The Challenges of Community Engagement

Lyons and Whelan provide a useful list of recommendations as to how community engagement on nanotechnology could be improved, which very few people working in community engagement could disagree with. However, as the conclusions of any study are dependent on the data obtained, if more data had been obtained and analysed then different conclusions might have been reached. Addressing the key issues in the paper and providing more data, also allows an opportunity to expand on current issues relating to community engagement on nanotechnology and the challenges it provides for practitioners

Two-dimensional spectroscopy for the study of ion coulomb crystals.

Ion Coulomb crystals are currently establishing themselves as a highly controllable test bed for mesoscopic systems of statistical mechanics. The detailed experimental interrogation of the dynamics of these crystals, however, remains an experimental challenge. In this work, we show how to extend the concepts of multidimensional nonlinear spectroscopy to the study of the dynamics of ion Coulomb crystals. The scheme we present can be realized with state-of-the-art technology and gives direct access to the dynamics, revealing nonlinear couplings even in the presence of thermal excitations. We illustrate the advantages of our proposal showing how two-dimensional spectroscopy can be used to detect signatures of a structural phase transition of the ion crystal, as well as resonant energy exchange between modes. Furthermore, we demonstrate in these examples how different decoherence mechanisms can be identified

The impact of space and space-related activities on a local economy. a case study of boulder, colorado. part ii- the income-product accounts

Total impact of space and space related activities on local economy of Boulder, Colorado - income-product account

Nano-friction in cavity quantum electrodynamics

The dynamics of cold trapped ions in a high-finesse resonator results from the interplay between the long-range Coulomb repulsion and the cavity-induced interactions. The latter are due to multiple scatterings of laser photons inside the cavity and become relevant when the laser pump is sufficiently strong to overcome photon decay. We study the stationary states of ions coupled with a mode of a standing-wave cavity as a function of the cavity and laser parameters, when the typical length scales of the two self-organizing processes, Coulomb crystallization and photon-mediated interactions, are incommensurate. The dynamics are frustrated and in specific limiting cases can be cast in terms of the Frenkel-Kontorova model, which reproduces features of friction in one dimension. We numerically recover the sliding and pinned phases. For strong cavity nonlinearities, they are in general separated by bistable regions where superlubric and stick-slip dynamics coexist. The cavity, moreover, acts as a thermal reservoir and can cool the chain vibrations to temperatures controlled by the cavity parameters and by the ions phase. These features are imprinted in the radiation emitted by the cavity, which is readily measurable in state-of-art setups of cavity quantum electrodynamics.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Emergent thermodynamics in a quenched quantum many-body system

We study the statistics of the work done, the fluctuation relations and the irreversible entropy production in a quantum many-body system subject to the sudden quench of a control parameter. By treating the quench as a thermodynamic transformation we show that the emergence of irreversibility in the nonequilibrium dynamics of closed many-body quantum systems can be accurately characterized. We demonstrate our ideas by considering a transverse quantum Ising model that is taken out of equilibrium by the instantaneous switching of the transverse field.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Non-negative Wigner functions in prime dimensions

According to a classical result due to Hudson, the Wigner function of a pure, continuous variable quantum state is non-negative if and only if the state is Gaussian. We have proven an analogous statement for finite-dimensional quantum systems. In this context, the role of Gaussian states is taken on by stabilizer states. The general results have been published in [D. Gross, J. Math. Phys. 47, 122107 (2006)]. For the case of systems of odd prime dimension, a greatly simplified proof can be employed which still exhibits the main ideas. The present paper gives a self-contained account of these methods.Comment: 5 pages. Special case of a result proved in quant-ph/0602001. The proof is greatly simplified, making the general case more accessible. To appear in Appl. Phys. B as part of the proceedings of the 2006 DPG Spring Meeting (Quantum Optics and Photonics section

Efficient photoionization for barium ion trapping using a dipole-allowed resonant two-photon transition

Two efficient and isotope-selective resonant two-photon ionization techniques for loading barium ions into radio-frequency (RF)-traps are demonstrated. The scheme of using a strong dipole-allowed transition at \lambda=553 nm as a first step towards ionization is compared to the established technique of using a weak intercombination line (\lambda=413 nm). An increase of two orders of magnitude in the ionization efficiency is found favoring the transition at 553 nm. This technique can be implemented using commercial all-solid-state laser systems and is expected to be advantageous compared to other narrowband photoionization schemes of barium in cases where highest efficiency and isotope-selectivity are required.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Study of Loschmidt Echo for a qubit coupled to an XY-spin chain environment

We study the temporal evolution of a central spin-1/2 (qubit) coupled to the environment which is chosen to be a spin-1/2 transverse XY spin chain. We explore the entire phase diagram of the spin-Hamiltonian and investigate the behavior of Loschmidt echo(LE) close to critical and multicritical point(MCP). To achieve this, the qubit is coupled to the spin chain through the anisotropy term as well as one of the interaction terms. Our study reveals that the echo has a faster decay with the system size (in the short time limit) close to a MCP and also the scaling obeyed by the quasiperiod of the collapse and revival of the LE is different in comparison to that close to a QCP. We also show that even when approached along the gapless critical line, the scaling of the LE is determined by the MCP where the energy gap shows a faster decay with the system size. This claim is verified by studying the short-time and also the collapse and revival behavior of the LE at a quasicritical point on the ferromagnetic side of the MCP. We also connect our observation to the decoherence of the central spin.Comment: Accepted for publication in EPJ

Mesoscopic mean-field theory for spin-boson chains in quantum optical systems

We present a theoretical description of a system of many spins strongly coupled to a bosonic chain. We rely on the use of a spin-wave theory describing the Gaussian fluctuations around the mean-field solution, and focus on spin-boson chains arising as a generalization of the Dicke Hamiltonian. Our model is motivated by experimental setups such as trapped ions, or atoms/qubits coupled to cavity arrays. This situation corresponds to the cooperative (E⊗β) Jahn-Teller distortion studied in solid-state physics. However, the ability to tune the parameters of the model in quantum optical setups opens up a variety of novel intriguing situations. The main focus of this paper is to review the spin-wave theoretical description of this problem as well as to test the validity of mean-field theory. Our main result is that deviations from mean-field effects are determined by the interplay between magnetic order and mesoscopic cooperativity effects, being the latter strongly size-dependent