Evaluating Matrix Functions by Resummations on Graphs: the Method of Path-Sums

We introduce the method of path-sums which is a tool for exactly evaluating a function of a discrete matrix with possibly non-commuting entries, based on the closed-form resummation of infinite families of terms in the corresponding Taylor series. If the matrix is finite, our approach yields the exact result in a finite number of steps. We achieve this by combining a mapping between matrix powers and walks on a weighted directed graph with a universal graph-theoretic result on the structure of such walks. We present path-sum expressions for a matrix raised to a complex power, the matrix exponential, matrix inverse, and matrix logarithm. We show that the quasideterminants of a matrix can be naturally formulated in terms of a path-sum, and present examples of the application of the path-sum method. We show that obtaining the inversion height of a matrix inverse and of quasideterminants is an NP-complete problem.Comment: 23 pages, light version submitted to SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications (SIMAX). A separate paper with the graph theoretic results is available at: arXiv:1202.5523v1. Results for matrices over division rings will be published separately as wel

Creation of effective magnetic fields in optical lattices: The Hofstadter butterfly for cold neutral atoms

We investigate the dynamics of neutral atoms in a 2D optical lattice which traps two distinct internal states of the atoms in different columns. Two Raman lasers are used to coherently transfer atoms from one internal state to the other, thereby causing hopping between the different columns. By adjusting the laser parameters appropriately we can induce a non vanishing phase of particles moving along a closed path on the lattice. This phase is proportional to the enclosed area and we thus simulate a magnetic flux through the lattice. This setup is described by a Hamiltonian identical to the one for electrons on a lattice subject to a magnetic field and thus allows us to study this equivalent situation under very well defined controllable conditions. We consider the limiting case of huge magnetic fields -- which is not experimentally accessible for electrons in metals -- where a fractal band structure, the Hofstadter butterfly, characterizes the system.Comment: 6 pages, RevTe

Fault-Tolerant Dissipative Preparation of Atomic Quantum Registers with Fermions

We propose a fault tolerant loading scheme to produce an array of fermions in an optical lattice of the high fidelity required for applications in quantum information processing and the modelling of strongly correlated systems. A cold reservoir of Fermions plays a dual role as a source of atoms to be loaded into the lattice via a Raman process and as a heat bath for sympathetic cooling of lattice atoms. Atoms are initially transferred into an excited motional state in each lattice site, and then decay to the motional ground state, creating particle-hole pairs in the reservoir. Atoms transferred into the ground motional level are no longer coupled back to the reservoir, and doubly occupied sites in the motional ground state are prevented by Pauli blocking. This scheme has strong conceptual connections with optical pumping, and can be extended to load high-fidelity patterns of atoms.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, RevTex

Creation of a molecular condensate by dynamically melting a Mott-insulator

We propose creation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by loading an atomic BEC into an optical lattice and driving it into a Mott insulator (MI) with exactly two atoms per site. Molecules in a MI state are then created under well defined conditions by photoassociation with essentially unit efficiency. Finally, the MI is melted and a superfluid state of the molecules is created. We study the dynamics of this process and photoassociation of tightly trapped atoms.Comment: minor revisions, 5 pages, 3 figures, REVTEX4, accepted by PRL for publicatio

Tunable Supersolids of Rydberg Excitations Described by Quantum Evolutions on Graphs

We show that transient supersolid quantum states of Rydberg-excitations can be created dynamically from a Mott insulator of ground state atoms in a 2D optical-lattices by irradiating it with short laser pulses. The structure of these supersolids is tunable via the choice of laser parameters. We calculate first, second and fourth order correlation functions as well as the pressure to characterize the supersolid states. Our study is based on the development of a general theoretical tool for obtaining the dynamics of strongly interacting quantum systems whose initial state is accurately known. We show that this method allows to accurately approximate the evolution of quantum systems analytically with a number of operations growing polynomially.Comment: 2 figure

Entangling strings of neutral atoms in 1D atomic pipeline structures

We study a string of neutral atoms with nearest neighbor interaction in a 1D beam splitter configuration, where the longitudinal motion is controlled by a moving optical lattice potential. The dynamics of the atoms crossing the beam splitter maps to a 1D spin model with controllable time dependent parameters, which allows the creation of maximally entangled states of atoms by crossing a quantum phase transition. Furthermore, we show that this system realizes protected quantum memory, and we discuss the implementation of one- and two-qubit gates in this setup.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, revised version: improvements in introduction and figure

Attractive ultracold bosons in a necklace optical potential

We study the ground state properties of the Bose-Hubbard model with attractive interactions on a M-site one-dimensional periodic -- necklace-like -- lattice, whose experimental realization in terms of ultracold atoms is promised by a recently proposed optical trapping scheme, as well as by the control over the atomic interactions and tunneling amplitudes granted by well-established optical techniques. We compare the properties of the quantum model to a semiclassical picture based on a number-conserving su(M) coherent state, which results into a set of modified discrete nonlinear Schroedinger equations. We show that, owing to the presence of a correction factor ensuing from number conservation, the ground-state solution to these equations provides a remarkably satisfactory description of its quantum counterpart not only -- as expected -- in the weak-interaction, superfluid regime, but even in the deeply quantum regime of large interactions and possibly small populations. In particular, we show that in this regime, the delocalized, Schroedinger-cat-like quantum ground state can be seen as a coherent quantum superposition of the localized, symmetry-breaking ground-state of the variational approach. We also show that, depending on the hopping to interaction ratio, three regimes can be recognized both in the semiclassical and quantum picture of the system.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; typos corrected and references added; to appear in Phys. Rev.

A Single Atom Transistor in a 1D Optical Lattice

We propose a scheme utilising a quantum interference phenomenon to switch the transport of atoms in a 1D optical lattice through a site containing an impurity atom. The impurity represents a qubit which in one spin state is transparent to the probe atoms, but in the other acts as a single atom mirror. This allows a single-shot quantum non-demolition measurement of the qubit spin.Comment: RevTeX 4, 5 Figures, 4 Page

Polaron Physics in Optical Lattices

We investigate the effects of a nearly uniform Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) on the properties of immersed trapped impurity atoms. Using a weak-coupling expansion in the BEC-impurity interaction strength, we derive a model describing polarons, i.e., impurities dressed by a coherent state of Bogoliubov phonons, and apply it to ultracold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. We show that, with increasing BEC temperature, the transport properties of the impurities change from coherent to diffusive. Furthermore, stable polaron clusters are formed via a phonon-mediated off-site attraction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure