No Arabic abstract
We introduce a simple, physically-motivated variational ground state for the quantum Rabi model, and demonstrate that it provides a high-fidelity approximation of the true ground state in all parameter regimes (including intermediate and strong coupling regimes). Our variational state is constructed using Gaussian cavity states and nonorthogonal qubit pointer states, and contains only three variational parameters. We use our state to develop a heuristic understanding of how the ground state evolves with increasing coupling, and find a previously unexplored regime where the ground state corresponds to the cavity being in a nearly pure Schrodinger cat state.
In this work, the anisotropic variant of the quantum Rabi model with different coupling strengths of the rotating and counter-rotating wave terms is studied by the Bogoliubov operator approach. The anisotropy preserves the parity symmetry of the original model. We derive the corresponding $G$-function, which yields both the regular and exceptional eigenvalues. The exceptional eigenvalues correspond to the crossing points of two energy levels with different parities and are doubly degenerate. We find analytically that the ground-state and the first excited state can cross several times, indicating multiple first-order phase transitions as function of the coupling strength. These crossing points are related to manifest parity symmetry of the Hamiltonian, in contrast to the level crossings in the asymmetric quantum Rabi model which are caused by a hidden symmetry.
Promising applications of the anisotropic quantum Rabi model (AQRM) in broad parameter ranges are explored, which is realized with superconducting flux qubits simultaneously driven by two-tone time-dependent magnetic fields. Regarding the quantum phase transitions (QPTs), with assistant of fidelity susceptibility, we extract the scaling functions and the critical exponents, with which the universal scaling of the cumulant ratio is captured with rescaling of the parameters due to the anisotropy. Moreover, a fixed point of the cumulant ratio is predicted at the critical point of the AQRM. In respect to quantum information tasks, the generation of the macroscopic Schr{o}dinger cat states and quantum controlled phase gates are investigated in the degenerate case of the AQRM, whose performance is also investigated by numerical calculation with practical parameters. Therefore, our results pave a way to explore distinct features of the AQRM in circuit QED systems for QPTs, quantum simulations and quantum information processings.
We propose a protocol for state transfer and entanglement generation between two distant spin qubits (sender and receiver) that have different energies. The two qubits are permanently coupled to a far off-resonant spin-chain, and the qubit of the sender is driven by an external field, which provides the energy required to bridge the energy gap between the sender and the receiver. State transfer and entanglement generation are achieved via virtual single-photon and multi-photon transitions to the eigenmodes of the channel.
Understanding the interaction between light and matter is very relevant for fundamental studies of quantum electrodynamics and for the development of quantum technologies. The quantum Rabi model captures the physics of a single atom interacting with a single photon at all regimes of coupling strength. We report the spectroscopic observation of a resonant transition that breaks a selection rule in the quantum Rabi model, implemented using an $LC$ resonator and an artificial atom, a superconducting qubit. The eigenstates of the system consist of a superposition of bare qubit-resonator states with a relative sign. When the qubit-resonator coupling strength is negligible compared to their own frequencies, the matrix element between excited eigenstates of different sign is very small in presence of a resonator drive, establishing a sign-preserving selection rule. Here, our qubit-resonator system operates in the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength is 10% of the resonator frequency, allowing sign-changing transitions to be activated and, therefore, detected. This work shows that sign-changing transitions are an unambiguous, distinctive signature of systems operating in the ultrastrong coupling regime of the quantum Rabi model. These results pave the way to further studies of sign-preserving selection rules in multiqubit and multiphoton models.
We present protocols for the generation of high-dimensional entangled states of anharmonic oscillators by means of coherent manipulation of light-matter systems in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Our protocols consider a pair of ultrastrong coupled qubit-cavity systems, each coupled to an ancilla qubit, and combine classical pulses plus the selection rules imposed by the parity symmetry. We study the robustness of the entangling protocols under dissipative effects. This proposal may have applications within state-of-art circuit quantum electrodynamics.