Multiple Ionization under Strong XUV to X-ray Radiation

We review the main aspects of multiple photoionization processes in atoms exposed to intense, short wavelength radiation. The main focus is the theoretical framework for the description of such processes as well as the conditions under which direct multiphoton multiple ionization processes can dominate over the sequential ones. We discuss in detail the mechanisms available in different wavelength ranges from the infrared to the hard X-rays. The effect of field fluctuations, present at this stage in all SASE free-electron-laser (FEL) facilities, as well as the effect of the interaction volume integration, are also discussed

Robustness of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol against general coherent attacks

It is demonstrated that for the entanglement-based version of the Bennett-Brassard (BB84) quantum key distribution protocol, Alice and Bob share provable entanglement if and only if the estimated qubit error rate is below 25% or above 75%. In view of the intimate relation between entanglement and security, this result sheds also new light on the unconditional security of the BB84 protocol in its original prepare-and-measure form. In particular, it indicates that for small qubit error rates 25% is the ultimate upper security bound for any prepare-and-measure BB84-type QKD protocol. On the contrary, for qubit error rates between 25% and 75% we demonstrate that the correlations shared between Alice and Bob can always be explained by separable states and thus, no secret key can be distilled in this regime.Comment: New improved version. A minor mistake has been eliminate

Route to Direct Multiphoton Multiple Ionization

We address the concept of direct multiphoton multiple ionization in atoms exposed to intense, short wavelength radiation and explore the conditions under which such processes dominate over the sequential. Their contribution is shown to be quite robust, even under intensity fluctuations and interaction volume integration, and reasonable agreement with experimental data is also found.Comment: Close to the version to be published in Phys. Rev. A. Additional supplementary material can be found ther

Perfect transfer of multiple excitations in quantum networks

We present a general formalism to the problem of perfect state-transfer (PST), where the state involves multiple excitations of the quantum network. A key feature of our formalism is that it allows for inclusion of nontrivial interactions between the excitations. Hence, it is perfectly suited to addressing the problem of PST in the context of various types of physical realizations. The general formalism is also flexible enough to account for situations where multiple excitations are "focused" onto the same site.Comment: close to the version published in Phys. Rev. A. In version 2, a typo has been corrected in Sec. III

Effects of relative phase and interactions on atom-laser outcoupling from a double-well Bose-Einstein condensate: Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics

We investigate aspects of the dynamics of a continuous atom-laser scheme based on the merging of independently formed atomic condensates. Our theoretical analysis covers the Markovian as well as the non-Markovian operational regimes, and is based on a semiclassical (mean-field) two-mode model. The role of the relative phase between the two condensates and the effect of interatomic interactions on the evolution of the trapped populations and the distribution of outcoupled atoms are discussed.Comment: to appear in J. Phys.