Simple manipulation of a microwave dressed-state ion qubit

Many schemes for implementing quantum information processing require that the atomic states used have a non-zero magnetic moment, however such magnetically sensitive states of an atom are vulnerable to decoherence due to fluctuating magnetic fields. Dressing an atom with an external field is a powerful method of reducing such decoherence [N. Timoney et al., Nature 476, 185], even if the states being dressed are strongly coupled to the environment. We introduce an experimentally simpler method of manipulating such a dressed-state qubit, which allows the implementation of general rotations of the qubit, and demonstrate this method using a trapped ytterbium ion

Stochastic Analysis of Dimerization Systems

The process of dimerization, in which two monomers bind to each other and form a dimer, is common in nature. This process can be modeled using rate equations, from which the average copy numbers of the reacting monomers and of the product dimers can then be obtained. However, the rate equations apply only when these copy numbers are large. In the limit of small copy numbers the system becomes dominated by fluctuations, which are not accounted for by the rate equations. In this limit one must use stochastic methods such as direct integration of the master equation or Monte Carlo simulations. These methods are computationally intensive and rarely succumb to analytical solutions. Here we use the recently introduced moment equations which provide a highly simplified stochastic treatment of the dimerization process. Using this approach, we obtain an analytical solution for the copy numbers and reaction rates both under steady state conditions and in the time-dependent case. We analyze three different dimerization processes: dimerization without dissociation, dimerization with dissociation and hetero-dimer formation. To validate the results we compare them with the results obtained from the master equation in the stochastic limit and with those obtained from the rate equations in the deterministic limit. Potential applications of the results in different physical contexts are discussed.Comment: 10 figure

Pion and Kaon Production in e+e−e^+e^- and epep Collisions at Next-to-Leading Order

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for charged pions and kaons, both at leading and next-to-leading order. They are fitted to data on inclusive charged-hadron production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation taken by TPC at PEP ($\sqrt s=29$~GeV) and to similar data by ALEPH at LEP, who discriminated between events with charm, bottom, and light- flavour fragmentation in their charged-hadron sample. We treat all partons independently and to properly incorporate the charm and bottom thresholds. Due to the sizeable energy gap between PEP and LEP, we are sensitive to the scaling violation in the fragmentation process, which allows us to extract a value for the asymptotic scale parameter of QCD, $\Lambda$. Recent data on inclusive charged-hadron production in tagged three-jet events by OPAL and similar data for longitudinal electron polarization by ALEPH allow us to pin down the gluon fragmentation functions. Our new fragmentation functions lead to an excellent description of a multitude of other $e^+e^-$ data on inclusive charged-hadron production, ranging from $\sqrt s=5.2$~GeV to LEP energy. In addition, they agree nicely with the transverse-momentum spectra of single charged hadrons measured by H1 and ZEUS in photoproduction at the $ep$ collider HERA, which represents a nontrivial check of the factorization theorem of the QCD-improved parton model.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 13 compressed ps figures in separate fil

Does Energy Consumption Respond to Price Shocks? Evidence from a Regression-Discontinuity Design

This paper exploits unique features of a recently introduced tariff schedule for natural gas in Buenos Aires to estimate the short-run impact of price shocks on residential energy utilization. The schedule induces a non-linear and nonmonotonic relationship between households accumulated consumption and unit prices, thus generating an exogenous source of variation in perceived prices, which is exploited in a regression-discontinuity design. The estimates reveal that a price increase in the utility bill received by consumers causes a substantial and prompt decline in gas consumption. Hence they suggest that policy interventions via the price mechanism, such as price caps and subsidies, are powerful instruments to influence residential energy utilization patterns, even within a short time span

Entanglement of Trapped-Ion Clock States

A M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen entangling gate is realized for pairs of trapped $^{111}$Cd$^+$ ions using magnetic-field insensitive "clock" states and an implementation offering reduced sensitivity to optical phase drifts. The gate is used to generate the complete set of four entangled states, which are reconstructed and evaluated with quantum-state tomography. An average target-state fidelity of 0.79 is achieved, limited by available laser power and technical noise. The tomographic reconstruction of entangled states demonstrates universal quantum control of two ion-qubits, which through multiplexing can provide a route to scalable architectures for trapped-ion quantum computing.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Implementation of Grover's Quantum Search Algorithm in a Scalable System

We report the implementation of Grover's quantum search algorithm in the scalable system of trapped atomic ion quantum bits. Any one of four possible states of a two-qubit memory is marked, and following a single query of the search space, the marked element is successfully recovered with an average probability of 60(2)%. This exceeds the performance of any possible classical search algorithm, which can only succeed with a maximum average probability of 50%.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, updated error discussio

INCLUSIVE PARTICLE PRODUCTION IN \pbp COLLISIONS

We calculate the inclusive production of charged hadrons in \pbp collisions to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the QCD improved parton model using a new set of NLO fragmentation functions for charged pions and kaons. We predict transverse-momentum distributions and compare them with experimental data from the CERN S\pbpS Collider and the Fermilab Tevatron.Comment: the file containing the figures has been replaced: we correct a mistake in the uuencoding procedure and we give the real Fig 4 instead of the spurious one which was accidentally included in the previous file. the text is unchanged

Cassini ISS mutual event astrometry of the mid-sized Saturnian satellites 2005-2012

Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics, © ES

Quark-Gluon Jet Differences at LEP

A new method to identify the gluon jet in 3-jet ``{\bf Y}'' decays of $Z^0$ is presented. The method is based on differences in particle multiplicity between quark jets and gluon jets, and is more effective than tagging by leptonic decay. An experimental test of the method and its application to a study of the ``string effect'' are proposed. Various jet-finding schemes for 3-jet events are compared.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 4 PostScript figures availble from the author ([email protected]), MSUTH-92-0