12,012 research outputs found
Position Measurements Obeying Momentum Conservation
We present a hitherto unknown fundamental limitation to a basic measurement:
that of the position of a quantum object when the total momentum of the object
and apparatus is conserved. This result extends the famous Wigner-Araki-Yanase
(WAY) theorem, and shows that accurate position measurements are only
practically feasible if there is a large momentum uncertainty in the apparatus
Time-Temperature Superposition of Structural Relaxation in a Viscous Metallic Liquid
Bulk metallic glass-forming Pd40Ni10Cu30P20 has been investigated in its equilibrium liquid by quasielastic neutron scattering. The quasielastic signal exhibits a structural relaxation as known from nonmetallic viscous liquids. Even well above the melting point, the structural relaxation is nonexponential and obeys a universal time-temperature superposition. From the mean relaxation times average diffusivities have been determined, resulting in values on a 10^-10 m^2 s^-1 scale, 3 orders of magnitude slower than in simple metallic liquids
Quantum Mechanics as a Framework for Dealing with Uncertainty
Quantum uncertainty is described here in two guises: indeterminacy with its
concomitant indeterminism of measurement outcomes, and fuzziness, or
unsharpness. Both features were long seen as obstructions of experimental
possibilities that were available in the realm of classical physics. The birth
of quantum information science was due to the realization that such
obstructions can be turned into powerful resources. Here we review how the
utilization of quantum fuzziness makes room for a notion of approximate joint
measurement of noncommuting observables. We also show how from a classical
perspective quantum uncertainty is due to a limitation of measurability
reflected in a fuzzy event structure -- all quantum events are fundamentally
unsharp.Comment: Plenary Lecture, Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics, Turku
2009
The effect of silicon on the glass forming ability of the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 bulk metallic glass forming alloy during processing of composites
Composites of the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 bulk metallic glass, reinforced with up to 30 vol % SiC particles are synthesized and characterized. Results based on x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning Auger microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are presented. During processing of the composites, a TiC layer forms around the SiC particles and Si diffuses into the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 matrix stabilizing the supercooled liquid against crystallization. The small Si addition between 0.5 and 1 at. % increases the attainable maximum thickness of glassy ingots from 4 mm for Cu–Ti–Zr–Ni alloys to 7 mm for Cu–Ti–Zr–Ni–Si alloys. DSC analyses show that neither the thermodynamics nor the kinetics of the alloy are affected significantly by the Si addition. This suggests that Si enhances the glass forming ability by chemically passivating impurities such as oxygen and carbon that cause heterogeneous nucleation in the melt
Generating single-mode behavior in fiber-coupled optical cavities
We propose to turn two resonant distant cavities effectively into one by
coupling them via an optical fiber which is coated with two-level atoms
[Franson et al., Phys. Rev. A 70, 062302 (2004)]. The purpose of the atoms is
to destructively measure the evanescent electric field of the fiber on a time
scale which is long compared to the time it takes a photon to travel from one
cavity to the other. Moreover, the boundary conditions imposed by the setup
should support a small range of standing waves inside the fiber, including one
at the frequency of the cavities. In this way, the fiber provides an additional
decay channel for one common cavity field mode but not for the other. If the
corresponding decay rate is sufficiently large, this mode decouples effectively
from the system dynamics. A single non-local resonator mode is created.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, final version, accepted for publicatio
Maintaining Quantum Coherence in the Presence of Noise through State Monitoring
Unsharp POVM measurements allow the estimation and tracking of quantum
wavefunctions in real-time with minimal disruption of the dynamics. Here we
demonstrate that high fidelity state monitoring, and hence quantum control, is
possible even in the presence of classical dephasing and amplitude noise, by
simulating such measurements on a two-level system undergoing Rabi
oscillations. Finite estimation fidelity is found to persist indefinitely long
after the decoherence times set by the noise fields in the absence of
measurement.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Corporate Responses to Climate Change and Financial Performance: The Impact of Climate Policy
This paper examines the relationship between corporate activities to address climate change and stock performance. By separately analyzing the US and European stock markets for different sub-periods, we highlight the impact of the underlying climate policy regime. Methodologically, we compare risk-adjusted returns of stock portfolios comprising corporations that differ in their responses to climate change. In this respect, we apply the flexible Carhart fourfactor model besides the restricted one-factor model based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). While our portfolio analysis shows negative relationships over the entire observation period from 2001 to 2006, we find that a trading strategy, which bought stocks of corporations with a higher level of responses to climate change and sold stocks of corporations with a lower level, led to negative abnormal returns in regions and periods with less ambitious climate policy, but to positive abnormal returns in regions and periods with stringent climate policy.Climate change, Climate policy, Corporate environmental performance, Financial performance, Portfolio analysis, Asset pricing models
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