1,238 research outputs found
Rate of decoherence for an electron weakly coupled to a phonon gas
We study the dynamics of an electron weakly coupled to a phonon gas. The
initial state of the electron is the superposition of two spatially localized
distant bumps moving towards each other, and the phonons are in a thermal
state. We investigate the dynamics of the system in the kinetic regime and show
that the time evolution makes the non-diagonal terms of the density matrix of
the electron decay, destroying the interference between the two bumps. We show
that such a damping effect is exponential in time, and the related decay rate
is proportional to the total scattering cross section of the electron-phonon
interaction.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure
Entangled-state cryptographic protocol that remains secure even if nonlocal hidden variables exist and can be measured with arbitrary precision
Standard quantum cryptographic protocols are not secure if one assumes that
nonlocal hidden variables exist and can be measured with arbitrary precision.
The security can be restored if one of the communicating parties randomly
switches between two standard protocols.Comment: Shortened version, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Approximate gauge symmetry of composite vector bosons
It can be shown in a solvable field theory model that the couplings of the
composite vector bosons made of a fermion pair approach the gauge couplings in
the limit of strong binding. Although this phenomenon may appear accidental and
special to the vector boson made of a fermion pair, we extend it to the case of
bosons being constituents and find that the same phenomenon occurs in more an
intriguing way. The functional formalism not only facilitates computation but
also provides us with a better insight into the generating mechanism of
approximate gauge symmetry, in particular, how the strong binding and global
current conservation conspire to generate such an approximate symmetry. Remarks
are made on its possible relevance or irrelevance to electroweak and higher
symmetries.Comment: Correction of typos. The published versio
Manifestation of fundamental quantum complementarities in time-domain interference experiments with quantum dots: A theoretical analysis
A theoretical analysis is presented showing that fundamental complementarity
between the particle-like properties of an exciton confined in a semiconductor
quantum dot and the ability of the same system to show interference may be
studied in a time domain interference experiment, similar to those currently
performed. The feasibility of such an experiment, including required pulse
parameters and the dephasing effect of the environment, is studied.Comment: Final, considerably extended version; 8 pages, 3 figure
Effective non-Markovian description of a system interacting with a bath
We study a harmonic system coupled to chain of first neighbor interacting
oscillators. After deriving the exact dynamics of the system, we prove that one
can effectively describe the exact dynamics by considering a suitable shorter
chain. We provide the explicit expression for such an effective dynamics and we
provide an upper bound on the error one makes considering it instead of the
dynamics of the full chain. We eventually prove how error, timescale and number
of modes in the truncated chain are related
Relativistic quantum mechanics and the Bohmian interpretation
Conventional relativistic quantum mechanics, based on the Klein-Gordon
equation, does not possess a natural probabilistic interpretation in
configuration space. The Bohmian interpretation, in which probabilities play a
secondary role, provides a viable interpretation of relativistic quantum
mechanics. We formulate the Bohmian interpretation of many-particle wave
functions in a Lorentz-covariant way. In contrast with the nonrelativistic
case, the relativistic Bohmian interpretation may lead to measurable
predictions on particle positions even when the conventional interpretation
does not lead to such predictions.Comment: 10 pages, revised, to appear in Found. Phys. Let
Time Evolution of the External Field Problem in QED
We construct the time-evolution for the second quantized Dirac equation
subject to a smooth, compactly supported, time dependent electromagnetic
potential and identify the degrees of freedom involved. Earlier works on this
(e.g. Ruijsenaars) observed the Shale-Stinespring condition and showed that the
one-particle time-evolution can be lifted to Fock space if and only if the
external field had zero magnetic components. We scrutinize the idea, observed
earlier by Fierz and Scharf, that the time-evolution can be implemented between
time varying Fock spaces. In order to define these Fock spaces we are led to
consider classes of reference vacua and polarizations. We show that this
implementation is up to a phase independent of the chosen reference vacuum or
polarization and that all induced transition probabilities are well-defined and
unique.Comment: 60 pages, 1 figure, revised introduction, summary of results added,
typos correcte
Selecting the optimal method to calculate daily global reference potential evaporation from CFSR reanalysis data for application in a hydrological model study
Potential evaporation (PET) is one of the main inputs of hydrological models. Yet, there is limited consensus on which PET equation is most applicable in hydrological climate impact assessments. In this study six different methods to derive global scale reference PET daily time series from Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data are compared: Penman-Monteith, Priestley-Taylor and original and re-calibrated versions of the Hargreaves and Blaney-Criddle method. The calculated PET time series are (1) evaluated against global monthly Penman-Monteith PET time series calculated from CRU data and (2) tested on their usability for modeling of global discharge cycles. <br><br> A major finding is that for part of the investigated basins the selection of a PET method may have only a minor influence on the resulting river flow. Within the hydrological model used in this study the bias related to the PET method tends to decrease while going from PET, AET and runoff to discharge calculations. However, the performance of individual PET methods appears to be spatially variable, which stresses the necessity to select the most accurate and spatially stable PET method. The lowest root mean squared differences and the least significant deviations (95% significance level) between monthly CFSR derived PET time series and CRU derived PET were obtained for a cell-specific re-calibrated Blaney-Criddle equation. However, results show that this re-calibrated form is likely to be unstable under changing climate conditions and less reliable for the calculation of daily time series. Although often recommended, the Penman-Monteith equation applied to the CFSR data did not outperform the other methods in a evaluation against PET derived with the Penman-Monteith equation from CRU data. In arid regions (e.g. Sahara, central Australia, US deserts), the equation resulted in relatively low PET values and, consequently, led to relatively high discharge values for dry basins (e.g. Orange, Murray and Zambezi). Furthermore, the Penman-Monteith equation has a high data demand and the equation is sensitive to input data inaccuracy. Therefore, we recommend the re-calibrated form of the Hargreaves equation which globally gave reference PET values comparable to CRU derived values for multiple climate conditions. <br><br> The resulting gridded daily PET time series provide a new reference dataset that can be used for future hydrological impact assessments in further research, or more specifically, for the statistical downscaling of daily PET derived from raw GCM data. The dataset can be downloaded from <a href ="http://opendap.deltares.nl/thredds/dodsC/opendap/deltares/FEWS-IPCC"target="_blank">http://opendap.deltares.nl/thredds/dodsC/opendap/deltares/FEWS-IPCC</a>
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