516 research outputs found
Broadband detection of squeezed vacuum: A spectrum of quantum states
We demonstrate the simultaneous quantum state reconstruction of the spectral
modes of the light field emitted by a continuous wave degenerate optical
parametric amplifier. The scheme is based on broadband measurement of the
quantum fluctuations of the electric field quadratures and subsequent Fourier
decomposition into spectral intervals. Applying the standard reconstruction
algorithms to each bandwidth-limited quantum trajectory, a "spectrum" of
density matrices and Wigner functions is obtained. The recorded states show a
smooth transition from the squeezed vacuum to a vacuum state. In the time
domain we evaluated the first order correlation function of the squeezed output
field, showing good agreement with the theory.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Fresnel Representation of the Wigner Function: An Operational Approach
We present an operational definition of the Wigner function. Our method
relies on the Fresnel transform of measured Rabi oscillations and applies to
motional states of trapped atoms as well as to field states in cavities. We
illustrate this technique using data from recent experiments in ion traps [D.
M. Meekhof et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1796 (1996)] and in cavity QED [B.
Varcoe et al., Nature 403, 743 (2000)]. The values of the Wigner functions of
the underlying states at the origin of phase space are W(0)=+1.75 for the
vibrational ground state and W(0)=-1.4 for the one-photon number state. We
generalize this method to wave packets in arbitrary potentials.Comment: 4 pages include 4 figures, submitted to PR
Women candidates and councillors in Scottish local government, 1974-2012
While significant attention has been paid to the levels of representation of women in both the Westminster Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, much less considered has been given to the position within local government. This article addresses that deficit for Scotland. It shows that for twenty-five years following the reorganisation of local government in Scotland in 1974 there was a slow but relatively steady increase in the numbers of female candidates and councillors, although more recently this appears to have since plateaued somewhat, together with a similar increase in the number of women councillors taking up more senior roles in Scotland’s councils. The article analyses the representation of women in Scottish local government over the period from 1974 to 2012 against the backdrop of significant change in Scotland, including a further restructuring of local government and the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote for council elections, the creation of the Scottish Parliament, the rise of the SNP and the decline of the Conservative Party
Measuring the Quantum State of a Large Angular Momentum
We demonstrate a general method to measure the quantum state of an angular
momentum of arbitrary magnitude. The (2F+1) x (2F+1) density matrix is
completely determined from a set of Stern-Gerlach measurements with (4F+1)
different orientations of the quantization axis. We implement the protocol for
laser cooled Cesium atoms in the 6S_{1/2}(F=4) hyperfine ground state and apply
it to a variety of test states prepared by optical pumping and Larmor
precession. A comparison of input and measured states shows typical
reconstruction fidelities of about 0.95.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR
Self-homodyne tomography of a twin-beam state
A self-homodyne detection scheme is proposed to perform two-mode tomography
on a twin-beam state at the output of a nondegenerate optical parametric
amplifier. This scheme has been devised to improve the matching between the
local oscillator and the signal modes, which is the main limitation to the
overall quantum efficiency in conventional homodyning. The feasibility of the
measurement is analyzed on the basis of Monte-Carlo simulations, studying the
effect of non-unit quantum efficiency on detection of the correlation and the
total photon-number oscillations of the twin-beam state.Comment: 13 pages (two-column ReVTeX) including 21 postscript figures; to
appear on Phys. Rev.
Recovering coherence from decoherence: a method of quantum state reconstruction
We present a feasible scheme for reconstructing the quantum state of a field
prepared inside a lossy cavity. Quantum coherences are normally destroyed by
dissipation, but we show that at zero temperature we are able to retrieve
enough information about the initial state, making possible to recover its
Wigner function as well as other quasiprobabilities. We provide a numerical
simulation of a Schroedinger cat state reconstruction.Comment: 8 pages, in RevTeX, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
A (november 1999
Direct sampling of exponential phase moments of smoothed Wigner functions
We investigate exponential phase moments of the s-parametrized
quasidistributions (smoothed Wigner functions). We show that the knowledge of
these moments as functions of s provides, together with photon-number
statistics, a complete description of the quantum state. We demonstrate that
the exponential phase moments can be directly sampled from the data recorded in
balanced homodyne detection and we present simple expressions for the sampling
kernels. The phase moments are Fourier coefficients of phase distributions
obtained from the quasidistributions via integration over the radial variable
in polar coordinates. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of the homodyne
detection and we demonstrate the feasibility of direct sampling of the moments
and subsequent reconstruction of the phase distribution.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted Phys. Rev.
Phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum state reconstruction for physical systems with Lie-group symmetries
We present a detailed discussion of a general theory of phase-space
distributions, introduced recently by the authors [J. Phys. A {\bf 31}, L9
(1998)]. This theory provides a unified phase-space formulation of quantum
mechanics for physical systems possessing Lie-group symmetries. The concept of
generalized coherent states and the method of harmonic analysis are used to
construct explicitly a family of phase-space functions which are postulated to
satisfy the Stratonovich-Weyl correspondence with a generalized traciality
condition. The symbol calculus for the phase-space functions is given by means
of the generalized twisted product. The phase-space formalism is used to study
the problem of the reconstruction of quantum states. In particular, we consider
the reconstruction method based on measurements of displaced projectors, which
comprises a number of recently proposed quantum-optical schemes and is also
related to the standard methods of signal processing. A general group-theoretic
description of this method is developed using the technique of harmonic
expansions on the phase space.Comment: REVTeX, 18 pages, no figure
Cytoplasmic PML promotes TGF-β-associated epithelial–mesenchymal transition and invasion in prostate cancer
Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key event that is involved in the invasion and dissemination of cancer cells. Although typically considered as having tumour-suppressive properties, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signalling is altered during cancer and has been associated with the invasion of cancer cells and metastasis. In this study, we report a previously unknown role for the cytoplasmic promyelocytic leukaemia (cPML) tumour suppressor in TGF-β signalling-induced regulation of prostate cancer-associated EMT and invasion. We demonstrate that cPML promotes a mesenchymal phenotype and increases the invasiveness of prostate cancer cells. This event is associated with activation of TGF-β canonical signalling pathway through the induction of Sma and Mad related family 2 and 3 (SMAD2 and SMAD3) phosphorylation. Furthermore, the cytoplasmic localization of promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) is mediated by its nuclear export in a chromosomal maintenance 1 (CRM1)-dependent manner. This was clinically tested in prostate cancer tissue and shown that cytoplasmic PML and CRM1 co-expression correlates with reduced disease-specific survival. In summary, we provide evidence of dysfunctional TGF-β signalling occurring at an early stage in prostate cancer. We show that this disease pathway is mediated by cPML and CRM1 and results in a more aggressive cancer cell phenotype. We propose that the targeting of this pathway could be therapeutically exploited for clinical benefit
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