Application of pressurized liquid nitrogen inside parametric-amplifier structures for input-noise-temperature improvement

Pressurized liquid nitrogen inside parametric amplifier structures for input, noise, and temperature improvement

Development of UHF radiometer

A wideband multifrequency UHF radiometer was initially developed to operate in the 500 to 710 MHz frequency range for the remote measurement of ocean water salinity. However, radio-frequency interference required a reconfiguration to operate in the single-frequency radio astronomy band of 608 to 614 MHz. Details of the radiometer development and testing are described. Flight testing over variable terrain provided a performance comparison of the UHF radiometer with an L-band radiometer for remote sensing of geophysical parameters. Although theoretically more sensitive, the UHF radiometer was found to be less desirable in practice than the L-band radiometer

Dilute Bose gases interacting via power-law potentials

Neutral atoms interact through a van der Waals potential which asymptotically falls off as r^{-6}. In ultracold gases, this interaction can be described to a good approximation by the atom-atom scattering length. However, corrections arise that depend on the characteristic length of the van der Waals potential. We parameterize these corrections by analyzing the energies of two- and few-atom systems under external harmonic confinement, obtained by numerically and analytically solving the Schrodinger equation. We generalize our results to particles interacting through a longer-ranged potential which asymptotically falls off as r^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Quantitative comparison of performance analysis techniques for modular and generic network-on-chip

NoC-specific parameters feature a huge impact on performance and implementation costs of NoC. Hence, performance and cost evaluation of these parameter-dependent NoC is crucial in different design-stages but the requirements on performance analysis differ from stage to stage. In an early design-stage an analysis technique featuring reduced complexity and limited accuracy can be applied, whereas in subsequent design-stages more accurate techniques are required. <br><br> In this work several performance analysis techniques at different levels of abstraction are presented and quantitatively compared. These techniques include a static performance analysis using timing-models, a Colored Petri Net-based approach, VHDL- and SystemC-based simulators and an FPGA-based emulator. Conducting NoC-experiments with NoC-sizes from 9 to 36 functional units and various traffic patterns, characteristics of these experiments concerning accuracy, complexity and effort are derived. <br><br> The performance analysis techniques discussed here are quantitatively evaluated and finally assigned to the appropriate design-stages in an automated NoC-design-flow

Quasi-one-dimensional Bose gases with large scattering length

Bose gases confined in highly-elongated harmonic traps are investigated over a wide range of interaction strengths using quantum Monte Carlo techniques. We find that the properties of a Bose gas under tight transverse confinement are well reproduced by a 1d model Hamiltonian with contact interactions. We point out the existence of a unitary regime, where the properties of the quasi-1d Bose gas become independent of the actual value of the 3d scattering length. In this unitary regime, the energy of the system is well described by a hard rod equation of state. We investigate the stability of quasi-1d Bose gases with positive and negative 3d scattering length.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Optimization of ground and excited state wavefunctions and van der Waals clusters

A quantum Monte Carlo method is introduced to optimize excited state trial wavefunctions. The method is applied in a correlation function Monte Carlo calculation to compute ground and excited state energies of bosonic van der Waals clusters of upto seven particles. The calculations are performed using trial wavefunctions with general three-body correlations

Transition from Baryon- to Meson-Dominated Freeze Out -- Early Decoupling around 30 A GeV?

The recently discovered sharp peak in the excitation function of the K+/pi+ ratio around 30 A GeV in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed in the framework of the Statistical Model. In this model, the freeze-out of an ideal hadron gas changes from a situation where baryons dominate to one with mainly mesons. This transition occurs at a temperature T = 140 MeV and baryon chemical potential mu(B) = 410 MeV corresponding to an energy of sqrt(s) = 8.2 GeV. The calculated maximum in the K+/pi+ ratio is, however, much less pronounced than the one observed by the NA49 Collaboration. The smooth increase of the K-/pi- ratio with incident energy and the shape of the excitation functions of the Lambda/pi+, Xi-/pi+ and Omega/pi ratios all exhibiting maxima at different incident energies, is consistent with the presently available experimental data. The measured K+/pi+ ratio exceeds the calculated one just at the incident energy when the freeze-out condition is changing. We speculate that at this point freeze-out might occur in a modified way. We discuss a scenario of an early freeze-out which indeed increases K+/pi+ ratio while most other particle ratios remain essentially unchanged. Such an early freeze-out is supported by results from HBT studies.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, SQM2006 conference, Los Angeles, March 200

Description, characteristics and testing of the NASA airborne radar

Presented here is a description of a coherent radar scattermeter and its associated signal processing hardware, which have been specifically designed to detect microbursts and record their radar characteristics. Radar parameters, signal processing techniques and detection algorithms, all under computer control, combine to sense and process reflectivity, clutter, and microburst data. Also presented is the system's high density, high data rate recording system. This digital system is capable of recording many minutes of the in-phase and quadrature components and corresponding receiver gains of the scattered returns for selected spatial regions, as well as other aircraft and hardware related parameters of interest for post-flight analysis. Information is given in viewgraph form

Minimax mean estimator for the trine

We explore the question of state estimation for a qubit restricted to the $x$-$z$ plane of the Bloch sphere, with the trine measurement. In our earlier work [H. K. Ng and B.-G. Englert, eprint arXiv:1202.5136[quant-ph] (2012)], similarities between quantum tomography and the tomography of a classical die motivated us to apply a simple modification of the classical estimator for use in the quantum problem. This worked very well. In this article, we adapt a different aspect of the classical estimator to the quantum problem. In particular, we investigate the mean estimator, where the mean is taken with a weight function identical to that in the classical estimator but now with quantum constraints imposed. Among such mean estimators, we choose an optimal one with the smallest worst-case error-the minimax mean estimator-and compare its performance with that of other estimators. Despite the natural generalization of the classical approach, this minimax mean estimator does not work as well as one might expect from the analogous performance in the classical problem. While it outperforms the often-used maximum-likelihood estimator in having a smaller worst-case error, the advantage is not significant enough to justify the more complicated procedure required to construct it. The much simpler adapted estimator introduced in our earlier work is still more effective. Our previous work emphasized the similarities between classical and quantum state estimation; in contrast, this paper highlights how intuition gained from classical problems can sometimes fail in the quantum arena.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Optimal, reliable estimation of quantum states

Accurately inferring the state of a quantum device from the results of measurements is a crucial task in building quantum information processing hardware. The predominant state estimation procedure, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), generally reports an estimate with zero eigenvalues. These cannot be justified. Furthermore, the MLE estimate is incompatible with error bars, so conclusions drawn from it are suspect. I propose an alternative procedure, Bayesian mean estimation (BME). BME never yields zero eigenvalues, its eigenvalues provide a bound on their own uncertainties, and it is the most accurate procedure possible. I show how to implement BME numerically, and how to obtain natural error bars that are compatible with the estimate. Finally, I briefly discuss the differences between Bayesian and frequentist estimation techniques.Comment: RevTeX; 14 pages, 2 embedded figures. Comments enthusiastically welcomed