Quantum thermodynamics of the resonant-level model with driven system-bath coupling

We study nonequilibrium thermodynamics in a fermionic resonant level model with arbitrary coupling strength to a fermionic bath, taking the wide-band limit. In contrast to previous theories, we consider a system where both the level energy and the coupling strength depend explicitly on time. We find that, even in this generalized model, consistent thermodynamic laws can be obtained, up to the second order in the drive speed, by splitting the coupling energy symmetrically between system and bath. We define observables for the system energy, work, heat, and entropy, and calculate them using nonequilibrium Green's functions. We find that the observables fulfill the laws of thermodynamics, and connect smoothly to the known equilibrium results.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Synthesis and characterization of the N-terminal acetylated 17-23 fragment of thymosin beta 4 identified in TB-500, a product suspected to possess doping potential

A

Fermionic reaction coordinates and their application to an autonomous Maxwell demon in the strong coupling regime

We establish a theoretical method which goes beyond the weak coupling and Markovian approximations while remaining intuitive, using a quantum master equation in a larger Hilbert space. The method is applicable to all impurity Hamiltonians tunnel-coupled to one (or multiple) baths of free fermions. The accuracy of the method is in principle not limited by the system-bath coupling strength, but rather by the shape of the spectral density and it is especially suited to study situations far away from the wide-band limit. In analogy to the bosonic case, we call it the fermionic reaction coordinate mapping. As an application we consider a thermoelectric device made of two Coulomb-coupled quantum dots. We pay particular attention to the regime where this device operates as an autonomous Maxwell demon shoveling electrons against the voltage bias thanks to information. Contrary to previous studies we do not rely on a Markovian weak coupling description. Our numerical findings reveal that in the regime of strong coupling and non-Markovianity, the Maxwell demon is often doomed to disappear except in a narrow parameter regime of small power output.Comment: 18 pages incl. references, appendix and 10 figures; accepted versio

Modeling Self-Subtraction in Angular Differential Imaging: Application to the HD 32297 Debris Disk

We present a new technique for forward-modeling self-subtraction of spatially extended emission in observations processed with angular differential imaging (ADI) algorithms. High-contrast direct imaging of circumstellar disks is limited by quasi-static speckle noise and ADI is commonly used to suppress those speckles. However, the application of ADI can result in self-subtraction of the disk signal due to the disk's finite spatial extent. This signal attenuation varies with radial separation and biases measurements of the disk's surface brightness, thereby compromising inferences regarding the physical processes responsible for the dust distribution. To compensate for this attenuation, we forward-model the disk structure and compute the form of the self-subtraction function at each separation. As a proof of concept, we apply our method to 1.6 and 2.2 micron Keck AO NIRC2 scattered-light observations of the HD 32297 debris disk reduced using a variant of the "locally optimized combination of images" (LOCI) algorithm. We are able to recover disk surface brightness that was otherwise lost to self-subtraction and produce simplified models of the brightness distribution as it appears with and without self-subtraction. From the latter models, we extract radial profiles for the disk's brightness, width, midplane position, and color that are unbiased by self-subtraction. Our analysis of these measurements indicates a break in the brightness profile power law at r~110 AU and a disk width that increases with separation from the star. We also verify disk curvature that displaces the midplane by up to 30 AU towards the northwest relative to a straight fiducial midplane.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl

Backup Tapes, You Can’t Live With Them And You Can’t Toss Them: Strategies For Dealing With The Litigation Burdens Associated With Backup Tapes Under The Amended Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure

The law in the federal courts governing whether litigants must disclose their backup tapes just changed. Faced with the cost, burdens and uncertainties of mining backup tapes, as well as other sources of data that are difficult to reach, most litigants have simply been ignoring their backup tapes. No more. The amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure adopt a new standard that embraces the Zubulake I distinction between “accessible” and “inaccessible” data, and requires the disclosing party to identify all its sources of data

Shallow submarine hydrothermal systems in the Aeolian Volcanic Arc, Italy

The majority of known high-temperature hydrothermal vents occur at mid-ocean ridges and back-arc spreading centers, typically at water depths from 2000 to 4000 meters. Compared with 30 years of hydrothermal research along spreading centers in the deep parts of the ocean, exploration of the approximately 700 submarine arc volcanoes is relatively recent [de Ronde et al., 2003]. At these submarine arc volcanoes, active hydrothermal vents are located at unexpectedly shallow water depth (95% at <1600-meter depth), which has important consequences for the style of venting, the nature of associated mineral deposits, and the local biological communities. As part of an ongoing multinational research effort to study shallow submarine volcanic arcs, two hydrothermal systems in the submerged part of the Aeolian arc have been investigated in detail during research cruises by R/V Poseidon (July 2006) and R/V Meteor (August 2007). Comprehensive seafloor video surveys were conducted using a remotely operated vehicle, and drilling to a depth of 5 meters was carried out using a lander-type submersible drill. This research has resulted in the first detailed, three-dimensional documentation of shallow submarine hydrothermal systems on arc volcanoe

A convenient Keldysh contour for thermodynamically consistent perturbative and semiclassical expansions

The work fluctuation theorem (FT) is a symmetry connecting the moment generating functions (MGFs) of the work extracted in a given process and in its time-reversed counterpart. We show that, equivalently, the FT for work in isolated quantum systems can be expressed as an invariance property of a modified Keldysh contour. Modified contours can be used as starting points of perturbative and path integral approaches to quantum thermodynamics, as recently pointed out in the literature. After reviewing the derivation of the contour-based perturbation theory, we use the symmetry of the modified contour to show that the theory satisfies the FT at every order. Furthermore, we extend textbook diagrammatic techniques to the computation of work MGFs, showing that the contributions of the different Feynman diagrams can be added to obtain a general expression of the work statistics in terms of a sum of independent rescaled Poisson processes. In this context, the FT takes the form of a detailed balance condition linking every Feynman diagram with its time-reversed variant. In the second part, we study path integral approaches to the calculation of the MGF, and discuss how the arbitrariness in the choice of the contour impacts the final form of the path integral action. In particular, we show how using a symmetrized contour makes it possible to easily generalize the Keldysh rotation in the context of work statistics, a procedure paving the way to a semiclassical expansion of the work MGF. Furthermore, we use our results to discuss a generalization of the detailed balance conditions at the level of the quantum trajectories.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figures. New version after the first round of review; minor corrections have been made, some new references have been added to the bibliograph