The effect of thermal photons on exceptional points in coupled resonators.

We analyse two quantum systems with hidden parity-time ([Formula: see text]) symmetry: one is an optical device, whereas another is a superconducting microwave-frequency device. To investigate their symmetry, we introduce a damping frame (DF), in which loss and gain terms for a given Hamiltonian are balanced. We show that the non-Hermitian Hamiltonians of both systems can be tuned to reach an exceptional point (EP), i.e., the point in parameter space at which a transition from broken to unbroken hidden [Formula: see text] symmetry takes place. We calculate a degeneracy of a Liouvillian superoperator, which is called the Liouvillian exceptional point (LEP), and show that, in the optical domain, LEP is equivalent to EP obtained from the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian (HEP). We also report breaking the equivalence between LEP and HEP by a non-zero number of thermal photons for the microwave-frequency system.

Hybrid photon-phonon blockade.

We describe a novel type of blockade in a hybrid mode generated by linear coupling of photonic and phononic modes. We refer to this effect as hybrid photon-phonon blockade and show how it can be generated and detected in a driven nonlinear optomechanical superconducting system. Thus, we study boson-number correlations in the photon, phonon, and hybrid modes in linearly coupled microwave and mechanical resonators with a superconducting qubit inserted in one of them. We find such system parameters for which we observe eight types of different combinations of either blockade or tunnelling effects (defined via the sub- and super-Poissonian statistics, respectively) for photons, phonons, and hybrid bosons. In particular, we find that the hybrid photon-phonon blockade can be generated by mixing the photonic and phononic modes which do not exhibit blockade.

Rotation-time symmetry in bosonic systems and the existence of exceptional points in the absence of [Formula: see text] symmetry.

We study symmetries of open bosonic systems in the presence of laser pumping. Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians describing these systems can be parity-time ([Formula: see text]) symmetric in special cases only. Systems exhibiting this symmetry are characterised by real-valued energy spectra and can display exceptional points, where a symmetry-breaking transition occurs. We demonstrate that there is a more general type of symmetry, i.e., rotation-time ([Formula: see text]) symmetry. We observe that [Formula: see text]-symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonians exhibit real-valued energy spectra which can be made singular by symmetry breaking. To calculate the spectra of the studied bosonic non-diagonalisable Hamiltonians we apply diagonalisation methods based on bosonic algebra. Finally, we list a versatile set rules allowing to immediately identifying or constructing [Formula: see text]-symmetric Hamiltonians. We believe that our results on the [Formula: see text]-symmetric class of bosonic systems and their spectral singularities can lead to new applications inspired by those of the [Formula: see text]-symmetric systems.

Creating a switchable optical cavity with controllable quantum-state mapping between two modes.

We describe how an ensemble of four-level atoms in the diamond-type configuration can be applied to create a fully controllable effective coupling between two cavity modes. The diamond-type configuration allows one to use a bimodal cavity that supports modes of different frequencies or different circular polarisations, because each mode is coupled only to its own transition. This system can be used for mapping a quantum state of one cavity mode onto the other mode on demand. Additionally, it can serve as a fast opening high-Q cavity system that can be easily and coherently controlled with laser fields.