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Using a microscopic model for stochastic transport through a single quantum dot that is modified by the Coulomb interaction of environmental (weakly coupled) quantum dots, we derive generic properties of the full counting statistics for multi-stable Markovian transport systems. We study the temporal crossover from multi-modal to broad uni-modal distributions depending on the initial mixture, the long-term asymptotics and the divergence of the cumulants in the limit of a large number of transport branches. Our findings demonstrate that the counting statistics of a single resonant level may be used to probe background charge configurations., Comment: slighly expanded explanations, PRB in press

We consider theoretically the transport through the double quantum dot structure of the recent experiment of C. Payette {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 102}, 026808 (2009)] and calculate stationary current and shotnoise. Three-level mixing gives rise to a pronounced current suppression effect, the character of which charges markedly with bias direction. We discuss these results in connexion with the dark states of coherent population trapping in quantum dots., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figs

We formalize the derivation of a generalized coarse-graining $n$-resolved master equation by introducing a virtual detector counting the number of transferred charges in single-electron transport. Our approach enables the convenient inclusion of coherences and Lamb shift in counting statistics. As a Markovian example with Lindblad-type density matrices, we consider the Born-Markov-Secular (BMS) approximation which is a special case of the non-Markovian dynamical coarse graining (DCG) approach. For illustration we consider transport through two interacting levels that are either serially or parallelly coupled to two leads held at different chemical potentials. It is shown that the coherences can strongly influence the (frequency-dependent) transport cumulants: In the serial case the neglect of coherences would lead to unphysical currents through disconnected conductors. Interference effects in the parallel setup can cause strong current suppression with giant Fano factors and telegraph-like distribution functions of transferred electrons, which is not found without coherences. We demonstrate that with finite coarse graining times coherences are automatically included and, consequently, the shortcomings of the BMS approximation are resolved., Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures, updated references, reviewer suggestions included, to appear in PRB

For sufficiently low reservoir temperatures, it is known that open quantum systems subject to decoherent interactions with the reservoir relax towards their ground state in the weak coupling limit. Within the framework of quantum master equations, this is formalized by the Born-Markov-secular (BMS) approximation, where one obtains the system Gibbs state with the reservoir temperature as a stationary state. When the solution to some problem is encoded in the (isolated) ground state of a system Hamiltonian, decoherence can therefore be exploited for computation. The computational complexity is then given by the scaling of the relaxation time with the system size $n$. We study the relaxation behavior for local and non-local Hamiltonians that are coupled dissipatively with local and non-local operators to a bosonic bath in thermal equilibrium. We find that relaxation is generally more efficient when coherences of the density matrix in the system energy eigenbasis are taken into account. In addition, the relaxation speed strongly depends on the matrix elements of the coupling operators between initial state and ground state. We show that Dicke superradiance is a special case of our relaxation models and can thus be understood as a coherence-assisted relaxation speedup., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, reviewer suggestions included, to appear in PRA

We investigate the ground-state properties of the Anderson single impurity model (finite Coulomb impurity repulsion) with the Coupled Cluster Method. We consider different CCM reference states and approximation schemes and make comparison with exact Green's function results for the non-interacting model and with Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory for the full interacting model. Our results show that coupled cluster techniques are well suited to quantum impurity problems., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

We present a theory of a single-electron transistor exchange-coupled to a localized spin. We show how to gain detailed quantitative knowledge about the attached spin such as spin size, exchange coupling strength, Land\'e g-factor, and spin decay time $T_1$ by utilizing a robust blockade phenomenon of DC magnetotransport with accompanying noise enhancement. Our studies are of particular relevance to spin-resolved scanning single-electron transistor microscopy, electronic transport through nanomagnets, and the effect of hyperfine interaction on transport electrons by surrounding nuclear spins., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revised version

We study transport through a triple quantum dot in a triangular geometry with applied bias such that both singly- and doubly- charged states participate. We describe the formation of electronic dark states -- coherent superpositions that block current flow -- in the system, and focus on the formation of a two-electron dark state. We discuss the conditions under which such a state forms and describe the signatures that it leaves in transport properties such as the differential conductance and shotnoise., Comment: (9 pages, 7 figures), we now consider two different sets of charging energies

We study the entanglement dynamics in the externally-driven single-mode Dicke model in the thermodynamic limit, when the field is in resonance with the atoms. We compute the correlations in the atoms-field ground state by means of the density operator that represents the pure state of the universe and the reduced density operator for the atoms, which results from taking the partial trace over the field coordinates. As a measure of bipartite entanglement, we calculate the linear entropy, from which we analyze the entanglement dynamics. In particular, we found a strong relation between the stability of the dynamical parameters and the reported entanglement., Comment: Contribution to the SLAFES XIX. This version to appear in J. Phys.: Conference Series

We study the transport properties of the Fano-Anderson model with a Lorentzian-shaped density of states in one of the electronic reservoirs. We explicitly show that the energy dependence of the density of states can cause non-Markovian effects and that the non-Markovian master equation may fail if these effects are strong. We evaluate the stationary current, the zero frequency current noise and the occupation dynamics of the resonant level by means of a quantum master equation approach within different approximation schemes and compare the results to the exact solution obtained by scattering theory and Green's functions., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; due to suggestions of a referee we have added an appendix where our kernel is derived in detail; a few typos are corrected

Noise is a result of stochastic processes that originate from quantum or classical sources. Higher-order cumulants of the probability distribution underlying the stochastic events are believed to contain details that characterize the correlations within a given noise source and its interaction with the environment, but they are often difficult to measure. Here we report measurements of the transient cumulants <> of the number n of passed charges to very high orders (up to m=15) for electron transport through a quantum dot. For large m, the cumulants display striking oscillations as functions of measurement time with magnitudes that grow factorially with m. Using mathematical properties of high-order derivatives in the complex plane we show that the oscillations of the cumulants in fact constitute a universal phenomenon, appearing as functions of almost any parameter, including time in the transient regime. These ubiquitous oscillations and the factorial growth are system-independent and our theory provides a unified interpretation of previous theoretical studies of high-order cumulants as well as our new experimental data., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, final version as published in PNAS

We demonstrate how the dynamical coarse-graining approach can be systematically extended to higher orders in the coupling between system and reservoir. Up to second order in the coupling constant we explicitly show that dynamical coarse-graining unconditionally preserves positivity of the density matrix -- even for bath density matrices that are not in equilibrium and also for time-dependent system Hamiltonians. By construction, the approach correctly captures the short-time dynamics, i.e., it is suitable to analyze non-Markovian effects. We compare the dynamics with the exact solution for highly non-Markovian systems and find a remarkable quality of the coarse-graining approach. The extension to higher orders is straightforward but rather tedious. The approach is especially useful for bath correlation functions of simple structure and for small system dimensions., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in PRA

We study the counting statistics for electrons and photons being emitted from a driven two level quantum dot. Our technique allows us to calculate their mutual correlations as well. We study different transport configurations by tuning the chemical potential of one of the leads to find that the electronic and photonic fluctuations can be externally manipulated by tuning the AC and transport parameters. We also propose special configurations where electron-photon correlation is maximal meaning that spontaneous emission of photons with a well defined energy is regulated by single electron tunneling. Interesting features are also obtained for energy dependent tunneling., Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures. Minor changes

We compare different quantum Master equations for the time evolution of the reduced density matrix. The widely applied secular approximation (rotating wave approximation) applied in combination with the Born-Markov approximation generates a Lindblad type master equation ensuring for completely positive and stable evolution and is typically well applicable for optical baths. For phonon baths however, the secular approximation is expected to be invalid. The usual Markovian master equation does not generally preserve positivity of the density matrix. As a solution we propose a coarse-graining approach with a dynamically adapted coarse graining time scale. For some simple examples we demonstrate that this preserves the accuracy of the integro-differential Born equation. For large times we analytically show that the secular approximation master equation is recovered. The method can in principle be extended to systems with a dynamically changing system Hamiltonian, which is of special interest for adiabatic quantum computation. We give some numerical examples for the spin-boson model of cases where a spin system thermalizes rapidly, and other examples where thermalization is not reached., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, reviewers suggestions included and tightened presentation; accepted for publication in PRA

The waiting time distribution $w(\tau)$, i.e. the probability for a delay $\tau$ between two subsequent transition (`jumps') of particles, is a statistical tool in (quantum) transport. Using generalized Master equations for systems coupled to external particle reservoirs, one can establish relations between $w(\tau)$ and other statistical transport quantities such as the noise spectrum and the Full Counting Statistics. It turns out that $w(\tau)$ usually contains additional information on system parameters and properties such as quantum coherence, the number of internal states, or the entropy of the current channels that participate in transport.

We develop a novel necessary condition of quantum correlation. It is utilized to construct $d$-level bipartite Bell-type inequality which is strongly resistant to noise and requires only analyses of $O(d)$ measurement outcomes compared to the previous result $O(d^{2})$. Remarkably, a connection between the arbitrary high-dimensional bipartite Bell-type inequality and entanglement witnesses is found. Through the necessary condition of quantum correlation, we propose that the witness operators to detect truly multipartite entanglement for a generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state with two local measurement settings and a four-qubit singlet state with three settings. Moreover, we also propose the first robust entanglement witness to detect four-level tripartite GHZ state with only two local measurement settings.

Charging a nano-scale oscillator by single electron tunneling leads to an effective double-well potential due to image charges. We combine exact numerical diagonalizations with generalized Master equations and show that the resulting quantum tunneling of the mechanical degree of freedom can be visualized in the electronic current noise spectrum., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We study a two-level quantum dot embedded in a phonon bath and irradiated by a time-dependent ac field and develope a method that allows us to extract simultaneously the full counting statistics of the electronic tunneling and relaxation (by phononic emission) events as well as their correlation. We find that the quantum noise of both the transmitted electrons and the emitted phonons can be controlled by the manipulation of external parameters such as the driving field intensity or the bias voltage., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We provide a novel criterion for identifying quantum correlation, which allows us to find connections between Bell type inequalities, entanglement detection, and correlation. We utilize the criterion to construct witness operators that can detect genuine multi-qubit entanglement with fewer local measurements. The connection between identifications of quantum correlation and Mermin's inequality is discussed. Detection of genuine four-level tripartite entanglement with two local measurement settings is shown in the same manner. Further, through the criterion of quantum correlation, we derive a new Bell inequality for arbitrary high-dimensional bipartite systems, which requires fewer analyses of the measured outcomes., Comment: 4 pages

The rapid experimental progress in the field of superconducting nanocircuits gives rise to an increasing quest for advanced quantum-control techniques for these macroscopically coherent systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) should be possible with the quantronium setup of a Cooper-pair box. The scheme appears to be robust against decoherence and should be realizable even with the existing technology. As an application we present a method to generate single-phonon states of a nanomechnical resonator by vacuum-stimulated adiabatic passage with the superconducting nanocircuit coupled to the resonator.

Coherent population transfer by adiabatic passage is a well-known method in quantum optics. This remarkable technique which is based on simple ideas has remained largely unknown to solid-state physicists. Here we provide an introduction to the basic principles of this method and discuss also some applications in solid-state systems., Comment: includes corrections to published version (Section 3)

We classify entanglement singularities for various two-mode bosonic systems in terms of catastrophe theory. Employing an abstract phase-space representation, we obtain exact results in limiting cases for the entropy in cusp, butterfly, and two-dimensional catastrophes. We furthermore use numerical results to extract the scaling of the entropy with the non-linearity parameter, and discuss the role of mixing entropies in more complex systems., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

A review of coherent and collective quantum optical effects like superradiance and coherent population trapping in mesoscopic systems is presented. Various new physical realizations of these phenomena are discussed, with a focus on their role for electronic transport and quantum dissipation in coupled nano-scale systems like quantum dots. A number of theoretical tools such as Master equations, polaron transformations, correlation functions, or level statistics are used to describe recent work on dissipative charge qubits (double quantum dots), the Dicke effect, phonon cavities, single oscillators, dark states and adiabatic control in quantum transport, and large spin-boson models. The review attempts to establish connections between concepts from Mesoscopics (quantum transport, coherent scattering, quantum chaos), Quantum Optics (such as superradiance, dark states, boson cavities), and (in its last part) Quantum Information Theory., Comment: Review article submitted to Physics Reports, 175 pages, 58 figures. Revised version (typos, additional appendix, figures and some parts in the discussion)

We consider a class of generalised single mode Dicke Hamiltonians with arbitrary boson coupling in the pseudo-spin $x$-$z$ plane. We find exact solutions in the thermodynamic, large-spin limit as a function of the coupling angle, which allows us to continuously move between the simple dephasing and the original Dicke Hamiltonians. Only in the latter case (orthogonal static and fluctuating couplings), does the parity-symmetry induced quantum phase transition occur., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figues

We consider the entanglement properties of the quantum phase transition in the single-mode superradiance model, involving the interaction of a boson mode and an ensemble of atoms. For infinite system size, the atom-field entanglement of formation diverges logarithmically with the correlation length exponent. Using a continuous variable representation, we compare this to the divergence of the entropy in conformal field theories, and derive an exact expression for the scaled concurrence and the cusp-like non-analyticity of the momentum squeezing., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figues

We investigate the quantum chaotic properties of the Dicke Hamiltonian; a quantum-optical model which describes a single-mode bosonic field interacting with an ensemble of $N$ two-level atoms. This model exhibits a zero-temperature quantum phase transition in the $N \go \infty$ limit, which we describe exactly in an effective Hamiltonian approach. We then numerically investigate the system at finite $N$ and, by analysing the level statistics, we demonstrate that the system undergoes a transition from quasi-integrability to quantum chaotic, and that this transition is caused by the precursors of the quantum phase-transition. Our considerations of the wavefunction indicate that this is connected with a delocalisation of the system and the emergence of macroscopic coherence. We also derive a semi-classical Dicke model, which exhibits analogues of all the important features of the quantum model, such as the phase transition and the concurrent onset of chaos., Comment: 51 pages, 15 figures, latex

We present theoretical results for superradiance, i.e. the collective coherent decay of a radiating system, in a semiconductor heterostructure under a strong quantizing magnetic field. We predict a strong peak (`Dicke-peak') in the emission intensity as a function of time, which should be observable after a short initial excitation of electrons into the conduction band. This peak has a characteristic dependence on the magnetic field and should be observable on sub-picosecond time scales. Furthermore, pumping of electrons and holes into the systems at a rate T leads to a novel kind of oscillations with frequency $\sim \sqrt{T}$ in the limit of the lowest Landau level., Comment: Proc. of HCIS-11, Kyoto(Japan), July 19-23 1999. To appear in Physica B

We find an interference effect for electron-phonon interactions in coupled semiconductor quantum dots that can dominate the nonlinear transport properties even for temperatures close to zero. The intradot electron tunnel process leads to a `shake up' of the phonon system and is dominated by a double-slit-like interference effect of spontaneously emitted phonons. The effect is closely related to subradiance of photons (Dicke effect) in a laser-trapped two-ion system and explains the oscillations in the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of coupled dots observed recently., Comment: to appear in PRL

An effective bosonic Hamiltonian of $1s$ excitons with ``spin'' degrees of freedom in two dimension is obtained through a projection procedure, starting from a conventional electron-hole Hamiltonian ${\cal H}_{eh}$. We first demonstrate that a straightforward transformation of ${\cal H}_{eh}$ into a Hamiltonian of bosonic excitons does not give the two-body interaction between an ``up-spin'' exciton and a ``down-spin'' exciton, which are created by the left- and right-circularly polarized light beams, respectively. We then show that this interaction is generated through a projection procedure onto the subspace spanned by $1s$ excitons, as a renormalization effect coming from higher exciton states. The projection also renormalizes the interaction between $1s$ excitons with the same spins by a large amount. These renormalization effects are crucial for the polarization dependence of the optical responses from semiconductors. The present theory gives the microscopic foundation of the phenomenology that was successfully applied to the analysis of four-wave mixing experiments in GaAs quantum wells strongly coupled to the radiation field in a high-Q micro cavity., Comment: 2 figures

We study high-density electron-hole (e-h) systems with the electron density slightly larger than the hole density. We find a new superconducting phase, in which the excess electrons form Cooper pairs moving in an e-h BCS phase. The coexistence of the e-h and e-e orders is possible because e and h have opposite charges, whereas analogous phases are impossible in the case of two fermion species that have the same charge or are neutral. Most strikingly, the e-h order enhances the superconducting e-h order parameter by more than one order of magnitude as compared with that given by the BCS formula, for the same value of the effective e-e attractive potential \lambda^{ee}. This new phase should be observable in an e-h system created by photoexcitation in doped semiconductors at low temperatures., Comment: 5 pages including 5 PostScript figures

Starting from the conventional electron-hole Hamiltonian ${\cal H}_{eh}$, we derive an effective Hamiltonian $\tilde{\cal H}_{1s}$ for $1s$ excitons with spin degrees of freedom. The Hamiltonian describes optical processes close to the exciton resonance for the case of weak excitation. We show that straightforward bosonization of ${\cal H}_{eh}$ does not give the correct form of $\tilde{\cal H}_{1s}$, which we obtain by a projection onto the subspace spanned by the $1s$ excitons. The resulting relaxation and renormalization terms generate an interaction between excitons with opposite spin. Moreover, exciton-exciton repulsive interaction is greatly reduced by the renormalization. The agreement of the present theory with the experiment supports the validity of the description of a fermionic system by bosonic fields in two dimensions., Comment: 12 pages, no figures, RevTeX

We investigate the influence of a time dependent, homogeneous electric field on scattering properties of non-interacting electrons in an arbitrary static potential. We develop a method to calculate the (Keldysh) Green's function in two complementary approaches. Starting from a plane wave basis, a formally exact solution is given in terms of the inverse of a matrix containing infinitely many 'photoblocks' which can be evaluated approximately by truncation. In the exact eigenstate basis of the scattering potential, we obtain a version of the Floquet state theory in the Green's functions language. The formalism is checked for cases such as a simple model of a double barrier in a strong electric field. Furthermore, an exact relation between the inelastic scattering rate due to the microwave and the AC conductivity of the system is derived which in particular holds near or at a metal-insulator transition in disordered systems., Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. B., 21 pages, 3 figures (ps-files)

We investigate the effect of electron-electron interactions on the transport properties of disordered quasi one-dimensional quantum wires with two or more subbands occupied. We apply two alternative methods to solve the logarithmic divergent problem, namely the parquet graph theory and a renormalization group calculation. We solve the group equations analytically in the weak coupling limit and find a power-law for the temperature dependent conductivity of a multi-channel system. The exponent is roughly equal to the inverse of the number of the occupied subbands., Comment: 4 pages, style-files included. No figure. Appears in J. Phys. Soc. Japan (Letter)

We investigate the dynamics of electrons in the vicinity of the Anderson transition in $d=3$ dimensions. Using the exact eigenstates from a numerical diagonalization, a number of quantities related to the critical behavior of the diffusion function are obtained. The relation $\eta = d-D_{2}$ between the correlation dimension $D_{2}$ of the multifractal eigenstates and the exponent $\eta$ which enters into correlation functions is verified. Numerically, we have $\eta\approx 1.3$. Implications of critical dynamics for experiments are predicted. We investigate the long-time behavior of the motion of a wave packet. Furthermore, electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering rates are calculated. For the latter, we predict a change of the temperature dependence for low $T$ due to $\eta$. The electron-electron scattering rate is found to be linear in $T$ and depends on the dimensionless conductance at the critical point., Comment: 21 pages, Revtex with epsf, 5 figures included as Postscript files, to appear in Ann. Physik

We investigate the influence of electron-phonon interactions on the DC-conductance $\Gamma $ of a quantum wire in the limit of one occupied subband. At zero temperature, a Tomonaga-Luttinger-like renormalization of $\Gamma $ to a value slightly larger than $2e^{2}/h$ is calculated for a realistic quantum wire model., Comment: 12 pages RevTeX, no figure. Appears in Phys. Rev. B

We calculate the electronic transport properties of a system which is irradiated by a homogeneous microwave field. Within a Boltzmann equation approach, a general expression for the conductivity tensor is derived and evaluated for a quasi one-dimensional ballistic quantum wire and a two dimensional system with impurity scattering. For the latter, deviations from the Drude result are predicted for the conductivity tensor. This should be observable in systems where the scattering rate depends noticeably on the Fermi energy. The deviations are calculated explicitly for the case of a 2d Silicon layer, where they strongly depend on the microwave polarization and the Fermi energy., Comment: 6 pages, bigtex (1 pictex figure). To appear in europhysics letters