762 research outputs found
Why the Tsirelson bound?
Wheeler's question 'why the quantum' has two aspects: why is the world
quantum and not classical, and why is it quantum rather than superquantum,
i.e., why the Tsirelson bound for quantum correlations? I discuss a remarkable
answer to this question proposed by Pawlowski et al (2009), who provide an
information-theoretic derivation of the Tsirelson bound from a principle they
call 'information causality.'Comment: 17 page
Loading of a surface-electrode ion trap from a remote, precooled source
We demonstrate loading of ions into a surface-electrode trap (SET) from a
remote, laser-cooled source of neutral atoms. We first cool and load
neutral Sr atoms into a magneto-optical trap from an oven that
has no line of sight with the SET. The cold atoms are then pushed with a
resonant laser into the trap region where they are subsequently photoionized
and trapped in an SET operated at a cryogenic temperature of 4.6 K. We present
studies of the loading process and show that our technique achieves ion loading
into a shallow (15 meV depth) trap at rates as high as 125 ions/s while
drastically reducing the amount of metal deposition on the trap surface as
compared with direct loading from a hot vapor. Furthermore, we note that due to
multiple stages of isotopic filtering in our loading process, this technique
has the potential for enhanced isotopic selectivity over other loading methods.
Rapid loading from a clean, isotopically pure, and precooled source may enable
scalable quantum information processing with trapped ions in large, low-depth
surface trap arrays that are not amenable to loading from a hot atomic beam
Quantum Time and Spatial Localization: An Analysis of the Hegerfeldt Paradox
Two related problems in relativistic quantum mechanics, the apparent
superluminal propagation of initially localized particles and dependence of
spatial localization on the motion of the observer, are analyzed in the context
of Dirac's theory of constraints. A parametrization invariant formulation is
obtained by introducing time and energy operators for the relativistic particle
and then treating the Klein-Gordon equation as a constraint. The standard,
physical Hilbert space is recovered, via integration over proper time, from an
augmented Hilbert space wherein time and energy are dynamical variables. It is
shown that the Newton-Wigner position operator, being in this description a
constant of motion, acts on states in the augmented space. States with strictly
positive energy are non-local in time; consequently, position measurements
receive contributions from states representing the particle's position at many
times. Apparent superluminal propagation is explained by noting that, as the
particle is potentially in the past (or future) of the assumed initial place
and time of localization, it has time to propagate to distant regions without
exceeding the speed of light. An inequality is proven showing the Hegerfeldt
paradox to be completely accounted for by the hypotheses of subluminal
propagation from a set of initial space-time points determined by the quantum
time distribution arising from the positivity of the system's energy. Spatial
localization can nevertheless occur through quantum interference between states
representing the particle at different times. The non-locality of the same
system to a moving observer is due to Lorentz rotation of spatial axes out of
the interference minimum.Comment: This paper is identical to the version appearing in J. Math. Phys.
41; 6093 (Sept. 2000). The published version will be found at
http://ojps.aip.org/jmp/. The paper (40 page PDF file) has been completely
revised since the last posting to this archiv
Measurement of Time-of-Arrival in Quantum Mechanics
It is argued that the time-of-arrival cannot be precisely defined and
measured in quantum mechanics. By constructing explicit toy models of a
measurement, we show that for a free particle it cannot be measured more
accurately then , where is the initial kinetic
energy of the particle. With a better accuracy, particles reflect off the
measuring device, and the resulting probability distribution becomes distorted.
It is shown that a time-of-arrival operator cannot exist, and that approximate
time-of-arrival operators do not correspond to the measurements considered
here.Comment: References added. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Composite absorbing potentials
The multiple scattering interferences due to the addition of several
contiguous potential units are used to construct composite absorbing potentials
that absorb at an arbitrary set of incident momenta or for a broad momentum
interval.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 2 postscript figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
A microfabricated ion trap with integrated microwave circuitry
We describe the design, fabrication and testing of a surface-electrode ion
trap, which incorporates microwave waveguides, resonators and coupling elements
for the manipulation of trapped ion qubits using near-field microwaves. The
trap is optimised to give a large microwave field gradient to allow
state-dependent manipulation of the ions' motional degrees of freedom, the key
to multiqubit entanglement. The microwave field near the centre of the trap is
characterised by driving hyperfine transitions in a single laser-cooled 43Ca+
ion.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
High-fidelity preparation, gates, memory and readout of a trapped-ion quantum bit
We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above
the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a
trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of Ca.
We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity
of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of seconds, and an average
single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%. These results are achieved in a
room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic
field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.Comment: Supplementary Information included. 6 nines, 7 figures, 8 page
Time-of-arrival in quantum mechanics
We study the problem of computing the probability for the time-of-arrival of
a quantum particle at a given spatial position. We consider a solution to this
problem based on the spectral decomposition of the particle's (Heisenberg)
state into the eigenstates of a suitable operator, which we denote as the
``time-of-arrival'' operator. We discuss the general properties of this
operator. We construct the operator explicitly in the simple case of a free
nonrelativistic particle, and compare the probabilities it yields with the ones
estimated indirectly in terms of the flux of the Schr\"odinger current. We
derive a well defined uncertainty relation between time-of-arrival and energy;
this result shows that the well known arguments against the existence of such a
relation can be circumvented. Finally, we define a ``time-representation'' of
the quantum mechanics of a free particle, in which the time-of-arrival is
diagonal. Our results suggest that, contrary to what is commonly assumed,
quantum mechanics exhibits a hidden equivalence between independent (time) and
dependent (position) variables, analogous to the one revealed by the
parametrized formalism in classical mechanics.Comment: Latex/Revtex, 20 pages. 2 figs included using epsf. Submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Ambiguities of arrival-time distributions in quantum theory
We consider the definition that might be given to the time at which a
particle arrives at a given place, both in standard quantum theory and also in
Bohmian mechanics. We discuss an ambiguity that arises in the standard theory
in three, but not in one, spatial dimension.Comment: LaTex, 12 pages, no figure
Space-time properties of free motion time-of-arrival eigenstates
The properties of the time-of-arrival operator for free motion introduced by
Aharonov and Bohm and of its self-adjoint variants are studied. The domains of
applicability of the different approaches are clarified. It is shown that the
arrival time of the eigenstates is not sharply defined. However, strongly
peaked real-space (normalized) wave packets constructed with narrow Gaussian
envelopes centred on one of the eigenstates provide an arbitrarily sharp
arrival time.Comment: REVTEX, 12 pages, 4 postscript figure
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