Efficient two-step entanglement concentration for arbitrary W states

We present two two-step practical entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for concentrating an arbitrary three-particle less-entangled W state into a maximally entangled W state assisted with single photons. The first protocol uses the linear optics and the second protocol adopts the cross-Kerr nonlinearity to perform the protocol. In the first protocol, based on the post-selection principle, three parties say Alice, Bob and Charlie in different distant locations can obtain the maximally entangled W state from the arbitrary less-entangled W state with a certain success probability. In the second protocol, it dose not require the parties to posses the sophisticated single-photon detectors and the concentrated photon pair can be retained after performing this protocol successfully. Moreover, the second protocol can be repeated to get a higher success probability. Both protocols may be useful in practical quantum information applications.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Exact solutions of semilinear radial wave equations in n dimensions

Exact solutions are derived for an n-dimensional radial wave equation with a general power nonlinearity. The method, which is applicable more generally to other nonlinear PDEs, involves an ansatz technique to solve a first-order PDE system of group-invariant variables given by group foliations of the wave equation, using the one-dimensional admitted point symmetry groups. (These groups comprise scalings and time translations, admitted for any nonlinearity power, in addition to space-time inversions admitted for a particular conformal nonlinearity power). This is shown to yield not only group-invariant solutions as derived by standard symmetry reduction, but also other exact solutions of a more general form. In particular, solutions with interesting analytical behavior connected with blow ups as well as static monopoles are obtained.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure. Published version with minor correction

Tunable heat pump by modulating the coupling to the leads

We follow the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism to study time-dependent thermal transport in a linear chain system consisting of two semi-infinite leads connected together by a coupling that is harmonically modulated in time. The modulation is driven by an external agent that can absorb and emit energy. We determine the energy current flowing out of the leads exactly by solving numerically the Dyson equation for the contour-ordered Green's function. The amplitude of the modulated coupling is of the same order as the interparticle coupling within each lead. When the leads have the same temperature, our numerical results show that modulating the coupling between the leads may direct energy to either flow into the leads simultaneously or flow out of the leads simultaneously, depending on the values of the driving frequency and temperature. A special combination of values of the driving frequency and temperature exists wherein no net energy flows into or out of the leads, even for long times. When one of the leads is warmer than the other, net energy flows out of the warmer lead. For the cooler lead, however, the direction of the energy current flow depends on the values of the driving frequency and temperature. In addition, we find transient effects to become more pronounced for higher values of the driving frequency.Comment: 10 pages; version 2 accepted for publication in PR