Constrained Dynamics: Generalized Lie Symmetries, Singular Lagrangians, and the Passage to Hamiltonian Mechanics

Guided by the symmetries of the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion, a study of the constrained dynamics of singular Lagrangians is presented. We find that these equations of motion admit a generalized Lie symmetry, and on the Lagrangian phase space the generators of this symmetry lie in the kernel of the Lagrangian two-form. Solutions of the energy equation\textemdash called second-order, Euler-Lagrange vector fields (SOELVFs)\textemdash with integral flows that have this symmetry are determined. Importantly, while second-order, Lagrangian vector fields are not such a solution, it is always possible to construct from them a SOELVF that is. We find that all SOELVFs are projectable to the Hamiltonian phase space, as are all the dynamical structures in the Lagrangian phase space needed for their evolution. In particular, the primary Hamiltonian constraints can be constructed from vectors that lie in the kernel of the Lagrangian two-form, and with this construction, we show that the Lagrangian constraint algorithm for the SOELVF is equivalent to the stability analysis of the total Hamiltonian. Importantly, the end result of this stability analysis gives a Hamiltonian vector field that is the projection of the SOELVF obtained from the Lagrangian constraint algorithm. The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of mechanics for singular Lagrangians are in this way equivalent.Comment: 45 pages. Published paper is open access, and can be found either at the Journal of Physics Communications website or at the DOI belo

Generalized Lie Symmetries and Almost Regular Lagrangians: A Link Between Symmetry and Dynamics

The generalized Lie symmetries of almost regular Lagrangians are studied, and their impact on the evolution of dynamical systems is determined. It is found that if the action has a generalized Lie symmetry, then the Lagrangian is necessarily singular; the converse is not true, as we show with a specific example. It is also found that the generalized Lie symmetry of the action is a Lie subgroup of the generalized Lie symmetry of the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion. The converse is once again not true, and there are systems for which the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion have a generalized Lie symmetry while the action does not, as we once again show through a specific example. Most importantly, it is shown that each generalized Lie symmetry of the action contributes one arbitrary function to the evolution of the dynamical system. The number of such symmetries gives a lower bound to the dimensionality of the family of curves emanating from any set of allowed initial data in the Lagrangian phase space. Moreover, if second- or higher-order Lagrangian constraints are introduced during the application of the Lagrangian constraint algorithm, these additional constraints could not have been due to the generalized Lie symmetry of the action.Comment: 34 pages with one table. Published paper is open access, and can be found either at the Journal of Physics Communications website or at the DOI below. This is a follow-up paper to "Constrained Dynamics: Generalized Lie Symmetries, Singular Lagrangians, and the Passage to Hamiltonian Mechanics", DOI: 10.1088/2399-6528/ab923c. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2006.0261

Efficient measurement-based quantum computing with continuous-variable systems

We present strictly efficient schemes for scalable measurement-based quantum computing using continuous-variable systems: These schemes are based on suitable non-Gaussian resource states, ones that can be prepared using interactions of light with matter systems or even purely optically. Merely Gaussian measurements such as optical homodyning as well as photon counting measurements are required, on individual sites. These schemes overcome limitations posed by Gaussian cluster states, which are known not to be universal for quantum computations of unbounded length, unless one is willing to scale the degree of squeezing with the total system size. We establish a framework derived from tensor networks and matrix product states with infinite physical dimension and finite auxiliary dimension general enough to provide a framework for such schemes. Since in the discussed schemes the logical encoding is finite-dimensional, tools of error correction are applicable. We also identify some further limitations for any continuous-variable computing scheme from which one can argue that no substantially easier ways of continuous-variable measurement-based computing than the presented one can exist.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Noise-free high-efficiency photon-number-resolving detectors

High-efficiency optical detectors that can determine the number of photons in a pulse of monochromatic light have applications in a variety of physics studies, including post-selection-based entanglement protocols for linear optics quantum computing and experiments that simultaneously close the detection and communication loopholes of Bell's inequalities. Here we report on our demonstration of fiber-coupled, noise-free, photon-number-resolving transition-edge sensors with 88% efficiency at 1550 nm. The efficiency of these sensors could be made even higher at any wavelength in the visible and near-infrared spectrum without resulting in a higher dark-count rate or degraded photon-number resolution.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures Published in Physical Review A, Rapid Communications, 17 June 200

Shared Responsibilities for Nuclear Disarmament: A Global Debate

Presents Sagan's 2009 paper calling for rethinking the balance of responsibilities and the relationship between articles in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with seven response papers by international scholars about how to pursue nuclear disarmament

Pulsed squeezed vacuum characterization without homodyning

Direct photon detection is experimentally implemented to measure the squeezing and purity of a single-mode squeezed vacuum state without an interferometric homodyne detection. Following a recent theoretical proposal [arXiv quant-ph/0311119], the setup only requires a tunable beamsplitter and a single-photon detector to fully characterize the generated Gaussian states. The experimental implementation of this procedure is discussed and compared with other reference methods.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Photon-number-solving Decoy State Quantum Key Distribution

In this paper, a photon-number-resolving decoy state quantum key distribution scheme is presented based on recent experimental advancements. A new upper bound on the fraction of counts caused by multiphoton pulses is given. This upper bound is independent of intensity of the decoy source, so that both the signal pulses and the decoy pulses can be used to generate the raw key after verified the security of the communication. This upper bound is also the lower bound on the fraction of counts caused by multiphoton pulses as long as faint coherent sources and high lossy channels are used. We show that Eve's coherent multiphoton pulse (CMP) attack is more efficient than symmetric individual (SI) attack when quantum bit error rate is small, so that CMP attack should be considered to ensure the security of the final key. finally, optimal intensity of laser source is presented which provides 23.9 km increase in the transmission distance. 03.67.DdComment: This is a detailed and extended version of quant-ph/0504221. In this paper, a detailed discussion of photon-number-resolving QKD scheme is presented. Moreover, the detailed discussion of coherent multiphoton pulse attack (CMP) is presented. 2 figures and some discussions are added. A detailed cauculation of the "new" upper bound 'is presente