9,618 research outputs found
Boyle, Spinoza and Glauber: On the Philosophical Redintegration of Saltpeter A Reply to Antonio Clericuzio
Traditionally, the so-called ‘redintegration experiment’ is at the center of the comments on the supposed Boyle/Spinoza correspondence. A. Clericuzio argued (refuting the interpretation by R.A. & M.B. Hall) in his influential publications that, in De nitro, Boyle accounted for the ‘redintegration’ of saltpeter on the grounds of the chemical properties of corpuscles and did not make any attempt to deduce them from the mechanical principles.
By contrast, this paper claims that with his De nitro Boyle wanted to illustrate and promote precisely his new Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy, and that he did significant attempts to explain the phenomena in terms of mechanical qualities. Boyle had borrowed the ‘redintegration experiment’ from R. Glauber and used it as a tool to prove that his philosophy was the right alternative for the Peripatetic and Paracelsian theory of qualities of bodies.
Consequently, Clericuzio’s characterization of the Boyle/Spinoza controversy as a discussion between a strict mechanical philosopher and a chemist is problematic and should be revised
Stroboscopic high-order nonlinearity for quantum optomechanics
High-order quantum nonlinearity is an important prerequisite for the advanced
quantum technology leading to universal quantum processing with large
information capacity of continuous variables. Levitated optomechanics, a field
where motion of dielectric particles is driven by precisely controlled tweezer
beams, is capable of attaining the required nonlinearity via engineered
potential landscapes of mechanical motion. Importantly, to achieve nonlinear
quantum effects, the evolution caused by the free motion of mechanics and
thermal decoherence have to be suppressed. For this purpose, we devise a method
of stroboscopic application of a highly nonlinear potential to a mechanical
oscillator that leads to the motional quantum non-Gaussian states exhibiting
nonclassical negative Wigner function and squeezing of a nonlinear combination
of mechanical quadratures. We test the method numerically by analysing highly
instable cubic potential with relevant experimental parameters of the levitated
optomechanics, prove its feasibility within reach, and propose an experimental
test. The method paves a road for unique experiments instantaneously
transforming a ground state of mechanical oscillators to applicable
nonclassical states by nonlinear optical force.Comment: 13+8 pages, 2+3 figures. Close to the published versio
Geometry of entanglement witnesses for two qutrits
We characterize a convex subset of entanglement witnesses for two qutrits.
Equivalently, we provide a characterization of the set of positive maps in the
matrix algebra of 3 x 3 complex matrices. It turns out that boundary of this
set displays elegant representation in terms of SO(2) rotations. We conjecture
that maps parameterized by rotations are optimal, i.e. they provide the
strongest tool for detecting quantum entanglement. As a byproduct we found a
new class of decomposable entanglement witnesses parameterized by improper
rotations from the orthogonal group O(2).Comment: 9 page
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