10,413 research outputs found
Constrained fitting of three-point functions
We determine matrix elements for semileptonic decay. The use of the
constrained fitting method and multiple smearings for both two- and three-point
correlators allows an improved calculation of the form factors.Comment: Talk given at Lattice2001(heavyquark), 3 pages, 4 figure
Combining Magnetic and Electric Sails for Interstellar Deceleration
The main benefit of an interstellar mission is to carry out in-situ
measurements within a target star system. To allow for extended in-situ
measurements, the spacecraft needs to be decelerated. One of the currently most
promising technologies for deceleration is the magnetic sail which uses the
deflection of interstellar matter via a magnetic field to decelerate the
spacecraft. However, while the magnetic sail is very efficient at high
velocities, its performance decreases with lower speeds. This leads to
deceleration durations of several decades depending on the spacecraft mass.
Within the context of Project Dragonfly, initiated by the Initiative of
Interstellar Studies (i4is), this paper proposes a novel concept for
decelerating a spacecraft on an interstellar mission by combining a magnetic
sail with an electric sail. Combining the sails compensates for each
technologys shortcomings: A magnetic sail is more effective at higher
velocities than the electric sail and vice versa. It is demonstrated that using
both sails sequentially outperforms using only the magnetic or electric sail
for various mission scenarios and velocity ranges, at a constant total
spacecraft mass. For example, for decelerating from 5% c, to interplanetary
velocities, a spacecraft with both sails needs about 29 years, whereas the
electric sail alone would take 35 years and the magnetic sail about 40 years
with a total spacecraft mass of 8250 kg. Furthermore, it is assessed how the
combined deceleration system affects the optimal overall mission architecture
for different spacecraft masses and cruising speeds. Future work would
investigate how operating both systems in parallel instead of sequentially
would affect its performance. Moreover, uncertainties in the density of
interstellar matter and sail properties need to be explored
Fidelity threshold for long-range entanglement in quantum networks
We present a strategy to generate long-range entanglement in noisy quantum
networks. We consider a cubic lattice whose bonds are partially entangled mixed
states of two qubits, and where quantum operations can be applied perfectly at
the nodes. In contrast to protocols designed for one- or two-dimensional
regular lattices, we find that entanglement can be created between arbitrarily
distant qubits if the fidelity of the bonds is higher than a critical value,
independent of the system size. Therefore, we show that a constant overhead of
local resources, together with connections of finite fidelity, is sufficient to
achieve long-distance quantum communication in noisy networks.Comment: published versio
Sensing and decision-making in random search
While microscopic organisms can use gradient-based search to locate
resources, this strategy can be poorly suited to the sensory signals available
to macroscopic organisms. We propose a framework that models search-decision
making in cases where sensory signals are infrequent, subject to large
fluctuations, and contain little directional information. Our approach
simultaneously models an organism's intrinsic movement behavior (e.g. Levy
walk) while allowing this behavior to be adjusted based on sensory data. We
find that including even a simple model for signal response can dominate other
features of random search and greatly improve search performance. In
particular, we show that a lack of signal is not a lack of information.
Searchers that receive no signal can quickly abandon target-poor regions. Such
phenomena naturally give rise to the area-restricted search behavior exhibited
by many searching organisms
Entanglement properties of multipartite entangled states under the influence of decoherence
We investigate entanglement properties of multipartite states under the
influence of decoherence. We show that the lifetime of (distillable)
entanglement for GHZ-type superposition states decreases with the size of the
system, while for a class of other states -namely all graph states with
constant degree- the lifetime is independent of the system size. We show that
these results are largely independent of the specific decoherence model and are
in particular valid for all models which deal with individual couplings of
particles to independent environments, described by some quantum optical master
equation of Lindblad form. For GHZ states, we derive analytic expressions for
the lifetime of distillable entanglement and determine when the state becomes
fully separable. For all graph states, we derive lower and upper bounds on the
lifetime of entanglement. To this aim, we establish a method to calculate the
spectrum of the partial transposition for all mixed states which are diagonal
in a graph state basis. We also consider entanglement between different groups
of particles and determine the corresponding lifetimes as well as the change of
the kind of entanglement with time. This enables us to investigate the behavior
of entanglement under re-scaling and in the limit of large (infinite) number of
particles. Finally we investigate the lifetime of encoded quantum superposition
states and show that one can define an effective time in the encoded system
which can be orders of magnitude smaller than the physical time. This provides
an alternative view on quantum error correction and examples of states whose
lifetime of entanglement (between groups of particles) in fact increases with
the size of the system.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figure
Are TIPS really tax disadvantaged? Rethinking the tax treatment of U.S. Treasury Inflation Indexed Securities
In 1997 the U.S. Treasury introduced Inflation Indexed (or Protected) Securities with substantial promotional fanfare. Yet, due in part to what some in the finance profession have described as a "tax disadvantage" placed upon TIPS, many are questioning whether they should appeal to a wide audience. Some, in fact, advise holding TIPS only in tax-deferred accounts. In this paper, the authors develop a framework that allows us to demonstrate that the tax treatment of TIPS is trivially different from that of conventional Treasury securities. Utilizing an after-tax valuation approach, they further show that under relatively conservative projections for inflation, TIPS generally have after-tax yields comparable to, if not exceeding, conventional fixed-rate Treasury securities.Investments ; Taxation ; Securities ; Interest rates ; Income tax
Capillary focusing close to a topographic step: Shape and instability of confined liquid filaments
Step-emulsification is a microfluidic technique for droplet generation which
relies on the abrupt decrease of confinement of a liquid filament surrounded by
a continuous phase. A striking feature of this geometry is the transition
between two distinct droplet breakup regimes, the "step-regime" and
"jet-regime", at a critical capillary number. In the step-regime, small and
monodisperse droplets break off from the filament directly at a topographic
step, while in the jet-regime a jet protrudes into the larger channel region
and large plug-like droplets are produced. We characterize the breakup behavior
as a function of the filament geometry and the capillary number and present
experimental results on the shape and evolution of the filament for a wide
range of capillary numbers in the jet-regime. We compare the experimental
results with numerical simulations. Assumptions based on the smallness of the
depth of the microfluidic channel allow to reduce the governing equations to
the Hele-Shaw problem with surface tension. The full nonlinear equations are
then solved numerically using a volume-of-fluid based algorithm. The
computational framework also captures the transition between both regimes,
offering a deeper understanding of the underlying breakup mechanism
Four econometric models and monetary policy: the longer-run view
Econometric models ; Monetary policy
- …