Miniaturized fibre-top cantilevers on etched fibres

Fibre-top probes are self-aligned, all optical devices obtained by carving a cantilever on top of a 125-μm diameter single-mode optical fibre. In this paper, we show that this design can be adapted to smaller fibres as well. We evaluated the performance of a 20-μm diameter probe in contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) and that of a 50-μm diameter probe in nanoindentation measurements. AFM images proved to be accurate both in air and water, although some distortion was observed because of the mechanical bending of the fibre during scanning. Indentation curves resembled those obtained with larger devices. The maximum indentation depth, however, is limited by the small dimensions of the cantilever

Information loss in local dissipation environments

The sensitivity of entanglement to the thermal and squeezed reservoirs' parameters is investigated regarding entanglement decay and what is called sudden-death of entanglement, ESD, for a system of two qubit pairs. The dynamics of information is investigated by means of the information disturbance and exchange information. We show that for squeezed reservoir, we can keep both of the entanglement and information survival for a long time. The sudden death of information is seen in the case of thermal reservoir

Non-Markovian entanglement dynamics in coupled superconducting qubit systems

We theoretically analyze the entanglement generation and dynamics by coupled Josephson junction qubits. Considering a current-biased Josephson junction (CBJJ), we generate maximally entangled states. In particular, the entanglement dynamics is considered as a function of the decoherence parameters, such as the temperature, the ratio $r\equiv\omega_c/\omega_0$ between the reservoir cutoff frequency $\omega_c$ and the system oscillator frequency $\omega_0$, % between $\omega_0$ the characteristic frequency of the %quantum system of interest, and $\omega_c$ the cut-off frequency of %Ohmic reservoir and the energy levels split of the superconducting circuits in the non-Markovian master equation. We analyzed the entanglement sudden death (ESD) and entanglement sudden birth (ESB) by the non-Markovian master equation. Furthermore, we find that the larger the ratio $r$ and the thermal energy $k_BT$, the shorter the decoherence. In this superconducting qubit system we find that the entanglement can be controlled and the ESD time can be prolonged by adjusting the temperature and the superconducting phases $\Phi_k$ which split the energy levels.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

A framework for bounding nonlocality of state discrimination

We consider the class of protocols that can be implemented by local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC) between two parties. In particular, we focus on the task of discriminating a known set of quantum states by LOCC. Building on the work in the paper "Quantum nonlocality without entanglement" [BDF+99], we provide a framework for bounding the amount of nonlocality in a given set of bipartite quantum states in terms of a lower bound on the probability of error in any LOCC discrimination protocol. We apply our framework to an orthonormal product basis known as the domino states and obtain an alternative and simplified proof that quantifies its nonlocality. We generalize this result for similar bases in larger dimensions, as well as the "rotated" domino states, resolving a long-standing open question [BDF+99].Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

GaN and InN nanowires grown by MBE: a comparison

Morphological, optical and transport properties of GaN and InN nanowires grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) have been studied. The differences between the two materials in respect to growth parameters and optimization procedure was stressed. The nanowires crystalline quality has been investigated by means of their optical properties. A comparison of the transport characteristics was given. For each material a band schema was shown, which takes into account transport and optical features and is based on Fermi level pinning at the surface.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Charmless Bs→PP,PV,VVB_s\to PP, PV, VV Decays Based on the six-quark Effective Hamiltonian with Strong Phase Effects II

We provide a systematic study of charmless $B_s \to PP, PV, VV$ decays ($P$ and $V$ denote pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) based on an approximate six-quark operator effective Hamiltonian from QCD. The calculation of the relevant hard-scattering kernels is carried out, the resulting transition form factors are consistent with the results of QCD sum rule calculations. By taking into account important classes of power corrections involving "chirally-enhanced" terms and the vertex corrections as well as weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase, we present predictions for the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B_s$ decays into PP, PV and VV final states, and also for the corresponding polarization observables in VV final states. It is found that the weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase have remarkable effects on the observables in the color-suppressed and penguin-dominated decay modes. In addition, we discuss the SU(3) flavor symmetry and show that the symmetry relations are generally respected

Endoglin targeting inhibits tumor angiogenesis and metastatic spread in breast cancer

Endoglin, a transforming growth factor-beta co-receptor, is highly expressed on angiogenic endothelial cells in solid tumors. Therefore, targeting endoglin is currently being explored in clinical trials for anti-angiogenic therapy. In this project, the redundancy between endoglin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling in angiogenesis and the effects of targeting both pathways on breast cancer metastasis were explored. In patient samples, increased endoglin signaling after VEGF inhibition was observed. In vitro TRC105, an endoglin-neutralizing antibody, increased VEGF signaling in endothelial cells. Moreover, combined targeting of the endoglin and VEGF pathway, with the VEGF receptor kinase inhibitor SU5416, increased antiangiogenic effects in vitro and in a zebrafish angiogenesis model. Next, in a mouse model for invasive lobular breast cancer, the effects of TRC105 and SU5416 on tumor growth and metastasis were explored. Although TRC105 and SU5416 decreased tumor vascular density, tumor volume was unaffected. Strikingly, in mice treated with TRC105, or TRC105 and SU5416 combined, a strong inhibition in the number of metastases was seen. Moreover, upon resection of the primary tumor, strong inhibition of metastatic spread by TRC105 was observed in an adjuvant setting. To confirm these data, we assessed the effects of endoglin-Fc (an endoglin ligand trap) on metastasis formation. Similar to treatment with TRC105 in the resection model, endoglin-Fc-expressing tumors showed strong inhibition of distant metastases. These results show, for the first time, that targeting endoglin, either with neutralizing antibodies or a ligand trap, strongly inhibits metastatic spread of breast cancer in vivo.Surgical oncolog

Correlation dynamics of three spin under a classical dephasing environment

By starting from the stochastic Hamiltonian of the three correlated spins and modeling their frequency fluctuations as caused by dephasing noisy environments described by Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes, we study the dynamics of quantum correlations, including entanglement and quantum discord. We prepared initially our open system with Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger or W state and present the exact solutions for evolution dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord between three spins under both Markovian and non-Markovian regime of this classical noise. By comparison the dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord we find that entanglement can be more robust than quantum discord against this noise. It is shown that by considering non-Markovian extensions the survival time of correlations prolong.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of Cosmic-ray Muon-induced Spallation Neutrons in the Aberdeen Tunnel Underground Laboratory

AbstractMuon-induced neutrons are one of the major backgrounds to various underground experiments, such as dark matter searches, low-energy neutrino oscillation experiments and neutrino-less double beta-decay experiments. Previous experiments on the underground production rate of muon-induced neutrons were mostly carried out either at shallow sites or at very deep sites. The Aberdeen Tunnel experiment aims to measure the neutron production rate at a moderate depth of 611 meters water equivalent. Our apparatus comprises of six layers of plastic-scintillator hodoscopes for tracking the incident cosmic-ray muons, and 760 L of gadolinium-doped liquid-scintillator for both neutron production and detection targets. In this paper, we describe the design and the performance of the apparatus. The preliminary result on the measurement of neutron production rate is also presented

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for D0→K−e+νeD^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e and D0→π−e+νeD^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e and Determinations of the Form Factors f+K(0)f_{+}^{K}(0) and f+π(0)f^{\pi}_{+}(0)

The absolute branching fractions for the decays $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ are determined using $7584\pm 198 \pm 341$ singly tagged $\bar D^0$ sample from the data collected around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC. In the system recoiling against the singly tagged $\bar D^0$ meson, $104.0\pm 10.9$ events for $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $9.0 \pm 3.6$ events for $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ decays are observed. Those yield the absolute branching fractions to be $BF(D^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e)=(3.82 \pm 0.40\pm 0.27)$ and $BF(D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e)=(0.33 \pm 0.13\pm 0.03)$. The vector form factors are determined to be $|f^K_+(0)| = 0.78 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$ and $|f^{\pi}_+(0)| = 0.73 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.06$. The ratio of the two form factors is measured to be $|f^{\pi}_+(0)/f^K_+(0)|= 0.93 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure