Scattering of two photons from two distant qubits: Exact solution

We consider the inelastic scattering of two photons from two qubits separated by an arbitrary distance $R$ and coupled to a one-dimensional transmission line. We present an exact, analytical solution to the problem, and use it to explore a particular configuration of qubits which is transparent to single-photon scattering, thus highlighting non-Markovian effects of inelastic two-photon scattering: Strong two-photon interference and momentum dependent photon (anti-)bunching. This latter effect can be seen as an inelastic generalization of the Hong--Ou--Mandel effect.Comment: 5 pages + 11 pages in the supplement, v2: published versio

Quantum theory of light scattering in a one-dimensional channel: Interaction effect on photon statistics and entanglement entropy

We provide a complete and exact quantum description of coherent light scattering in a one-dimensional multi-mode transmission line coupled to a two-level emitter. Using recently developed scattering approach we discuss transmission properties, power spectrum, the full counting statistics and the entanglement entropy of transmitted and reflected states of light. Our approach takes into account spatial parameters of an incident coherent pulse as well as waiting and counting times of a detector. We describe time evolution of the power spectrum as well as observe deviations from the Poissonian statistics for reflected and transmitted fields. In particular, the statistics of reflected photons can change from sub-Poissonian to super-Poissonian for increasing values of the detuning, while the statistics of transmitted photons is strictly super-Poissonian in all parametric regimes. We study the entanglement entropy of some spatial part of the scattered pulse and observe that it obeys the area laws and that it is bounded by the maximal entropy of the effective four-level system.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; discussion extended, references adde

Relaxation vs decoherence: Spin and current dynamics in the anisotropic Kondo model at finite bias and magnetic field

Using a nonequilibrium renormalization group method we study the real-time evolution of spin and current in the anisotropic Kondo model (both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic) at finite magnetic field $h_0$ and bias voltage $V$. We derive analytic expressions for all times in the weak-coupling regime $\max\{V,h_0,1/t\}\gg T_c$ ($T_c=$ strong coupling scale). We find that all observables decay both with the spin relaxation and decoherence rates $\Gamma_{1/2}$. Various $V$-dependent logarithmic, oscillatory, and power-law contributions are predicted. The low-energy cutoff of logarithmic terms is generically identified by the difference of transport decay rates. For small times $t\ll \max\{V,h_0\}^{-1}$, we obtain universal dynamics for spin and current

Topologically protected strongly-correlated states of photons

Hybrid photonic nanostructures allow the engineering of novel interesting states of light. One recent example is topological photonic crystals where a nontrivial Berry phase of the photonic band structure gives rise to topologically protected unidirectionally-propagating (chiral) edge states of photons. Here we demonstrate that by coupling an array of emitters to the chiral photonic edge state one can create strongly correlated states of photons in a highly controllable way. These are topologically protected and have a number of remarkable universal properties: The outcome of scattering does not depend on the positions of emitters and is given only by universal numbers, the zeroes of Laguerre polynomials; two-photon correlation functions manifest a well-pronounced even-odd effect with respect to the number of emitters, and the result of scattering is robust with respect to fluctuations in the emitters' transition frequencies.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figure

Kondo model in nonequilibrium: Interplay between voltage, temperature, and crossover from weak to strong coupling

We consider an open quantum system in contact with fermionic metallic reservoirs in a nonequilibrium setup. For the case of spin, orbital or potential fluctuations, we present a systematic formulation of real-time renormalization group at finite temperature, where the complex Fourier variable of an effective Liouvillian is used as flow parameter. We derive a universal set of differential equations free of divergencies written as a systematic power series in terms of the frequency-independent two-point vertex only, and solve it in different truncation orders by using a universal set of boundary conditions. We apply the formalism to the description of the weak to strong coupling crossover of the isotropic spin-1/2 nonequilibrium Kondo model at zero magnetic field. From the temperature and voltage dependence of the conductance in different energy regimes we determine various characteristic low-energy scales and compare their universal ratio to known results. For a fixed finite bias voltage larger than the Kondo temperature, we find that the temperature-dependence of the differential conductance exhibits non-monotonic behavior in the form of a peak structure. We show that the peak position and peak width scale linearly with the applied voltage over many orders of magnitude in units of the Kondo temperature. Finally, we compare our calculations with recent experiments.Comment: 48 pages, 10 figure

Supersymmetry in quantum optics and in spin-orbit coupled systems

Light-matter interaction is naturally described by coupled bosonic and fermionic subsystems. This suggests that a certain Bose-Fermi duality is naturally present in the fundamental quantum mechanical description of photons interacting with atoms. We reveal submanifolds in parameter space of a basic light-matter interacting system where this duality is promoted to a supersymmetry (SUSY) which remains unbroken. We show that SUSY is robust with respect to decoherence and dissipation. In particular, a stationary density matrix at the supersymmetric lines in the parameter space has a degenerate subspace. A dimension of this subspace is given by the Witten index and thus topologically protected. As a consequence of this SUSY, dissipative dynamics at the supersymmetric lines is constrained by an additional conserved quantity which translates some part of information about an initial state into the stationary state subspace. We also demonstrate a robustness of this additional conserved quantity away from the supersymmetric lines. In addition, we demonstrate that the same SUSY structures are present in condensed matter systems with spin-orbit couplings of Rashba and Dresselhaus types, and therefore spin-orbit coupled systems at the SUSY lines should be robust with respect to various types of disorder and decoherences. Our findings suggest that optical and condensed matter systems at the SUSY points can be used for quantum information technology and can open an avenue for quantum simulation of the SUSY field theories.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Control over few photon pulses by a time-periodic modulation of the photon-emitter coupling

We develop a Floquet scattering formalism for the description of quasistationary states of microwave photons in a one-dimensional waveguide interacting with a nonlinear cavity by means of a periodically modulated coupling. This model is inspired by the recent progress in engineering of tunable coupling schemes with superconducting qubits. We argue that our model can realize the quantum analogue of an optical chopper. We find strong periodic modulations of the transmission and reflection envelopes in the scattered few-photon pulses, including photon compression and blockade, as well as dramatic changes in statistics. Our theoretical analysis allows us to explain these non-trivial phenomena as arising from non-adiabatic memory effects.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1603.0549