Shot Noise of Spin-Decohering Transport in Spin-Orbit Coupled Nanostructures

We generalize the scattering theory of quantum shot noise to include the full spin-density matrix of electrons injected from a spin-filtering or ferromagnetic electrode into a quantum-coherent nanostructure governed by various spin-dependent interactions. This formalism yields the spin-resolved shot noise power for different experimental measurement setups--with ferromagnetic source and ferromagnetic or normal drain electrodes--whose evaluation for the diffusive multichannel quantum wires with the Rashba (SO) spin-orbit coupling shows how spin decoherence and dephasing lead to substantial enhancement of charge current fluctuations (characterized by Fano factors $> 1/3$). However, these processes and the corresponding shot noise increase are suppressed in narrow wires, so that charge transport experiments measuring the Fano factor $F_{\uparrow \to \uparrow \downarrow}$ in a ferromagnet/SO-coupled-wire/paramagnet setup also quantify the degree of phase-coherence of transported spin--we predict a one-to-one correspondence between the magnitude of the spin polarization vector and $F_{\uparrow \to \uparrow \downarrow}$.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure; enhanced with 2 new figure

Charge qubits and limitations of electrostatic quantum gates

We investigate the characteristics of purely electrostatic interactions with external gates in constructing full single qubit manipulations. The quantum bit is naturally encoded in the spatial wave function of the electron system. Single-electron{transistor arrays based on quantum dots or insulating interfaces typically allow for electrostatic controls where the inter-island tunneling is considered constant, e.g. determined by the thickness of an insulating layer. A representative array of 3x3 quantum dots with two mobile electrons is analyzed using a Hubbard Hamiltonian and a capacitance matrix formalism. Our study shows that it is easy to realize the first quantum gate for single qubit operations, but that a second quantum gate only comes at the cost of compromising the low-energy two-level system needed to encode the qubit. We use perturbative arguments and the Feshbach formalism to show that the compromising of the two-level system is a rather general feature for electrostatically interacting qubits and is not just related to the specific details of the system chosen. We show further that full implementation requires tunable tunneling or external magnetic fields.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Classical and Quantum Fluctuation Theorems for Heat Exchange

The statistics of heat exchange between two classical or quantum finite systems initially prepared at different temperatures are shown to obey a fluctuation theorem.Comment: 4 pages, 1 included figure, to appear in Phys Rev Let

Photon-mediated qubit interactions in one-dimensional discrete and continuous models

In this work we study numerically and analytically the interaction of two qubits in a one-dimensionalwaveguide, as mediated by the photons that propagate through the guide. We develop strategies to assert the Markovianity of the problem, the effective qubit-qubit interactions, and their individual and collective spontaneous emission. We prove the existence of collective Lamb shifts that affect the qubit-qubit interactions and the dependency of coherent and incoherent interactions on the qubit separation. We also develop the scattering theory associated with these models and prove single-photon spectroscopy does probe the renormalized resonances of the singleand multiqubit models, in sharp contrast to earlier toy models in which individual and collective Lamb shifts cancel

Decoherence by a spin thermal bath: Role of the spin-spin interactions and initial state of the bath

We study the decoherence of two coupled spins that interact with a spin-bath environment. It is shown that the connectivity and the coupling strength between the spins in the environment are of crucial importance for the decoherence of the central system. For the anisotropic spin-bath, changing the connectivity or coupling strenghts changes the decoherence of the central system from Gaussian to exponential decay law. The initial state of the environment is shown to affect the decoherence process in a qualitatively significant manner.Comment: submitted to PR

Photons uncertainty solves Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox

Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) pointed out that the quantum-mechanical description of "physical reality" implied an unphysical, instantaneous action between distant measurements. To avoid such an action at a distance, EPR concluded that Quantum Mechanics had to be incomplete. However, its extensions involving additional "hidden variables", allowing for the recovery of determinism and locality, have been disproved experimentally (Bell's theorem). Here, I present an opposite solution of the paradox based on the greater indeterminism of the modern Quantum Field Theory (QFT) description of Particle Physics, that prevents the preparation of any state having a definite number of particles. The resulting uncertainty in photons radiation has interesting consequences in Quantum Information Theory (e.g. cryptography and teleportation). Moreover, since it allows for less elements of EPR physical reality than the old non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics, QFT satisfies the EPR condition of completeness without the need of hidden variables. The residual physical reality does never violate locality, thus the unique objective proof of "quantum nonlocality" is removed in an interpretation-independent way. On the other hand, the supposed nonlocality of the EPR correlations turns out to be a problem of the interpretation of the theory. If we do not rely on hidden variables or new physics beyond QFT, the unique viable interpretation is a minimal statistical one, that preserves locality and Lorentz symmetry.Comment: Published version, with updated referenc

Rabi lattice models with discrete gauge symmetry: Phase diagram and implementation in trapped-ion quantum simulators

We study a spin-boson chain that exhibits a local Z2 symmetry. We investigate the quantum phase diagram of the model by means of perturbation theory, mean-field theory, and the density matrix renormalization group method. Our calculations show the existence of a first-order phase transition in the region where the boson quantum dynamics is slow compared to the spin-spin interactions. Our model can be implemented with trapped-ion quantum simulators, leading to a realization of minimal models showing local gauge invariance and first-order phase transitions

Optical Aharonov-Bohm Effect on Wigner Molecules in Type-II Semiconductor Quantum Dots

We theoretically examine the magnetoluminescence from a trion and a biexciton in a type-II semiconductor quantum dot, in which holes are confined inside the quantum dot and electrons are in a ring-shaped region surrounding the quantum dot. First, we show that two electrons in the trion and biexciton are strongly correlated to each other, forming a Wigner molecule: Since the relative motion of electrons is frozen, they behave as a composite particle whose mass and charge are twice those of a single electron. As a result, the energy of the trion and biexciton oscillates as a function of magnetic field with half the period of the single-electron Aharonov-Bohm oscillation. Next, we evaluate the photoluminescence. Both the peak position and peak height change discontinuously at the transition of the many-body ground state, implying a possible observation of the Wigner molecule by the optical experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Quantum-Classical Dynamics of Wave Fields

An approach to the quantum-classical mechanics of phase space dependent operators, which has been proposed recently, is remodeled as a formalism for wave fields. Such wave fields obey a system of coupled non-linear equations that can be written by means of a suitable non-Hamiltonian bracket. As an example, the theory is applied to the relaxation dynamics of the spin-boson model. In the adiabatic limit, a good agreement with calculations performed by the operator approach is obtained. Moreover, the theory proposed in this paper can take nonadiabatic effects into account without resorting to surface-hopping approximations. Hence, the results obtained follow qualitatively those of previous surface-hopping calculations and increase by a factor of (at least) two the time length over which nonadiabatic dynamics can be propagated with small statistical errors. Moreover, it is worth to note that the dynamics of quantum-classical wave fields here proposed is a straightforward non-Hamiltonian generalization of the formalism for non-linear quantum mechanics that Weinberg introduced recently.Comment: Manuscript accepted by The Journal of Chemical Physic