Rotation and Spin in Physics

We delineate the role of rotation and spin in physics, discussing in order Newtonian classical physics, special relativity, quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics and general relativity. In the latter case, we discuss the generalization of the Kepler formula to post-Newtonian order $(c^{-2}$) including spin effects and two-body effects. Experiments which verify the theoretical results for general relativistic spin-orbit effects are discussed as well as efforts being made to verify the spin-spin effects

Drivers of intrapopulation variation in resource use in a generalist predator, the macaroni penguin

Intrapopulation variation in resource use occurs in many populations of generalist predators with important community and evolutionary implications. One of the hypothesised mechanisms for such widespread variation is ecological opportunity, i.e. resource availability determined by intrinsic constraints and extrinsic conditions. We combined tracking data and stable isotope analysis to examine how breeding constraints and prey conditions influenced intrapopulation variation in resource use among macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus. Isotopic variation was also examined as a function of breeding success, individual traits and individual specialisation. Variation in isotope ratios was greatest across multiple tissue types when birds were able to undertake mid-range foraging trips (i.e. during incubation and pre-moult). This variation was highly consistent between years that spanned a 3-fold difference in local krill Euphausia superba density and was also highly consistent at the individual level between 2 years that had similar krill densities. However, by comparing our results with previous work on the same population, it appeared that a decrease in local prey availability can increase intrapopulation variation in resource use during periods with more restricted foraging ranges (i.e. during brood-guard and crèche). This study highlights the importance of considering ecological interactions that operate on multiple spatio-temporal scales when examining the drivers of resource use in populations of generalist predators

Transformed Dissipation in Superconducting Quantum Circuits

Superconducting quantum circuits must be designed carefully to avoid dissipation from coupling to external control circuitry. Here we introduce the concept of current transformation to quantify coupling to the environment. We test this theory with an experimentally-determined impedance transformation of $\sim 10^5$ and find quantitative agreement better than a factor of 2 between this transformation and the reduced lifetime of a phase qubit coupled to a tunable transformer. Higher-order corrections from quantum fluctuations are also calculated with this theory, but found not to limit the qubit lifetime. We also illustrate how this simple connection between current and impedance transformation can be used to rule out dissipation sources in experimental qubit systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Untangling Source-To-Sink Geochemical Signals in a ~3.5 Ga Martian Lake: Sedimentology and Geochemistry of the Murray Formation

Sedimentary rocks are historical archives of planetary surface processes; their grains, textures, and chemistry integrate the effects of source terrains, paleoclimatic conditions, weathering and transport processes, authigenic mineral precipitation, and diagenesis, which records groundwater chemistry through time. Source to Sink basin analysis seeks to constrain the influence of each of these different signals through sedimentary and geochemical analyses. Here, we use Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover images and geochemical and mineralogical data from a traverse across a portion of the Murray formationthe lowermost unit exposed in the Gale crater central moundto begin to constrain the aspects of the source to sink system that formed this Martian mudstone between 3.7 and 3.2 Ga

A multi-layer extension of the stochastic heat equation

Motivated by recent developments on solvable directed polymer models, we define a 'multi-layer' extension of the stochastic heat equation involving non-intersecting Brownian motions.Comment: v4: substantially extended and revised versio

Continuum-particle hybrid coupling for mass, momentum and energy transfers in unsteady fluid flow

The aim of hybrid methods in simulations is to communicate regions with disparate time and length scales. Here, a fluid described at the atomistic level within an inner region P is coupled to an outer region C described by continuum fluid dynamics. The matching of both descriptions of matter is made across an overlapping region and, in general, consists of a two-way coupling scheme (C->P and P->C) which conveys mass, momentum and energy fluxes. The contribution of the hybrid scheme hereby presented is two-fold: first it treats unsteady flows and, more importantly, it handles energy exchange between both C and P regions. The implementation of the C->P coupling is tested here using steady and unsteady flows with different rates of mass, momentum and energy exchange. In particular, relaxing flows described by linear hydrodynamics (transversal and longitudinal waves) are most enlightening as they comprise the whole set of hydrodynamic modes. Applying the hybrid coupling scheme after the onset of an initial perturbation, the cell-averaged Fourier components of the flow variables in the P region (velocity, density, internal energy, temperature and pressure) evolve in excellent agreement with the hydrodynamic trends. It is also shown that the scheme preserves the correct rate of entropy production. We discuss some general requirements on the coarse-grained length and time scales arising from both the characteristic microscopic and hydrodynamic scales.Comment: LaTex, 12 pages, 9 figure

Ginsparg-Wilson Pions Scattering in a Sea of Staggered Quarks

We calculate isospin 2 pion-pion scattering in chiral perturbation theory for a partially quenched, mixed action theory with Ginsparg-Wilson valence quarks and staggered sea quarks. We point out that for some scattering channels, the power-law volume dependence of two pion states in nonunitary theories such as partially quenched or mixed action QCD is identical to that of QCD. Thus one can extract infinite volume scattering parameters from mixed action simulations. We then determine the scattering length for both 2 and 2+1 sea quarks in the isospin limit. The scattering length, when expressed in terms of the pion mass and the decay constant measured on the lattice, has no contributions from mixed valence-sea mesons, thus it does not depend upon the parameter, C_Mix, that appears in the chiral Lagrangian of the mixed theory. In addition, the contributions which nominally arise from operators appearing in the mixed action O(a^2 m_q) Lagrangian exactly cancel when the scattering length is written in this form. This is in contrast to the scattering length expressed in terms of the bare parameters of the chiral Lagrangian, which explicitly exhibits all the sicknesses and lattice spacing dependence allowed by a partially quenched mixed action theory. These results hold for both 2 and 2+1 flavors of sea quarks.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures. Mistakes corrected in Eqs. (37), (42). Improved discussion in section 4 and related results in Eqs. (33), (37), (40) and (42). Added references. Version to be published in PR

Isospin Breaking and ω\omega->ππ\pi\pi Decay

We study $\omega\to\pi^+\pi^-$ decay up to including all orders of the chiral expansion and one-loop level of mesons in formlism of chiral constituent quark model. This G-parity forbidden decay is caused by $m_u\neq m_d$ and electromagnetic interaction of mesons. We illustrate that in the formlism both nonresonant contact interaction and $\rho$ resonance exchange contribute to this process, and the contribution from $\rho$ resonance exchange is dominant. We obtain that transition matrix element is $=[-(3956\pm 280)-(1697\pm 130)i]$MeV$^2$, and isospin breaking parameter is $m_d-m_u=3.9\pm 0.22$MeV at energy scale $\mu\sim m_\omega$.Comment: Revtex file, 16 pages, four eps figur

Vector meson dominance and the rho meson

We discuss the properties of vector mesons, in particular the rho^0, in the context of the Hidden Local Symmetry (HLS) model. This provides a unified framework to study several aspects of the low energy QCD sector. Firstly, we show that in the HLS model the physical photon is massless, without requiring off field diagonalization. We then demonstrate the equivalence of HLS and the two existing representations of vector meson dominance, VMD1 and VMD2, at both tree level and one loop order. Finally the S matrix pole position is shown to provide a model and process independent means of specifying the rho mass and width, in contrast to the real axis prescription currently used in the Particle Data Group tables.Comment: 18 pages, REVTE

Quantum process tomography of two-qubit controlled-Z and controlled-NOT gates using superconducting phase qubits

We experimentally demonstrate quantum process tomography of controlled-Z and controlled-NOT gates using capacitively-coupled superconducting phase qubits. These gates are realized by using the $|2\rangle$ state of the phase qubit. We obtain a process fidelity of 0.70 for the controlled-phase and 0.56 for the controlled-NOT gate, with the loss of fidelity mostly due to single-qubit decoherence. The controlled-Z gate is also used to demonstrate a two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with a single function query.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, including supplementary informatio