48,615 research outputs found
Dynamical control of quantum state transfer within hybrid open systems
We analyze quantum state-transfer optimization within hybrid open systems,
from a "noisy" (write-in) qubit to its "quiet" counterpart (storage qubit).
Intriguing interplay is revealed between our ability to avoid bath-induced
errors that profoundly depend on the bath-memory time and the limitations
imposed by leakage out of the operational subspace. Counterintuitively, under
no circumstances is the fastest transfer optimal (for a given transfer energy)
Phonographic neighbors, not orthographic neighbors, determine word naming latencies
The orthographic neighborhood size (N) of a wordāthe number of words that can be formed from that word by replacing one letter with another in its placeāhas been found to have facilitatory effects in word naming. The orthographic neighborhood hypothesis attributes this facilitation to interactive effects. A phonographic neighborhood hypothesis, in contrast, attributes the effect to lexical print-sound conversion. According to the phonographic neighborhood hypothesis, phonographic neighbors (words differing in one letter and one phoneme, e.g., stove and stone) should facilitate naming, and other orthographic neighbors (e.g., stove and shove) should not. The predictions of these two hypotheses are tested. Unique facilitatory phonographic N effects were found in four sets of word naming mega-study data, along with an absence of facilitatory orthographic N effects. These results implicate print-sound conversionābased on consistent phonologyāin neighborhood effects rather than word-letter feedback
Sample preparation of metal alloys by electric discharge machining
Electric discharge machining was investigated as a noncontaminating method of comminuting alloys for subsequent chemical analysis. Particulate dispersions in water were produced from bulk alloys at a rate of about 5 mg/min by using a commercially available machining instrument. The utility of this approach was demonstrated by results obtained when acidified dispersions were substituted for true acid solutions in an established spectrochemical method. The analysis results were not significantly different for the two sample forms. Particle size measurements and preliminary results from other spectrochemical methods which require direct aspiration of liquid into flame or plasma sources are reported
Development of a drift-correction procedure for a direct-reading spectrometer
A procedure which provides automatic correction for drifts in the radiometric sensitivity of each detector channel in a direct-reading emission spectrometer is described. Such drifts are customarily controlled by the regular analyses of standards, which provide corrections for changes in the excitational, optical, and electronic components of the instrument. This standardization procedure, however, corrects for the optical and electronic drifts. It is a step that must be taken if the time, effort, and cost of processing standards is to be minimized. This method of radiometric drift correction uses a 1,000-W tungsten-halogen reference lamp to illuminate each detector through the same optical path as that traversed during sample analysis. The responses of the detector channels to this reference light are regularly compared with channel response to the same light intensity at the time of analytical calibration in order to determine and correct for drift. Except for placing the lamp in position, the procedure is fully automated and compensates for changes in spectral intensity due to variations in lamp current. A discussion of the implementation of this drift-correction system is included
Quantum Channels and Representation Theory
In the study of d-dimensional quantum channels , an assumption
which is not very restrictive, and which has a natural physical interpretation,
is that the corresponding Kraus operators form a representation of a Lie
algebra. Physically, this is a symmetry algebra for the interaction
Hamiltonian. This paper begins a systematic study of channels defined by
representations; the famous Werner-Holevo channel is one element of this
infinite class. We show that the channel derived from the defining
representation of SU(n) is a depolarizing channel for all , but for most
other representations this is not the case. Since the Bloch sphere is not
appropriate here, we develop technology which is a generalization of Bloch's
technique. Our method works by representing the density matrix as a polynomial
in symmetrized products of Lie algebra generators, with coefficients that are
symmetric tensors. Using these tensor methods we prove eleven theorems, derive
many explicit formulas and show other interesting properties of quantum
channels in various dimensions, with various Lie symmetry algebras. We also
derive numerical estimates on the size of a generalized ``Bloch sphere'' for
certain channels. There remain many open questions which are indicated at
various points through the paper.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figur
Modeling age-related differences in immediate memory using SIMPLE
In the SIMPLE model (Scale Invariant Memory and Perceptual Learning), performance on memory tasks is determined by the locations of items in multidimensional space, and better performance is associated with having fewer close neighbors. Unlike most previous simulations with SIMPLE, the ones reported here used measured, rather than assumed, dimensional values. The data to be modeled come from an experiment in which younger and older adults recalled lists of acoustically confusable and nonconfusable items. A multidimensional scaling solution based on the memory confusions was obtained. SIMPLE accounted for the overall difference in performance both between the two age groups and, within each age group, the overall difference between acoustically confusable and nonconfusable items in terms of the MDS coordinates. Moreover, the model accounted for the serial position functions and error gradients. Finally, the generality of the modelās account was examined by fitting data from an already published study. The data and the modeling support the hypothesis that older adultsā memory may be worse, in part, because of altered representations due to age-related auditory perceptual deficits
Modeling lexical decision : the form of frequency and diversity effects
What is the root cause of word frequency effects on lexical decision times? W. S. Murray and K. I. Forster (2004) argued that such effects are linear in rank frequency, consistent with a serial search model of lexical access. In this article, the authors (a) describe a method of testing models of such effects that takes into account the possibility of parametric overfitting; (b) illustrate the effect of corpus choice on estimates of rank frequency; (c) give derivations of nine functional forms as predictions of models of lexical decision; (d) detail the assessment of these models and the rank model against existing data regarding the functional form of frequency effects; and (e) report further assessments using contextual diversity, a factor confounded with word frequency. The relationship between the occurrence distribution of words and lexical decision latencies to those words does not appear compatible with the rank hypothesis, undermining the case for serial search models of lexical access. Three transformations of contextual diversity based on extensions of instance models do, however, remain as plausible explanations of the effect
Methods of testing and diagnosing model error : dual and single route cascaded models of reading aloud
Models of visual word recognition have been assessed by both factorial and regression approaches. Factorial approaches tend to provide a relatively weak test of models, and regression approaches give little indication of the sources of modelsā mispredictions, especially when parameters are not optimal. A new alternative method, involving regression on model error, combines these two approaches with parameter optimization. The method is illustrated with respect to the dual route cascaded model of reading aloud. In contrast to previous investigations, this method provides clear evidence that there are parameter-independent problems with the model, and identifies two specific sources of misprediction made by model
- ā¦