1,168 research outputs found
Qubits as spectrometers of dephasing noise
We present a procedure for direct characterization of the dephasing noise
acting on a single qubit by making repeated measurements of the qubit coherence
under suitably chosen sequences of controls. We show that this allows a
numerical reconstruction of the short time noise correlation function and that
it can be combined with a series of measurements under free evolution to allow
a characterization of the noise correlation function over many orders of
magnitude range in timescale. We also make an analysis of the robustness and
reliability of the estimated correlation functions. Application to a simple
model of two uncorrelated noise fluctuators using decoupling pulse sequences
shows that the approach provides a useful route for experimental
characterization of dephasing noise and its statistical properties in a variety
of condensed phase and atomic systems.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Optimizing entangling quantum gates for physical systems
Optimal control theory is a versatile tool that presents a route to
significantly improving figures of merit for quantum information tasks. We
combine it here with the geometric theory for local equivalence classes of
two-qubit operations to derive an optimization algorithm that determines the
best entangling two-qubit gate for a given physical setting. We demonstrate the
power of this approach for trapped polar molecules and neutral atoms.Comment: extended version; Phys. Rev. A (2011
High fidelity one-qubit operations under random telegraph noise
We address the problem of implementing high fidelity one-qubit operations
subject to time dependent noise in the qubit energy splitting. We show with
explicit numerical results that high fidelity bit flips and one-qubit NOT gates
may be generated by imposing bounded control fields. For noise correlation
times shorter than the time for a pi-pulse, the time optimal pi-pulse yields
the highest fidelity. For very long correlation times, fidelity loss is
approximately due to systematic error, which is efficiently tackled by
compensation for off-resonance with a pulse sequence (CORPSE). For intermediate
ranges of the noise correlation time we find that short CORPSE, which is less
accurate than CORPSE in correcting systematic errors, yields higher fidelities.
Numerical optimization of the pulse sequences using gradient ascent pulse
engineering results in noticeable improvement of the fidelities for the bit
flip and marginal improvement for the NOT gate.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Finite temperature quantum simulation of stabilizer Hamiltonians
We present a scheme for robust finite temperature quantum simulation of
stabilizer Hamiltonians. The scheme is designed for realization in a physical
system consisting of a finite set of neutral atoms trapped in an addressable
optical lattice that are controllable via 1- and 2-body operations together
with dissipative 1-body operations such as optical pumping. We show that these
minimal physical constraints suffice for design of a quantum simulation scheme
for any stabilizer Hamiltonian at either finite or zero temperature. We
demonstrate the approach with application to the abelian and non-abelian toric
codes.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
Vibration-enhanced quantum transport
In this paper, we study the role of collective vibrational motion in the
phenomenon of electronic energy transfer (EET) along a chain of coupled
electronic dipoles with varying excitation frequencies. Previous experimental
work on EET in conjugated polymer samples has suggested that the common
structural framework of the macromolecule introduces correlations in the energy
gap fluctuations which cause coherent EET. Inspired by these results, we
present a simple model in which a driven nanomechanical resonator mode
modulates the excitation energy of coupled quantum dots and find that this can
indeed lead to an enhancement in the transport of excitations across the
quantum network. Disorder of the on-site energies is a key requirement for this
to occur. We also show that in this solid state system phase information is
partially retained in the transfer process, as experimentally demonstrated in
conjugated polymer samples. Consequently, this mechanism of vibration enhanced
quantum transport might find applications in quantum information transfer of
qubit states or entanglement.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, new material, included references, final
published versio
Quantum dynamics of local phase differences between reservoirs of driven interacting bosons separated by simple aperture arrays
We present a derivation of the effective action for the relative phase of
driven, aperture-coupled reservoirs of weakly-interacting condensed bosons from
a (3+1)-D microscopic model with local U(1) gauge symmetry. We show that
inclusion of local chemical potential and driving velocity fields as a gauge
field allows derivation of the hydrodynamic equations of motion for the driven
macroscopic phase differences across simple aperture arrays. For a single
aperture, the current-phase equation for driven flow contains sinusoidal,
linear, and current-bias contributions. We compute the renormalization group
(RG) beta function of the periodic potential in the effective action for small
tunneling amplitudes and use this to analyze the temperature dependence of the
low-energy current-phase relation, with application to the transition from
linear to sinusoidal current-phase behavior observed in experiments by
Hoskinson et al. \cite{packard} for liquid He driven through nanoaperture
arrays. Extension of the microscopic theory to a two-aperture array shows that
interference between the microscopic tunneling contributions for individual
apertures leads to an effective coupling between apertures which amplifies the
Josephson oscillations in the array. The resulting multi-aperture current-phase
equations are found to be equivalent to a set of equations for coupled pendula,
with microscopically derived couplings.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures v2: typos corrected, RG phase diagram correcte
Pesticide Use in South Africa: One of the Largest Importers of Pesticides in Africa
South Africa is a diverse country, with a diverse environment that is home to more than 49 000 000 people. Pesticide usage is very often necessary to maintain both agricultural productivity as well as human health. The climatic conditions range from semi-tropic to semi-arid regions. Although the majority of the country has summer rainfall, the south western coastal region is predominantly a winter rainfall area. These variations in climate allows for a wide variety of crops, from tropical fruit to maize and tree plantations. Each individual crop is susceptible to a unique host of pests that in-turn require a unique mixture of pesticides to ensure the best resulting turnover. Currently, South Africa has more than 500 registered pesticides (Pesticide Action Network (PAN), 2010) and is one of the four largest importers of pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa (Osbanjo et al., 2002). In 2006 the import of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides that were packaged for retail totalled $ 170 056 000 the main import partners being Australia, China, Germany and the United States of America (USA) (International Trade Centre, 2011). These pesticides are used in almost every facet of our everyday lives; ensuring the quantity and quality of food we eat to managing the number of rodents and insects in our homes. Although it is evident that there is a vast amount of pesticides present in the South African environment, there is very limited data on the production of pesticides. The last published data indicates that in 2002 around 10 000 kâ„“ of liquid insecticides was produced exclusively for crop protection of which 43% consisted of organophosphates. During the same year 2 800-tonnes of solid insecticides were produced (Statistics South Africa, 2003). Although the usefulness of pesticides cannot be denied, the negative environmental and human health effects cannot be ignored. In South Africa, a number of environmental and anthropogenic factors have to be considered before the impact of large-scale pesticide use can be assessed. South Africa is a water poor country, with water resources being utilised to their maximum capacity. As discussed by Dabrowski et al. (2009), the trade-off between the economic benefits of exporting agricultural products has to be measured against the loss of water, not only through crop irrigation but also through water quality degradation. The article highlighted this aspect through the calculation of virtual water volumes. These calculated volumes indicated that to ensure sufficient dilution of all agrochemicals, to an acceptable water quality level (used in a typical farming situation applying current-use pesticides), was greater than the amount of water needed for irrigation. The seriousness of these scenarios is highlighted in literature where a diverse array of agricultural chemicals has been measured during run-off events, by once-off sampling and by water monitoring during the growing seasons. Detectable levels of atrazine, terbuthylazine, simazine, acetochlor (Du Preez et al., 2005), DDT and its metabolites, endosulfan, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), heptachlor, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane (Fatoki et al., 2003), azinophos-methyl, chloropyriphos (Schultz et al., 2001; Dabrowski et al., 2002) prothiofos (Schultz, 2001), malathion, zendoxsulfan (Thiere &Â Schultz, 2004), cypermethrin and fenvalerate (Bollmohr et al., 2007), to name a few, have all been measured in South African waters. Pesticides in the aquatic environment have the potential to affect all end-users, including both humans and wildlife. South Africa has the distinction of being one of the countries with the most species richness in the world. To date more than 900 bird species as well as over 200 mammals, call South Africa home. Of these mammals, seven species are endangered and 30 are vulnerable according to the 2004 IUCN red data list (IUCN, 2010). These endangered species include bats, moles, shrews and mice that are often insectivorous, thus increasing their risk of unintentional exposure to pesticides. Within avian populations, 11 species are listed as critically endangered and 43 species as vulnerable. The sensitivity of avian species to pollutants has been widely reported. With this unique diversity of species, South Africans have a responsibility towards maintaining the viability of ecosystems and natural habitats to ensure the continued existence of these creatures. This objective is not only morally relevant but also economically relevant especially in a country where tourism creates over 400 000 jobs and contributes approximately 8% to the GDP. Few studies have reported the levels of insecticides in wildlife species. However, pesticides have been detected in wild bird species (Van Wyk et al., 2001; Bouwman et al., 2008), as well as in indigenous fish species (Barnhoorn et al., 2009), indicating pesticide contamination within various habitats. This is of particular concern due to the health risks associated with many pesticides
Effects of harvest season on carcass characteristics of lambs in the Intermountain West
Objective: The objectives of this study were to survey characteristics including hot carcass weight (HCW), 12th rib fat thickness (RFT), body-wall thickness (BWT), longissimus muscle area (LMA), USDA yield grade (USDA YG), percentage closely trimmed retail cuts (RC), and calculated yield grade (Calc YG) of lamb carcasses in the Intermountain West to determine the effects of season of slaughter and interrelationships among carcass characteristics.
Materials and Methods: Lamb carcass characteristics were evaluated in 2 commercial Intermountain West processing plants over one year (n = 10,027). Carcasses were evaluated by season: spring (December–April, n = 2,322) and summer (May–August, n = 7,705).
Results and Discussion: Carcasses of lambs slaughtered in the spring had 3.4 kg heavier HCW (P = 0.04) than those slaughtered in the summer. Subcutaneous fat (RFT; P = 0.06) and Calc YG (P = 0.09) tended to be greater in the spring than summer. Correlation coefficients and models of fit with a linear covariate of HCW indicated negative relationship between HCW and RC and positive relationship with all other carcass traits (P \u3c 0.001). Overall, graded lamb carcasses exceeded commercial processing plant preferred HCW (38.6 kg) by 5% (mean = 40.5 kg) and industry acceptable RFT (6 mm) by 25% (mean = 8.03 mm). Furthermore, 70% of lamb carcasses exceed 6 mm RFT.
Implications and Applications: Season of slaughter contributed to differences in HCW and USDA YG but no other carcass characteristics. Still, carcass data surveyed from the largest lamb-producing region of the United States suggests that the degree of fatness exceeds industry preferences. Although abattoirs mitigate adverse effects of excessive fat through trimming and diverse market outlets, industry-wide efforts that agree on acceptable standards of trimness are needed. Transparent dialog across industry segments should be prioritized in addition to consistent integration of value-based pricing to reduce the proportion of excessively finished lambs
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