507 research outputs found
General relativistic effects in quantum interference of photons
Quantum mechanics and general relativity have been extensively and
independently confirmed in many experiments. However, the interplay of the two
theories has never been tested: all experiments that measured the influence of
gravity on quantum systems are consistent with non-relativistic, Newtonian
gravity. On the other hand, all tests of general relativity can be described
within the framework of classical physics. Here we discuss a quantum
interference experiment with single photons that can probe quantum mechanics in
curved space-time. We consider a single photon travelling in superposition
along two paths in an interferometer, with each arm experiencing a different
gravitational time dilation. If the difference in the time dilations is
comparable with the photon's coherence time, the visibility of the quantum
interference is predicted to drop, while for shorter time dilations the effect
of gravity will result only in a relative phase shift between the two arms. We
discuss what aspects of the interplay between quantum mechanics and general
relativity are probed in such experiments and analyze the experimental
feasibility.Comment: 16 pages, new appendix, published versio
Deuterium Abundance in the Most Metal-Poor Damped Lyman alpha System: Converging on Omega_baryons
The most metal-poor DLA known to date, at z = 2.61843 in the spectrum of the
QSO Q0913+072, with an oxygen abundance only about 1/250 of the solar value,
shows six well resolved D I Lyman series transitions in high quality echelle
spectra recently obtained with the ESO VLT. We deduce a value of the deuterium
abundance log (D/H) = -4.56+/-0.04 which is in good agreement with four out of
the six most reliable previous determinations of this ratio in QSO absorbers.
We find plausible reasons why in the other two cases the 1 sigma errors may
have been underestimated by about a factor of two. The addition of this latest
data point does not change significantly the mean value of the primordial
abundance of deuterium, suggesting that we are now converging to a reliable
measure of this quantity. We conclude that = -4.55+/-0.03 and
Omega_b h^2 (BBN) = 0.0213+/-0.0010 (68% confidence limits). Including the
latter as a prior in the analysis of the five year data of WMAP leads to a
revised best-fitting value of the power-law index of primordial fluctuations
n_s = 0.956+/-0.013 (1 sigma) and n_s < 0.990 with 99% confidence. Considering
together the constraints provided by WMAP 5, (D/H)_p, baryon oscillations in
the galaxy distribution, and distances to Type Ia supernovae, we arrive at the
current best estimates Omega_b h^2 = 0.0224+/-0.0005 and n_s = 0.959+/-0.013.Comment: 13 pages, 8 Figures. Revised version following referee's comments.
Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. A few typos correcte
Quantum test of the equivalence principle for atoms in superpositions of internal energy eigenstates
The Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) has a central role in the
understanding of gravity and space-time. In its weak form, or Weak Equivalence
Principle (WEP), it directly implies equivalence between inertial and
gravitational mass. Verifying this principle in a regime where the relevant
properties of the test body must be described by quantum theory has profound
implications. Here we report on a novel WEP test for atoms. A Bragg atom
interferometer in a gravity gradiometer configuration compares the free fall of
rubidium atoms prepared in two hyperfine states and in their coherent
superposition. The use of the superposition state allows testing genuine
quantum aspects of EEP with no classical analogue, which have remained
completely unexplored so far. In addition, we measure the Eotvos ratio of atoms
in two hyperfine levels with relative uncertainty in the low ,
improving previous results by almost two orders of magnitude.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature Communicatio
The host galaxies of strong CaII QSO absorption systems at z<0.5
We present new imaging and spectroscopic observations of the fields of five
QSOs with very strong intervening CaII absorption systems at redshifts z<0.5
selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Recent studies of these very rare
absorbers indicate that they may be related to damped Lyman alpha systems
(DLAs). In all five cases we identify a galaxy at the redshift of the CaII
system with impact parameters up to ~24 kpc. In four out of five cases the
galaxies are luminous (L ~L*), metal-rich (Z ~Zsun), massive (velocity
dispersion, sigma ~100 km/s) spirals. Their star formation rates, deduced from
Halpha emission, are high, in the range SFR = 0.3 - 30 Msun/yr. In our
analysis, we paid particular attention to correcting the observed emission line
fluxes for stellar absorption and dust extinction. We show that these effects
are important for a correct SFR estimate; their neglect in previous low-z
studies of DLA-selected galaxies has probably led to an underestimate of the
star formation activity in at least some DLA hosts. We discuss possible links
between CaII-selected galaxies and DLAs and outline future observations which
will help clarify the relationship between these different classes of QSO
absorbers.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages, 9 figures. Version with
full resolution images available at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~bjz/papers/Zych_etal_2007a.pd
Generating multi-partite entanglement from the quantum vacuum with a finite-lifetime mirror
Observers following special classes of finite-lifetime trajectories have been
shown to experience an effective temperature, a generalisation of the Unruh
temperature for uniformly accelerated observers. We consider a mirror following
such a trajectory - and is hence localised to a strictly bounded causal diamond
- that perfectly reflects incoming field modes. We find that inertial observers
in the Minkowski vacuum detect particles along the half null-rays at the
beginning and end of the mirror's lifetime. These particle distributions
exhibit multi-partite entanglement, which reveals novel structure within the
vacuum correlations. The interaction is modelled using a non-perturbative
circuit model and does not suffer from energy divergences.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 2 pages of appendices. Additional comments
regarding interaction model and entanglement generatio
Inhomogeneity of donor doping in SrTiO3 substrates studied by fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy
Fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) was applied to investigate
the donor distribution in SrTiO3 single crystals. On the surfaces of Nb- and
La-doped SrTiO3, structures with different fluorescence intensities and
lifetimes were found that could be related to different concentrations of Ti3+.
Furthermore, the inhomogeneous distribution of donors caused a non-uniform
conductivity of the surface, which complicates the production of potential
electronic devices by the deposition of oxide thin films on top of doped single
crystals. Hence, we propose FLIM as a convenient technique (length scale: 1
m) for characterizing the quality of doped oxide surfaces, which could
help to identify appropriate substrate materials
C, N, O Abundances in the Most Metal-Poor Damped Lyman alpha Systems
This study focuses on some of the most metal-poor damped Lyman alpha
absorbers known in the spectra of high redshift QSOs, using new and archival
observations obtained with UV-sensitive echelle spectrographs on the Keck and
VLT telescopes. The weakness and simple velocity structure of the absorption
lines in these systems allows us to measure the abundances of several elements,
and in particular those of C, N, and O, a group that is difficult to study in
DLAs of more typical metallicities. We find that when the oxygen abundance is
less than about 1/100 of solar, the C/O ratio in high redshift DLAs and
sub-DLAs matches that of halo stars of similar metallicity and shows higher
values than expected from galactic chemical evolution models based on
conventional stellar yields. Furthermore, there are indications that at these
low metallicities the N/O ratio may also be above simple expectations and may
exhibit a minimum value, as proposed by Centurion and her collaborators in
2003. Both results can be interpreted as evidence for enhanced production of C
and N by massive stars in the first few episodes of star formation, in our
Galaxy and in the distant proto-galaxies seen as QSO absorbers. The higher
stellar yields implied may have an origin in stellar rotation which promotes
mixing in the stars' interiors, as considered in some recent model
calculations. We briefly discuss the relevance of these results to current
ideas on the origin of metals in the intergalactic medium and the universality
of the stellar initial mass function.Comment: 17 pages, 9 Figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
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