Superadiabatic spin-preserving control of a single-spin qubit in a double quantum dot with spin–orbit interaction

A protocol for controlling the localization of an electron with a fixed projection of spin between two quantum dots in a material with spin-orbit (SO) interaction is studied. Due to SO coupling, the manipulation of the electron shuttling between both quantum dots also leads to a mixing between spin projections near to the avoided crossing of levels. We use a transitionless quantum driving approach, neglecting SO interaction, to analytically design simple electric and magnetic pulses able to rapidly drive the electron along an adiabatic Landau–Zener manifold. We show that the same fields in the presence of SO interaction can also give a fast high-fidelity transition between the qubit states. The performance of the proposed protocol is assessed in the presence of SO interactions of typical semiconductor materials. It is shown that it provides a fast and efficient spin-conserving method for controlling the electron position in a double quantum dot.Fil: Gomez, Sergio Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica; ArgentinaFil: Romero, Rodolfo Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica; Argentin

The development of a catalytic process for the hydrotreatment of haloarenes

The abatement of halogenated compounds released from various processes into the environment is now recognized as a pressing environmental issue. Catalytic hydrodehalogenation (HDH) has emerged as a potential technology that can facilitate waste transformation and reuse. In this thesis, a comprehensive study of the critical reaction/catalyst variables is considered for the HDH of a range of haloarenes (chloroand bromo-phenols and chlorobenzenes) using (commercial) Pd/Al2O3 and (laboratory synthesised) Au supported on -Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. Aqueous phase (T = 303 K) HDH is demonstrated to be structure sensitive where smaller Pd particles are intrinsically more active and metal/support interactions have a major impact on reaction selectivity (notably at pH = 3). HDH follows an electrophilic aromatic substitution mechanism: the rate of C–Br bond(s) scission is an order of magnitude greater relative to C–Cl (due to the lower bond dissociation energy). The presence of a second halogen substituent has a deactivating effect (by lowering electron density in the aromatic ring). Solvent (water, organic and water/organic mixtures) effects have been established where, in absence of mass transport limitations, reaction in water delivers significantly higher HDH rates and selectivity is unaffected by solvent composition. A mathematical analysis demonstrates that these effects are principally (ca. 80 % contribution) the result of the variations in solvent dielectric constant where the molar volume represents a secondary consideration. The advantages of a shift from batch to continuous HDH are established in terms of: (i) more efficient gas to liquid H2 transfer; (ii) enhanced HDH rates; (iii) prolongued catalyst lifetime. The potential of HDH as a means of waste transformation to a commercial product is demonstrated in the gas phase (T = 423 K) hydroconversion of 2,4-dichlorophenol into cyclohexanone (over Pd) and 4- chlorophenol (over iron-oxide supported Au). In both cases, a contribution due to spillover hydrogen is established. A comprehensive programme of (Au) catalysts synthesis and characterization, in terms of TPR, H2 chemisorption/TPD, XRD, DRS UV-Vis, SEM/TEM and BET/pore volume measurements is provided and correlated with HDH kinetics. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate the feasibility and flexibility (in terms of operation, rate/selectivity control and product reuse) of catalytic HDH as a progressive means of haloarene waste treatment.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research (EPSR) Grant No. 0231 11052

Multiple osteochondromas of the antlers and cranium in a free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

This paper reports a case of multiple osteochondromas affecting the antlers and the left zygomatic bone of a free-ranging adult white-tailed buck (Odocoileus virginianus) from Georgia, USA. Along with a few postcranial bones, the antlered cranium of the individual was found in a severely weathered condition and devoid of any soft tissue. The antlers exhibited five pedunculated exostoses that were composed of cancellous bone and, in their peripheral portions, also mineralized cartilage. The largest of the exostoses, located on the right antler, had a maximum circumference of 55 cm. The exostosis arising from the zygomatic bone was broad-based and much smaller than the exophytic outgrowths on the antlers. Diagnosis of the exostoses as osteochondromas was based on their overall morphology, the normal bone structure in their stalk regions, and the continuity of their spongiosa and cortex with the respective components of the parent bones. Antleromas, i.e., pathological outgrowths developing on antlers as a result of insufficient androgen production, were excluded in the differential diagnosis, based on (1) the apparent maturity and, except for the tumors, normal shape of the antlers and (2) the fact that exostosis formation had also affected the zygomatic bone. Previously only a single case of solitary osteochondroma of an antler has been described in the scientific literature. The case presented here is the first report of multiple osteochondromas in a deer. As antlers are regularly collected as trophies, and huge numbers of them are critically inspected each year, the fact that thus far only two cases of antler osteochondromas have been reported suggests that these tumors are very rare

Template estimation for samples of curves and functional calibration estimation via the method of maximum entropy on the mean

L'une des principales difficultés de l'analyse des données fonctionnelles consiste à extraire un motif commun qui synthétise l'information contenue par toutes les fonctions de l'échantillon. Le Chapitre 2 examine le problème d'identification d'une fonction qui représente le motif commun en supposant que les données appartiennent à une variété ou en sont suffisamment proches, d'une variété non linéaire de basse dimension intrinsèque munie d'une structure géométrique inconnue et incluse dans un espace de grande dimension. Sous cette hypothèse, un approximation de la distance géodésique est proposé basé sur une version modifiée de l'algorithme Isomap. Cette approximation est utilisée pour calculer la fonction médiane empirique de Fréchet correspondante. Cela fournit un estimateur intrinsèque robuste de la forme commune. Le Chapitre 3 étudie les propriétés asymptotiques de la méthode de normalisation quantile développée par Bolstad, et al. (2003) qui est devenue l'une des méthodes les plus populaires pour aligner des courbes de densité en analyse de données de microarrays en bioinformatique. Les propriétés sont démontrées considérant la méthode comme un cas particulier de la procédure de la moyenne structurelle pour l'alignement des courbes proposée par Dupuy, Loubes and Maza (2011). Toutefois, la méthode échoue dans certains cas. Ainsi, nous proposons une nouvelle méthode, pour faire face à ce problème. Cette méthode utilise l'algorithme développée dans le Chapitre 2. Dans le Chapitre 4, nous étendons le problème d'estimation de calage pour la moyenne d'une population finie de la variable de sondage dans un cadre de données fonctionnelles. Nous considérons le problème de l'estimation des poids de sondage fonctionnel à travers le principe du maximum d'entropie sur la moyenne -MEM-. En particulier, l'estimation par calage est considérée comme un problème inverse linéaire de dimension infinie suivant la structure de l'approche du MEM. Nous donnons un résultat précis d'estimation des poids de calage fonctionnels pour deux types de mesures aléatoires a priori: la measure Gaussienne centrée et la measure de Poisson généralisée.One of the main difficulties in functional data analysis is the extraction of a meaningful common pattern that summarizes the information conveyed by all functions in the sample. The problem of finding a meaningful template function that represents this pattern is considered in Chapter 2 assuming that the functional data lie on an intrinsically low-dimensional smooth manifold with an unknown underlying geometric structure embedding in a high-dimensional space. Under this setting, an approximation of the geodesic distance is developed based on a robust version of the Isomap algorithm. This approximation is used to compute the corresponding empirical Fréchet median function, which provides a robust intrinsic estimator of the template. The Chapter 3 investigates the asymptotic properties of the quantile normalization method by Bolstad, et al. (2003) which is one of the most popular methods to align density curves in microarray data analysis. The properties are proved by considering the method as a particular case of the structural mean curve alignment procedure by Dupuy, Loubes and Maza (2011). However, the method fails in some case of mixtures, and a new methodology to cope with this issue is proposed via the algorithm developed in Chapter 2. Finally, the problem of calibration estimation for the finite population mean of a survey variable under a functional data framework is studied in Chapter 4. The functional calibration sampling weights of the estimator are obtained by matching the calibration estimation problem with the maximum entropy on the mean -MEM- principle. In particular, the calibration estimation is viewed as an infinite-dimensional linear inverse problem following the structure of the MEM approach. A precise theoretical setting is given and the estimation of functional calibration weights assuming, as prior measures, the centered Gaussian and compound Poisson random measures is carried out