Programmable purification of type-I polarization-entanglement

We suggest and demonstrate a scheme to compensate spatial and spectral decoherence effects in the generation of polarization entangled states by type-I parametric downconversion. In our device a programmable spatial light modulator imposes a polarization dependent phase-shift on different spatial sections of the overall downconversion output and this effect is exploited to realize an effective purification technique for polarization entanglement.Comment: published versio

Theory of continuum percolation I. General formalism

The theoretical basis of continuum percolation has changed greatly since its beginning as little more than an analogy with lattice systems. Nevertheless, there is yet no comprehensive theory of this field. A basis for such a theory is provided here with the introduction of the Potts fluid, a system of interacting $s$-state spins which are free to move in the continuum. In the $s \to 1$ limit, the Potts magnetization, susceptibility and correlation functions are directly related to the percolation probability, the mean cluster size and the pair-connectedness, respectively. Through the Hamiltonian formulation of the Potts fluid, the standard methods of statistical mechanics can therefore be used in the continuum percolation problem.Comment: 26 pages, Late

Efficacy and safety of trabeculectomy vs nonpenetrating surgical procedures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To date, only a few studies have directly compared nonpenetrating surgery (NPS) and trabeculectomy (TE). Therefore, there is no strong evidence as to which surgical technique leads to the best results in terms of ocular hypotensive effect and safety

Estimates of the total gravitation radiation in the head-on black hole collision

We report on calculations of the total gravitational energy radiated in the head-on black hole collision, where we use the geometry of the Robinson-Trautman metrics.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX2

A Renormalization Proof of the KAM Theorem for Non-Analytic Perturbations

We shall use a Renormalization Group (RG) scheme in order to prove the classical KAM result in the case of a non-analytic perturbation (the latter will be assumed to have continuous derivatives up to a sufficiently large order). We shall proceed by solving a sequence of problems in which the perturbations are analytic approximations of the original one. We shall finally show that the sequence of the approximate solutions will converge to a differentiable solution of the original problem.Comment: 33 pages, no figure

Matrix permanent and quantum entanglement of permutation invariant states

We point out that a geometric measure of quantum entanglement is related to the matrix permanent when restricted to permutation invariant states. This connection allows us to interpret the permanent as an angle between vectors. By employing a recently introduced permanent inequality by Carlen, Loss and Lieb, we can prove explicit formulas of the geometric measure for permutation invariant basis states in a simple way.Comment: 10 page

Estimation of pure qubits on circles

Gisin and Popescu [PRL, 83, 432 (1999)] have shown that more information about their direction can be obtained from a pair of anti-parallel spins compared to a pair of parallel spins, where the first member of the pair (which we call the pointer member) can point equally along any direction in the Bloch sphere. They argued that this was due to the difference in dimensionality spanned by these two alphabets of states. Here we consider similar alphabets, but with the first spin restricted to a fixed small circle of the Bloch sphere. In this case, the dimensionality spanned by the anti-parallel versus parallel alphabet is now equal. However, the anti-parallel alphabet is found to still contain more information in general. We generalize this to having N parallel spins and M anti-parallel spins. When the pointer member is restricted to a small circle these alphabets again span spaces of equal dimension, yet in general, more directional information can be found for sets with smaller |N-M| for any fixed total number of spins. We find that the optimal POVMs for extracting directional information in these cases can always be expressed in terms of the Fourier basis. Our results show that dimensionality alone cannot explain the greater information content in anti-parallel combinations of spins compared to parallel combinations. In addition, we describe an LOCC protocol which extract optimal directional information when the pointer member is restricted to a small circle and a pair of parallel spins are supplied.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Barbero-Immirzi field in canonical formalism of pure gravity

The Barbero-Immirzi (BI) parameter is promoted to a field and a canonical analysis is performed when it is coupled with a Nieh-Yan topological invariant. It is shown that, in the effective theory, the BI field is a canonical pseudoscalar minimally coupled with gravity. This framework is argued to be more natural than the one of the usual Holst action. Potential consequences in relation with inflation and the quantum theory are briefly discussed.Comment: 10 page

Feeding dehydrated alfalfa increases polyunsaturated fatty acids concentration in Marchigiana beef muscle

Beef meat is a low fat food (<5% fat). However, the fatty acid composition of beef is relatively saturated (approximately 45-50%). The polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acids (P/S) ratio in beef is approximately 0.1, the ideal being about 0.4 (Department of Health, 1994). This can cause critical comments to beef meat related to human health

Spherically symmetric black holes in minimally modified self-dual gravity

We discuss spherically symmetric black holes in the modified self-dual theory of gravity recently studied by Krasnov, obtained adding a Weyl-curvature dependent `cosmological term' to the Plebanski lagrangian for general relativity. This type of modified gravity admits two different types of singularities: one is a true singularity for the theory where the fundamental fields of the theory, as well as the (auxiliary) spacetime metric, become singular, and the other one is a milder "non-metric singularity" where the metric description of the spacetime breaks down but the fundamental fields themselves are regular. We first generalise this modified self-dual gravity to include Maxwell's field and then study basic features of spherically symmetric, charged black holes, with particular focus on whether these two types of singularities are hidden or naked. We restrict our attention to minimal forms of the modification, and find that the theory exhibits `screening' effects of the electric charge (or `anti-screening', depending upon the sign of the modification term), in the sense that it leads to the possibility of charging the black hole more (or less) than it would be possible in general relativity without exposing a naked singularity. We also find that for any (even arbitrarily large) value of charge, true singularities of the theory appear to be either achronal (non-timelike) covered by the hypersurface of a harmless non-metric singularity, or simply hidden inside at least one Killing horizon.Comment: 42 pages, many colour figures. v2: discussion of the conformal ambiguity improved, references added. v3: amended to match published versio