An atom Michelson interferometer is implemented on an “atom chip.” The chip uses lithographically patterned conductors and external magnetic fields to produce and guide a Bose-Einstein condensate. Splitting, reflecting, and recombining of condensate atoms are achieved by a standing-wave light field having a wave vector aligned along the atom waveguide. A differential phase shift between the two arms of the interferometer is introduced by either a magnetic-field gradient or with an initial condensate velocity. Interference contrast is still observable at 20% with an atom propagation time of 10 ms.

We present a theoretical study of multimode scattering of light by optically random media, using the Mueller-Stokes formalism which permits us to encode all the polarization properties of the scattering medium in a real $4\times 4$ matrix. From this matrix two relevant parameters can be extracted: the depolarizing power $D_M$ and the polarization entropy $E_M$ of the scattering medium. By studying the relation between $E_M$ and $D_M$, we find that all scattering media must satisfy some universal constraints. These constraints apply to both classical and quantum scattering processes. The results obtained here may be especially relevant for quantum communication applications, where depolarization is synonymous with decoherence.

An exact diagonalization study reveals that a matter-wave bright soliton and the Goldstone mode are simultaneously created in a quasi-one-dimensional attractive Bose-Einstein condensate by superpositions of quasidegenerate low-lying many-body states. Upon formation of the soliton the maximum eigenvalue of the single-particle density matrix increases dramatically, indicating that a fragmented condensate converts into a single condensate as a consequence of the breaking of translation symmetry.

Multiphoton path entanglement is created without applying postselection, by manipulating the state of stimulated parametric down-conversion. A specific measurement on one of the two output spatial modes leads to the nonlocal bunching of the photons of the other mode, forming the desired multiphoton path entangled state. We present experimental results for the case of a heralded two-photon path entangled state and show how to extend this scheme to higher photon numbers.

We study the pairing of Fermi gases near the scattering resonance of the $\ell \ne 0$ partial wave. Using a model potential which reproduces the actual two-body low energy scattering amplitude, we have obtained an analytic solution of the gap equation. We show that the ground state of $\ell =1$ and $\ell =3$ superfluids are orbital ferromagnets with pairing wave functions $Y_{11}$ and $Y_{32}$, respectively. For $\ell =2$, there is a degeneracy between $Y_{22}$ and a “cyclic state.” Dipole energy will orient the angular momentum axis. The gap function can be determined by the angular dependence of the momentum distribution of the fermions.

Numerical simulations for realistic experimental parameters demonstrate that laser cooling on the attractive side of the Feshbach resonance can drive fermions much below the superfluid transition. For the assumed set of experimental parameters the transition takes place at $0.35T_F$, and laser cooling can drive the system down to at least $0.085T_F$ in a time of a few seconds. Superfluid growth is self-consistently included in simulations.

We have performed spectroscopy measurements on two coupled flux qubits. The qubits are coupled inductively, which results in a ${\sigma }_1^z{\sigma }_2^z$ interaction. By applying microwave radiation, we observe resonances due to transitions from the ground state to the first two excited states. From the position of these resonances as a function of the applied magnetic field, we observe the coupling of the qubits. The coupling strength agrees with calculations of the mutual inductance.

A universal programmable detector is a device that can be tuned to perform any desired measurement on a given quantum system, by changing the state of an ancilla. With a finite dimension $d$ for the ancilla only approximate universal programmability is possible, with size $d=f({\epsilon }^{-1})$ increasing the function of the “accuracy” ${\epsilon }^{-1}$. In this Letter we show that, much better than the exponential size known in the literature, one can achieve polynomial size. An explicit example with linear size is also presented. Finally, we show that for covariant measurements exact programmability is feasible.

We have studied interacting and noninteracting quantum degenerate Fermi gases in a three-dimensional optical lattice. We directly image the Fermi surface of the atoms in the lattice by turning off the optical lattice adiabatically. Because of the confining potential, gradual filling of the lattice transforms the system from a normal state into a band insulator. The dynamics of the transition from a band insulator to a normal state is studied, and the time scale is measured to be an order of magnitude larger than the tunneling time in the lattice. Using a Feshbach resonance, we increase the interaction between atoms in two different spin states and dynamically induce a coupling between the lowest energy bands. We observe a shift of this coupling with respect to the Feshbach resonance in free space which is anticipated for strongly confined atoms.

Repulsive laser potential pulses applied to vortex lattices of rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates create propagating density waves which we have observed experimentally and modeled computationally to high accuracy. We have observed a rich variety of dynamical phenomena ranging from interference effects and shock-wave formation to anisotropic sound propagation.

The grand potential for open systems describes thermodynamics of fluid flows at low Mach numbers. A new system of reduced equations for the grand potential and the fluid momentum is derived from the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are the quasistationary solution to the new system. It is argued that the grand canonical ensemble is the unifying concept for the derivation of models and numerical methods for incompressible fluids, illustrated here with a simulation of a minimal Boltzmann model in a microflow setup.

The validity of substituting a $c$-number $z$ for the $\mathbf{k}=\mathbf{0}$ mode operator $a_{\mathbf{0}}$ is established rigorously in full generality, thereby verifying one aspect of Bogoliubov's 1947 theory. This substitution not only yields the correct value of thermodynamic quantities such as the pressure or ground state energy, but also the value of $|z{|}^2$ that maximizes the partition function equals the true amount of condensation in the presence of a gauge-symmetry-breaking term. This point had previously been elusive.

Based on a classic paper by Ginibre [Commun. Math. Phys. 8, 26 (1968)] it is shown that, whenever Bogoliubov's approximation, that is, the replacement of $a_0$ and $a_0^{*}$ by complex numbers in the Hamiltonian, asymptotically yields the right pressure, it also implies the asymptotic equality of $|⟨a_0⟩{|}^2/V$ and $⟨a_0^{*}{a}_0⟩/V$ in symmetry breaking fields, irrespective of the existence or absence of Bose-Einstein condensation. Because the former was proved by Ginibre to hold for absolutely integrable superstable pair interactions, the latter is equally valid in this case. Apart from Ginibre's work, our proof uses only a simple convexity inequality due to Griffiths.

We introduce a convergent iterative algorithm for finding the optimal coding and decoding operations for an arbitrary noisy quantum channel. This algorithm does not require any error syndrome to be corrected completely, and hence also finds codes outside the usual Knill-Laflamme definition of error correcting codes. The iteration is shown to improve the figure of merit “channel fidelity” in every step.

We investigate the nonergodic properties of blinking nanocrystals modeled by a Lévy-walk stochastic process. Using a nonergodic mean field approach we calculate the distribution functions of the time averaged intensity correlation function. We show that these distributions are not delta peaked on the ensemble average correlation function values; instead they are W or U shaped. Beyond blinking nanocrystals our results describe ergodicity breaking in systems modeled by Lévy walks, for example, certain types of chaotic maps and spin dynamics to name a few.

For quantum systems with linear dynamics in phase space much of classical feedback control theory applies. However, there are some questions that are sensible only for the quantum case: Given a fixed interaction between the system and the environment what is the optimal measurement on the environment for a particular control problem? We show that for a broad class of optimal (state-based) control problems (the stationary linear-quadratic-Gaussian class), this question is a semidefinite program. Moreover, the answer also applies to Markovian (current-based) feedback.

We show that the geometric phase between any two states, including orthogonal states, can be extracted and measured using the notion of projective measurement, and we show that a topological number can be extracted in the geometric phase change in an infinitesimal loop near an orthogonal state. Also, the Pancharatnam phase change during the passage through an orthogonal state is shown to be either $\pi$ or zero ($\mathrm{m}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{d}2\pi$). All the off-diagonal geometric phases can be obtained from the projective geometric phase calculated with our generalized connection.

We investigate the geometric phase or Berry phase acquired by a spin half which is both subject to a slowly varying magnetic field and weakly coupled to a dissipative environment (either quantum or classical). We study how this phase is modified by the environment and find that the modification is of a geometric nature. While the original Berry phase (for an isolated system) is the flux of a monopole field through the loop traversed by the magnetic field, the environment-induced modification of the phase is the flux of a quadrupolelike field. We find that the environment-induced phase is complex, and its imaginary part is a geometric contribution to dephasing. Its sign depends on the direction of the loop. Unlike the Berry phase, this geometric dephasing is gauge invariant for open paths of the magnetic field.

The effective theories for many quantum phase transitions can be mapped onto those of classical transitions. Here we show that the naive mapping fails for the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model which describes a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, $J(\omega )\propto {\omega }^s$. Using an $ϵ$ expansion we prove that this model has a quantum transition controlled by an interacting fixed point at small $s$, and support this by numerical calculations. In contrast, the corresponding classical long-range Ising model is known to display mean-field transition behavior for $0<s<1/2$, controlled by a noninteracting fixed point. The failure of the quantum-classical mapping is argued to arise from the long-ranged interaction in imaginary time in the quantum model.

We have performed the first experimental tomographic reconstruction of a three-photon polarization state. Quantum state tomography is a powerful tool for fully describing the density matrix of a quantum system. We measured 64 three-photon polarization correlations and used a “maximum-likelihood” reconstruction method to reconstruct the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. The entanglement class has been characterized using an entanglement witness operator and the maximum predicted values for the Mermin inequality were extracted.