Search

The rapid cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A is speculated to arise from an enhanced neutrino emission caused by the onset of $^3P_2$-wave neutron superfluidity in the core. However, the neutrino emissivity due to Cooper-pair breaking and formation is too small to yield the observed cooling rate. Here, we show that such a rapid cooling can be explained once the non-Fermi liquid behavior of the non-superfluid neutron liquid induced by superfluid quantum criticality is included into the theoretical description of neutron star cooling, without assuming the existence of additional energy loss processes. Our results indicate that the neutron star in Cassiopeia A remains in the thermal relaxation stage, which is greatly prolonged by the non-Fermi liquid behavior. The good agreement between our theoretical results and recent observational cooling data points to the pivotal role played by superfluid quantum criticality in neutron stars., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Quantum emitters trapped near photonic crystal waveguides have recently emerged as an exciting platform for realizing novel quantum matter-light interfaces. Here we study tunable photon scattering in a photonic crystal waveguide coupled to an atom dimer with an arbitrary spatial separation. In the weak-excitation regime, we give the energy levels and their decay rates into the waveguide modes in the dressed basis, which both depend on the distance between the two atoms. We focus on the Bragg case and anti-Bragg case, where subradiant and superradiant states are produced and perfect transmission with a $\pi$ phase shift may occur on resonance. We observe quantum beats in the photon-photon correlation function of the reflected field in the anti-Bragg case. Moreover, the frequencies of quantum beats can be controlled due to the tunability of the bound states via the dispersion engineering of the structure. We also quantify the effects of the system imperfections, including the deviation in the distance between the two atoms and the asymmetry in the atomic decay rates into the waveguide modes. With recent experimental advances in the superconducting microwave transmission lines, our results should soon be realizable., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Comments are welcome

The neutron star starts to cool down shortly after its birth by emitting neutrinos. When it is cold enough, the Cooper pairs of neutrons are formed, which triggers a superfluid transition. Previous works on neutron superfluidity are focused on the finite-temperature transition. Little attention is paid to the potentially important quantum critical phenomena associated with superfluidity. Here, we provide the first theoretical analysis of superfluid quantum criticality, concentrating on its impact on neutron star cooling. Extensive calculations found that superfluidity occurs within a finite range of nuclear density $\rho$. The density serves as a non-thermal parameter for superfluid quantum phase transition. In a broad quantum critical region, there is a strong coupling between the gapless neutrons and the quantum critical fluctuations of superfluid order parameter. We handle this coupling by using perturbation theory and renormalization group method, and show that it leads to non-Fermi liquid behavior, which yields a logarithmic $T\ln(1/T)$ correction to the Fermi-liquid specific heat $c_{n}\propto T$ and also markedly alters the neutrino emissivity. Quantum critical phenomena emerge at a time much earlier than the onset of superfluidity and persist throughout almost the entire life of a neutron star. At a low $T$, such phenomena coexist with superfluidity in the neutron star interior, yet occupying different layers. We include superfluid quantum criticality into the theoretical description of neutron star cooling and find that it obviously prolongs the thermal relaxation time. By varying the strength of superfluid fluctuations and other quantities, we obtain an excellent fit to the observed cooling data of a variety of neutron stars. Our results indicate the existence of an intriguing correlation between superfluid quantum criticality and the thermal evolution of neutron stars., Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure, comments welcome

In a series of papers, we have proposed a non-perturbative field-theoretic approach to deal with strong electron-phonon and strong Coulomb interactions. The key ingredient of such an approach is to determine the full fermion-boson vertex corrections by solving a number of self-consistent Ward-Takahashi identities. Palle (see Phys. Rev. B 110, 026501 (2024), arXiv:2404.02918) argued that our Ward-Takahashi identities failed to include some important additional terms and thus are incorrect. We agree that our Ward-Takahashi identities have ignored some potentially important contributions and here give some remarks on the role played by the additional terms., Comment: Reply to arXiv:2404.02918, which is published as Phys. Rev. B 110, 026501 (2024), by Palle, commenting on arXiv:1911.05528

Although neutron stars have been studied for decades, their internal structure remains enigmatic, mainly due to large uncertainties in the equation of state. In neutron stars, the nucleons are strongly interacting by exchanging mesons, which can lead to significant quantum many-body correlation effects. Mean-field calculations failed to capture these effects. Here, we develop a nonperturbative quantum field-theoretic approach to handle strongly correlated dense nuclear matter within the framework of quantum hadrodynamics. We show that the many-body effects can be incorporated in the Dyson-Schwinger equation of the nucleon propagator. Based on a linear $\sigma$-$\omega$-$\rho$ model, we successfully reproduce six empirical observable quantities of saturation nuclear matter by tuning six parameters. After including the many-body effects into the equation of state of realistic neutron star matter, we obtain a mass-radius relation that is comparable with recent astrophysical observations of neutron stars., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure, 2 tables, final version

Polyatomic molecules equipped with optical cycling centers (OCCs), enabling continuous photon scattering during optical excitation, are exciting candidates for advancing quantum information science. However, as these molecules grow in size and complexity the interplay of complex vibronic couplings on optical cycling becomes a critical, but relatively unexplored consideration. Here, we present an extensive exploration of Fermi resonances in large OCC-containing molecules, surpassing the constraints of harmonic approximation. High-resolution dispersed laser-induced fluorescence and excitation spectroscopy reveal Fermi resonances in calcium and strontium phenoxides and their derivatives. This resonance manifests as vibrational coupling leading to intensity borrowing by combination bands near optically active harmonic bands. The resulting additional vibration-changing decays require more repumping lasers for effective optical cycling. To mitigate these effects, we explore altering vibrational energy level spacing through substitutions on the phenyl ring or changes in the OCC itself. While the complete elimination of vibrational coupling in complex molecules remains challenging, our findings underscore the potential for significant mitigation, opening new avenues for optimizing optical cycling in large polyatomic molecules., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, SI (15 pages)

In previous theoretical studies of phonon-mediated superconductors, the electron-phonon coupling is treated by solving the Migdal-Eliashberg equations under the bare vertex approximation, whereas the effect of Coulomb repulsion is incorporated by introducing one single pseudopotential parameter. These two approximations become unreliable in low carrier-density superconductors in which the vertex corrections are not small and the Coulomb interaction is poorly screened. Here, we shall go beyond these two approximations and employ the Dyson-Schwinger equation approach to handle the interplay of electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb interaction in a self-consistent way. We first derive the exact Dyson-Schwinger integral equation of the full electron propagator. Such an equation contains several unknown single-particle propagators and fermion-boson vertex functions, and thus seems to be intractable. To solve this difficulty, we further derive a number of identities satisfied by all the relevant propagators and vertex functions and then use these identities to show that the exact Dyson-Schwinger equation of electron propagator is actually self-closed. This self-closed equation takes into account not only all the vertex corrections, but also the mutual influence between electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb interaction. Solving it by using proper numerical methods leads to the superconducting temperature $T_{c}$ and other quantities. As an application of the approach, we compute the $T_{c}$ of the interfacial superconductivity realized in the one-unit-cell FeSe/SrTiO$_{3}$ system. We find that $T_{c}$ can be strongly influenced by the vertex corrections and the competition between phonon-mediated attraction and Coulomb repulsion., Comment: 13 + 9 pages, 1 figure

We report the production and spectroscopic characterization of strontium (I) phenoxide ($\mathrm{SrOC}_6\mathrm{H}_5$, or SrOPh) and variants featuring electron-withdrawing groups designed to suppress vibrational excitation during spontaneous emission from the electronically excited state. Optical cycling closure of these species, which is the decoupling of vibrational state changes from spontaneous optical decay, is found by dispersed laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy to be high, in accordance with theoretical predictions. A high-resolution, rotationally-resolved laser excitation spectrum is recorded for SrOPh, allowing the estimation of spectroscopic constants and identification of candidate optical cycling transitions for future work. The results confirm the promise of strontium phenoxides for laser cooling and quantum state detection at the single-molecule level., Comment: Erratum for a correction of an incorrect grant number for the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation, Phase I. The correct number should be CHE-2221453

In some quantum many particle systems, the fermions could form Cooper pairs by exchanging intermediate bosons. This then drives a superconducting phase transition or a superfluid transition. Such transitions should be theoretically investigated by using proper non-perturbative methods. Here we take the neutron superfluid transition as an example and study the Cooper pairing of neutrons mediated by neutral $\pi$-mesons in the low density region of a neutron matter. We perform a non-perturbative analysis of the neutron-meson coupling and compute the pairing gap $\Delta$, the critical density $\rho_{c}$, and the critical temperature $T_c$ by solving the Dyson-Schwinger equation of the neutron propagator. We first carry out calculations under the widely used bare vertex approximation and then incorporate the contribution of the lowest-order vertex correction. This vertex correction is not negligible even at low densities and its importance is further enhanced as the density increases. The transition critical line on density-temperature plane obtained under the bare vertex approximation is substantially changed after including the vertex correction. These results indicate that the vertex corrections play a significant role and need to be seriously taken into account., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures

Quantum circuit model is the most popular paradigm for implementing complex quantum computation. Based on Cartan decomposition, we show that $2(N-1)$ generalized controlled-$X$ (GCX) gates, $6$ single-qubit rotations about the $y$- and $z$-axes, and $N+5$ single-partite $y$- and $z$-rotation-types which are defined in this paper are sufficient to simulate a controlled-unitary gate $\mathcal{U}_{cu(2\otimes N)}$ with $A$ controlling on $\mathbb{C}^2\otimes \mathbb{C}^N$. In the scenario of the unitary gate $\mathcal{U}_{cd(M\otimes N)}$ with $M\geq3$ that is locally equivalent to a diagonal unitary on $\mathbb{C}^M\otimes \mathbb{C}^N$, $2M(N-1)$ GCX gates and $2M(N-1)+10$ single-partite $y$- and $z$-rotation-types are required to simulate it. The quantum circuit for implementing $\mathcal{U}_{cu(2\otimes N)}$ and $\mathcal{U}_{cd(M\otimes N)}$ are presented. Furthermore, we find $\mathcal{U}_{cu(2\otimes2)}$ with $A$ controlling has Schmidt rank two, and in other cases the diagonalized form of the target unitaries can be expanded in terms of specific simple types of product unitary operators., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

Higgs pair production provides a unique handle for measuring the strength of Higgs self interaction and constraining the shape of the Higgs potential. Including radiative corrections to the trilinear couplings of $CP$-even Higgs, we investigate the cross section of the lightest neutral Higgs pair production in gluon fusion at the Large Hadron Collider in the supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. Numerical results indicate that the correction to the cross section is about 11\% in the B-LSSM, while is only about 4\% in the MSSM. Considering the constraints of the experimental data of the lightest Higgs, we find that the gauge couplings of $U(1)_{B-L}$ and the ratio of the nonzero vacuum expectation values of two singlets also affect strongly the theoretical evaluations on the production cross section in the B-LSSM., Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics

Rapid and repeated photon cycling has enabled precision metrology and the development of quantum information systems using a variety of atoms and simple molecules. Extending optical cycling to structurally complex molecules would provide new capabilities in these areas, as well as in ultracold chemistry. Increased molecular complexity, however, makes realizing closed optical transitions more difficult. Building on the already established strong optical cycling of diatomic, linear triatomic, and symmetric top molecules, recent theoretical and experimental work has indicated that cycling will be extendable to phenol containing molecules, as well as other asymmetric species. The paradigm for these systems is the use of an optical cycling center bonded to a molecular ligand. Theory has suggested that cycling may be extended to even larger ligands, like naphthalene, pyrene and coronene. Here, we study the optical excitation and vibrational branching of the molecules CaO-2-naphthyl, SrO-2-naphthyl and CaO-1-naphthyl and find only weak decay to excited vibrational states, indicating a promising path to full quantum control and laser cooling of large arene-based molecules., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

In condensed-matter systems, electrons are subjected to two different interactions under certain conditions. Even if both interactions are weak, it is difficult to perform perturbative calculations due to the complexity caused by the interplay of two interactions. When one or two interactions are strong, ordinary perturbation theory may become invalid. Here we consider undoped graphene as an example and provide a non-perturbative quantum-field-theoretic analysis of the interplay of electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb interaction. We treat these two interactions on an equal footing and derive the exact Dyson-Schwinger integral equation of the full Dirac-fermion propagator. This equation depends on several complicated correlation functions and thus is difficult to handle. Fortunately, we find that these correlation functions obey a number of exact identities, which allows us to prove that the Dyson-Schwinger equation of the full fermion propagator is self-closed. After solving this self-closed equation, we obtain the renormalized velocity of Dirac fermions and show that its energy (momentum) dependence is dominantly determined by the electron-phonon (Coulomb) interaction. In particular, the renormalized velocity exhibits a logarithmic momentum dependence and a non-monotonic energy dependence., Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures

We present a non-perturbative study of the quantum many-body effects caused by the long-range Coulomb interaction in a two-dimensional semi-Dirac semimetal. This kind of semimetal may be realized in deformed graphene and a class of other realistic materials. In the non-interacting limit, the dispersion of semi-Dirac fermion is linear in one direction and quadratic in the other direction. When the impact of Coulomb interaction is taken into account, such a dispersion can be significantly modified. To reveal the correlation effects, we first obtain the exact self-consistent Dyson-Schwinger equation of the full fermion propagator and then extract the momentum dependence of the renormalized fermion dispersion from the numerical solutions. Our results show that the fermion dispersion becomes linear in two directions. These results are compared to previous theoretical works on semi-Dirac semimetals., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

The electronic, laser-induced fluorescence spectrum of the $B^2\Sigma^+\leftarrow X^2\Sigma^+$ transition in $^{28}$Si$^{16}$O$^+$ and $^{29}$Si$^{16}$O$^+$ has been recorded in a cryogenic buffer gas cell at $\approx$ 100 K. Molecular constants are extracted for both $^{28}$Si$^{16}$O$^+$ and $^{29}$Si$^{16}$O$^+$, including the Fermi contact hyperfine constant for both the $B$ and $X$ states of $^{29}$Si$^{16}$O$^+$, and used in a discussion of the suitability of SiO$^+$ in future quantum information experiments., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

Quantum manipulation based on geometric phases provides a promising way towards robust quantum gates. However, in the current implementation of nonadiabatic geometric phases, operational and/or random errors tend to destruct the conditions that induce geometric phases, thereby smearing their noise-resilient feature. In a recent experiment [Y. Xu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 230503 (2020)], high-fidelity universal geometric quantum gates have been implemented in a superconducting circuit, which are robust to different types of errors under different configurations of the geometric evolution paths. Here, we apply the path-design strategy to explain in detail why both configurations can realize universal quantum gates in a single-loop way. Meanwhile, we purposefully induce our geometric manipulation by selecting the path configuration that is robust against the qubit-frequency-drift induced error, which is the dominant error source on realistic superconducting circuits and has not been deliberately addressed. Moreover, our proposal can further integrate with the composite scheme to enhance the gate robustness, which is verified by numerical simulations. Therefore, our scheme provides a promising way towards practical realization of high-fidelity and robust nonadiabatic geometric quantum gates., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

Back-streaming neutrons from the spallation target of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) that emit through the incoming proton channel were exploited to build a white neutron beam facility (the so-called Back-n white neutron source), which was completed in March 2018. The Back-n neutron beam is very intense, at approximately 2*10^7 n/cm^2/s at 55 m from the target, and has a nominal proton beam with a power of 100 kW in the CSNS-I phase and a kinetic energy of 1.6 GeV and a thick tungsten target in multiple slices with modest moderation from the cooling water through the slices. In addition, the excellent energy spectrum spanning from 0.5 eV to 200 MeV, and a good time resolution related to the time-of-flight measurements make it a typical white neutron source for nuclear data measurements; its overall performance is among that of the best white neutron sources in the world. Equipped with advanced spectrometers, detectors, and application utilities, the Back-n facility can serve wide applications, with a focus on neutron-induced cross-section measurements. This article presents an overview of the neutron beam characteristics, the experimental setups, and the ongoing applications at Back-n., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Quantum steering describes the ability of one observer to nonlocally affect the other observer's state through local measurements, which represents a new form of quantum nonlocal correlation and has potential applications in quantum information and quantum communication. In this paper, we propose a computable steering criterion that is applicable to bipartite quantum systems of arbitrary dimensions. The criterion can be used to verify a wide range of steerable states directly from a given density matrix without constructing measurement settings. Compared with the existing steering criteria, it is readily computable and testable in experiment, which can also be used to verify entanglement as all steerable quantum states are entangled., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.00083

By employing Pauli measurements, we present some nonlinear steering criteria applicable for arbitrary two-qubit quantum systems and optimized ones for symmetric quantum states. These criteria provide sufficient conditions to witness steering, which can recover the previous elegant results for some well-known states. Compared with the existing linear steering criterion and entropic criterion, ours can certify more steerable states without selecting measurement settings or correlation weights, which can also be used to verify entanglement as all steerable quantum states are entangled.

The double Higgs boson production through $e^{+}e^-\rightarrow hhZ$ is analyzed in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model(SM) with the local gauge symmetry $U(1)_{B-L}$, where $h$ denotes the lightest Higgs boson with 125 GeV. Considering the constraints from the updated prediction data, we find that the production cross section of this process in the model depends on some parameters strongly.