440 research outputs found
Testing Bell's Inequality with Cosmic Photons: Closing the Setting-Independence Loophole
We propose a practical scheme to use photons from causally disconnected
cosmic sources to set the detectors in an experimental test of Bell's
inequality. In current experiments, with settings determined by quantum random
number generators, only a small amount of correlation between detector settings
and local hidden variables, established less than a millisecond before each
experiment, would suffice to mimic the predictions of quantum mechanics. By
setting the detectors using pairs of quasars or patches of the cosmic microwave
background, observed violations of Bell's inequality would require any such
coordination to have existed for billions of years --- an improvement of 20
orders of magnitude.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Minor edits to closely match journal version to
be published in Physical Review Letter
Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments
Photons from distant astronomical sources can be used as a classical source
of randomness to improve fundamental tests of quantum nonlocality,
wave-particle duality, and local realism through Bell's inequality and
delayed-choice quantum eraser tests inspired by Wheeler's cosmic-scale
Mach-Zehnder interferometer gedankenexperiment. Such sources of random numbers
may also be useful for information-theoretic applications such as key
distribution for quantum cryptography. Building on the design of an
"astronomical random-number generator" developed for the recent "cosmic Bell"
experiment [Handsteiner et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 060401 (2017)], in this
paper we report on the design and characterization of a device that, with
20-nanosecond latency, outputs a bit based on whether the wavelength of an
incoming photon is greater than or less than 700 nm. Using the one-meter
telescope at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Table Mountain Observatory, we
generated random bits from astronomical photons in both color channels from 50
stars of varying color and magnitude, and from 12 quasars with redshifts up to
. With stars, we achieved bit rates of Hz /
m, limited by saturation for our single-photon detectors, and with quasars
of magnitudes between 12.9 and 16, we achieved rates between and Hz /m. For bright quasars, the resulting bitstreams exhibit
sufficiently low amounts of statistical predictability as quantified by the
mutual information. In addition, a sufficiently high fraction of bits generated
are of true astronomical origin in order to address both the locality and
freedom-of-choice loopholes when used to set the measurement settings in a test
of the Bell-CHSH inequality.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. References added and minor edits to match
published versio
Relaxed Bell Inequalities with Arbitrary Measurement Dependence for Each Observer
Bell's inequality was originally derived under the assumption that
experimenters are free to select detector settings independently of any local
"hidden variables" that might affect the outcomes of measurements on entangled
particles. This assumption has come to be known as "measurement independence"
(also referred to as "freedom of choice" or "settings independence"). For a
two-setting, two-outcome Bell test, we derive modified Bell inequalities that
relax measurement independence, for either or both observers, while remaining
locally causal. We describe the loss of measurement independence for each
observer using the parameters and , as defined by Hall in 2010, and
also by a more complete description that adds two new parameters, which we call
and , deriving a modified Bell inequality for each
description. These "relaxed" inequalities subsume those considered in previous
work as special cases, and quantify how much the assumption of measurement
independence needs to be relaxed in order for a locally causal model to produce
a given violation of the standard Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH)
inequality. We show that both relaxed Bell inequalities are tight bounds on the
CHSH parameter by constructing locally causal models that saturate them. For
any given Bell inequality violation, the new two-parameter and four-parameter
models each require significantly less mutual information between the hidden
variables and measurement settings than previous models. We conjecture that the
new models, with optimal parameters, require the minimum possible mutual
information for a given Bell violation. We further argue that, contrary to
various claims in the literature, relaxing freedom of choice need not imply
superdeterminism.Comment: 26pp, 7 figures. Minor edits to match published versio
Mechanically Stabilized Tetrathiafulvalene Radical Dimers
Two donor−acceptor [3]catenanes—composed of a tetracationic molecular square, cyclobis(paraquat-4,4′-biphenylene), as the π-electron deficient ring and either two tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and 1,5-dioxynaphthalene (DNP) containing macrocycles or two TTF-butadiyne-containing macrocycles as the π-electron rich components—have been investigated in order to study their ability to form TTF radical dimers. It has been proven that the mechanically interlocked nature of the [3]catenanes facilitates the formation of the TTF radical dimers under redox control, allowing an investigation to be performed on these intermolecular interactions in a so-called “molecular flask” under ambient conditions in considerable detail. In addition, it has also been shown that the stability of the TTF radical-cation dimers can be tuned by varying the secondary binding motifs in the [3]catenanes. By replacing the DNP station with a butadiyne group, the distribution of the TTF radical-cation dimer can be changed from 60% to 100%. These findings have been established by several techniques including cyclic voltammetry, spectroelectrochemistry and UV−vis−NIR and EPR spectroscopies, as well as with X-ray diffraction analysis which has provided a range of solid-state crystal structures. The experimental data are also supported by high-level DFT calculations. The results contribute significantly to our fundamental understanding of the interactions within the TTF radical dimers
Classification of time series by shapelet transformation
Time-series classification (TSC) problems present a specific challenge for classification algorithms: how to measure similarity between series. A \emph{shapelet} is a time-series subsequence that allows for TSC based on local, phase-independent similarity in shape. Shapelet-based classification uses the similarity between a shapelet and a series as a discriminatory feature. One benefit of the shapelet approach is that shapelets are comprehensible, and can offer insight into the problem domain. The original shapelet-based classifier embeds the shapelet-discovery algorithm in a decision tree, and uses information gain to assess the quality of candidates, finding a new shapelet at each node of the tree through an enumerative search. Subsequent research has focused mainly on techniques to speed up the search. We examine how best to use the shapelet primitive to construct classifiers. We propose a single-scan shapelet algorithm that finds the best shapelets, which are used to produce a transformed dataset, where each of the features represent the distance between a time series and a shapelet. The primary advantages over the embedded approach are that the transformed data can be used in conjunction with any classifier, and that there is no recursive search for shapelets. We demonstrate that the transformed data, in conjunction with more complex classifiers, gives greater accuracy than the embedded shapelet tree. We also evaluate three similarity measures that produce equivalent results to information gain in less time. Finally, we show that by conducting post-transform clustering of shapelets, we can enhance the interpretability of the transformed data. We conduct our experiments on 29 datasets: 17 from the UCR repository, and 12 we provide ourselve
Type IIb Supernova SN 2011dh: Spectra and Photometry from the Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared
We report spectroscopic and photometric observations of the Type IIb SN
2011dh obtained between 4 and 34 days after the estimated date of explosion
(May 31.5 UT). The data cover a wide wavelength range from 2,000 Angstroms in
the UV to 2.4 microns in the NIR. Optical spectra provide line profiles and
velocity measurements of HI, HeI, CaII and FeII that trace the composition and
kinematics of the SN. NIR spectra show that helium is present in the atmosphere
as early as 11 days after the explosion. A UV spectrum obtained with the STIS
reveals that the UV flux for SN 2011dh is low compared to other SN IIb. The HI
and HeI velocities in SN 2011dh are separated by about 4,000 km/s at all
phases. We estimate that the H-shell of SN 2011dh is about 8 times less massive
than the shell of SN 1993J and about 3 times more massive than the shell of SN
2008ax. Light curves (LC) for twelve passbands are presented. The maximum
bolometric luminosity of erg s occurred
about 22 days after the explosion. NIR emission provides more than 30% of the
total bolometric flux at the beginning of our observations and increases to
nearly 50% of the total by day 34. The UV produces 16% of the total flux on day
4, 5% on day 9 and 1% on day 34. We compare the bolometric light curves of SN
2011dh, SN 2008ax and SN 1993J. The LC are very different for the first twelve
days after the explosions but all three SN IIb display similar peak
luminosities, times of peak, decline rates and colors after maximum. This
suggests that the progenitors of these SN IIb may have had similar compositions
and masses but they exploded inside hydrogen shells that that have a wide range
of masses. The detailed observations presented here will help evaluate
theoretical models for this supernova and lead to a better understanding of SN
IIb.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, accepted by Ap
STING expression and response to treatment with STING ligands in premalignant and malignant disease.
Human papilloma virus positive (HPV+) tumors represent a large proportion of anal, vulvar, vaginal, cervical and head and neck squamous carcinomas (HNSCC) and late stage invasive disease is thought to originate from a premalignant state. Cyclic dinucleotides that activate STimulator of INterferon Genes (STING) have been shown to cause rapid regression of a range of advanced tumors. We aimed to investigate STING ligands as a novel treatment for papilloma. We tested therapies in a spontaneous mouse model of papilloma of the face and anogenital region that histologically resembles human HPV-associated papilloma. We demonstrate that STING ligands cause rapid regression of papilloma, associated with T cell infiltration, and are significantly more effective than Imiquimod, a current immunotherapy for papilloma. In humans, we show that STING is expressed in the basal layer of normal skin and lost during keratinocyte differentiation. We found STING was expressed in all HPV-associated cervical and anal dysplasia and was strongly expressed in the cancer cells of HPV+ HNSCC but not in HPV-unrelated HNSCC. We found no strong association between STING expression and progressive disease in non-HPV oral dysplasia and oral pre-malignancies that are not HPV-related. These data demonstrate that STING is expressed in basal cells of the skin and is retained in HPV+ pre-malignancies and advanced cancers, but not in HPV-unrelated HNSCC. However, using a murine HNSCC model that does not express STING, we demonstrate that STING ligands are an effective therapy regardless of expression of STING by the cancer cells
Myopia – A 21st Century Public Health Issue
10.1167/iovs.18-25983Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science603Mi-Mi
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