## Physics

### A Monte Carlo wavefunction description of losses in a 1D Bose gas and cooling to the ground state by quantum feedback. (arXiv:1702.01020v2 [cond-mat.quant-gas] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

The effect of atom losses on a homogeneous one-dimensional Bose gas lying within the quasi-condensate regime is investigated using a Monte Carlo wavefunction approach. The evolution of the system is calculated, conditioned by the loss sequence, namely the times of individual losses and the position of the removed atoms. We describe the gas within the linearized Bogoliubov approach. For each mode, we find that, for a given quantum trajectory, the state of the system converges towards a coherent state, i.e. the ground state, displaced in phase space. Provided losses are recorded with a temporal and spatially resolved detector, we show that quantum feedback can be implemented and cooling to the ground state of one or several modes can be realized.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Overcoming the Sign Problem at Finite Temperature: Quantum Tensor Network for the Orbital $e_g$ Model on an Infinite Square Lattice. (arXiv:1703.03586v2 [cond-mat.str-el] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

The variational tensor network renormalization approach to two-dimensional (2D) quantum systems at finite temperature is applied for the first time to a model suffering the notorious quantum Monte Carlo sign problem --- the orbital $e_g$ model with spatially highly anisotropic orbital interactions. Coarse-graining of the tensor network along the inverse temperature $\beta$ yields a numerically tractable 2D tensor network representing the Gibbs state. Its bond dimension $D$ --- limiting the amount of entanglement --- is a natural refinement parameter. Increasing $D$ we obtain a converged order parameter and its linear susceptibility close to the critical point. They confirm the existence of finite order parameter below the critical temperature $T_c$, provide a numerically exact estimate of~$T_c$, and give the critical exponents within $1\%$ of the 2D Ising universality class.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Units of rotational information. (arXiv:1707.05631v2 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

Entanglement in the angular momentum degrees of freedom is a precious resource for quantum metrology and control. Here we study the conversions of this resource, focusing on Bell pairs of spin-J particles, where one particle is used to probe unknown rotations and the other particle is used as reference. When a large number of pairs is given, we show that every rotated spin-J Bell state can be reversibly converted into an equivalent number of rotated spin one-half Bell states, at a rate determined by the quantum Fisher information. This result provides the foundation for the definition of an elementary unit of information about rotations in space, which we call the Cartesian refbit. In the finite copy scenario, we design machines that approximately break down Bell states of higher spins into refbits, as well as machines that approximately implement the inverse process. In addition, we establish a quantitative link between the conversion of Bell states and the simulation of unitary gates, showing that the fidelity of probabilistic state conversion provides upper and lower bounds on the fidelity of deterministic gate simulation. Using this result, we study how rotations on a system of given spin can simulate rotations on a system of different spin.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Quantum illumination for enhanced detection of Rayleigh-fading targets. (arXiv:1706.05561v2 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

Quantum illumination (QI) is an entanglement-enhanced sensing system whose performance advantage over a comparable classical system survives its usage in an entanglement-breaking scenario plagued by loss and noise. In particular, QI's error-probability exponent for discriminating between equally-likely hypotheses of target absence or presence is 6 dB higher than that of the optimum classical system using the same transmitted power. This performance advantage, however, presumes that the target return, when present, has known amplitude and phase, a situation that seldom occurs in lidar applications. At lidar wavelengths, most target surfaces are sufficiently rough that their returns are speckled, i.e., they have Rayleigh-distributed amplitudes and uniformly-distributed phases. QI's optical parametric amplifier receiver -- which affords a 3 dB better-than-classical error-probability exponent for a return with known amplitude and phase -- fails to offer any performance gain for Rayleigh-fading targets. We show that the sum-frequency generation receiver [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 040801 (2017)] -- whose error-probability exponent for a nonfading target achieves QI's full 6 dB advantage over optimum classical operation -- outperforms the classical system for Rayleigh-fading targets. In this case, QI's advantage is subexponential: its error probability is lower than the classical system's by a factor of $1/\ln(M\bar{\kappa}N_S/N_B)$, when $M\bar{\kappa}N_S/N_B \gg 1$, with $M\gg 1$ being the QI transmitter's time-bandwidth product, $N_S \ll 1$ its brightness, $\bar{\kappa}$ the target's average reflectivity, and $N_B$ the background light's brightness.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Incompatibility of Observables as State-Independent Bound of Uncertainty Relations. (arXiv:1706.05650v2 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

For a pair of observables, they are called "incompatible", if and only if the commutator between them does not vanish, which represents one of the key features in quantum mechanics. The question is, how can we characterize the incompatibility among three or more observables? Here we explore one possible route towards this goal through Heisenberg's uncertainty relations, which impose fundamental constraints on the measurement precisions for incompatible observables. Specifically, we quantify the incompatibility by the optimal state-independent bounds of additive variance-based uncertainty relations. In this way, the degree of incompatibility becomes an intrinsic property among the operators, but not on the quantum state. To justify our case, we focus on the incompatibility of spin systems. For an arbitrary setting of two or three linearly-independent Pauli-spin operators, the incompatibility is analytically solved, the spins are maximally incompatible if and only if they are orthogonal to each other. On the other hand, the measure of incompatibility represents a versatile tool for applications such as testing entanglement of bipartite states, and EPR-steering criteria.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Picture-perfect Quantum Key Distribution. (arXiv:1704.08668v3 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

We provide a new way to bound the security of quantum key distribution using only two high-level, diagrammatic features of quantum processes: the compositional behavior of complementary measurements and the essential uniqueness of purification. We begin by demonstrating a proof in the simplest case, where the eavesdropper doesn't noticeably disturb the channel at all and has no quantum memory. We then show how this approach extends straightforwardly to account for an eavesdropper with quantum memory and the presence of noise.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Contextuality in Canonical Systems of Random Variables. (arXiv:1703.01252v4 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Thu, 2017-07-20 13:45

Random variables representing measurements, broadly understood to include any responses to any inputs, form a system in which each of them is uniquely identified by its content (that which it measures) and its context (the conditions under which it is recorded). Two random variables are jointly distributed if and only if they share a context. In a canonical representation of a system, all random variables are binary, and every content-sharing pair of random variables has a unique maximal coupling (the joint distribution imposed on them so that they coincide with maximal possible probability). The system is contextual if these maximal couplings are incompatible with the joint distributions of the context-sharing random variables. We propose to represent any system of measurements in a canonical form and to consider the system contextual if and only if its canonical representation is contextual. As an illustration, we establish a criterion for contextuality of the canonical system consisting of all dichotomizations of a single pair of content-sharing categorical random variables.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions

Reviews of Modern Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 16:00

Author(s): Edward Shuryak

The field of relativistic heavy ion collisions spans over five decades ranging from the formulation of scientific goals and early experiments at Berkeley in the 1960s with mostly lighter heavy ions via the start of operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven in the year 2000 up to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, where the first experiments took place in 2010. The data from the RHIC and LHC experiments and their theoretical explanations outlined in this review provide convincing evidence for the creation of a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma, i.e., a nearly perfect fluid with large entropy density to viscosity ratio formed during collision.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 035001] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Multipass configuration for improved squeezed vacuum generation in hot Rb vapor

Author(s): Mi Zhang, Melissa A. Guidry, R. Nicholas Lanning, Zhihao Xiao, Jonathan P. Dowling, Irina Novikova, and Eugeniy E. Mikhailov

We study a squeezed vacuum field generated in hot Rb vapor via the polarization self-rotation effect. Our previous experiments showed that the amount of observed squeezing may be limited by the contamination of the squeezed vacuum output with higher-order spatial modes, also generated inside the cel...

[Phys. Rev. A 96, 013835] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### General model of optical frequency conversion in homogeneous media: Application to second-harmonic generation in an ε-near-zero waveguide

Author(s): Jin Jer Huang, Xin Lu Zhang, Liu Yang Zhang, and Jian Xin Zhang

Traditional optical frequency conversion model is well improved in this work. In terms of the dyadic Green's function method, a set of coupled-amplitude equations is reduced under a proposed transition layer assumption, accompanying the simultaneous integral equations. The model, as a generalization...

[Phys. Rev. A 96, 013836] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Bistability and squeezing of the librational mode of an optically trapped nanoparticle

Author(s): Ke-Wen Xiao, Nan Zhao, and Zhang-qi Yin

We systematically investigate the bistable behavior and squeezing property of the librational mode of a levitated nonspherical nanoparticle trapped by laser beams. By expanding the librational potential to the fourth order of the librational angle θ, we find that the nonlinear coefficient of this mo...

[Phys. Rev. A 96, 013837] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Perturbed dissipative solitons: A variational approach

Author(s): Ambaresh Sahoo, Samudra Roy, and Govind P. Agrawal

We adopt a variational technique to study the dynamics of perturbed dissipative solitons whose evolution is governed by a Ginzburg-Landau equation (GLE). As a specific example of such solitons, we consider a silicon-based active waveguide in which free carriers are generated through two-photon absor...

[Phys. Rev. A 96, 013838] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Viewpoint: Seeing Scrambled Spins

APS Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 16:00

Author(s): Brian Swingle and Norman Y. Yao

Two experimental groups have taken a step towards observing the “scrambling” of information that occurs as a many-body quantum system thermalizes.

[Physics 10, 82] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Physics

### Synopsis: Explaining Grid-Cell Firing

APS Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 16:00

A model explains why grid cells—neurons that are part of the brain’s positioning system—fire electrical pulses in hexagonal patterns.

[Physics] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Physics

### Single-photon-driven high-order sideband transitions in an ultrastrongly coupled circuit-quantum-electrodynamics system

PRA: Quantum information - Wed, 2017-07-19 16:00

Author(s): Zhen Chen, Yimin Wang, Tiefu Li, Lin Tian, Yueyin Qiu, Kunihiro Inomata, Fumiki Yoshihara, Siyuan Han, Franco Nori, J. S. Tsai, and J. Q. You

We report the experimental observation of high-order sideband transitions at the single-photon level in a quantum circuit system of a flux qubit ultrastrongly coupled to a coplanar waveguide resonator. With the coupling strength reaching 10% of the resonator's fundamental frequency, we obtain clear ...

[Phys. Rev. A 96, 012325] Published Wed Jul 19, 2017

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Searching for dark matter with nuclear magnetic resonance : the Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment. (arXiv:1707.05312v1 [physics.ins-det])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 13:08

The Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr) is a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment (NMR) seeking to detect axion and axion-like particles which could make up the dark matter present in the universe. We review the predicted couplings of axions and axion-like particles with baryonic matter that enable their detection via NMR. We then describe two measurement schemes being implemented in CASPEr. The first method, presented in the original CASPEr proposal, consists of a resonant search via continuous-wave NMR spectroscopy. This method offers the highest sensitivity for frequencies ranging from a few Hz to hundreds of MHz, corresponding to masses $m_{\rm a} \sim 10^{-14}$--$10^{-6}$~eV. Sub-Hz frequencies are typically difficult to probe with NMR due to the diminishing sensitivity of magnetometers in this region. To circumvent this limitation, we suggest new detection and data processing modalities. We describe a non-resonant frequency-modulation detection scheme, enabling searches from mHz to Hz frequencies ($m_{\rm a} \sim 10^{-18}$--$10^{-14}$~eV), extending the detection bandwidth by four decades.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Hidden antiunitary symmetry behind "accidental" degeneracy and its protection of degeneracy. (arXiv:1707.05313v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 13:08

In quantum mechanics, accidental degeneracy refers to energy degeneracy that occurs coincidentally, without any protection by symmetry. Here, we prove a theorem stating that any two-fold degeneracy (accidental or not) in a quantum system is protected by a novel hidden symmetry, which can be expressed by an antiunitary operator with its square being -1. In this sense, the so-called accidental degeneracy is not really accidental, and this actually implies a hidden antiunitary symmetry.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Quantum Indistinguishability in Chemical Reactions. (arXiv:1707.05320v1 [physics.chem-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 13:08

Quantum indistinguishability plays a crucial role in many low-energy physical phenomena, from quantum fluids to molecular spectroscopy. It is, however, typically ignored in most high temperature processes, particularly for ionic coordinates, implicitly assumed to be distinguishable, incoherent and thus well-approximated classically. We explore chemical reactions involving small symmetric molecules, and argue that in many situations a full quantum treatment of collective nuclear degrees of freedom is essential. Supported by several physical arguments, we conjecture a "Quantum Dynamical Selection" (QDS) rule for small symmetric molecules that precludes chemical processes that involve direct transitions from orbitally non-symmetric molecular states. As we propose and discuss, the implications of the Quantum Dynamical Selection rule include: (i) a differential chemical reactivity of para- and ortho-hydrogen, (ii) a mechanism for inducing inter-molecular quantum entanglement of nuclear spins, (iii) a new isotope fractionation mechanism, (iv) a novel explanation of the enhanced chemical activity of "Reactive Oxygen Species", (v) illuminating the importance of ortho-water molecules in modulating the quantum dynamics of liquid water, (vi) providing the critical quantum-to-biochemical linkage in the nuclear spin model of the (putative) quantum brain, among others.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Continuous-variable supra-quantum nonlocality. (arXiv:1707.05337v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 13:08

Supra-quantum nonlocality refers to correlations that are more nonlocal than allowed by quantum theory but still physically conceivable in post-quantum theories, in the sense of respecting the basic no-faster-than-light communication principle. While supra-quantum correlations are relatively well understood for finite-dimensional systems, little is known in the infinite-dimensional case. Here, we study supra-quantum nonlocality for bipartite systems with two measurement settings and infinitely many outcomes per subsystem. We develop a formalism for generic no-signaling black-box measurement devices with continuous outputs in terms of probability measures, instead of probability distributions, which involves a few technical subtleties. We show the existence of a class of supra-quantum Gaussian correlations, which violate the Tsirelson bound of an adequate continuous-variable Bell inequality. We then introduce the continuous-variable version of the celebrated Popescu-Rohrlich (PR) boxes, as a limiting case of the above-mentioned Gaussian ones. Finally, we perform a characterisation of the geometry of the set of continuous-variable no-signaling correlations. Namely, we show that that the convex hull of the continuous-variable PR boxes is dense in the no-signaling set. We also show that these boxes are extreme in the set of no-signaling behaviours and provide evidence suggesting that they are indeed the only extreme points of the no-signaling set. Our results lay the grounds for studying generalized-probability theories in continuous-variable systems.

Categories: Journals, Physics

### Quantum nonlocality does not demand all-out randomness in measurement choice. (arXiv:1707.05339v1 [quant-ph])

arXiv.org: Quantum Physics - Wed, 2017-07-19 13:08

Nonlocality is the most characteristic feature of quantum mechanics. John Bell, in his seminal 1964 work, proved that local-realism imposes a bound on the correlations among the measurement statistics of distant observers. Surpassing this bound rules out local-realistic description of microscopic phenomena, establishing the presence of nonlocal correlation. To manifest nonlocality, it requires, in the simplest scenario, two measurements performed randomly by each of two distant observers. In this work, we propose a novel framework where three measurements, two on Alice's side and one on Bob's side, suffice to reveal quantum nonlocality and hence does not require all-out randomness in measurement choice. Our method relies on a very naive operational task in quantum information theory, namely, the minimal error state discrimination. As a practical implication this method constitutes an economical entanglement detection scheme, which uses a less number of entangled states compared to all such existing schemes. Moreover, the method applies to class of generalized probability theories containing quantum theory as a special example.

Categories: Journals, Physics