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The giant-atom topological-waveguide-QED systems have recently emerged as a promising platform for manipulating light-matter interactions. The combination of the multiple-point couplings and topological phase effect could lead to rich physical phenomena and effects. Here, we study single-photon scattering in a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) waveguide coupled to either one or two two-level giant atoms. We assume that each giant atom is coupled to the waveguide via two coupling points, and hence there exist four and sixteen coupling configurations for the single-giant-atom case and two-giant-atom separate coupling case, respectively. By solving the single-photon scattering problem in the real space, we obtain the exact expressions of the single-photon scattering amplitudes. It is found that a single photon in the SSH waveguide can be completely reflected or transmitted by choosing proper coupling configurations, coupling-point distances, atomic resonance frequency, and dimerization parameter. In addition, under proper parameter conditions, the scattering spectra are periodically modulated by the coupling-point distances. We also find that the collective behavior of the two giant atoms can be adjusted by quantum interference effect and topological effect, and that the single-photon scattering spectra can exhibit the Lorentzian, super-Gaussian, electromagnetically induced transparency-like, and asymmetric Fano line shapes for some coupling configurations. This work will inspire the development of controllable single-photon devices based on the giant-atom topological-waveguide-QED systems., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures

The Schr\"{o}dinger cat states are a kind of significant quantum resource in quantum physics and quantum information science. Here we propose a proposal for generating chiral cat states in a spinning resonator supporting both the clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) traveling modes, which are dispersively coupled to a two-level atom. The physical mechanism for the chiral cat-state generation is based on the Sagnac-Fizeau effect. Concretely, when the resonator is rotating, the CW and CCW modes have different frequency detuning with respect to the atomic transition frequency, and hence the atomic-state-dependent rotating angular velocities for the CW and CCW modes in phase space are different. This mode-dependent evolution leads to the chirality in the state generation. By choosing proper system parameters, we achieve the separate generation of the Schr\"{o}dinger cat states and coherent states in the two traveling modes. We also investigate quantum coherence properties of the generated states by examining their Wigner functions. In addition, the influence of the system dissipations on the state generation in the open-system case is investigated. Our work will provide some insights into the development of chiral optical devices and nonreciprocal photonics physics., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

Efficiently controlling linear Gaussian quantum (LGQ) systems is a significant task in both the study of fundamental quantum theory and the development of modern quantum technology. Here, we propose a general quantum-learning-control method for optimally controlling LGQ systems based on the gradient-descent algorithm. Our approach flexibly designs the loss function for diverse tasks by utilizing first- and second-order moments that completely describe the quantum state of LGQ systems. We demonstrate both deep optomechanical cooling and large optomechanical entanglement using this approach. Our approach enables the fast and deep ground-state cooling of a mechanical resonator within a short time, surpassing the limitations of sideband cooling in the continuous-wave driven strong-coupling regime. Furthermore, optomechanical entanglement could be generated remarkably fast and surpass several times the corresponding steady-state entanglement, even when the thermal phonon occupation reaches one hundred. This work will not only broaden the application of quantum learning control, but also open an avenue for optimal control of LGQ systems., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

We propose to manipulate topological polaritons in optomechanical ladders consisting of an optical Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain and a mechanical SSH chain connected through optomechanical (interchain) interactions. We show that the topological phase diagrams are divided into six areas by four boundaries and that there are four topological phases characterized by the Berry phases. We find that a topologically nontrivial phase of the polaritons is generated by the optomechanical interaction between the optical and mechanical SSH chains even though they are both in the topologically trivial phases. Counter-intuitively, six edge states appear in one of the topological phases with only two topological nontrivial bands, and some edge states are localized near but not at the boundaries of an open-boundary ladder. Moreover, a two-dimensional Chern insulator with higher Chern numbers is simulated by introducing proper periodical adiabatic modulations of the driving amplitude and frequency. Our work not only opens a route towards topological polaritons manipulation by optomachanical interactions, but also will exert a far-reaching influence on designing topologically protected polaritonic devices., Comment: 8+15 pages, 3+7 figures

The preparation of mechanical quadrature-squeezed states holds significant importance in cavity optomechanics because the squeezed states have extensive applications in understanding fundamental quantum mechanics and exploiting modern quantum technology. Here, we propose a reliable scheme for generating mechanical quadrature squeezing in a typical cavity optomechanical system via seeking optimal cavity-field driving pulses using the gradient-descent algorithm. We realize strong quadrature squeezing in a mechanical resonator that exceeds the 3-dB steady-state limit, even with a thermal phonon occupancy of 100. Furthermore, the mechanical squeezing can be ultrarapidly created within one mechanical oscillation period. We also obtain the optimal pulsed drivings associated with the created mechanical squeezings and analyze the mechanism for mechanical squeezing generation. This paper will promote the application of optimal quantum control in quantum optics and quantum information science., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Simultaneous ground-state cooling of two levitated nanoparticles is a crucial prerequisite for investigation of macroscopic quantum effects such as quantum entanglement and quantum correlation involving translational motion of particles. Here we consider a coupled cavity-levitated-particle system and present a detailed derivation of its Hamiltonian. We find that the $y$-direction motions of the two particles are decoupled from the cavity field and both the $x$- and $z$-direction motions, and that the $z$-direction motions can be further decoupled from the cavity field and the $x$-direction motions by choosing proper locations of the particles. We study the simultaneous cooling of these mechanical modes in both the three-mode and five-mode cavity-levitated optomechanical models. It is found that there exists the dark-mode effect when the two tweezers have the same powers, which suppress the simultaneous ground-state cooling. Nevertheless, the simultaneous ground-state cooling of these modes can be realized by breaking the dark-mode effect under proper parameters. Our system provides a versatile platform to study quantum effects and applications in cavity-levitated optomechanical systems., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures

We propose and prove two theorems for determining the number of dark modes in linear two-component quantum networks composed of two types of bosonic modes. This is achieved by diagonalizing the two sub-networks of the same type of modes, mapping the networks to either a standard or a thick arrowhead matrix, and analyzing the linear dependence and independence between the column vectors associated with degenerate normal modes in the coupling matrix. We confirm the two theorems by checking the simultaneous ground-state cooling of the mechanical modes in linearized optomechanical networks. These results also work for linear fermionic networks and other networks described by quadratic coupled-mode Hamiltonian. The present method can be extended to study the dark-state effect in driven atom systems and to construct large decoherence-free subspaces for processing quantum information. This work will initiate the studies on dynamical, transport, and statistical properties of linear networks with decoupled subspaces., Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures

The ability to engineer entangled states that involve macroscopic objects is of particular importance for a wide variety of quantum-enabled technologies, ranging from quantum information processing to quantum sensing. Here we propose how to achieve coherent manipulation and enhancement of quantum entanglement in a hybrid optomechanical system, which consists of a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity with two movable mirrors, an optical parametric amplifier (OPA), and an injected squeezed vacuum reservoir. We show that the advantages of this system are twofold: (i) one can effectively regulate the light-mirror interactions by introducing a squeezed intracavity mode via the OPA; (ii) when properly matching the squeezing parameters between the squeezed cavity mode and the injected squeezed vacuum reservoir, the optical input noises can be suppressed completely. These peculiar features of this system allow us to generate and manipulate quantum entanglement in a coherent and controllable way. More importantly, we also find that such controllable entanglement, under some specific squeezing parameters, can be considerably enhanced in comparison with those of the conventional optomechanical system. Our work, providing a promising method to regulate and tailor the light-mirror interaction, are poised to serve as a useful tool for engineering various quantum effects which are based on cavity optomechanics., Comment: To be published in Laser & Photonics Reviews

The preparation of correlated multiphoton sources is an important research topic in quantum optics and quantum information science. Here, two-mode correlated multiphoton bundle emission in a nondegenerate multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model, which is comprised of a two-level system coupled with two cavity modes is studied. The two-level system is driven by a near-resonant strong laser such that the Mollow regime dominates the physical processes in this system. Under certain resonance conditions, a perfect super-Rabi oscillation between the zero-photon state $|0\rangle_{a}|0\rangle_{b}$ and the ($n+m$)-photon state $|n\rangle_{a}|m\rangle_{b}$ of the two cavity modes can take place. Induced by the photon decay, the two-mode correlated multiphoton bundle emission occurs in this system. More importantly, the results show that there is an antibunching effect between the strongly-correlated photon bundles, so that the system behaves as an antibunched ($n+m$)-photon source. The work opens up a route towards achieving two-mode correlated multiphoton source device, which has potential applications in modern quantum technology., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

The entanglement generation of two two-level giant atoms coupled to a photonic waveguide, which is formed by a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) type coupled-cavity array is studied. Here, each atom is coupled to the waveguide through two coupling points. The two-atom separate-coupling case is studied, and 16 coupling configurations are considered for the coupling-point distributions between the two atoms and the waveguide. Quantum master equations are derived to govern the evolution of the two atoms and characterize atomic entanglement by calculating the concurrence of the two-atom states. It is found that the two giant-atom entanglement depends on the coupling configurations and the coupling-point distance of the giant atoms. In particular, the entanglement dynamics of the two giant atoms in 14 coupling configurations depend on the dimerization parameter of the SSH waveguide. According to the self-energies of the two giant atoms, it is found that ten of these 16 coupling configurations can be divided into five pairs. It is also showed that the delayed sudden birth of entanglement between the two giant atoms is largely enhanced in these five pairs of coupling configurations. This work will promote the study of quantum effects and coherent manipulation in giant-atom topological-waveguide-QED systems., Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures

We study the generation of quantum entanglement between two giant atoms coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide. Since each giant atom interacts with the waveguide at two separate coupling points, there exist three different coupling configurations in the two-atom waveguide system: separated, braided, and nested couplings. Within the Wigner-Weisskopf framework for single coupling points, the quantum master equations governing the evolution of the two giant atoms are obtained. For each coupling configuration, the entanglement dynamics of the two giant atoms is studied, including the cases of two different atomic initial states: single- and double-excitation states. It is shown that the generated entanglement depends on the coupling configuration, phase shift, and atomic initial state. For the single-excitation initial state, there exists steady-state entanglement for these three couplings due to the appearance of the dark state. For the double-excitation initial state, an entanglement sudden birth is observed via adjusting the phase shift. In particular, the maximal entanglement for the nested coupling is about one order of magnitude larger than those of separate and braided couplings. In addition, the influence of the atomic frequency detuning on the entanglement generation is studied. This work can be utilized for the generation and control of atomic entanglement in quantum networks based on giant-atom waveguide-QED systems, which have wide potential applications in quantum information processing., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2303.14746

We study chiral and nonreciprocal single-photon scattering in a chiral-giant-molecule waveguide-QED system. Here, the giant molecule consists of two coupled giant atoms, which interact with two linear waveguides, forming a four-port quantum device. We obtain the exact analytical expressions of the four scattering amplitudes using a real-space method. Under the Markovian limit, we find that the single-photon scattering behavior is determined by the coupling strength between the giant atoms and the waveguides, the coupling strength between the two giant atoms, and the nondipole effect caused by the phase accumulation of photons travelling between the coupling points. It is also found that chiral and nonreciprocal single-photon scattering can be realized by introducing the chiral coupling to break the symmetry in the coupling configuration between the giant molecule and the waveguides. In addition, an ideal chiral emitter-waveguide coupling enables a directional single-photon routing. In the non-Markovian regime, the scattering spectra are characterized by more abundant structures with multiple peaks and dips. In particular, we demonstrate that the non-Markovian retarded effect can induce the nonreciprocal single-photon scattering. Our results have potential applications in the design of optical quantum devices involving giant atoms, which can provide an efficient platform for studying chiral quantum optics., Comment: 13 pages,10 figures

Engineering multiphoton resources is of importance in quantum metrology, quantum lithography, and biological sensing. Here we propose a concept of dynamical emission of $N$ strongly-correlated photons. This is realized in a circuit quantum electrodynamical system driven by two Gaussian-pulse sequences. The underlying physical mechanism relies on the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage that allows efficient and selective preparation of target multiphoton states. Assisted by the photon decay, a highly pure $N$-photon bundle emission takes place in this system. In particular, the dynamical $N$-photon bundle emission can be tuned by controlling the time interval between consecutive pulses so that the device behaves as an $N$-photon gun, which can be triggered on demand. Our work opens up a route to achieve multiphoton source devices, which have wide potential applications in quantum information processing and quantum metrology., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures

Quantum squeezing is an important resource in modern quantum technologies, such as quantum precision measurement and continuous-variable quantum information processing. The generation of squeezed states of mechanical modes is a significant task in cavity optomechanics. Motivated by recent interest in multimode optomechanics, it becomes an interesting topic to create quadrature squeezing in multiple mechanical resonators. However, in the multiple-degenerate-mechanical-mode optomechanical systems, the dark-mode effect strongly suppresses the quantum effects in mechanical modes. Here we study the generation of mechanical squeezing in a two-mechanical-mode optomechanical system by breaking the dark-mode effect with the synthetic-gauge-field method. We find that when the mechanical modes work at a finite temperature, the mechanical squeezing is weak or even disappeared due to the dark-mode effect, while the strong mechanical squeezing can be generated once the dark-mode effect is broken. In particular, the thermal-phonon-occupation tolerance of the mechanical squeezing is approximately three orders of magnitude larger than that without breaking the dark-mode effect. We also generalize this method to break the dark modes and to create the mechanical squeezing in a multiple-mechanical-mode optomechanical system. Our results describe a general physical mechanism and pave the way towards the generation of noise-resistant quantum resources., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

We study the generation of quantum entanglement between two giant atoms coupled to a common one-dimensional waveguide. Here each giant atom interacts with the waveguide at two separate coupling points. Within the Wigner-Weisskopf framework for single coupling points, we obtain the time-delayed quantum master equations governing the evolution of the two giant atoms for three different coupling configurations: separated, braided, and nested couplings. For each coupling configuration, we consider both the Markovian and non-Markovian entanglement dynamics of the giant atoms, which are initially in two different separable states: single- and double-excitation states. Our results show that the generated entanglement depends on the phase shift, time delay, atomic initial state, and the coupling configuration. For the single-excitation initial state, there exists the steady-state entanglement for each coupling in both the Markovian and non-Markovian regimes due to the appearance of the dark state. For the double-excitation initial state, we observe entanglement sudden birth via adjusting the phase shift in both regimes. In particular, the maximally achievable entanglement for the nested coupling is about one order of magnitude larger than those of separate and braided couplings. We also find that the maximal entanglement for these three coupling configurations can be enhanced in the case of small time delays. This work can be utilized for the generation and control of entanglement in quantum networks based on giant-atom waveguide-QED systems, which have wide potential applications in quantum information processing., Comment: We withdraw this submission because the obtained time-delayed quantum master equations do not have complete positivity during some periods of the dynamic evolution

Quantum entanglement not only plays an important role in the study of the fundamentals of quantum theory, but also is considered as a crucial resource in quantum information science. The generation of macroscopic entanglement involving multiple optical and mechanical modes is a desired task in cavity optomechanics. However, the dark-mode effect is a critical obstacle against the generation of quantum entanglement in multimode optomechanical systems consisting of multiple degenerate or near-degenerate mechanical modes coupled to a common cavity mode. Here we propose an auxiliary-cavity-mode method to enhance optomechanical entanglement in a multimode optomechanical system by breaking the dark-mode effect. We find that the introduction of the auxiliary cavity mode not only assists the entanglement creation between the cavity mode and the mechanical modes, but also improves the immunity of the optomechanical entanglement to the thermal excitations by about three orders of magnitude. We also study the optomechanical entanglement in the network-coupled optomechanical system consisting of two mechanical modes and two cavity modes. By analyzing the correspondence between the optomechanical entanglement and the dark-mode effect, we find that optomechanical entanglement can be largely enhanced once the dark mode is broken. In addition, we study the mechanical entanglement and find that it is negligibly small. We also present some discussions on the experimental implementation with a microwave optomechanical setup, on the relationship between the dark-mode-breaking mechanism and the center-of-mass and relative coordinates, and on the explanation of the important role of the dark-mode breaking in the enhancement of optomechanical entanglement. Our results pave the way towards the preparation of entangled optomechanical networks and noise-resistant quantum resources., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures

Non-Gaussian states (NGSs) with higher-order correlation properties have wide-range applications in quantum information processing. However, the generation of such states with high quality still faces practical challenges. Here, we propose a protocol to faithfully generate two types of mechanical NGSs, i.e., Schr\"{o}dinger cat states and Fock states, in open optomechanical systems, even when the cooperativity is smaller than one ($g^2/\kappa\gamma<1$). In contrast to the usual scheme, a short squeezed field is pumped to rapidly entangle with a mechanical resonator via a beam-splitter-like optomechanical interaction, effectively reducing the mechanical decoherence. Furthermore, by performing an additional amplifier and a following multi photon subtraction on the entangled optical field, one can selectively obtain the high-fidelity mechanical cat and Fock states. This protocol is robust to various imperfections, allowing it to be implemented with state-of-the-art experimental systems with close to unit fidelity. Moreover, it can be extended to generate a four-component cat state and provide possibilities for future quantum applications of NGSs., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures with additional supplementary information (10 pages, 6 figures)

Phase transition from the over-damping to under-damping states is a ubiquitous phenomenon in physical systems. However, what kind of symmetry is broken associated with this phase transition remains unclear. Here, we discover that this phase transition is determined by an anti-parity-time (anti-$\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry hidden in a single damping linear resonator, which is significantly different from the conventional anti-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems with two or more modes. We show that the breaking of the anti-$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry yields the phase transition from the over-damping to under-damping states, with an exceptional point (EP) corresponding to the critical-damping state. Moreover, we propose an optomechanical scheme to show this anti-$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking by using the optical spring effect in a quadratic optomechanical system. We also suggest an optomechanical sensor with the sensitivity enhanced significantly around the EPs for the anti-$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking. Our work unveils the anti-$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry hidden in damping oscillations and hence opens up new possibilities for exploiting wide anti-$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry applications in single damping linear resonators., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Research Highlight by Prof. Cheng-Wei Qiu: https://www.sciengine.com/SCPMA/doi/10.1007/s11433-023-2195-4

We study the disentanglement dynamics of two giant atoms coupled to a common one-dimensional waveguide. We focus on the non-Markovian retarded effect in the disentanglement of the two giant atoms by taking the photon transmission time into account. By solving the time-delayed equations of motion for the probability amplitudes, we obtain the evolution of the entanglement of the two giant atoms, which are initially in the maximally entangled states in the single-excitation space. It is found that the retardation-induced non-Markovianity leads to non-exponential decay and revivals of entanglement. Concretely, we consider separate-, braided-, and nested-coupling configurations, and find that the disentanglement dynamics in these configurations exhibits different features. We demonstrate that the steady-state entanglement depends on the time delay under certain conditions in these three coupling configurations. We also study the dependence of the disentanglement of the two giant atoms on both the detuning effect and the initial-state phase effect. In addition, we consider the disentanglement dynamics of the two giant atoms, which are initially in the state superposed by zero-excitation and two-excitation components. This work will pave the way for the generation of stationary entanglement between two giant atoms, which may have potential applications in the construction of large-scale quantum networks based on the giant-atom waveguide-QED systems., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures

We study quantum thermalization and thermal entanglement in the open quantum Rabi model (QRM), in which a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field are coupled to either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath. By treating the QRM as an effective multilevel system and deriving global quantum master equations in the eigenstate representation of the QRM, we study the physical conditions for quantum thermalization of the open QRM. It is found that, in the individual heat-bath case, the QRM can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the QRM is only coupled to one of the two baths. In the common heat-bath case, differently, the QRM can always be thermalized. We also study thermal entanglement of the QRM in both the resonant- and non-resonant coupling cases. The logarithmic negativity for the thermal state of the QRM is obtained in a wide parameter space, ranging from the low- to high-temperature limits, and from the weak- to deep-strong-coupling regimes. This work paves the way towards the study of quantum effects in nonequilibrium ultrastrongly-coupled light-matter systems., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

We study the multiple-photon bundle emission in the $n$-photon Jaynes-Cummings model composed of a two-level system coupled to a single-mode optical field via the $n$-photon exciting process. Here, the two-level system is strongly driven by a near-resonant monochromatic field, and hence the system can work in the Mollow regime, in which a super-Rabi oscillation between the zero-photon state and the $n$-photon state can take place under proper resonant conditions. We calculate the photon number populations and the standard equal-time high-order correlation functions, and find that the multiple-photon bundle emission can occur in this system. The multiple-photon bundle emission is also confirmed by investigating the quantum trajectories of the state populations and both the standard and generalized time-delay second-order correlation functions for multiple-photon bundle. Our work paves the way towards the study of multiple-photon quantum coherent devices, with potential application in quantum information sciences and technologies., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

We study the coherent single-photon scattering in a one-dimensional waveguide coupled to a giant artificial molecule consisting of two coupled giant atoms. Since each giant atom couples to the waveguide via two coupling points, the couplings of the molecule with the waveguide have three different coupling configurations: the separated-, braided-, and nested-coupling cases. We obtain the exact expressions of the single-photon transmission and reflection amplitudes with the real-space approach. It is found that the behavior of the scattering spectra depends on the phase shift between two neighboring coupling points, the coupling configuration, and the coupling between the two giant atoms. Concretely, we study the photon scattering in both the Markovian and non-Markovian regimes, in which the photon propagating time between two neighboring coupling points is neglected and considered, respectively. Under the Markovian limit, the asymmetric Fano line shapes in different coupling configurations of the giant-molecule waveguide-QED system can be obtained by choosing proper phase shift, and the transmission window can be adjusted by the coupling strength between the two giant atoms in these three coupling configurations. In particular, multiple reflection peaks and dips in these configurations are revived in the non-Markovian regime. This paper will pave the way for the study of controllable single-photon devices based on the giant-molecule waveguide-QED systems., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Entanglement of light and multiple vibrations is a key resource for multi-channel quantum information processing and memory. However, entanglement generation is generally suppressed, or even fully destroyed, by the dark-mode (DM) effect induced by the coupling of multiple degenerate or near-degenerate vibrational modes to a common optical mode. Here we propose how to generate optomechanical entanglement via \emph{DM breaking} induced by synthetic magnetism. We find that at nonzero temperature, light and vibrations are \emph{separable} in the DM-unbreaking regime but \emph{entangled} in the DM-breaking regime. Remarkably, the threshold thermal phonon number for preserving entanglement in our simulations has been observed to be up to \emph{three} orders of magnitude stronger than that in the DM-unbreaking regime. The application of the DM-breaking mechanism to optomechanical networks can make noise-tolerant entanglement networks feasible. These results are quite general and can initiate advances in quantum resources with immunity against both dark modes and thermal noise., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Multiphonon state plays an important role in quantum information processing and quantum metrology. Here we propose a scheme to realize dynamical emission of phonon pairs based on the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a single cavity optomechanical system, where the optical cavity is driven by two Gaussian pulse lasers. By exploring quantum trajectories of the state populations and the average phonon number, we find that the dynamical phonon-pair emission can be realized under the appropriate parameter conditions and is tunable by controlling the time interval between the consecutive pulses of pump lasers. In particular, the numerical results for the standard and generalized second-order correlation functions of the mechanical mode show that the system can behave as an antibunched phonon-pair emitter. Our proposal can be extended to achieve an antibunched $n$-phonon emitter, which has potential applications for on-chip quantum communications., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

The dark-mode effect is a stubborn obstacle for ground-state cooling of multiple degenerate mechanical modes optomechanically coupled to a common cavity-field mode. Here we propose an auxiliary-cavity-mode method for simultaneous ground-state cooling of two degenerate or near-degenerate mechanical modes by breaking the dark mode. We find that the introduction of the auxiliary cavity mode not only breaks the dark-mode effect, but also provides a new cooling channel to extract the thermal excitations stored in the dark mode. Moreover, we study the general physical-coupling configurations for breaking the dark mode in a generalized networkcoupled four-mode optomechanical system consisting of two cavity modes and two mechanical modes. We find the analytical dark-mode-breaking condition in this system. This method is general and it can be generalized to break the dark-mode effect and to realize the simultaneous ground-state cooling in a multiple-mechanicalmode optomechanical system. We also demonstrate the physical mechanism behind the dark-mode breaking by studying the breaking of dark-state effect in the N-type four-level atomic system. Our results not only provide a general method to control various dark-mode and dark-state effects in physics, but also present an opportunity to the study of macroscopic quantum phenomena and applications in multiple-mechanical-resonator systems., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures

Ground-state cooling of mechanical resonators is an important task in quantum optomechanics, because it is a necessary prerequisite for creation, manipulation, and application of macroscopic mechanical coherence. Here, we propose a transient-state scheme to accelerate ground-state cooling of a mechanical resonator in a three-mode loop-coupled optomechanical system via shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA). We consider four kinds of coupling protocols and calculate the evolution of the mean phonon number of the mechanical resonator in both the adiabatic and STA cases. We verify that the ground-state cooling of the mechanical resonator can be achieved with the STA method in a much shorter period. The STA method can also be generalized to accelerate other adiabatic processes in cavity optomechanics, and hence this work will open up a new realm of fast optomechanical manipulations., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

We investigate steady-state thermal transport and photon statistics in a nonequilibrium hybrid quantum system, in which a qubit is longitudinally and quadratically coupled to an optical resonator. Our calculations are conducted with the method of the quantum dressed master equation combined with full counting statistics. The effect of negative differential thermal conductance is unravelled at finite temperature bias, which stems from the suppression of cyclic heat transitions and large mismatch of two squeezed photon modes at weak and strong qubit-resonator hybridizations, respectively. The giant thermal rectification is also exhibited at large temperature bias. It is found that the intrinsically asymmetric structure of the hybrid system and negative differential thermal conductance show the cooperative contribution. Noise power and skewness, as typical current fluctuations, exhibit global maximum with strong hybridization at small and large temperature bias limits, respectively. Moreover, the effect of photon quadrature squeezing is discovered in the strong hybridization and low-temperature regime, which shows asymmetric response to two bath temperatures. These results would provide some insight to thermal functional design and photon manipulation in qubit-resonator hybrid quantum systems., Comment: 11pages, 5figs

We study two-photon scattering in a mixed cavity optomechanical system, which is composed of a single-mode cavity field coupled to a single-mode mechanical oscillation via both the first-order and quadratic optomechanical interactions. By solving the scattering problem within the Wigner-Weisskopf framework, we obtain the analytical scattering state and find four physical processes associated with the two-photon scattering in this system. We calculate the two-photon scattering spectrum and find that two-photon frequency anticorrelation can be induced in the scattering process. We also establish the relationship between the parameters of the mixed cavity optomechanical system and the characteristics of the two-photon scattering spectrum. This work not only provides a scattering means to create correlated photon pairs, but also presents a spectrometric method to characterize the optomechanical systems., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We propose a reliable scheme to recover the conventional photon blockade effect in the dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model, which describes a two-level atom coupled to a single-mode cavity field in the large-detuning regime. This is achieved by introducing a transversal driving to the atom and then photonic nonlinearity is obtained. The eigenenergy spectrum of the system is derived analytically and the photon blockade effect is confirmed by numerically calculating the photon-number distributions and equal-time second-order correlation function of the cavity field in the presence of system dissipations. We find that the conventional photon blockade effect can be recovered at proper atomic and cavity-field drivings. This work will provide a method to generate the conventional photon blockade effect in the dispersively coupled quantum optical systems., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

The observation of single-photon optomechanical effects is a desired task in cavity optomechanics. However, the realization of ultrastrong optomechanical interaction remains a big challenge. Here, we present an all-optical scheme to simulate ultrastrong optomechanical coupling based on a Fredkin-type interaction, which consists of two exchange-coupled modes with the coupling strength depending on the photon number in another controller mode. This coupling enhancement is assisted by the displacement amplification according to the physical idea of the Bogoliubov approximation, which is realized by utilizing a strong driving to pump one of the two exchanging modes. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that the enhanced optomechanical coupling can enter the single-photon strong-coupling and even ultrastrong-coupling regimes. We also show the creation of macroscopic quantum superposed states and the implementation of a weak-to-strong transition for quantum measurement in this system. This work will pave the way to quantum simulation of single-photon optomechanical effects with current experimental platforms., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures

We propose a reliable scheme to simulate tunable and ultrastrong mixed (first-order and quadratic optomechanical couplings coexisting) optomechanical interactions in a coupled two-mode bosonic system, in which the two modes are coupled by a cross-Kerr interaction and one of the two modes is driven through both the single- and two-excitation processes. We show that the mixed-optomechanical interactions can enter the single-photon strong-coupling and even ultrastrong-coupling regimes. The strengths of both the first-order and quadratic optomechanical couplings can be controlled on demand, and hence first-order, quadratic, and mixed optomechanical models can be realized. In particular, the thermal noise of the driven mode can be suppressed totally by introducing a proper squeezed vacuum bath. We also study how to generate the superposition of coherent squeezed state and vacuum state based on the simulated interactions. The quantum coherence effect in the generated states is characterized by calculating the Wigner function in both the closed- and open-system cases. This work will pave the way to the observation and application of ultrastrong optomechanical effects in quantum simulators., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

We study the dynamic sensitivity of the quantum Rabi model, which exhibits quantum criticality in the finite-component-system case. This dynamic sensitivity can be detected by introducing an auxiliary two-level atom far-off-resonantly coupled to the cavity field of the quantum Rabi model. We find that when the quantum Rabi model goes through the critical point, the auxiliary atom experiences a sudden decoherence, which can be characterised by a sharp decay of the Loschmidt echo. Our scheme will provide a reliable way to observe quantum phase transition in ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We propose a domino-cooling method to realize simultaneous ground-state cooling of a coupled mechanical-resonator chain through an optomechanical cavity working in the unresolved-sideband regime. This domino-effect cooling is realized by combining the cold-damping feedback on the first mechanical resonator with nearest-neighbor couplings between other neighboring mechanical resonators. We obtain analytical results for the effective susceptibilities, noise spectra, final mean phonon numbers, and cooling rates of these mechanical resonators, and find the optimal-cooling condition for these resonators. Particularly, we analyze a two-mechanical-resonator case and find that by appropriately engineering either the laser power or the feedback, a flexible switch between symmetric and asymmetric ground-state cooling can be achieved. This could be used for preparing symmetric quantum states in mechanical systems. We also simulate the cooling performance of a coupled $N$-mechanical-resonator chain and confirm that these resonators can be simultaneously cooled to their quantum ground states in the unresolved-sideband regime. Under proper parameter conditions, the cooling of the mechanical-resonator chain shows a temperature gradient along the chain. This study opens a route to quantum manipulation of multiple mechanical resonators in the bad-cavity regime., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

The realization of multimode optomechanical interactions in the single-photon strong-coupling regime is a desired task in cavity optomechanics, but it remains a challenge in realistic physical systems. In this work, we propose a reliable scheme to simulate a three-mode optomechanical system working in the single-photon strong-coupling regime based on the Fredkin-type interaction. This is achieved by utilizing two strong drivings to the two exchangly-coupled modes in the Fredkin-type coupling involving one optical mode and two mechanical-like modes. As an application of this enhanced three-mode nonlinear optomechanical coupling, we show how to generate entangled-cat states of the mechanical-like modes using the conditional displacement mechanism. The quantum coherence effects in the generated states are investigated by calculating two-mode joint Wigner function and quantum entanglement. The influence of the dissipation effect on the state generation is considered in the open-system case., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures

The generation and storage of spin squeezing is an attracting topic in quantum metrology and the foundations of quantum mechanics. The major models to realize the spin squeezing are the one- and two-axis twisting models. Here, we consider a collective spin system coupled to a bosonic field, and show that proper constant-value controls in this model can simulate the dynamical behaviors of these two models. More interestingly, a better performance of squeezing can be obtained when the control is time-varying, which is generated via a reinforcement learning algorithm. However, this advantage becomes limited if the collective noise is involved. To deal with it, we propose a four-step strategy for the construction of a new type of combined controls, which include both constant-value and time-varying controls, but performed at different time intervals. Compared to the full time-varying controls, the combined controls not only give a comparable minimum value of the squeezing parameter over time, but also provides a better lifetime and larger full amount of squeezing. Moreover, the amplitude form of a combined control is simpler and more stable than the full time-varying control. Therefore, our scheme is very promising to be applied in practice to improve the generation and storage performance of squeezing., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, close to published version

We study the photon-blockade effect in a loop-coupled optomechanical system consisting of two cavity modes and one mechanical mode. Here, the mechanical mode is optomechanically coupled to the two cavity modes, which are coupled with each other via a photon-hopping interaction. By treating the photon-hopping interaction as a perturbation, we obtain the analytical results of the eigenvalues and eigenstates of the system in the subspaces associated with zero, one, and two photons. We find a phenomenon of optical normal-mode-induced phonon-sideband splitting in the photon-blockade effect by analytically and numerically calculating the second-order correlation functions of the two cavity modes. This work not only presents a method to choose optimal driving frequency for photon blockade by tuning the photon-hopping interaction, but also provides a means to characterize the normal-mode splitting with cavity photon statistics., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We study tunable optomechanically induced transparency by controlling the dark-mode effect induced by two mechanical modes coupled to a common cavity field. This is realized by introducing a phase-dependent phonon-exchange interaction, which is used to form a loop-coupled configuration. Combining this phase-dependent coupling with the optomechanical interactions, the dark-mode effect can be controlled by the quantum interference effect. In particular, the dark-mode effect in this two-mechanical-mode optomechanical system can lead to a double-amplified optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) window and a higher efficiency of the second-order sideband in comparison with the standard optomechanical system. This is because the effective mechanical decay rate related to the linewidth of the OMIT window becomes a twofold increase in the weak-coupling limit. When the dark-mode effect is broken, controllable double transparency windows appear and the second-order sideband, as well as the light delay or advance, is significantly enhanced. For an N-mechanical-mode optomechanical system, we find that in the presence of the dark-mode effect, the amplification multiple of the linewidth of the OMIT window is nearly proportional to the number of mechanical modes, and that the OMIT with a single window becomes the one with N tunable windows by breaking the dark-mode effect. The study will be useful in optical information storage within a large-frequency bandwidth and multichannel optical communication based on optomechanical systems., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

The simultaneous ground-state cooling of multiple degenerate or near-degenerate mechanical modes coupled to a common cavity-field mode has become an outstanding challenge in cavity optomechanics. This is because the dark modes formed by these mechanical modes decouple from the cavity mode and prevent extracting energy from the dark modes through the cooling channel of the cavity mode. Here we propose a universal and reliable dark-mode-breaking method to realize the simultaneous ground-state cooling of two degenerate or nondegenerate mechanical modes by introducing a phasedependent phonon-exchange interaction, which is used to form a loop-coupled configuration. We find an asymmetrical cooling performance for the two mechanical modes and expound this phenomenon based on the nonreciprocal energy transfer mechanism, which leads to the directional flow of phonons between the two mechanical modes. We also generalize this method to cool multiple mechanical modes. The physical mechanism in this cooling scheme has general validity and this method can be extended to break other dark-mode and dark-state effects in physics., Comment: 42 pages, 21 figures

We study the effect of quantum entanglement maintained by virtual excitations in an ultrastrongly-coupled harmonic-oscillator system. Here, the quantum entanglement is caused by the counterrotating interaction terms and hence it is maintained by the virtual excitations. We obtain the analytical expression for the ground state of the system and analyze the relationship between the average excitation numbers and the ground-state entanglement. We also study the entanglement dynamics between the two oscillators in both the closed- and open-system cases. In the latter case, the quantum master equation is microscopically derived in the normal-mode representation of the coupled-oscillator system. This work will open a route to the study of quantum information processing and quantum physics based on virtual excitations., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

The quantum thermalization of the Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium open-system cases is sdudied, in which the two subsystems, a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field, are in contact with either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath. It is found that in the individual heat-bath case, the JC model can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the coupling of the JC system to one of the two baths is turned off. In the common heat-bath case, the JC system can be thermalized irrespective of the bath temperature and the system-bath coupling strengths. The thermal entanglement in this system is also studied. A \emph{counterintuitive} phenomenon of \emph{vanishing} thermal entanglement in the JC system is found and proved., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

We study multiphoton blockade and photon-induced tunneling effects in the two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model, where a single-mode cavity field and a two-level atom are coupled via a two-photon interaction. We consider both the cavity-field-driving and atom-driving cases, and find that single-photon blockade and photon-induced tunneling effects can be observed when the cavity mode is driven, while the two-photon blockade effect appears when the atom is driven. For the atom-driving case (the two-photon transition process), we present a criterion of the correlation functions for the multiphoton blockade effect. Specifically, we show that quantum interference can enhance the photon blockade effect in the single-photon cavity-field-driving case. Our results are confirmed by analytically and numerically calculating the correlation function of the cavity-field mode. Our work has potential applications in quantum information processing and paves the way for the study of multiphoton quantum coherent devices., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

Macroscopic entangled cat states not only are significant in the demonstration of the fundamentals of quantum physics, but also have wide applications in modern quantum technologies such as continuous-variable quantum information processing and quantum metrology. Here we propose a scheme for generation of macroscopic entangled cat states in a molecular cavity-QED system, which is composed of an organic molecule (including electronic and vibrational states) coupled to a single-mode cavity field. By simultaneously modulating the resonance frequencies of the molecular vibration and the cavity field, the molecular vibrational displacement can be enhanced significantly and hence macroscopic entangled cat states between the molecular vibrational mode and the cavity mode can be created. We also study quantum coherence effects in the generated states by calculating the joint Wigner function and the degree of entanglement. The dissipation effects are included by considering the state generation in the open-system case. Our results will pave the way to the study of quantum physics and quantum chemistry in molecular cavity-QED systems., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures

Quantum blockade and entanglement play important roles in quantum information and quantum communication as quantum blockade is an effective mechanism to generate single photons (phonons) and entanglement is a crucial resource for quantum information processing. In this work, we propose a method to generate single entangled photon-phonon pairs in a hybrid optomechanical system. We show that photon blockade, phonon blockade, and photon-phonon correlation and entanglement can be observed via the atom-photon-phonon (tripartite) interaction, under the resonant atomic driving. The correlated and entangled single photons and single phonons, i.e., single entangled photon-phonon pairs, can be generated in both the weak and strong tripartite interaction regimes. Our results may have important applications in the development of highly complex quantum networks., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

We study the spectrum of single-photon emission and scattering in a mixed optomechanical model which consists of both linear and quadratic optomechanical interactions. The spectra are calculated based on the exact long-time solutions of the single-photon emission and scattering processes in this system. We find that there exist some phonon sideband peaks in the spectra and there are some sub peaks around the phonon sideband peaks under proper parameter conditions. The correspondence between the spectral features and the optomechanical interactions is confirmed, and the optomechanical coupling strengths can be inferred by analyzing the resonance peaks and dips in the spectra., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We propose a reliable scheme to realize the ultrastrong Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model by simultaneously modulating the resonance frequencies of the two-level system and the bosonic mode in the ultrastrong quantum Rabi model. We find that in both the high- and low-frequency modulation regimes, the counter-rotating terms can be completely suppressed without reducing the coupling strength of the rotating-wave terms, and hence the ultrastrong JC Hamiltonian is achieved. The ultrastrong JC interaction can not only be used to implement ultrafast quantum operations, but also will open up a new route to the demonstration of quantum phase transition associated with the JC Hamiltonian across the deep-strong coupling point. Some discussions on the experimental implementation of this scheme with circuit-QED systems are presented., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Few-photon optomechanical effects are not only important physical evidences for understanding the radiation-pressure interaction between photons and mechanical oscillation, but also have wide potential applications in modern quantum technology. Here we study the few-photon optomechanical effects including photon blockade and generation of the Schr\"{o}dinger cat states under the assistance of a cross-Kerr interaction, which is an inherent interaction accompanied the optomechanical coupling in a generalized optomechanical system. By exactly diagonalizing the generalized optomechanical Hamiltonian and calculating its unitary evolution operator, we find the physical mechanism of the enhancement of photon blockade and single-photon mechanical displacement. The quantum properties in this generalized optomechanical system are studied by investigating the second-order correlation function of the cavity field and calculating the Wigner function and the probability distribution of the rotated quadrature operator for the mechanical mode. We also study the influence of the dissipations on the few-photon optomechanical effects., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures

We propose a scheme to implement a supersensitive estimation of the coupling strength in a hybrid optomechanical system which consists of a cavity-Bose-Einstein condensate system coupled to an impurity. This method can dramatically improve the estimation precision even when the involved photon number is small. The quantum Fisher information indicates that the Heisenberg scale sensitivity of the coupling rate could be obtained when the photon loss rate is smaller than the corresponding critical value in the input of either coherent state or squeezed state. The critical photon decay rate for the coherent state is larger than that of the squeezed state, and the coherent state input case is more robust against the photon loss than the squeezed state case. We also present the measurement scheme which can saturate the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We propose a spectrometric method to detect a classical weak force acting upon the moving end mirror in a cavity optomechanical system. The force changes the equilibrium position of the end mirror, and thus the resonance frequency of the cavity field depends on the force to be detected. As a result, the magnitude of the force can be inferred by analyzing the single-photon emission and scattering spectra of the optomechanical cavity. Since the emission and scattering processes are much faster than the characteristic mechanical dissipation, the influence of the mechanical thermal noise is negligible in this spectrometric detection scheme. We also extent this spectrometric method to detect a monochromatic oscillating force by utilizing an optomechanical coupling modulated at the same frequency as the force., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

We propose how to create and manipulate one-way nonclassical light via photon blockade in rotating nonlinear devices. We refer to this effect as nonreciprocal photon blockade (PB). Specifically, we show that in a spinning Kerr resonator, PB happens when the resonator is driven in one direction but not the other. This occurs because of the {Fizeau drag,} leading to a full split of the resonance frequencies of the countercirculating modes. Different types of purely quantum correlations, such as single- and two-photon blockades, can emerge in different directions in a well-controlled manner, and the transition from PB to photon-induced tunneling is revealed as well. Our work opens up a new route to achieve quantum nonreciprocal devices, which are crucial elements in chiral quantum technologies or topological photonics., Comment: 8+28 pages, 4+9 figures, 2 tables

Quantum manipulation of coupled mechanical resonators has become an important research topic in optomechanics because these systems can be used to study the quantum coherence effects involving multiple mechanical modes. A prerequisite for observing macroscopic mechanical coherence is to cool the mechanical resonators to their ground state. Here we propose a theoretical scheme to cool two coupled mechanical resonators by introducing an optomechanical interface. The final mean phonon numbers in the two mechanical resonators are calculated exactly and the results show that the ground-state cooling is achievable in the resolved-sideband regime and under the optimal driving. By adiabatically eliminating the cavity field in the large-decay regime, we obtain analytical results of the cooling limits, which show the smallest achievable phonon numbers and the parameter conditions under which the optimal cooling is achieved. Finally, the scheme is extended to the cooling of a chain of coupled mechanical resonators., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures