1,697 research outputs found
Transverse multi-mode effects on the performance of photon-photon gates
The multi-mode character of quantum fields imposes constraints on the
implementation of high-fidelity quantum gates between individual photons. So
far this has only been studied for the longitudinal degree of freedom. Here we
show that effects due to the transverse degrees of freedom significantly affect
quantum gate performance. We also discuss potential solutions, in particular
separating the two photons in the transverse direction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published versio
Structural insights into SUMO E1-E2 interactions in Arabidopsis uncovers a distinctive platform for securing SUMO conjugation specificity across evolution
SUMOylation of proteins involves the concerted action of the E1-activating enzyme, E2-conjugating enzyme and E3-ligases. An essential discrimination step in the SUMOylation pathway corresponds to the initial interaction between E1 ubiquitin-fold domain (UFD) and E2 enzymes. Although E2 orthologs possess high sequence identity, the E2 binding region of the UFD domains has diverged across evolution. Moreover, in reciprocal in vitro conjugation reactions Arabidopsis E1 and E2 SCE1 fail to interact efficiently with cognate human E2 Ubc9 and E1 partners, respectively. To gain more insights into the properties of this interface in evolutionary distant organisms, we solved the crystal structure of SUMO E2 SCE1 and its complex with E1 UFD in Arabidopsis. In addition to a few common structural determinants, the interface between the E1 UFD and E2 in Arabidopsis is distinct compared with human and yeast, in particular by the presence of a longer α-helix in the Arabidopsis UFD domain. Despite the variability of E1 UFD domains in these surfaces, they establish specific interactions with highly conserved surfaces of their cognate E2 enzymes. Functional analysis of the different E2 interface residues between human and Arabidopsis revealed Val37 (Met36 in human), as a determinant that provides specificity in the E1-E2 recognition in plants
Void Formation and Roughening in Slow Fracture
Slow crack propagation in ductile, and in certain brittle materials, appears
to take place via the nucleation of voids ahead of the crack tip due to plastic
yields, followed by the coalescence of these voids. Post mortem analysis of the
resulting fracture surfaces of ductile and brittle materials on the m-mm
and the nm scales respectively, reveals self-affine cracks with anomalous
scaling exponent in 3-dimensions and in
2-dimensions. In this paper we present an analytic theory based on the method
of iterated conformal maps aimed at modelling the void formation and the
fracture growth, culminating in estimates of the roughening exponents in
2-dimensions. In the simplest realization of the model we allow one void ahead
of the crack, and address the robustness of the roughening exponent. Next we
develop the theory further, to include two voids ahead of the crack. This
development necessitates generalizing the method of iterated conformal maps to
include doubly connected regions (maps from the annulus rather than the unit
circle). While mathematically and numerically feasible, we find that the
employment of the stress field as computed from elasticity theory becomes
questionable when more than one void is explicitly inserted into the material.
Thus further progress in this line of research calls for improved treatment of
the plastic dynamics.Comment: 15 pages, 20 figure
Perturbation: the Catastrophe Causer in Scale-Free Networks
A new model about cascading occurrences caused by perturbation is established
to search after the mechanism because of which catastrophes in networks occur.
We investigate the avalanche dynamics of our model on 2-dimension Euclidean
lattices and scale-free networks and find out the avalanche dynamic behaviors
is very sensitive to the topological structure of networks. The experiments
show that the catastrophes occur much more frequently in scale-free networks
than in Euclidean lattices and the greatest catastrophe in scale-free networks
is much more serious than that in Euclidean lattices. Further more, we have
studied how to reduce the catastrophes' degree, and have schemed out an
effective strategy, called targeted safeguard-strategy for scale-free networks.Comment: 4 pages, 6 eps figure
The flavor-changing bottom-strange quark production in the littlest Higgs model with T parity at the ILC
In the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT) the mirror quarks induce the
special flavor structures and some new flavor-changing (FC) couplings which
could greatly enhance the production rates of the FC processes. We in this
paper study some bottom and anti-strange production processes in the LHT model
at the International Linear Collider (ILC), i.e.,
and . The results show that the production
rates of these processes are sizeable for the favorable values of the
parameters. Therefore, it is quite possible to test the LHT model or make some
constrains on the relevant parameters of the LHT through the detection of these
processes at the ILC.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
A balanced homodyne detector for high-rate Gaussian-modulated coherent-state quantum key distribution
We discuss excess noise contributions of a practical balanced homodyne
detector in Gaussian-modulated coherent-state (GMCS) quantum key distribution
(QKD). We point out the key generated from the original realistic model of GMCS
QKD may not be secure. In our refined realistic model, we take into account
excess noise due to the finite bandwidth of the homodyne detector and the
fluctuation of the local oscillator. A high speed balanced homodyne detector
suitable for GMCS QKD in the telecommunication wavelength region is built and
experimentally tested. The 3dB bandwidth of the balanced homodyne detector is
found to be 104MHz and its electronic noise level is 13dB below the shot noise
at a local oscillator level of 8.5*10^8 photon per pulse. The secure key rate
of a GMCS QKD experiment with this homodyne detector is expected to reach
Mbits/s over a few kilometers.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure
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