Universality in the flooding of regular islands by chaotic states

We investigate the structure of eigenstates in systems with a mixed phase space in terms of their projection onto individual regular tori. Depending on dynamical tunneling rates and the Heisenberg time, regular states disappear and chaotic states flood the regular tori. For a quantitative understanding we introduce a random matrix model. The resulting statistical properties of eigenstates as a function of an effective coupling strength are in very good agreement with numerical results for a kicked system. We discuss the implications of these results for the applicability of the semiclassical eigenfunction hypothesis.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

Folds and Buckles at the Nanoscale: Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Bending Properties of Graphene Membranes

The elastic properties of graphene crystals have been extensively investigated, revealing unique properties in the linear and nonlinear regimes, when the membranes are under either stretching or bending loading conditions. Nevertheless less knowledge has been developed so far on folded graphene membranes and ribbons. It has been recently suggested that fold-induced curvatures, without in-plane strain, can affect the local chemical reactivity, the mechanical properties, and the electron transfer in graphene membranes. This intriguing perspective envisages a materials-by-design approach through the engineering of folding and bending to develop enhanced nano-resonators or nano-electro-mechanical devices. Here we present a novel methodology to investigate the mechanical properties of folded and wrinkled graphene crystals, combining transmission electron microscopy mapping of 3D curvatures and theoretical modeling based on continuum elasticity theory and tight-binding atomistic simulations

Qubit Teleportation and Transfer across Antiferromagnetic Spin Chains

We explore the capability of spin-1/2 chains to act as quantum channels for both teleportation and transfer of qubits. Exploiting the emergence of long-distance entanglement in low-dimensional systems [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 247206 (2006)], here we show how to obtain high communication fidelities between distant parties. An investigation of protocols of teleportation and state transfer is presented, in the realistic situation where temperature is included. Basing our setup on antiferromagnetic rotationally invariant systems, both protocols are represented by pure depolarizing channels. We propose a scheme where channel fidelity close to one can be achieved on very long chains at moderately small temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 .eps figure

FFLO oscillations and magnetic domains in the Hubbard model with off-diagonal Coulomb repulsion

We observe the effect of non-zero magnetization m onto the superconducting ground state of the one dimensional repulsive Hubbard model with correlated hopping X. For t/2 < X < 2t/3, the system first manifests Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) oscillations in the pair-pair correlations. For m = m1 a kinetic energy driven macroscopic phase separation into low-density superconducting domains and high-density polarized walls takes place. For m > m2 the domains fully localize, and the system eventually becomes a ferrimagnetic insulator.Comment: IOP RevTeX class, 18 pages, 13 composite *.eps figure

Adaptive Preference Formation & Autonomy: Moving towards Respect

First lines of the Introduction (as abstract not provided): This thesis seeks to primarily answer the following question: are adapted preferences autonomous? In pursuing the answer of this question, I am unsurprisingly faced with two importantly related queries: firstly, what actually is adaptive preference formation? And secondly, what kind of theory of autonomy is correct and why? In the spirit of question answering, the first chapter of this thesis seeks to provide a more robust account of adaptive preference formation (herein APF), a theory which states that the preferences held by an agent can be subconsciously causally produced by the restriction of options. Through an examination of Jon Elster’s original account of the concept, and a consideration of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s contemporary interpretations of Elster’s account, I intend to flesh out the mechanics of APF, considering the necessary and sufficient conditions for APF. This section aims to solidify the descriptive literature of APF, with a focus on differentiating the process from other similar concepts such as character planning and internalised oppression (herein IO). Ultimately, I conclude with a variation of Elster’s account and produce my own examples of agents who hold adapted preferences (herein AP)

Correlation length and the scaling parameter in the Renormalization Group

The basic procedure of renormalization group theory is used to split the free energy into a Kadanoff block formation part, and a renormalized block-block interaction part. The study of this redistribution as a function of the scaling parameter s shows that there is a stationarity value s* of s, which turns out to have the same critical behavior as the correlation length. It is suggested that s* can be used as an appropriate measure and definition of the correlation length, even for noncritical regions. The calculation of s* is thereby performed explicitly for the Gaussian, and numerically for the S4 model. A sharp separation between noncorrelated and correlated regimes is also found for the Gaussian model, well above the critical temperature. For the S4 model, the results suggest that ξ is characterized by a high-temperature Gaussian branch and by a genuine S4 branch at low temperatures, connected by a "plateau" in the intermediate region

Quantum probes for universal gravity corrections

We address estimation of the minimum length arising from gravitational theories. In particular, we provide bounds on precision and assess the use of quantum probes to enhance the estimation performances. At first, we review the concept of minimum length and show how it induces a perturbative term appearing in the Hamiltonian of any quantum system, which is proportional to a parameter depending on the minimum length. We then systematically study the effects of this perturbation on different state preparations for several 1-dimensional systems, and we evaluate the Quantum Fisher Information in order to find the ultimate bounds to the precision of any estimation procedure. Eventually, we investigate the role of dimensionality by analysing the use of two-dimensional square well and harmonic oscillator systems to probe the minimal length. Our results show that quantum probes are convenient resources, providing potential enhancement in precision. Additionally, our results provide a set of guidelines to design possible future experiments to detect minimal length.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Quantum-classical correspondence on compact phase space

We propose to study the $L^2$-norm distance between classical and quantum phase space distributions, where for the latter we choose the Wigner function, as a global phase space indicator of quantum-classical correspondence. For example, this quantity should provide a key to understand the correspondence between quantum and classical Loschmidt echoes. We concentrate on fully chaotic systems with compact (finite) classical phase space. By means of numerical simulations and heuristic arguments we find that the quantum-classical fidelity stays at one up to Ehrenfest-type time scale, which is proportional to the logarithm of effective Planck constant, and decays exponentially with a maximal classical Lyapunov exponent, after that time.Comment: 26 pages. 9 figures (31 .epz files), submitted to Nonlinearit

IgA-BEM for 3D Helmholtz problems using conforming and non-conforming multi-patch discretizations and B-spline tailored numerical integration

An Isogeometric Boundary Element Method (IgA-BEM) is considered for the numerical solution of Helmholtz problems on 3D bounded or unbounded domains, admitting a smooth multi-patch representation of their finite boundary surface. The discretization spaces are formed by C0 inter-patch continuous functional spaces whose restriction to a patch simplifies to the span of tensor product B-splines composed with the given patch NURBS parameterization. Both conforming and non-conforming spaces are allowed, so that local refinement is possible at the patch level. For regular and singular integration, the proposed model utilizes a numerical procedure defined on the support of each trial B-spline function, which makes possible a function-by-function implementation of the matrix assembly phase. Spline quasi-interpolation is the common ingredient of all the considered quadrature rules; in the singular case it is combined with a B-spline recursion over the spline degree and with a singularity extraction technique, extended to the multi-patch setting for the first time. A threshold selection strategy is proposed to automatically distinguish between nearly singular and regular integrals. The non-conforming C0 joints between spline spaces on different patches are implemented as linear constraints based on knot removal conditions, and do not require a hierarchical master-slave relation between neighbouring patches. Numerical examples on relevant benchmarks show that the expected convergence orders are achieved with uniform discretization and a small number of uniformly spaced quadrature nodes