14,936 research outputs found
Open source and accessibility: advantages and limitations
In this paper we discuss the open source process as it relates to accessibility software. Open source is a development model that has shown considerable benefits in a number of application areas. However the nature of accessibility tools and the intended users of such software products raise issues that must be addressed by the developer before users encounter the tools in real world contexts. In this paper we discuss the nature of the open source process, how it functions, and the motivations with regards to participation that developers self-report. We then explain the impact of these elements of the open source process as they relate to adaptive accessibility software. We use some specific examples of issues raised from the adoption of open source via a discussion of the ACCESS Framework, an accessibility engine designed to provide cross-platform accessibility support through plug-ins
Propagators and Matrix Basis on Noncommutative Minkowski Space
We describe an analytic continuation of the Euclidean Grosse-Wulkenhaar and
LSZ models which defines a one-parameter family of duality covariant
noncommutative field theories interpolating between Euclidean and Minkowski
space versions of these models, and provides an alternative regularization to
the usual Feynman prescription. This regularization allows for a matrix model
representation of the field theories in terms of a complex generalization of
the usual basis of Landau wavefunctions. The corresponding propagators are
calculated and identified with the Feynman propagators of the field theories.
The regulated quantum field theories are shown to be UV/IR-duality covariant.
We study the asymptotics of the regularized propagators in position and matrix
space representations, and confirm that they generically possess a comparably
good decay behaviour as in the Euclidean case.Comment: 45 pages; v2: clarifying comments added; v3: further clarifying
comments added; Final version published in Physical Review
Hyperfine-mediated gate-driven electron spin resonance
An all-electrical spin resonance effect in a GaAs few-electron double quantum
dot is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The magnetic field
dependence and absence of associated Rabi oscillations are consistent with a
novel hyperfine mechanism. The resonant frequency is sensitive to the
instantaneous hyperfine effective field, and the effect can be used to detect
and create sizable nuclear polarizations. A device incorporating a micromagnet
exhibits a magnetic field difference between dots, allowing electrons in either
dot to be addressed selectively.Comment: related papers available at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence
The catastrophic impact of fishing pressure on species such as cod and herring is well documented. However, the antiquity of their intensive exploitation has not been established. Systematic catch statistics are only available for ca. 100 years, but large-scale fishing industries existed in medieval Europe and the expansion of cod fishing from the fourteenth century (first in Iceland, then in Newfoundland) played an important role in the European colonization of the Northwest Atlantic. History has demonstrated the scale of these late medieval and post-medieval fisheries, but only archaeology can illuminate earlier practices. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that the clearest changes in marine fishing in England between AD 600 and 1600 occurred rapidly around AD 1000 and involved large increases in catches of herring and cod. Surprisingly, this revolution predated the documented post-medieval expansion of England's sea fisheries and coincided with the Medieval Warm Period-when natural herring and cod productivity was probably low in the North Sea. This counterintuitive discovery can be explained by the concurrent rise of urbanism and human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The search for 'pristine' baselines regarding marine ecosystems will thus need to employ medieval palaeoecological proxies in addition to recent fisheries data and early modern historical records
Conditional operation of a spin qubit
We report coherent operation of a singlet-triplet qubit controlled by the
arrangement of two electrons in an adjacent double quantum dot. The system we
investigate consists of two pairs of capacitively coupled double quantum dots
fabricated by electrostatic gates on the surface of a GaAs heterostructure. We
extract the strength of the capacitive coupling between qubit and double
quantum dot and show that the present geometry allows fast conditional gate
operation, opening pathways to multi-qubit control and implementation of
quantum algorithms with spin qubits.Comment: related papers here: http://marcuslab.harvard.ed
Geometry of Discrete Quantum Computing
Conventional quantum computing entails a geometry based on the description of
an n-qubit state using 2^{n} infinite precision complex numbers denoting a
vector in a Hilbert space. Such numbers are in general uncomputable using any
real-world resources, and, if we have the idea of physical law as some kind of
computational algorithm of the universe, we would be compelled to alter our
descriptions of physics to be consistent with computable numbers. Our purpose
here is to examine the geometric implications of using finite fields Fp and
finite complexified fields Fp^2 (based on primes p congruent to 3 mod{4}) as
the basis for computations in a theory of discrete quantum computing, which
would therefore become a computable theory. Because the states of a discrete
n-qubit system are in principle enumerable, we are able to determine the
proportions of entangled and unentangled states. In particular, we extend the
Hopf fibration that defines the irreducible state space of conventional
continuous n-qubit theories (which is the complex projective space CP{2^{n}-1})
to an analogous discrete geometry in which the Hopf circle for any n is found
to be a discrete set of p+1 points. The tally of unit-length n-qubit states is
given, and reduced via the generalized Hopf fibration to DCP{2^{n}-1}, the
discrete analog of the complex projective space, which has p^{2^{n}-1}
(p-1)\prod_{k=1}^{n-1} (p^{2^{k}}+1) irreducible states. Using a measure of
entanglement, the purity, we explore the entanglement features of discrete
quantum states and find that the n-qubit states based on the complexified field
Fp^2 have p^{n} (p-1)^{n} unentangled states (the product of the tally for a
single qubit) with purity 1, and they have p^{n+1}(p-1)(p+1)^{n-1} maximally
entangled states with purity zero.Comment: 24 page
New Gauge Invariant Formulation of the Chern-Simons Gauge Theory: Classical and Quantal Analysis
Recently proposed new gauge invariant formulation of the Chern-Simons gauge
theory is considered in detail. This formulation is consistent with the gauge
fixed formulation. Furthermore it is found that the canonical (Noether)
Poincar\'e generators are not gauge invariant even on the constraints surface
and do not satisfy the Poincar\'e algebra contrast to usual case. It is the
improved generators, constructed from the symmetric energy-momentum tensor,
which are (manifestly) gauge invariant and obey the quantum as well as
classical Poincar\'e algebra. The physical states are constructed and it is
found in the Schr\"odinger picture that unusual gauge invariant longitudinal
mode of the gauge field is crucial for constructing the physical wavefunctional
which is genuine to (pure) Chern-Simons theory. In matching to the gauge fixed
formulation, we consider three typical gauges, Coulomb, axial and Weyl gauges
as explicit examples. Furthermore, recent several confusions about the effect
of Dirac's dressing function and the gauge fixings are clarified. The analysis
according to old gauge independent formulation a' la Dirac is summarized in an
appendix.Comment: No figures, 44 page
Magnetohydrodynamic rotation in an annulus
Liquid metal conductor confined between two concentric cylindrical electrode
Asymmetry of Nonlinear Transport and Electron Interactions in Quantum Dots
The symmetry properties of transport beyond the linear regime in chaotic
quantum dots are investigated experimentally. A component of differential
conductance that is antisymmetric in both applied source-drain bias V and
magnetic field B, absent in linear transport, is found to exhibit mesoscopic
fluctuations around a zero average. Typical values of this component allow a
measurement of the electron interaction strength.Comment: related papers at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed
The Discrete Frenet Frame, Inflection Point Solitons And Curve Visualization with Applications to Folded Proteins
We develop a transfer matrix formalism to visualize the framing of discrete
piecewise linear curves in three dimensional space. Our approach is based on
the concept of an intrinsically discrete curve, which enables us to more
effectively describe curves that in the limit where the length of line segments
vanishes approach fractal structures in lieu of continuous curves. We verify
that in the case of differentiable curves the continuum limit of our discrete
equation does reproduce the generalized Frenet equation. As an application we
consider folded proteins, their Hausdorff dimension is known to be fractal. We
explain how to employ the orientation of carbons of amino acids along
a protein backbone to introduce a preferred framing along the backbone. By
analyzing the experimentally resolved fold geometries in the Protein Data Bank
we observe that this framing relates intimately to the discrete
Frenet framing. We also explain how inflection points can be located in the
loops, and clarify their distinctive r\^ole in determining the loop structure
of foldel proteins.Comment: 14 pages 12 figure
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