Sub-Poissonian fluctuations in a 1D Bose gas: from the quantum quasicondensate to the strongly interacting regime

We report on local, in situ measurements of atom number fluctuations in slices of a one-dimensional Bose gas on an atom chip setup. By using current modulation techniques to prevent cloud fragmentation, we are able to probe the crossover from weak to strong interactions. For weak interactions, fluctuations go continuously from super- to sub-Poissonian as the density is increased, which is a signature of the transition between the subregimes where the two-body correlation function is dominated, respectively, by thermal and quantum contributions. At stronger interactions, the super-Poissonian region disappears, and the fluctuations go directly from Poissonian to sub-Poissonian, as expected for a "fermionized" gas.     

Resonant Rayleigh scattering from excitons in CdxZn1−xTe:ZnTe quantum wells: measurement of homogeneous linewidths

The technique of resonant Rayleigh scattering is used to determine the homogeneous linewidth across the inhomogeneously broadened exciton resonance in a Cd_0.25Zn_0.75Te/ZnTe multiple quantum well structure. An order of magnitude increase of the Rayleigh scattering signal over background is observed on tuning a narrow-band laser through the exciton resonance at low temperatures. Spectral and temporal measurements show the effect to be a true scattering process rather than luminescence. The interface and alloy fluctuations in the quantum well give rise to spatial fluctuations in the dielectric response of the system while the large exciton resonance causes strong enhancement of scattering. The homogeneous linewidth was calculated across the exciton resonance. The technique is compared with the dephasing and hole-burning techniques more commonly used in homogeneous linewidth measurements.     

Stochastic processes and the non-perturbative structure of the QCD vacuum

Based on a local Gaussian evaluation of the functional integral representation, a method is developed to obtain ground state functionals. The method is applied to the gluon sector of QCD. For the leading term in the ground state functional, stochastic techniques are used to check consistency of the quantum theory, finiteness of the mass gap and the scaling relation in the continuum limit. The functional also implies strong chromomagnetic fluctuations which constrain the propagators in the fermion sector.     

Strong friction limit in quantum mechanics: the quantum Smoluchowski equation

For a quantum system coupled to a heat bath environment the strong friction limit is studied starting from the exact path integral formulation. Generalizing the classical Smoluchowski limit to low temperatures, a time evolution equation for the position distribution is derived and the strong role of quantum fluctuations in this limit is revealed.     

Zero-point fluctuations and the quenching of the persistent current in normal metal rings

The ground state of a phase-coherent mesoscopic system is sensitive to its environment. We investigate the persistent current of a ring with a quantum dot which is capacitively coupled to an external circuit with a dissipative impedance. At zero temperature, zero-point quantum fluctuations lead to a strong suppression of the persistent current with decreasing external impedance. We emphasize the role of displacement currents in the dynamical fluctuations of the persistent current and show that with decreasing external impedance the fluctuations exceed the average persistent current.     

Electron-mediated nuclear-spin interactions between distant nitrogen-vacancy centers

We propose a scheme enabling controlled quantum coherent interactions between separated nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond in the presence of strong magnetic fluctuations. The proposed scheme couples nuclear qubits employing the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between the electron spins and, crucially, benefits from the suppression of the effect of environmental magnetic field fluctuations thanks to a strong microwave driving. This scheme provides a basic building block for a full-scale quantum-information processor or quantum simulator based on solid-state technology.     

Effect of quantum fluctuations on the dipolar motion of bose-einstein condensates in optical lattices

We reexamine dipolar motion of condensate atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices and harmonic magnetic traps including quantum fluctuations within the truncated Wigner approximation. In the strong tunneling limit we reproduce the mean field results with a sharp dynamical transition at the critical displacement. When the tunneling is reduced, on the contrary, strong quantum fluctuations lead to finite damping of condensate oscillations even at infinitesimal displacement. We argue that there is a smooth crossover between the chaotic classical transition at finite displacement and the superfluid-to-insulator phase transition at zero displacement. We further analyze the time dependence of the density fluctuations and of the coherence of the condensate and find several nontrivial dynamical effects, which can be observed in the present experimental conditions.     

原子冷却技术的发展

新的物理现象的发现往往得益于新实验技术的发明,制冷技术的进步推动了包括凝聚态物理学和原子物理学等现代科学多个领域的重要发现,并促进了超导强磁铁、冷冻电镜等需要极低温度条件的新技术的发展.近年来,随着激光冷却技术的发明和不断发展,人们得以在极端低温下开展统计力学和量子力学相关的实验研究,迄今,人们已经实现了玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚态这种新奇的物态,并掌握了在单原子尺度开展量子调控研究的能力.同时,由于描述量子多体系统的希尔伯特空间的维度随系统粒子数呈指数增长,即便使用经典超级计算机处理此类问题也仍面临巨大困难,这使得基于超冷原子、离子、超导等体系的量子模拟研究成为热点.人们通过前所未有的调控能力制造人工量子系统,再直接调控并观测其量子相变过程,这为研究强关联量子系统提供了一条崭新的途径.在获得极限低温的道路上,基于热力学定律的传统制冷技术能够达到的温度极限在mK量级,但激光冷却技术却另辟蹊径,巧妙地运用光与原子的相互作用,将原子的温度降低到nK量级,这大大推动了基于超冷原子的量子模拟研究的发展.尽管激光冷却技术获得的超冷原子的温度是传统制冷技术远不能及的,但由于中性原子间相互作用强度很弱,转换...     

Superfluidity versus Bloch oscillations in confined atomic gases

We study the superfluid properties of (quasi) one-dimensional bosonic atom gases/liquids in traps with finite geometries in the presence of strong quantum fluctuations. Driving the condensate with a moving defect we find the nucleation rate for phase slips using instanton techniques. While phase slips are quenched in a ring resulting in a superfluid response, they proliferate in a tube geometry where we find Bloch oscillations in the chemical potential. These Bloch oscillations describe the individual tunneling of atoms through the defect and thus are a consequence of particle quantization.     

Observation of a quantized hall resistivity in the presence of mesoscopic fluctuations

We present an experimental study of mesoscopic, two-dimensional electronic systems at high magnetic fields. Our samples, prepared from a low-mobility InGaAs/InAlAs wafer, exhibit reproducible, sample specific, resistance fluctuations. Focusing on the lowest Landau level, we find that, while the diagonal resistivity displays strong fluctuations, the Hall resistivity is free of fluctuations and remains quantized at its nu=1 value, h/e(2). This is true also in the insulating phase that terminates the quantum Hall series. These results extend the validity of the semicircle law of conductivity in the quantum Hall effect to the mesoscopic regime.     

Detecting quantum critical points using bipartite fluctuations

We show that the concept of bipartite fluctuations F provides a very efficient tool to detect quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated systems. Using state-of-the-art numerical techniques complemented with analytical arguments, we investigate paradigmatic examples for both quantum spins and bosons. As compared to the von Neumann entanglement entropy, we observe that F allows us to find quantum critical points with much better accuracy in one dimension. We further demonstrate that F can be successfully applied to the detection of quantum criticality in higher dimensions with no prior knowledge of the universality class of the transition. Promising approaches to experimentally access fluctuations are discussed for quantum antiferromagnets and cold gases.     

Conditional Detection of Fluctuations of Light from an Optical Cavity with One Atom

Fluctuations of light provide a window on the underlying quantum dynamical evolution of the source emitting light. Emission of a photon by a source signals quantum fluctuations in progress. Hence a measurement that is conditioned upon a photodetection allows us to follow the time evolution of the fluctuations and the framework of conditioned measurements provides a powerful conceptual tool for understanding nonclassical features of quantum dynamics. We discuss the connection between quantum dynamics and photon fluctuations in terms of conditional measurements of intensity and field quadratures of light from a single atom in an optical cavity. Using the Fokker- Planck equation for a single atom in a high-Q cavity, we describe the light from the cavity in terms of Gaussian random variables and a coherent component. These are used to study conditional measurements of intensity and quadrature squeezing. It is found that when the coherent component is completely removed conditional light intensity shows large fluctuations, whereas conditional squeezing exhibits strong nonclassical behavior. Indeed both field quadratures exhibit nonclassical behavior. On the other hand a small coherent component results in a sizable reduction in intensity fluctuations and small squeezing.     

Color Glass Condensate in Schwinger–Keldysh QCD

Within the Schwinger–Keldysh representation of many-body QCD, it is shown that the leading quantum corrections to the strong classical color field are “classical” in the sense that the fluctuation field still obeys the classical Jacobi-field equation, while the quantum effects solely reside in the fluctuations of the initial field configurations. Within this context, a systematic derivation of the JIMWLK renormalization group equation is presented. A clear identification of the correct form of gauge transformation rules and the correct form of the matter-field Lagrangian in the Schwinger–Keldysh QCD is also presented.     

Influence of a Magnetic Fluxon on the Vacuum Energy of Quantum Fields Confined by a Bag

We study the simultaneous influence of boundary conditions and external fields on quantum fluctuations by considering vacuum zero-point energies for quantum fields in the presence of a magnetic fluxon confined by a bag, circular and spherical for bosons and circular for fermions. The Casimir effect is calculated in a generalized cut-off regularization after applying zeta-function techniques to eigenmode sums and using recent techniques about Bessel zeta functions at negative arguments. Received: 25 March 1997 / Accepted: 3 September 1997     

Kondo effect and mesoscopic fluctuations

Two important themes in nanoscale physics in the last two decades are correlations between electrons and mesoscopic fluctuations. Here we review our recent work on the intersection of these two themes. The setting is the Kondo effect, a paradigmatic example of correlated electron physics, in a nanoscale system with mesoscopic fluctuations; in particular, we consider a small quantum dot coupled to a finite reservoir (which itself may be a large quantum dot). We discuss three aspects of this problem. First, in the high-temperature regime, we argue that a Kondo temperature T _k which takes into account the mesoscopic fluctuations is a relevant concept: for instance, physical properties are universal functions of T/T _k. Secondly, when the temperature is much less than the mean level spacing due to confinement, we characterize a natural cross-over from weak to strong coupling. This strong coupling regime is itself characterized by well-defined single-particle levels, as one can see from a Nozières Fermi-liquid theory argument. Finally, using a mean-field technique, we connect the mesoscopic fluctuations of the quasiparticles in the weak coupling regime to those at strong coupling.     

Quantum decoherence and classical correlations of the harmonic oscillator in the Lindblad theory

In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems we determine the degree of quantum decoherence and classical correlations of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath. The transition from quantum to classical behaviour of the considered system is analysed and it is shown that the classicality takes place during a finite interval of time. We calculate also the decoherence time and show that it has the same scale as the time after which statistical fluctuations become comparable with quantum fluctuations.     

Role of phase fluctuation and dephasing in the enhancing continuous variable entanglement of a two-photon coherent beat laser

A steady state analysis of the nonclassical features and statistical properties of the cavity radiation of a two-photon coherent beat laser is presented. Results show that the degree of two-mode squeezing, detectable entanglement and intensity of the cavity radiation can increase with the deviation of the phase fluctuations of the laser employed in preparing the atoms, but decrease with the increasing rate at which the induced coherence superposition decays. Although it is found that varying the phase fluctuations and dephasing can lead to modification in the quantum features and statistical properties of the radiation, it does not alter the similarity in the nature of the degree of entanglement detectable by the criteria following from Duan-Giedke-Cirac-Zoller and logarithmic negativity in a perceivable manner. Since the intensity and quantum features can be readily enhanced, this system is expected to be a viable source of a strong robust entangled (squeezed) light under various conditions. Moreover, comparison of the mean number of photon pairs with intensity difference shows that the chance of inciting a two-photon process can be enhanced by changing the rate of dephasing and phase fluctuations.     

Non-selective external force in the presence of selective action of radiation on atoms. Cooling-effects and analogues

The present work suggests a new effective method of resonance radiation cooling when a small additional force is applied. A mathematical analogy has been found which allows this method as well as the frequency-sweep techniques to be analyzed. This makes it possible to determine scan rates which do not agree with the generally accepted concept. A new role of quantum fluctuations which may result in a loss of cooling stability is shown.