Environment induced entanglement in many-body mesoscopic systems

We show that two, non interacting, infinitely long spin chains can become globally entangled at the mesoscopic level of their fluctuation operators through a purely noisy microscopic mechanism induced by the presence of a common heat bath. By focusing on a suitable class of mesoscopic observables, the behaviour of the dissipatively generated quantum correlations between the two chains is studied as a function of the dissipation strength and bath temperature.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Old and young bulges in late-type disk galaxies

ABRIDGED: We use HSTACS and NICMOS imaging to study the structure and colors of a sample of nine late-type spirals. We find: (1) A correlation between bulge and disks scale-lengths, and a correlation between the colors of the bulges and those of the inner disks. Our data show a trend for bulges to be more metal-enriched than their surrounding disks, but otherwise no simple age-metallicity connection between these systems; (2) A large range in bulge stellar population properties, and, in particular, in stellar ages. Specifically, in about a half of the late-type bulges in our sample the bulk of the stellar mass was produced recently. Thus, in a substantial fraction of the z=0 disk-dominated bulged galaxies, bulge formation occurs after the formation/accretion of the disk; (3) In about a half of the late-type bulges in our sample, however, the bulk of the stellar mass was produced at early epochs; (4) Even these "old" late-type bulges host a significant fraction of stellar mass in a young(er) c component; (5) A correlation for bulges between stellar age and stellar mass, in the sense that more massive late-type bulges are older than less massive late-type bulges. Since the overall galaxy luminosity (mass) also correlates with the bulge luminosity (mass), it appears that the galaxy mass regulates not only what fraction of itself ends up in the bulge component, but also "when" bulge formation takes place. We show that dynamical friction of massive clumps in gas-rich disks is a plausible disk-driven mode for the formation of "old" late-type bulges. If disk evolutionary processes are responsible for the formation of the entire family of late-type bulges, CDM simulations need to produce a similar number of initially bulgeless disks in addition to the disk galaxies that are observed to be bulgeless at z=0.Comment: ApJ in press; paper with high resolution figures available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/carollo/carollo1_2006.pdf; B, I, and H surface brightness profiles published in electronic tabular for

Dissipative Entanglement of Quantum Spin Fluctuations

We consider two non-interacting infinite quantum spin chains immersed in a common thermal environment and undergoing a local dissipative dynamics of Lindblad type. We study the time evolution of collective mesoscopic quantum spin fluctuations that, unlike macroscopic mean-field observables, retain a quantum character in the thermodynamical limit. We show that the microscopic dissipative dynamics is able to entangle these mesoscopic degrees of freedom, through a purely mixing mechanism. Further, the behaviour of the dissipatively generated quantum correlations between the two chains is studied as a function of temperature and dissipation strength.Comment: 54 pages, 8 figure

Herzberg Circuit and Berry's Phase in Chirality-based Coded Qubit in a Triangular Triple Quantum Dot

We present a theoretical proposal for the Herzberg circuit and controlled accumulation of Berry's phase in a chirality-based coded qubit in a triangular triple quantum dot molecule with one electron spin each. The qubit is encoded in the two degenerate states of a three spin complex with total spin $S=1/2$. Using a Hubbard and Heisenberg model the Herzberg circuit encircling the degeneracy point is realized by adiabatically tuning the successive on-site energies of quantum dots and tunnel couplings across a pair of neighbouring dots. It is explicitly shown that encircling the degeneracy point leads to the accumulation of the geometrical Berrys phase. We show that only triangular but not linear quantum dot molecule allows for the generation of Berry's phase and we discuss a protocol to detect this geometrical phase

The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of galaxies in groups along the cosmic web. V. properties and frequency of merging satellites and centrals in different environments

We use the Zurich ENvironmental Study (ZENS) database to investigate the environmental dependence of the merger fraction $\Gamma$ and merging galaxy properties in a sample of ~1300 group galaxies with $M>10^{9.2}M_\odot$ and 0.05<z<0.0585. In all galaxy mass bins investigated in our study, we find that $\Gamma$ decreases by a factor of ~2-3 in groups with halo masses $M_{HALO}>10^{13.5} M_\odot$ relative to less massive systems, indicating a suppression of merger activity in large potential wells. In the fiducial case of relaxed groups only, we measure a variation $\Delta\Gamma/\Delta \log (M_{HALO}) \sim - 0.07$ dex$^{-1}$, which is almost independent of galaxy mass and merger stage. At galaxy masses $>10^{10.2} M_\odot$, most mergers are dry accretions of quenched satellites onto quenched centrals, leading to a strong increase of $\Gamma$ with decreasing group-centric distance at these mass scales.Both satellite and central galaxies in these high mass mergers do not differ in color and structural properties from a control sample of nonmerging galaxies of equal mass and rank. At galaxy masses $<10^{10.2} M_\odot$, where we mostly probe satellite-satellite pairs and mergers between star-forming systems, close pairs (projected distance $<10-20$ kpc) show instead $\sim2\times$ enhanced (specific) star formation rates and $\sim1.5\times$ larger sizes than similar mass, nonmerging satellites. The increase in both size and SFR leads to similar surface star-formation densities in the merging and control-sample satellite populations.Comment: Published in ApJ, 797, 12

A quantum fluctuation description of charge qubits

We consider a specific instance of a superconducting circuit, the so-called charge-qubit, consisting of a capacitor and a Josephson junction that we describe by means of the BCS microscopic model in terms of two tunnelling superconducting systems in the strong-coupling quasi-spin formulation. Then, by means of collective observables we derive the Hamiltonian governing the quantum behaviour of the circuit in the limit of a large number N of quasi-spins. Our approach relies on suitable quantum fluctuations, i.e. on collective quasi-spin operators, different from mean-field observables, that retain a quantum character in the large-N limit. These collective operators generate the Heisenberg algebra on the circle and we show that their dynamics reproduces the phenomenological one generated by the charge qubit Hamiltonian obtained by quantizing the macroscopic classical Hamiltonian of the circuit. The microscopic derivation of the emergent, large-N behaviour provides a rigorous setting to investigate more in detail both general quantum circuits and quantum macroscopic scenarios; in particular, in the specific case of charge-qubits, it allows to explicitly obtain the temperature dependence of the critical Josephson current in the strong coupling regime, a result not accessible using standard approximation techniques

A quantum fluctuation description of charge qubits

We consider a specific instance of a superconducting circuit, the so-called charge-qubit, consisting of a capacitor and a Josephson junction. Starting from the microscopic description of the latter in terms of two tunneling BCS models in the strong-coupling quasi-spin formulation, we derive the Hamiltonian governing the quantum behavior of the circuit in the limit of a large number $N$ of quasi-spins. Our approach relies on the identification of suitable quantum fluctuations, i.e. of collective quasi-spin operators, which account for the presence of fluctuation operators in the superconducting phase that retain a quantum character in spite of the large-$N$ limit. We show indeed that these collective quantum fluctuations generate the Heisenberg algebra on the circle and that their dynamics reproduces the one of the quantized charge-qubit, without the need of a phenomenological ``third quantization'' of a semiclassically inspired model. As a byproduct of our derivation, we explicitly obtain the temperature dependence of the junction critical Josephson current in the strong coupling regime, a result which is not directly accessible using standard approximation techniques.Comment: 34 page

Valutazione delle lesioni nell\u2019impatto ciclista adolescente -veicolo con simulazione multibody

Le situazioni di impatto e la dinamica di ciclista e pedone sono le informazioni fondamentali per lo sviluppo di soluzioni efficaci per migliorare la protezione del pedone e del ciclista in caso di urto con autovetture. La casistica degli incidenti a Palermo, negli ultimi anni, avvenuti su strade urbane (84%) che coinvolgono adolescenti (6,4%), mostra che i ciclisti hanno in genere una posizione di impatto superiore rispetto al pedone, con una quota maggiore di lesioni per urti nella zona del parabrezza. In questo lavoro \ue8 eseguita la simulazione dinamica per lo studio delle lesioni alla testa e al torace dell\u2019adolescente, tra una bicicletta generica e un modello di auto che presenta caratteristiche vantaggiose per la sicurezza del pedone o del ciclista. Il software SimWise (Visual Nastran) \ue8 stato usato per la simulazione multibody dell\u2019impatto; il modello antropomorfo, l'auto e le biciclette sono quelli utilizzati in lavori precedenti. L'attenzione \ue8 su un ciclista adolescente, perch\ue9 i relativi dati di lesione si trovano in letteratura con difficolt\ue0. I dodici test d\u2019impatto completo (auto contro ciclista) hanno come parametri principali: velocit\ue0 del veicolo (20, 30, 40 e 50 km/h), con tre diverse posizioni del ciclista rispetto al veicolo: frontale, laterale e posteriore. La posizione di impatto della testa (sopra il cofano, nel parabrezza), determinato dalla prova di crash, mostra che la protezione del ciclista dovrebbe essere migliorata nella zona pi\uf9 alta del parabrezza, rispetto a quelle pedonali. La ferita alla testa viene analizzata utilizzando il parametro HIC e la ferita al torace \ue8 analizzata secondo il criterio dei 3 ms; viene calcolata la probabilit\ue0 AIS 4 +, concludendo che la lesione alla testa \ue8 pi\uf9 pericolosa in caso di pedone adolescente, mentre la ferita della cassa toracica \ue8 pi\uf9 pericolosa nel caso di ciclista adolescente. Inoltre il ciclista adolescente ha una maggiore possibilit\ue0 di sopravvivenza rispetto al ciclista adulto. Incidentologia e simulazioni mostrano che il parabrezza \ue8 una posizione di impatto frequente per testa e torace

Evidence for a Young Stellar Population in NGC 5018

Two absorption line indices, Ca II and Hdelta/FeI4045, measured from high resolution spectra are used with evolutionary synthesis models to verify the presence of a young stellar population in NGC 5018. The derived age of this population is about ~2.8 Gyr with a metallicity roughly solar and it completely dominates the integrated light of the galaxy near 4000 A.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures (figs 3-7 are color figures), to be published in the May 2000 issue of the Astrophysical Journa