23,274 research outputs found
Information, information processing and gravity
I discuss fundamental limits placed on information and information processing
by gravity. Such limits arise because both information and its processing
require energy, while gravitational collapse (formation of a horizon or black
hole) restricts the amount of energy allowed in a finite region. Specifically,
I use a criterion for gravitational collapse called the hoop conjecture. Once
the hoop conjecture is assumed a number of results can be obtained directly:
the existence of a fundamental uncertainty in spatial distance of order the
Planck length, bounds on information (entropy) in a finite region, and a bound
on the rate of information processing in a finite region. In the final section
I discuss some cosmological issues related to the total amount of information
in the universe, and note that almost all detailed aspects of the late universe
are determined by the randomness of quantum outcomes. This paper is based on a
talk presented at a 2007 Bellairs Research Institute (McGill University)
workshop on black holes and quantum information.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, revte
Numerical Evidence for Robustness of Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport
Recent theoretical studies show that decoherence process can enhance
transport efficiency in quantum systems. This effect is known as
environment-assisted quantum transport (ENAQT). The role of ENAQT in optimal
quantum transport is well investigated, however, it is less known how robust
ENAQT is with respect to variations in the system or its environment
characteristic. Toward answering this question, we simulated excitonic energy
transfer in Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) photosynthetic complex. We found that
ENAQT is robust with respect to many relevant parameters of environmental
interactions and Frenkel-exciton Hamiltonian including reorganization energy,
bath frequency cutoff, temperature, and initial excitations, dissipation rate,
trapping rate, disorders, and dipole moments orientations. Our study suggests
that the ENAQT phenomenon can be exploited in robust design of highly efficient
quantum transport systems.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1104.481
Polarisation-sensitive terahertz detection by multicontact photoconductive receivers
We have developed a terahertz radiation detector that measures both the
amplitude and polarization of the electric field as a function of time. The
device is a three-contact photoconductive receiver designed so that two
orthogonal electric-field components of an arbitrary polarized electromagnetic
wave may be detected simultaneously. The detector was fabricated on Fe+
ion-implanted InP. Polarization-sensitive detection is demonstrated with an
extinction ratio better than 100:1. This type of device will have immediate
application in studies of birefringent and optically active materials in the
far-infrared region of the spectrum.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Gravity gradient preliminary investigations on exhibit ''A'' Final report
Quartz microbalance gravity gradiometer performance test
Geometrical effects on energy transfer in disordered open quantum systems
We explore various design principles for efficient excitation energy
transport in complex quantum systems. We investigate energy transfer efficiency
in randomly disordered geometries consisting of up to 20 chromophores to
explore spatial and spectral properties of small natural/artificial
Light-Harvesting Complexes (LHC). We find significant statistical correlations
among highly efficient random structures with respect to ground state
properties, excitonic energy gaps, multichromophoric spatial connectivity, and
path strengths. These correlations can even exist beyond the optimal regime of
environment-assisted quantum transport. For random configurations embedded in
spatial dimensions of 30 A and 50 A, we observe that the transport efficiency
saturates to its maximum value if the systems contain 7 and 14 chromophores
respectively. Remarkably, these optimum values coincide with the number of
chlorophylls in (Fenna-Matthews-Olson) FMO protein complex and LHC II monomers,
respectively, suggesting a potential natural optimization with respect to
chromophoric density.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. Expanded from the former appendix to
arXiv:1104.481
Are there cosmological evolution trends on Gamma-Ray Burst features?
The variability of gamma-ray burst (GRB) is thought to be correlated with its
absolute peak luminosity, and this relation had been used to derive an estimate
of the redshifts of GRBs. Recently Amati et al. presented the results of
spectral and energetic properties of several GRBs with known redshifts. Here we
analyse the properties of two group GRBs, one group with known redshift from
afterglow observation, and another group with redshift derived from the
luminosity - variability relation. We study the redshift dependence of various
GRBs features in their cosmological rest frames, including the burst duration,
the isotropic luminosity and radiated energy, and the peak energy of spectra. We find that, for these two group GRBs, their properties are
all redshift dependent, i.e. their intrinsic duration, luminosity, radiated
energy and peak energy , are all correlated with the redshift, which means
that there are cosmological evolution effects on gamma-ray bursts features, and
this can provide an interesting clue to the nature of GRBs. If this is true,
then the results also imply that the redshift derived from the luminosity -
variability relation may be reliable.Comment: Latex, 11 pages. Discussion of the selection effects have been added.
Accepted for publication in MNRA
Charge trapping in polymer transistors probed by terahertz spectroscopy and scanning probe potentiometry
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and scanning probe potentiometry were used
to investigate charge trapping in polymer field-effect transistors fabricated
on a silicon gate. The hole density in the transistor channel was determined
from the reduction in the transmitted terahertz radiation under an applied gate
voltage. Prolonged device operation creates an exponential decay in the
differential terahertz transmission, compatible with an increase in the density
of trapped holes in the polymer channel. Taken in combination with scanning
probe potentionmetry measurements, these results indicate that device
degradation is largely a consequence of hole trapping, rather than of changes
to the mobility of free holes in the polymer.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
- …