Papers

Mm-wave and THz superconducting circuits find numerous applications in areas ranging from quantum information and sensing to high-energy physics. Planar THz transmission lines and resonators are fabrication-friendly, compact, and scalable, and they can be efficiently interfaced with external signals and controls. However, planar circuits radiate strongly at high frequencies, which precludes their use in loss-sensitive applications. Here, we present the design and characterization of planar dispersion-engineered transmission lines that effectively suppress radiation leakage in desired mm-wave bands. We extend this concept to design planar resonators with extremely low radiation leakage, resulting in radiation Q-factors above 106 at 553 GHz. Low-loss planar THz circuitry will impact many application domains, including broadband communications, quantum information, radio astronomy, and cosmology.

High-dimensional photonic systems access large Hilbert spaces for quantum information processing. They offer proven advantages in quantum computation, communication, and sensing. However, implementing scalable, low-loss unitary gates across many modes remains a central challenge. Here we propose a deterministic, universal, and fully programmable high-dimensional quantum gate based on a cavity-assisted sum-frequency-generation process, achieving near-unity fidelity. The device implements an M-by-N truncated unitary transformation (with 1 <= M < N), or a full unitary when M = N, on frequency-bin modes. With current technology, the attainable dimensionality reaches M-by-N on the order of ten to the power of four, with N up to about one thousand, and can be further increased using multiple pulse shapers. Combined with compatible SPDC sources, high-efficiency detection, and fast feed-forward, this approach provides a scalable, fiber-compatible platform for high-dimensional frequency-bin quantum processing.

This article reviews recent theoretical developments in the ab initio study of polarons in materials. The polaron is an emergent quasiparticle that arises from the interaction between electrons and phonons in solids, and consists of an electron or a hole accompanied by a distortion of the crystal lattice. Recent advances in experiments, theory, and computation have made it possible to investigate these quasiparticles with unprecedented detail, reigniting the interest in this classic problem of condensed matter physics. Recent theoretical and computational advances include ab initio calculations of polaron spectral functions, wavefunctions, lattice distortions, and transport and optical properties. These developments provide new insight into polaron physics, but they have evolved somewhat independently from the earlier effective Hamiltonian approaches that laid the foundation of the field. This article aims to bridge these complementary perspectives by placing them within a single unified conceptual framework. To this end, we start by reviewing effective Hamiltonians of historical significance in polaron theory, ab initio techniques based on density functional theory, and many-body first-principles approaches to polarons. After this survey, we outline a general field-theoretic framework that bridges between these diverse approaches to polaron physics. For completeness, we also review recent progress in the study of exciton polarons and self-trapped excitons and their relations to polarons. Beyond the methodology, we discuss recent applications to several classes of materials that attracted attention in the context of polaron physics.

A major challenge in light-matter simulations is bridging the disparate time and length scales of electrodynamics and molecular dynamics. Current computational approaches often rely on heuristic approximations of either the electromagnetic (EM) or the material component, hindering the exploration of complex light-matter systems. Herein, MaxwellLink – a modular, open-source Python framework – is developed for the massively parallel, self-consistent propagation of classical EM fields interacting with a large heterogeneous molecular ensemble. The package utilizes a robust TCP/UNIX socket interface to couple EM solvers with a wide range of molecular drivers. In this initial release, MaxwellLink supports EM solvers spanning from single-mode cavities to full-feature three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) engines, and molecules described by multilevel open quantum systems, force-field and first-principles molecular dynamics, and nonadiabatic real-time Ehrenfest dynamics. With the socket-based architecture, users can seamlessly switch between levels of theory of either the EM solver or molecules without modifying the counterpart. Moreover, the EM engine and molecular drivers scale independently across multiple high-performance computing (HPC) nodes, facilitating large-scale simulations previously inaccessible to existing numerical schemes. The versatility and accuracy of this code are further demonstrated through applications including superradiance, radiative energy transfer, vibrational strong coupling in Bragg resonators, and plasmonic heating of molecular gases. By providing a unified, extensible engine, MaxwellLink potentially offers a powerful platform for exploring emerging phenomena across the research fronts of spectroscopy, quantum optics, plasmonics, and polaritonics.

We show that collective three-body interactions (3BIs), implementable with $N$ atoms loaded inside an optical cavity, offer a significant advantage for preparing complex multipartite entangled states. Firstly, they enable a speedup of order $\sim N$ in preparing generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, outperforming conventional methods based on all-to-all two-body Ising interactions. Secondly, they saturate the Heisenberg bound in phase estimation tasks using a time-reversal protocol realized through simple rotations and followed by experimentally accessible collective spin measurements. Lastly, compared with two-body interactions (2BIs), in the presence of cavity losses and single particle decoherence, 3BIs feature a high gain in sensitivity for moderate atom numbers and in large ensembles a fast entanglement generation despite constraints in parameter regimes where they are implementable.

We present a comprehensive first-principles investigation of carbon self-interstitial defects in diamond, ranging from mono- to hexa-interstitial complexes. By quantum mechanical density functional theory, empowered by interatomic potential models, we efficiently sample the complex configurational landscape and identify both known and previously unreported defect geometries. Our results reveal a pronounced energetic driving force for aggregation: the formation energy per interstitial decreases systematically from isolated split interstitials to compact multi-interstitial clusters, with the tetra-interstitial platelet emerging as a particularly stable structural motif. Additionally, charge analysis indicates that the predominantly covalent bonding in diamond becomes more polar within the defect centers. Analysis of defect energy levels shows that only the investigated mono-, di-, penta-, and hexa-interstitial complexes introduce in-gap electronic states, whereas the tri- and tetra-interstitial clusters are electronically inert. Vibrational spectroscopies further reveal that self-interstitials generate characteristic signatures. Short carbon-carbon bonds inside the defect cores give rise to high-frequency vibrational modes between 1375 and 1925 cm$^{-1}$, which are strongly IR-active but exhibit weak Raman activity. Through a systematic analysis of metastable configurations, we identify the 3H defect center as a neutral di-interstitial defect. Based on this identification, we further suggest that the TR12 center may arise from a 3H-containing defect like a metastable hexa-interstitial configuration. Taken together, these findings provide a coherent picture of the structural, electronic, and vibrational characteristics of carbon self-interstitials and establish a robust framework for their experimental identification.

Accurately predicting protein-ligand binding free energies (BFEs) remains a central challenge in drug discovery, particularly because the most reliable methods, such as free energy perturbation (FEP), are computationally intensive and difficult to scale. Here, we introduce a hybrid quantum-classical framework that combines Mining Minima sampling with quantum mechanically refined ligand partial charges, QM/MM interaction evaluation, and variational quantum eigensolver (VQE)-based electronic energy correction. This design enables explicit treatment of polarization, charge redistribution, and electronic correlation effects that are often underestimated in purely classical scoring schemes, while retaining computational efficiency. Across 23 protein targets and 543 ligands, the method achieves a mean absolute error of about 1.10 kcal/mol with strong rank-order fidelity (Pearson R = 0.75, Spearman rho = 0.76, Kendall tau = 0.57), consistent with the performance of contemporary FEP protocols. Notably, the workflow requires only about 25 minutes per ligand on standard compute resources, resulting in an approximate 20-fold reduction in computational cost relative to alchemical free energy approaches. This level of accuracy and efficiency makes the method well-suited for high-throughput lead optimization and iterative design cycles in pharmaceutical discovery. The framework also provides a natural foundation for future integration with machine learning models to enable predictive, large-scale, and adaptive screening strategies.

Semiconductor quantum dots embedded in circular Bragg gratings (CBGs) are among the most efficient integrated single-photon sources. However, the fully etched rings of conventional CBGs restrict the implementation of charge and Stark tuning via electrical contacts. To overcome this limitation, a labyrinth CBG geometry with four bridges has been proposed, yet the added bridges significantly degraded optical performance. In this work, we numerically demonstrate that a periodic labyrinth CBG design preserves both high coupling efficiency and strong Purcell enhancement while enabling electrical integration if optimized after introducing the bridges. We show three optimized designs at emission wavelengths of 780 nm, 930 nm, and 1550 nm, because these wavelengths are among the most relevant for quantum dots and show the general applicability of our approach. At all three wavelengths collection efficiencies exceeding 90% into a numerical aperture of 0.7 and Purcell factors greater than 25 are achieved. Furthermore, we propose a device layout incorporating a barrier layer that separates p- and n-doped semiconductor regions, which is incorporated to prevent tunneling of one of the charge carriers for selective charging. Also this design can be reoptimized to retain the performance of a device without tunnel barrier. These results establish labyrinth CBGs as a platform for electrically tunable quantum dot single-photon sources with high efficiency and scalability.

The evolution of a system coupled to baths is commonly described by a master equation that, in the long-time limit, yields a steady-state density matrix. However, when the same evolution is unraveled into quantum trajectories, it is possible to observe a transition in the scaling of entanglement within the system as the system-bath coupling increases - a phenomenon that is invisible in the trajectory-averaged reduced density matrix of the system. Here, we go beyond the paradigm of trajectories from master equations and explore whether a qualitatively analogous entanglement-scaling transition emerges in a single unitary evolution of the combined system-bath setup, without monitoring the dynamics of the system. We investigate the scaling of entanglement in a unitary quantum setup composed of a two-dimensional lattice of free fermions, where each site is coupled to a fermionic bath. As the system-bath coupling increases, the logarithmic fermionic negativity reveals an entanglement transition from logarithmic-law to area-law scaling. This occurs while the system's steady-state properties are trivial, highlighting that the signatures of these different scalings are within the bath-bath correlations. Evidence of the transition is also found in the mutual information and the correlations of the full system-bath setup, suggesting that the entanglement transition is underpinned by a change in the spatial structure of quantum information.

We develop a finite-dimensional formulation of the recently introduced notion of “timelike entanglement”, defined in terms of two-point functions between operators supported on different Cauchy slices. Using a local orthonormal operator basis, we recast this construction in terms of a generalized response tensor. Building on this, we introduce a generalized spacetime density kernel (GSDK) corresponding to higher-point correlation functions, including time-ordered as well as out-of-time-ordered correlators. We show that the Haar-averaged $(2N)$-point function yields the $(2N)$-th moment of the spectral form factor (SFF), evaluated at an $N$-enhanced effective temperature. The correlation functions of the GSDK operators also yield the SFF, with an effective $(1/N)$-reduction of the physical time-scales. The GSDK places both scrambling diagnostics and spectral statistics on a similar footing and clarifies how higher-point correlators and non-trivial time ordering capture fine-grained dynamical information of a quantum system.

Vacuum fluctuations in quantum field theory impose fundamental limitations on our ability to measure time at arbitrarily short scales. To investigate the impact of universal quantum field theory effects on observer-dependent time measurements, we introduce a clock model based on the vacuum decay probability of a finite-sized quantum system. This model defines an effective notion of proper time that depends on the microscopic properties of the clock and on how it samples vacuum fluctuations along its trajectory. We show that, in the long-time regime, this notion of time reduces to the usual proper time of special relativity. However, by studying a microscopic twin-paradox scenario, we find that, in general, time is not determined solely by the trajectory connecting two events, but also by how vacuum fluctuations interact with the internal structure of the clocks.

A critical step in developing circuits for quantum simulation is to synthesize a desired unitary operator using the circuit building blocks. Studying unitaries and their generators from the Lie algebraic perspective has given rise to several algorithms for synthesis based on a Cartan decomposition of the dynamical Lie algebra. For unitaries of the form $e^{-itH}$, such as time-independent Hamiltonian simulation, the resulting circuits have depth that does not depend on simulation time $t$. However, finding such circuits has a large classical overhead in the cost function evaluation and the high dimensional optimization problem. In this work, by further partitioning the dynamical Lie algebra, we break down the optimization problem into smaller independent subproblems. Moreover, the resulting algebraic structure allows us to easily shift the evaluation of the cost function to the quantum computer, further cutting the classical overhead of the algorithm. As an application of the new hybrid algorithm, we synthesize the time evolution unitary for the 4-site transverse field Ising model on several IBM devices and Quantinuum's H1-1 quantum computer.

We report the results and unique instrument configuration of a novel experiment in which we successfully transitioned a DPPH sample from its natural paramagnetic state and essentially a non-magnetic material to a ferromagnetic state at room temperature. This was achieved using a specifically applied helical flux magnetic field. The DPPH sample (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) remained ferromagnetic for at least one hour after the experiment, indicating that a transformation in the material was induced by the external field rather than being merely a temporary magnetic phase transition observed only during the experiment. The external magnetic field used had a helical pitch angle of approximately $54.7{\deg}$, known mathematically as the Magic Angle, relative to the +z-axis, which is aligned with the normal S to N external field's magnetic moment vector. Based on the phenomenology of the experiment and results, we suggest that this specific magic angle corresponding to the known quantization precession spin angle of free electrons under a homogeneous straight flux magnetic field potentially enhances the percentage of unpaired valence electrons within the DPPH material, allowing them to align in parallel with the applied external field. Typically, in paramagnetic materials, the distribution of unpaired electrons' quantum spins relative to an external field is nearly random, showing roughly a 50% chance of either parallel or antiparallel alignment. Only a slight majority preference exists in one alignment direction due to the Boltzmann thermal distribution, which contributes to the paramagnetic nature of these materials. In our measurements, we found that the induced ferromagnetism of the DPPH sample resulted in an abnormal thousand-fold decimal value increase in relative magnetic permeability at ${\mu}{\approx}1.4$, compared to its typical paramagnetic value of $1.0001$ for this material.

Quantum technologies, spanning communication, sensing, computing, and cryptography, are rapidly emerging as critical paths of geopolitical competition and strategic defence innovation. Unlike traditional technological advances, quantum introduces novel capabilities that fundamentally disrupt established norms of security, intelligence, and diplomatic engagement. This strategic analysis explores the evolving quantum landscape through the dual lenses of diplomacy and geopolitics, with specific implications for defence leaders, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. The benefits and challenges of quantum technologies are examined from a diplomatic and geopolitical perspective to help leaders make informed strategic decisions. Leading powers now recognise quantum as a domain where technological leadership directly translates to geopolitical influence, compelling an intense race for dominance alongside new forms of multilateral diplomacy aimed at managing both risks and opportunities. Quantum technologies do not all have the same operational maturity, but technological progress is accelerating. Post-quantum cryptography demands immediate action, every encrypted communication created today may be harvested and decrypted within the decade by adversaries equipped with quantum capabilities.

The acceleration-induced transparency (AIT) effect has been suggested recently to amply the transition probability of the two-level detctor and offers a potential avenue for the experimental detection of the Unruh effect. In this paper, we explore the influence of the AIT effect on quantum entanglement between two detectors accelerated in a thermal field background, since the thermal backgound field cannot be avoided completely in any experiments. Interestingly, we find that although the backgound thermal field generally degrade the entanglement between the detectors, the AIT effect can effectively protect it.

The study of dynamic systems at the nanometer scale can benefit from the loss and background resilience offered by quantum two-photon interference. However, fast measurements with the required resolution are difficult to realize. As a solution, we introduce extreme energy entanglement between the photons undergoing interference. Using a flux probing analysis technique, we recover vibrational signals with frequencies as high as 21 kHz. Along with validating nanometer-scale precision and accuracy, we observe a significant quantum advantage when measuring in the presence of loss and background.

Defects in solid-state materials play a central role in determining coherence, stability, and performance in quantum technologies. Although narrowband techniques can probe specific resonances with high precision, a broadband spectroscopic approach captures the full spectrum of defect properties and dynamics. Two-level system (TLS) defects in amorphous dielectrics are a particularly important example because they are major sources of decoherence and energy loss in superconducting quantum devices. However, accessing and characterizing their collective dynamics remains far more challenging than probing individual TLS defects. Building on our previously developed Broadband Cryogenic Transient Dielectric Spectroscopy (BCTDS) technique, we study the coherent control and time-resolved dynamics of TLS defect ensembles over a wide frequency range of 3-5 GHz without requiring full device fabrication, revealing quantum interference effects, memory-dependent dynamics, and dressed-state evolution within the TLS defect bath. The spectral response reveals distinct V-shaped structures corresponding to the bare eigenmode frequencies. Using these features, we extract a TLS defect spectral density of 84 GHz^-1 for a silicon sample, across a 4.1-4.6 GHz span. Furthermore, we systematically investigate amplitude- and phase-controlled interference fringes for multiple temperatures and inter-pulse delays, providing direct evidence of coherent dynamics and control. A driven minimal spin model with dipole-dipole interactions that qualitatively capture the observed behavior is presented. Our results establish BCTDS as a versatile platform for broadband defect spectroscopy, offering new capabilities for diagnosing and mitigating sources of decoherence, engineering many-body dynamics, and exploring non-equilibrium phenomena in disordered quantum systems.

We introduce an alternative receiver architecture for deep-space optical communication, in which a single large aperture is replaced by an array of smaller ones with outputs combined coherently, employing phase stabilization based on photon counting events. We show that it allows to increase the signal to noise ratio, thus potentially attaining higher information transmission rates in the regime of large noise, typical for daytime communication. We analyze its practical performance by simulating pulse position modulation-based communication from the recently launched Psyche mission. Under nighttime conditions the achieved performance is comparable to that offered by a single large aperture, whereas in daytime conditions the single photon coherent beam combination architecture provides an advantage in the information transmission rate.

Continuous measurements are central to quantum control and sensing, yet lack a model-independent operational description that can be applied to arbitrary non-Markovian processes without specifying a microscopic measurement model. Existing multi-time frameworks, such as process matrices, allow for an arbitrary sequence of operations to be applied on a general process, but are restricted to interventions at discrete times and cannot represent measurements of finite duration. We introduce a continuous-time extension of multi-time quantum processes based on process and operation functionals, which generalise the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and yield a continuous Born rule that cleanly separates processes from operations. This framework provides a consistent representation of non-Markovian dynamics under continuous monitoring and leads to natural definitions of causality and Markovianity in continuous time, opening the way to formalising quantum causal structures in the continuum. We illustrate the formalism by analysing continuous measurements in a generalised Caldeira-Leggett model, demonstrating its applicability to realistic non-Markovian scenarios.

Large superconducting quantum circuits have a number of important applications in quantum computing. Accurately predicting the performance of these devices from first principles is challenging, as it requires solving the many-body Schrödinger equation. This work introduces a new, general ab-initio method for analyzing large quantum circuits based on lattice field theory, a tool commonly applied in nuclear and particle physics. This method is competitive with state-of-the-art techniques such as tensor networks, but avoids introducing systematic errors due to truncation of the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space associated with superconducting phases. The approach is applied to fluxonium, a specific many-component superconducting qubit with favorable qualities for quantum computation. A systematic study of the influence of impedance on fluxonium is conducted that parallels previous experimental studies, and ground capacitance effects are explored. The qubit frequency and charge noise dephasing rate are extracted from statistical analyses of charge noise, where thousands of instantiations of charge disorder in the Josephson junction array of a fixed fluxonium qubit are explicitly averaged over at the microscopic level. This is difficult to achieve with any other existing method.

We develop a microscopic theory of magnon-exciton drag effect in a bilayer van der Waals antiferromagnetic semiconductor CrSBr. Effective exciton-magnon coupling arises from an orbital mechanism: Magnons tilt the layer magnetizations, enabling charge carrier tunneling that mixes intra- and interlayer excitons and thereby modulate the exciton energy. We derive the effective Hamiltonian of exciton-magnon coupling, based on our calculation of the magnon spectrum taking into account short-range exchange interaction between Cr-ion spins, single-ion anisotropy, and long-range dipole-dipole interactions. The latter produces a negative group velocity of magnons at small wavevectors. We show that despite rather small renormalization of exciton's energy and effective mass by the exciton-magnon interaction, the three key two-magnon processes: exciton-magnon scattering, two-magnon absorption by exciton, and two-magnon emission are highly efficient. By solving the Boltzmann kinetic equation, we evaluate short exciton-magnon scattering time which is in the sub-ps range and strongly decreases with the increase of magnon population. Hence, exciton-magnon scattering is likely to be dominant over other scattering processes related to the exciton-phonon and exciton-disorder interactions. We demonstrate that magnons can efficiently drag excitons, resulting in a large and nearly isotropic exciton propagation that can significantly exceed the intrinsic anisotropic diffusion. Our results provide a theoretical basis for recent observations of anomalous exciton transport in CrSBr [F. Dirnberger, et al., Nat. Nano. (2025)] and establish magnon-exciton drag as a powerful mechanism for controlling exciton propagation in magnetic systems.

Quantum algorithms have been identified as a potential means to accelerate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, with the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) being a promising candidate for realizing quantum speedups. Here, we extend the recent quantum algorithm for the incompressible LBM to account for realistic fluid dynamics setups by incorporating walls, inlets, outlets, and external forcing. We analyze the associated complexity cost and show that these modifications preserve the asymptotic scaling, and potential quantum advantage, of the original algorithm. Moreover, to support our theoretical analysis, we provide a classical numerical study illustrating the accuracy, complexity, and convergence of the algorithm for representative incompressible-flow cases, including the driven Taylor-Green vortex, the lid-driven cavity flow, and the flow past a cylinder. Our results provide a pathway to accurate quantum simulation of nonlinear fluid dynamics, and a framework for extending quantum LBM to more challenging flow configurations.

We investigate the asymptotic stability and ergodic properties of quantum trajectories under imperfect measurement, extending previous results established for the ideal case of perfect measurement. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition ensuring the convergence of the estimated trajectory, initialized from an estimated state, to the true trajectory. This result is obtained assuming that the associated quantum channel is irreducible. Building on this, we prove the uniqueness of the invariant measure and demonstrate convergence toward this measure.

Erasing memory is a fundamental operational task in quantum information processing, governed by Landauer's principle, which links information loss to thermodynamic work. We introduce and analyze assisted quantum erasure, where correlations with a remote system reduce the energetic cost of resetting a memory. We identify exclusive control of erasure as the central operational requirement: only a designated party should be able to achieve the minimal cost, whereas any adversary must fail. In the device-dependent regime, we show that entanglement of formation exactly characterizes exclusivity, establishing entanglement as the decisive thermodynamic resource. Moving to a one-sided device-independent scenario, in which only the memory holder's device is trusted, we develop an operational erasure protocol based on random dephasing and conditional operations. Finally, in a fully device-independent setting, we show how Bell nonlocality and self-testing translate observed violations into lower bounds on any adversary's erasure capability, yielding a device-independent notion of exclusive thermodynamic control. Taken together, these results elevate quantum erasure from a thermodynamic constraint to an operational primitive: the erasure work cost quantifies secure, exclusive control over quantum memory, ensuring that an unauthorized agent cannot fully erase information under a bounded work budget.

Quantum coherence serves as a fundamental resource for generating intrinsic randomness, yet the quantification of randomness in quantum random number generators (QRNGs) based on spontaneous emission has remained largely phenomenological. Existing randomness analysis lacks rigorous adversarial models and a clear characterization of the role of quantum coherence in these systems. In this work, we develop a comprehensive quantum information-theoretic framework for randomness generation in spontaneous emission processes. We characterize two distinct eavesdropping strategies: one where the adversary directly accesses the atom ensemble, and the other where the adversary accesses only its purification. Our analysis reveals that when randomness is generated through single-photon detection and temporal mode measurements, the QRNG is vulnerable to the first adversary scenario, though it still guarantees a lower bound on intrinsic randomness against the second adversary scenario even under maximal information leakage from the atoms. In contrast, QRNGs based on spatial mode detection and phase fluctuations demonstrate security against both types of adversaries, providing robust randomness generation. Furthermore, we provide a quantitative calculation of intrinsic randomness for these spontaneous-emission-based QRNG schemes.

We investigate the ground states and rich dynamics of vortices in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) subject to position-dependent detuning. Such a detuning plays the role of an effective rotational frequency, causing the generation of a synthetic magnetic field. Through scanning the detuning gradient, we numerically obtain static vortex lattice structures containing 1 to 6 vortices using the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations. When quenching detuning gradient below its initial value, the vortex lattices exhibit interesting periodic rotation motion, and their dynamical stability can persist for up to 1000ms. In particular, depending on the detuning gradient, the twin vortices exhibit either a scissors-like rotational oscillation or a clockwise periodic rotation, reflecting the response to the magnetic field gradient experienced by the condensates. We fit the numerical results to quantitatively analyze the relation between rotation dynamics and magnetic field gradients. When quenching the detuning gradient beyond its initial value, additional vortices appear. Our findings may motivate further experimental studies of vortex dynamics in synthetic magnetic fields and offer insights for engineering a BEC-based magnetic field gradiometer.

Cavity quantum electrodynamics with atomic ensembles is typically associated with collective spin phenomena, such as superradiance and spin squeezing, in which the atoms evolve collectively as a macroscopic spin ($S\sim N/2$) on the Bloch sphere. Surprisingly, we show that the tendency toward a collective spin description need not imply collective spin phenomena; rather, it can be exploited to generate new forms of strongly correlated quantum matter. The key idea is to use uniform cavity-mediated interactions to energetically project the system into the total-spin singlet sector ($S=0$) - a highly entangled subspace where the physics is governed entirely by cavity fluctuations. Focusing on Rydberg atom arrays coupled to a single-mode cavity, we show that global cavity fluctuations can effectively squeeze classical antiferromagnets into quantum spin liquids, characterized by non-local entanglement, fractionalized excitations, and emergent gauge fields. This work suggests that cavity QED can be a surprising resource for inducing strongly correlated phenomena, which could be explored in the new generation of hybrid tweezer-cavity platforms.

We investigate mixed eigenstates in systems with sharply divided phase space, using different piecewise-linear maps whose regular-chaotic boundaries are formed by marginally unstable periodic orbits (MUPOs) or by quasi-periodic orbits. With the overlap index and the entropy localization length, we classify mixed eigenstates and show that the contribution from dynamical tunneling scales as $\sim \hbar\, \exp(-b/\hbar)$, with $b>0$ associated with the relative size of the regular region. The dominant fraction of states that remain sticky to the boundaries, referred to as sticky eigenstates, scales approximately as $\hbar^{1/2}$ in the MUPO case and oscillates around this algebraic behavior in the quasiperiodic case. This behavior generalizes established predictions for hierarchical states in Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) systems, which scale as $\hbar^{1 - 1/\gamma}$, with $\gamma$ set by the corresponding classical stickiness reflected in the algebraic decay of cumulative recurrence-time distributions $t^{-\gamma}$. For the piecewise-linear maps studied here, $\gamma = 2$. These results reveal a clear quantum signature of classical stickiness in non-KAM systems.

Phase-space representations can be used to reveal resources for quantum computational advantage. In odd-dimensional qudit systems, states and operations admitting non-negative quasi-probability representations are efficiently classically simulable, and analogous conclusions hold for bosonic systems, usually represented in quadrature phase space. However, when quantum information is encoded in bosonic systems, the link between physical phase-space representations and computational resources becomes nontrivial: large negativities may arise in the physical space even when the encoded model remains efficiently simulable. We establish a general framework connecting physical phase spaces of bosonic systems to the effective computational phase spaces associated with arbitrary encodings. We show that bosonic Hilbert spaces with finitely many modes can always be exactly encoded on a quantum computer, without truncation or approximations, and that for any encoding there exists an adapted physical phase-space representation in which all provably classically simulable states and protocols are non-negative. Conversely, negativity can always persist in physical representations for arbitrary encodings. Our results formalize the operational meaning of phase-space negativity in bosonic quantum information and its relation with computational resources.

This paper is concerned with a quantum memory system for storing quantum information in the form of its initial dynamic variables in the presence of environmental noise. In order to compensate for the deviation from the initial conditions, the classical parameters of the system Hamiltonian are affected by the actuator output of a measurement-based classical controller. The latter uses an observation process produced by a measuring apparatus from the quantum output field of the memory system. The underlying system is modelled as an open quantum harmonic oscillator whose Heisenberg evolution is governed by linear Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic differential equations. The controller is organised as a classical linear time-varying system, so that the resulting closed-loop system has quantum and classical dynamic variables. We apply linear-quadratic-Gaussian control and fixed-point smoothing at the level of the first two moments and consider controllers with a separation structure which involve a continuously updated estimate for the initial quantum variables. The initial-point smoother is used for actuator signal formation so as to minimise the sum of a mean-square deviation of the quantum memory system variables at a given time horizon from their initial values and an integral quadratic penalty on the control signal.