1,477 research outputs found
Observation-assisted optimal control of quantum dynamics
This paper explores the utility of instantaneous and continuous observations
in the optimal control of quantum dynamics. Simulations of the processes are
performed on several multilevel quantum systems with the goal of population
transfer. Optimal control fields are shown to be capable of cooperating or
fighting with observations to achieve a good yield, and the nature of the
observations may be optimized to more effectively control the quantum dynamics.
Quantum observations also can break dynamical symmetries to increase the
controllability of a quantum system. The quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects
induced by observations are the key operating principles in these processes.
The results indicate that quantum observations can be effective tools in the
control of quantum dynamics
Quantum Dynamical Approach of Wavefunction Collapse in Measurement Process and Its Application to Quantum Zeno Effect
The systematical studies on the dynamical approach of wavefunction collapse
in quantum measurement are reported in this paper based on the Hepp-Coleman's
model and its generalizations. Under certain physically reasonable conditions,
which are easily satisfied by the practical problems, it is shown that the
off-diagonal elements of the reduced density matrix vanish in quantum
mechanical evolution process in the macroscopic limit with a very large
particle number N. Various examples with detector made up of oscillators of
different spectrum distribution are used to illustrate this observations . With
the two-level system as an explicit illustration, the quantum information
entropy is exactly obtained to quantitatively describe the degree of
decoherence for the so-called partial coherence caused by detector. The entropy
for the case with many levels is computed based on perturbation method in the
limits with very large and very small N. As an application of this general
approach for quantum measurement, a dynamical realization of the quantum Zeno
effect are present to analyse its recent testing experiment in connection with
a description of transition in quantum information entropy. Finally, the Cini's
model for the correlation between the states of the measured system and the
detector is generalized for the case with many energy-level.Comment: ITP.SUNYSB preprint Sep.,199
Can degenerate bound states occur in one dimensional quantum mechanics?
We point out that bound states, degenerate in energy but differing in parity,
may form in one dimensional quantum systems even if the potential is
non-singular in any finite domain. Such potentials are necessarily unbounded
from below at infinity and occur in several different contexts, such as in the
study of localised states in brane-world scenarios. We describe how to
construct large classes of such potentials and give explicit analytic
expressions for the degenerate bound states. Some of these bound states occur
above the potential maximum while some are below. Various unusual features of
the bound states are described and after highlighting those that are ansatz
independent, we suggest that it might be possible to observe such parity-paired
degenerate bound states in specific mesoscopic systems.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter
Modeling viral coevolution: HIV multi-clonal persistence and competition dynamics
The coexistence of different viral strains (quasispecies) within the same
host are nowadays observed for a growing number of viruses, most notably HIV,
Marburg and Ebola, but the conditions for the formation and survival of new
strains have not yet been understood. We present a model of HIV quasispecies
competition, that describes the conditions of viral quasispecies coexistence
under different immune system conditions. Our model incorporates both T and B
cells responses, and we show that the role of B cells is important and additive
to that of T cells. Simulations of coinfection (simultaneous infection) and
superinfection (delayed secondary infection) scenarios in the early stages
(days) and in the late stages of the infection (years) are in agreement with
emerging molecular biology findings. The immune response induces a competition
among similar phenotypes, leading to differentiation (quasi-speciation), escape
dynamics and complex oscillations of viral strain abundance. We found that the
quasispecies dynamics after superinfection or coinfection has time scales of
several months and becomes even slower when the immune system response is weak.
Our model represents a general framework to study the speed and distribution of
HIV quasispecies during disease progression, vaccination and therapy.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure
Enhanced stability and local structure in biologically relevant amorphous materials containing pyrophosphate
There is increasing evidence that amorphous inorganic materials play a key role in biomineralisation in many organisms, however the inherent instability of synthetic analogues in the absence of the complex in vivo matrix limits their study and clinical exploitation. To address this, we report here an approach that enhances long-term stability to >1 year of biologically relevant amorphous metal phosphates, in the absence of any complex stabilisers, by utilising pyrophosphates (P2O7 4-); species themselves ubiquitous in vivo. Ambient temperature precipitation reactions were employed to synthesise amorphous Ca2P2O7.nH2O and Sr2P2O7.nH2O (3.8 < n < 4.2) and their stability and structure were investigated. Pair distribution functions (PDF) derived from synchrotron X-ray data indicated a lack of structural order beyond ~8 A° in both phases, with this local order found to resemble crystalline analogues. Further studies, including 1H and 31P solid state NMR, suggest the unusually high stability of these purely inorganic amorphous phases is partly due to disorder in the P–O–P bond angles within the P2O7 units, which impede crystallization, and to water molecules, which are involved in H-bonds of various strengths within the structures and hamper the formation of an ordered network. In situ high temperature powder X-ray diffraction data indicated that the amorphous nature of both phases surprisingly persisted to ~450° C. Further NMR and TGA studies found that above ambient temperature some water molecules reacted with P2O7 anions, leading to the hydrolysis of some P–O–P linkages and the formation of HPO4 2- anions within the amorphous matrix. The latter anions then recombined into P2O7 ions at higher temperatures prior to crystallization. Together, these findings provide important new materials with unexplored potential for enzyme-assisted resorption and establish factors crucial to isolate further stable amorphous inorganic materials
Heavy Fermion Behavior, Crystalline Electric Field Effects, and Weak Ferromagnetism in SmOs_{4}Sb_{12}
The filled skutterudite compound SmOs_{4}Sb_{12} was prepared in single
crystal form and characterized. The SmOs_{4}Sb_{12} crystals have the
LaFe_{4}P_{12}-type structure with lattice parameter a = 9.3085 Angstroms.
Specific heat measurements indicate a large electronic specific heat
coefficient of ~880 mJ/mol K^{2}, from which an enhanced effective mass m^{*} ~
170 m_{e} is estimated. The specific heat data also suggest crystalline
electric field (CEF) splitting of the Sm^{3+} J = 5/2 multiplet into a
Gamma_{7} doublet ground state and a Gamma_{8} quartet excited state separated
by 37 K. Electrical resistivity rho(T) measurements reveal a decrease in rho(T)
below ~50 K that is consistent with CEF splitting of ~33 K between a Gamma_(7)
doublet ground state and Gamma_{8} quartet excited state. Specific heat and
magnetic susceptibility measurements display a possible weak ferromagnetic
transition at ~2.6 K, which could be an intrinsic property of SmOs_4Sb_{12} or
possibly due to an unknown impurity phase.Comment: 24 pages, 11 Postscript figures, to be published in Physical Review
Unified analysis of terminal-time control in classical and quantum systems
Many phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology involve seeking an optimal
control to maximize an objective for a classical or quantum system which is
open and interacting with its environment. The complexity of finding an optimal
control for maximizing an objective is strongly affected by the possible
existence of sub-optimal maxima. Within a unified framework under specified
conditions, control objectives for maximizing at a terminal time physical
observables of open classical and quantum systems are shown to be inherently
free of sub-optimal maxima. This attractive feature is of central importance
for enabling the discovery of controls in a seamless fashion in a wide range of
phenomena transcending the quantum and classical regimes.Comment: 10 page
Deep machine learning provides state-of-the-art performance in image-based plant phenotyping
In plant phenotyping, it has become important to be able to measure many features on large image sets in order to aid genetic discovery. The size of the datasets, now often captured robotically, often precludes manual inspection, hence the motivation for finding a fully automated approach. Deep learning is an emerging field that promises unparalleled results on many data analysis problems. Building on artificial neural networks, deep approaches have many more hidden layers in the network, and hence have greater discriminative and predictive power. We demonstrate the use of such approaches as part of a plant phenotyping pipeline. We show the success offered by such techniques when applied to the challenging problem of image-based plant phenotyping and demonstrate state-of-the-art results (>97% accuracy) for root and shoot feature identification and localization. We use fully automated trait identification using deep learning to identify quantitative trait loci in root architecture datasets. The majority (12 out of 14) of manually identified quantitative trait loci were also discovered using our automated approach based on deep learning detection to locate plant features. We have shown deep learning–based phenotyping to have very good detection and localization accuracy in validation and testing image sets. We have shown that such features can be used to derive meaningful biological traits, which in turn can be used in quantitative trait loci discovery pipelines. This process can be completely automated. We predict a paradigm shift in image-based phenotyping bought about by such deep learning approaches, given sufficient training sets
The continuous rise of bulges out of galactic disks
(abridged) This study revolves around dmB, a new distance- and
extinction-independent measure of the contribution by stellar populations older
than 9 Gyr to the mean r-band surface brightness of the bulge component in 135
late-type galaxies (LTGs) from the CALIFA survey, spanning a range of 2.6 dex
and 3 dex in total and bulge stellar mass (M*T~10^(8.9-11.5) M_solar and
M*B~10^(8.3-11.3) M_solar, respectively). The main insight from this study is
that LTG bulges form a continuous sequence of increasing dmB with increasing
M*T, M*B, stellar mass surface density S* and mass-weighted age and
metallicity: high-dmB bulges are the oldest, densest and most massive ones, and
vice versa. Furthermore, we find that the bulge-to-disk age and metallicity
contrast, as well as the bulge-to-disk mass ratio increase with M*T, raising
from, respectively, ~0 Gyr, 0 dex and 0.25 to ~3 Gyr, ~0.3 dex and 0.67 across
the mass range covered by our sample. Whereas gas excitation in lower-mass
bulges is invariably dominated by star formation (SF), LINER- and
Seyfert-specific emission-line ratios were exclusively documented in high-mass,
high-S* bulges. The continuity both in the properties of LTG bulges themselves
and in their age and metallicity contrast to their parent disks suggests that
these components evolve alongside in a concurrent process that leads to a
continuum of physical and evolutionary characteristics. Our results are
consistent with a picture where bulge growth in LTGs is driven by a
superposition of quick-early and slow-secular processes, the relative
importance of which increases with M*T. These processes, which presumably
combine in situ SF in the bulge and inward migration of material from the disk,
are expected to lead to a non-homologous radial growth of S* and a trend for an
increasing Sersic index with increasing galaxy mass.Comment: 24 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Clinical Experiences of Pheochromocytoma in Korea
∙ The authors have no financial conflicts of interest. Purpose: We report herein 119 patients with pheochromocytoma at our institute over the last 23 years. Materials and Methods: Between 1986 and 2009, 119 patients were diagnosed with pheochromocytoma at our institute. We reviewed the medical records of these patients. Results: Of 119 patients, 45 were male and 74 were female, and mean age was 43.83 ± 13.49 years. Forty-three patients (36.1%) were diagnosed incidentally, and 8 patients (6.7%) were found to have familial pheochromocytoma. The mean dimension of the tumors was 5.89 ± 3.18 cm. 4 patients had bilateral tumors; three of these patients were found to have familial pheochromocytoma and 1 patient was diagnosed with malignant pheochromocytoma. A total of eight patients (6.7%) were found to have malignant pheochromocytoma. In 1 patient, metastasis to a lymph node was found at the time of diagnosis. Metastases were found at a mean of 49 ± 25.83 (6-75) months after surgery in the other seven patients. 6 patients died of malignant pheochromocytoma at
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