2,345 research outputs found
Quantum properties of classical Fisher information
The Fisher information of a quantum observable is shown to be proportional to
both (i) the difference of a quantum and a classical variance, thus providing a
measure of nonclassicality; and (ii) the rate of entropy increase under
Gaussian diffusion, thus providing a measure of robustness. The joint
nonclassicality of position and momentum observables is shown to be
complementary to their joint robustness in an exact sense.Comment: 16 page
Spectral Simplicity of Apparent Complexity, Part I: The Nondiagonalizable Metadynamics of Prediction
Virtually all questions that one can ask about the behavioral and structural
complexity of a stochastic process reduce to a linear algebraic framing of a
time evolution governed by an appropriate hidden-Markov process generator. Each
type of question---correlation, predictability, predictive cost, observer
synchronization, and the like---induces a distinct generator class. Answers are
then functions of the class-appropriate transition dynamic. Unfortunately,
these dynamics are generically nonnormal, nondiagonalizable, singular, and so
on. Tractably analyzing these dynamics relies on adapting the recently
introduced meromorphic functional calculus, which specifies the spectral
decomposition of functions of nondiagonalizable linear operators, even when the
function poles and zeros coincide with the operator's spectrum. Along the way,
we establish special properties of the projection operators that demonstrate
how they capture the organization of subprocesses within a complex system.
Circumventing the spurious infinities of alternative calculi, this leads in the
sequel, Part II, to the first closed-form expressions for complexity measures,
couched either in terms of the Drazin inverse (negative-one power of a singular
operator) or the eigenvalues and projection operators of the appropriate
transition dynamic.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables; current version always at
http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/sdscpt1.ht
Minimal size of a barchan dune
Barchans are dunes of high mobility which have a crescent shape and propagate
under conditions of unidirectional wind. However, sand dunes only appear above
a critical size, which scales with the saturation distance of the sand flux [P.
Hersen, S. Douady, and B. Andreotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf{89,}} 264301 (2002);
B. Andreotti, P. Claudin, and S. Douady, Eur. Phys. J. B {\bf{28,}} 321 (2002);
G. Sauermann, K. Kroy, and H. J. Herrmann, Phys. Rev. E {\bf{64,}} 31305
(2001)]. It has been suggested by P. Hersen, S. Douady, and B. Andreotti, Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf{89,}} 264301 (2002) that this flux fetch distance is itself
constant. Indeed, this could not explain the proto size of barchan dunes, which
often occur in coastal areas of high litoral drift, and the scale of dunes on
Mars. In the present work, we show from three dimensional calculations of sand
transport that the size and the shape of the minimal barchan dune depend on the
wind friction speed and the sand flux on the area between dunes in a field. Our
results explain the common appearance of barchans a few tens of centimeter high
which are observed along coasts. Furthermore, we find that the rate at which
grains enter saltation on Mars is one order of magnitude higher than on Earth,
and is relevant to correctly obtain the minimal dune size on Mars.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Information capacity in the weak-signal approximation
We derive an approximate expression for mutual information in a broad class
of discrete-time stationary channels with continuous input, under the
constraint of vanishing input amplitude or power. The approximation describes
the input by its covariance matrix, while the channel properties are described
by the Fisher information matrix. This separation of input and channel
properties allows us to analyze the optimality conditions in a convenient way.
We show that input correlations in memoryless channels do not affect channel
capacity since their effect decreases fast with vanishing input amplitude or
power. On the other hand, for channels with memory, properly matching the input
covariances to the dependence structure of the noise may lead to almost
noiseless information transfer, even for intermediate values of the noise
correlations. Since many model systems described in mathematical neuroscience
and biophysics operate in the high noise regime and weak-signal conditions, we
believe, that the described results are of potential interest also to
researchers in these areas.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review
Information-theoretic interpretation of quantum error-correcting codes
Quantum error-correcting codes are analyzed from an information-theoretic
perspective centered on quantum conditional and mutual entropies. This approach
parallels the description of classical error correction in Shannon theory,
while clarifying the differences between classical and quantum codes. More
specifically, it is shown how quantum information theory accounts for the fact
that "redundant" information can be distributed over quantum bits even though
this does not violate the quantum "no-cloning" theorem. Such a remarkable
feature, which has no counterpart for classical codes, is related to the
property that the ternary mutual entropy vanishes for a tripartite system in a
pure state. This information-theoretic description of quantum coding is used to
derive the quantum analogue of the Singleton bound on the number of logical
bits that can be preserved by a code of fixed length which can recover a given
number of errors.Comment: 14 pages RevTeX, 8 Postscript figures. Added appendix. To appear in
Phys. Rev.
Diamond (111) surface reconstruction and epitaxial graphene interface
The evolution of the diamond (111) surface as it undergoes reconstruction and
subsequent graphene formation is investigated with angle-resolved photoemission
spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, and complementary density
functional theory calculations. The process is examined starting at the
C(111)-(2x1) surface reconstruction that occurs following detachment of the
surface adatoms at 920 {\deg}C, and continues through to the liberation of the
reconstructed surface atoms into a free-standing monolayer of epitaxial
graphene at temperatures above 1000 {\deg}C. Our results show that the
C(111)-(2x1) surface is metallic as it has electronic states that intersect the
Fermi-level. This is in strong agreement with a symmetrically {\pi}-bonded
chain model and should contribute to resolving the controversies that exist in
the literature surrounding the electronic nature of this surface. The graphene
formed at higher temperatures exists above a newly formed C(111)-(2\times1)
surface and appears to have little substrate interaction as the Dirac-point is
observed at the Fermi-level. Finally, we demonstrate that it is possible to
hydrogen terminate the underlying diamond surface by means of plasma processing
without removing the graphene layer, forming a graphene-semiconductor
interface. This could have particular relevance for doping the graphene formed
on the diamond (111)surface via tuneable substrate interactions as a result of
changing the terminating species at the diamond-graphene interface by plasma
processing.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
The photometric properties of a vast stellar substructure in the outskirts of M33
We have surveyed sq.degrees surrounding M33 with CFHT MegaCam in the
g and i filters, as part of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey. Our
observations are deep enough to resolve the top 4mags of the red giant branch
population in this galaxy. We have previously shown that the disk of M33 is
surrounded by a large, irregular, low-surface brightness substructure. Here, we
quantify the stellar populations and structure of this feature using the PAndAS
data. We show that the stellar populations of this feature are consistent with
an old population with dex and an interquartile range in
metallicity of dex. We construct a surface brightness map of M33 that
traces this feature to mags\,arcsec. At these low surface
brightness levels, the structure extends to projected radii of kpc from
the center of M33 in both the north-west and south-east quadrants of the
galaxy. Overall, the structure has an "S-shaped" appearance that broadly aligns
with the orientation of the HI disk warp. We calculate a lower limit to the
integrated luminosity of the structure of mags, comparable to a
bright dwarf galaxy such as Fornax or AndII and slightly less than $1\$ of the
total luminosity of M33. Further, we show that there is tentative evidence for
a distortion in the distribution of young stars near the edge of the HI disk
that occurs at similar azimuth to the warp in HI. The data also hint at a
low-level, extended stellar component at larger radius that may be a M33 halo
component. We revisit studies of M33 and its stellar populations in light of
these new results, and we discuss possible formation scenarios for the vast
stellar structure. Our favored model is that of the tidal disruption of M33 in
its orbit around M31.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 figures. ApJ preprint forma
Information Tradeoff Relations for Finite-Strength Quantum Measurements
In this paper we give a new way to quantify the folklore notion that quantum
measurements bring a disturbance to the system being measured. We consider two
observers who initially assign identical mixed-state density operators to a
two-state quantum system. The question we address is to what extent one
observer can, by measurement, increase the purity of his density operator
without affecting the purity of the other observer's. If there were no
restrictions on the first observer's measurements, then he could carry this out
trivially by measuring the initial density operator's eigenbasis. If, however,
the allowed measurements are those of finite strength---i.e., those
measurements strictly within the interior of the convex set of all
measurements---then the issue becomes significantly more complex. We find that
for a large class of such measurements the first observer's purity increases
the most precisely when there is some loss of purity for the second observer.
More generally the tradeoff between the two purities, when it exists, forms a
monotonic relation. This tradeoff has potential application to quantum state
control and feedback.Comment: 15 pages, revtex3, 3 eps figure
Thermodynamic efficiency of information and heat flow
A basic task of information processing is information transfer (flow). Here
we study a pair of Brownian particles each coupled to a thermal bath at
temperature and , respectively. The information flow in such a
system is defined via the time-shifted mutual information. The information flow
nullifies at equilibrium, and its efficiency is defined as the ratio of flow
over the total entropy production in the system. For a stationary state the
information flows from higher to lower temperatures, and its the efficiency is
bound from above by . This upper bound is
imposed by the second law and it quantifies the thermodynamic cost for
information flow in the present class of systems. It can be reached in the
adiabatic situation, where the particles have widely different characteristic
times. The efficiency of heat flow|defined as the heat flow over the total
amount of dissipated heat|is limited from above by the same factor. There is a
complementarity between heat- and information-flow: the setup which is most
efficient for the former is the least efficient for the latter and {\it vice
versa}. The above bound for the efficiency can be [transiently] overcome in
certain non-stationary situations, but the efficiency is still limited from
above. We study yet another measure of information-processing [transfer
entropy] proposed in literature. Though this measure does not require any
thermodynamic cost, the information flow and transfer entropy are shown to be
intimately related for stationary states.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur
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