3,629 research outputs found
Security of practical private randomness generation
Measurements on entangled quantum systems necessarily yield outcomes that are
intrinsically unpredictable if they violate a Bell inequality. This property
can be used to generate certified randomness in a device-independent way, i.e.,
without making detailed assumptions about the internal working of the quantum
devices used to generate the random numbers. Furthermore these numbers are also
private, i.e., they appear random not only to the user, but also to any
adversary that might possess a perfect description of the devices. Since this
process requires a small initial random seed, one usually speaks of
device-independent randomness expansion.
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we point out that in most real,
practical situations, where the concept of device-independence is used as a
protection against unintentional flaws or failures of the quantum apparatuses,
it is sufficient to show that the generated string is random with respect to an
adversary that holds only classical-side information, i.e., proving randomness
against quantum-side information is not necessary. Furthermore, the initial
random seed does not need to be private with respect to the adversary, provided
that it is generated in a way that is independent from the measured systems.
The devices, though, will generate cryptographically-secure randomness that
cannot be predicted by the adversary and thus one can, given access to free
public randomness, talk about private randomness generation.
The theoretical tools to quantify the generated randomness according to these
criteria were already introduced in [S. Pironio et al, Nature 464, 1021
(2010)], but the final results were improperly formulated. The second aim of
this paper is to correct this inaccurate formulation and therefore lay out a
precise theoretical framework for practical device-independent randomness
expansion.Comment: 18 pages. v3: important changes: the present version focuses on
security against classical side-information and a discussion about the
significance of these results has been added. v4: minor changes. v5: small
typos correcte
Two-dimensional lattice-fluid model with water-like anomalies
We investigate a lattice-fluid model defined on a two-dimensional triangular
lattice, with the aim of reproducing qualitatively some anomalous properties of
water. Model molecules are of the "Mercedes Benz" type, i.e., they possess a D3
(equilateral triangle) symmetry, with three bonding arms. Bond formation
depends both on orientation and local density. We work out phase diagrams,
response functions, and stability limits for the liquid phase, making use of a
generalized first order approximation on a triangle cluster, whose accuracy is
verified, in some cases, by Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagram displays
one ordered (solid) phase which is less dense than the liquid one. At fixed
pressure the liquid phase response functions show the typical anomalous
behavior observed in liquid water, while, in the supercooled region, a
reentrant spinodal is observed.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 7 figure
Preparation contextuality powers parity-oblivious multiplexing
In a noncontextual hidden variable model of quantum theory, hidden variables
determine the outcomes of every measurement in a manner that is independent of
how the measurement is implemented. Using a generalization of this notion to
arbitrary operational theories and to preparation procedures, we demonstrate
that a particular two-party information-processing task, "parity-oblivious
multiplexing," is powered by contextuality in the sense that there is a limit
to how well any theory described by a noncontextual hidden variable model can
perform. This bound constitutes a "noncontextuality inequality" that is
violated by quantum theory. We report an experimental violation of this
inequality in good agreement with the quantum predictions. The experimental
results also provide the first demonstration of 2-to-1 and 3-to-1 quantum
random access codes. Consequently, our experimental results also demonstrate
better-than-classical performance for this task. They also represent the first
demonstration of 2-to-1 and 3-to-1 quantum random access codes.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; published version with supplementary material
included as appendice
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VORPAL simulations relevant to coherent electron cooling
Coherent electron cooling (CEC) [1] combines the best features of electron cooling and stochastic cooling, via free-electron laser technology [2], to offer the possibility of cooling high-energy hadron beams with order-of-magnitude shorter cooling times. Many technical difficulties must be resolved via full-scale 3D simulations, before the CEC concept can be validated experimentally. VORPAL is the ideal code for simulating the modulator and kicker regions, where the electron and hadron beams will co-propagate as in a conventional electron cooling section. Unlike previous VORPAL simulations [3] of electron cooling physics, where dynamical friction on the ions was the key metric, it is the details of the electron density wake driven by each ion in the modulator section that must be understood, followed by strong amplification in the FEL. We present some initial simulation results
An efficient method for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on irregular domains with no-slip boundary conditions, high order up to the boundary
Common efficient schemes for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, such
as projection or fractional step methods, have limited temporal accuracy as a
result of matrix splitting errors, or introduce errors near the domain
boundaries (which destroy uniform convergence to the solution). In this paper
we recast the incompressible (constant density) Navier-Stokes equations (with
the velocity prescribed at the boundary) as an equivalent system, for the
primary variables velocity and pressure. We do this in the usual way away from
the boundaries, by replacing the incompressibility condition on the velocity by
a Poisson equation for the pressure. The key difference from the usual
approaches occurs at the boundaries, where we use boundary conditions that
unequivocally allow the pressure to be recovered from knowledge of the velocity
at any fixed time. This avoids the common difficulty of an, apparently,
over-determined Poisson problem. Since in this alternative formulation the
pressure can be accurately and efficiently recovered from the velocity, the
recast equations are ideal for numerical marching methods. The new system can
be discretized using a variety of methods, in principle to any desired order of
accuracy. In this work we illustrate the approach with a 2-D second order
finite difference scheme on a Cartesian grid, and devise an algorithm to solve
the equations on domains with curved (non-conforming) boundaries, including a
case with a non-trivial topology (a circular obstruction inside the domain).
This algorithm achieves second order accuracy (in L-infinity), for both the
velocity and the pressure. The scheme has a natural extension to 3-D.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figure
Effect of local environment and stellar mass on galaxy quenching and morphology at
We study galactic star-formation activity as a function of environment and
stellar mass over 0.5<z<2.0 using the FourStar Galaxy Evolution (ZFOURGE)
survey. We estimate the galaxy environment using a Bayesian-motivated measure
of the distance to the third nearest neighbor for galaxies to the stellar mass
completeness of our survey, at z=1.3 (2.0). This
method, when applied to a mock catalog with the photometric-redshift precision
(), recovers galaxies in low- and high-density
environments accurately. We quantify the environmental quenching efficiency,
and show that at z> 0.5 it depends on galaxy stellar mass, demonstrating that
the effects of quenching related to (stellar) mass and environment are not
separable. In high-density environments, the mass and environmental quenching
efficiencies are comparable for massive galaxies (
10.5) at all redshifts. For lower mass galaxies (
10), the environmental quenching efficiency is very low at 1.5, but
increases rapidly with decreasing redshift. Environmental quenching can account
for nearly all quiescent lower mass galaxies ( 9-10),
which appear primarily at 1.0. The morphologies of lower mass
quiescent galaxies are inconsistent with those expected of recently quenched
star-forming galaxies. Some environmental process must transform the
morphologies on similar timescales as the environmental quenching itself. The
evolution of the environmental quenching favors models that combine gas
starvation (as galaxies become satellites) with gas exhaustion through
star-formation and outflows ("overconsumption"), and additional processes such
as galaxy interactions, tidal stripping and disk fading to account for the
morphological differences between the quiescent and star-forming galaxy
populations.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure, accepted for publication in Ap
Generating Equilibrium Dark Matter Halos: Inadequacies of the Local Maxwellian Approximation
We describe an algorithm for constructing N-body realizations of equilibrium
spherical systems. A general form for the mass density rho(r) is used, making
it possible to represent most of the popular density profiles found in the
literature, including the cuspy density profiles found in high-resolution
cosmological simulations. We demonstrate explicitly that our models are in
equilibrium. In contrast, many existing N-body realizations of isolated systems
have been constructed under the assumption that the local velocity distribution
is Maxwellian. We show that a Maxwellian halo with an initial r^{-1} central
density cusp immediately develops a constant-density core. Moreover, after just
one crossing time the orbital anisotropy has changed over the entire system,
and the initially isotropic model becomes radially anisotropic. These effects
have important implications for many studies, including the survival of
substructure in cold dark matter (CDM) models. Comparing the evolution and
mass-loss rate of isotropic Maxwellian and self-consistent Navarro, Frenk, &
White (NFW) satellites orbiting inside a static host CDM potential, we find
that the former are unrealistically susceptible to tidal disruption. Thus,
recent studies of the mass-loss rate and disruption timescales of substructure
in CDM models may be compromized by using the Maxwellian approximation. We also
demonstrate that a radially anisotropic, self-consistent NFW satellite loses
mass at a rate several times higher than that of its isotropic counterpart on
the same external tidal field and orbit.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 10 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX (uses
emulateapj5.sty
Intermittent search strategies
This review examines intermittent target search strategies, which combine
phases of slow motion, allowing the searcher to detect the target, and phases
of fast motion during which targets cannot be detected. We first show that
intermittent search strategies are actually widely observed at various scales.
At the macroscopic scale, this is for example the case of animals looking for
food ; at the microscopic scale, intermittent transport patterns are involved
in reaction pathway of DNA binding proteins as well as in intracellular
transport. Second, we introduce generic stochastic models, which show that
intermittent strategies are efficient strategies, which enable to minimize the
search time. This suggests that the intrinsic efficiency of intermittent search
strategies could justify their frequent observation in nature. Last, beyond
these modeling aspects, we propose that intermittent strategies could be used
also in a broader context to design and accelerate search processes.Comment: 72 pages, review articl
Structure of the Dead Sea Pull-Apart Basin From Gravity Analyses
Analyses and modeling of gravity data in the Dead Sea pull-apart basin reveal the geometry of the basin and constrain models for its evolution. The basin is located within a valley which defines the Dead Sea transform plate boundary between Africa and Arabia. Three hundred kilometers of continuous marine gravity data, collected in a lake occupying the northern part of the basin, were integrated with land gravity data from Israel and Jordan to provide coverage to 30 km either side of the basin. Free-air and variable-density Bouguer anomaly maps, a horizontal first derivative map of the Bouguer anomaly, and gravity models of profiles across and along the basin were used with existing geological and geophysical information to infer the structure of the basin. The basin is a long (132 km), narrow (7-10 km), and deep (≤10 km) full graben which is bounded by subvertical faults along its long sides. The Bouguer anomaly along the axis of the basin decreases gradually from both the northern and southern ends, suggesting that the basin sags toward the center and is not bounded by faults at its narrow ends. The surface expression of the basin is wider at its center (≤16 km) and covers the entire width of the transform valley due to the presence of shallower blocks that dip toward the basin. These blocks are interpreted to represent the widening of the basin by a passive collapse of the valley floor as the full graben deepened. The collapse was probably facilitated by movement along the normal faults that bound the transform valley. We present a model in which the geometry of the Dead Sea basin (i.e., full graben with relative along-axis symmetry) may be controlled by stretching of the entire (brittle and ductile) crust along its long axis. There is no evidence for the participation of the upper mantle in the deformation of the basin, and the Moho is not significantly elevated. The basin is probably close to being isostatically uncompensated, and thermal effects related to stretching are expected to be minimal. The amount of crustal stretching calculated from this model is 21 km and the stretching factor is 1.19. If the rate of crustal stretching is similar to the rate of relative plate motion (6 mm/yr), the basin should be ~3.5 m.y. old, in accord with geological evidence
Phase encoding schemes for measurement device independent quantum key distribution and basis-dependent flaw
In this paper, we study the unconditional security of the so-called
measurement device independent quantum key distribution (MDIQKD) with the
basis-dependent flaw in the context of phase encoding schemes. We propose two
schemes for the phase encoding, the first one employs a phase locking technique
with the use of non-phase-randomized coherent pulses, and the second one uses
conversion of standard BB84 phase encoding pulses into polarization modes. We
prove the unconditional security of these schemes and we also simulate the key
generation rate based on simple device models that accommodate imperfections.
Our simulation results show the feasibility of these schemes with current
technologies and highlight the importance of the state preparation with good
fidelity between the density matrices in the two bases. Since the
basis-dependent flaw is a problem not only for MDIQKD but also for standard
QKD, our work highlights the importance of an accurate signal source in
practical QKD systems.
Note: We include the erratum of this paper in Appendix C. The correction does
not affect the validity of the main conclusions reported in the paper, which is
the importance of the state preparation in MDIQKD and the fact that our schemes
can generate the key with the practical channel mode that we have assumed.Comment: We include the erratum of this paper in Appendix C. The correction
does not affect the validity of the main conclusions reported in the pape
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