The pomeron in closed bosonic string theory

We review the features of the pomeron in the S-matrix theory and in quantum field theory. We extend those general properties to the pomeron of closed bosonic string theory in a Minkowskian background. We compute the couplings of the pomeron to the lowest mass levels of closed bosonic string states in flat space. We recognize the deviation from the linearity of the Regge trajectories in a five dimensional anti De Sitter background.Comment: 13 page

Influence of the pair coherence on the charge tunneling through a quantum dot connected to a superconducting lead

We analyze the charge transport through a single level quantum dot coupled to a normal (N) and superconducting (S) leads where the electron pairs exist either as the coherent (for temperatures below T_c) or incoherent objects (in a region T_c < T < T*). This situation can be achieved in practice if one uses the high T_c superconducting material where various precursor effects have been observed upon approaching $T_{c}$ from above. Without restricting to any particular microscopic mechanism we investigate some qualitative changes of the nonequilibrium charge current caused by the electron pair coherence.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Quantum relative positioning in Hilbert space

A new class of state transformations that are quantum mechanically prohibited is introduced. These can be seen as the generalization of the universal-NOT transformation which, for all pure inputs state of a given Hilbert space produces pure outputs whose projection on the original state is fixed to a value smaller than one. The case of not pure output states is also addressed. We give an application of these transformations in the context of separability criteria.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; new material added: in particular we present an application of quantum movers in the context of separability criteria. Typos corrected. Phys. Rev. A, accepted for publicatio

Staying adiabatic with unknown energy gap

We introduce an algorithm to perform an optimal adiabatic evolution that operates without an apriori knowledge of the system spectrum. By probing the system gap locally, the algorithm maximizes the evolution speed, thus minimizing the total evolution time. We test the algorithm on the Landau-Zener transition and then apply it on the quantum adiabatic computation of 3-SAT: The result is compatible with an exponential speed-up for up to twenty qubits with respect to classical algorithms. We finally study a possible algorithm improvement by combining it with the quantum Zeno effect.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure