7,673 research outputs found
Comment on "Magnetic response of Disordered Metallic Rings: Large Contributions of Far Levels"
Comment on cond-mat/0205390; PRL 90, 026805 (2003
Ion trap transducers for quantum electromechanical oscillators
An enduring challenge for contemporary physics is to experimentally observe
and control quantum behavior in macroscopic systems. We show that a single
trapped atomic ion could be used to probe the quantum nature of a mesoscopic
mechanical oscillator precooled to 4K, and furthermore, to cool the oscillator
with high efficiency to its quantum ground state. The proposed experiment could
be performed using currently available technology.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Consumer Purchases of Biotech Sweet Corn: Results from a Market Experiment
In the increasingly consumer-driven food system, consumer preferences toward agricultural biotechnology have the potential to influence decisions about development and adoption of biotech crop varieties. Current knowledge about consumer attitudes toward biotech foods is largely based on a number of consumer surveys and a growing body of experimental auctions. This paper reports results of a market experiment designed to isolate the effect of the use of biotechnology on consumer choices between two otherwise identical products. Two related varieties of fresh-market sweet corn were grown, labeled, and sold side-by-side in nine participating grocery stores in the Philadelphia area. Sales data indicate a market share of biotech corn of about 45 percent, with store-specific shares varying between 10 and 80 percent. Over 700 surveys were collected in stores. Surprisingly, only 65 percent of respondents noticed that there were two types of corn for sale despite the labeling and merchandising, and 87 percent of the sample spent one minute or less choosing their corn. About half of the respondents had heard of biotechnology before, and 16 percent volunteered the biotechnology trait as an influence on their purchase decision. Approximately 40 percent of the sample purchased some of the biotech variety, with several respondents purchasing some of each.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,
Sparse Deterministic Approximation of Bayesian Inverse Problems
We present a parametric deterministic formulation of Bayesian inverse
problems with input parameter from infinite dimensional, separable Banach
spaces. In this formulation, the forward problems are parametric, deterministic
elliptic partial differential equations, and the inverse problem is to
determine the unknown, parametric deterministic coefficients from noisy
observations comprising linear functionals of the solution.
We prove a generalized polynomial chaos representation of the posterior
density with respect to the prior measure, given noisy observational data. We
analyze the sparsity of the posterior density in terms of the summability of
the input data's coefficient sequence. To this end, we estimate the
fluctuations in the prior. We exhibit sufficient conditions on the prior model
in order for approximations of the posterior density to converge at a given
algebraic rate, in terms of the number of unknowns appearing in the
parameteric representation of the prior measure. Similar sparsity and
approximation results are also exhibited for the solution and covariance of the
elliptic partial differential equation under the posterior. These results then
form the basis for efficient uncertainty quantification, in the presence of
data with noise
A high-reflectivity high-Q micromechanical Bragg-mirror
We report on the fabrication and characterization of a micromechanical
oscillator consisting only of a free-standing dielectric Bragg mirror with high
optical reflectivity and high mechanical quality. The fabrication technique is
a hybrid approach involving laser ablation and dry etching. The mirror has a
reflectivity of 99.6%, a mass of 400ng, and a mechanical quality factor Q of
approximately 10^4. Using this micromirror in a Fabry Perot cavity, a finesse
of 500 has been achieved. This is an important step towards designing tunable
high-Q high-finesse cavities on chip.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
Small quantum networks operating as quantum thermodynamic machines
We show that a 3-qubit system as studied for quantum information purposes can
alternatively be used as a thermodynamic machine when driven in finite time and
interfaced between two split baths. The spins are arranged in a chain where the
working spin in the middle exercises Carnot cycles the area of which defines
the exchanged work. The cycle orientation (sign of the exchanged work) flips as
the difference of bath temperatures goes through a critical value.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 7 figures. Replaced by version accepted for
publication in EP
Integer Spin Hall Effect in Ballistic Quantum Wires
We investigate the ballistic electron transport in a two dimensional Quantum
Wire under the action of an electric field (). We demonstrate how the
presence of a Spin Orbit coupling, due to the uniform electric confinement
field gives a non-commutative effect as in the presence of a transverse
magnetic field.
We discuss how the non commutation implies an edge localization of the
currents depending on the electron spins also giving a semi-classical spin
dependent Hall current.
We also discuss how it is possible obtain a quantized Spin Hall conductance
in the ballistic transport regime by developing the Landauer formalism and show
the coupling between the spin magnetic momentum and the orbital one due to the
presence of a circulating current.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B, PACS:
72.25.-b, 72.10.-d, 72.15.Rn, 73.23.-b, 71.10.P
The Energetic Costs of Cellular Computation
Cells often perform computations in response to environmental cues. A simple
example is the classic problem, first considered by Berg and Purcell, of
determining the concentration of a chemical ligand in the surrounding media. On
general theoretical grounds (Landuer's Principle), it is expected that such
computations require cells to consume energy. Here, we explicitly calculate the
energetic costs of computing ligand concentration for a simple two-component
cellular network that implements a noisy version of the Berg-Purcell strategy.
We show that learning about external concentrations necessitates the breaking
of detailed balance and consumption of energy, with greater learning requiring
more energy. Our calculations suggest that the energetic costs of cellular
computation may be an important constraint on networks designed to function in
resource poor environments such as the spore germination networks of bacteria.Comment: 9 Pages (including Appendix); 4 Figures; v3 corrects even more typo
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