11,916 research outputs found
Robustness of Majorana Fermion induced Fractional Josephson Effect
It is shown in previous works that the coupling between two Majorana end
states in superconducting quantum wires leads to fractional Josephson effect.
However, in realistic experimental conditions, multiple bands of the wires are
occupied and the Majorana end states are accompanied by other fermionic end
states. This raises the question concerning the robustness of fractional
Josephson effect in these situations. In this work, we show that the absence of
the avoided energy crossing which gives rise to the fractional Josephson effect
is robust, even when the Majorana fermions are coupled with arbitrary strengths
to other fermions. Moreover, we calculate the temperature dependence of the
fractional Josephson current and show that it is suppressed by thermal
excitations to the other fermion bound states.Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figure
Non-Markovian master equation for a damped oscillator with time-varying parameters
We derive an exact non-Markovian master equation that generalizes the
previous work [Hu, Paz and Zhang, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 45}, 2843 (1992)] to damped
harmonic oscillators with time-varying parameters. This is achieved by
exploiting the linearity of the system and operator solution in Heisenberg
picture. Our equation governs the non-Markovian quantum dynamics when the
system is modulated by external devices. As an application, we apply our
equation to parity kick decoupling problems. The time-dependent dissipative
coefficients in the master equation are shown to be modified drastically when
the system is driven by pulses. For coherence protection to be effective,
our numerical results indicate that kicking period should be shorter than
memory time of the bath. The effects of using soft pulses in an ohmic bath are
also discussed
Polarization and frequency disentanglement of photons via stochastic polarization mode dispersion
We investigate the quantum decoherence of frequency and polarization
variables of photons via polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers. By
observing the analogy between the propagation equation of the field and the
Schr\"odinger equation, we develop a master equation under Markovian
approximation and analytically solve for the field density matrix. We identify
distinct decay behaviors for the polarization and frequency variables for
single-photon and two-photon states. For the single photon case, purity
functions indicate that complete decoherence for each variable is possible only
for infinite fiber length. For entangled two-photon states passing through
separate fibers, entanglement associated with each variable can be completely
destroyed after characteristic finite propagation distances. In particular, we
show that frequency disentanglement is independent of the initial polarization
status. For propagation of two photons in a common fiber, the evolution of a
polarization singlet state is addressed. We show that while complete
polarization disentanglement occurs at a finite propagation distance, frequency
entanglement could survive at any finite distance for gaussian states.Comment: 2 figure
The LuckyCam Survey for Very Low Mass Binaries II: 13 new M4.5-M6.0 Binaries
We present results from a high-angular-resolution survey of 78 very low mass
(VLM) binary systems with 6.0 = 0.15
arcsec/yr. 21 VLM binaries were detected, 13 of them new discoveries. The new
binary systems range in separation between 0.18 arcsec and 1.3 arcsec. The
distance-corrected binary fraction is 13.5% (+6.5%/-4%), in agreement with
previous results. 9 of the new binary systems have orbital radii > 10 AU,
including a new wide VLM binary with 27 AU projected orbital separation. One of
the new systems forms two components of a 2300 AU separation triple system. We
find that the orbital radius distribution of the binaries with V-K < 6.5 in
this survey appears to be different from that of redder (lower-mass) objects,
suggesting a possible rapid change in the orbital radius distribution at around
the M5 spectral type. The target sample was also selected to investigate X-ray
activity among VLM binaries. There is no detectable correlation between excess
X-Ray emission and the frequency and binary properties of the VLM systems.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to MNRA
Biochemical characterization of the retinoid isomerase system of the eye
Journal ArticleWe have previously shown that membranes from the retinal pigment epithelium can transform added all-trans-retinol into a mixture of 11-cis-retinoids, demonstrating the "missing reaction" in the visual cycle for the first time (Bernstein, P. S., Law, W. C., and Rando, R. R. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 1849-1853). In this article, this isomerase activity is further characterized. Double-label experiments with [15-3H]- and [15-14C]all-trans-retinol as the substrate show that the tritium label is retained in the 11-cis-retinol and 11-cis-retinyl palmitate products. This requires that isomerization occur at the alcohol level of oxidation. All-trans-retinyl esters, such as the palmitate, acetate, butyrate, and hexanoate esters, are not directly transformed into their 11-cis counterparts by the membranes. The data are consistent with the presence of an all-trans-retinol isomerase enzyme system or enzyme complex, which produces 11-cis-retinol. Other isomeric retinols were tested for substrate activity. Neither 9-cis-retinol(al) nor 13-cis-retinol were processed by the isomerase. Since the membranes containing the isomerase possess other retinol metabolizing activities, such as retinyl ester synthetase and dehydrogenase activities, further purification was attempted. Appreciable quantities of all detergents tested led to the disappearance of isomerase activity, and high salt or EDTA did not dissociate isomerase activity from the membranes. However, extensive sonication of the membranes did produce a 100,000 x g supernatant fraction of light membranes depleted of other all-trans-retinol processing activities. The isomerase activity in these membranes was saturable with all-trans-retinol, as required for a biologically significant process, and showed a Vmax of 5 pmol/h/mg of protein, a KM of 0.8 microM, and a pH optimum of 8. The isomerase was destroyed by proteinase K, by phospholipase C, by heating, or by ethanol at concentrations greater than 1%. The addition of high energy compounds, such as MgATP, MgGTP, or palmitoyl-CoA, did not appear to stimulate isomerase activity in the 100,000 x g supernatant
Nitrous oxide emissions from the Arabian Sea: A synthesis
We computed high-resolution (1º latitude x 1º longitude) seasonal and annual nitrous oxide (N2O) concentration fields for the Arabian Sea surface layer using a database containing more than 2400 values measured between December 1977 and July 1997. N2O concentrations are highest during the southwest (SW) monsoon along the southern Indian continental shelf. Annual emissions range from 0.33 to 0.70 Tg N2O and are dominated by fluxes from coastal regions during the SW and northeast monsoons. Our revised estimate for the annual N2O flux from the Arabian Sea is much more tightly constrained than the previous consensus derived using averaged in-situ data from a smaller number of studies. However, the tendency to focus on measurements in locally restricted features in combination with insufficient seasonal data coverage leads to considerable uncertainties of the concentration fields and thus in the flux estimates, especially in the coastal zones of the northern and eastern Arabian Sea. The overall mean relative error of the annual N2O emissions from the Arabian Sea was estimated to be at least 65%
Quantum fluctuations in coupled dark solitons in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates
We show that the quantum fluctuations associated with the Bogoliubov
quasiparticle vacuum can be strongly concentrated inside dark solitons in a
trapped Bose Einstein condensate. We identify a finite number of anomalous
modes that are responsible for such quantum phenomena. The fluctuations in
these anomalous modes correspond to the `zero-point' oscillations in coupled
dark solitons.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
High speed quantum gates with cavity quantum electrodynamics
Cavity quantum electrodynamic schemes for quantum gates are amongst the
earliest quantum computing proposals. Despite continued progress, and the
dramatic recent demonstration of photon blockade, there are still issues with
optimal coupling and gate operation involving high-quality cavities. Here we
show dynamic control techniques that allow scalable cavity-QED based quantum
gates, that use the full bandwidth of the cavities. When applied to quantum
gates, these techniques allow an order of magnitude increase in operating
speed, and two orders of magnitude reduction in cavity Q, over passive
cavity-QED architectures. Our methods exploit Stark shift based Q-switching,
and are ideally suited to solid-state integrated optical approaches to quantum
computing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor revision
- …