Relaxation due to random collisions with a many-qudit environment

We analyze the dynamics of a system qudit of dimension mu sequentially interacting with the nu-dimensional qudits of a chain playing the ore of an environment. Each pairwise collision has been modeled as a random unitary transformation. The relaxation to equilibrium of the purity of the system qudit, averaged over random collisions, is analytically computed by means of a Markov chain approach. In particular, we show that the steady state is the one corresponding to the steady state for random collisions with a single environment qudit of effective dimension nu_e=nu*mu. Finally, we numerically investigate aspects of the entanglement dynamics for qubits (mu=nu=2) and show that random unitary collisions can create multipartite entanglement between the system qudit and the qudits of the chain.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Incoherent Noise and Quantum Information Processing

Incoherence in the controlled Hamiltonian is an important limitation on the precision of coherent control in quantum information processing. Incoherence can typically be modelled as a distribution of unitary processes arising from slowly varying experimental parameters. We show how it introduces artifacts in quantum process tomography and we explain how the resulting estimate of the superoperator may not be completely positive. We then go on to attack the inverse problem of extracting an effective distribution of unitaries that characterizes the incoherence via a perturbation theory analysis of the superoperator eigenvalue spectra.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, replaced with future JCP published versio

Efficient Symmetry Reduction and the Use of State Symmetries for Symbolic Model Checking

One technique to reduce the state-space explosion problem in temporal logic model checking is symmetry reduction. The combination of symmetry reduction and symbolic model checking by using BDDs suffered a long time from the prohibitively large BDD for the orbit relation. Dynamic symmetry reduction calculates representatives of equivalence classes of states dynamically and thus avoids the construction of the orbit relation. In this paper, we present a new efficient model checking algorithm based on dynamic symmetry reduction. Our experiments show that the algorithm is very fast and allows the verification of larger systems. We additionally implemented the use of state symmetries for symbolic symmetry reduction. To our knowledge we are the first who investigated state symmetries in combination with BDD based symbolic model checking

Fidelity Decay as an Efficient Indicator of Quantum Chaos

Recent work has connected the type of fidelity decay in perturbed quantum models to the presence of chaos in the associated classical models. We demonstrate that a system's rate of fidelity decay under repeated perturbations may be measured efficiently on a quantum information processor, and analyze the conditions under which this indicator is a reliable probe of quantum chaos and related statistical properties of the unperturbed system. The type and rate of the decay are not dependent on the eigenvalue statistics of the unperturbed system, but depend on the system's eigenvector statistics in the eigenbasis of the perturbation operator. For random eigenvector statistics the decay is exponential with a rate fixed precisely by the variance of the perturbation's energy spectrum. Hence, even classically regular models can exhibit an exponential fidelity decay under generic quantum perturbations. These results clarify which perturbations can distinguish classically regular and chaotic quantum systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX; published version (revised introduction and discussion

The Quantum Mechanics of Hyperion

This paper is motivated by the suggestion [W. Zurek, Physica Scripta, T76, 186 (1998)] that the chaotic tumbling of the satellite Hyperion would become non-classical within 20 years, but for the effects of environmental decoherence. The dynamics of quantum and classical probability distributions are compared for a satellite rotating perpendicular to its orbital plane, driven by the gravitational gradient. The model is studied with and without environmental decoherence. Without decoherence, the maximum quantum-classical (QC) differences in its average angular momentum scale as hbar^{2/3} for chaotic states, and as hbar^2 for non-chaotic states, leading to negligible QC differences for a macroscopic object like Hyperion. The quantum probability distributions do not approach their classical limit smoothly, having an extremely fine oscillatory structure superimposed on the smooth classical background. For a macroscopic object, this oscillatory structure is too fine to be resolved by any realistic measurement. Either a small amount of smoothing (due to the finite resolution of the apparatus) or a very small amount of environmental decoherence is sufficient ensure the classical limit. Under decoherence, the QC differences in the probability distributions scale as (hbar^2/D)^{1/6}, where D is the momentum diffusion parameter. We conclude that decoherence is not essential to explain the classical behavior of macroscopic bodies.Comment: 17 pages, 24 figure

Robust Control of Quantum Information

Errors in the control of quantum systems may be classified as unitary, decoherent and incoherent. Unitary errors are systematic, and result in a density matrix that differs from the desired one by a unitary operation. Decoherent errors correspond to general completely positive superoperators, and can only be corrected using methods such as quantum error correction. Incoherent errors can also be described, on average, by completely positive superoperators, but can nevertheless be corrected by the application of a locally unitary operation that ``refocuses'' them. They are due to reproducible spatial or temporal variations in the system's Hamiltonian, so that information on the variations is encoded in the system's spatiotemporal state and can be used to correct them. In this paper liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is used to demonstrate that such refocusing effects can be built directly into the control fields, where the incoherence arises from spatial inhomogeneities in the quantizing static magnetic field as well as the radio-frequency control fields themselves. Using perturbation theory, it is further shown that the eigenvalue spectrum of the completely positive superoperator exhibits a characteristic spread that contains information on the Hamiltonians' underlying distribution.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Modulation of Tyrosine Hydroxylase, Neuropeptide Y, Glutamate, and Substance P in Ganglia and Brain Areas Involved in Cardiovascular Control after Chronic Exposure to Nicotine

Considering that nicotine instantly interacts with central and peripheral nervous systems promoting cardiovascular effects after tobacco smoking, we evaluated the modulation of glutamate, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and substance P (SP) in nodose/petrosal and superior cervical ganglia, as well as TH and NPY in nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) and hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) after 8 weeks of nicotine exposure. Immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization data demonstrated increased expression of TH in brain and ganglia related to blood pressure control, preferentially in SHR, after nicotine exposure. The alkaloid also increased NPY immunoreactivity in ganglia, NTS, and PVN of SHR, in spite of decreasing its receptor (NPY1R) binding in NTS of both strains. Nicotine increased SP and glutamate in ganglia. In summary, nicotine positively modulated the studied variables in ganglia while its central effects were mainly constrained to SHR

Submillimeter mapping and analysis of cold dust condensations in the Orion M42 star forming complex

We present here the continuum submillimeter maps of the molecular cloud around the M42 Nebula in the Orion region. These have been obtained in four wavelength bands (200, 260, 360 and 580 microns) with the ProNaOS two meter balloon-borne telescope. The area covered is 7 parsecs wide (50 arcmin at a distance of 470 pc) with a spatial resolution of about 0.4 parsec. Thanks to the high sensitivity to faint surface brightness gradients, we have found several cold condensations with temperatures ranging from 12 to 17 K, within 3 parsecs of the dense ridge. The statistical analysis of the temperature and spectral index spatial distribution shows an evidence of an inverse correlation between these two parameters. Being invisible in the IRAS 100 micron survey, some cold clouds are likely to be the seeds for future star formation activity going on in the complex. We estimate their masses and we show that two of them have masses higher than their Jeans masses, and may be gravitationally unstable.Comment: 4 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, Main Journal, in pres