Quantum coherence, correlated noise and Parrondo games

We discuss the effect of correlated noise on the robustness of quantum coherent phenomena. First we consider a simple, toy model to illustrate the effect of such correlations on the decoherence process. Then we show how decoherence rates can be suppressed using a Parrondo-like effect. Finally, we report the results of many-body calculations in which an experimentally-measurable quantum coherence phenomenon is significantly enhanced by non-Markovian dynamics arising from the noise source.Comment: 8 page

Crossover between the Dense Electron-Hole Phase and the BCS Excitonic Phase in Quantum Dots

Second order perturbation theory and a Lipkin-Nogami scheme combined with an exact Monte Carlo projection after variation are applied to compute the ground-state energy of $6\le N\le 210$ electron-hole pairs confined in a parabolic two-dimensional quantum dot. The energy shows nice scaling properties as N or the confinement strength is varied. A crossover from the high-density electron-hole phase to the BCS excitonic phase is found at a density which is roughly four times the close-packing density of excitons.Comment: Improved variational and projection calculations. 17 pages, 3 ps figures. Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Memory in the Photon Statistics of Multilevel Quantum Systems

The statistics of photons emitted by single multilevel systems is investigated with emphasis on the nonrenewal characteristics of the photon-arrival times. We consider the correlation between consecutive interphoton times and present closed form expressions for the corresponding multiple moment analysis. Based on the moments a memory measure is proposed which provides an easy way of gaging the non-renewal statistics. Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrate that the experimental verification of non-renewal statistics is feasible.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Energy conversion in Purple Bacteria Photosynthesis

The study of how photosynthetic organisms convert light offers insight not only into nature's evolutionary process, but may also give clues as to how best to design and manipulate artificial photosynthetic systems -- and also how far we can drive natural photosynthetic systems beyond normal operating conditions, so that they can harvest energy for us under otherwise extreme conditions. In addition to its interest from a basic scientific perspective, therefore, the goal to develop a deep quantitative understanding of photosynthesis offers the potential payoff of enhancing our current arsenal of alternative energy sources for the future. In the following Chapter, we consider the trade-off between dynamics, structure and function of light harvesting membranes in Rps. Photometricum purple bacteria, as a model to highlight the priorities that arise when photosynthetic organisms adapt to deal with the ever-changing natural environment conditions.Comment: Chapter, to appear in Photosynthesis 2011, INTEC

Crossover between the dense electron-hole phase and the Bcs excitonic phase in quantum dots

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Exploiting non-trivial spatio-temporal correlations of thermal radiation for sunlight harvesting

The promise of any small improvement in the performance of light-harvesting devices, is sufficient to drive enormous experimental efforts. However these efforts are almost exclusively focused on enhancing the power conversion efficiency with specific material properties and harvesting layers thickness, without exploiting the correlations present in sunlight -- in part because such correlations are assumed to have negligible effect. Here we show, by contrast, that these spatio-temporal correlations are sufficiently relevant that the use of specific detector geometries would significantly improve the performance of harvesting devices. The resulting increase in the absorption efficiency, as the primary step of energy conversion, may also act as a potential driving mechanism for artificial photosynthetic systems. Our analysis presents design guidelines for optimal detector geometries with realistic incident intensities based on current technological capabilitie

The DUNE Far Detector Vertical Drift Technology, Technical Design Report

International audienceDUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on a near and a far detector as it aims to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make high-precision measurements of the PMNS matrix parameters, including the CP-violating phase. It will also stand ready to observe supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with the sub-centimeter spatial resolution required to image those events with high precision. The addition of a photon detection system enhances physics capabilities for all DUNE physics drivers and opens prospects for further physics explorations. Given its size, the far detector will be implemented as a set of modules, with LArTPC designs that differ from one another as newer technologies arise. In the vertical drift LArTPC design, a horizontal cathode bisects the detector, creating two stacked drift volumes in which ionization charges drift towards anodes at either the top or bottom. The anodes are composed of perforated PCB layers with conductive strips, enabling reconstruction in 3D. Light-trap-style photon detection modules are placed both on the cryostat's side walls and on the central cathode where they are optically powered. This Technical Design Report describes in detail the technical implementations of each subsystem of this LArTPC that, together with the other far detector modules and the near detector, will enable DUNE to achieve its physics goals

Supernova Pointing Capabilities of DUNE

International audienceThe determination of the direction of a stellar core collapse via its neutrino emission is crucial for the identification of the progenitor for a multimessenger follow-up. A highly effective method of reconstructing supernova directions within the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is introduced. The supernova neutrino pointing resolution is studied by simulating and reconstructing electron-neutrino charged-current absorption on $^{40}$Ar and elastic scattering of neutrinos on electrons. Procedures to reconstruct individual interactions, including a newly developed technique called ``brems flipping'', as well as the burst direction from an ensemble of interactions are described. Performance of the burst direction reconstruction is evaluated for supernovae happening at a distance of 10 kpc for a specific supernova burst flux model. The pointing resolution is found to be 3.4 degrees at 68% coverage for a perfect interaction-channel classification and a fiducial mass of 40 kton, and 6.6 degrees for a 10 kton fiducial mass respectively. Assuming a 4% rate of charged-current interactions being misidentified as elastic scattering, DUNE's burst pointing resolution is found to be 4.3 degrees (8.7 degrees) at 68% coverage

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on $10^3$ pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype