1,422 research outputs found
Decoherence in Bose-Einstein Condensates: towards Bigger and Better Schroedinger Cats
We consider a quantum superposition of Bose-Einstein condensates in two
immiscible internal states. A decoherence rate for the resulting Schroedinger
cat is calculated and shown to be a significant threat to this macroscopic
quantum superposition of BEC's. An experimental scenario is outlined where the
decoherence rate due to the thermal cloud is dramatically reduced thanks to
trap engineering and "symmetrization" of the environment which allow for the
Schroedinger cat to be an approximate pointer states.Comment: 12 pages in RevTex; improved presentation; a new comment on
decoherence-free pointer subspaces in BEC; accepted in Phys.Rev.
Realistic interpretation of a superposition state does not imply a mixture
Contrary to previous claims, it is shown that, for an ensemble of either
single-particle systems or multi-particle systems, the realistic interpretation
of a superposition state that mathematically describes the ensemble does not
imply that the ensemble is a mixture. Therefore it cannot be argued that the
realistic interpretation is wrong on the basis that some predictions derived
from the mixture are different from the corresponding predictions derived from
the superposition state
Universal geometric approach to uncertainty, entropy and information
It is shown that for any ensemble, whether classical or quantum, continuous
or discrete, there is only one measure of the "volume" of the ensemble that is
compatible with several basic geometric postulates. This volume measure is thus
a preferred and universal choice for characterising the inherent spread,
dispersion, localisation, etc, of the ensemble. Remarkably, this unique
"ensemble volume" is a simple function of the ensemble entropy, and hence
provides a new geometric characterisation of the latter quantity. Applications
include unified, volume-based derivations of the Holevo and Shannon bounds in
quantum and classical information theory; a precise geometric interpretation of
thermodynamic entropy for equilibrium ensembles; a geometric derivation of
semi-classical uncertainty relations; a new means for defining classical and
quantum localization for arbitrary evolution processes; a geometric
interpretation of relative entropy; and a new proposed definition for the
spot-size of an optical beam. Advantages of the ensemble volume over other
measures of localization (root-mean-square deviation, Renyi entropies, and
inverse participation ratio) are discussed.Comment: Latex, 38 pages + 2 figures; p(\alpha)->1/|T| in Eq. (72) [Eq. (A10)
of published version
Fast phonetic similarity search over large repositories
Analysis of unstructured data may be inefficient in the presence of spelling errors. Existing approaches use string similarity methods to search for valid words within a text, with a supporting dictionary. However, they are not rich enough to encode phonetic information to assist the search. In this paper, we present a novel approach for efficiently perform phonetic similarity search over large data sources, that uses a data structure called PhoneticMap to encode language-specific phonetic information. We validate our approach through an experiment over a data set using a Portuguese variant of a well-known repository, to automatically correct words with spelling errors
Dynamics of two colliding Bose-Einstein condensates in an elongated magneto-static trap
We study the dynamics of two interacting Bose-Einstein condensates, by
numerically solving two coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations at zero temperature.
We consider the case of a sudden transfer of atoms between two trapped states
with different magnetic moments: the two condensates are initially created with
the same density profile, but are trapped into different magnetic potentials,
whose minima are vertically displaced by a distance much larger than the
initial size of both condensates. Then the two condensates begin to perform
collective oscillations, undergoing a complex evolution, characterized by
collisions between the two condensates. We investigate the effects of their
mutual interaction on the center-of-mass oscillations and on the time evolution
of the aspect ratios. Our theoretical analysis provides a useful insight into
the recent experimental observations by Maddaloni et al., cond-mat/0003402.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, RevTe
Climate Change in Queensland's Grazing Lands: II. An Assessment of the Impact on Animal Production From Native Pastures
The 160 million ha of grazing land in Queensland support approximately 10 million beef equivalents (9.8 million cattle and 10.7 million sheep) with treed and cleared native pastures as the major forage source. The complexity of these biophysical systems and their interaction with pasture and stock management, economic and social forces limits our ability to easily calculate the impact of climate change scenarios. We report the application of a systems approach in simulating the flow of plant dry matter and utilisation of forage by animals. Our review of available models highlighted the lack of suitable mechanistic models and the potential role of simple empirical relationships of utilisation and animal production derived from climatic and soil indices. Plausible climate change scenarios were evaluated by using a factorial of rainfall (f 10%) * 3260C temperature increase * doubling CO, in sensitivity studies at property, regional and State scales. Simulation of beef cattle liveweight gain at three locations in the Queensland black speargrass zone showed that a *lo% change in rainfall was magnified to be a f 15% change in animal production (liveweight gain per ha) depending on location, temperature and CO, change. Models of 'safe' carrying capacity were developed from property data and expert opinion. Climate change impacts on 'safe' carrying capacity varied considerably across the State depending on whether moisture, temperature or nutrients were the limiting factors. Without the effect of doubling CO,, warmer temperatures and +lo% changes in rainfall resulted in -35 to +70% changes in 'safe' carrying capacity depending on location. With the effect of doubling CO, included, the changes in 'safe' carrying capacity ranged from -12 to +115% across scenarios and locations. When aggregated to a whole-of-State carrying capacity, the combined effects of warmer temperature, doubling CO, and +lo% changes in rainfall resulted in 'safe' carrying capacity changes of +3 to +45% depending on rainfall scenario and location. A major finding of the sensitivity study was the potential importance of doubling CO, in mitigating or amplifying the effects of warmer temperatures and changes in rainfall. Field studies on the impact of CO, are therefore a high research priority. Keywords: climate change, Queensland, simulation, rangelands, beef production, cattle, carrying capacity, CO,, utilisatio
Physicians' experiences and perspectives regarding the use of continuous sedation until death for cancer patients in the context of psychological and existential suffering at the end of life
OBJECTIVE: The use of continuous sedation until death for terminally ill cancer patients with unbearable and untreatable psychological and existential suffering remains controversial, and little in-depth insight exists into the circumstances in which physicians resort to it. METHODS: Our study was conducted in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK in hospitals, PCUs/hospices, and at home. We held interviews with 35 physicians most involved in the care of cancer patients who had psychological and existential suffering and had been continuously sedated until death. RESULTS: In the studied countries, three groups of patients were distinguished regarding the origin of their psychological and existential suffering. The first group had preexisting psychological problems before they became ill, the second developed psychological and existential suffering during their disease trajectory, and the third presented psychological symptoms that were characteristic of their disease. Before they resorted to the use of sedation, physicians reported that they had considered an array of pharmacological and psychological interventions that were ineffective or inappropriate to relieve this suffering. Necessary conditions for using sedation in this context were for most physicians the presence of refractory symptoms, a short life expectancy, and an explicit patient request for sedation. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians in our study used continuous sedation until death in the context of psychological and existential suffering after considering several pharmacological and psychological interventions. Further research and debate are needed on how and by whom this suffering at the end of life should be best treated, taking into account patients' individual preferences
Spin relaxation in (110) and (001) InAs/GaSb superlattices
We report an enhancement of the electron spin relaxation time (T1) in a (110)
InAs/GaSb superlattice by more than an order of magnitude (25 times) relative
to the corresponding (001) structure. The spin dynamics were measured using
polarization sensitive pump probe techniques and a mid-infrared, subpicosecond
PPLN OPO. Longer T1 times in (110) superlattices are attributed to the
suppression of the native interface asymmetry and bulk inversion asymmetry
contributions to the precessional D'yakonov Perel spin relaxation process.
Calculations using a nonperturbative 14-band nanostructure model give good
agreement with experiment and indicate that possible structural inversion
asymmetry contributions to T1 associated with compositional mixing at the
superlattice interfaces may limit the observed spin lifetime in (110)
superlattices. Our findings have implications for potential spintronics
applications using InAs/GaSb heterostructures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Macroscopic quantum superpositions in highly-excited strongly-interacting many-body systems
We demonstrate a break-down in the macroscopic (classical-like) dynamics of
wave-packets in complex microscopic and mesoscopic collisions. This break-down
manifests itself in coherent superpositions of the rotating clockwise and
anticlockwise wave-packets in the regime of strongly overlapping many-body
resonances of the highly-excited intermediate complex. These superpositions
involve many-body configurations so that their internal interactive
complexity dramatically exceeds all of those previously discussed and
experimentally realized. The interference fringes persist over a time-interval
much longer than the energy relaxation-redistribution time due to the
anomalously slow phase randomization (dephasing). Experimental verification of
the effect is proposed.Comment: Title changed, few changes in the abstract and in the main body of
the paper, and changes in the font size in the figure. Uses revTex4, 4 pages,
1 ps figur
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