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We propose quantum control protocols for the high-fidelity preparation of target states in systems with Autler-Townes splitting. We investigate an approximated three-level system obtained from a four-level one by adiabatically eliminating a state that does not participate in the evolution. In our work we use linear, arctan, and Roland-Cerf functions for transferring population between two eigenstates of the system obtaining a high fidelity for long evolution times. Additionally, in order to overcome the restriction given by the lifetimes of the experimental setup, we propose an accelerated adiabatic evolution with a shortcut to adiabaticity protocol, which allows us to reach fidelities close to one but much faster.

Molecular Nanomagnets may enable the implementation of qudit-based quantum error-correction codes which exploit the many spin levels naturally embedded in a single molecule, a promising step towards scalable quantum processors. To fully realize the potential of this approach, a microscopic understanding of the errors corrupting the quantum information encoded in a molecular qudit is essential, together with the development of tailor-made quantum error correction strategies. We address these central points by first studying dephasing effects on the molecular spin qudit produced by the interaction with surrounding nuclear spins, which are the dominant source of errors at low temperatures. Numerical quantum error correction codes are then constructed, by means of a systematic optimisation procedure based on simulations of the coupled system-bath dynamics, that provide a striking enhancement of the coherence time of the molecular computational unit. The sequence of pulses needed for the experimental implementation of the codes is finally proposed., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

We present a concrete theoretical proposal for detecting topological phase transitions in double kicked atom-optics kicked rotors with internal spin-1/2 degree of freedom. The implementation utilizes a kicked Bose-Einstein condensate evolving in one-dimensional momentum space. To reduce the influence of atom loss and phase decoherence, we aim to keep experimental durations short while maintaining a resonant experimental protocol. Experimental limitations induced by phase noise, quasimomentum distributions, symmetries, and the ac-Stark shift are considered. Our results thus suggest a feasible and optimized procedure for observing topological phase transitions in quantum kicked rotors

We investigate the possibility of implementing a sequence of quantum walks whose probability distributions give an overall positive winning probability, while it is negative for the single walks (Parrondo’s paradox). In particular, we have in mind an experimental realization with a Bose–Einstein condensate in which the walker’s space is momentum space. Experimental problems in the precise implementation of the coin operations for our discrete-time quantum walks are analyzed in detail. We study time-dependent phase fluctuations of the coins as well as perturbations arising from the finite momentum width of the condensate. We confirm the visibility of Parrondo’s paradox for experimentally available time scales of up to a few hundred steps of the walk.

Over the last decade there have been many advances in studies of quantum walks (QWs) including a momentum-space QW recently realized in our spinor Bose-Einstein condensate system. This QW possessed behaviors that generally agreed with theoretical predictions; however, it also showed momentum distributions that were not adequately explained by the theory. We present a theoretical model which proves that the coherent dynamics of the spinor condensate is sufficient to explain the experimental data without invoking the presence of a thermal cloud of atoms as in the original theory. Our numerical findings are supported by an analytical prediction for the momentum distributions in the limit of zero-temperature condensates. This current model provides more complete explanations to the momentum-space QWs that can be applied to study quantum search algorithms and topological phases in Floquet-driven systems., experimental and theoretical paper on discrete-time quantum walks

In this chapter we investigate the dynamics of classical nonlinear Hamiltonian systems, which—a priori—are examples of continuous dynamical systems. As in the discrete case (see examples in Chap. 2), we are interested in the classification of their dynamics. After a short review of the basic concepts of Hamiltonian mechanics, we define integrability (and therewith regular motion) in Sect. 3.4. The non-integrability property is then discussed in Sect. 3.5. The addition of small non-integrable parts to the Hamiltonian function (Sects. 3.6.1 and 3.7) leads us to the formal theory of canonical perturbations, which turns out to be a highly valuable technique for the treatment of systems with one degree of freedom and shows profound difficulties when applied to realistic systems with more degrees of freedom. We will interpret these problems as the seeds of chaotic motion in general. A key result for the understanding of the transition from regular to chaotic motion is the KAM theorem (Sect. 3.7.4), which assures the stability in nonlinear systems that are not integrable but behave approximately like them. Within the framework of the surface of section technique, chaotic motion is discussed from a phenomenological point of view in Sect. 3.8. More quantitative measures of local and global chaos are finally presented in Sect. 3.9.

We present a classical approximation for the peaks of survival resonances occurring when diffracting matter waves from absorption potentials. Generally our simplified model describes the absorption-diffraction process around the Talbot time very well. Classical treatments of this process are presently lacking. For purely imaginary potentials, the classical model duplicates quantum mechanical calculations. The classical model allows for simple evolution of phase-space probability densities, which in the limit of the effective Planck's constant going to zero allows for a compact analytical expression of the survival probability as a function of remaining parameters. Our work extends the range of processes that can be described through classical analogues.

Because of its sensitivity to the instantaneous structure factor, S(Q,t = 0), Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) is a powerful tool for probing the dynamic structure of condensed matter systems in which the charge and lattice dynamics are coupled. When applied to hole-doped cuprate superconductors, EXAFS has revealed the presence of internal quantum tunneling polarons (IQTPs). An IQTP arises in EXAFS as a two-site distribution for certain Cu–O pairs, which is also duplicated in inelastic scattering but not observed in standard diffraction measurements. The Cu–Sr pair distribution has been found to be highly anharmonic and strongly correlated to both the IQTPs and to superconductivity, as, for example, in YSr2Cu2.75Mo0.25O7.54(Tc=84 K). In order to describe such nontrivial, anharmonic charge-lattice dynamics, we have proposed a model Hamiltonian for a prototype six-atom cluster, in which two Cu-apical-O IQTPs are charge-transfer bridged through Cu atoms by an O atom in the CuO2 plane and are anharmonically coupled via a Sr atom. By applying an exact diagonalization procedure to this cluster, we have verified that our model indeed produces an intricate interplay between charge and lattice dynamics. Then, by using the Kuramoto model for the synchronization of coupled quantum oscillators, we have found a first-order phase transition for the IQTPs into a synchronized, phase-locked phase. Most importantly, we have shown that this transition results specifically from the anharmonicity. Finally, we have provided a phase diagram showing the onset of the phase-locking of IQTPs as a function of the charge-lattice and anharmonic couplings in our model. We have found that the charge, initially confined to the apical oxygens, is partially pumped into the CuO2 plane in the synchronized phase, which suggests a possible connection between the synchronized dynamic structure and high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) in doped cuprates.

A major open topic in cuprates is the interplay between the lattice and electronic dynamics and the importance of their coupling to the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC). As evidenced by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure experiments (EXAFS), anharmonic structural effects are correlated with the charge dynamics and the transition to a superconducting phase in different HTSC compounds. Here we describe how structural anharmonic effects can be coupled to electronic and lattice dynamics in cuprate systems by performing the exact diagonalization of a prototype anharmonic many-body Hamiltonian on a relevant six-atom cluster and show that the EXAFS results can be understood as a Kuramoto synchronization between coupled internal quantum tunneling polarons associated with the two-site distribution of the copper-apical-oxygen ($Cu-O_{ap}$) pair in the dynamic structure. Furthermore, we find that this first order, anti-phase synchronization transition can be fine tuned by temperature and anharmonicity of the lattice vibrations, and promotes the pumping of charge, initially stored at the apical oxygen reservoirs, into the copper-oxide planes. Simultaneously, the internal quantum tunneling polaron extends to the copper-planar-oxygen ($Cu-O_{pl}$) pair. All these findings support an interpretation of the EXAFS data in terms of an effective, quantum mechanical triple-well-potential, which accurately represents the anti-phase synchronization of apical oxygens displacements and lattice-assisted charge transfer to the $CuO_2$ plane., 13 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Physical Review B

We have realized a quantum walk in momentum space with a rubidium spinor Bose-Einstein condensate by applying a periodic kicking potential as a walk operator and a resonant microwave pulse as a coin toss operator. The generated quantum walks appear to be stable for up to ten steps and then quickly transit to classical walks due to spontaneous emissions induced by laser beams of the walk operator. We investigate these quantum to classical walk transitions by introducing well controlled spontaneous emissions with an external light source during quantum walks. Our findings demonstrate a scheme to control the robustness of the quantum walks and can also be applied to other cold atom experiments involving spontaneous emissions.

We study the robustness of different sweep protocols for accelerated adiabaticity following in the presence of static errors and of dissipative and dephasing phenomena. While in the noise-free case, counterdiabatic driving is, by definition, insensitive to the form of the original sweep function, this property may be lost when the quantum system is open. We indeed observe that, according to the decay and dephasing channels investigated here, the performance of the system becomes highly dependent on the sweep function. Our findings are relevant for the experimental implementation of robust shortcuts-to-adiabaticity techniques for the control of quantum systems.

This paper investigates the feasibility of simulating Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) with a reduced number of spatial dimensions. Our aim is to set up a realistic, yet numerically inexpensive, toy model in $(1+1)$-dimensional space time, that - under well controlled system conditions - is capable of realizing important aspects of the full-fledged $(3+1)$-FDM phenomenology by means of one-dimensional analogues. Based on the coupled, nonlinear and nonlocal $(3+1)$-Schr\"odinger-Poisson equation under periodic boundary conditions, we derive two distinct one-dimensional models that differ in their transversal matter distribution and consequently in their nonlocal interaction along the single dimension of interest. We show that these discrepancies change the relaxation process of initial states as well as the asymptotic, i.e., thermalized and virialized, equilibrium state. Our investigation includes the dynamical evolution of artificial initial conditions for non-expanding space, as well as cosmological initial conditions in expanding space. The findings of this work are relevant for the interpretation of numerical simulation data modelling nonrelativistic fuzzy cold dark matter in reduced dimensions, in the quest for testing such models and for possible laboratory implementations of them., Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review D

Experimental imperfections induce phase and population errors in quantum systems. We present a method to compensate unitary errors affecting also the population of the qubit states. This is achieved through the interaction of the target qubit with an additional control qubit. We show that our approach works well for single-photon and two-photon excitation schemes. In the first case, we study two reduced models (i) a two-level system in which the interaction corresponds to an effective level shift and (ii) a three-level one describing two qubits in the Bell triplet subspace. In the second case, instead, a double-STIRAP process is presented with comparable compensation efficiency with respect to the single-photon case., Version 2, comments are very welcome

We investigate finite-size quantum effects in the dynamics of $N$ bosonic particles which are tunneling between two sites adopting the two-site Bose-Hubbard model. By using time-dependent atomic coherent states (ACS) we extend the standard mean-field equations of this bosonic Josephson junction, which are based on time-dependent Glauber coherent states. In this way we find $1/N$ corrections to familiar mean-field (MF) results: the frequency of macroscopic oscillation between the two sites, the critical parameter for the dynamical macroscopic quantum self trapping (MQST), and the attractive critical interaction strength for the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) of the ground state. To validate our analytical results we perform numerical simulations of the quantum dynamics. In the case of Josephson oscillations around a balanced configuration we find that also for a few atoms the numerical results are in good agreement with the predictions of time-dependent ACS variational approach, provided that the time evolution is not too long. Also the numerical results of SSB are better reproduced by the ACS approach with respect to the MF one. Instead the onset of MQST is correctly reproduced by ACS theory only in the large $N$ regime and, for this phenomenon, the $1/N$ correction to the MF formula is not reliable., 8 pages, 4 figures, improved version

We present a formalism to study many-particle quantum transport across a lattice locally connected to two finite, non-stationary (bosonic or fermionic) reservoirs, both of which are in a thermal state. We show that, for conserved total particle number, a system of nonlinear quantum-classical master equations describes the concurrent many-particle time evolution on the lattice and in the reservoirs. The finiteness of the reservoirs makes a macroscopic current emerge, which decreases exponentially in time, and asymptotically drives the many-particle configuration into an equilibrium state where the particle flow ceases. We analytically derive the time scale of this equilibration process, and, furthermore, investigate the imprint of many-particle interferences on the transport process., 15 pages, 12 figures

The difficulty in combining high fidelity with fast operation times and robustness against sources of noise is the central challenge of most quantum control problems, with immediate implications for the realization of quantum devices. We theoretically propose a protocol, based on the widespread stimulated Raman adiabatic passage technique, which achieves these objectives for quantum state transfers in generic three-level systems. Our protocol realizes accelerated adiabatic following through the application of additional control fields on the optical excitations. These act along frequency sidebands of the principal adiabatic pulses, dynamically counteracting undesired transitions. The scheme facilitates experimental control, not requiring new hardly-accessible resources. We show numerically that the method is efficient in a very wide set of control parameters, bringing the timescales closer to the quantum speed limit, also in the presence of environmental disturbance. These results hold for complete population transfers and for many applications, e.g., for realizing quantum gates, both for optical and microwave implementations. Furthermore, extensions to adiabatic passage problems in more-level systems are straightforward.

We analytically investigate the analogy between a standard continuous-time quantum walk in one dimension and the evolution of the quantum kicked rotor at quantum resonance conditions. We verify that the obtained probability distributions are equal for a suitable choice of the kick strength of the rotor. We further discuss how to engineer the evolution of the walk for dynamically preparing experimentally relevant states. These states are important for future applications of the atom-optics kicked rotor for the realization of ratchets and quantum search.

We show that molecular nanomagnets have a potential advantage in the crucialrush toward quantum computers. Indeed, the sizable number of accessible low-energy states ofthese systems can be exploited to define qubits with embedded quantum error correction. Wederive the scheme to achieve this crucial objective and the corresponding sequence ofmicrowave/radiofrequency pulses needed for the error correction procedure. The effectivenessof our approach is shown already with a minimal S = 3/2 unit corresponding to an existingmolecule, and the scaling to larger spin systems is quantitatively analyzed.

The realization of effective Hamiltonians featuring many-body interactions beyond pairwise coupling would enable the quantum simulation of central models underpinning topological physics and quantum computation. We overcome crucial limitations of perturbative Floquet engineering and discuss the highly accurate realization of a purely three-body Hamiltonian in superconducting circuits and molecular nanomagnets., Comment: 6+8 pages, 3+4 figures

A model for cold dark matter is given by the solution of a coupled Schr&ouml, dinger&ndash, Poisson equation system. We present a numerical scheme for integrating these equations, discussing the problems arising from their nonlinear and nonlocal character. After introducing and testing our numerical approach, we illustrate key features of the system by numerical examples in 1 + 1 dimensions. In particular, we study the properties of asymptotic states to which the numerical solutions converge for artificial initial conditions.

We introduce a method to speed up adiabatic protocols for creating entanglement between two qubits dispersively coupled to a transmission line, while keeping fidelities high and maintaining robustness to control errors. The method takes genuinely adiabatic sweeps, ranging from a simple Landau-Zener drive to boundary cancellation methods and local adiabatic drivings, and adds fast oscillations to speed up the protocol while canceling unwanted transitions. We compare our protocol with existing adiabatic methods in a state-of-the-art parameter range and show substantial gains. Numerical simulations emphasize that this strategy is efficient also beyond the rotating-wave approximation and that the method is robust against random static biases in the control parameters and with respect to damping and decoherence effects., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

A scalable architecture for quantum computing requires logical units supporting quantum-error correction. In this respect, magnetic molecules are particularly promising, since they allow one to define logical qubits with embedded quantum-error correction by exploiting multiple energy levels of a single molecule. The single-object nature of this encoding is expected to facilitate the implementation of error correction procedures and logical operations. In this work, we make progress in this direction by showing how two-qubit gates between error-protected units can be realised, by means of easily implementable sequences of electro-magnetic pulses.

We study the quantum tunneling of two one-dimensional quasi-condensates made of alkali-metal atoms, considering two different tunneling configurations: side-by-side and head-to-tail. After deriving the quasiparticle excitation spectrum, we discuss the dynamics of the relative phase following a sudden coupling of the independent subsystems. In particular, we calculate the coherence factor of the system, which, due to the nonzero tunneling amplitude, it exhibits dephasing-rephasing oscillations instead of pure dephasing. These oscillations are enhanced by a higher tunneling energy, and by higher system densities. Our predictions provide a benchmark for future experiments at temperatures below $T \lesssim 5 \, \mbox{nK}$., 15 pages, 4 figures

This editorial remembers Shmuel Fishman, one of the founding fathers of the research field “quantum chaos”, and puts into context his contributions to the scientific community with respect to the twelve papers that form the special issue.

The atom-optics kicked rotor can be used to prepare specific momentum distributions on a discrete basis set. We implement a continuous-time quantum walk and a quantum search protocol in this momentum basis. In particular we propose ways to identify a specific marked state from the final momentum distribution after the walker's evolution. Our protocol is guided by current experimental possibilities making it accessible to experimentally implemented quantum walks with Bose-Einstein condensates.

We propose a method to produce fast transitionless dynamics for finite-dimensional quantum systems without requiring additional Hamiltonian components not included in the initial control setup, remaining close to the true adiabatic path at all times. The strategy is based on the introduction of an effective counterdiabatic scheme: a correcting Hamiltonian is constructed which approximatively cancels nonadiabatic effects, inducing an evolution tracking the adiabatic states closely. This can be absorbed into the initial Hamiltonian by adding a fast oscillation in the control parameters. We show that a consistent speedup can be achieved without requiring strong control Hamiltonians, using it both as a stand-alone shortcut-to-adiabaticity and as a weak correcting field. A number of examples are treated, dealing with quantum state transfer in avoided-crossing problems and entanglement creation., 15 pages, 9 figures

We study the current of Bose particles between two reservoirs connected by a one-dimensional channel. We analyze the problem from first principles by considering a microscopic model of conductivity in the noninteracting limit. Equations for the transient and the stationary current are derived analytically. The asymptotic current has a form similar to the Landauer-B\"uttiker equation for electronic current in mesoscopic devices.

We present a discrete-time, one-dimensional quantum walk based on the entanglement between the momentum of ultracold rubidium atoms (the walk space) and two internal atomic states (the "coin" degree of freedom). Our scheme is highly flexible and can provide a platform for a wide range of applications such as quantum search algorithms, the observation of topological phases, and the realization of walks with higher dimensionality. Along with the investigation of the quantum-to-classical transition, we demonstrate the distinctive features of a quantum walk and contrast them to those of its classical counterpart. Also, by manipulating either the walk or coin operator, we show how the walk dynamics can be steered or even reversed., 5 pages, 3 figures

A method is presented for the systematic derivation of a hierarchy of coupled equations for the computation of two-time correlation functions of operators for open many-body quantum systems. We show how these systems of equations can be closed in mean-field and beyond approximations. Results for the specific example of the spectral weight functions are discussed. Our method allows one to access the full temporal evolution, not just the stationary solution, of non-equilibrium open quantum problems described by a Markovian master equation.

A Bose gas in a double well is investigated in the presence of single-particle, two-body and three-body asymmetric loss. The loss induces an interesting decay behavior of the total population as well as a possibility to control the dynamics of the system. In the noninteracting limit with asymmetric single-body dissipation, the dynamics of the populations can be obtained analytically. The general many-body problem requires, however, an adequate approximation. We use a mean-field approximation and the Bogoliubov back-reaction beyond mean-field truncation, which we extend up to three-body loss. Both methods are compared with exact many-body Monte-Carlo simulations., to appear in PRA

We analytically investigate the recently proposed and implemented discrete-time quantum walk based on a kicked Bose-Einstein condensate. We extend previous work on the effective dynamics by taking into account spontaneous emission due to the kicking light. Spontaneous emission affects both the internal and external degrees of freedom, arising from the entanglement between them during the walk dynamics. The result is a measurable degrading of the experimental walk signal that we characterise., Comment: comments and suggestions welcome

Open many-body quantum systems have attracted renewed interest in the context of quantum information science and quantum transport with biological clusters and ultracold atomic gases. The physical relevance in many-particle bosonic systems lies in the realization of counter-intuitive transport phenomena and the stochastic preparation of highly stable and entangled many-body states due to engineered dissipation. We review a variety of approaches to describe an open system of interacting ultracold bosons which can be modeled by a tight-binding Hubbard approximation. Going along with the presentation of theoretical and numerical techniques, we present a series of results in diverse setups, based on a master equation description of the dissipative dynamics of ultracold bosons in a one-dimensional lattice. Next to by now standard numerical methods such as the exact unravelling of the master equation by quantum jumps for small systems and beyond mean-field expansions for larger ones, we present a coherent-state path integral formalism based on Feynman-Vernon theory applied to a many-body context.

We present a two-band Bose-Hubbard model which is shown to be minimal in the necessary coupling terms at resonant tunneling conditions. The dynamics of the many-body problem is studied by sweeping the system across an avoided level crossing. The linear sweep generalizes Landau-Zener transitions from single-particle to many-body realizations. The temporal evolution of single- and two-body observables along the sweeps is investigated in order to characterize the non-equilibrium dynamics in our complex quantum system.

Open many-body quantum systems have recently gained renewed interest in the context of quantum information science and quantum transport with biological clusters and ultracold atomic gases. A series of results in diverse setups is presented, based on a Master equation approach to describe the dissipative dynamics of ultracold bosons in a one-dimensional lattice. The creation of mesoscopic stable many-body structures in the lattice is predicted and the non-equilibrium transport of neutral atoms in the regime of strong and weak interactions is studied.

We propose a realistic scheme to implement discrete-time quantum walks in the Brillouin zone (i.e., in quasimomentum space) with a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Relying on a static optical lattice to suppress tunneling in real space, the condensate is displaced in quasimomentum space in discrete steps conditioned upon the internal state of the atoms, while short pulses periodically couple the internal states. We show that tunable twisted boundary conditions can be implemented in a fully natural way by exploiting the periodicity of the Brillouin zone. The proposed setup does not suffer from off-resonant scattering of photons and could allow a robust implementation of quantum walks with several tens of steps at least. In addition, onsite atom-atom interactions can be used to simulate interactions with infinitely long range in the Brillouin zone., 9 pages, 4 figures; in the new version, added a discussion about decoherence in the appendix

We study superadiabatic quantum control of a three-level quantum system whose energy spectrum exhibits multiple avoided crossings. In particular, we investigate the possibility of treating the full control task in terms of independent two-level Landau-Zener problems. We first show that the time profiles of the elements of the full control Hamiltonian are characterized by peaks centered around the crossing times. These peaks decay algebraically for large times. In principle, such a power-law scaling invalidates the hypothesis of perfect separability. Nonetheless, we address the problem from a pragmatic point of view by studying the fidelity obtained through separate control as a function of the intercrossing separation. This procedure may be a good approach to achieve approximate adiabatic driving of a specific instantaneous eigenstate in realistic implementations., 11 pages, 7 figures

A propagation method for the scattering of a quantum wave packet from a potential surface is presented. It is used to model the quantum reflection of single atoms from a corrugated (metallic) surface. Our numerical procedure works well in two spatial dimensions requiring only reasonable amounts of memory and computing time. The effects of the surface corrugation on the reflectivity are investigated via simulations with a paradigm potential. These indicate that our approach should allow for future tests of realistic, effective potentials obtained from theory in a quantitative comparison to experimental data., Comment: Corrected author name in metadata

We propose theoretically an experimentally realizable method to demonstrate the Lyapunov instability and to extract the value of the largest Lyapunov exponent for a chaotic many-particle interacting system. The proposal focuses specifically on a lattice of coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in the classical regime describable by the discrete Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We suggest to use imperfect time reversal of the system's dynamics known as the Loschmidt echo, which can be realized experimentally by reversing the sign of the Hamiltonian of the system. The routine involves tracking and then subtracting the noise of virtually any observable quantity before and after the time reversal. We support the theoretical analysis by direct numerical simulations demonstrating that the largest Lyapunov exponent can indeed be extracted from the Loschmidt echo routine. We also discuss possible values of experimental parameters required for implementing this proposal.

Synchronization and entanglement constitute fundamental collective phenomena in multi-unit classical and quantum systems, respectively, both equally implying coordinated system states. Here, we present a direct link for a class of isolated quantum many-body systems, demonstrating that synchronization emerges as an intrinsic system feature. Intriguingly, quantum coherence and entanglement arise persistently through the same transition as synchronization. This direct link between classical and quantum cooperative phenomena may further our understanding of strongly correlated quantum systems and can be readily observed in state-of-the-art experiments, for example, with ultracold atoms., Collective phenomena in many-body systems include synchronization in classical and entanglement in quantum systems. Here the authors study isolated many-body quantum systems and demonstrate that synchronization emerges intrinsically, accompanied by the onset of quantum coherence and persistent entanglement.

The expansion of an initially confined Bose-Einstein condensate into either free space or a tilted optical lattice is investigated in a mean-field approach. The effect of the interactions is to enhance or suppress the transport depending on the sign and strength of the interactions. These effects are discusses in detail in view of recent experiments probing non-equilibrium transport of ultracold quantum gases.

It has been recently shown that fast oscillating control fields can be used to speed up an otherwise slow adiabatic process, making the system always follow an instantaneous eigenvector closely. In applying this method though, one typically assumes perfect phase relations among the control fields. In this work, we discuss the effect of potential static phase errors. We show that the latter can in some cases produce higher fidelities, leading to an unexpected improvement of the method. This is shown numerically and explained via a perturbative expansion of the error produced by the control strategy. When high-precision phase control is accessible, the results suggest that the phases of the control field can be used as free parameters whose optimization can be beneficial for the control protocol.

We investigate the effect of amplitude and phase noise on the dynamics of a discrete-time quantum walk and its related evolution. Our findings underline the robustness of the motion with respect to these noise sources, and can explain the stability of quantum walks that has recently been observed experimentally. This opens the road to measure topological properties of an atom-optics double kicked rotor with an additional internal spin degree of freedom.

We propose a setup for which a power-law decay is predicted to be observable for generic and realistic conditions. The system we study is very simple: A quantum wave packet initially prepared in a potential well with (i) tails asymptotically decaying like ~ x^{-2} and (ii) an eigenvalues spectrum that shows a continuous part attached to the ground or equilibrium state. We analytically derive the asymptotic decay law from the spectral properties for generic, confined initial states. Our findings are supported by realistic numerical simulations for state-of-the-art expansion experiments with cold atoms., improved and extended version

We propose several schemes to realize a tractor beam effect for ultracold atoms in the vicinity of a few-mode nanowaveguide. Atoms trapped near the waveguide are transported in a direction opposite to the guided mode propagation direction. We analyse three specific examples for ultracold 23Na atoms trapped near a specific nanowaveguide (i.e. an optical nanofibre): (i) a conveyor belt-type tractor beam effect, (ii) an accelerator tractor beam effect and (iii) a quantum coherent tractor beam effect, all of which can effectively pull atoms along the nanofibre toward the light source. This technique provides a new tool for controlling the motion of particles near nanowaveguides with potential applications in the study of particle transport and binding as well as atom interferometry.

One-dimensional Bose-Hubbard models are well known to obey a transition from regular to quantum-chaotic spectral statistics. We are extending this concept to relatively simple two-dimensional many-body models. Also in two dimensions a transition from regular to chaotic spectral statistics is found and discussed. In particular, we analyze the dependence of the spectral properties on the bond number of the two-dimensional lattices and the applied boundary conditions. For maximal connectivity, the systems behave most regularly in agreement with the applicability of mean-field approaches in the limit of many nearest-neighbor couplings at each site., 6 pages, 6 figures

A many-body Wannier-Stark system coupled to an effective reservoir is studied within a non-Hermitian approach in the presence of a periodic driving. We show how the interplay of dissipation and driving dynamically induces a subspace of states which are very robust against dissipation. We numerically probe the structure of these asymptotic states and their robustness to imperfections in the initial-state preparation and to the size of the system. Moreover, the asymptotic states are found to be strongly entangled making them interesting for further applications., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures! Comments are welcome!

We demonstrate quantum resonance ratchets created with Bose-Einstein condensates exposed to pulses of an off-resonant standing light wave. We show how some of the basic properties of the ratchets are controllable through the creation of different initial states of the system. In particular, our results prove that through an appropriate choice of initial state it is possible to reduce the extent to which the ratchet state changes with respect to time. We develop a simple theory to explain our results and indicate how ratchets might be used as part of a matter wave interferometer or quantum-random walk experiment., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures