Measurement-Based Deterministic Imaginary Time Evolution.

We introduce a method to perform imaginary time evolution in a controllable quantum system using measurements and conditional unitary operations. By performing a sequence of weak measurements based on the desired Hamiltonian constructed by a Suzuki-Trotter decomposition, an evolution approximating imaginary time evolution can be realized. The randomness due to measurement is corrected using conditional unitary operations, making the evolution deterministic. Both the measurements required for the algorithm and the conditional unitary operations can be constructed efficiently. We show that the algorithm converges only below a specified energy threshold and the complexity is estimated for some specific problem instances.

Optically Controlled Femtosecond Polariton Switch at Room Temperature.

Exciton polaritons have shown great potential for applications such as low-threshold lasing, quantum simulation, and dissipation-free circuits. In this paper, we realize a room temperature ultrafast polaritonic switch where the Bose-Einstein condensate population can be depleted at the hundred femtosecond timescale with high extinction ratios. This is achieved by applying an ultrashort optical control pulse, inducing parametric scattering within the photon part of the polariton condensate via a four-wave mixing process. Using a femtosecond angle-resolved spectroscopic imaging technique, the erasure and revival of the polariton condensates can be visualized. The condensate depletion and revival are well modeled by an open-dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation including parametric scattering process. This pushes the speed frontier of all-optical controlled polaritonic switches at room temperature towards the THz regime.

Emulating Quantum Teleportation of a Majorana Zero Mode Qubit.

Topological quantum computation based on anyons is a promising approach to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing. The Majorana zero modes in the Kitaev chain are an example of non-Abelian anyons where braiding operations can be used to perform quantum gates. Here we perform a quantum simulation of topological quantum computing, by teleporting a qubit encoded in the Majorana zero modes of a Kitaev chain. The quantum simulation is performed by mapping the Kitaev chain to its equivalent spin version and realizing the ground states in a superconducting quantum processor. The teleportation transfers the quantum state encoded in the spin-mapped version of the Majorana zero mode states between two Kitaev chains. The teleportation circuit is realized using only braiding operations and can be achieved despite being restricted to Clifford gates for the Ising anyons. The Majorana encoding is a quantum error detecting code for phase-flip errors, which is used to improve the average fidelity of the teleportation for six distinct states from 70.76±0.35% to 84.60±0.11%, well beyond the classical bound in either case.

Multipartite Generalization of Quantum Discord.

A generalization of quantum discord to multipartite systems is proposed. A key feature of our formulation is its consistency with the conventional definition of discord in bipartite systems. It is by construction zero only for systems with classically correlated subsystems and is a non-negative quantity, giving a measure of the total nonclassical correlations in the multipartite system with respect to a fixed measurement ordering. For the tripartite case, we show that the discord can be decomposed into contributions resulting from changes induced by nonclassical correlation breaking measurements in the conditional mutual information and tripartite mutual information. The former gives a measure of the bipartite nonclassical correlations and is a non-negative quantity, while the latter is related to the monogamy of the nonclassical correlations.

Quantum Interference between Light Sources Separated by 150 Million Kilometers.

We report an experiment to test quantum interference, entanglement, and nonlocality using two dissimilar photon sources, the Sun and a semiconductor quantum dot on the Earth, which are separated by ∼150 million kilometers. By making the otherwise vastly distinct photons indistinguishable in all degrees of freedom, we observe time-resolved two-photon quantum interference with a raw visibility of 0.796(17), well above the 0.5 classical limit, providing unambiguous evidence of the quantum nature of thermal light. Further, using the photons with no common history, we demonstrate postselected two-photon entanglement with a state fidelity of 0.826(24) and a violation of Bell inequality by 2.20(6). The experiment can be further extended to a larger scale using photons from distant stars and open a new route to quantum optics experiments at an astronomical scale.

Generalized Grover's Algorithm for Multiple Phase Inversion States.

Grover's algorithm is a quantum search algorithm that proceeds by repeated applications of the Grover operator and the Oracle until the state evolves to one of the target states. In the standard version of the algorithm, the Grover operator inverts the sign on only one state. Here we provide an exact solution to the problem of performing Grover's search where the Grover operator inverts the sign on N states. We show the underlying structure in terms of the eigenspectrum of the generalized Hamiltonian, and derive an appropriate initial state to perform the Grover evolution. This allows us to use the quantum phase estimation algorithm to solve the search problem in this generalized case, completely bypassing the Grover algorithm altogether. We obtain a time complexity of this case of sqrt[D/M^{α}], where D is the search space dimension, M is the number of target states, and α≈1, which is close to the optimal scaling.

Distribution of Quantum Coherence in Multipartite Systems.

The distribution of coherence in multipartite systems is examined. We use a new coherence measure with entropic nature and metric properties, based on the quantum Jensen-Shannon divergence. The metric property allows for the coherence to be decomposed into various contributions, which arise from local and intrinsic coherences. We find that there are trade-off relations between the various contributions of coherence, as a function of parameters of the quantum state. In bipartite systems the coherence resides on individual sites or is distributed among the sites, which contribute in a complementary way. In more complex systems, the characteristics of the coherence can display more subtle changes with respect to the parameters of the quantum state. In the case of the XXZ Heisenberg model, the coherence changes from a monogamous to a polygamous nature. This allows us to define the shareability of coherence, leading to monogamy relations for coherence.

Coherent all-optical control of ultracold atoms arrays in permanent magnetic traps.

We propose a hybrid architecture for quantum information processing based on magnetically trapped ultracold atoms coupled via optical fields. The ultracold atoms, which can be either Bose-Einstein condensates or ensembles, are trapped in permanent magnetic traps and are placed in microcavities, connected by silica based waveguides on an atom chip structure. At each trapping center, the ultracold atoms form spin coherent states, serving as a quantum memory. An all-optical scheme is used to initialize, measure and perform a universal set of quantum gates on the single and two spin-coherent states where entanglement can be generated addressably between spatially separated trapped ultracold atoms. This allows for universal quantum operations on the spin coherent state quantum memories. We give detailed derivations of the composite cavity system mediated by a silica waveguide as well as the control scheme. Estimates for the necessary experimental conditions for a working hybrid device are given.

Theory of single-shot phase contrast imaging in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates.

We introduce a theoretical framework for single-shot phase contrast imaging (PCI) measurements of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Our model allows for the simple calculation of the quantum backaction resulting from the measurement, and the amount of information that is read out. We find that there is an optimum time Gτ ∼ 1/N for the light-matter interaction (G is the ac Stark shift frequency, N is the number of particles in the BEC), where the maximum amount of information can be read out from the BEC. A universal information-disturbance tradeoff law ε(F)ε(G) ∝ 1/N(2) is found where ε(F) is the amount of backaction and ε(G) is the estimation error. The PCI measurement can also be found to be a direct probe of the quantum fluctuations of the BEC, via the noise of the PCI signal.

Optical circuit compactification for ultracold atoms.

We develop a modular and compactified optical circuit for the generation of optical beams for cooling, imaging, and controlling ultracold atoms. One of the simplifications that is made in our circuit is to admix the repumping beams to each other optical beams in its dedicated single-mode fiber. We implement our design, characterize the output, and show that the optical power efficiency of the circuit is in the region of 97%, and after fiber coupling, the efficiencies are in the range of 62-85%. Given its compact design and controllable optical sources, this setup should be adaptable to a variety of quantum experiments based on ultracold gases.

BCS wave-function approach to the BEC-BCS crossover of exciton-polariton condensates.

The crossover between low and high density regimes of exciton-polariton condensates is examined using a BCS wave-function approach. Our approach is an extension of the BEC-BCS crossover theory for excitons, but includes a cavity photon field. The approach can describe both the low density limit, where the system can be described as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of exciton-polaritons, and the high density limit, where the system enters a photon-dominated regime. In contrast to the exciton BEC-BCS crossover where the system approaches an electron-hole plasma, the polariton high density limit has strongly correlated electron-hole pairs. At intermediate densities, there is a regime with BCS-like properties, with a peak at nonzero momentum of the singlet pair function. We calculate the expected photoluminescence and give several experimental signatures of the crossover.

Time dynamics of quantum coherence and monogamy in a non-Markovian environment.

The time evolution of the distribution and shareability of quantum coherence of a tripartite system in a non-Markovian environment is examined. The total coherence can be decomposed into various contributions, ranging from local, global bipartite and global tripartite, which characterize the type of state. We identify coherence revivals for non-Markovian systems for all the contributions of coherence. The local coherence is found to be much more robust under the environmental coupling due to an effective smaller coupling to the reservoir. This allows us to devise a characterization of a quantum state in terms of a coherence tuple on a multipartite state simply by examining various combinations of reservoir couplings. The effect of the environment on the shareability of quantum coherence, as defined using the monogamy of coherence, is investigated and found that the sign of the monogamy is a preserved quantity under the decoherence. We conjecture that the monogamy of coherence is a conserved property under local incoherent processes.

Nonequilibrium time dynamics of genetic evolution.

Biological systems are typically highly open, nonequilibrium systems that are very challenging to understand from a statistical mechanics perspective. While statistical treatments of evolutionary biological systems have a long and rich history, examination of the time-dependent nonequilibrium dynamics has been less studied. In this paper we first derive a generalized master equation in the genotype space for diploid organisms incorporating the processes of selection, mutation, recombination, and reproduction. The master equation is defined in terms of continuous time and can handle an arbitrary number of gene loci and alleles and can be defined in terms of an absolute population or probabilities. We examine and analytically solve several prototypical cases which illustrate the interplay of the various processes and discuss the timescales of their evolution. The entropy production during the evolution towards steady state is calculated and we find that it agrees with predictions from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics where it is large when the population distribution evolves towards a more viable genotype. The stability of the nonequilibrium steady state is confirmed using the Glansdorff-Prigogine criterion.

Quantum coherence of the Heisenberg spin models with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions.

We study quantum coherence in a spin chain with both symmetric exchange and antisymmetric Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya couplings. Quantum coherence is quantified using the recently introduced quantum Jensen-Shannon divergence, which has the property that it is easily calculable and has several desirable mathematical properties. We calculate exactly the coherence for arbitrary number of spins at zero temperature in various limiting cases. The σ z σ z interaction tunes the amount of coherence in the system, and the antisymmetric coupling changes the nature of the coherence. We also investigate the effect of non-zero temperature by looking at a two-spin system and find similar behavior, with temperature dampening the coherence. The characteristic behavior of coherence resembles that of entanglement and is opposite to that of discord. The distribution of the coherence on the spins is investigated and found that it arises entirely due to the correlations between the spins.

High-energy side-peak emission of exciton-polariton condensates in high density regime.

In a standard semiconductor laser, electrons and holes recombine via stimulated emission to emit coherent light, in a process that is far from thermal equilibrium. Exciton-polariton condensates-sharing the same basic device structure as a semiconductor laser, consisting of quantum wells coupled to a microcavity-have been investigated primarily at densities far below the Mott density for signatures of Bose-Einstein condensation. At high densities approaching the Mott density, exciton-polariton condensates are generally thought to revert to a standard semiconductor laser, with the loss of strong coupling. Here, we report the observation of a photoluminescence sideband at high densities that cannot be accounted for by conventional semiconductor lasing. This also differs from an upper-polariton peak by the observation of the excitation power dependence in the peak-energy separation. Our interpretation as a persistent coherent electron-hole-photon coupling captures several features of this sideband, although a complete understanding of the experimental data is lacking. A full understanding of the observations should lead to a development in non-equilibrium many-body physics.

Photoluminescence of a microcavity quantum dot system in the quantum strong-coupling regime.

The Jaynes-Cummings model, describing the interaction between a single two-level system and a photonic mode, has been used to describe a large variety of systems, ranging from cavity quantum electrodynamics, trapped ions, to superconducting qubits coupled to resonators. Recently there has been renewed interest in studying the quantum strong-coupling (QSC) regime, where states with photon number greater than one are excited. This regime has been recently achieved in semiconductor nanostructures, where a quantum dot is trapped in a planar microcavity. Here we study the quantum strong-coupling regime by calculating its photoluminescence (PL) properties under a pulsed excitation. We discuss the changes in the PL as the QSC regime is reached, which transitions between a peak around the cavity resonance to a doublet. We particularly examine the variations of the PL in the time domain, under regimes of short and long pulse times relative to the microcavity decay time.

Neural networks using two-component Bose-Einstein condensates.

The authors previously considered a method of solving optimization problems by using a system of interconnected network of two component Bose-Einstein condensates (Byrnes, Yan, Yamamoto New J. Phys. 13, 113025 (2011)). The use of bosonic particles gives a reduced time proportional to the number of bosons N for solving Ising model Hamiltonians by taking advantage of enhanced bosonic cooling rates. Here we consider the same system in terms of neural networks. We find that up to the accelerated cooling of the bosons the previously proposed system is equivalent to a stochastic continuous Hopfield network. This makes it clear that the BEC network is a physical realization of a simulated annealing algorithm, with an additional speedup due to bosonic enhancement. We discuss the BEC network in terms of neural network tasks such as learning and pattern recognition and find that the latter process may be accelerated by a factor of N.

Influence of field size on pupil diameter under photopic and mesopic light levels.

PURPOSE: We investigated the interaction between adapting field size and luminance on pupil diameter when cones alone (photopic) or rods and cones (mesopic) were active. METHOD: Circular achromatic targets (1° to 24° diameter) were presented to eight young participants on a rectangular projector screen. The accommodative influence on pupil diameter was minimised using cycloplegia in the foveally fixating right eye and the consensual pupillary reflex was measured in the left eye. Target luminance was adjusted for each stimulus such that corneal flux density (product of field area and luminance) was constant at 3,600 cd.deg(2) m(-2) (photopic condition) and 1.49 cd.deg(2) m(-2) (mesopic condition). RESULTS: There were no statistically significant effects of adaptive field size on pupil diameter for either condition. CONCLUSION: If corneal flux density is kept constant, there will be no change in pupil diameter as the size of the stimulus field increases at either mesopic or photopic lighting levels up to at least 24° diameter.

Quantum simulator for the hubbard model with long-range coulomb interactions using surface acoustic waves.

An experimental scheme for a quantum simulator of strongly correlated electrons is proposed. Our scheme employs electrons confined in a two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction. Two surface acoustic waves are then induced in the substrate, creating a two-dimensional "egg-carton" potential. The dynamics of the electrons in this potential are described by a Hubbard model with long-range Coulomb interactions. Estimates of the Hubbard parameters suggest that observations of quantum phase transition phenomena are within experimental reach.