Pure single photon generation by type-I PDC with backward-wave amplification

We explore a promising method of generating pure heralded single photons. Our approach is based on parametric downconversion in a periodically-poled waveguide. However, unlike conventional downconversion sources, the photon pairs are counter-propagating: one travels with the pump beam in the forward direction while the other is backpropagating towards the laser source. Our calculations reveal that these downconverted two-photon states carry minimal spectral correlations within each photon-pair. This approach offers the possibility to employ a new range of downconversion processes and materials like PPLN (previously considered unsuitable due to their unfavorable phasematching properties) to herald pure single photons over a broad frequency range.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, minor text changes and reformattin

A bright, pulsed two-mode squeezer

We report the realization of a bright ultrafast two-mode squeezer based on type II parametric downconversion (PDC) in periodically poled $\mathrm{KTiOPO_4}$ (PP-KTP) waveguides. It produces a pulsed two-mode squeezed vacuum state: a photon-number entangled pair of truly single-mode pulses or, in terms of continuous variables quantum optics, a pulsed, single mode Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state in the telecom regime. We prove the single mode character of our source by measuring its $g^{(2)}$ correlation function and demonstrate a mean photon number of up to 2.5 per pulse, equivalent to 11dB of two-mode squeezing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Pretreatment cognitive and neural differences between sapropterin dihydrochloride responders and non-responders with phenylketonuria

Sapropterin dihydrochloride (BH4) reduces phenylalanine (Phe) levels and improves white matter integrity in a subset of individuals with phenylketonuria (PKU) known as “responders.” Although prior research has identified biochemical and genotypic differences between BH4 responders and non-responders, cognitive and neural differences remain largely unexplored. To this end, we compared intelligence and white matter integrity prior to treatment with BH4 in 13 subsequent BH4 responders with PKU, 16 subsequent BH4 non-responders with PKU, and 12 healthy controls. Results indicated poorer intelligence and white matter integrity in non-responders compared to responders prior to treatment. In addition, poorer white matter integrity was associated with greater variability in Phe across the lifetime in non-responders but not in responders. These results underscore the importance of considering PKU as a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional disorder and point to the need for additional research to delineate characteristics that predict response to treatment with BH4

Quantum Description of Nuclear Spin Cooling in a Quantum Dot

We study theoretically the cooling of an ensemble of nuclear spins coupled to the spin of a localized electron in a quantum dot. We obtain a master equation for the state of the nuclear spins interacting with a sequence of polarized electrons that allows us to study quantitatively the cooling process including the effect of nuclear spin coherences, which can lead to ``dark states'' of the nuclear system in which further cooling is inhibited. We show that the inhomogeneous Knight field mitigates this effect strongly and that the remaining dark state limitations can be overcome by very few shifts of the electron wave function, allowing for cooling far beyond the dark state limit. Numerical integration of the master equation indicates, that polarizations larger than 90% can be achieved within a millisecond timescale.Comment: published version; 9 pages, 4 figure

Quark confinement and color transparency in a gauge-invariant formulation of QCD

We examine a nonlocal interaction that results from expressing the QCD Hamiltonian entirely in terms of gauge-invariant quark and gluon fields. The interaction couples one quark color-charge density to another, much as electric charge densities are coupled to each other by the Coulomb interaction in QED. In QCD, this nonlocal interaction also couples quark color-charge densities to gluonic color. We show how the leading part of the interaction between quark color-charge densities vanishes when the participating quarks are in a color singlet configuration, and that, for singlet configurations, the residual interaction weakens as the size of a packet of quarks shrinks. Because of this effect, color-singlet packets of quarks should experience final state interactions that increase in strength as these packets expand in size. For the case of an SU(2) model of QCD based on the {\em ansatz} that the gauge-invariant gauge field is a hedgehog configuration, we show how the infinite series that represents the nonlocal interaction between quark color-charge densities can be evaluated nonperturbatively, without expanding it term-by-term. We discuss the implications of this model for QCD with SU(3) color and a gauge-invariant gauge field determined by QCD dynamics.Comment: Revtex, 23 pages; contains additional references with brief comments on sam

Particle Spectrum of the Supersymmetric Standard Model from the Massless Excitations of a Four Dimensional Superstring

A superstring action is quantised with Neveu Schwarz(NS) and Ramond(R) boundary conditions. The zero mass states of the NS sector are classified as the vector gluons, W-mesons, $B_{\mu}$-mesons and scalars containing Higgs. The fifteen zero mass fermions are obtained from the Ramond sector. A space time supersymmetric Hamiltonian of the Standard Model is presented without any conventional SUSY particles

From quantum pulse gate to quantum pulse shaper -- enigneered frequency conversion in nonlinear optical waveguides

Full control over the spatio-temporal structure of quantum states of light is an important goal in quantum optics, to generate for instance single-mode quantum pulses or to encode information on multiple modes, enhancing channel capacities. Quantum light pulses feature an inherent, rich spectral broadband-mode structure. In recent years, exploring the use of integrated optics as well as source-engineering has led to a deep understanding of the pulse-mode structure of guided quantum states of light. In addition, several groups have started to investigate the manipulation of quantum states by means of single-photon frequency conversion. In this paper we explore new routes towards complete control of the inherent pulse-modes of ultrafast pulsed quantum states by employing specifically designed nonlinear waveguides with adapted dispersion properties. Starting from our recently proposed quantum pulse gate (QPG) we further generalize the concept of spatio-spectral engineering for arbitrary \chitwo-based quantum processes. We analyse the sum-frequency generation based QPG and introduce the difference-frequency generation based quantum pulse shaper (QPS). Together, these versatile and robust integrated optics devices allow for arbitrary manipulations of the pulse-mode structure of ultrafast pulsed quantum states. The QPG can be utilized to select an arbitrary pulse mode from a multimode input state, whereas the QPS enables the generation of specific pulse modes from an input wavepacket with Gaussian-shaped spectrum.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Renormalization in Coulomb gauge QCD

In the Coulomb gauge of QCD, the Hamiltonian contains a non-linear Christ-Lee term, which may alternatively be derived from a careful treatment of ambiguous Feynman integrals at 2-loop order. We investigate how and if UV divergences from higher order graphs can be consistently absorbed by renormalization of the Christ-Lee term. We find that they cannot.Comment: 23 pages, 26 figure