Beam instabilities in Very Large Hadron Collider

The Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC) is a supercon-ducting proton-proton collider with approximately 100 TeV cm and approximately 10{sup 34} s{sup -1}cm{sup -2} luminosity [1]. Currently, beam dynamics in this future accelerator is the subject of intensive studies within the framework of the US-wide VLHC R&D program. This presentation sum-marizes recent developments in the field. Besides general discussion on relevant VLHC parameters, we consider various beam instabilities and ways to avoid them. Finally, we outline possibilities for theoretical and experimental R&D

Radio-frequency Bloch-transistor electrometer

A quantum-limited electrometer based on charge modulation of the Josephson supercurrent in the Bloch transistor inserted into a superconducting ring is proposed. As this ring is inductive coupled to a high-Q resonance tank circuit, the variations of the charge on the transistor island (input signal) are converted into variations of amplitude and phase of radio-frequency oscillations in the tank. These variations are amplified and then detected. The output noise, the back-action fluctuations and their cross-correlation are computed. It is shown that our device enables measurements of the charge with a sensitivity which is determined by the energy resolution of its amplifier, that can be reduced down to the standard quantum limit of \hbar/2. On the basis of this setup a "back-action-evading" scheme of the charge measurements is proposed.Comment: 5 pages incl. 2 figure

Picard group of hypersurfaces in toric 3-folds

We show that the usual sufficient criterion for a generic hypersurface in a smooth projective manifold to have the same Picard number as the ambient variety can be generalized to hypersurfaces in complete simplicial toric varieties. This sufficient condition is always satisfied by generic K3 surfaces embedded in Fano toric 3-folds.Comment: 14 pages. v2: some typos corrected. v3: Slightly changed title. Final version to appear in Int. J. Math., incorporates many (mainly expository) changes suggested by the refere

Effects of quasiparticle tunneling in a circuit-QED realization of a strongly driven two-level system

We experimentally and theoretically study the frequency shift of a driven cavity coupled to a superconducting charge qubit. In addition to previous studies, we here also consider drive strengths large enough to energetically allow for quasiparticle creation. Quasiparticle tunneling leads to the inclusion of more than two charge states in the dynamics. To explain the observed effects, we develop a master equation for the microwave dressed charge states, including quasiparticle tunneling. A bimodal behavior of the frequency shift as a function of gate voltage can be used for sensitive charge detection. However, at weak drives the charge sensitivity is significantly reduced by non-equilibrium quasiparticles, which induce transitions to a non-sensitive state. Unexpectedly, at high enough drives, quasiparticle tunneling enables a very fast relaxation channel to the sensitive state. In this regime, the charge sensitivity is thus robust against externally injected quasiparticles and the desired dynamics prevail over a broad range of temperatures. We find very good agreement between theory and experiment over a wide range of drive strengths and temperatures.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Three-body problem for ultracold atoms in quasi-one-dimensional traps

We study the three-body problem for both fermionic and bosonic cold atom gases in a parabolic transverse trap of lengthscale $a_\perp$. For this quasi-one-dimensional (1D) problem, there is a two-body bound state (dimer) for any sign of the 3D scattering length $a$, and a confinement-induced scattering resonance. The fermionic three-body problem is universal and characterized by two atom-dimer scattering lengths, $a_{ad}$ and $b_{ad}$. In the tightly bound `dimer limit', $a_\perp/a\to\infty$, we find $b_{ad}=0$, and $a_{ad}$ is linked to the 3D atom-dimer scattering length. In the weakly bound `BCS limit', $a_\perp/a\to-\infty$, a connection to the Bethe Ansatz is established, which allows for exact results. The full crossover is obtained numerically. The bosonic three-body problem, however, is non-universal: $a_{ad}$ and $b_{ad}$ depend both on $a_\perp/a$ and on a parameter $R^*$ related to the sharpness of the resonance. Scattering solutions are qualitatively similar to fermionic ones. We predict the existence of a single confinement-induced three-body bound state (trimer) for bosons.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PRA, appendix on the derivation of an integral formula for the Hurvitz zeta functio

Parity nonconservation effects in the photodesintegration of polarized deuterons

P-odd correlations in the deuteron photodesintegration are considered. The $\pi$-meson exchange is not operative in the case of unpolarized deuterons. For polarized deuterons a P-odd correlation due to the $\pi$-meson exchange is about $3 \times 10^{-9}$. Short-distance P-odd contributions exceed essentially than the contribution of the $\pi$-meson exchange.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 3 figure

Dynamic parity recovery in a strongly driven Cooper-pair box

We study a superconducting charge qubit coupled to an intensive electromagnetic field and probe changes in the resonance frequency of the formed dressed states. At large driving strengths, exceeding the qubit energy-level splitting, this reveals the well known Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg (LZS) interference structure of a longitudinally driven two-level system. For even stronger drives we observe a significant change in the LZS pattern and contrast. We attribute this to photon-assisted quasiparticle tunneling in the qubit. This results in the recovery of the qubit parity, eliminating effects of quasiparticle poisoning and leads to an enhanced interferometric response. The interference pattern becomes robust to quasiparticle poisoning and has a good potential for accurate charge sensing.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Targeting Neddylation Induces DNA Damage and Checkpoint Activation and Sensitizes Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia B Cells to Alkylating Agents

Microenvironment-mediated upregulation of the B-cell receptor (BCR) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling in CLL cells resident in the lymph node and bone marrow promotes apoptosis evasion and clonal expansion. We recently reported that MLN4924 (pevonedistat), an investigational agent that inhibits the NEDD8-activating enzyme (NAE), abrogates stromal-mediated NF-κB pathway activity and CLL cell survival. However, the NAE pathway also assists degradation of multiple other substrates. MLN4924 has been shown to induce DNA damage and cell cycle arrest, but the importance of this mechanism in primary neoplastic B cells has not been studied. Here we mimicked the lymph node microenvironment using CD40 ligand (CD40L)-expressing stroma and interleukin-21 (IL-21) to find that inducing proliferation of the primary CLL cells conferred enhanced sensitivity to NAE inhibition. Treatment of the CD40-stimulated CLL cells with MLN4924 resulted in deregulation of Cdt1, a DNA replication licensing factor, and cell cycle inhibitors p21 and p27. This led to DNA damage, checkpoint activation and G2 arrest. Alkylating agents bendamustine and chlorambucil enhanced MLN4924-mediated DNA damage and apoptosis. These events were more prominent in cells stimulated with IL-21 compared with CD40L alone, indicating that, following NAE inhibition, the culture conditions were able to direct CLL cell fate from an NF-κB inhibition to a Cdt1 induction program. Our data provide insight into the biological consequences of targeting NAE in CLL and serves as further rationale for studying the clinical activity of MLN4924 in CLL, particularly in combination with alkylating agents

Magnetooptical Study of Zeeman Effect in Mn modulation-doped InAs/InGaAs/InAlAs Quantum Well Structures

We report on a magneto-photoluminescence (PL) study of Mn modulation-doped InAs/InGaAs/InAlAs quantum wells. Two PL lines corresponding to the radiative recombination of photoelectrons with free and bound-on-Mn holes have been observed. In the presence of a magnetic field applied in the Faraday geometry both lines split into two circularly polarized components. While temperature and magnetic field dependences of the splitting are well described by the Brillouin function, providing an evidence for exchange interaction with spin polarized manganese ions, the value of the splitting exceeds the expected value of the giant Zeeman splitting by two orders of magnitude for a given Mn density. Possible reasons of this striking observation are discussed