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A Penning-trap facility for high-precision mass spectrometry based on a novel detection method has been built. This method consists in measuring motional frequencies of singly-charged ions trapped in strong magnetic fields through the fluorescence photons from laser-cooled 40Ca+ ions, to overcome limitations faced in electronic single-ion detection techniques. The key element of this facility is an open-ring Penning trap coupled upstream to a preparation Penning trap similar to those used at Radioactive Ion Beam facilities. Here we present a full characterization of the trap and demonstrate motional frequency measurements of trapped ions stored by applying external radiofrequency fields in resonance with the ions' eigenmotions, in combination with time-of-flight identification. The infrastructure developed to observe the fluorescence photons from 40Ca+, comprising the 12 laser beams and the optical system to register the image in a high-sensitive CCD sensor, has been proved by taking images of the trapped and cooled 40Ca+ ions. This demonstrates the functionality of the proposed laser-based mass-spectrometry technique, providing a unique platform for precision experiments with implications in different fields of physics.

We provide tools for the quantum simulation of superluminal motion with superconducting circuits. We show that it is possible to simulate the motion of a superconducting qubit at constant velocities that exceed the speed of light in the electromagnetic medium and the subsequent emission of Ginzburg radiation. We also consider possible setups for simulating the superluminal motion of a mirror, finding a link with the super-radiant phase transition of the Dicke model.

We propose a method to simulate a Dirac or Majorana equation evolving under particular potentials with the use of the corresponding free evolution, while the potential dynamics is encoded in a static transformation upon the initial state. We extend our results to interacting two-body systems.

We propose the quantum simulation of fermion and antifermion field modes interacting via a bosonic field mode, and present a possible implementation with two trapped ions. This quantum platform allows for the scalable add up of bosonic and fermionic modes, and represents an avenue towards quantum simulations of quantum field theories in perturbative and nonperturbative regimes. © 2011 American Physical Society.

We consider the quantum simulation of relativistic quantum mechanics, as described by the Dirac equation and classical potentials, in trapped-ion systems. We concentrate on three problems of growing complexity. Firstly, we study the bidimensional relativistic scattering of single Dirac particles by a linear potential. Secondly, we explore the case of a Dirac particle in a magnetic field and its topological properties. Finally, we analyze the problem of two Dirac particles that are coupled by a controllable and confining potential. The latter interaction may be useful to study important phenomena such as the confinement and asymptotic freedom of quarks. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

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We demonstrate how the matrix-product state formalism provides a flexible structure to solve the constrained optimization problem associated with the sequential generation of entangled multiqubit states under experimental restrictions. We consider a realistic scenario in which an ancillary system with a limited number of levels performs restricted sequential interactions with qubits in a row. The proposed method relies on a suitable local optimization procedure, yielding an efficient recipe for the realistic and approximate sequential generation of any entangled multiqubit state. We give paradigmatic examples that may be of interest for theoretical and experimental developments., MEC, Depto. de Análisis Matemático y Matemática Aplicada, Fac. de Ciencias Matemáticas, Instituto de Matemática Interdisciplinar (IMI), TRUE, pub

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Using an inductive approach to classify multipartite entangled states under stochastic local operations and classical communication introduced recently by the authors [Phys. Rev. A 74, 052336 (2006)], we give the complete classification of four-qubit entangled pure states. Apart from the expected degenerate classes, we show that there exist eight inequivalent ways to entangle four qubits. In this respect, permutation symmetry is taken into account and states with a structure differing only by parameters inside a continuous set are considered to belong to the same class.

Not all unitary operations upon a set of qubits can be implemented by sequential interactions between each qubit and an ancillary system. We analyze the specific case of sequential quantum cloning, 1 -> M, and prove that the minimal dimension D of the ancilla grows linearly with the number of clones M. In particular, we obtain D=2M for symmetric universal quantum cloning and D=M+1 for symmetric phase-covariant cloning. Furthermore, we provide a recipe for the required ancilla-qubit interactions in each step of the sequential procedure for both cases.

We present a method of simulating the Dirac equation in 3+1 dimensions for a free spin-1/2 particle in a single trapped ion. The Dirac bispinor is represented by four ionic internal states, and position and momentum of the Dirac particle are associated with the respective ionic variables. We show also how to simulate the simplified 1+1 case, requiring the manipulation of only two internal levels and one motional degree of freedom. Moreover, we study relevant quantum-relativistic effects, like the Zitterbewegung and Klein's paradox, the transition from massless to massive fermions, and the relativistic and nonrelativistic limits, via the tuning of controllable experimental parameters.

We study the dynamics of momentum entanglement generated in the lowest-order QED interaction between two massive spin- 1 2 charged particles, which grows in time as the two fermions exchange virtual photons. We observe that the degree of generated entanglement between interacting particles with initial well-defined momentum can be infinite. We explain this divergence in the context of entanglement theory for continuous variables, and show how to circumvent this apparent paradox. Finally, we discuss two different possibilities of transforming momentum into spin entanglement, through dynamical operations or through Lorentz boosts. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

We propose an inductive procedure to classify N-partite entanglement under stochastic local operations and classical communication provided such a classification is known for N−1 qubits. The method is based upon the analysis of the coefficient matrix of the state in an arbitrary product basis. We illustrate this approach in detail with the well-known bipartite and tripartite systems, obtaining as a by-product a systematic criterion to establish the entanglement class of a given pure state without resourcing to any entanglement measure. The general case is proved by induction, allowing us to find an upper bound for the number of N-partite entanglement classes in terms of the number of entanglement classes for N−1 qubits.