Improved cosmological constraints on the curvature and equation of state of dark energy

We apply the Constitution compilation of 397 supernova Ia, the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements including the $A$ parameter, the distance ratio and the radial data, the five-year Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe and the Hubble parameter data to study the geometry of the universe and the property of dark energy by using the popular Chevallier-Polarski-Linder and Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan parameterizations. We compare the simple $\chi^2$ method of joined contour estimation and the Monte Carlo Markov chain method, and find that it is necessary to make the marginalized analysis on the error estimation. The probabilities of $\Omega_k$ and $w_a$ in the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder model are skew distributions, and the marginalized $1\sigma$ errors are $\Omega_m=0.279^{+0.015}_{-0.008}$, $\Omega_k=0.005^{+0.006}_{-0.011}$, $w_0=-1.05^{+0.23}_{-0.06}$, and $w_a=0.5^{+0.3}_{-1.5}$. For the Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan model, the marginalized $1\sigma$ errors are $\Omega_m=0.281^{+0.015}_{-0.01}$, $\Omega_k=0.000^{+0.007}_{-0.006}$, $w_0=-0.96^{+0.25}_{-0.18}$, and $w_a=-0.6^{+1.9}_{-1.6}$. The equation of state parameter $w(z)$ of dark energy is negative in the redshift range $0\le z\le 2$ at more than $3\sigma$ level. The flat $\Lambda$CDM model is consistent with the current observational data at the $1\sigma$ level.Comment: 10 figures, 12 pages, Classical and Quantum Gravity in press; v2 to match the pulished versio

Effective generation of Ising interaction and cluster states in coupled microcavities

We propose a scheme for realizing the Ising spin-spin interaction and atomic cluster states utilizing trapped atoms in coupled microcavities. It is shown that the atoms can interact with each other via the exchange of virtual photons of the cavities. Through suitably tuning the parameters, an effective Ising spin-spin interaction can be generated in this optical system, which is used to produce the cluster states. This scheme does not need the preparation of initial states of atoms and cavity modes, and is insensitive to cavity decay.Comment: 11pages, 2 figures, Revtex

Energy Spectra of Anti-nucleons in Finite Nuclei

The quantum vacuum in a many-body system of finite nuclei has been investigated within the relativistic Hartree approach which describes the bound states of nucleons and anti-nucleons consistently. The contributions of the Dirac sea to the source terms of the meson-field equations are taken into account up to the one-nucleon loop and one-meson loop. The tensor couplings for the $\omega$- and $\rho$-meson are included in the model. The overall nucleon spectra of shell-model states are in agreement with the data. The calculated anti-nucleon spectra in the vacuum differ about 20 -- 30 MeV with and without the tensor-coupling effects.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of MENU 2004 (Beijing, Aug. 29 -- Sept. 4, 2004