A Quantum Optical Spring

We study the dynamics of the quantum optical spring, i.e., a spring whose spring constant undergoes discreet jumps depending on the quantum state of another system. We show the existence of revivals and fractional revivals in the quantum dynamics reminiscent of similar dynamical features in cavity QED. We recover in the semi classical limit the results for an oscillator whose frequency undergoes a sudden change. The quantum optical spring is conceivable for example by a micromirror under the influence of radiation pressure by a field which is strictly quantum. Our work suggests that driven systems would in general exhibit a very different dynamics if the drive is replaced by a quantum source.Comment: 5 figure

Comparing Nonparametric Bayesian Tree Priors for Clonal Reconstruction of Tumors

Statistical machine learning methods, especially nonparametric Bayesian methods, have become increasingly popular to infer clonal population structure of tumors. Here we describe the treeCRP, an extension of the Chinese restaurant process (CRP), a popular construction used in nonparametric mixture models, to infer the phylogeny and genotype of major subclonal lineages represented in the population of cancer cells. We also propose new split-merge updates tailored to the subclonal reconstruction problem that improve the mixing time of Markov chains. In comparisons with the tree-structured stick breaking prior used in PhyloSub, we demonstrate superior mixing and running time using the treeCRP with our new split-merge procedures. We also show that given the same number of samples, TSSB and treeCRP have similar ability to recover the subclonal structure of a tumor.Comment: Preprint of an article submitted for consideration in the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing \c{opyright} 2015; World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2015; http://psb.stanford.edu

Persistent spin oscillations in a spin-orbit-coupled superconductor

Quasi-two-dimensional superconductors with tunable spin-orbit coupling are very interesting systems with properties that are also potentially useful for applications. In this manuscript we demonstrate that these systems exhibit undamped collective spin oscillations that can be excited by the application of a supercurrent. We propose to use these collective excitations to realize persistent spin oscillators operating in the frequency range of 10 GHz - 1 THz.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published versio

Quantum Critical Point and Entanglement in a Matrix Product Ground State

In this paper, we study the entanglement properties of a spin-1 model the exact ground state of which is given by a Matrix Product state. The model exhibits a critical point transition at a parameter value a=0. The longitudinal and transverse correlation lengths are known to diverge as a tends to zero. We use three different entanglement measures S(i) (the one-site von Neumann entropy), S(i,j) (the two-body entanglement) and G(2,n) (the generalized global entanglement) to determine the entanglement content of the MP ground state as the parameter a is varied. The entanglement length, associated with S(i,j), is found to diverge in the vicinity of the quantum critical point a=0. The first derivative of the entanglement measure E (=S(i), S(i,j)) w.r.t. the parameter a also diverges. The first derivative of G(2,n) w.r.t. a does not diverge as a tends to zero but attains a maximum value at a=0. At the QCP itself all the three entanglement measures become zero. We further show that multipartite correlations are involved in the QPT at a=0.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

A van Hemmen-Kondo model for disordered strongly correlated electron systems

We present here a theoretical model in order to describe the competition between the Kondo effect and the spin glass behavior. The spin glass part of the starting Hamiltonian contains Ising spins with an intersite exchange interaction given by the local van Hemmen model, while the Kondo effect is described as usual by the intrasite exchange $J_K$. We obtain, for large $J_K$ values, a Kondo phase and, for smaller $J_K$ values, a succession, with decreasingComment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Waveguide microgripper for identification, sensing and manipulation

A Waveguide Microgripper utilizes flexible optical waveguides as gripping arms, which provide the physical means for grasping a microobject, while simultaneously enabling light to be delivered and collected. This unique capability allows extensive optical characterization of the structure being held such as transmission, reflection or fluorescence. One of the simplest capabilities of the waveguide microgripper is to be able to detect the presence of a microobject between the microgripper facets by monitoring the transmitted intensity of light coupled through the facets. The intensity of coupled light is expected to drop when there is an object obstructing the path of light. The optical sensing and characterization function of the microgripper is a strong function of the optical power incident on the structure of interest. Hence it is important to understand the factors affecting the power distribution across the facet. The microgripper is also capable of detecting the fluorescence. This capability of microgripper is expected to have applications in medical, bio-medical and related fields

Mechanism of margination in confined flows of blood and other multicomponent suspensions

Flowing blood displays a phenomenon called margination, in which leukocytes and platelets are preferentially found near blood vessel walls, while erythrocytes are depleted from these regions. Here margination is investigated using direct hydrodynamic simulations of a binary suspension of stiff (s) and floppy (f) capsules, as well as a stochastic model that incorporates the key particle transport mechanisms in suspensions -- wall-induced hydrodynamic migration and shear-induced pair collisions. The stochastic model allows the relative importance of these two mechanisms to be directly evaluated and thereby indicates that margination, at least in the dilute case, is largely due to the differential dynamics of homogeneous (e.g. s-s) and heterogeneous (s-f) collisionsComment: 5 Pages, 4 figure