431 research outputs found
Dissipative neutrino oscillations in randomly fluctuating matter
The generalized dynamics describing the propagation of neutrinos in randomly
fluctuating media is analyzed: it takes into account matter-induced,
decoherence phenomena that go beyond the standard MSW effect. A widely adopted
density fluctuation pattern is found to be physically untenable: a more general
model needs to be instead considered, leading to flavor changing effective
neutrino-matter interactions. They induce new, dissipative effects that modify
the neutrino oscillation pattern in a way amenable to a direct experimental
analysis.Comment: 14 pages, plain-Te
Effective dissipative dynamics for polarized photons
In the framework of open quantum systems, the propagation of polarized
photons can be effectively described using quantum dynamical semigroups. These
extended time-evolutions induce irreversibility and dissipation. Planned, high
sensitive experiments, both in the laboratory and in space, will be able to put
stringent bounds on these non-standard effects.Comment: 15 pages, plain-TeX, no figure
Complete positivity of nonlinear evolution: A case study
Simple Hartree-type equations lead to dynamics of a subsystem that is not
completely positive in the sense accepted in mathematical literature. In the
linear case this would imply that negative probabilities have to appear for
some system that contains the subsystem in question. In the nonlinear case this
does not happen because the mathematical definition is physically unfitting as
shown on a concrete example.Comment: extended version, 3 appendices added (on mixed states, projection
postulate, nonlocality), to be published in Phys. Rev.
High precision radial velocities with GIANO spectra
Radial velocities (RV) measured from near-infrared (NIR) spectra are a
potentially excellent tool to search for extrasolar planets around cool or
active stars. High resolution infrared (IR) spectrographs now available are
reaching the high precision of visible instruments, with a constant improvement
over time. GIANO is an infrared echelle spectrograph at the Telescopio
Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and it is a powerful tool to provide high resolution
spectra for accurate RV measurements of exoplanets and for chemical and
dynamical studies of stellar or extragalactic objects. No other high spectral
resolution IR instrument has GIANO's capability to cover the entire NIR
wavelength range (0.95-2.45 micron) in a single exposure. In this paper we
describe the ensemble of procedures that we have developed to measure high
precision RVs on GIANO spectra acquired during the Science Verification (SV)
run, using the telluric lines as wavelength reference. We used the Cross
Correlation Function (CCF) method to determine the velocity for both the star
and the telluric lines. For this purpose, we constructed two suitable digital
masks that include about 2000 stellar lines, and a similar number of telluric
lines. The method is applied to various targets with different spectral type,
from K2V to M8 stars. We reached different precisions mainly depending on the H
-magnitudes: for H ~ 5 we obtain an rms scatter of ~ 10 m s-1, while for H ~ 9
the standard deviation increases to ~ 50 - 80 m s-1. The corresponding
theoretical error expectations are ~4 m s-1 and 30 m s-1, respectively. Finally
we provide the RVs measured with our procedure for the targets observed during
GIANO Science Verification.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, 6 table
Multi-distributed Entanglement in Finitely Correlated Chains
The entanglement-sharing properties of an infinite spin-chain are studied
when the state of the chain is a pure, translation-invariant state with a
matrix-product structure. We study the entanglement properties of such states
by means of their finitely correlated structure. These states are recursively
constructed by means of an auxiliary density matrix \rho on a matrix algebra B
and a completely positive map E: A \otimes B -> B, where A is the spin 2\times
2 matrix algebra. General structural results for the infinite chain are
therefore obtained by explicit calculations in (finite) matrix algebras. In
particular, we study not only the entanglement shared by nearest-neighbours,
but also, differently from previous works, the entanglement shared between
connected regions of the spin-chain. This range of possible applications is
illustrated and the maximal concurrence C=1/\sqrt{2} for the entanglement of
connected regions can actually be reached.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Eur.Phys.Let
Nonlinear Quantum Mechanics at the Planck Scale
I argue that the linearity of quantum mechanics is an emergent feature at the
Planck scale, along with the manifold structure of space-time. In this regime
the usual causality violation objections to nonlinearity do not apply, and
nonlinear effects can be of comparable magnitude to the linear ones and still
be highly suppressed at low energies. This can offer alternative approaches to
quantum gravity and to the evolution of the early universe.Comment: Talk given at the International Quantum Structures 2004 meeting, 16
pages LaTe
Lines and continuum sky emission in the near infrared: observational constraints from deep high spectral resolution spectra with GIANO-TNG
Aims Determining the intensity of lines and continuum airglow emission in the
H-band is important for the design of faint-object infrared spectrographs.
Existing spectra at low/medium resolution cannot disentangle the true
sky-continuum from instrumental effects (e.g. diffuse light in the wings of
strong lines). We aim to obtain, for the first time, a high resolution infrared
spectrum deep enough to set significant constraints on the continuum emission
between the lines in the H-band. Methods During the second commissioning run of
the GIANO high-resolution infrared spectrograph at La Palma Observatory, we
pointed the instrument directly to the sky and obtained a deep spectrum that
extends from 0.97 to 2.4 micron. Results The spectrum shows about 1500 emission
lines, a factor of two more than in previous works. Of these, 80% are
identified as OH transitions; half of these are from highly excited molecules
(hot-OH component) that are not included in the OH airglow emission models
normally used for astronomical applications. The other lines are attributable
to O2 or unidentified. Several of the faint lines are in spectral regions that
were previously believed to be free of line emission. The continuum in the
H-band is marginally detected at a level of about 300
photons/m^2/s/arcsec^2/micron, equivalent to 20.1 AB-mag/arcsec^2. The observed
spectrum and the list of observed sky-lines are published in electronic format.
Conclusions Our measurements indicate that the sky continuum in the H-band
could be even darker than previously believed. However, the myriad of airglow
emission lines severely limits the spectral ranges where very low background
can be effectively achieved with low/medium resolution spectrographs. We
identify a few spectral bands that could still remain quite dark at the
resolving power foreseen for VLT-MOONS (R ~6,600).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Lorentz invariance of entanglement classes in multipartite systems
We analyze multipartite entanglement in systems of spin-1/2 particles from a
relativistic perspective. General conditions which have to be met for any
classification of multipartite entanglement to be Lorentz invariant are
derived, which contributes to a physical understanding of entanglement
classification. We show that quantum information in a relativistic setting
requires the partition of the Hilbert space into particles to be taken
seriously. Furthermore, we study exemplary cases and show how the spin and
momentum entanglement transforms relativistically in a multipartite setting.Comment: v2: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor changes to main body, journal
references update
Non-Critical Liouville String Escapes Constraints on Generic Models of Quantum Gravity
It has recently been pointed out that generic models of quantum gravity must
contend with severe phenomenological constraints imposed by gravitational
Cerenkov radiation, neutrino oscillations and the cosmic microwave background
radiation. We show how the non-critical Liouville-string model of quantum
gravity we have proposed escapes these constraints. It gives energetic
particles subluminal velocities, obviating the danger of gravitational Cerenkov
radiation. The effect on neutrino propagation is naturally flavour-independent,
obviating any impact on oscillation phenomenology. Deviations from the expected
black-body spectrum and the effects of time delays and stochastic fluctuations
in the propagation of cosmic microwave background photons are negligible, as
are their effects on observable spectral lines from high-redshift astrophysical
objects.Comment: 15 pages LaTeX, 2 eps figures include
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