852 research outputs found
Consequences of above-ground invasion by non-native plants into restored vernal pools do not prompt same changes in below-ground processes
Given the frequent overlap between biological plant invasion and ecological restoration efforts it is important to investigate their interactions to sustain desirable plant communities and modify long-Term legacies both above-and below-ground. To address this relationship, we used natural reference, invaded and created vernal pools in the Central Valley of California to examine potential changes in direct and indirect plant effects on soils associated with biological invasion and active restoration ecosystem disturbances. Our results showed that through a shift in vegetation composition and changes in the plant community tissue chemistry, invasion by non-native plant species has the potential to transform plant inputs to soils in vernal pool systems. In particular, we found that while invasive plant litter decomposition was driven by seasonal and interannual variability, associated with changes in precipitation, the overall decomposition rates for invasive litter was drastically lower than native species. This shift has important implications for long-Term alterations in plant-based inputs to soils in an amplifying feedback to nutrient cycling. Moreover, these results were independent of historic active restoration efforts. Despite the consistent shift in plant litter decomposition rates and community composition, we did not detect associated shifts in below-ground function associated with invasion by non-native plants. Instead, soil C:N ratios and microbial biomass did not differ between invaded and naturally occurring reference pools but were reduced in the manipulated created pools independent of invasion levels. Our results suggest that while there is an observed invasive amplifying feedback above-ground this trajectory is not represented below-ground, and restoration legacies dominated 10 years after practices were applied. Restoration practices that limit invasive plant feedbacks and account for soil legacy recovery, therefore offer the best solution for disturbed ephemeral ecosystems
Gain and Loss in Quantum Cascade Lasers
We report gain calculations for a quantum cascade laser using a fully
self-consistent quantum mechanical approach based on the theory of
nonequilibrium Green functions. Both the absolute value of the gain as well as
the spectral position at threshold are in excellent agreement with experimental
findings for T=77 K. The gain strongly decreases with temperature.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures directly include
Quantum vacuum properties of the intersubband cavity polariton field
We present a quantum description of a planar microcavity photon mode strongly
coupled to a semiconductor intersubband transition in presence of a
two-dimensional electron gas. We show that, in this kind of system, the vacuum
Rabi frequency can be a significant fraction of the intersubband
transition frequency . This regime of ultra-strong light-matter
coupling is enhanced for long wavelength transitions, because for a given
doping density, effective mass and number of quantum wells, the ratio
increases as the square root of the intersubband
emission wavelength. We characterize the quantum properties of the ground state
(a two-mode squeezed vacuum), which can be tuned {\it in-situ} by changing the
value of , e.g., through an electrostatic gate. We finally point out
how the tunability of the polariton quantum vacuum can be exploited to generate
correlated photon pairs out of the vacuum via quantum electrodynamics phenomena
reminiscent of the dynamic Casimir effect.Comment: Final version accepted in PR
Positive Cross Correlations in a Normal-Conducting Fermionic Beam Splitter
We investigate a beam splitter experiment implemented in a normal conducting
fermionic electron gas in the quantum Hall regime. The cross-correlations
between the current fluctuations in the two exit leads of the three terminal
device are found to be negative, zero or even positive depending on the
scattering mechanism within the device. Reversal of the cross-correlations sign
occurs due to interaction between different edge-states and does not reflect
the statistics of the fermionic particles which `antibunch'.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Quantum dot occupation and electron dwell time in the cotunneling regime
We present comparative measurements of the charge occupation and conductance
of a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot. The dot charge is measured with a capacitively
coupled quantum point contact sensor. In the single-level Coulomb blockade
regime near equilibrium, charge and conductance signals are found to be
proportional to each other. We conclude that in this regime, the two signals
give equivalent information about the quantum dot system. Out of equilibrium,
we study the inelastic-cotunneling regime. We compare the measured differential
dot charge with an estimate assuming a dwell time of transmitted carriers on
the dot given by h/E, where E is the blockade energy of first-order tunneling.
The measured signal is of a similar magnitude as the estimate, compatible with
a picture of cotunneling as transmission through a virtual intermediate state
with a short lifetime
Direct surface cyclotron resonance terahertz emission from a quantum cascade structure
A strong magnetic field applied along the growth direction of a semiconductor
quantum well gives rise to a spectrum of discrete energy states, the Landau
levels. By combining quantum engineering of a quantum cascade structure with a
static magnetic field, we can selectively inject electrons into the excited
Landau level of a quantum well and realize a tunable surface emitting device
based on cyclotron emission. By applying the appropriate magnetic field between
0 and 12 T, we demonstrate emission from a single device over a wide range of
frequencies (1-2 THz and 3-5 THz)
A measure of majorisation emerging from single-shot statistical mechanics
The use of the von Neumann entropy in formulating the laws of thermodynamics
has recently been challenged. It is associated with the average work whereas
the work guaranteed to be extracted in any single run of an experiment is the
more interesting quantity in general. We show that an expression that
quantifies majorisation determines the optimal guaranteed work. We argue it
should therefore be the central quantity of statistical mechanics, rather than
the von Neumann entropy. In the limit of many identical and independent
subsystems (asymptotic i.i.d) the von Neumann entropy expressions are recovered
but in the non-equilbrium regime the optimal guaranteed work can be radically
different to the optimal average. Moreover our measure of majorisation governs
which evolutions can be realized via thermal interactions, whereas the
nondecrease of the von Neumann entropy is not sufficiently restrictive. Our
results are inspired by single-shot information theory.Comment: 54 pages (15+39), 9 figures. Changed title / changed presentation,
same main results / added minor result on pure bipartite state entanglement
(appendix G) / near to published versio
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