Simulating the Interplay of Particle Conservation and Long-Range Coherence.

Lasers and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) exhibit macroscopic quantum coherence in seemingly unrelated ways. Lasers possess a well-defined global phase while the number of photons fluctuates. In BECs of atoms, instead, the number of particles is conserved and the global phase is undefined.

Can Nonlinear Parametric Oscillators Solve Random Ising Models?

We study large networks of parametric oscillators as heuristic solvers of random Ising models. In these networks, known as coherent Ising machines, the model to be solved is encoded in the coupling between the oscillators, and a solution is offered by the steady state of the network. This approach relies on the assumption that mode competition steers the network to the ground-state solution of the Ising model.

Identification of Symmetry-Protected Topological States on Noisy Quantum Computers.

Identifying topological properties is a major challenge because, by definition, topological states do not have a local order parameter. While a generic solution to this challenge is not available yet, a broad class of topological states, namely, symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states, can be identified by distinctive degeneracies in their entanglement spectrum. Here, we propose and realize two complementary protocols to probe these degeneracies based on, respectively, symmetry-resolved entanglement entropies and measurement-based computational algorithms.

Dicke model.

The Dicke model is a fundamental model of quantum optics, which describes the interaction between light and matter. In the Dicke model, the light component is described as a single quantum mode, while the matter is described as a set of two-level systems. When the coupling between the light and matter crosses a critical value, the Dicke model shows a mean-field phase transition to a superradiant phase.

Persistent Coherent Beating in Coupled Parametric Oscillators.

Coupled parametric oscillators were recently employed as simulators of artificial Ising networks, with the potential to solve computationally hard minimization problems. We demonstrate a new dynamical regime within the simplest network-two coupled parametric oscillators, where the oscillators never reach a steady state, but show persistent, full-scale, coherent beats, whose frequency reflects the coupling properties and strength. We present a detailed theoretical and experimental study and show that this new dynamical regime appears over a wide range of parameters near the oscillation threshold and depends on the nature of the coupling (dissipative or energy preserving).

Chiral prethermalization in supersonically split condensates.

We study the dynamics of phase relaxation between a pair of one-dimensional condensates created by a supersonic unzipping of a single condensate. We use the Lorentz invariance of the low energy sector of such systems to show that dephasing results in an unusual prethermal state, in which right- and left-moving excitations have different, Doppler-shifted temperatures. The chirality of these modes can be probed experimentally by measuring the interference fringe contrasts with the release point of the split condensates moving at another supersonic velocity.

Unstable avoided crossing in coupled spinor condensates.

We consider the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate with two internal states, coupled through a coherent drive. We focus on a specific quench protocol, in which the sign of the coupling field is suddenly changed. At a mean-field level, the system is transferred from a minimum to a maximum of the coupling energy and can remain dynamically stable, in spite of the development of negative-frequency modes.

Dissipative preparation of spin squeezed atomic ensembles in a steady state.

We present and analyze a new approach for the generation of atomic spin-squeezed states. Our method involves the collective coupling of an atomic ensemble to a decaying mode of an open optical cavity. We demonstrate the existence of a collective atomic dark state, decoupled from the radiation field.

Universal rephasing dynamics after a quantum quench via sudden coupling of two initially independent condensates.

We consider a quantum quench in which two initially independent condensates are suddenly coupled and study the subsequent "rephasing" dynamics. For weak tunneling couplings, the time evolution of physical observables is predicted to follow universal scaling laws, connecting the short-time dynamics to the long-time nonperturbative regime. We first present a two-mode model valid in two and three dimensions and then move to one dimension, where the problem is described by a gapped sine-Gordon theory.

Hidden order in 1D bose insulators.

We investigate the phase diagram of spinless bosons with long range (variant 1/r(3)) repulsive interactions, relevant to ultracold polarized atoms or molecules, using density matrix renormalization group. Between the two conventional insulating phases, the Mott and density wave phases, we find a new phase possessing hidden order revealed by nonlocal string correlations analogous to those characterizing the Haldane gapped phase of integer spin chains. We develop a mean field theory that describes the low-energy excitations in all three insulating phases.