9,706 research outputs found
Emergence of District-Heating Networks; Barriers and Enablers in the Development Process
Infrastructure provision business models that promise resource efficiencies and additional benefits, such as job
creation, community cohesion and crime reduction exist at sub-national scales. These local business models,
however, exist only as isolated cases of good practice and their expansion and wider adoption has been limited in
the context of many centralised systems that are currently the norm. In this contribution, we present a conceptual
agent based model for analysing the potential for different actors to implement local infrastructure provision business
models. The model is based on agentsâ ability to overcome barriers that occur throughout the development (i.e.
feasibility, business case, procurement, and construction), and operation and maintenance of alternative business
models. This presents a novel approach insofar as previous models have concentrated on the acceptance of
alternative value provision models rather than the emergence of underlying business models. We implement the
model for the case study of district heating networks in the UK, which have the potential to significantly contribute to
carbon emission reductions, but remain under-developed compared with other European countries
Quantum Mechanics as a Framework for Dealing with Uncertainty
Quantum uncertainty is described here in two guises: indeterminacy with its
concomitant indeterminism of measurement outcomes, and fuzziness, or
unsharpness. Both features were long seen as obstructions of experimental
possibilities that were available in the realm of classical physics. The birth
of quantum information science was due to the realization that such
obstructions can be turned into powerful resources. Here we review how the
utilization of quantum fuzziness makes room for a notion of approximate joint
measurement of noncommuting observables. We also show how from a classical
perspective quantum uncertainty is due to a limitation of measurability
reflected in a fuzzy event structure -- all quantum events are fundamentally
unsharp.Comment: Plenary Lecture, Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics, Turku
2009
The Standard Model of Quantum Measurement Theory: History and Applications
The standard model of the quantum theory of measurement is based on an
interaction Hamiltonian in which the observable-to-be-measured is multiplied
with some observable of a probe system. This simple Ansatz has proved extremely
fruitful in the development of the foundations of quantum mechanics. While the
ensuing type of models has often been argued to be rather artificial, recent
advances in quantum optics have demonstrated their prinicpal and practical
feasibility. A brief historical review of the standard model together with an
outline of its virtues and limitations are presented as an illustration of the
mutual inspiration that has always taken place between foundational and
experimental research in quantum physics.Comment: 22 pages, to appear in Found. Phys. 199
Design, fabrication and evaluation of chalcogenide glass Luneburg lenses for LiNbO3 integrated optical devices
Optical waveguide Luneburg lenses of arsenic trisulfide glass are described. The lenses are formed by thermal evaporation of As2S3 through suitably placed masks onto the surface of LiNbO3:Ti indiffused waveguides. The lenses are designed for input apertures up to 1 cm and for speeds of f/5 or better. They are designed to focus the TM sub 0 guided mode of a beam of wavelength, external to the guide, of 633 nm. The refractive index of the As2S3 films and the changes induced in the refractive index by exposure to short wavelength light were measured. Some correlation between film thickness and optical properties was noted. The short wavelength photosensitivity was used to shorten the lens focal length from the as deposited value. Lenses of rectangular shape, as viewed from above the guide, as well as conventional circular Luneburg lenses, were made. Measurements made on the lenses include thickness profile, general optical quality, focal length, quality of focal spot, and effect of ultraviolet irradiation on optical properties
Collisional Quantum Brownian Motion
We derive a quantum master equation from first principles to describe
friction in one dimensional, collisional Brownian motion. We are the first to
avoid an ill-defined square of the Dirac delta function by using localized wave
packets rather than plane waves. Solving the Schr\"odinger equation for two
colliding particles, we discover that the previously found position diffusion
is not a physical process, but an artifact of the approximation of a coarse
grained time scale, which in turn is needed to find Markkovian dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
On the complementarity of the quadrature observables
In this paper we investigate the coupling properties of pairs of quadrature
observables, showing that, apart from the Weyl relation, they share the same
coupling properties as the position-momentum pair. In particular, they are
complementary. We determine the marginal observables of a covariant phase space
observable with respect to an arbitrary rotated reference frame, and observe
that these marginal observables are unsharp quadrature observables. The related
distributions constitute the Radon tranform of a phase space distribution of
the covariant phase space observable. Since the quadrature distributions are
the Radon transform of the Wigner function of a state, we also exhibit the
relation between the quadrature observables and the tomography observable, and
show how to construct the phase space observable from the quadrature
observables. Finally, we give a method to measure together with a single
measurement scheme any complementary pair of quadrature observables.Comment: Dedicated to Peter Mittelstaedt in honour of his eightieth birthda
At what time does a quantum experiment have a result?
This paper provides a general method for defining a generalized quantum
observable (or POVM) that supplies properly normalized conditional
probabilities for the time of occurrence (i.e., of detection). This method
treats the time of occurrence as a probabilistic variable whose value is to be
determined by experiment and predicted by the Born rule. This avoids the
problematic assumption that a question about the time at which an event occurs
must be answered through instantaneous measurements of a projector by an
observer, common to both Rovelli (1998) and Oppenheim et al. (2000). I also
address the interpretation of experiments purporting to demonstrate the quantum
Zeno effect, used by Oppenheim et al. (2000) to justify an inherent uncertainty
for measurements of times.Comment: To appear in proceedings of 2015 ETH Zurich Workshop on Time in
Physic
Enhanced Pauli blocking of light scattering in a trapped Fermi gas
Pauli blocking of spontaneous emission by a single excited-state atom has
been predicted to be dramatic at low temperature when the Fermi energy
exceeds the recoil energy . The photon scattering
rate of a ground-state Fermi gas can also be suppressed by occupation of the
final states accessible to a recoiling atom, however suppression is diminished
by scattering events near the Fermi edge. We analyze two new approaches to
improve the visibility of Pauli blocking in a trapped Fermi gas. Focusing the
incident light to excite preferentially the high-density region of the cloud
can increase the blocking signature by 14%, and is most effective at
intermediate temperature. Spontaneous Raman scattering between imbalanced
internal states can be strongly suppressed at low temperature, and is
completely blocked for a final-state in the
high imbalance limit.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. v4: to appear in Journal of Physics B: Atomic,
Molecular, and Optical Physic
Unsharp Quantum Reality
The positive operator (valued) measures (POMs) allow one to generalize the notion of observable beyond the traditional one based on projection valued measures (PVMs). Here, we argue that this generalized conception of observable enables a consistent notion of unsharp reality and with it an adequate concept of joint properties. A sharp or unsharp property manifests itself as an element of sharp or unsharp reality by its tendency to become actual or to actualize a specific measurement outcome. This actualization tendency-or potentiality-of a property is quantified by the associated quantum probability. The resulting single-case interpretation of probability as a degree of reality will be explained in detail and its role in addressing the tensions between quantum and classical accounts of the physical world will be elucidated. It will be shown that potentiality can be viewed as a causal agency that evolves in a well-defined way
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