169 research outputs found
Witnesses of non-classicality for simulated hybrid quantum systems
The task of testing whether quantum theory applies to all physical systems
and all scales requires considering situations where a quantum probe interacts
with another system that need not obey quantum theory in full. Important
examples include the cases where a quantum mass probes the gravitational field,
for which a unique quantum theory of gravity does not yet exist, or a quantum
field, such as light, interacts with a macroscopic system, such as a biological
molecule, which may or may not obey unitary quantum theory. In this context a
class of experiments has recently been proposed, where the non-classicality of
a physical system that need not obey quantum theory (the gravitational field)
can be tested indirectly by detecting whether or not the system is capable of
entangling two quantum probes. Here we illustrate some of the subtleties of the
argument, to do with the role of locality of interactions and of
non-classicality, and perform proof-of-principle experiments illustrating the
logic of the proposals, using a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance quantum
computational platform with four qubits.Comment: Revised and extende
Testing the distance-dependence of the van der Waals interaction between an atom and a surface through spectroscopy in a vapor nanocell
This paper presents our current measurements in a vapor nanocell aiming at a
test of the distance-dependence of the atom-surface interaction, when simple
asymptotic descriptions may turn to be not valid. A state-of-the-art of
atom-surface interaction measurements is provided as an introduction, along
with the comparison with the theory of the van der Waals (or Casimir-Polder)
interaction; it is followed by a presentation of the most salient features of
nanocell spectroscop
The Deep Space Network: A Radio Communications Instrument for Deep Space Exploration
The primary purpose of the Deep Space Network (DSN) is to serve as a communications instrument for deep space exploration, providing communications between the spacecraft and the ground facilities. The uplink communications channel provides instructions or commands to the spacecraft. The downlink communications channel provides command verification and spacecraft engineering and science instrument payload data
A Study of Synchronization Techniques for Optical Communication Systems
The study of synchronization techniques and related topics in the design of high data rate, deep space, optical communication systems was reported. Data cover: (1) effects of timing errors in narrow pulsed digital optical systems, (2) accuracy of microwave timing systems operating in low powered optical systems, (3) development of improved tracking systems for the optical channel and determination of their tracking performance, (4) development of usable photodetector mathematical models for application to analysis and performance design in communication receivers, and (5) study application of multi-level block encoding to optical transmission of digital data
Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) and table-top sources of x-rays based upon high harmonic generation (HHG) have revolutionized the field of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics, largely due to an explosive growth in capabilities in the past decade. XFELs now provide unprecedented intensity (1020 W cm−2) of x-rays at wavelengths down to ~1 Ångstrom, and HHG provides unprecedented time resolution (~50 attoseconds) and a correspondingly large coherent bandwidth at longer wavelengths. For context, timescales can be referenced to the Bohr orbital period in hydrogen atom of 150 attoseconds and the hydrogen-molecule vibrational period of 8 femtoseconds; wavelength scales can be referenced to the chemically significant carbon K-edge at a photon energy of ~280 eV (44 Ångstroms) and the bond length in methane of ~1 Ångstrom. With these modern x-ray sources one now has the ability to focus on individual atoms, even when embedded in a complex molecule, and view electronic and nuclear motion on their intrinsic scales (attoseconds and Ångstroms). These sources have enabled coherent diffractive imaging, where one can image non-crystalline objects in three dimensions on ultrafast timescales, potentially with atomic resolution. The unprecedented intensity available with XFELs has opened new fields of multiphoton and nonlinear x-ray physics where behavior of matter under extreme conditions can be explored. The unprecedented time resolution and pulse synchronization provided by HHG sources has kindled fundamental investigations of time delays in photoionization, charge migration in molecules, and dynamics near conical intersections that are foundational to AMO physics and chemistry. This roadmap coincides with the year when three new XFEL facilities, operating at Ångstrom wavelengths, opened for users (European XFEL, Swiss-FEL and PAL-FEL in Korea) almost doubling the present worldwide number of XFELs, and documents the remarkable progress in HHG capabilities since its discovery roughly 30 years ago, showcasing experiments in AMO physics and other applications. Here we capture the perspectives of 17 leading groups and organize the contributions into four categories: ultrafast molecular dynamics, multidimensional x-ray spectroscopies; high-intensity x-ray phenomena; attosecond x-ray science
Network information theory for classical-quantum channels
Network information theory is the study of communication problems involving
multiple senders, multiple receivers and intermediate relay stations. The
purpose of this thesis is to extend the main ideas of classical network
information theory to the study of classical-quantum channels. We prove coding
theorems for quantum multiple access channels, quantum interference channels,
quantum broadcast channels and quantum relay channels.
A quantum model for a communication channel describes more accurately the
channel's ability to transmit information. By using physically faithful models
for the channel outputs and the detection procedure, we obtain better
communication rates than would be possible using a classical strategy. In this
thesis, we are interested in the transmission of classical information, so we
restrict our attention to the study of classical-quantum channels. These are
channels with classical inputs and quantum outputs, and so the coding theorems
we present will use classical encoding and quantum decoding. We study the
asymptotic regime where many copies of the channel are used in parallel, and
the uses are assumed to be independent. In this context, we can exploit
information-theoretic techniques to calculate the maximum rates for error-free
communication for any channel, given the statistics of the noise on that
channel. These theoretical bounds can be used as a benchmark to evaluate the
rates achieved by practical communication protocols.
Most of the results in this thesis consider classical-quantum channels with
finite dimensional output systems, which are analogous to classical discrete
memoryless channels. In the last chapter, we will show some applications of our
results to a practical optical communication scenario, in which the information
is encoded in continuous quantum degrees of freedom, which are analogous to
classical channels with Gaussian noise.Comment: Ph.D. Thesis, McGill University, School of Computer Science, July
2012, 223 pages, 18 figures, 36 TikZ diagram
Witnesses of non-classicality for hybrid quantum systems
The task of testing whether quantum theory applies to all physical systems
and all scales requires considering situations where a quantum probe interacts
with another system that need not be fully quantum. Important examples include
the cases where a quantum mass probes the gravitational field; or a quantum
field, such as light, interacts with a macroscopic system, such as a biological
molecule. In this context a class of experiments has recently been proposed,
where the non-classicality of a physical system can be tested indirectly by
detecting whether or not it is capable of entangling two quantum probes. Here
we illustrate some of its subtleties and perform proof-of-principle experiments
using a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) quantum computational platform with
four qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) and table-top sources of x-rays based upon high harmonic generation (HHG) have revolutionized the field of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics, largely due to an explosive growth in capabilities in the past decade. XFELs now provide unprecedented intensity (1020 W cm−2) of x-rays at wavelengths down to ~1 Angstrom, and HHG provides unprecedented time resolution (∼50 attoseconds) and a correspondingly large coherent bandwidth at longer wavelengths. For context, timescales can be referenced to the Bohr orbital period in hydrogen atom of 150 attoseconds and the hydrogen-molecule vibrational period of 8 femtoseconds; wavelength scales can be referenced to the chemically significant carbon K-edge at a photon energy of ∼280 eV (44 Angstroms) and the bond length in methane of ∼1 Ångstrom. With these modern x-ray sources one now has the ability to focus on individual atoms, even when embedded in a complex molecule, and view electronic and nuclear motion on their intrinsic scales (attoseconds and Ångstroms). These sources have enabled coherent diffractive imaging, where one can image non-crystalline objects in three dimensions on ultrafast timescales, potentially with atomic resolution. The unprecedented intensity available with XFELs has opened new fields of multiphoton and nonlinear x-ray physics where behavior of matter under extreme conditions can be explored. The unprecedented time resolution and pulse synchronization provided by HHG sources has kindled fundamental investigations of time delays in photoionization, charge migration in molecules, and dynamics near conical intersections that are foundational to AMO physics and chemistry. This roadmap coincides with the year when three new XFEL facilities, operating at Ångstrom wavelengths, opened for users (European XFEL, Swiss-FEL and PAL-FEL in Korea) almost doubling the present worldwide number of XFELs, and documents the remarkable progress in HHG capabilities since its discovery roughly 30 years ago, showcasing experiments in AMO physics and other applications. Here we capture the perspectives of 17 leading groups and organize the contributions into four categories: ultrafast molecular dynamics, multidimensional x-ray spectroscopies; high-intensity x-ray phenomena; attosecond x-ray science
- …