2,772 research outputs found
Observing different quantum trajectories in cavity QED
The experimental observation of quantum jumps is an example of single open
quantum systems that, when monitored, evolve in terms of stochastic
trajectories conditioned on measurements results. Here we present a proposal
that allows the experimental observation of a much larger class of quantum
trajectories in cavity QED systems. In particular, our scheme allows for the
monitoring of engineered thermal baths that are crucial for recent proposals
for probing entanglement decay and also for entanglement protection. The scheme
relies on the interaction of a three-level atom and a cavity mode that
interchangeably play the roles of system and probe. If the atom is detected the
evolution of the cavity fields follows quantum trajectories and vice-versa.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Measures and dynamics of entangled states
We develop an original approach for the quantitative characterisation of the
entanglement properties of, possibly mixed, bi- and multipartite quantum states
of arbitrary finite dimension. Particular emphasis is given to the derivation
of reliable estimates which allow for an efficient evaluation of a specific
entanglement measure, concurrence, for further implementation in the monitoring
of the time evolution of multipartite entanglement under incoherent environment
coupling. The flexibility of the technical machinery established here is
illustrated by its implementation for different, realistic experimental
scenarios.Comment: Physics Reports, in pres
Ignorance is bliss: General and robust cancellation of decoherence via no-knowledge quantum feedback
A "no-knowledge" measurement of an open quantum system yields no information
about any system observable; it only returns noise input from the environment.
Surprisingly, performing such a no-knowledge measurement can be advantageous.
We prove that a system undergoing no-knowledge monitoring has reversible noise,
which can be cancelled by directly feeding back the measurement signal. We show
how no-knowledge feedback control can be used to cancel decoherence in an
arbitrary quantum system coupled to a Markovian reservoir that is being
monitored. Since no-knowledge feedback does not depend on the system state or
Hamiltonian, such decoherence cancellation is guaranteed to be general, robust
and can operate in conjunction with any other quantum control protocol. As an
application, we show that no-knowledge feedback could be used to improve the
performance of dissipative quantum computers subjected to local loss.Comment: 6 pages + 2 pages supplemental material, 3 figure
Distant entanglement protected through artificially increased local temperature
In composed quantum systems, the presence of local dissipative channels
causes loss of coherence and entanglement at a rate that grows with the
temperature of the reservoirs. However, here we show that if temperature is
artificially added to the system, entanglement decay can be significantly
slowed down or even suppressed conditioned on suitable local monitoring of the
reservoirs. We propose a scheme to implement the joint reservoir monitoring
applicable in different experimental setups like trapped ions, circuit and
cavity QED or quantum dots coupled to nanowires and we analyze its general
robustness against detection inefficiencies and non-zero temperature of the
natural reservoir
Robustness of System-Filter Separation for the Feedback Control of a Quantum Harmonic Oscillator Undergoing Continuous Position Measurement
We consider the effects of experimental imperfections on the problem of
estimation-based feedback control of a trapped particle under continuous
position measurement. These limitations violate the assumption that the
estimator (i.e. filter) accurately models the underlying system, thus requiring
a separate analysis of the system and filter dynamics. We quantify the
parameter regimes for stable cooling, and show that the control scheme is
robust to detector inefficiency, time delay, technical noise, and miscalibrated
parameters. We apply these results to the specific context of a weakly
interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Given that this system has
previously been shown to be less stable than a feedback-cooled BEC with strong
interatomic interactions, this result shows that reasonable experimental
imperfections do not limit the feasibility of cooling a BEC by continuous
measurement and feedback.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Husimi-Wigner representation of chaotic eigenstates
Just as a coherent state may be considered as a quantum point, its
restriction to a factor space of the full Hilbert space can be interpreted as a
quantum plane. The overlap of such a factor coherent state with a full pure
state is akin to a quantum section. It defines a reduced pure state in the
cofactor Hilbert space. The collection of all the Wigner functions
corresponding to a full set of parallel quantum sections defines the
Husimi-Wigner reresentation. It occupies an intermediate ground between drastic
suppression of nonclassical features, characteristic of Husimi functions, and
the daunting complexity of higher dimensional Wigner functions. After analysing
these features for simpler states, we exploit this new representation as a
probe of numerically computed eigenstates of chaotic Hamiltonians. The
individual two-dimensional Wigner functions resemble those of semiclassically
quantized states, but the regular ring pattern is broken by dislocations.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures (6 color figures), submitted to Proc. R. Soc.
Single photon production by rephased amplified spontaneous emission
The production of single photons using rephased amplified spontaneous
emission is examined. This process produces single photons on demand with high
efficiency by detecting the spontaneous emission from an atomic ensemble, then
applying a population-inverting pulse to rephase the ensemble and produce a
photon echo of the spontaneous emission events. The theoretical limits on the
efficiency of the production are determined for several variants of the scheme.
For an ensemble of uniform optical density, generating the initial spontaneous
emission and its echo using transitions of different strengths is shown to
produce single photons at 70% efficiency, limited by reabsorption. Tailoring
the spatial and spectral density of the atomic ensemble is then shown to
prevent reabsorption of the rephased photon, resulting in emission efficiency
near unity
Evidence-based umbrella review of cognitive effects of prefrontal tDCS
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, which has been increasingly used as an investigational tool in neuroscience. In social and affective neuroscience research, the prefrontal cortex has been primarily targeted, since this brain region is critically involved in complex psychobiological processes subserving both 'hot' and 'cold' domains. Although several studies have suggested that prefrontal tDCS can enhance neuropsychological outcomes, meta-analyses have reported conflicting results. Therefore, we aimed to assess the available evidence by performing an umbrella review of meta-analyses. We evaluated the effects of prefrontal active vs sham tDCS on different domains of cognition among healthy and neuropsychiatric individuals. A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 was employed to evaluate the quality of meta-analyses, and the GRADE system was employed to grade the quality of evidence of every comparison from each meta-analysis. PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched, and 11 meta-analyses were included resulting in 55 comparisons. Only 16 comparisons reported significant effects favoring tDCS, but 13 of them had either very low or low quality of evidence. Of the remaining 39 comparisons which reported non-significant effects, 38 had either very low or low quality of evidence. Meta-analyses were rated as having critically low and low quality. Among several reasons to explain these findings, the lack of consensus and reproducibility in tDCS research is discussed
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