Effect of Loss on Multiplexed Single-Photon Sources

An on-demand single-photon source is a key requirement for scaling many optical quantum technologies. A promising approach to realize an on-demand single-photon source is to multiplex an array of heralded single-photon sources using an active optical switching network. However, the performance of multiplexed sources is degraded by photon loss in the optical components and the non-unit detection efficiency of the heralding detectors. We provide a theoretical description of a general multiplexed single-photon source with lossy components and derive expressions for the output probabilities of single-photon emission and multi-photon contamination. We apply these expressions to three specific multiplexing source architectures and consider their tradeoffs in design and performance. To assess the effect of lossy components on near- and long-term experimental goals, we simulate the multiplexed sources when used for many-photon state generation under various amounts of component loss. We find that with a multiplexed source composed of switches with ~0.2-0.4 dB loss and high efficiency number-resolving detectors, a single-photon source capable of efficiently producing 20-40 photon states with low multi-photon contamination is possible, offering the possibility of unlocking new classes of experiments and technologies.Comment: Journal versio

Fake or Fantasy: Rapid Dissociation between Strategic Content Monitoring and Reality Filtering in Human Memory

Memory verification is crucial for meaningful behavior. Orbitofrontal damage may impair verification and induce confabulation and inappropriate acts. The strategic retrieval account explains this state by deficient monitoring of memories' precise content, whereas the reality filter hypothesis explains it by a failure of an orbitofrontal mechanism suppressing the interference of memories that do not pertain to reality. The distinctiveness of these mechanisms has recently been questioned. Here, we juxtaposed these 2 mechanisms using high-resolution evoked potentials in healthy subjects who performed 2 runs of a continuous recognition task which contained pictures that precisely matched or only resembled previous pictures. We found behavioral and electrophysiological dissociation: Strategic content monitoring was maximally challenged by stimuli resembling previous ones, whereas reality filtering was maximally challenged by identical stimuli. Evoked potentials dissociated at 200-300 ms: Strategic monitoring induced a strong frontal negativity and a distinct cortical map configuration, which were particularly weakly expressed in reality filtering. Recognition of real repetitions was expressed at 300-400 ms, associated with ventromedial prefrontal activation. Thus, verification of a memory's concordance with the past (its content) dissociates from the verification of its concordance with the present. The role of these memory control mechanisms in the generation of confabulations and disorientation is discusse

Isometries and the double copy

In the standard derivation of the Kerr-Schild double copy, the geodicity of the Kerr-Schild vector and the stationarity of the spacetime are presented as assumptions that are necessary for the single copy to satisfy Maxwell's equations. However, it is well known that the vacuum Einstein equations imply that the Kerr-Schild vector is geodesic and shear-free, and that the spacetime possesses a distinguished vector field that is simultaneously a Killing vector of the full spacetime and the flat background, but need not be timelike with respect to the background metric. We show that the gauge field obtained by contracting this distinguished Killing vector with the Kerr-Schild graviton solves the vacuum Maxwell equations, and that this definition of the Kerr-Schild double copy implies the Weyl double copy when the spacetime is Petrov type D. When the Killing vector is taken to be timelike with respect to the background metric, we recover the familiar Kerr-Schild double copy, but the prescription is well defined for any vacuum Kerr-Schild spacetime and we present new examples where the Killing vector is null or spacelike. While most examples of physical interest are type D, vacuum Kerr-Schild spacetimes are generically of Petrov type II. We present a straightforward example of such a spacetime and study its double copy structure. Our results apply to real Lorentzian spacetimes as well as complex spacetimes and real spacetimes with Kleinian signature, and provide a simple correspondence between real and self-dual vacuum Kerr-Schild spacetimes. This correspondence allows us to study the double copy structure of a self-dual analog of the Kerr spacetime. We provide evidence that this spacetime may be diffeomorphic to the self-dual Taub-NUT solution.Comment: 28 pages; Matches version to appear in JHE

Governance mechanism in control architectures for Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing systems, and specifically Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), face the challenge of accomplish global optimal performance and reactiveness at dynamic manufacturing environments. For this reason, manufacturing control systems must incorporate mechanisms that support dynamic custom-build responses. This paper introduces a framework that includes a governance mechanism in control system architectures that dynamically steers the autonomy of decision-making between predictive and reactive approaches. Results from experiments led in simulation show that it is worth studying in depth a governance mechanism that tailors the structure and/or behaviour of a manufacturing control system and, at the same time, potentiate the reactivity required in manufacturing operations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pollux: a dynamic hybrid control architecture for flexible job shop systems

Nowadays, manufacturing control systems can respond more effectively to exigent market requirements and real-time demands. Indeed, they take advantage of changing their structural and behavioural arrangements to tailor the control solution from a diverse set of feasible configurations. However, the challenge of this approach is to determine efficient mechanisms that dynamically optimise the configuration between different architectures. This paper presents a dynamic hybrid control architecture that integrates a switching mechanism to control changes at both structural and behavioural level. The switching mechanism is based on a genetic algorithm and strives to find the most suitable operating mode of the architecture with regard to optimality and reactivity. The proposed approach was tested in a real flexible job shop to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of including an optimisation algorithm in the switching process of a dynamic hybrid control architecture.This work was supported by the Colombian scholarship programme of department of science – COLCIENCIAS under grant ‘Convocatoria 568 – Doctorados en el exterior’ and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana under grant ‘Programa de Formacion de posgrados del Profesor Javeriano’.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Abnormal Cortical Network Activation in Human Amnesia: A High-resolution Evoked Potential Study

Little is known about how human amnesia affects the activation of cortical networks during memory processing. In this study, we recorded high-density evoked potentials in 12 healthy control subjects and 11 amnesic patients with various types of brain damage affecting the medial temporal lobes, diencephalic structures, or both. Subjects performed a continuous recognition task composed of meaningful designs. Using whole-scalp spatiotemporal mapping techniques, we found that, during the first 200ms following picture presentation, map configuration of amnesics and controls were indistinguishable. Beyond this period, processing significantly differed. Between 200 and 350ms, amnesic patients expressed different topographical maps than controls in response to new and repeated pictures. From 350 to 550ms, healthy subjects showed modulation of the same maps in response to new and repeated items. In amnesics, by contrast, presentation of repeated items induced different maps, indicating distinct cortical processing of new and old information. The study indicates that cortical mechanisms underlying memory formation and re-activation in amnesia fundamentally differ from normal memory processin

Active Temporal Multiplexing of Photons

Photonic qubits constitute a leading platform to disruptive quantum technologies due to their unique low-noise properties. The cost of the photonic approach is the non-deterministic nature of many of the processes, including single-photon generation, which arises from parametric sources and negligible interaction between photons. Active temporal multiplexing - repeating a generation process in time and rerouting to single modes using an optical switching network - is a promising approach to overcome this challenge and will likely be essential for large-scale applications with greatly reduced resource complexity and system sizes. Requirements include the precise synchronization of a system of low-loss switches, delay lines, fast photon detectors, and feed-forward. Here we demonstrate temporal multiplexing of 8 'bins' from a double-passed heralded photon source and observe an increase in the heralding and heralded photon rates. This system points the way to harnessing temporal multiplexing in quantum technologies, from single-photon sources to large-scale computation.Comment: Minor revision