Decoherence of interacting Majorana modes

We study the decoherence of Majorana modes of a fermion chain, where the fermions interact with their nearest neighbours. We investigate the effect of dissipation and dephasing on the Majorana modes of a fermionic chain. The dissipative and dephasing noises induce the non-parity- and parity-preserving transitions between the eigenstates of the system, respectively. Therefore, these two types of noises lead to the different decoherence mechanisms. In each type of noise, we discuss the low- and high-frequency regimes to describe the different environments. We numerically calculate the dissipation and dephasing rates in the presence of long-range interactions. We find that the decoherence rate of interacting Majorana modes is different to that of non-interacting modes. We show the examples that the long-range interactions can reduce the decoherence rate. It is advantageous to the potential applications of quantum information processing.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Topological phases in spin-orbit coupled dipolar lattice bosons

We study the topological phases in spin-orbit coupled dipolar bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice. The magnetic dipolar interactions between atoms give rise to the inter-site interactions. In the Mott-insulating regime, this system can be described by the quantum XYZ spin model with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in a transverse field. We focus on investigating the effect of dipolar interactions on the topological phase. The topological phase can be shown when spin-orbit coupling incorporates with the repulsive dipolar interaction. We find that the dipolar interaction can broaden the range of parameters of spin-orbit coupling and transverse field for exhibiting the topological phase. The sum of spin correlations between the two nearest neighbouring atoms can be used to indicate the topological phase. This may be useful for detecting topological phases in experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, revised versio

Quantum-limited measurement of magnetic-field gradient with entangled atoms

We propose a method to detect the microwave magnetic-field gradient by using a pair of entangled two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. We consider the two spatially separated condensates to be coupled to the two different magnetic fields. The magnetic-field gradient can be determined by measuring the variances of population differences and relative phases between the two-component condensates in two wells. The precision of measurement can reach the Heisenberg limit. We study the effects of one-body and two-body atom losses on the detection. We find that the entangled atoms can outperform the uncorrelated atoms in probing the magnetic fields in the presence of atom losses. The effect of atom-atom interactions is also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figure

Production of mesoscopic superpositions with ultracold atoms

We study mesoscopic superpositions of two component Bose-Einstein condensates. Atomic condensates, with long coherence times, are good systems in which to study such quantum phenomenon. We show that the mesoscopic superposition states can be rapidly generated in which the atoms dispersively interact with the photon field in a cavity. We also discuss the production of compass states which are generalized Schr\"{o}dinger cat states. The physical realization of mesoscopic states is important in studying decoherence and precision measurement.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Particle-hole entanglement of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

We study the ground state of two-component bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice. By applying an external field to the atoms at one end of lattice, the atoms are transported and becomes localized at that site. The holes are then created in the remaining sites. The particle-hole superpositions are produced in this process. We investigate the entanglement entropy between the atoms in the two different parts of a lattice. A large degree of particle-hole entanglement is generated in the ground state. The particle-hole quantum correlations can be probed by the two-site parity correlation functions. The transport properties of the low-lying excited states are also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

Nonequilibrium dynamics of spin-orbit coupled lattice bosons

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two component bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. In the Mott insulating regime, the two-component bosonic system at unity filling can be described by the quantum spin XXZ model. The atoms are initially prepared in their lower spin states. The system becomes out of equilibrium by suddenly introducing spin-orbit coupling to the atoms. The system shows the relaxation and non-stationary dynamics, respectively, in the different interaction regimes. We find that the time average of magnetization is useful to characterize the many-body dynamics. The effects of even and odd numbers of sites are discussed. Our result sheds light on non-equilibrium dynamics due to the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and atomic interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

An iterative approach for amplitude amplification with nonorthogonal measurements

Using three coupled harmonic oscillators, we present an amplitude-amplification method for factorization of an integer. We generalize the method in [arXiv:1007.4338] by employing non-orthogonal measurements on the harmonic oscillator. This method can increase the probability of obtaining the factors by repeatedly using the nonlinear interactions between the oscillators and non-orthogonal measurements. However, this approach requires an exponential amount of resources for implementation. Thus, this method cannot provide a speed-up over classical algorithms unless its limitations are resolved.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures; title changed, major revision

Quantum estimation of magnetic-field gradient using W-state

We study the precision limits of detecting a linear magnetic-field gradient by using W-states in the presence of different types of noises. We consider to use an atomic spin chain for probing the magnetic-field gradient, where a W-state is prepared. We compare this method with the measurement of using two uncorrelated atoms. For pure states, W-states can provide an improvement over uncorrelated states in determining the magnetic-field gradient up to four particles. We examine the effects of local dephasing and dissipations on the performances of detections. In presence of dephasing, the uncorrelated atoms can give a higher precision than using W-states. But W-states provide a better performance in the presence of dissipation for a few particles. We briefly discuss the implementation of the detection methods with cold atoms and trapped ions.Comment: 7 pages and 5 figures, title changed, updated version with clarificatio

Vacuum Fluctuations induced Entanglement between Two Mesoscopic Systems

We study the dynamics of a pair of molecular ensembles trapped inside a superconducting resonator through which they are strongly coupled via a microwave field mode. We find that entanglement can be generated via "vacuum fluctuations" even when the molecules and cavity field are initially prepared in their ground state. This entanglement is created in a relatively short time and without the need for further manipulation of the system. It does, therefore, provide a convenient scheme to entangle two mesoscopic systems, and may well be useful quantum information processing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Comment on "Uncertainty in measurements of distance"

We have argued that quantum mechanics and general relativity give a lower bound $\delta l \gtrsim l^{1/3} l_P^{2/3}$ on the measurement uncertainty of any distance $l$ much greater than the Planck length $l_P$. Recently Baez and Olson have claimed that one can go below this bound by attaching the measuring device to a massive elastic rod. Here we refute their claim. We also reiterate (and invite our critics to ponder on) the intimate relationship and consistency between black hole physics (including the holographic principle) and our bound on distance measurements.Comment: 4 pages, aaste