critical curves to operators obtained by fusion of primary fields and compute characteristics of the fractal geometry by means of regular methods of conformal field theory. The method is not limited to theories with $c\le 1$.

We study the dynamics of an adiabatic sweep through a Feshbach resonance in a quantum gas of fermionic atoms. Analysis of the dynamical equations, supported by mean-field and many-body numerical results, shows that the dependence of the remaining atomic fraction $\Gamma$ on the sweep rate $\alpha$ varies from exponential Landau-Zener behavior for a single pair of particles to a power-law dependence for large particle number $N$. The power law is linear, $\Gamma \propto \alpha$, when the initial molecular fraction is smaller than the $1/N$ quantum fluctuations, and $\Gamma \propto {\alpha }^{1/3}$ when it is larger. Experimental data agree well with a linear dependence, but do not conclusively rule out the Landau-Zener model.

We observe the sudden growth of small classes of Bloch waves from atomic Bose-Einstein condensates held in periodically translated optical lattices. The effect is explained by narrowband parametric amplification of Bloch waves from noise, due to phase-matched scattering of atom pairs out of the condensate. Amplification occurs above a well-defined modulation threshold, described by dynamic shaping of single-particle band structure.

We explain how the statistics of global observables in correlated systems can be related to extreme value problems and to Gumbel statistics. This relationship then naturally leads to the emergence of the generalized Gumbel distribution $G_a(x)$, with a real index $a$, in the study of global fluctuations. To illustrate these findings, we introduce an exactly solvable nonequilibrium model describing an energy flux on a lattice, with local dissipation, in which the fluctuations of the global energy are precisely described by the generalized Gumbel distribution.

We consider the physics of lattice bosons affected by disordered on-site interparticle interactions. Characteristic qualitative changes in the zero-temperature phase diagram are observed when compared to the case of randomness in the chemical potential. The Mott-insulating regions shrink and eventually vanish for any finite disorder strength beyond a sufficiently large filling factor. Furthermore, at low values of the chemical potential both the superfluid and Mott insulator are stable towards formation of a Bose glass leading to a possibly nontrivial tricritical point. We discuss feasible experimental realizations of our scenario in the context of ultracold atoms on optical lattices.

Two spatially separate Bose-Einstein condensates were prepared in an optical double-well potential. A bidirectional coupling between the two condensates was established by two pairs of Bragg beams which continuously outcoupled atoms in opposite directions. The atomic currents induced by the optical coupling depend on the relative phase of the two condensates and on an additional controllable coupling phase. This was observed through symmetric and antisymmetric correlations between the two outcoupled atom fluxes. A Josephson optical coupling of two condensates in a ring geometry is proposed. The continuous outcoupling method was used to monitor slow relative motions of two elongated condensates and characterize the trapping potential.

We propose a new protocol of implementing continuous-variable quantum state transfer using partially disembodied transport. This protocol may improve the fidelity at the expense of the introduction of a semiquantum channel between the parties, in comparison with quantum teleportation using the same strength of entanglement. Depending on the amount of information destroyed in the measurement, this protocol may be regarded as a teleportation protocol (complete destruction of input state), or as a $1\to M$ cloning protocol (partial destruction), or as a direct transmission (no destruction). This scheme can be straightforwardly implemented with a setup that is at present experimentally accessible.

Bosons in the lowest Landau level, such as rapidly rotating cold trapped atoms, are investigated numerically in the specially interesting case in which the filling factor (ratio of particle number to vortex number) is $3/2$. When a moderate amount of a longer-range (e.g., dipolar) interaction is included, we find clear evidence that the ground state is in a phase constructed earlier by two of us, in which excitations possess non-Abelian statistics.

It is pointed out that the Diósi-Penrose ansatz for gravity-induced quantum state reduction can be tested by observing oscillations in the flavor ratios of neutrinos originating at cosmological distances. Since such a test would be almost free of environmental decoherence, testing the ansatz by means of a next generation neutrino detector such as IceCube would be much cleaner than by experiments proposed so far involving superpositions of macroscopic systems. The proposed microscopic test would also examine the universality of the superposition principle at unprecedented cosmological scales.

We propose a scheme based on using the singlet ground state of an electron spin pair in a double-quantum-dot nanostructure as a suitable setup for detecting entanglement between electron spins via the measurement of an optimal entanglement witness. Using time-dependent gate voltages and magnetic fields the entangled spins are separated and coherently rotated in the quantum dots and subsequently detected at spin-polarized quantum point contacts. We analyze the coherent time evolution of the entangled pair and show that by counting coincidences in the four exits an entanglement test can be done. This setup is close to present-day experimental possibilities and can be used to produce pairs of entangled electrons “on demand.”