Time reflection of light from a quantum perspective and vacuum entanglement.

If a boundary between two static media is moving with a constant superluminal velocity, or there is a sudden change of the refractive index with time, this yields generation of entangled pairs of photons out of vacuum propagating in the opposite directions. Here we show that during this process, entanglement of Minkowski vacuum is transferred to the entanglement of the generated photon pairs. If initially an electromagnetic pulse is present in the medium the photon generation is stimulated into the pulse mode, and since photons are created as entangled pairs the counter-propagating photon partners produce a pulse moving in the opposite direction, which is known as time reflection.

Unruh and Cherenkov Radiation from a Negative Frequency Perspective.

A ground-state atom uniformly accelerated through the Minkowski vacuum can become excited by emitting an Unruh-Minkowski photon. We show that from the perspective of an accelerated atom, the sign of the frequency of the Unruh-Minkowski photons can be positive or negative depending on the acceleration direction. The accelerated atom becomes excited by emitting an Unruh-Minkowski photon which has negative frequency in the atom's frame, and decays by emitting a positive-frequency photon.

Enhancing sensitivity of lateral flow assay with application to SARS-CoV-2.

Lateral flow assay (LFA) has long been used as a biomarker detection technique. It has advantages such as low cost, rapid readout, portability, and ease of use. However, its qualitative readout process and lack of sensitivity are limiting factors.

Light and corona: guided-wave readout for coronavirus spike protein-host-receptor binding.

We show that waveguide sensors can enable a quantitative characterization of coronavirus spike glycoprotein-host-receptor binding-the process whereby coronaviruses enter human cells, causing disease. We demonstrate that such sensors can help quantify and eventually understand kinetic and thermodynamic properties of viruses that control their affinity to targeted cells, which is known to significantly vary in the course of virus evolution, e.g.

Excitation of an Atom by a Uniformly Accelerated Mirror through Virtual Transitions.

We find that uniformly accelerated motion of a mirror yields excitation of a static two-level atom with simultaneous emission of a real photon. This occurs because of virtual transitions with probability governed by the Planck factor involving the photon frequency ν and the Unruh temperature. The result is different from the Unruh radiation of an accelerated atom, which is governed by the frequency of the atom, ω, rather than frequency of the emitted photon.

Quantum optics approach to radiation from atoms falling into a black hole.

We show that atoms falling into a black hole (BH) emit acceleration radiation which, under appropriate initial conditions, looks to a distant observer much like (but is different from) Hawking BH radiation. In particular, we find the entropy of the acceleration radiation via a simple laser-like analysis. We call this entropy horizon brightened acceleration radiation (HBAR) entropy to distinguish it from the BH entropy of Bekenstein and Hawking.

Directional coherent light via intensity-induced sideband emission.

We introduce a unique technique for generating directional coherent emissions that could be utilized to create coherent sources in a wide range of frequencies from the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) to the deep infrared. This is accomplished without population inversion by pumping a two-level system with a far-detuned strong optical field that induces the splitting of the two-level system. A nonlinear process of four-wave mixing then occurs across the split system, driving coherent emission at sidebands both red- and blue-detuned from the pump frequency, and propagates both forward and backward along the pump beam path.

Generation of Coherent Light by a Moving Medium.

We show that steady nonuniform motion of a medium through an optical resonator can yield light amplification at the resonator frequency. High gain can be achieved if at the generated frequency the medium refractive index is close to zero or the medium has a very strong frequency dispersion. We also discuss an analogy between light amplification by a moving medium and the generation of sound waves when gas flows along a tube with acoustically closed-open boundaries.

Rabi oscillations produced by adiabatic pulse due to initial atomic coherence.

If an electromagnetic pulse is detuned from atomic transition frequency by amount Δ>1/τ, where τ is the turn-on time of the pulse, then atomic population adiabatically follows the pulse intensity without causing Rabi oscillations. Here we show that, if initially, the atom has nonzero coherence, then the adiabatic pulse yields Rabi oscillations of atomic population ρ(t), and we obtain analytical solutions for ρ(t). Our findings can be useful for achieving generation of coherent light in the backward direction in the QASER scheme in which modulation of the coupling between light and atoms is produced by Rabi oscillations.

Observing superradiant decay of excited-state helium atoms inside helium plasma.

Using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy on excited-state helium atoms in a plasma created through optical field ionization, we measured the decay of 2(3)S-2(3)P excitation with sub-ps temporal resolution. The population evolution shows that initial decay is significantly faster than the electron-atom collisions and three orders of magnitude faster than the single atom spontaneous decay rate. This indicates on superradiant coherent behavior of the atomic system inside the plasma.

Quantum heat engine power can be increased by noise-induced coherence.

Laser and photocell quantum heat engines (QHEs) are powered by thermal light and governed by the laws of quantum thermodynamics. To appreciate the deep connection between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics we need only recall that in 1901 Planck introduced the quantum of action to calculate the entropy of thermal light, and in 1905 Einstein's studies of the entropy of thermal light led him to introduce the photon. Then in 1917, he discovered stimulated emission by using detailed balance arguments.

Dynamical evolution of correlated spontaneous emission of a single photon from a uniformly excited cloud of N atoms.

We study the correlated spontaneous emission from a dense spherical cloud of N atoms uniformly excited by absorption of a single photon. We find that the decay of such a state depends on the relation between an effective Rabi frequency Omega proportional square root N and the time of photon flight through the cloud R/c. If OmegaR/c<1 the state exponentially decays with rate Omega(2)R/c and the state lifetime is greater than R/c.

Condensation of N interacting bosons: a hybrid approach to condensate fluctuations.

We present a new method of calculating the distribution function and fluctuations for a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of N interacting atoms. The present formulation combines our previous master equation and canonical ensemble quasiparticle techniques. It is applicable both for ideal and interacting Bogoliubov BEC and yields remarkable accuracy at all temperatures.

Simple and surprisingly accurate approach to the chemical bond obtained from dimensional scaling.

We present a new dimensional scaling transformation of the Schrödinger equation for the two electron bond. This yields, for the first time, a good description of the bond via D scaling. There also emerges, in the large-D limit, an intuitively appealing semiclassical picture, akin to a molecular model proposed by Bohr in 1913.

Bohr's 1913 molecular model revisited.

It is generally believed that the old quantum theory, as presented by Niels Bohr in 1913, fails when applied to few electron systems, such as the H(2) molecule. Here, we find previously undescribed solutions within the Bohr theory that describe the potential energy curve for the lowest singlet and triplet states of H(2) about as well as the early wave mechanical treatment of Heitler and London. We also develop an interpolation scheme that substantially improves the agreement with the exact ground-state potential curve of H(2) and provides a good description of more complicated molecules such as LiH, Li(2), BeH, and He(2).