Quantum nondemolition-like, fast measurement scheme for a superconducting qubit

We present a measurement protocol for a flux qubit coupled to a dc-Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID), representative of any two-state system with a controllable coupling to an harmonic oscillator quadrature, which consists of two steps. First, the qubit state is imprinted onto the SQUID via a very short and strong interaction. We show that at the end of this step the qubit dephases completely, although the perturbation of the measured qubit observable during this step is weak. In the second step, information about the qubit is extracted by measuring the SQUID. This step can have arbitrarily long duration, since it no longer induces qubit errors.Comment: published version, minor correction

Fermionic Mach-Zehnder interferometer subject to a quantum bath

We study fermions in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, subject to a quantum-mechanical environment leading to inelastic scattering, decoherence, renormalization effects, and time-dependent conductance fluctuations. Both the loss of interference contrast as well as the shot noise are calculated, using equations of motion and leading order perturbation theory. The full dependence of the shot-noise correction on setup parameters, voltage, temperature and the bath spectrum is presented. We find an interesting contribution due to correlations between the fluctuating renormalized phase shift and the output current, discuss the limiting behaviours at low and high voltages, and compare with simpler models of dephasing.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Gonadotrophin stimulation for in vitro fertilization significantly alters the hormone milieu in follicular fluid: a comparative study between natural cycle IVF and conventional IVF

STUDY QUESTION Is the steroid hormone profile in follicular fluid (FF) at the time of oocyte retrieval different in naturally matured follicles, as in natural cycle IVF (NC-IVF), compared with follicles stimulated with conventional gonadotrophin stimulated IVF (cIVF)? SUMMARY ANSWER Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) concentrations are ∼3-fold higher, androstenedione (A2) is ∼1.5-fold higher and luteinizing hormone (LH) is ∼14-fold higher in NC-IVF than in cIVF follicles, suggesting an alteration of the follicular metabolism in conventional gonadotrophin stimulated IVF. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY In conventional IVF, the implantation rate of unselected embryos appears to be lower than in NC-IVF, which is possibly due to negative effects of the stimulation regimen on follicular metabolism. In NC-IVF, the intrafollicular concentration of AMH has been shown to be positively correlated with the oocyte fertilization and implantation rates. Furthermore, androgen treatment seems to improve the ovarian response in low responders. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION This cross-sectional study involving 36 NC-IVF and 40 cIVF cycles was performed from 2011 to 2013. Within this population, 13 women each underwent 1 NC-IVF and 1 cIVF cycle. cIVF was performed by controlled ovarian stimulation with HMG and GnRH antagonists. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Follicular fluid was collected from the leading follicles. AMH, T, A2, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), E2, FSH, LH and progesterone (P) were determined by immunoassays in 76 women. Aromatase activity in follicular fluid cells was analysed by a tritiated water release assay in 33 different women. For statistical analysis, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U or Wilcoxon tests were used. MAIN RESULTS AND ROLE OF CHANCE In follicular fluid from NC-IVF and from cIVF, median levels were 32.8 and 10.7 pmol/l for AMH (P < 0.0001), 47.2 and 18.8 µmol/l for T (P < 0.0001), 290 and 206 nmol/l for A2 (P = 0.0035), 6.7 and 5.6 pg/ml for DHEA (n.s.), 3292 and 1225 nmol/l for E2 (P < 0.0001), 4.9 and 7.2 mU/ml for FSH (P < 0.05), 14.4 and 0.9 mU/ml for LH (P < 0.0001) and 62 940 and 54 710 nmol/l for P (n.s.), respectively. Significant differences in follicular fluid concentrations for AMH, E2 and LH were also found in the 13 patients who underwent both NC-IVF and cIVF when they were analysed separately in pairs. Hormone analysis in serum excluded any relevant impact of AMH, T, A2, and E2 serum concentration on the follicular fluid hormone concentrations. Median serum concentrations were 29.4 and 0.9 mU/ml for LH (P < 0.0001) and 2.7 and 23.5 nmol/l for P (P < 0.0001) after NC-IVF and c-IVF, respectively. Positive correlations were seen for FF-AMH with FF-T (r = 0.35, P = 0.0002), FF-T with FF-LH (r = 0.48, P < 0.0001) and FF-E2 with FF-T (r = 0.75, P < 0.0001). The analysis of aromatase activity was not different in NC-IVF and cIVF follicular cells. LIMITATION, REASONS FOR CAUTION Any association between the hormone concentrations and the implantation potential of the oocytes could not be investigated as the oocytes in cIVF were not treated individually in the IVF laboratory. Since both c-IVF and NC-IVF follicles were stimulated by hCG before retrieval, the endocrine milieu in the natural cycle does not represent the pure physiological situation. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The endocrine follicular milieu and the concentration of putative markers of oocyte quality, such as AMH, are significantly different in gonadotrophin-stimulated conventional IVF compared with natural cycle IVF. This could be a cause for the suggested lower oocyte quality in cIVF compared with naturally matured oocytes. The reasons for the reduced AMH concentration might be low serum and follicular fluid LH concentrations due to LH suppression, leading initially to low follicular androgen concentrations and then to low follicular AMH production. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS Funding for this study was obtained from public universities (for salaries) and private industry (for consumables). Additionally, the study was supported by an unrestricted grant from MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme GmbH and IBSA Institut Biochimique SA. The authors are clinically involved in low-dose monofollicular stimulation and IVF therapies, using gonadotrophins from all gonadotrophin distributors on the Swiss market, including Institut Biochimique SA and MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme GmbH. Otherwise, the authors have no competing interests. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER Not applicabl

Decoherence of a particle in a ring

We consider a particle coupled to a dissipative environment and derive a perturbative formula for the dephasing rate based on the purity of the reduced probability matrix. We apply this formula to the problem of a particle on a ring, that interacts with a dirty metal environment. At low but finite temperatures we find a dephasing rate $\propto T^{3/2}$, and identify dephasing lengths for large and for small rings. These findings shed light on recent Monte Carlo data regarding the effective mass of the particle. At zero temperature we find that spatial fluctuations suppress the possibility of having a power law decay of coherence.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, proofed version to be published in EP

Dephasing of a particle in a dissipative environment

The motion of a particle in a ring of length L is influenced by a dirty metal environment whose fluctuations are characterized by a short correlation distance $\ell << L$. We analyze the induced decoherence process, and compare the results with those obtained in the opposing Caldeira-Leggett limit ($\ell >> L$). A proper definition of the dephasing factor that does not depend on a vague semiclassical picture is employed. Some recent Monte-Carlo results about the effect of finite temperatures on "mass renormalization" in this system are illuminated.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, some textual improvements, to be published in JP

Measurement of the electron electric dipole moment using GdIG

A new method for the detection of the electron edm using a solid is described. The method involves the measurement of a voltage induced across the solid by the alignment of the samples magnetic dipoles in an applied magnetic field, H. A first application of the method to GdIG has resulted in a limit on the electron edm of 5E-24 e-cm, which is a factor of 40 below the limit obtained from the only previous solid-state edm experiment. The result is limited by the imperfect discrimination of an unexpectedly large voltage that is even upon the reversal of the sample magnetization.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, v2:references corrected, submitted to PRL, v3:added labels to figure

Kinetics of stochastically-gated diffusion-limited reactions and geometry of random walk trajectories

In this paper we study the kinetics of diffusion-limited, pseudo-first-order A + B -> B reactions in situations in which the particles' intrinsic reactivities vary randomly in time. That is, we suppose that the particles are bearing "gates" which interchange randomly and independently of each other between two states - an active state, when the reaction may take place, and a blocked state, when the reaction is completly inhibited. We consider four different models, such that the A particle can be either mobile or immobile, gated or ungated, as well as ungated or gated B particles can be fixed at random positions or move randomly. All models are formulated on a $d$-dimensional regular lattice and we suppose that the mobile species perform independent, homogeneous, discrete-time lattice random walks. The model involving a single, immobile, ungated target A and a concentration of mobile, gated B particles is solved exactly. For the remaining three models we determine exactly, in form of rigorous lower and upper bounds, the large-N asymptotical behavior of the A particle survival probability. We also realize that for all four models studied here such a probalibity can be interpreted as the moment generating function of some functionals of random walk trajectories, such as, e.g., the number of self-intersections, the number of sites visited exactly a given number of times, "residence time" on a random array of lattice sites and etc. Our results thus apply to the asymptotical behavior of the corresponding generating functions which has not been known as yet.Comment: Latex, 45 pages, 5 ps-figures, submitted to PR

Characterization of the Local Density of States Fluctuations near the Integer Quantum Hall Transition in a Quantum Dot Array

We present a calculation for the second moment of the local density of states in a model of a two-dimensional quantum dot array near the quantum Hall transition. The quantum dot array model is a realistic adaptation of the lattice model for the quantum Hall transition in the two-dimensional electron gas in an external magnetic field proposed by Ludwig, Fisher, Shankar and Grinstein. We make use of a Dirac fermion representation for the Green functions in the presence of fluctuations for the quantum dot energy levels. A saddle-point approximation yields non-perturbative results for the first and second moments of the local density of states, showing interesting fluctuation behaviour near the quantum Hall transition. To our knowledge we discuss here one of the first analytic characterizations of chaotic behaviour for a two-dimensional mesoscopic structure. The connection with possible experimental investigations of the local density of states in the quantum dot array structures (by means of NMR Knight-shift or single-electron-tunneling techniques) and our work is also established.Comment: 11 LaTeX pages, 1 postscript figure, to appear in Phys.Rev.