Fine-grained entanglement loss along renormalization group flows

We explore entanglement loss along renormalization group trajectories as a basic quantum information property underlying their irreversibility. This analysis is carried out for the quantum Ising chain as a transverse magnetic field is changed. We consider the ground-state entanglement between a large block of spins and the rest of the chain. Entanglement loss is seen to follow from a rigid reordering, satisfying the majorization relation, of the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix for the spin block. More generally, our results indicate that it may be possible to prove the irreversibility along RG trajectories from the properties of the vacuum only, without need to study the whole hamiltonian.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; minor change

La descentralización, ¿parte del problema sanitario o de su solución?

ResumenEl mayor cambio que ha experimentado la sanidad española en las dos últimas décadas es probablemente el de la generalización de la transferencia a las CCAA que integran el Estado. Este hecho puede generar tensiones en el status quo. ¿Es compatible la descentralización sanitaria con un Servicio Nacional de Salud cohesionado? ¿Es la descentralización sanitaria parte del problema o de la solución? La generalización de las transferencias de una manera tan rápida como la experimentada en nuestro país (negociada en poco menos de 6 meses, con acuerdos financieros de mínimos, en ausencia de marcos legales explícitos en los ámbitos de la coordinación y del desarrollo de normativa básica, con un nuevo acuerdo de financiación autonómica general del que no se conocen aunque se intuyen algunas lagunas, etc.) ofrece un presente con interrogantes. Un posible mal uso de las amplias competencias transferidas por parte de las nuevas comunidades en ejercicio de sus poderes es fácilmente utilizable por parte de quienes añoran el centralismo preconstitucional, para levantar todo tipo de temores entre la población de resquebrajamiento de la sanidad pública en tanto pilar fundamental del Estado de bienestar. El trabajo se dirige de modo sucinto a los extremos anteriores.AbstractThe greatest change experienced by the Spanish health system in the last two decades has probably been the devolution of power to the autonomous communities composing the Spanish state. This may generate tensions in the status quo and poses questions of whether decentralization of the health system is compatible with a cohesive national health system and whether this devolution of power is part of the problem of the health system or part of its solution. Generalized devolution occurring as rapidly as that produced in Spain (negotiated in slightly less than 6 months, with minimal financial agreements, without explicit legal frameworks in the areas of coordination and development of basic norms, and with a new agreement of general financing of the autonomous communities which possibly contains lacunae, etc.) presents an uncertain panorama. The possible misuse of the wide powers recently transferred to the autonomous communities could easily be used by those who would like to see a restoration of pre-democratic centralism to sow fear of the collapse of the health service as the cornerstone of the welfare state among the general public. The present article briefly addresses these questions

Advances in Mass Spectrometers for Flyby Space Missions for the Analysis of Biosignatures and Other Complex Molecules

Spacecraft flybys provide access to the chemical composition of the gaseous envelope of the planetary object. Typical relative encounter velocities range from km/s to tens of km/s in flybys. For speeds exceeding about 5 km/s, modern mass spectrometers analyzing the rapidly encountering gas suffer from intrinsic hypervelocity impact-induced fragmentation processes causing ambiguous results when analyzing complex molecules. In this case, instruments use an antechamber, inside which the incoming species collide many times with the chamber wall. These collisions cause the desired deceleration and thermalization of the gas molecules. However, these collisions also dissociate molecular bonds, thus fragmenting the molecules, and possibly forming new ones precluding scientists from inferring the actual chemical composition of the sampled gas. We developed a novel time-of-flight mass spectrometer that handles relative encounter velocities of up to 20 km/s omitting an antechamber and its related fragmentation. It analyzes the complete mass range of m/z 1 to 1000 at an instance. This innovation leads to unambiguous analysis of complex (organic) molecules. Applied to Enceladus, Europa or Io, it will provide reliable chemical composition datasets for exploration of the Solar System to determine its status, origin and evolution

Entanglement in quantum critical phenomena

Quantum phase transitions occur at zero temperature and involve the appearance of long-range correlations. These correlations are not due to thermal fluctuations but to the intricate structure of a strongly entangled ground state of the system. We present a microscopic computation of the scaling properties of the ground-state entanglement in several 1D spin chain models both near and at the quantum critical regimes. We quantify entanglement by using the entropy of the ground state when the system is traced down to $L$ spins. This entropy is seen to scale logarithmically with $L$, with a coefficient that corresponds to the central charge associated to the conformal theory that describes the universal properties of the quantum phase transition. Thus we show that entanglement, a key concept of quantum information science, obeys universal scaling laws as dictated by the representations of the conformal group and its classification motivated by string theory. This connection unveils a monotonicity law for ground-state entanglement along the renormalization group flow. We also identify a majorization rule possibly associated to conformal invariance and apply the present results to interpret the breakdown of density matrix renormalization group techniques near a critical point.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Viral metacommunities associated to bats and rodents at different spatial scales

One of the main goals of community ecology is to measure the relative importance of environmental filters to understand patterns of species distribution at different temporal and spatial scales. Likewise, the identification of factors that shape symbiont metacommunity structures is important in disease ecology because resulting structures drive disease transmission. We tested the hypothesis that distributions of virus species and viral families from rodents and bats are defined by shared responses to host phylogeny and host functional characteristics, shaping the viral metacommunity structures at four spatial scales (Continental, Biogeographical, Zoogeographical, and Regional). The contribution of host phylogeny and host traits to the metacommunity of viruses at each spatial scale was calculated using a redundant analysis of canonical ordering (RDA). For rodents, at American Continental scale the coherence of viral species metacommunity increased while the spatial scale decreased and Quasi-Clementsian structures were observed. This pattern suggests a restricted distribution of viruses through their hosts, while in the Big Mass (Europe, Africa, and Asia), the coherence decreased as spatial scale decreased. Viral species metacommunities associated with bats was dominated by random structures along all spatial scales. We suggest that this random pattern is a result of the presence of viruses with high occupancy range such as rabies (73%) and coronavirus (27%), that disrupt such structures. At viral family scale, viral metacommunities associated with bats showed coherent structures, with the emergence of Quasi- Clementsian and Checkerboard structures. RDA analysis indicates that the assemblage of viral diversity associated with rodents and bats responds to phylogenetic and functional characteristics, which alternate between spatial scales. Several of these variations could be subject to the spatial scale, in spite of this, we could identify patterns at macro ecological scale. The application of metacommunity theory at symbiont scales is particularly useful for large-scale ecological analysis. Understanding the rules of host-virus association can be useful to take better decisions in epidemiological surveillance, control and even predictions of viral distribution and dissemination

Factors Associated with Non-compliance of Using Respiratory PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)on Factory Workers at PT. Perkebunan Busantar VII Cinta Manis

Background : Concentration of air pollution in major cities and industrial areas Indonesia has caused the respiratory problems, irritation of the eyes and ears, and the emergence of certain diseases. Smoke and dust still generated a lot of air pollution in the working environment especially in the processing, packing and storage. With such a working environment, workers should use PPE to reduce exposure and risk from hazards of dust and smoke (fog), primarily the use of respiratory PPE that can prevent upper respiratory tract infection. Method :This research was conducted in 59 factory workers at PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VII Cinta Manis which aimed to identify factors associated with non-compliance of respiratory PPE. This study uses cross sectional design. Data is processed and presented in frequency distribution tables, analyzed analytically by using chi square test. Result : From the analysis of chi square test is known, there is a relationship of knowledge with non-compliance of respiratory PPE (Pvalue 0.044), there is a relationship between attitude with the non-compliance of respiratory PPE (Pvalue 0.029), there is no relationship between working period with the non-compliance period of respiratory PPE (Pvalue 0.219), there is a relationship between comfort with non-compliance of respiratory PPE (Pvalue 0.013), there is no relationship between availability of respiratory PPE with non-compliance respiratory PPE (Pvalue 0.483) and there is no relationship with non-compliance of PPE (Pvalue 1.000)

Local renormalization method for random systems

In this paper, we introduce a real-space renormalization transformation for random spin systems on 2D lattices. The general method is formulated for random systems and results from merging two well known real space renormalization techniques, namely the strong disorder renormalization technique (SDRT) and the contractor renormalization (CORE). We analyze the performance of the method on the 2D random transverse field Ising model (RTFIM).Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to the Special Issue on "Quantum Information and Many-Body Theory", New Journal of Physics. Editors: M.B. Plenio, J. Eiser

Report of the Horse Mackerel Exchange and Workshop 2006

Following a recommendation from PGCCDBS, a workshop on age calibration of horse mackerel was carried out. The workshop was preceded by an exchange. The objectives were: to improve the quality of horse mackerel readings by international calibration. In particular, attempt to resolve the observed differences between countries. Estimate the accuracy and precision of the age readings before and after the intercalibration. Take into account differences between areas and methods. Training of new horse mackerel readers