Observation of the Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno effects in an unstable system

We report the first observation of the Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno effects in an unstable system. Cold sodium atoms are trapped in a far-detuned standing wave of light that is accelerated for a controlled duration. For a large acceleration the atoms can escape the trapping potential via tunneling. Initially the number of trapped atoms shows strong non-exponential decay features, evolving into the characteristic exponential decay behavior. We repeatedly measure the number of atoms remaining trapped during the initial period of non-exponential decay. Depending on the frequency of measurements we observe a decay that is suppressed or enhanced as compared to the unperturbed system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Near-infrared polarimetric observations of the afterglow of GRB 000301C

Based on near-infrared polarimetric observations we constrain the degree of linear polarization of the afterglow light of GRB 000301C to less than 30% 1.8 days after the burst.Comment: To appear in: Proc. 20th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, eds. J. C. Wheeler and H. Marte

Linear and field-independent relation between vortex core state energy and gap in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d

We present a scanning tunneling spectroscopy study on quasiparticle states in vortex cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. The energy of the observed vortex core states shows an approximately linear scaling with the superconducting gap in the region just outside the core. This clearly distinguishes them from conventional localized core states and is a signature of the mechanism responsible for their discrete appearance in high-temperature superconductors. The energy scaling of the vortex core states also suggests a common nature of vortex cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ and YBa2Cu3O7-δ. Finally, these states do not show any dependence on the applied magnetic field between 1 and 6 T

Real-Time Vector Automata

We study the computational power of real-time finite automata that have been augmented with a vector of dimension k, and programmed to multiply this vector at each step by an appropriately selected $k \times k$ matrix. Only one entry of the vector can be tested for equality to 1 at any time. Classes of languages recognized by deterministic, nondeterministic, and "blind" versions of these machines are studied and compared with each other, and the associated classes for multicounter automata, automata with multiplication, and generalized finite automata.Comment: 14 page

Dry and wet interfaces: Influence of solvent particles on molecular recognition

We present a coarse-grained lattice model to study the influence of water on the recognition process of two rigid proteins. The basic model is formulated in terms of the hydrophobic effect. We then investigate several modifications of our basic model showing that the selectivity of the recognition process can be enhanced by considering the explicit influence of single solvent particles. When the number of cavities at the interface of a protein-protein complex is fixed as an intrinsic geometric constraint, there typically exists a characteristic fraction that should be filled with water molecules such that the selectivity exhibits a maximum. In addition the optimum fraction depends on the hydrophobicity of the interface so that one has to distinguish between dry and wet interfaces.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Exploring Biorthonormal Transformations of Pair-Correlation Functions in Atomic Structure Variational Calculations

Multiconfiguration expansions frequently target valence correlation and correlation between valence electrons and the outermost core electrons. Correlation within the core is often neglected. A large orbital basis is needed to saturate both the valence and core-valence correlation effects. This in turn leads to huge numbers of CSFs, many of which are unimportant. To avoid the problems inherent to the use of a single common orthonormal orbital basis for all correlation effects in the MCHF method, we propose to optimize independent MCHF pair-correlation functions (PCFs), bringing their own orthonormal one-electron basis. Each PCF is generated by allowing single- and double- excitations from a multireference (MR) function. This computational scheme has the advantage of using targeted and optimally localized orbital sets for each PCF. These pair-correlation functions are coupled together and with each component of the MR space through a low dimension generalized eigenvalue problem. Nonorthogonal orbital sets being involved, the interaction and overlap matrices are built using biorthonormal transformation of the coupled basis sets followed by a counter-transformation of the PCF expansions. Applied to the ground state of beryllium, the new method gives total energies that are lower than the ones from traditional CAS-MCHF calculations using large orbital active sets. It is fair to say that we now have the possibility to account for, in a balanced way, correlation deep down in the atomic core in variational calculations