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We experimentally investigate the stochastic phase dynamics of planar Josephson junctions (JJs) and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) defined in epitaxial InAs/Al heterostructures, and characterized by a large ratio of Josephson energy to charging energy. We observe a crossover from a regime of macroscopic quantum tunneling to one of phase diffusion as a function of temperature, where the transition temperature $T^{*}$ is gate-tunable. The switching probability distributions are shown to be consistent with a small shunt capacitance and moderate damping, resulting in a switching current which is a small fraction of the critical current. Phase locking between two JJs leads to a difference in switching current between that of a JJ measured in isolation and that of the same JJ measured in an asymmetric SQUID loop. In the case of the loop, $T^*$ is also tuned by a magnetic flux.

Recent experiments suggest the possibility to tune superconductivity in metallic nanowires by application of modest gate voltages. It is largely debated whether the effect is due to an electric field at the superconductor surface or small currents of high-energy electrons. We shed light on this matter by studying the suppression of superconductivity in sample geometries where the roles of electric field and electron-current flow can be clearly separated. Our results show that suppression of superconductivity does not depend on the presence or absence of an electric field at the surface of the nanowire, but requires a current of high-energy electrons. The suppression is most efficient when electrons are injected into the nanowire, but similar results are obtained also when electrons are passed between two remote electrodes at a distance $d$ to the nanowire (with $d$ in excess of $1~\mathrm{\mu m}$). In the latter case, high-energy electrons decay into phonons which propagate through the substrate and affect superconductivity in the nanowire by generating quasiparticles. We show that this process involves a non-thermal phonon distribution, with marked differences from the loss of superconductivity due to Joule heating near the nanowire or an increase in the bath temperature.

Low-energy excitations in graphene exhibit relativistic properties due to the linear dispersion relation close to the Dirac points in the first Brillouin zone. Two of the Dirac points located at opposite corners of the first Brillouin zone can be chosen as inequivalent, representing a new valley degree of freedom, in addition to the charge and spin of an electron. Using the valley degree of freedom to encode information has attracted significant interest, both theoretically and experimentally, and gave rise to the field of valleytronics. We study a graphene $p$-$n$ junction in a uniform out-of-plane magnetic field as a platform to generate and controllably manipulate the valley polarization of electrons. We show that by tuning the external potential giving rise to the $p$-$n$ junction we can switch the current from one valley polarization to the other. We also consider the effect of different types of edge terminations and present a setup, where we can partition an incoming valley-unpolarized current into two branches of valley-polarized currents. The branching ratio can be chosen by changing the location of the $p$-$n$ junction using a gate., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures

Snake states are open trajectories for charged particles propagating in two dimensions under the influence of a spatially varying perpendicular magnetic field. In the quantum limit they are protected edge modes that separate topologically inequivalent ground states and can also occur when the particle density rather than the field is made nonuniform. We examine the correspondence of snake trajectories in single-layer graphene in the quantum limit for two families of domain walls: (a) a uniform doped carrier density in an antisymmetric field profile and (b) antisymmetric carrier distribution in a uniform field. These families support different internal symmetries but the same pattern of boundary and interface currents. We demonstrate that these physically different situations are gauge equivalent when rewritten in a Nambu doubled formulation of the two limiting problems. Using gauge transformations in particle-hole space to connect these problems, we map the protected interfacial modes to the Bogoliubov quasiparticles of an interfacial one-dimensional p-wave paired state. A variational model is introduced to interpret the interfacial solutions of both domain wall problems.

Chiral Majorana-fermion modes are shown to emerge as edge excitations in a superconductor--topological-insulator hybrid structure that is subject to a magnetic field. The velocity of this mode is tunable by changing the magnetic-field magnitude and/or the superconductor's chemical potential. We discuss how quantum-transport measurements can yield experimental signatures of these modes. A normal lead coupled to the Majorana-fermion edge state through electron tunneling induces resonant Andreev reflections from the lead to the grounded superconductor, resulting in a distinctive pattern of differential-conductance peaks., Comment: (13 pages, Accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics, an extension of and expansion on our previous work arXiv:1210.4057). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1210.4057

We study the low-energy edge states of a superconductor -- 3D topological-insulator hybrid structure (NS junction) in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. The hybridization of electron-like and hole-like Landau levels due to Andreev reflection gives rise to chiral edge states within each Landau level. We show that by changing the chemical potential of the superconductor, this junction can be placed in a regime where the sign of the effective charge of the edge state within the zeroth Landau level changes more than once resulting in neutral edge modes with a finite value of the guiding-center coordinate. We find that the appearance of these neutral edge modes is related to the level repulsion between the zeroth and the first Landau levels in the spectra. We also find that these neutral edge modes come in pairs, one in the zeroth Landau level and its corresponding pair in the first., Comment: 5 pages

We investigate transport properties of a double quantum dot based Cooper pair splitter, where the superconducting lead consists of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. The proposed device can be used to explore the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ by testing the presence of gapless chiral edge states, which are predicted to exist if the bulk superconductor is described by a chiral $p$--wave state. The odd orbital symmetry of the bulk order parameter ensures that we can realize a regime where the electrons tunneling into the double dot system come from the chiral edge states and thereby leave their signature in the conductance. The proposed Cooper pair splitter has the potential to probe order parameters in unconventional superconductors., Comment: 5 pages

We propose to use weak measurements away from the weak-value amplification regime to carry out precision measurements of time delays of light. Our scheme is robust to several sources of noise that are shown to only limit the relative precision of the measurement. Thus, they do not set a limit on the smallest measurable phase shift contrary to standard interferometry and weak-value based measurement techniques. Our idea is not restricted to phase-shift measurements and could be used to measure other small effects using a similar protocol., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures (Published version)

We show that the interplay of cyclotron motion and Andreev reflection experienced by massless-Dirac-like charge carriers in topological-insulator surface states generates a Majorana-particle excitation. Based on an envelope-function description of the Dirac-Andreev edge states, we discuss the kinematic properties of the Majorana mode and find them to be possible to be tuned by changing the superconductor's chemical potential and/or the magnitude of the perpendicular magnetic field. Our proposal opens up new possibilities for studying Majorana fermions in a controllable setup., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

We study two-species Bose-Einstein condensates in quasi two-dimensional optical lattices of varying geometry and potential depth. Based on the numerically exact Bloch and Wannier functions obtained using the plane-wave expansion method, we quantify the drag (entrainment coupling) between the condensate components. This drag originates from the (short range) inter-species interaction and increases with the kinetic energy. As a result of the interplay between interaction and kinetic energy effects, the superfluid-drag coefficient shows a non-monotonic dependence on the lattice depth. To make contact with future experiments, we quantitatively investigate the drag for mass ratios corresponding to relevant atomic species., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in its original form but minor changes have been done

We propose a quantum simulation of small-polaron physics using a one-dimensional system of trapped ions acted upon by off-resonant standing waves. This system, envisioned as an array of microtraps, in the single-excitation case allows the realization of the anti-adiabatic regime of the Holstein model. We show that the strong excitation-phonon coupling regime, characterized by the formation of small polarons, can be reached using realistic values of the relevant system parameters. Finally, we propose measurements of the quasiparticle residue and the average number of phonons in the ground state, experimental probes validating the polaronic character of the phonon-dressed excitation., Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

We consider electron(hole)-phonon coupling in crystalline organic semiconductors, using naphthalene for our case study. Employing a first-principles approach, we compute the changes in the self-consistent Kohn-Sham potential corresponding to different phonon modes and go on to obtain the carrier-phonon coupling matrix elements (vertex functions). We then evaluate perturbatively the quasiparticle spectral residues for electrons at the bottom of the lowest-unoccupied- (LUMO) and holes at the top of the highest-occupied (HOMO) band, respectively obtaining $Z_e\approx 0.74$ and $Z_h\approx 0.78$. Along with the widely accepted notion that the carrier-phonon coupling strengths in polyacenes decrease with increasing molecular size, our results provide a strong microscopic evidence for the previously conjectured nonpolaronic nature of band-like carriers in these systems., Comment: final, published version

We study the realization of a Toffoli gate with superconducting qubits in a circuit-QED setup using quantum-control methods. Starting with optimized piecewise-constant control fields acting on all qubits and typical strengths of XY-type coupling between the qubits, we demonstrate that the optimal gate fidelities are affected only slightly by a "low-pass" filtering of these fields with the typical cutoff frequencies of microwave driving. Restricting ourselves to the range of control-field amplitudes for which the leakage to the non-computational states of a physical qubit is heavily suppressed, we theoretically predict that in the absence of decoherence and leakage, within 75 ns a Toffoli gate can be realized with intrinsic fidelities higher than 90%, while fidelities above 99% can be reached in about 140 ns., Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B

We investigate anisotropic $XXZ$ Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains with control fields acting on one of the end spins, with the aim of exploring local quantum control in arrays of interacting qubits. In this work, which uses a recent Lie-algebraic result on the local controllability of spin chains with "always-on" interactions, we determine piecewise-constant control pulses corresponding to optimal fidelities for quantum gates such as spin-flip (NOT), controlled-NOT (CNOT), and square-root-of-SWAP ($\sqrt{\textrm{SWAP}}$). We find the minimal times for realizing different gates depending on the anisotropy parameter $\Delta$ of the model, showing that the shortest among these gate times are achieved for particular values of $\Delta$ larger than unity. To study the influence of possible imperfections in anticipated experimental realizations of qubit arrays, we analyze the robustness of the obtained results for the gate fidelities to random variations in the control-field amplitudes and finite rise time of the pulses. Finally, we discuss the implications of our study for superconducting charge-qubit arrays., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Motivated by some recent results of quantum control theory, we discuss the feasibility of local operator control in arrays of interacting qubits modeled as isotropic Heisenberg spin chains. Acting on one of the end spins, we aim at finding piecewise-constant control pulses that lead to optimal fidelities for a chosen set of quantum gates. We analyze the robustness of the obtained results f or the gate fidelities to random errors in the control fields, finding that with faster switching between piecewise-constant controls the system is less susceptible to these errors. The observed behavior falls into a generic class of physical phenomena that are related to a competition between resonance- and relaxation-type behavior, exemplified by motional narrowing in NMR experiments. Finally, we discuss how the obtained optimal gate fidelities are altered when the corresponding rapidly-varying piecewise-constant control fields are smoothened through spectral filtering., Comment: final, published version

We explore the consequences of electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling in graphene antidot lattices (graphene nanomeshes), i.e., triangular superlattices of circular holes (antidots) in a graphene sheet. They display a direct band gap whose magnitude can be controlled via the antidot size and density. The relevant coupling mechanism in these semiconducting counterparts of graphene is the modulation of the nearest-neighbor electronic hopping integrals due to lattice distortions (Peierls-type e-ph coupling). We compute the full momentum dependence of the e-ph vertex functions for a number of representative antidot lattices. Based on the latter, we discuss the origins of the previously found large conduction-band quasiparticle spectral weight due to e-ph coupling. In addition, we study the nonzero-momentum quasiparticle properties with the aid of the self-consistent Born approximation, yielding results that can be compared with future angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements. Our principal finding is a significant e-ph mass enhancement, an indication of polaronic behavior. This can be ascribed to the peculiar momentum dependence of the e-ph interaction in these narrow-band systems, which favors small phonon momentum scattering. We also discuss implications of our study for recently fabricated large-period graphene antidot lattices., Comment: published version

We study the role of qubit dephasing in cooling a mechanical resonator by quantum back-action. With a superconducting flux qubit as a specific example, we show that ground-state cooling of a mechanical resonator can only be realized if the qubit dephasing rate is sufficiently low., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We investigate a superconducting single-electron transistor capacitively coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator and focus on the double Josephson quasiparticle resonance. The existence of two coherent Cooper pair tunneling events is shown to lead to pronounced backaction effects. Measuring the current and the shot noise provides a direct way of gaining information on the state of the oscillator. In addition to an analytical discussion of the linear-response regime, we discuss and compare results of higher-order approximation schemes and a fully numerical solution. We find that cooling of the mechanical resonator is possible, and that there are driven and bistable oscillator states at low couplings. Finally, we also discuss the frequency dependence of the charge noise and the current noise of the superconducting single electron transistor., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, published in PRB

We propose a quantum description of the cooling of a micromechanical flexural oscillator by a one-dimensional transmission line resonator via a force that resembles cavity radiation pressure. The mechanical oscillator is capacitively coupled to the central conductor of the transmission line resonator. At the optimal point, the micromechanical oscillator can be cooled close to the ground state, and the cooling can be measured by homodyne detection of the output microwave signal., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

We have developed a theory of a Josephson junction formed by two tunnel-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential in the regime of strong atom-atom interaction for an arbitrary total number $N$ of bosons in the condensates. The tunnel resonances in the junction are shown to be periodically spaced by the interaction energy, forming a single-atom staircase sensitive to the parity of $N$ even for large $N$. One of the manifestations of the staircase structure is the periodic modulation with the bias energy of the visibility of the interference pattern in lattices of junctions., Comment: 5 pages, 4 included figues, published version

We study quantum systems with broken symmetry that can be modelled as cyclic three-level atoms with coexisting one- and two-photon transitions. They can be selectively optically excited to any state. As an example, we show that left- and right-handed chiral molecules starting in the same initial states can evolve into different final states by a purely dynamic transfer process. That means, left- and right-handed molecules can be distinguished purely dynamically., Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

We discuss the occupation number correlations in an ultracold system of interacting fermionic atoms. For a system with a special energy-level distribution, viz. two multiply-degenerate levels, explicit expressions for the correlation functions are derived in a canonical approach using the exact ground state wavefunction of the reduced BCS Hamiltonian. We evaluate the correlators numerically for different interaction strength and find analytical expressions in some limiting cases. Due to the underlying fermionic nature of the pairs the occupations are predominantly anti-correlated and their statistics is a multinomial distribution., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, minor revisions, references added, to be published in PRA

We investigate the current and noise characteristics of a double quantum dot system. The strong correlations induced by the Coulomb interaction create entangled two-electron states and lead to signatures in the transport properties. We show that the interaction parameter phi, which measures the admixture of the double-occupancy contribution to the singlet state and thus the degree of entanglement, can be directly accessed through the Fano factor of super-Poissonian shot noise., Comment: 5 pages, major revision, to be published in Phys. Rev. B

We propose a way to measure the momentum p of a nanomechanical oscillator. The p-detector is based on two tunnel junctions in a Aharonov-Bohm-type setup. One of the tunneling amplitudes depends on the motion of the oscillator, the other one not. Although the coupling between the detector and the oscillator is assumed to be linear in the position x of the oscillator, it turns out that the finite-frequency noise output of the detector will in general contain a term proportional to the momentum spectrum of the oscillator. This is a true quantum phenomenon, which can be realized in practice if the phase of the tunneling amplitude of the detector is tuned by the Aharonov-Bohm flux Phi to a p-sensitive value., Comment: New title. Published version

The Stern-Gerlach effect is well-known as spin-dependent splitting of a beam of atoms with magnetic moments by a magnetic-field gradient. Here, we show that an induced gauge potential may lead to a similar effect for chiral molecules. In the presence of three inhomogeneous light fields, the center-of-mass of a three-level chiral molecule is subject to an optically induced gauge potential, and the internal dynamics of the molecules can be described as an adiabatic evolution in the reduced pseudo-spin subspace of the two lowest energy levels. We demonstrate numerically that such an induced gauge potential can lead to observable pseudo-spin dependent and chirality-dependent generalized Stern-Gerlach effects for mixed left- and right-handed chiral molecules under realistic conditions., Comment: 4+ pages, 4 figures

We examine the role that interference plays in quantum state transfer through several types of finite spin chains, including chains with isotropic Heisenberg interaction between nearest neighbors, chains with reduced coupling constants to the spins at the end of the chain, and chains with anisotropic coupling constants. We evaluate quantitatively both the interference corresponding to the propagation of the entire chain, and the interference in the effective propagation of the first and last spins only, treating the rest of the chain as black box. We show that perfect quantum state transfer is possible without quantum interference, and provide evidence that the spin chains examined realize interference-free quantum state transfer to a good approximation., Comment: 10 figures

We consider position measurements using the cross-correlated output of two tunnel junction position detectors. Using a fully quantum treatment, we calculate the equation of motion for the density matrix of the coupled detector-detector-mechanical oscillator system. After discussing the presence of a bound on the peak-to-background ratio in a position measurement using a single detector, we show how one can use detector cross correlations to overcome this bound. We analyze two different possible experimental realizations of the cross correlation measurement and show that in both cases the maximum cross-correlated output is obtained when using twin detectors and applying equal bias to each tunnel junction. Furthermore, we show how the double-detector setup can be exploited to drastically reduce the added displacement noise of the oscillator., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; v2: new Sec. V

We evaluate the Coulomb drag current in two finite-length Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid wires coupled by an electrostatic backscattering interaction. The drag current in one wire shows oscillations as a function of the bias voltage applied to the other wire, reflecting interferences of the plasmon standing waves in the interacting wires. In agreement with this picture, the amplitude of the current oscillations is reduced with increasing temperature. This is a clear signature of non-Fermi-liquid physics because for coupled Fermi liquids the drag resistance is always expected to increase as the temperature is raised., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; v2: accepted version at PRL

We consider a quasi one-dimensional configuration consisting of two small pieces of ferromagnetic material separated by a metallic one and contacted by two metallic leads. A spin-polarized current is injected from one lead. Our goal is to investigate the correlation induced between the magnetizations of the two ferromagnets by spin-transfer torque. This torque results from the interaction between the magnetizations and the spin polarization of the current. We discuss the dynamics of a single ferromagnet, the extension to the case of two ferromagnets, and give some estimates for the parameters based on experiments., Comment: To appear in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Proceedings of the International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology, Basel, 2006)

We investigate electrical transport through a single-electron transistor coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator. Using a combination of a master-equation approach and a numerical Monte Carlo method, we calculate the average current and the current noise in the strong-coupling regime, studying deviations from previously derived analytic results valid in the limit of weak-coupling. After generalizing the weak-coupling theory to enable the calculation of higher cumulants of the current, we use our numerical approach to study how the third cumulant is affected in the strong-coupling regime. In this case, we find an interesting crossover between a weak-coupling transport regime where the third cumulant heavily depends on the frequency of the oscillator to one where it becomes practically independent of this parameter. Finally, we study the spectrum of the transport noise and show that the two peaks found in the weak-coupling limit merge on increasing the coupling strength. Our calculation of the frequency-dependence of the noise also allows to describe how transport-induced damping of the mechanical oscillations is affected in the strong-coupling regime., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Time-dependent Fr\"ohlich transformations can be used to derive an effective Hamiltonian for a class of quantum systems with time-dependent perturbations. We use such a transformation for a system with time-dependent atom-photon coupling induced by the classical motion of two atoms in an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field. We calculate the entanglement between the two atoms resulting from their motion through a cavity as a function of their initial position difference and velocity., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

We propose a method to improve quantum state transfer in transmission lines. The idea is to localize the information on the last qubit of a transmission line, by dynamically varying the coupling constants between the first and the last pair of qubits. The fidelity of state transfer is higher then in a chain with fixed coupling constants. The effect is stable against small fluctuations in the system parameters., Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures

We study the linear diamagnetic response of a superconducting cylinder coated by a normal-metal layer due to the proximity effect using the clean limit quasiclassical Eilenberger equations. We compare the results for the susceptibility with those for a planar geometry. Interestingly, for $R\sim d$ the cylinder exhibits a stronger overscreening of the magnetic field, i.e., at the interface to the superconductor it can be less than (-1/2) of the applied field. Even for $R\gg d$, the diamagnetism can be increased as compared to the planar case, viz. the magnetic susceptibility $4\pi\chi$ becomes smaller than -3/4. This behaviour can be explained by an intriguing spatial oscillation of the magnetic field in the normal layer.

The mechanism of adsorption of the 1,4,5,8-naphthalene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (NTCDA) molecule on the Ag(110) surface is elucidated on the basis of extensive density functional theory calculations. This molecule, together with its perylene counterpart, PTCDA, are archetype organic semiconductors investigated experimentally over the past 20 years. We find that the bonding of the molecule to the substrate is highly site-selective, being determined by electron transfer to the LUMO of the molecule and local electrostatic attraction between negatively charged carboxyl oxygens and positively charged silver atoms in [1-10] atomic rows. The adsorption energy in the most stable site is 0.9eV. A similar mechanism is expected to govern the adsorption of PTCDA on Ag(110) as well., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, high-quality figures available upon request

We consider electronic current transport through a ballistic one-dimensional quantum wire connected to two ferromagnetic leads. We study the effects of the spin-dependence of interfacial phase shifts (SDIPS) acquired by electrons upon scattering at the boundaries of the wire. The SDIPS produces a spin splitting of the wire resonant energies which is tunable with the gate voltage and the angle between the ferromagnetic polarizations. This property could be used for manipulating spins. In particular, it leads to a giant magnetoresistance effect with a sign tunable with the gate voltage and the magnetic field applied to the wire., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. to be published in Europhysics Letters

In this work, we describe a possible experimental realization of Bose's idea to use spin chains for short distance quantum communication [S. Bose, {\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 91} 207901]. Josephson arrays have been proposed and analyzed as transmission channels for systems of superconducting charge qubits. Here, we consider a chain of persistent current qubits, that is appropriate for state transfer with high fidelity in systems containing flux qubits. We calculate the fidelity of state transfer for this system. In general, the Hamiltonian of this system is not of XXZ-type, and we analyze the magnitude and the effect of the terms that don't conserve the z-component of the total spin., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

We introduce a new spin filter based on spin-resolved Fano resonances due to spin-split levels in a quantum ring (QR) side-coupled to a quantum wire (QW). Spin-orbit coupling inside the QR, together with external magnetic fields, induces spin splitting, and the Fano resonances due to the spin-split levels result in perfect or considerable suppression of the transport of either spin direction. Using the numerical renormalization group method, we find that the Coulomb interaction in the QR enhances the spin filter operation by widening the separation between dips in conductances for different spins and by allowing perfect blocking for one spin direction and perfect transmission for the other. The spin-filter effect persists as long as the temperature is less than the broadening of QR levels due to the QW-QR coupling. We discuss realistic conditions for the QR-based spin filter and its advantages to other similar devices., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We investigate density fluctuations in a coherent ensemble of interacting fermionic atoms. Adapting the concept of full counting statistics, well-known from quantum optics and mesoscopic electron transport, we study second-order as well as higher-order correlators of density fluctuations. Using the mean-field BCS state to describe the whole interval between the BCS limit and the BEC limit, we obtain an exact expression for the cumulant-generating function of the density fluctuations of an atomic cloud. In the two-dimensional case, we obtain a closed analytical expression. Poissonian fluctuations of a molecular condensate on the BEC side are strongly suppressed on the BCS side. The size of the fluctuations in the BCS limit is a direct measure of the pairing potential. We also discuss the BEC-BCS crossover of the third cumulant and the temperature dependence of the second cumulant., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. A. New calculation of the bin statistics of a free Bose gas; updated and extended bibliography

We use the numerical flow-equation renormalization method to study a nonlinear bath at low temperatures. The model of our nonlinear bath consists of a single two-level system coupled to a linear oscillator bath. The effects of this nonlinear bath are analyzed by coupling it to a spin, whose relaxational dynamics under the action of the bath is studied by calculating spin-spin correlation functions. As a first result, we derive flow equations for a general four-level system coupled to an oscillator bath, valid at low temperatures. We then treat the two-level system coupled to our nonlinear bath as a special case of the dissipative four-level system. We compare the effects of the nonlinear bath with those obtained using an effective linear bath, and study the differences between the two cases at low temperatures., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures

Josephson junction arrays can be used as quantum channels to transfer quantum information between distant sites. In this work we discuss simple protocols to realize state transfer with high fidelity. The channels do not require complicate gating but use the natural dynamics of a properly designed array. We investigate the influence of static disorder both in the Josephson energies and in the coupling to the background gate charges, as well as the effect of dynamical noise. We also analyze the readout process, and its backaction on the state transfer.

We study the Mott-insulator transition of bosonic atoms in optical lattices. Using perturbation theory, we analyze the deviations from the mean-field Gutzwiller ansatz, which become appreciable for intermediate values of the ratio between hopping amplitude and interaction energy. We discuss corrections to number fluctuations, order parameter, and compressibility. In particular, we improve the description of the short-range correlations in the one-particle density matrix. These corrections are important for experimentally observed expansion patterns, both for bulk lattices and in a confining trap potential., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figues

We investigate current fluctuations in a three-terminal quantum dot in the sequential tunneling regime. In the voltage-bias configuration chosen here, the circuit is operated like a beam splitter, i.e. one lead is used as an input and the other two as outputs. In the limit where a double occupancy of the dot is not possible, a super-Poissonian Fano factor of the current in the input lead and positive cross-correlations between the current fluctuations in the two output leads can be obtained, due to dynamical channel-blockade. When a single orbital of the dot transports current, this effect can be obtained by lifting the spin-degeneracy of the circuit with ferromagnetic leads or with a magnetic field. When several orbitals participate in the electronic conduction, lifting spin-degeneracy is not necessary. In all cases, we show that a super-Poissonian Fano factor for the input current is not equivalent to positive cross-correlations between the outputs. We identify the conditions for obtaining these two effects and discuss possible experimental realizations., Comment: 18 pages, 20 Figures, submitted to Phys. rev. B

We present a theoretical study of the influence of dephasing on shot noise in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In contrast to phenomenological approaches, we employ a microscopic model where dephasing is induced by the fluctuations of a classical potential. This enables us to treat the influence of the environment's fluctuation spectrum on the shot noise. We compare against the results obtained from a simple classical model of incoherent transport, as well as those derived from the phenomenological dephasing terminal approach, arguing that the latter runs into a problem when applied to shot noise calculations for interferometer geometries. From our model, we find two different limiting regimes: If the fluctuations are slow as compared to the time-scales set by voltage and temperature, the usual partition noise expression T(1-T) is averaged over the fluctuating phase difference. For the case of ``fast'' fluctuations, it is replaced by a more complicated expression involving an average over transmission amplitudes. The full current noise also contains other contributions, and we provide a general formula, as well as explicit expressions and plots for specific examples., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. A brief version is contained in cond-mat/0306504

We consider a single-electron transistor (SET) whose central island is a nanomechanical oscillator. The gate capacitance of the SET depends on the mechanical displacement, thus, the vibrations of the island vibrations may strongly influence the current-voltage characteristics, current noise, and higher cumulants of the current. Harmonic oscillations of the island and oscillations with random amplitude (e.g., due to the thermal activation) change the transport characteristics in a different way. The noise spectrum has a peak at the frequency of the island oscillations; when the island oscillates harmonically, the peak reduces to a $\delta$-peak. We show that knowledge of the SET transport properties helps to determine in what way the island oscillates, to estimate the amplitude, and the frequency of the oscillations.

We study a model of a magnetic resonance force microscope (MRFM) based on the cyclic adiabatic inversion technique as a high-resolution tool to detect single electron spins. We investigate the quantum dynamics of spin and cantilever in the presence of coupling to an environment. To obtain the reduced dynamics of the combined system of spin and cantilever, we use the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and get results valid at any temperature as well as at arbitrary system-bath coupling strength. We propose that the MRFM can be used as a quantum measurement device, i.e., not only to detect the modulus of the spin but also its direction.

We study current fluctuations in an interacting three-terminal quantum dot with ferromagnetic leads. For appropriately polarized contacts, the transport through the dot is governed by a novel dynamical spin blockade, i.e., a spin-dependent bunching of tunneling events not present in the paramagnetic case. This leads for instance to positive zero-frequency cross-correlations of the currents in the output leads even in the absence of spin accumulation on the dot. We include the influence of spin-flip scattering and identify favorable conditions for the experimental observation of this effect with respect to polarization of the contacts and tunneling rates., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

We derive a model to describe decoherence of atomic clouds in atom-chip traps taking the excited states of the trapping potential into account. We use this model to investigate decoherence for a single trapping well and for a pair of trapping wells that form the two arms of an atom interferometer. Including the discrete spectrum of the trapping potential gives rise to a decoherence mechanism with a decoherence rate $\Gamma$ that scales like $\Gamma \sim 1/r_0^4$ with the distance $r_0$ from the trap minimum to the wire., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

We report resonant multiple Andreev relections in a multiwall carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to superconducting leads. The position and magnitude of the subharmonic gap structure is found to depend strongly on the level positions of the single-electron states which are adjusted with a gate electrode. We discuss a theoretical model of the device and compare the calculated differential conductance with the experimental data. (pdf including figures, see: www.unibas.ch/phys-meso/Research/Papers/2003/MAR-MWNT.pdf), Comment: pdf including figures, see: http://www.unibas.ch/phys-meso/Research/Papers/2003/MAR-MWNT.pdf

We propose and investigate a novel method for the controlled coupling of two Josephson charge qubits by means of a variable electrostatic transformer. The value of the coupling capacitance is given by the discretized curvature of the lowest energy band of a Josephson junction, which can be positive, negative, or zero. We calculate the charging diagram of the two-qubit system that reflects the transition from positive to negative through vanishing coupling. We also discuss how to construct a phase gate making use of the controllable coupling., Comment: final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

This paper has been retracted. The authors have discovered a possible problem in applications of the dephasing terminal approach to shot noise calculations in interference situations: Eq. (7) correctly re-introduces the anticorrelations between the currents in the two arms, but due to its semiclassical nature probably fails to describe the consequential diminishing of exchange effects at the second beamsplitter., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn