Dynamics of Loschmidt echoes and fidelity decay

L E Reichl 1980 Austin: University of Texas Press xii + 709 pp price $29.95 I can thoroughly recommend this book and congratulate the author for having brought together so many aspects of statistical physics in a comprehensible manner. The subject matter is modern; all the recent developments such as stochastic theory, theories of quantum fluids and critical phenomena, nonlinear chemical physics and hydrodynamics are included and yet each topic is built up from its foundations.

A Modern Course in Statistical Physics

We have combined ultrasensitive magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) with 3D image reconstruction to achieve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with resolution <10 nm. The image reconstruction converts measured magnetic force data into a 3D map of nuclear spin density, taking advantage of the unique characteristics of the “resonant slice” that is projected outward from a nanoscale magnetic tip. The basic principles are demonstrated by imaging the 1H spin density within individual tobacco mosaic virus particles sitting on a nanometer-thick layer of adsorbed hydrocarbons. This result, which represents a 100 million-fold improvement in volume resolution over conventional MRI, demonstrates the potential of MRFM as a tool for 3D, elementally selective imaging on the nanometer scale.

http://absimage.aps.org/image/MAR11/MWS_MAR11-2010-020116.pdf

Nanoscale Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Fidelity serves as a benchmark for the relieability in quantum information processes, and has recently atracted much interest as a measure of the susceptibility of dynamics to perturbations. A rich variety of regimes for fidelity decay have emerged. The purpose of the present review is to describe these regimes, to give the theory that supports them, and to show some important applications and experiments. While we mention several approaches we use time correlation functions as a backbone for the discussion. Vanicek's uniform approach to semiclassics and random matrix theory provides an important alternative or complementary aspects. Other methods will be mentioned as we go along. Recent experiments in micro-wave cavities and in elastodynamic systems as well as suggestions for experiments in quantum optics shall be discussed.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0607050.pdf

We demonstrate a decoherence-free quantum memory of one qubit. By encoding the qubit into the decoherence-free subspace (DFS) of a pair of trapped 9Be+ ions, we protect the qubit from environment-induced dephasing that limits the storage time of a qubit composed of a single ion. We measured the storage time under ambient conditions and under interaction with an engineered noisy environment and observed that encoding into the DFS increases the storage time by up to an order of magnitude. The encoding reversibly transfers an arbitrary qubit stored in a single ion to the DFS of two ions.

A Decoherence-Free Quantum Memory Using Trapped Ions

The effect of a random phase screen on laser beam wander in a turbulent atmosphere is studied theoretically. The photon distribution function method is used to describe the photon kinetics of both weak and strong turbulence. By bringing together analytical and numerical calculations, we have obtained the variance of beam centroid deflections caused by scattering on turbulent eddies. It is shown that an artificial distortion of the initial coherence of the radiation can be used to decrease the wandering effect. The physical mechanism responsible for this reduction and the applicability of our approach are discussed.

Beam wandering in the atmosphere: the effect of partial coherence.

A beam splitter is an important component of an atomic/optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Here we study a Bose-Einstein condensate beam splitter, realized with a double well potential of tunable height. We analyze how the sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is degraded by the nonlinear particle-particle interaction during the splitting dynamics. We distinguish three regimes, Rabi, Josephson and Fock, and associate to them a different scaling of the phase sensitivity with the total number of particles.

Nonlinear beam splitter in Bose-Einstein-condensate interferometers

A linear chain of connected electron sites with two asymmetric sinks, one attached to each end, is used as a simple model of quantum electron transfer in photosynthetic bio-complexes. For a symmetric initial population in the middle of the chain, it is expected that electron transfer is mainly directed towards the strongest coupled sink. However, we show that quantum effects radically change this intuitive "classical" mechanism, so that electron transfer can occur through the weaker coupled sink with maximal efficiency. Using this capability, we show how to design a quantum switch that can transfer an electron to the left or right branch of the chain, by changing the coupling to the sinks. The operational principles of this quantum device can be understood in terms of superradiance transitions and subradiant states. This switching, being a pure quantum effect, can be used as a witness of wave--like behaviour of excitations in molecular chains. When realistic data are used for the photosystem II reaction center, this quantum biological switch is shown to retain its reliability, even at room temperature.

A Quantum Biological Switch Based on Superradiance Transitions

We consider quantum particles coupled to local and collective thermal quantum environments. The coupling is energy conserving, and the collective coupling is scaled in the mean-field way. There is no direct interaction between the particles. We show that an initially factorized state of the particles remains factorized at all times, in the limit of large particle number. Each single-particle factor evolves according to an explicit, nonlinear, dissipative and time-dependent Hartree–Lindblad equation. The model is exactly solvable; we do not make any weak coupling or any Markovian approximations, and our results are mathematically rigorous.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.2012.0327

Mean-field evolution of open quantum systems: an exactly solvable model

The effect of a random-phase diffuser on fluctuations of laser light (scintillations) is studied. Not only spatial but also temporal phase variations introduced by the phase diffuser are analyzed. The explicit dependence of the scintillation index on finite-time phase variations is obtained for long propagation paths. It is shown that for large amplitudes of phase fluctuations, a finite-time effect decreases the ability of phase diffuser to suppress the scintillations.

Gennady P Berman

Papers

Beam wandering in the atmosphere: the effect of partial coherence.

Nonlinear beam splitter in Bose-Einstein-condensate interferometers

A Quantum Biological Switch Based on Superradiance Transitions

Mean-field evolution of open quantum systems: an exactly solvable model

Influence of phase-diffuser dynamics on scintillations of laser radiation in Earth's atmosphere: Long-distance propagation