We investigate the evolution of a target qubit caused by its multiple random collisions with N -qubit clusters. Depending on the cluster state, the evolution of the target qubit may correspond to its effective interaction with a thermal bath, a coherent (laser) drive, or a squeezed bath. In cases where the target qubit relaxes to a thermal state its dynamics can exhibit a quantum advantage, whereby the target-qubit temperature can be scaled up proportionally to N 2 and the thermalization time can be shortened by a similar factor, provided the appropriate coherence in the cluster is prepared by non-thermal means. We dub these effects quantum super-thermalization due to its analogies to super-radiance. Experimental realizations of these effects are suggested.

We present an exact analytical solution of the anisotropic Hopfield model, and we use it to investigate in detail the spectral and thermometric response of two ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems. Interestingly, we show that depending on the initial state of the coupled system, the vacuum Rabi splitting manifests significant asymmetries that may be considered spectral signatures of the counterintuitive decoupling effect. Using the coupled system as a thermometer for quantum thermodynamics applications, we obtain the ultimate bounds on the estimation of temperature that remain valid in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Remarkably, if the system performs a quantum phase transition, the quantum Fisher information exhibits periodic divergences, suggesting that one can have several points of arbitrarily high thermometric precision for such a critical quantum sensor.

Electron shelving gives rise to bright and dark periods in the resonance fluorescence of a threelevel atom. The corresponding incoherent spectrum contains a very narrow inelastic peak on top of a two-level-like spectrum. Using the theories of balanced and conditional homodyne detection we study ensemble averaged phase-dependent fluctuations of intermittent resonance fluorescence. The sharp peak is found only in the spectra of the squeezed quadrature. In balanced homodyne detection that peak is positive, which greatly reduces the squeezing, also seen in its variance. In conditional homodyne detectionCHD, for weak to moderate laser intensity, the peak is negative, enhancing the squeezing, and for strong fields the sidebands become dispersive which, together with the positive sharp peak dominate the spectrum. The latter effect is due to non-negligible third order fluctuations produced by the atom-laser nonlinearity and the increased steady state population of the shelving state. A simple mathematical approach allows us to obtain accurate analytical results.

We show that certain coherences, termed as heat-exchange coherences, which contribute to the thermalization process of a quantum probe in a repeated interactions scheme, can modify the spectral response of the probe system. We suggest to use the power spectrum as a way to experimentally assess the apparent temperature of non-thermal atomic clusters carrying such coherences and also prove that it is useful to measure the corresponding thermalization time of the probe, assuming some information is provided on the nature of the bath. We explore this idea in two examples in which the probe is assumed to be a single-qubit and a single-cavity field mode. Moreover, for the single-qubit case, we show how it is possible to perform a quantum simulation of resonance fluorescence using such repeated interactions scheme with clusters carrying different class of coherences.

We theoretically investigate the dynamical Casimir effect in a single-mode cavity endowed with a driven offresonant mirror. We explore the dynamics of photon generation as a function of the ratio between the cavity mode and the mirror's driving frequency. Interestingly, we find that this ratio defines a threshold-which we referred to as a metal-insulator phase transition-between an exponential growth and a low photon production. The low photon production is due to Bloch-like oscillations that produce a strong localization of the initial vacuum state, thus preventing higher generation of photons. To break localization of the vacuum state, and enhance the photon generation, we impose a dephasing mechanism, based on dynamic disorder, into the driving frequency of the mirror. Additionally, we explore the effects of finite temperature on the photon production. Concurrently, we propose a classical analogue of the dynamical Casimir effect in engineered photonic lattices, where the propagation of classical light emulates the photon generation from the quantum vacuum of a singlemode tunable cavity.