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An analytical discontinuity is reported in what was thought to be the discontinuity-free exact nonparaxial vortex beam phasor obtained within the complex source/sink model. This discontinuity appears for all odd values of the orbital angular momentum mode. Such discontinuities in the phasor lead to nonphysical discontinuities in the real electromagnetic field components. We identify the source of the discontinuities, and provide graphical evidence of the discontinuous real electric fields for the first and third orbital angular momentum modes. A simple means of avoiding these discontinuities is presented., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

Rescattering effects in nonresonant spontaneous laser-assisted electron-atom bremsstrahlung (LABrS) are analyzed within the framework of time-dependent effective-range (TDER) theory. It is shown that high energy LABrS spectra exhibit rescattering plateau structures that are similar to those that are well-known in strong field laser-induced processes as well as those that have been predicted theoretically in laser-assisted collision processes. In the limit of a low-frequency laser field, an analytic description of LABrS is obtained from a rigorous quantum analysis of the exact TDER results for the LABrS amplitude. This amplitude is represented as a sum of factorized terms involving three factors, each having a clear physical meaning. The first two factors are the exact field-free amplitudes for electron-atom bremsstrahlung and for electron-atom scattering, and the third factor describes free electron motion in the laser field along a closed trajectory between the first (scattering) and second (rescattering) collision events. Finally, a generalization of these TDER results to the case of LABrS in a Coulomb field is discussed.

An analytic description of laser-assisted electron-atom scattering (LAES) in an elliptically polarized field is presented using time-dependent effective range (TDER) theory to treat both electron-laser and electron-atom interactions non-perturbatively. Closed-form formulas describing plateau features in LAES spectra are derived quantum mechanically in the low-frequency limit. These formulas provide an analytic explanation for key features of the LAES differential cross section. For the low-energy region of the LAES spectrum, our result generalizes the Kroll-Watson formula to the case of elliptic polarization. For the high-energy (rescattering) plateau in the LAES spectrum, our result generalizes prior results for a linearly polarized field valid for the high-energy end of the rescattering plateau [A.\,V. Flegel \textit{et al.}, J. Phys. B \textbf{42}, 241002 (2009)] and confirms the factorization of the LAES cross section into three factors: two field-free elastic electron-atom scattering cross sections (with laser-modified momenta) and a laser field-dependent factor (insensitive to the scattering potential) describing the laser-driven motion of the electron in the elliptically polarized field. We present also approximate analytic expressions for the exact TDER LAES amplitude that are valid over the entire rescattering plateau and reduce to the three-factor form in the plateau cutoff region. The theory is illustrated for the cases of $e$-H scattering in a CO$_2$-laser field and $e$-F scattering in a mid-infrared laser field of wavelength $\lambda=3.5\,\mu$m, for which the analytic results are shown to be in good agreement with exact numerical TDER results.

We present a detailed quantum mechanical treatment of the photodetachment of H$^{-}$ by a short laser pulse in the presence of crossed static electric and magnetic fields. An exact analytic formula is presented for the final state electron wave function (describing an electron in both static electric and magnetic fields and a short laser pulse of arbitrary intensity). In the limit of a weak laser pulse, final state electron wave packet motion is examined and related to the closed classical electron orbits in crossed static fields predicted by Peters and Delos [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{47}, 3020 (1993)]. Owing to these closed orbit trajectories, we show that the detachment probability can be modulated, depending on the time delay between two laser pulses and their relative phase, thereby providing a means to partially control the photodetachment process. In the limit of a long, weak pulse (i.e., a monochromatic radiation field) our results reduce to those of others; however, for this case we analyze the photodetachment cross section numerically over a much larger range of electron kinetic energy (i.e., up to 500 cm$^{-1}$) than in previous studies and relate the detailed structures both analytically and numerically to the above-mentioned, closed classical periodic orbits., Comment: Submitted to Physical Review A

We present an efficient and accurate grid method for solving the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation of atomic systems interacting with intense laser pulses. As usual, the angular part of the wave function is expanded in terms of spherical harmonics. Instead of the usual finite difference (FD) scheme, the radial coordinate is discretized using the discrete variable representation which is constructed from the Coulomb wave function. For an accurate description of the ionization dynamics of atomic systems, the Coulomb wave function discrete variable representation (CWDVR) method needs 3-10 times less grid points than the FD method. The resultant grid points of CWDVR distribute unevenly so that one has finer grid near the origin and coarser one at larger distances. The other important advantage of the CWDVR method is that it treats the Coulomb singularity accurately and gives a good representation of continuum wave functions. The time propagation of the wave function is implemented using the well-known Arnoldi method. As examples, the present method is applied to the multiphoton ionization of both H and H$^-$ in intense laser fields. Short-time excitation and ionization dynamics of H by static electric fields is also investigated. For a wide range of photon energies and laser intensities, ionization rates calculated using this method are in excellent agreement with those from other theoretical calculations., Comment: Submitted to Journal of Chemical Physics

The entanglement of two qubits, each defined as an effective two-level, spin 1/2 system, is investigated for the case that the qubits interact via a Heisenberg XY interaction and are subject to decoherence due to population relaxation and thermal effects. For zero temperature, the time dependent concurrence is studied analytically and numerically for some typical initial states, including a separable (unentangled) initial state. An analytical formula for non-zero steady state concurrence is found for any initial state, and optimal parameter values for maximizing steady state concurrence are given. The steady state concurrence is found analytically to remain non-zero for low, finite temperatures. We also identify the contributions of global and local coherence to the steady state entanglement., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. The second version of this paper has been significantly expanded in response to referee comments. The revised manuscript has been accepted for publication in Journal of Physics B