Basic concepts in quantum computation

Section headings: 1 Qubits, gates and networks 2 Quantum arithmetic and function evaluations 3 Algorithms and their complexity 4 From interferometers to computers 5 The first quantum algorithms 6 Quantum search 7 Optimal phase estimation 8 Periodicity and quantum factoring 9 Cryptography 10 Conditional quantum dynamics 11 Decoherence and recoherence 12 Concluding remarksComment: 37 pages, lectures given at les Houches Summer School on "Coherent Matter Waves", July-August 199

Concentration Dependence of Superconductivity and Order-Disorder Transition in the Hexagonal Rubidium Tungsten Bronze RbxWO3. Interfacial and bulk properties

We revisited the problem of the stability of the superconducting state in RbxWO3 and identified the main causes of the contradictory data previously published. We have shown that the ordering of the Rb vacancies in the nonstoichiometric compounds have a major detrimental effect on the superconducting temperature Tc.The order-disorder transition is first order only near x = 0.25, where it cannot be quenched effectively and Tc is reduced below 1K. We found that the high Tc's which were sometimes deduced from resistivity measurements, and attributed to compounds with .25 < x < .30, are to be ascribed to interfacial superconductivity which generates spectacular non-linear effects. We also clarified the effect of acid etching and set more precisely the low-rubidium-content boundary of the hexagonal phase.This work makes clear that Tc would increase continuously (from 2 K to 5.5 K) as we approach this boundary (x = 0.20), if no ordering would take place - as its is approximately the case in CsxWO3. This behaviour is reminiscent of the tetragonal tungsten bronze NaxWO3 and asks the same question : what mechanism is responsible for this large increase of Tc despite the considerable associated reduction of the electron density of state ? By reviewing the other available data on these bronzes we conclude that the theoretical models which are able to answer this question are probably those where the instability of the lattice plays a major role and, particularly, the model which call upon local structural excitations (LSE), associated with the missing alkali atoms.Comment: To be published in Physical Review

The first 100 kidney transplants from living related donors at Groote Schuur Hospital

Improved results with cadaver kidney transplantation and the increase in the number of cadaver organs have caused the continued use of donor kidneys from living relatives to be questioned. In this analysis of our first 100 renal transplants involving a living related donor, the 5-year graft survival rate was 70%. The 5-year graft survival rate for recipients of grafts from HLA-identical donors was 81%, as opposed to the 64% survival rate for grafts from one-haplotype donors. Recipients of grafts from one-haplotype-matched donors who received donor-specific blood transfusions demonstrated better graft survival than those who were not transfused. This analysis demonstrates that the results of living related kidney transplantation are good, and suggests that donor-specific blood transfusions may be beneficial

Search for electroweak production of single top quarks in ppˉp\bar{p} collisions.

We present a search for electroweak production of single top quarks in the electron+jets and muon+jets decay channels. The measurements use ~90 pb^-1 of data from Run 1 of the Fermilab Tevatron collider, collected at 1.8 TeV with the DZero detector between 1992 and 1995. We use events that include a tagging muon, implying the presence of a b jet, to set an upper limit at the 95% confidence level on the cross section for the s-channel process ppbar->tb+X of 39 pb. The upper limit for the t-channel process ppbar->tqb+X is 58 pb. (arXiv

Search for new particles in the two-jet decay channel with the D0 detector

We present the results of a search for the production of new particles decaying into two jets in pbarp collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV, using the DZero 1992-1995 data set corresponding to 109 pb^-1. We exclude at the 95% confidence level the production of excited quarks (q*) with masses below 775 GeV/c^2, the most restictive limit to date. We also exclude standard-model-like W' (Z') bosons with masses between 300 and 800 GeV/c^2 (400 and 640 GeV/c^2). A W' boson with mass $<$ 300 GeV/c^2 has been excluded by previous measurements, and our lower limit is therefore the most stringent to date

Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995-2009: analysis of individual data for 25,676,887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2)

BACKGROUND: Worldwide data for cancer survival are scarce. We aimed to initiate worldwide surveillance of cancer survival by central analysis of population-based registry data, as a metric of the effectiveness of health systems, and to inform global policy on cancer control. METHODS: Individual tumour records were submitted by 279 population-based cancer registries in 67 countries for 25·7 million adults (age 15-99 years) and 75,000 children (age 0-14 years) diagnosed with cancer during 1995-2009 and followed up to Dec 31, 2009, or later. We looked at cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast (women), cervix, ovary, and prostate in adults, and adult and childhood leukaemia. Standardised quality control procedures were applied; errors were corrected by the registry concerned. We estimated 5-year net survival, adjusted for background mortality in every country or region by age (single year), sex, and calendar year, and by race or ethnic origin in some countries. Estimates were age-standardised with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights. FINDINGS: 5-year survival from colon, rectal, and breast cancers has increased steadily in most developed countries. For patients diagnosed during 2005-09, survival for colon and rectal cancer reached 60% or more in 22 countries around the world; for breast cancer, 5-year survival rose to 85% or higher in 17 countries worldwide. Liver and lung cancer remain lethal in all nations: for both cancers, 5-year survival is below 20% everywhere in Europe, in the range 15-19% in North America, and as low as 7-9% in Mongolia and Thailand. Striking rises in 5-year survival from prostate cancer have occurred in many countries: survival rose by 10-20% between 1995-99 and 2005-09 in 22 countries in South America, Asia, and Europe, but survival still varies widely around the world, from less than 60% in Bulgaria and Thailand to 95% or more in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the USA. For cervical cancer, national estimates of 5-year survival range from less than 50% to more than 70%; regional variations are much wider, and improvements between 1995-99 and 2005-09 have generally been slight. For women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005-09, 5-year survival was 40% or higher only in Ecuador, the USA, and 17 countries in Asia and Europe. 5-year survival for stomach cancer in 2005-09 was high (54-58%) in Japan and South Korea, compared with less than 40% in other countries. By contrast, 5-year survival from adult leukaemia in Japan and South Korea (18-23%) is lower than in most other countries. 5-year survival from childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is less than 60% in several countries, but as high as 90% in Canada and four European countries, which suggests major deficiencies in the management of a largely curable disease. INTERPRETATION: International comparison of survival trends reveals very wide differences that are likely to be attributable to differences in access to early diagnosis and optimum treatment. Continuous worldwide surveillance of cancer survival should become an indispensable source of information for cancer patients and researchers and a stimulus for politicians to improve health policy and health-care systems

Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements

Measurement of the correlation between flow harmonics of different order in lead-lead collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Correlations between the elliptic or triangular flow coefficients vm (m=2 or 3) and other flow harmonics vn (n=2 to 5) are measured using √sNN=2.76 TeV Pb+Pb collision data collected in 2010 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 7 μb−1. The vm−vn correlations are measured in midrapidity as a function of centrality, and, for events within the same centrality interval, as a function of event ellipticity or triangularity defined in a forward rapidity region. For events within the same centrality interval, v3 is found to be anticorrelated with v2 and this anticorrelation is consistent with similar anticorrelations between the corresponding eccentricities, ε2 and ε3. However, it is observed that v4 increases strongly with v2, and v5 increases strongly with both v2 and v3. The trend and strength of the vm−vn correlations for n=4 and 5 are found to disagree with εm−εn correlations predicted by initial-geometry models. Instead, these correlations are found to be consistent with the combined effects of a linear contribution to vn and a nonlinear term that is a function of v22 or of v2v3, as predicted by hydrodynamic models. A simple two-component fit is used to separate these two contributions. The extracted linear and nonlinear contributions to v4 and v5 are found to be consistent with previously measured event-plane correlations