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The Born-Fock theorem is one of the most fundamental theorems of quantum mechanics and forms the basis for reliable and efficient navigation in the Hilbert space of a quantum system with a time-dependent Hamiltonian by adiabatic evolution. In the absence of level crossings, i.e. without degeneracies, and under adiabatic time evolution all eigenstates of the Hamiltonian keep their energetic order, labelled by a conserved integer quantum number. Thus controlling the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and their energetic order in asymptotic limits allows to engineer a perfect adiabatic transfer between a large number of initial and target states. The fidelity of the state transfer is only limited by adiabaticity and the selection of target states is controlled by the integer invariant labelling the order of eigenstates. We here show for the example of a finite superlattice Wannier-Stark ladder, i.e. a one-dimensional lattice with alternating hopping amplitudes and constant potential gradient, that such an adiabatic control of eigenstates can be used to induce perfectly quantized single-particle transport across a pre-determined number of lattice sites. We dedicate this paper to the memory of our late friend and colleague Bruce Shore, who was an expert in adiabatic processes and taught us much about this field.

The influence of photon-momentum recoil on adiabatic population transfer in an atomic three-level lambda system is studied. It is shown that the Doppler frequency shifts, due to atomic motion can play an important role in adiabatic population transfer processes of atomic internal states by a pair of laser fields. For the limiting case of slow atoms ( Doppler shift much smaller than the photon recoil energy) the atoms occupy the same target state regardless of the order of switching of laser fields, while for the case of fast atoms interacting with the intuitive sequence of pulses, the target state is the intermediate atomic state. It is shown that these processes are robust with respect to parameter fluctuations, such as the laser pulse area and the relative spatial offset (delay) of the laser beams. The obtained results can be used for the control of temporal evolution of atomic populations in atomic beams by externally adjustable Doppler shifts., Comment: 5 pages, 5 fugures

The spectral property of the supersymmetric (SUSY) antiferromagnetic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model with an even number of spins is studied. The supercharges of the model are explicitly constructed. By using the exact form of the supersymmetric ground state we introduce simple trial variational states for first excited states. It is demonstrated numerically that they provide a relatively accurate upper bound for the spectral gap (the energy difference between the ground state and first excited states) in all parameter ranges. However, being an upper bound, it does not allow us to determine vigorously whether the model is gapped or gapless. Here, we provide a non-trivial lower bound for the spectral gap and thereby show that the antiferromagnetic SUSY LMG model is gapped for any even number of spins., Comment: Substantial change in text and figures. Accepted for publication in the Theoretical and Mathematical Physics

We study the dynamics of a one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled Schrodinger particle with two internal components moving in a random potential. We show that this model can be implemented by the interaction of cold atoms with external lasers and additional Zeeman and Stark shifts. By direct numerical simulations a crossover from an exponential Anderson-type localization to an anomalous power-law behavior of the intensity correlation is found when the spin-orbit coupling becomes large. The power-law behavior is connected to a Dyson singularity in the density of states emerging at zero energy when the system approaches the quasi-relativistic limit of the random mass Dirac model. We discuss conditions under which the crossover is observable in an experiment with ultracold atoms and construct explicitly the zero-energy state, thus proving its existence under proper conditions., Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures

We consider two-component "spinor" slow light in an ensemble of atoms coherently driven by two pairs of counterpropagating control laser fields in a double tripod-type linkage scheme. We derive an equation of motion for the spinor slow light (SSL) representing an effective Dirac equation for a massive particle with the mass determined by the two-photon detuning. By changing the detuning the atomic medium acts as a photonic crystal with a controllable band gap. If the frequency of the incident probe light lies within the band gap, the light tunnels through the sample. For frequencies outside the band gap, the transmission probability oscillates with increasing length of the sample. In both cases the reflection takes place into the complementary mode of the probe field. We investigate the influence of the finite excited state lifetime on the transmission and reflection coefficients of the probe light. We discuss possible experimental implementations of the SSL using alkali atoms such as Rubidium or Sodium., Comment: 7 figures

We study the long-time evolution of the bipartite entanglement in translationally invariant gapped harmonic lattice systems with finite-range interactions. A lower bound for the von Neumann entropy is derived in terms of the purity of the reduced density matrix. It is shown that starting from an initially Gaussian state the entanglement entropy increases at least linearly in time. This implies that the dynamics of gapped (non-critical) harmonic lattice systems cannot be efficiently simulated by algorithms based on matrix-product decompositions of the quantum state., Comment: Introduction modified: new references added

We consider the interaction of two weak probe fields of light with an atomic ensemble coherently driven by two pairs of standing wave laser fields in a tripod-type linkage scheme. The system is shown to exhibit a Dirac-like spectrum for light-matter quasi-particles with multiple dark-states, termed spinor slow-light polaritons (SSP). They posses an "effective speed of light" given by the group-velocity of slow-light, and can be made massive by inducing a small two-photon detuning. Control of the two-photon detuning can be used to locally vary the mass including a sign flip. This allows e.g. the implementation of the random-mass Dirac model for which localized zero-energy (mid-gap) states exist with unsual long-range correlations., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We study the short-time evolution of the bipartite entanglement in quantum lattice systems with local interactions in terms of the purity of the reduced density matrix. A lower bound for the purity is derived in terms of the eigenvalue spread of the interaction Hamiltonian between the partitions. Starting from an initially separable state the purity decreases as $1 - (t/\tau)^2$, i.e. quadratically in time, with a characteristic time scale $\tau$ that is inversly proportional to the boundary size of the subsystem, i.e., as an area-law. For larger times an exponential lower bound is derived corresponding to the well-known linear-in-time bound of the entanglement entropy. The validity of the derived lower bound is illustrated by comparison to the exact dynamics of a 1D spin lattice system as well as a pair of coupled spin ladders obtained from numerical simulations., Comment: some minor additions, 6 pages, 3 figures

We describe a method to create effective gauge potentials for stationary-light polaritons in two or three spatial dimensions. When stationary light is created in the interaction with a uniformly rotating ensemble of coherently driven double $\Lambda$ atoms, the equation of motion is that of a massive Schr\"odinger particle in an effective magnetic field. In addition a repulsive scalar potential emerges which can however be compensated by a space-dependent detuning. Since the effective interaction area for the polaritons can be made large, degenerate Landau levels can be created with degeneracy well above 100. This opens the possibility to study the bosonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall effect for interacting stationary-light polaritons.

We present a general proof that Dirac particles cannot be localized below their Compton length by symmetric but otherwise arbitrary scalar potentials. This proof does not invoke the Heisenberg uncertainty relation and thus does not rely on the nonrelativistic linear momentum relation. Further it is argued that the result is also applicable for more general potentials, as e.g. generated by nonlinear interactions. Finally a possible realisation of such a system is proposed., Comment: 2 pages

We discuss the properties of 1D stationary pulses of light in atomic ensemble with electromagnetically induced transparency in the limit of tight spatial confinement. When the size of the wavepacket becomes comparable or smaller than the absorption length of the medium, it must be described by a two-component vector which obeys the one-dimensional two-component Dirac equation with an effective mass $m^*$ and effective speed of light $c^*$. Then a fundamental lower limit to the spatial width in an external potential arises from Klein tunneling and is given by the effective Compton length $\lambda_C = \hbar/(m^* c^*)$. Since $c^*$ and $m^*$ can be externally controlled and can be made small it is possible to observe effects of the relativistic dispersion for rather low energies or correspondingly on macroscopic length scales., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We present a general scheme to determine the loss-free adiabatic eigensolutions (dark-state polaritons) of the interaction of multiple probe laser beams with a coherently driven atomic ensemble under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. To this end we generalize the Morris-Shore transformation to linearized Heisenberg-Langevin equations describing the coupled light-matter system in the weak excitation limit. For the simple lambda-type coupling scheme the generalized Morris-Shore transformation reproduces the dark-state polariton solutions of slow light. Here we treat a closed-loop dual-V scheme wherein two counter-propagating control fields generate a quasi stationary pattern of two counter-propagating probe fields -- so-called stationary light. We show that contrary to previous predictions,there exists a single unique dark-state polariton; it obeys a simple propagation equation., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

We derive an integral convex combination of product states for a range of separable Werner states. Our method consists of expanding the sought-after local density operators in terms of Wigner operators. For dimension d=2, our decomposition holds for the whole separable range of Werner states, while for d>2 it is valid for a subset of separable Werner states. We illustrate the general method with the explicit examples d=2 and d=3., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figures

We study the ground-state entanglement of one-dimensional harmonic chains that are coupled to each other by a collective interaction as realized e.g. in an anisotropic ion crystal. Due to the collective type of coupling, where each chain interacts with every other one in the same way,the total system shows critical behavior in the direction orthogonal to the chains while the isolated harmonic chains can be gapped and non-critical. We derive lower and most importantly upper bounds for the entanglement,quantified by the von Neumann entropy, between a compact block of oscillators and its environment. For sufficiently large size of the subsystems the bounds coincide and show that the area law for entanglement is violated by a logarithmic correction., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

We discuss the relation between entanglement and criticality in translationally invariant harmonic lattice systems with non-randon, finite-range interactions. We show that the criticality of the system as well as validity or break-down of the entanglement area law are solely determined by the analytic properties of the spectral function of the oscillator system, which can easily be computed. In particular for finite-range couplings we find a one-to-one correspondence between an area-law scaling of the bi-partite entanglement and a finite correlation length. This relation is strict in the one-dimensional case and there is strog evidence for the multi-dimensional case. We also discuss generalizations to couplings with infinite range. Finally, to illustrate our results, a specific 1D example with nearest and next-nearest neighbor coupling is analyzed., Comment: 4 pages, one figure, revised version

Bipartite and global entanglement are analyzed for the ground state of a system of $N$ spin 1/2 particles interacting via a collective spin-spin coupling described by the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) Hamiltonian. Under certain conditions which includes the special case of a super-symmetry, the ground state can be constructed analytically. In the case of an anti-ferromagnetic coupling and for an even number of particles this state undergoes a smooth crossover as a function of the continuous anisotropy parameter $\gamma $ from a separable ($\gamma =\infty $) to a maximally entangled many-particle state ($\gamma =0$). From the analytic expression for the ground state, bipartite and global entanglement are calculated. In the thermodynamic limit a discontinuous change of the scaling behavior of the bipartite entanglement is found at the isotropy point $\gamma =0$. For $% \gamma =0$ the entanglement grows logarithmically with the system size with no upper bound, for $\gamma \neq 0$ it saturates at a level only depending on $\gamma $. For finite systems with total spin $J=N/2$ the scaling behavior changes at $\gamma =\gamma _{\mathrm{crit}}=1/J$., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

A general scheme for an adiabatic geometric phase gate is proposed which is maximally robust against parameter fluctuations. While in systems with SU(2) symmetry geometric phases are usually accompanied by dynamical phases and are thus not robust, we show that in the more general case of a SU(2) x SU(2) symmetry it is possible to obtain a non-vanishing geometric phase without dynamical contributions. The scheme is illustrated for a phase gate using two systems with dipole-dipole interactions in external laser fields which form an effective four-level system., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We discuss the creation of many-particle entanglement in an ion trap where all ions are simultaneously coupled to bichromatic laser fields. It is shown that in a time-averaged, coarse-grained picture the system can be mapped onto a spin ensemble with controllable collective interactions. An adiabatic change of laser parameters allows a transfer from separable to entangled eigenstates of the many-particle Hamiltonian. Of particular interest is a transition in the ground state which in some cases corresponds to a quantum phase transition. The influence of decoherence mechanisms can be substantially reduced if at all times a sufficiently large energy gap between the ground state and the first excited state is maintained., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We propose and discuss a scheme for robust and efficient generation of many-particle entanglement in an ensemble of Rydberg atoms with resonant dipole-dipole interactions. It is shown that in the limit of complete dipole blocking, the system is isomorphic to a multimode Jaynes-Cummings model. While dark-state population transfer is not capable of creating entanglement, other adiabatic processes are identified that lead to complex, maximally entangled states, such as the N-particle analog of the GHZ state in a few steps. The process is robust, works for even and odd particle numbers and the characteristic time for entanglement generation scales with N^a, with a being less than unity., Comment: 4 figures

We present results from a study of the coherence properties of a system involving three discrete states coupled to each other by two-photon processes via a common continuum. This tripod linkage is an extension of the standard laser-induced continuum structure (LICS) which involves two discrete states and two lasers. We show that in the tripod scheme, there exist two population trapping conditions; in some cases these conditions are easier to satisfy than the single trapping condition in two-state LICS. Depending on the pulse timing, various effects can be observed. We derive some basic properties of the tripod scheme, such as the solution for coincident pulses, the behaviour of the system in the adiabatic limit for delayed pulses, the conditions for no ionization and for maximal ionization, and the optimal conditions for population transfer between the discrete states via the continuum. In the case when one of the discrete states is strongly coupled to the continuum, the population dynamics reduces to a standard two-state LICS problem (involving the other two states) with modified parameters; this provides the opportunity to customize the parameters of a given two-state LICS system., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, twocolumn revtex style. Copies with figures of better quality available upon request

We propose a simple method for measuring the populations and the relative phase in a coherent superposition of two atomic states. The method is based on coupling the two states to a third common (excited) state by means of two laser pulses, and measuring the total fluorescence from the third state for several choices of the excitation pulses., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, twocolumn REVTeX