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A photonic system with a tunable bath environment provides an extra degree of freedom for quantum simulators. Such a system can be realized by parametrically modulating the coupling between the system and bath. In this letter, by coupling a transmon qubit to a lossy Superconducting Nonlinear Asymmetric Inductive eLement (SNAIL) mode, we experimentally create a tunable chemical potential for the qubit mode. We show that the qubit can be thermalized to equilibrium with different population distributions under different parametric pumping conditions. We further extend our method to the third level of the transmon, showing its practical use beyond the simple two-level case. Our results provide a useful tool that can be readily integrated with quantum simulators that would benefit from a non-trivial photon population distribution., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures

The projection method is the standard approach for numerically integrating the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation initial-boundary-value problem. Typical boundary conditions specify either the velocity or the gradient velocity on the boundary. Here, we consider the pressure-tangential-velocity boundary condition in which the tangential components of the velocity and the pressure at the boundary are specified., Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure

High-fidelity quantum non-demolition qubit measurement is critical to error correction and rapid qubit feedback in large-scale quantum computing. High-fidelity readout requires passing a short and strong pulse through the qubit's readout resonator, which is then processed by a sufficiently high bandwidth, high saturation power, and quantum-limited amplifier. We have developed a design pipeline that combines time-domain simulation of the un-truncated device Hamiltonian, fabrication constraints, and maximization of saturation power. We have realized an amplifier based on a modified NIST tri-layer Nb fabrication suite which utilizes an array of 25 radio frequency Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (rf SQUIDs) embedded within a low-Q resonator powered by a high-power voltage pump delivered via a diplexer on the signal port. We show that, despite the intensity of the pump, the device is quantum-efficient and capable of high-fidelity measurement limited by state transitions in the transmon. We present experimental data demonstrating up to -91.2 dBm input saturation power with 20 dB gain, up to 28 MHz instantaneous bandwidth, and phase-preserving qubit measurements with 62% quantum efficiency., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures

Circuit QED based quantum information processing relies on low noise amplification for signal readout. In the realm of microwave superconducting circuits, this amplification is often achieved via Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPA). In the past, these amplifiers exhibited low power added efficiency (PAE), which is roughly the fraction of pump power that is converted to output signal power. This is increasingly relevant because recent attempts to build high saturation power amplifiers achieve this at the cost of very low PAE, which in turn puts a high heat load on the cryostat and limits the number of these devices that a dilution refrigerator can host. Here, we numerically investigate upper bounds on PAE. We focus on a class of parametric amplifiers that consists of a capacitor shunted by a nonlinear inductive block. We first set a benchmark for this class of amplifiers by considering nonlinear blocks described by an arbitrary polynomial current-phase relation. Next, we propose two circuit implementations of the nonlinear block. Finally, we investigate chaining polynomial amplifiers. We find that while amplifiers with higher gain have a lower PAE, regardless of the gain there is considerable room to improve as compared to state of the art devices. For example, for a phase-sensitive amplifier with a power gain of 20 dB, the PAE is ~0.1% for typical JPAs, 5.9% for our simpler circuit JPAs, 34% for our more complex circuit JPAs, 48% for our arbitrary polynomial amplifiers, and at least 95% for our chained amplifiers., Comment: 15 pages, 21 figures

In this work, we extend the model of contact angles that we have previously developed for sessile drops on a wetted surface to the case of a meniscus in a capillary. The underlying physics of our model describe the intermolecular forces between the fluid and the surface of the capillary that result in the formation of a thin, non-removable fluid layer that coats the capillary wall. We describe the shape of the meniscus using a Young-Laplace equation and an incompressible, two-phase, CFD calculation, both modified to take into account intermolecular forces using the disjoining pressure model. We find that our numerical solutions of the Young-Laplace equation and equilibrium meniscus shapes obtained by CFD agree well with each other. Furthermore, for capillaries that are sufficiently larger than the thickness of the non-removable film, our numerical solutions agree well with the effective contact angle model that we previously developed for sessile drops. Finally, we observe that it is possible to tune the disjoining pressure model parameters so that the intermolecular forces between the liquid and solid molecules becomes so strong compared to the surface tension that our formula for effective contact angle gives an imaginary solution. We analyze this situation using CFD and find that it corresponds to dewetting, where the bulk liquid detaches from the walls of the capillary leaving behind the non-removable thin liquid film., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

The discovery of two-dimensional superconductivity in LaAlO3/KTaO3 (111) and (110) interfaces has raised significant interest in this system. In this manuscript we report the first successful fabrication of a superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID) in the KTO system. The key device elements, superconducting weak links, are created by conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) lithography which can reversibly control the conductivity at the LAO/KTO(110) interface with nanoscale resolution. The periodic modulation of the SQUID critical current, Ic(B), with magnetic field corresponds well with our theoretical modeling, which reveals a large kinetic inductance of the superconducting two-dimensional electron gas in KTO. The kinetic inductance of the SQUID is tunable by electrical gating from the back, due to the large dielectric constant of KTO. The demonstration of weak links and SQUIDs in KTO broadens the scope for exploring the underlying physics of KTO superconductivity, including the role of spin-orbit-coupling, pairing symmetry, and inhomogeneity. It also promotes KTO as a versatile platform for a growing family of quantum devices, which could be applicable in the realm of quantum computing and information., Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures

Increasing the fidelity of single-qubit gates requires a combination of faster pulses and increased qubit coherence. However, with resonant qubit drive via a capacitively coupled port, these two objectives are mutually contradictory, as higher qubit quality factor requires a weaker coupling, necessitating longer pulses for the same applied power. Increasing drive power, on the other hand, can heat the qubit's environment and degrade coherence. In this work, by using the inherent non-linearity of the transmon qubit, we circumvent this issue by introducing a new parametric driving scheme to perform single-qubit control. Specifically, we achieve rapid gate speed by pumping the transmon's native Kerr term at approximately one third of the qubit's resonant frequency. Given that transmons typically operate within a fairly narrow range of anharmonicity, this technique is applicable to all transmons. In both theory and experiment, we show that the Rabi rate of the process is proportional to applied drive amplitude cubed, allowing for rapid gate speed with only modest increases in applied power. In addition, we demonstrate that filtering can be used to protect the qubit's coherence while performing rapid gates, and present theoretical calculations indicating that decay due to multi-photon losses, even in very strongly coupled drive lines, will not limit qubit lifetime. We demonstrate $\pi/2$ pulses as short as tens of nanoseconds with fidelity as high as 99.7\%, limited by the modest coherence of our transmon. We also present calculations indicating that this technique could reduce cryostat heating for fast gates, a vital requirement for large-scale quantum computers.

Encoding the electronic structure of molecules using 2-electron reduced density matrices (2RDMs) as opposed to many-body wave functions has been a decades-long quest as the 2RDM contains sufficient information to compute the exact molecular energy but requires only polynomial storage. We focus on linear polymers with varying conformations and numbers of monomers and show that we can use machine learning to predict both the 1-electron and the 2-electron reduced density matrices. Moreover, by applying the Hamiltonian operator to the predicted reduced density matrices we show that we can recover the molecular energy. Thus, we demonstrate the feasibility of a machine learning approach to predicting electronic structure that is generalizable both to new conformations as well as new molecules. At the same time our work circumvents the N-representability problem that has stymied the adaption of 2RDM methods, by directly machine-learning valid Reduced Density Matrices., Comment: 21 pages including supplement

In 1994, Eggers and Dupont suggested the slender jet model, a one-dimensional model that describes the motion of a thin axisymmetric column of viscous, incompressible fluid with a free surface. In their model, the momentum equation was derived in a manner that was not completely self-consistent. Consequently, the viscosity term was described with less accuracy than the surface tension term. In this paper, we derive a novel slender jet momentum equation in completely self-consistent manner that allows us to describe both the viscosity and the surface tension forces with the same accuracy as the surface tension term in the Eggers-Dupont model. Our derivation does not affect the volume conservation equation, which remains identical to the one in the Eggers-Dupont model. We show that our model predicts different Plateau-Rayleigh instability dynamics as compared to the Eggers-Dupont's model. The differences between the models are particularly large at small Reynolds numbers, where the viscosity plays a prominent role in development the Plateau-Rayleigh instability., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures

We construct a novel model for the steady-state contact angles of liquid droplets at the wetted substrate. The non-removable, thin liquid film covering the substrate is governed by the intermolecular forces between molecules of liquid and solid, which we describe using the standard disjoining pressure approximation. Balancing the disjoining pressure against the surface tension we find the smooth shape of the surface of the liquid. We show that we can extract an effective contact angle from the region where the film and the droplet meet. Crucially, we find that for large droplets the contact angle is independent of the droplet size. Instead, the contact angle is determined by the surface tension and the disjoining pressure parameters through a simple formula that works for both small and large contact angles. We suggest that comparing predictions of our model to experimentally measured contact angles will enable constraining the parameters of the disjoining pressure models., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

We present a novel method for solving eigenvalue problems on a quantum computer based on spectroscopy. The method works by coupling a "probe" qubit to a set of system simulation qubits and then time evolving both the probe and the system under Hamiltonian dynamics. In this way, we simulate spectroscopy on a quantum computer. We test our method on the IBM quantum hardware for a simple single spin model and an interacting Kitaev chain model. For the Kitaev chain, we trace out the pseudo-topological phase boundary for a two-site model.

We explore the use of applied electrical potentials to induce band flattening in graphene for bands near zero energy. We consider various families of doubly periodic potentials and simulate their effect on the electronic band structure using a tight-binding and a continuum approach. From these families, we find that an applied potential with symmetries of wallpaper group 17, in particular a Kagome potential, works best for inducing a high degree of band flattening for a range of realistic potential amplitudes and periods. Our work indicates that it should be possible to engineer the band structure of graphene using electrostatic gating, thus enabling a new approach to the development of graphene-based metamaterials., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures

We simulate the smallest building block of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, a system of four interacting Majorana modes. We propose a 1D Kitaev chain that has been split into three segments, i.e., two topological segments separated by a non-topological segment in the middle, hosting four Majorana Zero Modes at the ends of the topological segments. We add a non-local interaction term to this Hamiltonian which produces both bilinear (two-body) interactions and a quartic (four-body) interaction between the Majorana modes. We further tune the parameters in the Hamiltonian to reach the regime with a finite quartic interaction strength and close to zero bilinear interaction strength, as required by the SYK model. To achieve this, we map the Hamiltonian from Majorana basis to a complex fermion basis, and extract the interaction strengths using a method of characterization of low-lying energy levels and then finding the differences in energies between odd and even parity levels. We show that the interaction strengths can be tuned using two methods - (i) an approximate method of tuning overlapping Majorana wave functions (without non-local interactions) to a zero energy point followed by addition of a non-local interaction, and (ii) a direct parameter space optimization method using a genetic algorithm. We propose that this model could be further extended to more Majorana modes, and show a 6-Majorana model as an example. Since eigenspectral characterization of one-dimensional nanowire devices can be done via tunneling spectroscopy in quantum transport measurements, this study could be performed in experiment., Comment: Code available on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/communities/frolovlab/

One of the primary challenges in realizing large-scale quantum processors is the realization of qubit couplings that balance interaction strength, connectivity, and mode confinement. Moreover, it is very desirable for the device elements to be detachable, allowing components to be built, tested, and replaced independently. In this work, we present a microwave quantum state router, centered on parametrically driven, Josephson-junction based three-wave mixing, that realizes all-to-all couplings among four detachable quantum modules. We demonstrate coherent exchange among all four communication modes, with an average full-iSWAP time of 764ns and average inferred inter-module exchange fidelity of 0.969, limited by mode coherence. We also demonstrate photon transfer and pairwise entanglement between module qubits, and parallel operation of simultaneous iSWAP exchange across the router. Our router-module architecture serves as a prototype of modular quantum computer that has great potential for enabling flexible, demountable, large-scale quantum networks of superconducting qubits and cavities.

We investigate the phase diagram of the one-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model with mass imbalance. Using DMRG, we show that this model has a "triplet" paired phase (dubbed $\pi \mathrm{SG}$) at generic fillings, consistent with previous theoretical analysis. We study the topological aspect of $\pi \mathrm{SG}$ phase, determining long-range string orders and the filling anomaly which refers to the relation among the single particle gap, inversion symmetry, and filling imbalance for open chains. We also find, using DMRG, that at $1/3$ filling, commensurate effects lead to two additional phases: a crystal phase and a trion phase; we construct a description of these phases using Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory., Comment: 11 pages + 5 pages appendices, 14 figures

We design and investigate an experimental system capable of entering an electron transport blockade regime in which a spin-triplet localized in the path of current is forbidden from entering a spin-singlet superconductor. To stabilize the triplet a double quantum dot is created electrostatically near a superconducting lead in an InAs nanowire. The dots are filled stochastically with electrons of either spin. The superconducting lead is a molecular beam epitaxy grown Al shell. The shell is etched away over a wire segment to make room for the double dot and the normal metal gold lead. The quantum dot closest to the normal lead exhibits Coulomb diamonds, the dot closest to the superconducting lead exhibits Andreev bound states and an induced gap. The experimental observations compare favorably to a theoretical model of Andreev blockade, named so because the triplet double dot configuration suppresses Andreev reflections. Observed leakage currents can be accounted for by finite temperature. We observe the predicted quadruple level degeneracy points of high current and a periodic conductance pattern controlled by the occupation of the normal dot. Even-odd transport asymmetry is lifted with increased temperature and magnetic field. This blockade phenomenon can be used to study spin structure of superconductors. It may also find utility in quantum computing devices that utilize Andreev or Majorana states., Comment: Written using The Block Method. Data on Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4446186

We simulate the dynamics of braiding Majorana zero modes on an IBM Quantum computer. We find the native quantum gates introduce too much noise to observe braiding. Instead, we use Qiskit Pulse to develop scaled two-qubit quantum gates that better match the unitary time evolution operator and enable us to observe braiding. This work demonstrates that quantum computers can be used for simulation, and highlights the use of pulse-level control for programming quantum computers and constitutes the first experimental evidence of braiding via dynamical Hamiltonian evolution.

Due to their high coherence, a laser is a ubiquitous tool in science. We show that by engineering the coupling between the gain medium and the laser cavity as well as the laser cavity and the output port, it is possible to eliminate most of the noise due to photons entering as well as leaving the laser cavity. Hence, it is possible to reduce the laser linewidth by a factor equal to the number of photons in the laser cavity below the standard quantum limit. We design and theoretically analyze a superconducting circuit that uses Josephson junctions, capacitors and inductors to implement a microwave laser, including the low-noise couplers that allow the design to surpass the standard quantum limit. Our proposal relies on the elements of superconducting quantum information, and thus is an example of how quantum engineering techniques can inspire us to re-imagine the limits of conventional quantum systems., Comment: 34 pages, 23 figures

SrTiO$_3$ is a superconducting semiconductor with a pairing mechanism that is not well understood. SrTiO$_3$ undergoes a ferroelastic transition at $T=$ 105 K, leading to the formation of domains with boundaries that can couple to electronic properties. At two-dimensional SrTiO$_3$ interfaces, the orientation of these ferroelastic domains is known to couple to the electron density, leading to electron-rich regions that favor out-of-plane distortions and electron-poor regions that favor in-plane distortion. Here we show that ferroelastic domain walls support low energy excitations that are analogous to capillary waves at the interface of two fluids. We propose that these capillary waves mediate electron pairing at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface, resulting in superconductivity around the edges of electron-rich regions. This mechanism is consistent with recent experimental results reported by Pai et al. [PRL $\bf{120}$, 147001 (2018)]

Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPA) are nonlinear devices that are used for quantum sensing and qubit readout in the microwave regime. While JPAs regularly operate in the quantum limit, their gain saturates for very small (few photons) input power. In a previous work, we showed that the saturation power of JPAs is not limited by pump depletion, but instead by the high-order nonlinearity of Josephson junctions, the nonlinear circuit elements that enable amplification in JPAs. Here, we present a systematic study of the nonlinearities in JPAs, we show which nonlinearities limit the saturation power, and present a strategy for optimizing the circuit parameters for achieving the best possible JPA. For concreteness, we focus on JPAs that are constructed around a Josephson Ring Modulator (JRM). We show that by tuning the external and shunt inductors, we should be able to take the best experimentally available JPAs and improve their saturation power by $\sim 15$ dB. Finally, we argue that our methods and qualitative results are applicable to a broad range of cavity based JPAs., Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenide superconductors have unique and desirable properties for integration with conventional superconducting circuits. However, fully superconducting contact must be made between the 2D material and three-dimensional (3D) superconductors in order to employ the standard microwave drive and readout of qubits in such circuits. Here, we present a method for creating zero-resistance contacts between 2D NbSe$_2$ and 3D aluminum that behave as Josephson junctions (JJs) with large effective areas compared to 3D-3D JJs. We present a model for the supercurrent flow in a 2D-3D superconducting structure by numerical solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equations and find good agreement with experiment. These results demonstrate a crucial step towards a new generation of hybrid superconducting quantum circuits., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures

Tensor networks are a powerful formalism for transforming one set of degrees of freedom to another. They have been heavily used in analyzing the geometry of bulk/boundary correspondence in conformal field theories. Here we develop a tensor-network version of the Wilson-Wegner Renormalization Group Flow equations to efficiently generate a unitary tensor network which diagonalizes many-body localized Hamiltonians. Treating this unitary tensor network as a bulk geometry, we find this emergent geometry corresponds to the shredded horizon picture: the circumference of the network shrinks exponentially with distance into the bulk, with spatially distant points being largely disconnected., Comment: 4+8 pages; 5+12 figures

The ability to create and investigate composite fermionic phases opens new avenues for the investigation of strongly correlated quantum matter. We report the experimental observation of a series of quantized conductance steps within strongly interacting electron waveguides formed at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface. The waveguide conductance follows a characteristic sequence within Pascal's triangle: $(1, 3, 6, 10, 15, ...)\cdot e^2/h$, where $e$ is the electron charge and $h$ is the Planck constant. The robustness of these steps with respect to magnetic field and gate voltage indicate the formation of a new family of degenerate quantum liquids formed from bound states of $n = 2, 3, 4, ...$ electrons. These experiments could provide solid-state analogues for a wide range of composite fermionic phases ranging from neutron stars to solid-state materials to quark-gluon plasmas.

We show how Cooper-pair-assisted transport, which describes the stimulated transport of electrons in the presence of Cooper-pairs, can be engineered and controlled with cold atoms, in regimes that are difficult to access for condensed matter systems. Our model is a channel connecting two cold atomic gases, and the mechanism to generate such a transport relies on the coupling of the channel to a molecular BEC, with diatomic molecules of fermionic atoms. Our results are obtained using a Floquet-Redfield master equation that accounts for an exact treatment of the interaction between atoms in the channel. We explore, in particular, the impact of the coupling to the BEC and the interaction between atoms in the junction on its transport properties, revealing non-trivial dependence of the produced particle current. We also study the effects of finite temperatures of the reservoirs and the robustness of the current against additional dissipation acting on the junction. Our work is experimentally relevant and has potential applications to dissipation engineering of transport with cold atoms, studies of thermoelectric effects, quantum heat engines, or Floquet Majorana fermions., Comment: 13 pages and 4 figures (main) + 10 pages (appendices). Close to the published version

As an analogy to the Weyl point in k-space, we search for energy levels which close at a single point as a function of a three dimensional parameter space. Such points are topologically protected in the sense that any perturbation which acts on the two level subsystem can be corrected by tuning the control parameters. We find that parameter controlled Weyl points are ubiquitous in semiconductor-superconductor quantum dots and that they are deeply related to Majorana zero modes. In this paper, we present several semiconductor-superconductor quantum dot devices which host parameter controlled Weyl points. Further, we show how these points can be observed experimentally via conductance measurements.

Inspired by the microscopic control over dissipative processes in quantum optics and cold atoms, we develop an open-system framework to study dissipative control of transport in strongly interacting fermionic systems, relevant for both solid state and cold atom experiments. We show how subgap currents exhibiting Multiple Andreev Reflections -- the stimulated transport of electrons in the presence of Cooper-pairs -- can be controlled via engineering of superconducting leads or superfluid atomic gases. Our approach incorporates dissipation within the channel, which is naturally occurring and can be engineered in cold gas experiments. This opens opportunities for engineering many phenomena with transport in strongly interacting systems. As examples, we consider particle loss and dephasing, and note different behaviour for currents with different microscopic origin. We also show how to induce nonreciprocal electron and Cooper-pair currents., Comment: Main text (5 pages, 4 figures) + Supplemental material (12 pages, 1 figure). Close to the published version

We compute and compare the decay lengths of several correlation functions and effective coupling constants in the many-body localized (MBL) phase. To this end, we consider the distribution of the logarithms of these couplings and correlators: in each case the log-coupling follows a normal distribution with mean and variance that grow linearly with separation. Thus, a localization length is asymptotically sharply defined for each of these quantities. These localization lengths differ numerically from one another, but all of them remain short up to the numerically observed MBL transition, indicating stability of the MBL phase against isolated ergodic inclusions. We also show how these broad distributions may be extracted using interferometric probes such as double electron-electron resonance (DEER) and the statistics of local spin precession frequencies., Comment: 14 pages, 4+3 figures

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a 1D Bose-Hubbard model in a gradient potential and a superlattice, beginning from a deep Mott insulator regime with an average filling of one particle per site. Studying a quench that is near resonance to tunnelling of the particles over two lattice sites, we show how a spin model emerges consisting of two coupled Ising chains that are coupled by interaction terms in a staggered geometry. We compare and contrast the behavior in this case with that in a previously studied case where the resonant tunnelling was over a single site. Using optimized tensor network techniques to calculate finite temperature behavior of the model, as well as finite size scaling for the ground state, we conclude that the universality class of the phase transition for the coupled chains is that of a tricritical Ising point. We also investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics after the quench in the vicinity of the resonance and compare dynamics with recent experiments realized without the superlattice geometry. This model is directly realizable in current experiments, and reflects a new general way to realize spin models with ultracold atoms in optical lattices., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

We show that atoms in tilted optical superlattices provide a platform for exploring coupled spin chains of forms that are not present in other systems. In particular, using a period-2 superlattice in 1D, we show that coupled Ising spin chains with XZ and ZZ spin coupling terms can be engineered. We use optimized tensor network techniques to explore the criticality and non-equilibrium dynamics in these models, finding a tricritical Ising point in regimes that are accessible in current experiments. These setups are ideal for studying low-entropy physics, as initial entropy is "frozen-out" in realizing the spin models, and provide an example of the complex critical behaviour that can arise from interaction-projected models., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We study the formation of bound states in a one-dimensional, single-component Fermi chain with attractive interactions. The phase diagram, computed from DMRG (density matrix renormalization group), shows not only a superfluid of paired fermions (pair phase) and a liquid of fermion triplets (trion phase), but also a phase with two gapless modes. We show that the latter phase is described by a 2-component Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) theory, consisting of one charged and one neutral mode. We argue based on our numerical data, that the single, pair, and trion phases are descendants of the 2-component TLL theory. We speculate on the nature of the phase transitions amongst these phases., Comment: 4 pages of main text with 3 figures and 5 pages of appendices with 7 figures

A normal metal source reservoir can load two electrons onto a double quantum dot in the spin-triplet configuration. We show that if the drain lead of the dot is a spin-singlet superconductor, these electrons cannot form a Cooper pair and are blockaded on the double dot. We call this phenomenon Andreev blockade because it arises due to suppressed Andreev reflections. We identify transport characteristics unique to Andreev blockade. Most significantly, it occurs for any occupation of the dot adjacent to the superconductor, in contrast with the well-studied Pauli blockade which requires odd occupations. Andreev blockade is lifted if quasiparticles are allowed to enter the superconducting lead, but it should be observable in the hard gap superconductor-semiconductor devices. A recent experiment tests this model and finds support for several predictions made here~[P. Zhang, H. Wu, J. Chen, S. A. Khan, P. Krogstrup, D. Pekker, and S. M. Frolov, arXiv:2102.03283 (2021)]. Andreev blockade should be considered in the design of topological quantum circuits, hybrid quantum bits and quantum emulators., Comment: 6 pages + supplement

The implementation of a high-fidelity two-qubit quantum logic gate remains an outstanding challenge for isolated solid-state qubits such as Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. In this work, we show that by driving pairs of NV centers to undergo photon scattering processes that flip their qubit state simultaneously, we can achieve a unitary two-qubit gate conditioned upon a single photon detection event. Further, by exploiting quantum interference between the optical transitions of the NV centers electronic states, we realize the existence of two special drive frequencies: a `magic' point where the spin-preserving elastic scattering rates are suppressed, and a `balanced' point where the state-flipping scattering rates are equal. We analyzed four different gate operation schemes that utilize these two special drive frequencies, and various combinations of polarization in the drive and collection paths. Our theoretical and numerical calculations show that the gate fidelity can be as high as 97%. The proposed unitary gate, combined with available single qubit unitary operations, forms a universal gate set for quantum computing., Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures

In this comment we point out that the experimental evidence for superconductivity presented by Thapa and Pandey in arXiv:1807.08572 is also consistent with a percolation transition. We propose simple follow-up experiments which would help to eliminate percolation as a possible explanation for the observed data., Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures

We propose a topological qubit in which braiding and readout are mediated by the $4\pi$ Majorana-Josephson effect. The braidonium device consists of three Majorana nanowires that come together to make a tri-junction; in order to control the superconducting phase differences at the tri-junction the nanowires are enclosed in a ring made of a conventional superconductor; and in order to perform initialization/readout one of the nanowires is coupled to a fluxonium qubit through a topological Josephson junction. We analyze how flux-based control and readout protocols can be used to demonstrate braiding and qubit operation for realistic materials and circuit parameters.

SrTiO$_3$-based heterointerfaces support quasi-two-dimensional (2D) electron systems that are analogous to III-V semiconductor heterostructures, but also possess superconducting, magnetic, spintronic, ferroelectric, and ferroelastic degrees of freedom. Despite these rich properties, the relatively low mobilities of 2D complex-oxide interfaces appear to preclude ballistic transport in 1D. Here we show that the 2D LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface can support quantized ballistic transport of electrons and (non-superconducting) electron pairs within quasi-1D structures that are created using a well-established conductive atomic-force microscope (c-AFM) lithography technique. The nature of transport ranges from truly single-mode (1D) to three-dimensional (3D), depending on the applied magnetic field and gate voltage. Quantization of the lowest $e^2/h$ plateau indicate a ballistic mean-free path $l_{MF}\sim$ 20 $\mu$m, more than two orders of magnitude larger than for 2D LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterostructures. Non-superconducting electron pairs are found to be stable in magnetic fields as high as $B=11$ T, and propagate ballistically with conductance quantized at 2$e^2/h$. Theories of one-dimensional (1D) transport of interacting electron systems depend crucially on the sign of the electron-electron interaction, which may help explain the highly ballistic transport behavior. The 1D geometry yields new insights into the electronic structure of the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ system and offers a new platform for the study of strongly interacting 1D electronic systems., Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures

Quantum simulation is a way to study unexplored Hamiltonians by mapping them onto the assemblies of well-understood quantum systems such as ultracold atoms in optical lattices, trapped ions or superconducting circuits. Semiconductor nanostructures which form the backbone of classical computing hold largely untapped potential for quantum simulation. In particular, chains of quantum dots in semiconductor nanowires can be used to emulate one-dimensional Hamiltonians such as the toy model of a topological p-wave superconductor. Here we realize a building block of this model, a double quantum dot with superconducting contacts, in an indium antimonide nanowire. In each dot, tunnel-coupling to a superconductor induces Andreev bound states. We demonstrate that these states hybridize to form the double-dot Andreev molecular states. We establish the parity and the spin structure of Andreev molecular levels by monitoring their evolution in electrostatic potential and magnetic field. Understanding Andreev molecules is a key step towards building longer chains which are predicted to generate Majorana bound states at the end sites. Two superconducting quantum dots are already sufficient to test the fusion rules of Majorana bound states, a milestone towards fault-tolerant topological quantum computing., Comment: 15 pages and 4 figures in the main text, 28 pages and 18 figures in the supplementary information. Raw data can be downloaded at http://data.4tu.nl/repository/uuid:e99d1ab7-2e82-447e-a314-f230a0da4a95

We propose a topological plasmonic crystal structure composed of an array of parallel nanowires with unequal spacing. In the paraxial approximation, the Helmholtz equation that describes the propagation of light along the nanowires maps onto the Schr\"{o}dinger equation of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. Using full three-dimensional finite difference time domain solution of the Maxwell equations we demonstrate the existence of topological defect modes, with sub-wavelength localization, bound to kinks of the plasmonic crystal. Furthermore, we show that by manipulating kinks we can construct spatial mode filters, that couple bulk modes to topological defect modes, and topological beam-splitters that couple two topological defect modes. Finally, we show that the structures are robust to fabrication errors with inverse length-scale smaller than the topological band gap., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Many-body localization (MBL) is a phase of matter that is characterized by the absence of thermalization. Dynamical generation of a large number of local quantum numbers has been identified as one key characteristic of this phase, quite possibly the microscopic mechanism of breakdown of thermalization and the phase transition itself. We formulate a robust algorithm, based on Wegner Wilson flow (WWF) renormalization, for computing these conserved quantities and their interactions. We present evidence for the existence of distinct fixed point distributions of the latter: a flat "white noise" distribution in the ergodic phase, a "1/f" law inside the MBL phase, and scale-free distributions in the transition regime., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The flow equation method was proposed by Wegner as a technique for studying interacting systems in one dimension. Here, we apply this method to a disordered one dimensional model with power-law decaying hoppings. This model presents a transition as function of the decaying exponent $\alpha$. We derive the flow equations, and the evolution of single-particle operators. The flow equation reveals the delocalized nature of the states for $\alpha<1/2$. Additionally, in the regime, $\alpha>1/2$, we present a strong-bond renormalization group structure based on iterating the three-site clusters, where we solve the flow equations perturbatively. This renormalization group approach allows us to probe the critical point $\left(\alpha=1\right)$. This method correctly reproduces the critical level-spacing statistics, and the fractal dimensionality of the eigenfunctions., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures

The interface between the two complex oxides LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 has remarkable properties that can be locally reconfigured between conducting and insulating states using a conductive atomic force microscope. Prior investigations of sketched quantum dot devices revealed a phase in which electrons form pairs, implying a strongly attractive electron-electron interaction. Here, we show that these devices with strong electron-electron interactions can exhibit a gate-tunable transition from a pair-tunneling regime to a single-electron (Andreev bound state) tunneling regime where the interactions become repulsive. The electron-electron interaction sign change is associated with a Lifshitz transition where the dxz and dyz bands start to become occupied. This electronically tunable electron-electron interaction, combined with the nanoscale reconfigurability of this system, provides an interesting starting point towards solid-state quantum simulation., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures

A key property of many-body localization, the localization of quantum particles in systems with both quenched disorder and interactions, is the area law entanglement of even highly excited eigenstates of many-body localized Hamiltonians. Matrix Product States (MPS) can be used to efficiently represent low entanglement (area law) wave functions in one dimension. An important application of MPS is the widely used Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm for finding ground states of one dimensional Hamiltonians. Here, we describe two algorithms, the Shift and Invert MPS (SIMPS) and excited state DMRG which finds highly-excited eigenstates of many-body localized Hamiltonians. Excited state DMRG uses a modified sweeping procedure to identify eigenstates whereas SIMPS is a shift-inverse procedure that applies the inverse of the shifted Hamiltonian to a MPS multiple times to project out the targeted eigenstate. To demonstrate the power of these methods we verify the breakdown of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) in the many-body localized phase of the random field Heisenberg model, show the saturation of entanglement in the MBL phase and generate local excitations., Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures [added Fig. 5, fixed references]

We propose a hexagonal optical lattice system with spatial variations in the hopping matrix elements. Just like in the valley Hall effect in strained Graphene, for atoms near the Dirac points the variations in the hopping matrix elements can be described by a pseudo-magnetic field and result in the formation of Landau levels. We show that the pseudo-magnetic field leads to measurable experimental signatures in momentum resolved Bragg spectroscopy, Bloch oscillations, cyclotron motion, and quantization of in-situ densities. Our proposal can be realized by a slight modification of existing experiments. In contrast to previous methods, pseudo-magnetic fields are realized in a completely static system avoiding common heating effects and therefore opening the door to studying interaction effects in Landau levels with cold atoms., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

Anderson insulators are non-interacting disordered systems which have localized single particle eigenstates. The interacting analogue of Anderson insulators are the Many-Body Localized (MBL) phases. The natural language for representing the spectrum of the Anderson insulator is that of product states over the single-particle modes. We show that product states over Matrix Product Operators of small bond dimension is the corresponding natural language for describing the MBL phases. In this language all of the many-body eigenstates are encode by Matrix Product States (i.e. DMRG wave function) consisting of only two sets of low bond-dimension matrices per site: the $G_i$ matrix corresponding to the local ground state on site $i$ and the $E_i$ matrix corresponding to the local excited state. All $2^n$ eigenstates can be generated from all possible combinations of these matrices.

The order parameter and its variations in space and time in many different states in condensed matter physics at low temperatures are described by the complex function $\Psi({\bf r}, t)$. These states include superfluids, superconductors, and a subclass of antiferromagnets and charge-density waves. The collective fluctuations in the ordered state may then be categorized as oscillations of phase and amplitude of $\Psi({\bf r}, t)$. The phase oscillations are the {\it Goldstone} modes of the broken continuous symmetry. The amplitude modes, even at long wavelengths, are well defined and decoupled from the phase oscillations only near particle-hole symmetry, where the equations of motion have an effective Lorentz symmetry as in particle physics, and if there are no significant avenues for decay into other excitations. They bear close correspondence with the so-called {\it Higgs} modes in particle physics, whose prediction and discovery is very important for the standard model of particle physics. In this review, we discuss the theory and the possible observation of the amplitude or Higgs modes in condensed matter physics -- in superconductors, cold-atoms in periodic lattices, and in uniaxial antiferromagnets. We discuss the necessity for at least approximate particle-hole symmetry as well as the special conditions required to couple to such modes because, being scalars, they do not couple linearly to the usual condensed matter probes., Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures. Replaced with published version; Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics Volume 6 (2015)

A pair of recent Monte Carlo studies have reported evidence for and against a crossover from weak to strong-disorder criticality in the one-dimensional dirty boson problem. The Monte Carlo analyses rely on measurement of two observables: the effective Luttinger parameter K_{eff} and the superfluid susceptibility chi. The former quantity was previously calculated analytically, using the strong-disorder renormalization group (SDRG), by Altman, Kafri, Polkovnikov, and Refael. Here, we use an extension of the SDRG framework to find a non-universal anomalous dimension eta_{sd} characterizing the divergence of the susceptibility with system size: chi ~ L^(2-eta_{sd}). We show that eta_{sd} obeys the hyperscaling relation eta_{sd} = 1/2K_{eff}. We also identify an important obstacle to measuring this exponent on finite-size systems and comment on the implications for numerics and experiments., Comment: 4.5 pages, 3 figures

We consider a new class of unconventional critical phenomena that is characterized by singularities only in dynamical quantities and has no thermodynamic signatures. A possible example is the recently proposed many-body localization transition, in which transport coefficients vanish at a critical temperature. Describing this unconventional quantum criticality has been technically challenging as understanding the finite-temperature dynamics requires the knowledge of a large number of many-body eigenstates. Here we develop a real-space renormalization group method for excited state (RSRG-X), that allow us to overcome this challenge, and establish the existence and universal properties of such temperature-tuned dynamical phase transitions. We characterize a specific example: the 1D disordered transverse field Ising model with interactions. Using RSRG-X, we find a finite-temperature transition, between two localized phases, characterized by non-analyticities of the dynamic spin correlation function and the low frequency heat conductivity., Comment: The previous version of the paper contained an error in the expression for T_c at low T in Sec. IIc. In addition to fixing this error we have also made small improvements throughout the text