No Arabic abstract
The critical nuclear charge Zc required for a heliumlike atom to have at least one bound state was recently determined with high accuracy from variational calculations. Analysis of the wave functions further suggested that the bound state changes smoothly into a shape resonance as Z crosses the critical value. Using variational calculations combined with the complex coordinate rotation method, we study the energy and width of the resonance for Z textless{} Zc, thus providing direct evidence of the validity of this hypothesis. The variation of the resonance width with Z is found to be in good agreement with a model derived from analysis of the 1/Z perturbation series.
Alkaline-earth-like~(AEL) atoms with two valence electrons and a nonzero nuclear spin can be excited to Rydberg state for quantum computing. Typical AEL ground states possess no hyperfine splitting, but unfortunately a GHz-scale splitting seems necessary for Rydberg excitation. Though strong magnetic fields can induce a GHz-scale splitting, weak fields are desirable to avoid noise in experiments. Here, we provide two solutions to this outstanding challenge with realistic data of well-studied AEL isotopes. In the first theory, the two nuclear spin qubit states $|0rangle$ and $|1rangle$ are excited to Rydberg states $|rrangle$ with detuning $Delta$ and 0, respectively, where a MHz-scale detuning $Delta$ arises from a weak magnetic field on the order of 1~G. With a proper ratio between $Delta$ and $Omega$, the qubit state $|1rangle$ can be fully excited to the Rydberg state while $|0rangle$ remains there. In the second theory, we show that by choosing appropriate intermediate states a two-photon Rydberg excitation can proceed with only one nuclear spin qubit state. The second theory is applicable whatever the magnitude of the magnetic field is. These theories bring a versatile means for quantum computation by combining the broad applicability of Rydberg blockade and the incomparable advantages of nuclear-spin quantum memory in two-electron neutral atoms.
New sets of functions with arbitrary large finite cardinality are constructed for two-electron atoms. Functions from these sets exactly satisfy the Katos cusp conditions. The new functions are special linear combinations of Hylleraas- and/or Kinoshita-type terms. Standard variational calculation, leading to matrix eigenvalue problem, can be carried out to calculate the energies of the system. There is no need for optimization with constraints to satisfy the cusp conditions. In the numerical examples the ground state energy of the He atom is considered.
We applied a relativistic configuration-interaction (CI) framework to the stabilization method as an approach for obtaining the autoionization resonance structure of heliumlike ions. In this method, the ion is confined within an impenetrable spherical cavity, the size of which determines the radial space available for electron wavefunctions and electron-electron interactions. By varying the size of the cavity, one can obtain the autoionization resonance position and width. The applicability of this method is tested on the resonances of He atom while comparing with benchmark data available in the literature. The present method is further applied to the determination of the resonance structure of heliumlike uranium ion, where a relativistic framework is mandatory. In the strong-confinement region, the present method can be useful to simulate the properties of an atom or ion under extreme pressure. An exemplary application of the present method to determine the structure of ions embedded in a dense plasma environment is briefly discussed.
We consider the feasibility of observing a trap-induced resonance [Stock et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 183201 (2003)] for the case of two 133Cs atoms, trapped in separated wells of a polarization-gradient optical lattice, and interacting through a multichannel scattering process. Due to the anomalously large scattering length of cesium dimers, a strong coupling can occur between vibrational states of the trap and a weakly bound molecular state that is made resonant by the ac-Stark shift of the lattice. We calculate the energy spectrum of the two-atom system as a function of the distance between two potential wells by connecting the solutions of the Schroedinger equation for the short-range molecular potential to that of the long-range trap in a self-consistent manner. The short-range potential is treated through a multichannel pseudopotential, parametrized by the K matrix, calculated numerically for atoms in free space in a close-coupling approximation. This captures both the bound molecular spectrum as well as the energy-dependent scattering for all partial waves. We establish realistic operating conditions under which the trap-induced resonance could be observed and show that this strong and coherent interaction could be used as a basis for high-fidelity two-qubit quantum logic operations.
Angular momentum changing collisions can be suppressed in atoms whose valence electrons are submerged beneath filled shells of higher principle quantum number. To determine whether spin-exchange collisions are suppressed in these submerged shell atoms, we measured spin-exchange collisions of six hyperfine states of Mn at temperatures below 1 K. Although the 3d valence electrons in Mn are submerged beneath a filled 4s orbital, we find that the spin exchange rate coefficients are similar to those of Na and H (which are non-submerged shell atoms).