Theory of warm ionized gases: equation of state and kinetic Schottky anomaly

Based on accurate Lennard-Jones type interaction potentials, we derive a closed set of state equations for the description of warm atomic gases in the presence of ionization processes. The specific heat is predicted to exhibit peaks in correspondence to single and multiple ionizations. Such kinetic analogue in atomic gases of the Schottky anomaly in solids is enhanced at intermediate and low atomic densities. The case of adiabatic compression of noble gases is analyzed in detail and the implications on sonoluminescence are discussed. In particular, the predicted plasma electron density in a sonoluminescent bubble turns out to be in good agreement with the value measured in recent experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, replaced with published versio

Quantum localization and bound state formation in Bose-Einstein condensates

We discuss the possibility of exponential quantum localization in systems of ultracold bosonic atoms with repulsive interactions in open optical lattices without disorder. We show that exponential localization occurs in the maximally excited state of the lowest energy band. We establish the conditions under which the presence of the upper energy bands can be neglected, determine the successive stages and the quantum phase boundaries at which localization occurs, and discuss schemes to detect it experimentally by visibility measurements. The discussed mechanism is a particular type of quantum localization that is intuitively understood in terms of the interplay between nonlinearity and a bounded energy spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Modular Entanglement

We introduce and discuss the concept of modular entanglement. This is the entanglement that is established between the end points of modular systems composed by sets of interacting moduli of arbitrarily fixed size. We show that end-to-end modular entanglement scales in the thermodynamic limit and rapidly saturates with the number of constituent moduli. We clarify the mechanisms underlying the onset of entanglement between distant and non-interacting quantum systems and its optimization for applications to quantum repeaters and entanglement distribution and sharing.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Probing Quantum Frustrated Systems via Factorization of the Ground State

The existence of definite orders in frustrated quantum systems is related rigorously to the occurrence of fully factorized ground states below a threshold value of the frustration. Ground-state separability thus provides a natural measure of frustration: strongly frustrated systems are those that cannot accommodate for classical-like solutions. The exact form of the factorized ground states and the critical frustration are determined for various classes of nonexactly solvable spin models with different spatial ranges of the interactions. For weak frustration, the existence of disentangling transitions determines the range of applicability of mean-field descriptions in biological and physical problems such as stochastic gene expression and the stability of long-period modulated structures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Replaced with published versio

Long-distance entanglement and quantum teleportation in coupled cavity arrays

We introduce quantum spin models whose ground states allow for sizeable entanglement between distant spins. We discuss how spin models with global end-to-end entanglement realize quantum teleportation channels with optimal compromise between scalability and resilience to thermal decoherence, and can be implemented straightforwardly in suitably engineered arrays of coupled optical cavities.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. A (Rapid Communication

Long-distance entanglement in many-body atomic and optical systems

We discuss the phenomenon of long-distance entanglement (LDE) in the ground state of quantum spin models, its use in high-fidelity and robust quantum communication, and its realization in many-body systems of ultracold atoms in optical lattices and in arrays of coupled optical cavities. We investigate XX quantum spin models on one-dimensional lattices with open ends and different patterns of site-dependent interaction couplings, singling out two general settings: patterns that allow for perfect LDE in the ground state of the system, namely such that the end-to-end entanglement remains finite in the thermodynamic limit, and patterns of quasi-long-distance entanglement (QLDE) in the ground state of the system, namely such that the end-to-end entanglement vanishes with a very slow power-law decay as the length of the spin chain is increased. We discuss physical realizations of these models in ensembles of ultracold bosonic atoms loaded in optical lattices. We show how, using either suitably engineered super-lattice structures or exploiting the presence of edge impurities in lattices with single periodicity, it is possible to realize models endowed with nonvanishing LDE or QLDE. We then study how to realize models that optimize the robustness of QLDE at finite temperature and in the presence of imperfections using suitably engineered arrays of coupled optical cavities. For both cases the numerical estimates of the end-to-end entanglement in the actual physical systems are thoroughly compared with the analytical results obtained for the spin model systems. We finally introduce LDE-based schemes of long-distance quantum teleportation in linear arrays of coupled cavities, and show that they allow for high-fidelity and high success rates even at moderately high temperatures