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Amorphous solids show surprisingly universal behaviour at low temperatures. The prevailing wisdom is that this can be explained by the existence of two-state defects within the material. The so-called standard tunneling model has become the…
Two recent experiments [I. P. Radu et al., Science 320, 899 (2008) and X. Lin et al., Phys. Rev. B 85, 165321 (2012)] measured the temperature and voltage dependence of the quasiparticle tunneling through a quantum point contact in the \nu=…
Amorphous solids exhibit quasi-universal low-temperature anomalies whose origin has been ascribed to localized tunneling defects. Using an advanced Monte Carlo procedure, we create {\it in silico} glasses spanning from hyperquenched to…
Recent experimental results showing untypical nonlinear absorption and marked deviations from well known universality in the low temperature acoustic and dielectric losses in amorphous solids prove the need for improving the understanding…
We use high-precision spectroscopy and detailed theoretical modelling to determine the form of the coupling between a superconducting phase qubit and a two-level defect. Fitting the experimental data with our theoretical model allows us to…
Non-equilibrium states of quantum systems in contact with thermal baths help telling environments with different temperatures or different statistics apart. We extend these studies to a more generic problem that consists in discriminating…
The thermal and acoustic properties displayed by a wide variety of glasses at low temperatures are well described by the model of tunneling two level systems (TLS). We review the standard TLS model as well as developments that have occurred…
Tunneling of two particles in synchronous and asynchronous regimes is studied in the framework of dissipative quantum tunneling. The critical temperature T_c corresponding to a bifurcation of the underbarrier trajectory is determined. The…
We investigate experimentally and numerically the defect configurations emerging when a cholesteric liquid crystal is confined to a spherical shell. We uncover a rich scenario of defect configurations, some of them non-existent in nematic…
The low-temperature quasi-universal behavior of amorphous solids has been attributed to the existence of spatially-localized tunneling defects found in the low-energy regions of the potential energy landscape. Computational models of…
Following a brief review of the "two-level (tunneling) systems" model of the low-temperature properties of amorphous solids ("glasses"), we ask whether it is in fact the unique explanation of these properties as is usually assumed,…
Numerical studies are presented to assess error estimates for a separable (Hartree) approximation for dynamically evolving composite quantum systems which exhibit distinct scales defined by their mass and frequency ratios. The relevant…
We use laser-cooled ion Coulomb crystals in the well-controlled environment of a harmonic radiofrequency ion trap to investigate phase transitions and defect formation. Topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals (kinks) have been recently…
Structural defects control the kinetic, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of glasses. For instance, rare quantum tunneling two-level systems (TLS) govern the physics of glasses at very low temperature. Because of their extremely low…
The low temperature acoustic properties of bulk metallic glasses measured over a broad range of frequencies rigorously test the predictions of the standard tunneling model. The strength of these experiments and their analyses is mainly…
We investigate coherent and incoherent tunneling phenomena in conditions of crossing diabatic potentials. We consider a model of two crossing parabolic diabatic potentials with an independent of coordinates constant adiabatic coupling. As a…
The problems of the intermediate-range atomic structure of glasses and of the mechanism for the glass transition are approached from the low-temperature end in terms of a scenario for the atomic organization that justifies the use of an…
We propose a test of quantum contextuality for a single three-level system that uses nine projective measurements. It has a form of an inequality that has to be satisfied by any non-contextual theory and which is violated by any quantum…
Two-particle tunneling in synchronous and asynchronous regimes is studied in the framework of dissipative quantum tunneling. We show that the use of the proposed model is justified by a comparison with realistic potential energy surfaces of…
In the spectrum of systems showing chaos-assisted tunneling, three-state crossings are formed when a chaotic singlet intersects a tunnel doublet. We study the dissipative quantum dynamics in the vicinity of such crossings. A harmonically…