Certifying separability in symmetric mixed states of N qubits, and superradiance

Universal quantum Otto heat machine based on the Dicke model

In this paper we study a quantum Otto thermal machine where the working substance is composed of N identical qubits coupled to a single mode of a bosonic field, where the atoms and the field interact with a reservoir, as described by the so-called open Dicke model. By controlling the relevant and experimentally accessible parameters of the model we show that it is possible to build a universal quantum heat machine (UQHM) that can function as an engine, refrigerator, heater, or accelerator. The heat and work exchanges are computed taking into account the growth of the number N of atoms as well as the coupling regimes characteristic of the Dicke model for several ratios of temperatures of the two thermal reservoirs. The analysis of quantum features such as entanglement and second-order correlation shows that these quantum resources do not affect either the efficiency or the performance of the UQHM based on the open Dicke model. In addition, we show that the improvement in both efficiency and coefficient of performance of our UQHM occurs for regions around the critical value of the phase transition parameter of the model.

Dephasing-assisted entanglement in a system of strongly coupled qubits

Creation of entangled states of quantum systems with low decoherence rates is a cornerstone in practical implementation of quantum computations. Processes of separate dephasing in each qubit in experimentally feasible systems is commonly accepted to destroy entanglement. In this work, we consider a system of two strongly coupled qubits that interact with dephasing reservoirs. We demonstrate that interaction with dephasing reservoirs can contribute to the formation of a long-lived mixed entangled state with nonzero concurrence. The weight of the subradiant state in this mixed state tends toward unity if the dephasing rate is much larger than the radiative rate and less than the coupling constant between qubits. The lifetime of this state is proportional to the exponent of the ratio of the coupling constant to environmental temperature and can be, by orders of magnitude, larger than the system's characteristic dephasing and dissipation times. Therefore, high dephasing, along with strong coupling, contributes to the creation of an entangled state with a long lifetime. This result paves the way for creation of long-lived entangled states.

Cooperative Breakdown of the Oscillator Blockade in the Dicke Model

The Dicke model, which describes the coupling of an ensemble of spins to a harmonic oscillator, is known for its superradiant phase transition, which can both be observed in the ground state in a purely Hamiltonian setting, as well as in the steady state of an open-system Dicke model with dissipation. We demonstrate that, in addition, the dissipative Dicke model can undergo a second phase transition to a nonstationary phase, characterized by unlimited heating of the harmonic oscillator. Identifying the mechanism of the phase transition and deriving the scaling of the critical coupling with the system size we conclude that the novel phase transition can be understood as a cooperative breakdown of the oscillator blockade which otherwise prevents higher excitation of the system. We discuss an implementation with trapped ions and investigate the role of cooling, by which the breakdown can be suppressed.

Discrimination of entangled photon pair from classical photons by de Broglie wavelength

Quantum optics largely relies on the fundamental concept that the diffraction and interference patterns of a multi-partite state are determined by its de Broglie wavelength. In this paper we show that this is still true for a mixed state with one sub-system being in a classical coherent state and one being in entangled state. We demonstrate the quantum-classical light discrimination using de Broglie wavelength for the states with all classical parameters being the same.

Quantum noise radar: superresolution with quantum antennas by accessing spatiotemporal correlations

We suggest overcoming the "Rayleigh catastrophe" and reaching superresolution for imaging with both spatially and temporally correlated field of a superradiant quantum antenna. Considering far-field radiation of two interacting spontaneously emitting two-level systems, we show that for the measurement of the temporally delayed second-order correlation function of the scattered field, the Fisher information does not tend to zero with diminishing the distance between a pair of scatterers even for non-sharp time-averaged detection. For position estimation of more scatterers, the measurement of the time-delayed function is able to provide a considerable accuracy gain over the zero-delayed function. We also show that the superresolution with the considered quantum antenna can be achieved for both near-field imaging and for estimating the antenna parameters.

Dissipation-assisted spin squeezing of nitrogen-vacancy centers coupled to a rectangular hollow metallic waveguide

Spin squeezing has received much attention due to the interesting physics and important applications such as quantum metrology and quantum information processing. We here present a scheme to engineer stable spin squeezing in an array of nitrogen vacancy centers (NVCs) coupled to a rectangular hollow metallic waveguide. The remarkable feature of the waveguide as the common environment media is that one can switch on/off either the waveguide induced dipole-dipole interactions or correlated spontaneous emissions among the NVCs by designing their spatial separation. It permits us to achieve a dissipative Dicke model after the dipole-dipole interactions vanish due to destructive interference. With the external driving lasers on each NVC, a second-order phase transition is triggered, separating the steady state into two phases with and without collective spin squeezing. Supplying a physical realization of the dissipative Dicke model, our study gives a bridge between the generation of the stable spin squeezing and the phase transition physics.