519 research outputs found
Generalized constraints on quantum amplification
We derive quantum constraints on the minimal amount of noise added in linear
amplification involving input or output signals whose component operators do
not necessarily have c-number commutators, as is the case for fermion currents.
This is a generalization of constraints derived for the amplification of
bosonic fields whose components posses c-number commutators.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter
A coral-on-a-chip microfluidic platform enabling live-imaging microscopy of reef-building corals
Coral reefs, and the unique ecosystems they support, are facing severe threats by human activities and climate change. Our understanding of these threats is hampered by the lack of robust approaches for studying the micro-scale interactions between corals and their environment. Here we present an experimental platform, coral-on-a-chip, combining micropropagation and microfluidics to allow direct microscopic study of live coral polyps. The small and transparent coral micropropagates are ideally suited for live-imaging microscopy, while the microfluidic platform facilitates long-term visualization under controlled environmental conditions. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by imaging coral micropropagates at previously unattainable spatio-temporal resolutions, providing new insights into several micro-scale processes including coral calcification, coral-pathogen interaction and the loss of algal symbionts (coral bleaching). Coral-on-a-chip thus provides a powerful method for studying coral physiology in vivo at the micro-scale, opening new vistas in coral biology
Quantum noise in current biased Josephson junction
Quantum fluctuations in a current biased Josephson junction, described in
terms of the RCSJ-model, are considered. The fluctuations of the voltage and
phase across the junction are assumed to be initiated by equilibrium current
fluctuations in the shunting resistor. This corresponds to low enough
temperatures, when fluctuations of the normal current in the junction itself
can be neglected. We used the quantum Langevin equation in terms of random
variables related to the limit cycle of the nonlinear Josephson oscillator.
This allows to go beyond the perturbation theory and calculate the widths of
the Josephson radiation lines
Degeneracies in the length spectra of metric graphs
The spectral theory of quantum graphs is related via an exact trace formula
with the spectrum of the lengths of periodic orbits (cycles) on the graphs. The
latter is a degenerate spectrum, and understanding its structure (i.e.,finding
out how many different lengths exist for periodic orbits with a given period
and the average number of periodic orbits with the same length) is necessary
for the systematic study of spectral fluctuations using the trace formula. This
is a combinatorial problem which we solve exactly for complete (fully
connected) graphs with arbitrary number of vertices.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Spin effects in Bose-Glass phases
We study the mechanism of formation of Bose glass (BG) phases in the spin-1
Bose Hubbard model when diagonal disorder is introduced. To this aim, we
analyze first the phase diagram in the zero-hopping limit, there disorder
induces superposition between Mott insulator (MI) phases with different filling
numbers. Then BG appears as a compressible but still insulating phase. The
phase diagram for finite hopping is also calculated with the Gutzwiller
approximation. The bosons' spin degree of freedom introduces another scattering
channel in the two-body interaction modifying the stability of MI regions with
respect to the action of disorder. This leads to some peculiar phenomena such
as the creation of BG of singlets, for very strong spin correlation, or the
disappearance of BG phase in some particular cases where fluctuations are not
able to mix different MI regions
Decoherence in Disordered Conductors at Low Temperatures, the effect of Soft Local Excitations
The conduction electrons' dephasing rate, , is expected to
vanish with the temperature. A very intriguing apparent saturation of this
dephasing rate in several systems was recently reported at very low
temperatures. The suggestion that this represents dephasing by zero-point
fluctuations has generated both theoretical and experimental controversies. We
start by proving that the dephasing rate must vanish at the limit,
unless a large ground state degeneracy exists. This thermodynamic proof
includes most systems of relevance and it is valid for any determination of
from {\em linear} transport measurements. In fact, our
experiments demonstrate unequivocally that indeed when strictly linear
transport is used, the apparent low-temperature saturation of is
eliminated. However, the conditions to be in the linear transport regime are
more strict than hitherto expected. Another novel result of the experiments is
that introducing heavy nonmagnetic impurities (gold) in our samples produces,
even in linear transport, a shoulder in the dephasing rate at very low
temperatures. We then show theoretically that low-lying local defects may
produce a relatively large dephasing rate at low temperatures. However, as
expected, this rate in fact vanishes when , in agreement with our
experimental observations.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the Euresco Conference on Fundamental
Problems of Mesoscopic Physics, Granada, September 2003, Kluwe
Shot Noise at High Temperatures
We consider the possibility of measuring non-equilibrium properties of the
current correlation functions at high temperatures (and small bias). Through
the example of the third cumulant of the current () we demonstrate
that odd order correlation functions represent non-equilibrium physics even at
small external bias and high temperatures. We calculate for a quasi-one-dimensional diffusive constriction. We calculate the
scaling function in two regimes: when the scattering processes are purely
elastic and when the inelastic electron-electron scattering is strong. In both
cases we find that interpolates between two constants. In the low (high)
temperature limit is strongly (weakly) enhanced (suppressed) by the
electron-electron scattering.Comment: 11 pages 4 fig. submitted to Phys. Rev.
Non-crop habitats in the landscape enhance spider diversity in wheat fields of a desert agroecosystem
Zero-point fluctuations in the ground state of a mesoscopic normal ring
We investigate the persistent current of a ring with an in-line quantum dot
capacitively coupled to an external circuit. Of special interest is the
magnitude of the persistent current as a function of the external impedance in
the zero temperature limit when the only fluctuations in the external circuit
are zero-point fluctuations. These are time-dependent fluctuations which
polarize the ring-dot structure and we discuss in detail the contribution of
displacement currents to the persistent current. We have earlier discussed an
exact solution for the persistent current and its fluctuations based on a Bethe
ansatz. In this work, we emphasize a physically more intuitive approach using a
Langevin description of the external circuit. This approach is limited to weak
coupling between the ring and the external circuit. We show that the zero
temperature persistent current obtained in this approach is consistent with the
persistent current calculated from a Bethe ansatz solution. In the absence of
coupling our system is a two level system consisting of the ground state and
the first excited state. In the presence of coupling we investigate the
projection of the actual state on the ground state and the first exited state
of the decoupled ring. With each of these projections we can associate a phase
diffusion time. In the zero temperature limit we find that the phase diffusion
time of the excited state projection saturates, whereas the phase diffusion
time of the ground state projection diverges.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
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