1,079 research outputs found
Semiclassical Trace Formulas for Noninteracting Identical Particles
We extend the Gutzwiller trace formula to systems of noninteracting identical
particles. The standard relation for isolated orbits does not apply since the
energy of each particle is separately conserved causing the periodic orbits to
occur in continuous families. The identical nature of the particles also
introduces discrete permutational symmetries. We exploit the formalism of
Creagh and Littlejohn [Phys. Rev. A 44, 836 (1991)], who have studied
semiclassical dynamics in the presence of continuous symmetries, to derive
many-body trace formulas for the full and symmetry-reduced densities of states.
Numerical studies of the three-particle cardioid billiard are used to
explicitly illustrate and test the results of the theory.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR
Quantum Computing of Quantum Chaos in the Kicked Rotator Model
We investigate a quantum algorithm which simulates efficiently the quantum
kicked rotator model, a system which displays rich physical properties, and
enables to study problems of quantum chaos, atomic physics and localization of
electrons in solids. The effects of errors in gate operations are tested on
this algorithm in numerical simulations with up to 20 qubits. In this way
various physical quantities are investigated. Some of them, such as second
moment of probability distribution and tunneling transitions through invariant
curves are shown to be particularly sensitive to errors. However,
investigations of the fidelity and Wigner and Husimi distributions show that
these physical quantities are robust in presence of imperfections. This implies
that the algorithm can simulate the dynamics of quantum chaos in presence of a
moderate amount of noise.Comment: research at Quantware MIPS Center http://www.quantware.ups-tlse.fr,
revtex 11 pages, 13 figs, 2 figs and discussion adde
The Library of Babel: On the origin of gravitational thermodynamics
We show that heavy pure states of gravity can appear to be mixed states to
almost all probes. For AdS_5 Schwarzschild black holes, our arguments are made
using the field theory dual to string theory in such spacetimes. Our results
follow from applying information theoretic notions to field theory operators
capable of describing very heavy states in gravity. For half-BPS states of the
theory which are incipient black holes, our account is exact: typical
microstates are described in gravity by a spacetime ``foam'', the precise
details of which are almost invisible to almost all probes. We show that
universal low-energy effective description of a foam of given global charges is
via certain singular spacetime geometries. When one of the specified charges is
the number of D-branes, the effective singular geometry is the half-BPS
``superstar''. We propose this as the general mechanism by which the effective
thermodynamic character of gravity emerges.Comment: LaTeX, 6 eps figures, uses young.sty and wick.sty; Version 2: typos
corrected, minor rewordings and clarifications, references adde
Content analysis of press coverage during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in Germany 2009â2010
Husemann S, Fischer F. Content analysis of press coverage during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in Germany 2009â2010. BMC Public Health. 2015;15(1): 386.Background
The H1N1 influenza pandemic occurred in Germany between April 2009 and August 2010. Pandemics often lead to uncertainty amongst the public and so risk communication on health-related issues is one of the key areas of action for health authorities and other healthcare institutions. The mass media may contribute to risk communication, so this study analysed press coverage during the H1N1 pandemic in Germany.
Methods
A comprehensive analysis of the press coverage during the H1N1 pandemic was conducted in two steps. First, a temporal analysis was carried out of newspaper articles over the entire course of the pandemic, a total of 15,353 articles. The newspaper articles were obtained from the database Nexis. The total number of articles about the influenza pandemic during each individual week was plotted against the number of incident influenza cases during that week. Second, a quantitative content analysis of 140 newspaper articles from selected dates was conducted.
Results
This study indicates that media awareness seems to be strongly related to the actual situation in the pandemic, because changes in the number of infected people were associated with nearly identical changes in the number of newspaper articles. Few articles contained information on the agent of the influenza or support measures. Information on vaccination was included in 32.9% of all articles. Almost half of the articles (48.6%) used case reports. Fear appeals were used in only 10.7% of the newspaper articles; 32.9% of the articles contained the message characteristic âself-efficacyâ.
Conclusions
The newspaper articles that were analysed in the content analysis included different information and message characteristics. The extent of information provided differed during the pandemic. As current research indicates, the use of message characteristics such as fear appeals and self-efficacy, which were also included in the analysed newspaper articles, can help to make health messages effective
Evolutionary phase space in driven elliptical billiards
We perform the first long-time exploration of the classical dynamics of a
driven billiard with a four dimensional phase space. With increasing velocity
of the ensemble we observe an evolution from a large chaotic sea with
stickiness due to regular islands to thin chaotic channels with diffusive
motion leading to Fermi acceleration. As a surprising consequence, we encounter
a crossover, which is not parameter induced but rather occurs dynamically, from
amplitude dependent tunable subdiffusion to universal normal diffusion in
momentum space. In the high velocity case we observe particle focusing in phase
space.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Topological Photonics
Topology is revolutionizing photonics, bringing with it new theoretical
discoveries and a wealth of potential applications. This field was inspired by
the discovery of topological insulators, in which interfacial electrons
transport without dissipation even in the presence of impurities. Similarly,
new optical mirrors of different wave-vector space topologies have been
constructed to support new states of light propagating at their interfaces.
These novel waveguides allow light to flow around large imperfections without
back-reflection. The present review explains the underlying principles and
highlights the major findings in photonic crystals, coupled resonators,
metamaterials and quasicrystals.Comment: progress and review of an emerging field, 12 pages, 6 figures and 1
tabl
Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
Decoherence is caused by the interaction with the environment. Environment
monitors certain observables of the system, destroying interference between the
pointer states corresponding to their eigenvalues. This leads to
environment-induced superselection or einselection, a quantum process
associated with selective loss of information. Einselected pointer states are
stable. They can retain correlations with the rest of the Universe in spite of
the environment. Einselection enforces classicality by imposing an effective
ban on the vast majority of the Hilbert space, eliminating especially the
flagrantly non-local "Schr\"odinger cat" states. Classical structure of phase
space emerges from the quantum Hilbert space in the appropriate macroscopic
limit: Combination of einselection with dynamics leads to the idealizations of
a point and of a classical trajectory. In measurements, einselection replaces
quantum entanglement between the apparatus and the measured system with the
classical correlation.Comment: Final version of the review, with brutally compressed figures. Apart
from the changes introduced in the editorial process the text is identical
with that in the Rev. Mod. Phys. July issue. Also available from
http://www.vjquantuminfo.or
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A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons
Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal
of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs
bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data
collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and
we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard
Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots
for b/w printin
First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data
Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of
continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a
fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters
obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto-
noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch
between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have
been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a
fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of
11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGOâs first observing run. Although we have found several initial
outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal.
Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of
the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for
the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the
spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried
out so far
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