Predicting the statistics of wave transport through chaotic cavities by the Random Coupling Model: a review and recent progress

In this review, a model (the Random Coupling Model) that gives a statistical description of the coupling of radiation into and out of large enclosures through localized and/or distributed channels is presented. The Random Coupling Model combines both deterministic and statistical phenomena. The model makes use of wave chaos theory to extend the classical modal description of the cavity fields in the presence of boundaries that lead to chaotic ray trajectories. The model is based on a clear separation between the universal statistical behavior of the isolated chaotic system, and the deterministic coupling channel characteristics. Moreover, the ability of the random coupling model to describe interconnected cavities, aperture coupling, and the effects of short ray trajectories is discussed. A relation between the random coupling model and other formulations adopted in acoustics, optics, and statistical electromagnetics, is examined. In particular, a rigorous analogy of the random coupling model with the Statistical Energy Analysis used in acoustics is presented.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, submitted to 'Wave Motion', special issue 'Innovations in Wave Model

Macroscopic quantum fluctuations in noise-sustained optical patterns

We investigate quantum effects in pattern formation for a degenerate optical parametric oscillator with walk-off. This device has a convective regime in which macroscopic patterns are both initiated and sustained by quantum noise. Familiar methods based on linearization about a pseudoclassical field fail in this regime and new approaches are required. We employ a method in which the pump field is treated as a c-number variable but is driven by the c-number representation of the quantum subharmonic signal field. This allows us to include the effects of the fluctuations in the signal on the pump, which in turn act back on the signal. We find that the nonclassical effects, in the form of squeezing, survive just above the threshold of the convective regime. Further, above threshold, the macroscopic quantum noise suppresses these effects

Statistical stability in time reversal

When a signal is emitted from a source, recorded by an array of transducers, time reversed and re-emitted into the medium, it will refocus approximately on the source location. We analyze the refocusing resolution in a high frequency, remote sensing regime, and show that, because of multiple scattering, in an inhomogeneous or random medium it can improve beyond the diffraction limit. We also show that the back-propagated signal from a spatially localized narrow-band source is self-averaging, or statistically stable, and relate this to the self-averaging properties of functionals of the Wigner distribution in phase space. Time reversal from spatially distributed sources is self-averaging only for broad-band signals. The array of transducers operates in a remote-sensing regime so we analyze time reversal with the parabolic or paraxial wave equation

Effects of energy spread on Brightness and Coherence of undulator sources

The (spectral) brightness for partially transverse coherent sources as Synchrotron Radiation (SR) and Free-Electron Laser (FEL) sources can be defined as the maximum of the Wigner distribution. Then, the brightness includes information on both coherence and wavefront characteristics of the radiation field. For undulator sources, it is customary to approximate the single-electron electric field at resonance with a Gaussian beam, leading to great simplifications. Attempts to account for the modified spatial and angular profile of the undulator radiation in the presence of detuning due to energy spread currently build on the simplified brightness expression derived under the assumption of Gaussian beams. The influence of energy spread on undulator radiation properties is becoming important in view of diffraction-limited rings with ultralow emittance coming on-line. Here we discuss the effects of energy spread on the brightness of undulator radiation at resonance, as well as relevant relations with coherence properties.Comment: Preprint accepted for publication in the Journal of Synchrotron radiation, 30 pages, 8 figure

Floodlight Quantum Key Distribution: A Practical Route to Gbps Secret-Key Rates

The channel loss incurred in long-distance transmission places a significant burden on quantum key distribution (QKD) systems: they must defeat a passive eavesdropper who detects all the light lost in the quantum channel and does so without disturbing the light that reaches the intended destination. The current QKD implementation with the highest long-distance secret-key rate meets this challenge by transmitting no more than one photon per bit [Opt. Express 21, 24550-24565 (2013)]. As a result, it cannot achieve the Gbps secret-key rate needed for one-time pad encryption of large data files unless an impractically large amount of multiplexing is employed. We introduce floodlight QKD (FL-QKD), which floods the quantum channel with a high number of photons per bit distributed over a much greater number of optical modes. FL-QKD offers security against the optimum frequency-domain collective attack by transmitting less than one photon per mode and using photon-coincidence channel monitoring, and it is completely immune to passive eavesdropping. More importantly, FL-QKD is capable of a 2 Gbps secret-key rate over a 50 km fiber link, without any multiplexing, using available equipment, i.e., no new technology need be developed. FL-QKD achieves this extraordinary secret-key rate by virtue of its unprecedented secret-key efficiency, in bits per channel use, which exceeds those of state-of-the-art systems by two orders of magnitude.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Time-frequency representation of earthquake accelerograms and inelastic structural response records using the adaptive chirplet decomposition and empirical mode decomposition

In this paper, the adaptive chirplet decomposition combined with the Wigner-Ville transform and the empirical mode decomposition combined with the Hilbert transform are employed to process various non-stationary signals (strong ground motions and structural responses). The efficacy of these two adaptive techniques for capturing the temporal evolution of the frequency content of specific seismic signals is assessed. In this respect, two near-field and two far-field seismic accelerograms are analyzed. Further, a similar analysis is performed for records pertaining to the response of a 20-story steel frame benchmark building excited by one of the four accelerograms scaled by appropriate factors to simulate undamaged and severely damaged conditions for the structure. It is shown that the derived joint time–frequency representations of the response time histories capture quite effectively the influence of non-linearity on the variation of the effective natural frequencies of a structural system during the evolution of a seismic event; in this context, tracing the mean instantaneous frequency of records of critical structural responses is adopted. The study suggests, overall, that the aforementioned techniques are quite viable tools for detecting and monitoring damage to constructed facilities exposed to seismic excitations