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High precision gyroscopes in space are important for sophisticated scientific experiments and deep space navigation. Microgravity in the space provides an ideal condition for operation of a cold atom gyroscope. To demonstrate this advantage, an atom interferometer (AI) was launched and installed in the China Space Station in 2022. Here reported is a realization of the cold atom gyroscope with this AI. By applying point source interferometry, spatial fringes are obtained and acceleration and rotation are extracted. The angles of the Raman lasers are precisely calibrated to avoid measurement error, and other systematic errors are also considered for the rotation measurement. The evaluated rotation measurement is (-115.64+/-1.71)*10^-5 rad/s in space, and an acceleration measurement resolution of 1.03*10^-6 m/s^2 is also obtained for a single image. This study conducts the first AI-based gyroscope in space and paves a way for future space-based AI experiments., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

Spin is one fundamental property of microscopic particles. A lot of theoretical work postulated the possible coupling between spin and gravitation, which could result in the violation of equivalence principle. In a recent joint mass-and-energy test of weak equivalence principle (WEP) with a 10-meter $^{85}$Rb-$^{87}$Rb dual-species atom interferometer, the E${\rm \ddot{o}}$tv${\rm \ddot{o}}$s parameters of four $^{85}$Rb-$^{87}$Rb combinations with specific atomic spin states were measured to the $10^{-10}$-level. These experimental results are used to constrain the postulated spin-gravity coupling effects in a robust way. The bounds on the spin-independent and spin-dependent anomalous passive gravitational mass tensors are consistently set to the $10^{-10}$-level, which improve existing bounds by three orders of magnitude., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

A dynamic gravimeter with an atomic interferometer (AI) can perform absolute gravity measurements with high precision. AI-based dynamic gravity measurement is a type of joint measurement that uses AI sensors and a classical accelerometer. The coupling of the two sensors may degrade the measurement precision. In this study, we analyzed the cross-coupling effect and introduced a recovery vector to suppress this effect. We improved the phase noise of the interference fringe by a factor of 1.9 by performing marine gravity measurements using an AI-based gravimeter and optimizing the recovery vector. Marine gravity measurements were performed, and high gravity measurement precision was achieved. The external and inner coincidence accuracies of the gravity measurement are 0.42 mGal and 0.46 mGal, which were improved by factors of 4.18 and 4.21 by optimizing the cross-coupling effect.

Rydberg atoms as versatile tools for quantum applications are extremely sensitive to electric fields. When utilizing these atoms, it becomes imperative to comprehensively characterize and mitigate any residual electric fields present in the environment. Particularly for single Rydberg atoms trapped in optical tweezers in a compact quartz vacuum cell, we have identified that a significant source of background electric fields originates from electrons bound to the cell surface. These electrons are generated by the 297-nm light used for single-photon Rydberg excitation. Furthermore, once the electrons are desorbed from the surface through exposure to ultraviolet light, the incoherent ground-Rydberg transition undergoes a transformation into coherent excitation, since the noise of residual electric fields are effectively mitigated. Our studies promote enhanced control and reliable performance of Rydberg atom-based systems, thereby paving the way for advancements in quantum information processing, the realization of high-fidelity quantum gates, and the development of precise quantum sensors.

A unitary Fermi gas in an isotropic harmonic trap is predicted to show scale and conformal symmetry that have important consequences in its thermodynamic and dynamical properties. By experimentally realizing a unitary Fermi gas in an isotropic harmonic trap, we demonstrate its universal expansion dynamics along each direction and at different temperatures. We show that as a consequence of SO(2,1) symmetry, the measured release energy is equal to that of the trapping energy. We further observe the breathing mode with an oscillation frequency twice the trapping frequency and a small damping rate, providing the evidence of SO(2,1) symmetry. In addition, away from resonance when scale invariance is broken, we determine the effective exponent $\gamma$ that relates the chemical potential and average density along the BEC-BCS crossover, which qualitatively agrees with the mean field predictions. This work opens the possibility of studying non-equilibrium dynamics in a conformal invariant system in the future., Comment: 15 pages and 10 figurs

This document presents a summary of the 2023 Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry Workshop hosted by CERN. The workshop brought together experts from around the world to discuss the exciting developments in large-scale atom interferometer (AI) prototypes and their potential for detecting ultralight dark matter and gravitational waves. The primary objective of the workshop was to lay the groundwork for an international TVLBAI proto-collaboration. This collaboration aims to unite researchers from different institutions to strategize and secure funding for terrestrial large-scale AI projects. The ultimate goal is to create a roadmap detailing the design and technology choices for one or more km-scale detectors, which will be operational in the mid-2030s. The key sections of this report present the physics case and technical challenges, together with a comprehensive overview of the discussions at the workshop together with the main conclusions., Comment: Summary of the Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry Workshop held at CERN: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1208783/

The precision of the weak equivalence principle (WEP) test using atom interferometers (AIs) is expected to be extremely high in microgravity environment. The microgravity scientific laboratory cabinet (MSLC) in the China Space Station (CSS) can provide a higher-level microgravity than the CSS itself, which provides a good experimental environment for scientific experiments that require high microgravity. We designed and realized a payload of a dual-species cold rubidium atom interferometer. The payload is highly integrated and has a size of 460 mm * 330 mm * 260 mm. It will be installed in the MSLC to carry out high-precision WEP test experiment. In this article, we introduce the constraints and guidelines of the payload design, the compositions and functions of the scientific payload, the expected test precision in space, and some results of the ground test experiments, Comment: 24 pages,7 figures

Matter-wave interferometer of ultracold atoms with different linear momenta has been extensively studied in theory and experiment. The vortex matter-wave interferometer with different angular momenta is applicable as a quantum sensor for measuring the rotation, interatomic interaction, geometric phase, etc. Here we report the first experimental realization of a vortex matter-wave interferometer by coherently transferring the optical angular momentum to an ultracold Bose condensate. After producing a lossless interferometer with atoms only populating the two spin states, we demonstrate that the phase difference between the interferences in the two spin states is locked on $\pi$. We also demonstrate the robustness of this out-of-phase relation, which is independent of the angular-momentum difference between the two interfering vortex states, constituent of Raman optical fields and expansion of the condensate. The experimental results agree well with the calculation from the unitary evolution of wave packet in quantum mechanics. This work opens a new way to build a quantum sensor and measure the atomic correlation in quantum gases., Comment: 5 figures

We summarize the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with ESA and national space and research funding agencies., Comment: Summary of the Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space and corresponding Road-map: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1064855/

ZAIGA is a proposed underground long-baseline atom interferometer (AI) facility, aiming for experimental research on gravitation and related problems. In this paper, we study the possibility of detecting the ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with ZAIGA. According to a popular scalar DM model, the DM field contains a background oscillation term and a local exponential fluctuation term. In order to calculate the proposed constraints on DM coupling parameters, we need to first compute the DM signals in ZAIGA. For the case of two AIs vertically separated by 300 meters, the DM-induced differential phase consists of three contributions, coming from the DM-induced changes in atomic internal energy levels, atomic masses and the gravitational acceleration. For the case of two AIs horizontally separated by several kilometers, the signal comes from the DM-induced changes in atomic internal energy levels. With the current and future technical parameters of ZAIGA, we then obtain the proposed constraints on five DM coupling parameters. It turns out that our proposed constraints could be several orders of magnitude better than the ones set by the MICROSCOPE space mission., Comment: To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D

Neutral atom platform has become an attractive choice to study the science of quantum information and quantum simulation, where intense efforts have been devoted to the entangling processes between individual atoms. For the development of this area, two-qubit controlled-PHASE gate via Rydberg blockade is one of the most essential elements. Recent theoretical studies have suggested the advantages of introducing non-trivial waveform modulation into the gate protocol, which is anticipated to improve its performance towards the next stage. We report our recent experimental results in realizing a two-qubit controlled-PHASE($C_Z$) gate via off-resonant modulated driving(ORMD) embedded in two-photon transition for Rb atoms. It relies upon a single modulated driving pulse with a carefully calculated smooth waveform to gain the appropriate phase accumulations required by the two-qubit gate. Combining this $C_Z$ gate with global microwave pulses, two-atom entanglement is generated with the raw fidelity of 0.945(6). Accounting for state preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors, we extract the entanglement operation fidelity to be 0.980(7). Our work features completing the $C_Z$ gate operation within a single pulse to avoid shelved Rydberg population, thus demonstrate another promising route for realizing high-fidelity two-qubit gate for neutral atom platform., Comment: 4 figures

Optically trapped mixed-species single atom arrays with arbitrary geometries are an attractive and promising platform for various applications, because tunable quantum systems with multiple components provide extra degrees of freedom for experimental control. Here, we report the first demonstration of two-dimensional $6\times4$ dual-species atom assembly with a filling fraction of 0.88 (0.89) for $^{85}$Rb ($^{87}$Rb) atoms. This mixed-species atomic synthetic is achieved via rearranging initially randomly distributed atoms using a sorting algorithm (heuristic heteronuclear algorithm) which is proposed for bottom-up atom assembly with both user-defined geometries and two-species atom number ratios. Our fully tunable hybrid-atom system of scalable advantages is a good starting point for high-fidelity quantum logic, many-body quantum simulation and forming defect-free single molecule arrays.

We study the environmental dependence of ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with linear interactions to the standard model particles. The solution to the DM field turns out to be a sum of the cosmic harmonic oscillation term and the local exponential fluctuation term. The amplitude of the first term depends on the local DM density and the mass of the DM field. The second term is induced by the local distribution of matter, such as the Earth. And it depends not only on the mass of the Earth, but also the density of the Earth. Then, we compute the phase shift induced by the DM field in atom interferometers (AIs), through solving the trajectories of atoms. Especially, the AI signal for the violation of weak equivalence principle (WEP) caused by the DM field is calculated. Depending on the values of the DM coupling parameters, contributions to the WEP violation from the first and second terms of the DM field can be either comparable or one larger than the other. Finally, we give some constraints to DM coupling parameters using results from the terrestrial atomic WEP tests., Comment: To appear in General Relativity and Gravitation

For neutral atom qubits, the two-qubit gate is typically realized via the Rydberg blockade effect, which hints about the special status of the Rydberg level besides the regular qubit register states. Here, we carry out experimental and theoretical studies to reveal how the ground-Rydberg coherence of the control qubit atom affects the process of two-qubit Controlled-Z ($C_Z$) gate, such as the commonly used ground-Rydberg $\pi$-gap-$\pi$ pulse sequence originally proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{85}, 2208 (2000). We measure the decoherence of the control qubit atom after the $\pi$-gap-$\pi$ pulses and make a direct comparison with the typical decoherence time $\tau_{gr}$ extracted from Ramsey fringes of the ground-Rydberg transition. In particular, we observe that the control qubit atom subject to such pulse sequences experiences a process which is essentially similar to the ground-Rydberg Ramsey interference. Furthermore, we build a straightforward theoretical model to link the decoherence process of control qubit subject to $C_Z$ gate $\pi$-gap-$\pi$ pulse sequence and the $\tau_{gr}$, and also analyze the typical origins of decoherence effects. Finally, we discuss the $C_Z$ gate fidelity loss due to the limits imposed by the ground-Rydberg coherence properties and prospective for improving fidelity with new gate protocols., Comment: 8 figures

Sorting atoms stochastically loaded in optical tweezer arrays via an auxiliary mobile tweezer is an efficient approach to preparing intermediate-scale defect-free atom arrays in arbitrary geometries. However, high filling fraction of atom-by-atom assemblers is impeded by redundant sorting moves with imperfect atom transport, especially for scaling the system size to larger atom numbers. Here, we propose a new sorting algorithm (heuristic cluster algorithm, HCA) which provides near-fewest moves in our tailored atom assembler scheme and experimentally demonstrate a $5\times6$ defect-free atom array with 98.4(7)$\%$ filling fraction for one rearrangement cycle. The feature of HCA that the number of moves $N_{m}\approx N$ ($N$ is the number of defect sites to be filled) makes the filling fraction uniform as the size of atom assembler enlarged. Our method is essential to scale hundreds of assembled atoms for bottom-up quantum computation, quantum simulation and precision measurement.

Resonant metasurfaces have received extensive attention due to their sharp spectral feature and extraordinary field enhancement. In this work, by breaking the in-plane symmetry of silicon nanopillars, we achieve a sharp Fano resonance. The far-field radiation and near-field distribution of metasurfaces are calculated and analyzed to further uncover the resonant performance of metasurfaces. Moreover, the theoretical derivation and simulation exhibit an inverse quadratic dependence of Q-factors on asymmetry parameters, revealing that the resonance is governed by the symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum. Finally we experimentally demonstrate the sharp resonance, and employ it to effciently boost the third-harmonic generation. This enhancement can be attributed to the strong optical intensity enhancement inside the metasurface.

As a physically motivated and computationally simple model for cold atomic and molecular collisions, the multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT) with frame transformation (FT) formalism provides an analytical treatment of scattering resonances in an arbitrary partial wave between alkali-metal atoms, leading to the experimental observation of $p-$ and $d-$wave resonances. However, the inconsistency of quantum defects for describing scattering resonances shows up when compared with experiments. Here, with two heteronuclear atoms in the ground state of an optical tweezer, the energy dependence of quantum defects is obviously revealed by comparing the measured s-wave scattering length with the prediction of MQDT-FT. By dividing the quantum defects into energy sensitive and insensitive categories, the inconsistency is ultimately removed while retaining the analytic structure of MQDT-FT. This study represents a significant improvement in the analytical MQDT-FT and demonstrates that a clean two-particle system is valuable to the test of collisional physics., Comment: 6 pages,3 figures

In this work, we construct a polarization-mediated magic-intensity (MI) optical dipole trap (ODT) array, in which the detrimental effects of light shifts on the mixed-species qubits are efficiently mitigated so that the coherence times of the mixed-species qubits are both substantially enhanced and balanced for the first time. This mixed-species magic trapping technique relies on the tunability of the coefficient of the third-order cross term and ground state hyperpolarizability, which are inherently dependent on the degree of circular polarization of the trap laser. Experimentally, polarization of the ODT array for $^{85}$Rb qubits is finely adjusted to a definite value so that its working magnetic field required for magic trapping amounts to the one required for magically trapping $^{87}$Rb qubits in another ODT array with fully circular polarization. Ultimately, in such a polarization-mediated MI-ODT array, the coherence times of $^{87}$Rb and $^{85}$Rb qubits are respectively enhanced up to 891$\pm$47 ms and 943$\pm$35 ms. Furthermore, a new source of dephasing effect is revealed, which arises from the noise of the elliptic polarization, and the reduction in corresponding dephasing effect on the $^{85}$Rb qubits is attainable by use of shallow magic intensity. It is anticipated that the novel mixed-species MI-ODT array is a versatile platform for building scalable quantum computers with neutral atoms., Comment: 6 pages,4 figures

Atom Interferometric Gravitational-wave (GW) Space Observatory (AIGSO) is a mission concept mainly aimed at the middle-frequency (0.1 Hz - 10 Hz) GW detection. AIGSO proposes to have three spacecraft in linear formation with extension of 10 km. The three spacecraft need to maintain 5 km + 5 km constant arm-length formation. In this study, we address the issue of orbit design and thruster requirement. The acceleration to maintain the formation can be designed to be less than 30 pm/s$^2$ and the thruster requirement is in the 30 nN range. Application to other arm-length-maintaining missions is also discussed., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted by IJMPD

We report the realization of a heteronuclear two-atom of $^{87}$Rb-$^{85}$Rb in the ground state of an optical tweezer (OT). Starting by trapping two different isotopic single atoms, a $^{87}$Rb and a $^{85}$Rb in two strongly focused and linearly polarized OT with 4 $\mu$m apart, we perform simultaneously three dimensional Raman sideband cooling for both atoms and the obtained 3D ground state probabilities of $^{87}$Rb and $^{85}$Rb are 0.91(5) and 0.91(10) respectively. There is no obvious crosstalk observed during the cooling process. We then merge them into one tweezer via a species-dependent transport, where the species-dependent potentials are made by changing the polarization of the OTs for each species from linear polarization to the desired circular polarization. The measurable increment of vibrational quantum due to merging is $0.013(1)$ for the axial dimension. This two-atom system can be used to investigate cold collisional physics, to form quantum logic gates, and to build a single heteronuclear molecule. It can also be scaled up to few-atom regime and extended to other atomic species and molecules, and thus to ultracold chemistry., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures

We investigate the transmission spectrum of an optical cavity coupled with four-level atoms. Multiple normal-mode splitting peaks of the strongly coupled atom-cavity system are obtained as single cavity mode couples three separated atomic transitions simultaneously. We employ a confocal optical cavity and an ensemble of cold Rb-85 atoms for cavity quantum electrodynamics. We observe four normal-mode splitting peaks of the cavity transmission in the strong coupling regime due to collective enhancement of the atom-cavity coupling strength by ensemble of cold atoms. The experimental observations are consistent with the theoretical analysis. The multiple normal-mode excitation in the strongly coupled multi-level atom-cavity system may lead to practical application for realizing multi-channel all-optical devices., Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light represents a fundamental optical freedom that can be exploited to manipulate quantum state of atoms. In particular, it can be used to realize spin-orbital-angular-momentum (SOAM) coupling in cold atoms by inducing an atomic Raman transition using two laser beams with differing OAM. Rich quantum phases are predicted to exist in many-body systems with SOAM coupling. Their observations in laboratory, however, are often hampered by the limited control of the system parameters. In this work we report, for the first time, the experimental observation of the ground-state quantum phase diagram of the SOAM coupled Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The discontinuous variation of the spin polarization as well as the vorticity of the atomic wave function across the phase boundaries provides clear evidence of first-order phase transitions. Our results open up a new way to the study of phase transitions and exotic quantum phases in quantum gases., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, correction for the numbers of some references in the main text

We report the observation of parametric down-conversion of phonons in a spherical Bose-Einstein condensate. The spherical symmetry, which is crucial for observing this phenomenon, is experimentally demonstrated by measuring the collective mode and expansion behavior of the condensate. The low-energy monopole mode is excited by coupling with a high-energy mode with a nearly twice eigen-frequency. The population of the low-energy mode becomes maximum only when the high-energy mode is resonantly excited. Furthermore, we directly observe the parametric down-conversion process in the driving process, through simultaneously probing the two coupling modes. The experimental observation is consistent with the perturbation theory including the gravity effect. This work opens the challenge in related study of the condensate beyond mean-field theory and has potential applications in quantum information., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate high fidelity single-qubit gate operation in a trapped single neutral atom. The atom is trapped in the recently invented magic-intensity optical dipole trap (MI-ODT) with more stable magnetic field. The MI-ODT efficiently mitigates the detrimental effects of light shifts thus sufficiently improves the performance of single qubit-gates. The gates are driven with microwave, and the fidelity of gate operation is characterized by using the randomized benchmarking method. We obtain an average error per Clifford gate of $3.0(7)\times10^{-5}$ which is much below the error threshold ($10^{-4}$) for fault-tolerance. This error is found to be dominated by qubit dephasing, and the corresponding coherence time relevant to the Clifford gates is also measured experimentally. This work is an essential step toward the construction of a scalable quantum computer with neutral atoms trapped in an MI-ODT array., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We propose a space-borne gravitational-wave detection scheme, called atom interferometric gravitational-wave space observatory (AIGSO). It is motivated by the progress in the atomic matter-wave interferometry, which solely utilizes the standing light waves to split, deflect and recombine the atomic beam. Our scheme consists of three drag-free satellites orbiting the Earth. The phase shift of AIGSO is dominated by the Sagnac effect of gravitational-waves, which is proportional to the area enclosed by the atom interferometer, the frequency and amplitude of gravitational-waves. The scheme has a strain sensitivity $< 10^{-20}/\sqrt{{\rm Hz}}$ in the 100 mHz-10 Hz frequency range, which fills in the detection gap between space-based and ground-based laser interferometric detectors. Thus, our proposed AIGSO can be a good complementary detection scheme to the space-borne laser interferometric schemes, such as LISA. Considering the current status of relevant technology readiness, we expect our AIGSO to be a promising candidate for the future space-based gravitational-wave detection plan., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

Various models of quantum gravity imply the Planck-scale modifications of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle into a so-called generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). The GUP effects on high-energy physics, cosmology, and astrophysics have been extensively studied. Here, we focus on the weak-equivalence-principle (WEP) violation induced by the GUP. Results from the WEP test with the $^{85}$Rb-$^{87}$Rb dual-species atom interferometer are used to set upper bounds on parameters in two GUP proposals. A $10^{45}$-level bound on the Kempf-Mangano-Mann proposal, and a $10^{27}$-level bound on Maggiore's proposal, which are consistent with bounds from other experiments, are obtained. All these bounds have huge room for improvement in the future., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure

Various theories of quantum gravity predict the existence of a minimum length scale, which implies the Planck-scale modifications of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to a so-called generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). Previous studies of the GUP focused on its implications for high-energy physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. Here, the application of the GUP to low-energy quantum systems, and particularly cold atoms, is studied. Results from the $^{87}$Rb atom recoil experiment are used to set upper bounds on parameters in three different GUP proposals. A $10^{14}$-level bound on the Ali-Das-Vagenas proposal is found, which is the second best bound so far. A $10^{26}$-level bound on Maggiore's proposal is obtained, which turns out to be the best available bound on it.

We demonstrate that the coherence of a single mobile atomic qubit can be well preserved during a transfer process among different optical dipole traps (ODTs). This is a prerequisite step in realizing a large-scale neutral atom quantum information processing platform. A qubit encoded in the hyperfine manifold of $^{87}$Rb atom is dynamically extracted from the static quantum register by an auxiliary moving ODT and reinserted into the static ODT. Previous experiments were limited by decoherences induced by the differential light shifts of qubit states. Here we apply a magic-intensity trapping technique which mitigates the detrimental effects of light shifts and substantially enhances the coherence time to $225 \pm 21\,\mathrm{ms}$. The experimentally demonstrated magic trapping technique relies on the previously neglected hyperpolarizability contribution to the light shifts, which makes the light shift dependence on the trapping laser intensity to be parabolic. Because of the parabolic dependence, at a certain "magic" intensity, the first order sensitivity to trapping light intensity variations over ODT volume is eliminated. We experimentally demonstrate the utility of this approach and measure hyperpolarizability for the first time. Our results pave the way for constructing a scalable quantum-computing architectures with single atoms trapped in an array of magic ODTs., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

We consider a recent scheme of gravitational wave detection using atomic interferometers as inertial sensors, and reinvestigate its configuration using the concept of sensitivity functions. We show that such configuration can suppress noise without influencing the gravitational wave signal. But the suppression is insufficient for the direct observation of gravitational wave signals, so we analyse the behaviour of the different noises influencing the detection scheme. As a novel method, we study the relations between the measurement sensitivity and the distance between two interferometers, and find that the results derived from vibration noise and laser frequency noise are in stark contrast to that derived from the shot noise, which is significant for the configuration design of gravitational wave detectors using atomic interferometers.

We report an improved test of the weak equivalence principle by using a simultaneous $^{85}$Rb-$^{87}$Rb dual-species atom interferometer. We propose and implement a four-wave double-diffraction Raman transition scheme for the interferometer, and demonstrate its ability in suppressing common-mode phase noise of Raman lasers after their frequencies and intensity ratios are optimized. The statistical uncertainty of the experimental data for E\"{o}tv\"{o}s parameter $\eta$ is $0.8\times10^{-8}$ at 3200 s. With various systematic errors corrected the final value is $\eta=(2.8\pm3.0)\times10^{-8}$. The major uncertainty is attributed to the Coriolis effect., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Two-atom systems in small traps are of fundamental interest, first of all for understanding the role of interactions in degenerate cold gases and for the creation of quantum gates in quantum information processing with single-atom traps. One of the key quantities is the inelastic relaxation (decay) time when one of the atoms or both are in a higher hyperfine state. Here we measure this quantity in a heteronuclear system of $^{87}$Rb and $^{85}$Rb in a micro optical trap and demonstrate experimentally and theoretically the presence of both fast and slow relaxation processes, depending on the choice of the initial hyperfine states. The developed experimental method allows us to single out a particular relaxation process and, in this sense, our experiment is a "superclean platform" for collisional physics studies. Our results have also implications for engineering of quantum states via controlled collisions and creation of two-qubit quantum gates., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Since the discovery of Hawking radiation, its consistency with quantum theory has been widely questioned. In the widely described picture, irrespective of what initial state a black hole starts with before collapsing, it eventually evolves into a thermal state of Hawking radiations after the black hole is exhausted. This scenario violates the principle of unitarity as required for quantum mechanics and leads to the acclaimed "information loss paradox". This paradox has become an obstacle or a reversed touchstone for any possible theory to unify the gravity and quantum mechanics. Based on the results from Hawking radiation as tunneling, we recently show that Hawking radiations can carry off all information about the collapsed matter in a black hole. After discovering the existence of information-carrying correlation, we show in great detail that entropy is conserved for Hawking radiation based on standard probability theory and statistics. We claim that information previously considered lost remains hidden inside Hawking radiation. More specifically, it is encoded into correlations between Hawking radiations. Our study thus establishes harmony between Harking radiation and the unitarity of quantum mechanics, which establishes the basis for a significant milestone towards resolving the long-standing information loss paradox. The paper provides a brief review of the exciting development on Hawking raidation. In addition to summarize our own work on this subject, we compare and address other related studies.

Recently, the configuration using atomic interferometers (AIs) had been suggested for the detection of gravitational waves. A new AI with some additional laser pulses for implementing large momentum transfer was also put forward, in order to improve the influence of shot noise and laser frequency noise. In the paper, we use the sensitivity function to analyze all possible configurations of the new AI and to distinguish how many momenta are transferred in a specific configuration. With the analysis for the new configuration, we explore the detection scheme of gravitational wave further, in particular, for the amelioration of the laser frequency noise. We find that the amelioration is definite in such scheme, but novelly, in some cases the frequency noise can be canceled completely by using a proper data processing method.

We experimentally demonstrate the strong suppression of dephasing of a qubit stored in a single \textsuperscript{87}Rb atom in an optical dipole trap by using Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill(CPMG) pulse sequences. Regarded as a repetition of spin echo, CPMG sequence is an optimal choice for suppressing both inhomogeneous and homogeneous phase decoherence mechanisms. In the trap with 830 nm wavelength and 0.7 mK potential depth, the spin relaxation time of single atoms is showed to be 830.8 ms. We obtain the reversible inhomogeneous dephasing time of $T_{2}^{\ast}$=1.4 ms. The homogeneous dephasing time is $T_{2}^{\prime}$ =102.7 ms in the spin echo process, by employing CPMG sequence with pulse number n = 6 the homogeneous dephasing is further suppressed by a factor of 3, and its corresponding coherence time is extended to $T_{2}^{\prime}$=304.5 ms., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

We study the possibility of detecting gravitational-waves with matter-wave interferometers, where atom beams are split, deflected and recombined totally by standing light waves. Our calculation shows that the phase shift is dominated by terms proportional to the time derivative of the gravitational wave amplitude. Taking into account future improvements on current technologies, it is promising to build a matter-wave interferometer detector with desired sensitivity., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. To be published in General Relativity and Gravitation

We propose and demonstrate a scheme for strongly radially confining a single neutral atom in a bichromatic far-off resonance optical dipole trap(BFORT) . BFORT is composed of a blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian $LG^1_ 0$ beam and a red-detuned Gaussian beam. The trapping radial dimension of a single atom trapped in the Gaussian FORT can be greatly compressed by imposing a blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian $LG^1_ 0$ beam with moderate potential depth. By modulating the potential depth of the Gaussian FORT we observed that the resonant and parametric excitation of the oscillatory motion of a single atom in this BFORT and obtained the oscillation frequency that well fits prediction from the theoretical model. The frequency measurement shows that effective trapping dimension can be greatly sharper than that diffraction limited of microscopic objective we used. Then we show that the excess scattering rate due to imposing blue detuned light can be eliminated when single atoms is close to ground-state theoretically. So BFORT suits the purpose of acting as a Lamb-Dicke trap for further cooling a single neutral atom to motion ground-state and finding application in quantum information progressing., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

We report the first experimental observations of strong suppression of matter-wave superradiance using blue-detuned pump light and demonstrate a pump-laser detuning asymmetry in the collective atomic recoil motion. In contrast to all previous theoretical frameworks, which predict that the process should be symmetric with respect to the sign of the pump-laser detuning, we find that for condensates the symmetry is broken. With high condensate densities and red-detuned light, the familiar distinctive multi-order, matter-wave scattering pattern is clearly visible, whereas with blue-detuned light superradiance is strongly suppressed. In the limit of a dilute atomic gas, however, symmetry is restored., Comment: Accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett

We demonstrate a technique for directly measuring the quadratic Zeeman shift using stimulated Raman transitions.The quadratic Zeeman shift has been measured yielding [delta][nju] = 1296.8 +/-3.3 Hz/G^{2} for magnetically insensitive sublevels (5S1/2, F = 2,mF = 0 -> 5S1/2, F = 3,mF = 0) of ^{85}Rb by compensating the magnetic eld and cancelling the ac Stark shift. We also measured the cancellation ratio of the differential ac Stark shift due to the imbalanced Raman beams by using two pairs of Raman beams ([sigma]^{+}, [sigma]^{+}) and it is 1:3.67 when the one-photon detuning is 1.5 GHz in the experiment.

After removing the double-well potential trapping two initially independent Bose condensates, the density expectation value is calculated when both the exchange symmetry of identical bosons and interatomic interaction are considered. The density expectation value and evolution equations are obtained based on both the first-quantization and second-quantization methods. When the interatomic interaction is considered carefully, after the overlapping of two initially independent condensates, it is shown that there is a nonzero interference term in the density expectation value. It is found that the calculated density expectation value with this model agrees with the interference pattern observed in the experiment by Andrews (Science 275, 637 (1997)). The nonzero interference term in the density expectation value physically arises from the exchange symmetry of identical bosons and interatomic interaction which make two initially independent condensates become coherent after the overlapping. For two initially independent condensates, our researches show that there is an interaction-induced coherence process.

We consider the Josephson effect when two independent Bose superfluids are weakly connected. In the presence of interparticle interaction and based on the calculations of the one-particle density matrix of the whole system, we find that the one-particle density matrix can be factorized which satisfies the general criterion of Bose superfluid proposed by Penrose and Onsager. By introducing an effective order parameter for the whole system, our researches show that there is Josephson effect for two independent Bose superfluids., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. two typos in Eqs. (19) and (22) are corrected in this version

We present a four-mode model that describes coherent photo-association (PA) in a double-well Bose-Einstein condensate, focusing on the $average$ molecular populations in certain parameters. Our numerical results predict an interesting strong-damping effect of molecular oscillations by controlling the particle tunnellings and PA light strength, which may provide a promising way for creating a stable molecular condensate via coherent PA in a magnetic double-well potential., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted

Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) theorem asserts that there is a set of mutually commuting nonlocal observables with a common eigenstate on which those observables assume values that refute the attempt to assign values only required to have them by the local realism of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR). It is known that for a three-qubit system there is only one form of the GHZ-Mermin-like argument with equivalence up to a local unitary transformation, which is exactly Mermin's version of the GHZ theorem. In this paper, however, for a four-qubit system which was originally studied by GHZ, we show that there are nine distinct forms of the GHZ-Mermin-like argument. The proof is obtained by using some geometric invariants to characterize the sets of mutually commuting nonlocal spin observables on the four-qubit system. It is proved that there are at most nine elements (except for a different sign) in a set of mutually commuting nonlocal spin observables in the four-qubit system, and each GHZ-Mermin-like argument involves a set of at least five mutually commuting four-qubit nonlocal spin observables with a GHZ state as a common eigenstate in GHZ's theorem. Therefore, we present a complete construction of the GHZ theorem for the four-qubit system., Comment: 14 pages

This paper has been withdrawn by the authors., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn