We study the Haldane model with nearest-neighbor interactions. This model is physically motivated by the associated ultracold atoms implementation. We show that the topological phase of the interacting model can be characterized by a physically obser
vable winding number. The robustness of this number extends well beyond the topological insulator phase towards attractive and repulsive interactions that are comparable to the kinetic energy scale of the model. We identify and characterize the relevant phases of the model.
In this work we study numerically and analytically the interaction of two qubits in a one-dimensional waveguide, as mediated by the photons that propagate through the guide. We develop strategies to assert the Markovianity of the problem, the effecti
ve qubit-qubit interactions and their individual and collective spontaneous emission. We prove the existence of collective Lamb-shifts that affect the qubit-qubit interactions and the dependency of coherent and incoherent interactions on the qubit separation. We also develop the scattering theory associated to these models and prove single photon spectroscopy does probes the renormalized resonances of the single- and multi-qubit models, in sharp contrast with earlier toy models where individual and collective Lamb shifts cancel.
We study the time and space resolved dynamics of a qubit with an Ohmic coupling to propagating 1D photons, from weak coupling to the ultrastrong coupling regime. A nonperturbative study based on Matrix Product States (MPS) shows the following results
: (i) The ground state of the combined systems contains excitations of both the qubit and the surrounding bosonic field. (ii) An initially excited qubit equilibrates through spontaneous emission to a state, which under certain conditions, is locally close to that ground state, both in the qubit and the field. (iii) The resonances of the combined qubit-photon system match those of the spontaneous emission process and also the predictions of the adiabatic renormalization [A. J. Leggett et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 59, 1, (1987)]. Finally, a non-perturbative ab-initio calculations show that this physics can be studied using a flux qubit galvanically coupled to a superconducting transmission line.
In this work we present an optical lattice setup to realize a full Dirac Hamiltonian in 2+1 dimensions. We show how all possible external potentials coupled to the Dirac field can arise from perturbations of the existing couplings of the honeycomb la
ttice model, without the need of additional laser fields. This greatly simplifies the proposed implementations, requiring only spatial modulations of the intensity of the laser beams. We finally suggest several experiments to observe the properties of the Dirac field in the setup.
Superconducting quantum circuits possess the ingredients for quantum information processing and for developing on-chip microwave quantum optics. From the initial manipulation of few-level superconducting systems (qubits) to their strong coupling to
microwave resonators, the time has come to consider the generation and characterization of propagating quantum microwaves. In this paper, we design a key ingredient that will prove essential in the general frame: a swtichable coupling between qubit(s) and transmission line(s) that can work in the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength approaches the qubit transition frequency. We propose several setups where two or more loops of Josephson junctions are directly connected to a closed (cavity) or open transmission line. We demonstrate that the circuit induces a coupling that can be modulated in strength and type. Given recent studies showing the accessibility to the ultrastrong regime, we expect our ideas to have an immediate impact in ongoing experiments.
Quantum optical photodetection has occupied a central role in understanding radiation-matter interactions. It has also contributed to the development of atomic physics and quantum optics, including applications to metrology, spectroscopy, and quantum
information processing. The quantum microwave regime, originally explored using cavities and atoms, is seeing a novel boost with the generation of nonclassical propagating fields in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). This promising field, involving potential developments in quantum information with microwave photons, suffers from the absence of photodetectors. Here, we design a metamaterial composed of discrete superconducting elements that implements a high-efficiency microwave photon detector. Our design consists of a microwave guide coupled to an array of metastable quantum circuits, whose internal states are irreversibly changed due to the absorption of photons. This proposal can be widely applied to different physical systems and can be generalized to implement a microwave photon counter.
