Comment on ``Nonuniversal Exponents in Interface Growth''

Recently, Newman and Swift[T. J. Newman and M. R. Swift, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 79}, 2261 (1997)] made an interesting suggestion that the strong-coupling exponents of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation may not be universal, but rather depend on the precise form of the noise distribution. We show here that the decrease of surface roughness exponents they observed can be attributed to a percolative effect

Sticky grains do not change the universality class of isotropic sandpiles

We revisit the sandpile model with ``sticky'' grains introduced by Mohanty and Dhar [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 89}, 104303 (2002)] whose scaling properties were claimed to be in the universality class of directed percolation for both isotropic and directed models. Simulations in the so-called fixed-energy ensemble show that this conclusion is not valid for isotropic sandpiles and that this model shares the same critical properties of other stochastic sandpiles, such as the Manna model. %as expected from the existence of an extra %conservation-law, absent in directed percolation. These results are strengthened by the analysis of the Langevin equations proposed by the same authors to account for this problem which we show to converge, upon coarse-graining, to the well-established set of Langevin equations for the Manna class. Therefore, the presence of a conservation law keeps isotropic sandpiles, with or without stickiness, away from the directed percolation class.Comment: 4 pages. 3 Figures. Subm. to PR

Towards experimental entanglement connection with atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime

We present a protocol for performing entanglement connection between pairs of atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime. Two pairs are prepared in an asynchronous fashion and then connected via a Bell measurement. The resulting state of the two remaining ensembles is mapped to photonic modes and a reduced density matrix is then reconstructed. Our observations confirm for the first time the creation of coherence between atomic systems that never interacted, a first step towards entanglement connection, a critical requirement for quantum networking and long distance quantum communications

General framework of the non-perturbative renormalization group for non-equilibrium steady states

This paper is devoted to presenting in detail the non-perturbative renormalization group (NPRG) formalism to investigate out-of-equilibrium systems and critical dynamics in statistical physics. The general NPRG framework for studying non-equilibrium steady states in stochastic models is expounded and fundamental technicalities are stressed, mainly regarding the role of causality and of Ito's discretization. We analyze the consequences of Ito's prescription in the NPRG framework and eventually provide an adequate regularization to encode them automatically. Besides, we show how to build a supersymmetric NPRG formalism with emphasis on time-reversal symmetric problems, whose supersymmetric structure allows for a particularly simple implementation of NPRG in which causality issues are transparent. We illustrate the two approaches on the example of Model A within the derivative expansion approximation at order two, and check that they yield identical results.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, minor corrections prior to publicatio

Analysis of the characteristic temperatures of (Ga,In)(N,As)/GaAs laser diodes

The characteristic temperatures of the threshold current density, T0, and external differential quantum efficiency, T1, of a series of (Ga,In)(N,As)/GaAs quantum well (QW) laser diodes are measured in the wavelength range from 1 to 1.5μm. It is found that both T0 and T1 strongly decrease with increasing lasing wavelength. The origin of this degradation is shown to be, in the case of T0, mostly dominated by a decrease in the transparency current density characteristic temperature, an increase in the optical losses and a decrease in the modal gain. The degradation of T1 is mainly due to the increase in the optical losses. The effective carrier recombination lifetime in the QW is shown to decrease from 1.2 to 0.2 ns with N content up to 2%, in good agreement with previous reports that link this low lifetime to non-radiative monomolecular recombination through defects in the QW. Carrier leakage is ruled out as the dominant process degrading T0 and T1 on the basis of the temperature dependence of the effective carrier recombination lifetime

Comment on ``Deterministic equations of motion and phase ordering dynamics''

Zheng [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 61}, 153 (2000), cond-mat/9909324] claims that phase ordering dynamics in the microcanonical $\phi^4$ model displays unusual scaling laws. We show here, performing more careful numerical investigations, that Zheng only observed transient dynamics mostly due to the corrections to scaling introduced by lattice effects, and that Ising-like (model A) phase ordering actually takes place at late times. Moreover, we argue that energy conservation manifests itself in different corrections to scaling.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Modeling human dynamics of face-to-face interaction networks

Face-to-face interaction networks describe social interactions in human gatherings, and are the substrate for processes such as epidemic spreading and gossip propagation. The bursty nature of human behavior characterizes many aspects of empirical data, such as the distribution of conversation lengths, of conversations per person, or of interconversation times. Despite several recent attempts, a general theoretical understanding of the global picture emerging from data is still lacking. Here we present a simple model that reproduces quantitatively most of the relevant features of empirical face-to-face interaction networks. The model describes agents that perform a random walk in a two-dimensional space and are characterized by an attractiveness whose effect is to slow down the motion of people around them. The proposed framework sheds light on the dynamics of human interactions and can improve the modeling of dynamical processes taking place on the ensuing dynamical social networks

Analytical results for generalized persistence properties of smooth processes

We present a general scheme to calculate within the independent interval approximation generalized (level-dependent) persistence properties for processes having a finite density of zero-crossings. Our results are especially relevant for the diffusion equation evolving from random initial conditions, one of the simplest coarsening systems. Exact results are obtained in certain limits, and rely on a new method to deal with constrained multiplicative processes. An excellent agreement of our analytical predictions with direct numerical simulations of the diffusion equation is found.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Journal of Physics

A solid state light-matter interface at the single photon level

Coherent and reversible mapping of quantum information between light and matter is an important experimental challenge in quantum information science. In particular, it is a decisive milestone for the implementation of quantum networks and quantum repeaters. So far, quantum interfaces between light and atoms have been demonstrated with atomic gases, and with single trapped atoms in cavities. Here we demonstrate the coherent and reversible mapping of a light field with less than one photon per pulse onto an ensemble of 10 millions atoms naturally trapped in a solid. This is achieved by coherently absorbing the light field in a suitably prepared solid state atomic medium. The state of the light is mapped onto collective atomic excitations on an optical transition and stored for a pre-programmed time up of to 1 mu s before being released in a well defined spatio-temporal mode as a result of a collective interference. The coherence of the process is verified by performing an interference experiment with two stored weak pulses with a variable phase relation. Visibilities of more than 95% are obtained, which demonstrates the high coherence of the mapping process at the single photon level. In addition, we show experimentally that our interface allows one to store and retrieve light fields in multiple temporal modes. Our results represent the first observation of collective enhancement at the single photon level in a solid and open the way to multimode solid state quantum memories as a promising alternative to atomic gases.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, version submitted on June 27 200