25 research outputs found
Rare-earth solid-state qubits
Quantum bits (qubits) are the basic building blocks of any quantum computer.
Superconducting qubits have been created with a 'top-down' approach that
integrates superconducting devices into macroscopic electrical circuits [1-3],
whereas electron-spin qubits have been demonstrated in quantum dots [4-6]. The
phase coherence time (Tau2) and the single qubit figure of merit (QM) of
superconducting and electron-spin qubits are similar -- Tau2 ~ microseconds and
QM ~10-1000 below 100mK -- and it should be possible to scale-up these systems,
which is essential for the development of any useful quantum computer.
Bottom-up approaches based on dilute ensembles of spins have achieved much
larger values of tau2 (up to tens of ms) [7, 8], but these systems cannot be
scaled up, although some proposals for qubits based on 2D nanostructures should
be scalable [9-11]. Here we report that a new family of spin qubits based on
rare-earth ions demonstrates values of Tau2 (~ 50microseconds) and QM (~1400)
at 2.5 K, which suggests that rare-earth qubits may, in principle, be suitable
for scalable quantum information processing at 4He temperatures
Constraints on exotic lepton doublets with minimal coupling to the standard model
We investigate the consequences of introducing a set of exotic doublet
leptons which couple to the standard model leptons in a minimal way. Through
these additional gauge invariant and renormalizable coupling terms, new sources
of tree-level flavor changing currents are induced via mixing. In this work, we
derive constraints on the parameters that govern the couplings to the exotic
doublets by invoking the current low-energy experimental data on processes such
as leptonic Z decays, , , and - conversion in atomic nuclei. Moreover, we have analyzed
the role these doublets play on the lepton anomalous magnetic moments, and
found that their contribution is negligible.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables (REVTeX4.1); v2: added discussions in
Sec.II, III & IX and new ref. To appear in JHEP. arXiv admin note: text
overlap with arXiv:1011.473
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives
We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe
Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks
37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe