Generation of macroscopic Schr\"odinger-cat states in qubit-oscillator systems

We propose a scheme to generate macroscopic Schr\"odinger-cat states in a quantum harmonic oscillator (electromagnetic field or mechanical resonator) coupled to a quantum bit (two-level system) via a conditional displacement mechanism. By driving the qubit monochromatically, the oscillation of the qubit state modifies the effective frequency of the driving force acting on the oscillator, and a resonant or near-resonant driving on the oscillator can be achieved. The displacement of the oscillator is then significantly enhanced due to the small detuning of the driving force and can exceed that of the zero-point fluctuation. This effect can be used to prepare quantum superpositions of macroscopically distinct coherent states in the oscillator. We present detailed studies on this state-generation scheme in both the closed- and open-system cases. This approach can be implemented in various experimental platforms, such as cavity- or circuit-QED systems, electromechanical systems, and spin-cantilever systems.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Photon blockade induced by atoms with Rydberg coupling

We study the photon blockade of two-photon scattering in a one-dimensional waveguide, which contains two atoms coupled via the Rydberg interaction. We obtain the analytic scattering solution of photonic wave packets with the Laplace transform method. We examine the photon correlation by addressing the two-photon relative wave function and the second-order correlation function in the single- and two-photon resonance cases. It is found that, under the single-photon resonance condition, photon bunching and antibunching can be observed in the two-photon transmission and reflection, respectively. In particular, the bunching and antibunching effects become stronger with the increasing of the Rydberg coupling strength. In addition, we find a phenomenon of bunching-antibunching transition caused by the two-photon resonance.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Manipulating counter-rotating interactions in the quantum Rabi model via qubit frequency modulation

We propose a practical approach to manipulate the counter-rotating (CR) interactions in the quantum Rabi model by introducing a sinusoidal modulation to the transition frequency of the quantum two-level system in this model. By choosing appropriate modulation frequency and amplitude, enhancement and suppression of the CR interactions can be achieved in the Jaynes-Cummings regime (including both weak- and strong-coupling cases) as well as the ultrastrong-coupling regime. In particular, we calculate the output photon emission of the cavity vacuum state under enhanced CR terms. Our results show that continuous and steady photon emission from the cavity vacuum can be observed in the Jaynes-Cummings regime as a consequence of this enhancement. Our approach can be realized in superconducting quantum circuits.Comment: 10 pages, 9 Figure

Coherent excitation-energy transfer and quantum entanglement in a dimer

We study coherent energy transfer of a single excitation and quantum entanglement in a dimer, which consists of a donor and an acceptor modeled by two two-level systems. Between the donor and the acceptor, there exists a dipole-dipole interaction, which provides the physical mechanism for coherent energy transfer and entanglement generation. The donor and the acceptor couple to two independent heat baths with diagonal couplings that do not dissipate the energy of the non-coupling dimer. Special attention is paid to the effect on single-excitation energy transfer and entanglement generation of the energy detuning between the donor and the acceptor and the temperatures of the two heat baths. It is found that, the probability for single-excitation energy transfer largely depends on the energy detuning in the low temperature limit. Concretely, the positive and negative energy detunings can increase and decrease the probability at the steady state, respectively. In the high temperature limit, however, the effect of the energy detuning on the probability is neglectably small. We also find that the probability is neglectably dependent on the bath temperature difference of the two heat baths. In addition, it is found that quantum entanglement can be generated in the process of coherent energy transfer. As the bath temperature increases, the generated steady state entanglement decreases. For a given bath temperature, the steady-state entanglement decreases with the increasing of the absolute value of the energy detuning.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Rotation Effects on Mesonic Condensations in Isospin Matter

We investigate the rotation effects on the mesonic condensation in isospin matter . Using the two-flavor NJL effective model with a global rotation, we demonstrate two important effects of the rotation on its phase structure: a rotational suppression of the scalar-channel condensates, in particular the pion condensation region; and a rotational enhancement of the rho condensation region with vector-channel condensate. A new phase diagram for isospin matter under rotation is mapped out on the $\omega-\mu_I$ plane where three distinctive phases, corresponding to $\sigma$, $\pi$, $\rho$ dominated regions respectively, are separated by a second-order line at low isospin chemical potential and a first-order line at high rotation which are further connected at a tri-critical point.Comment: 4 pages, proceedings for Quark Matter 201

Spectral characterization of couplings in a mixed optomechanical model

We study the spectrum of single-photon emission and scattering in a mixed optomechanical model which consists of both linear and quadratic optomechanical interactions. The spectra are calculated based on the exact long-time solutions of the single-photon emission and scattering processes in this system. We find that there exist some phonon sideband peaks in the spectra and there are some sub peaks around the phonon sideband peaks under proper parameter conditions. The correspondence between the spectral features and the optomechanical interactions is confirmed, and the optomechanical coupling strengths can be inferred by analyzing the resonance peaks and dips in the spectra.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Generalized Ultrastrong Optomechanics

We propose a reliable scheme to realize a generalized ultrastrong optomechanical coupling in a two-mode cross-Kerr-type coupled system, where one of the bosonic modes is strongly driven. The effective optomechanical interaction takes the form of a product of the photon number operator of one mode and the quadrature operator of the other mode. The coupling strength and quadrature phase are both tunable via the driving field. The coupling strength can be strongly enhanced to reach the ultrastrong-coupling regime, where the few-photon optomechanical effects such as photon blockade and macroscopically distinct quantum superposition become accessible. The presence of tunable quadrature phase also enables the implementation of geometric quantum operations. Numerical simulations show that this method works well in a wide parameter space. We also present an analysis of the experimental implementation of this scheme.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, plus supplementary materials (18 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

Spectrometric detection of weak forces in cavity optomechanics

We propose a spectrometric method to detect a classical weak force acting upon the moving end mirror in a cavity optomechanical system. The force changes the equilibrium position of the end mirror, and thus the resonance frequency of the cavity field depends on the force to be detected. As a result, the magnitude of the force can be inferred by analyzing the single-photon emission and scattering spectra of the optomechanical cavity. Since the emission and scattering processes are much faster than the characteristic mechanical dissipation, the influence of the mechanical thermal noise is negligible in this spectrometric detection scheme. We also extent this spectrometric method to detect a monochromatic oscillating force by utilizing an optomechanical coupling modulated at the same frequency as the force.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Ultrastrong Jaynes-Cummings Model

We propose a reliable scheme to realize the ultrastrong Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model by simultaneously modulating the resonance frequencies of the two-level system and the bosonic mode in the ultrastrong quantum Rabi model. We find that in both the high- and low-frequency modulation regimes, the counter-rotating terms can be completely suppressed without reducing the coupling strength of the rotating-wave terms, and hence the ultrastrong JC Hamiltonian is achieved. The ultrastrong JC interaction can not only be used to implement ultrafast quantum operations, but also will open up a new route to the demonstration of quantum phase transition associated with the JC Hamiltonian across the deep-strong coupling point. Some discussions on the experimental implementation of this scheme with circuit-QED systems are presented.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Quantum simulation of a three-mode optomechanical system based on the Fredkin-type interaction

The realization of multimode optomechanical interactions in the single-photon strong-coupling regime is a desired task in cavity optomechanics, but it remains a challenge in realistic physical systems. In this work, we propose a reliable scheme to simulate a three-mode optomechanical system working in the single-photon strong-coupling regime based on the Fredkin-type interaction. This is achieved by utilizing two strong drivings to the two exchangly-coupled modes in the Fredkin-type coupling involving one optical mode and two mechanical-like modes. As an application of this enhanced three-mode nonlinear optomechanical coupling, we show how to generate entangled-cat states of the mechanical-like modes using the conditional displacement mechanism. The quantum coherence effects in the generated states are investigated by calculating two-mode joint Wigner function and quantum entanglement. The influence of the dissipation effect on the state generation is considered in the open-system case.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure