2,167 research outputs found
Pulsar kicks by anisotropic neutrino emission from quark matter
We discuss an acceleration mechanism for pulsars out of their supernova
remnants based on asymmetric neutrino emission from quark matter in the
presence of a strong magnetic field. The polarized electron spin fixes the
neutrino emission from the direct quark Urca process in one direction along the
magnetic field. We calculate the magnetic field strength which is required to
polarize the electron spin as well as the required initial proto-neutron star
temperature for a successfull acceleration mechanism. In addition we discuss
the neutrino mean free paths in quark as well as in neutron matter which turn
out to be very small. Consequently, the high neutrino interaction rates will
wash out the asymmetry in neutrino emission. As a possible solution to this
problem we take into account effects from colour superconductivity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, poster contribution at the conference "Nuclear
Physics in Astrophysics III",Dresden,March 26-31,200
Is there Quark Matter in (Low-Mass) Pulsars?
The effect of the QCD phase transition is studied for the mass-radius
relation of compact stars and for hot and dense matter at a given proton
fraction used as input in core-collapse supernova simulations. The phase
transitions to the 2SC and CFL color superconducting phases lead to stable
hybrid star configurations with a pure quark matter core. In supernova
explosions quark matter could be easily produced due to -equilibrium,
small proton fractions and nonvanishing temperatures. A low critical density
for the phase transition to quark matter is compatible with present pulsar mass
measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, talk given at the QM2008 conference, Jaipur,
India, February 4-10, 2008, JPG in pres
Strange Exotic States and Compact Stars
We discuss the possible appearance of strange exotic multi-quark states in
the interior of neutron stars and signals for the existence of strange quark
matter in the core of compact stars. We show how the in-medium properties of
possible pentaquark states are constrained by pulsar mass measurements. The
possibility of generating the observed large pulsar kick velocities by
asymmetric emission of neutrinos from strange quark matter in magnetic fields
is outlined.Comment: 10 pages, invited talk given at the International Conference on
Strangeness in Quark Matter 2006 (SQM2006), UCLA, USA, March 26-31, 2006,
Journal of Physics G in press, refs. adde
Strangeness in Astrophysics and Cosmology
Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for
astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are
addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as
extracted from subthreshold kaon production in heavy-ion collisions are used to
derive an upper mass limit for compact stars. The interplay between the
viscosity of strange quark matter and the gravitational wave emission from
rotation-powered pulsars are outlined. The flux of strange quark matter nuggets
in cosmic rays is put in perspective with a detailed numerical investigation of
the merger of two strange stars. Finally, we discuss a novel scenario for the
QCD phase transition in the early universe, which allows for a small
inflationary period due to a pronounced first order phase transition at large
baryochemical potential.Comment: 8 pages, invited talk given at the International Conference on
Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2009), Buzios, Brasil, September 28 - October
2, 200
A little inflation at the cosmological QCD phase transition
We reexamine the recently proposed "little inflation" scenario that allows
for a strong first order phase-transition of QCD at non-negligible baryon
number in the early universe and its possible observable consequences. The
scenario is based on the assumptions of a strong mechanism for baryogenesis and
a quasistable QCD-medium state which triggers a short inflationary period of
inflation diluting the baryon asymmetry to the value observed today. The
cosmological implications are reexamined, namely effects on primordial density
fluctuations up to dark matter mass scales of M_{max} \sim 1 M_{\astrosun},
change in the spectral slope up to M_{max} \sim 10^6 M_{\astrosun},
production of seeds for the present galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields
and a gravitational wave spectrum with a peak frequency around . We discuss the issue of nucleation in more detail and
employ a chiral effective model of QCD to study the impact on small scale
structure formation.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, several extensions to the text and structure
formation part was rephrased for better readabilit
Strange matter in core-collapse supernovae
We discuss the possible impact of strange quark matter on the evolution of
core-collapse supernovae with emphasis on low critical densities for the
quark-hadron phase transition. For such cases the hot proto-neutron star can
collapse to a more compact hybrid star configuration hundreds of milliseconds
after core-bounce. The collapse triggers the formation of a second shock wave.
The latter leads to a successful supernova explosion and leaves an imprint on
the neutrino signal. These dynamical features are discussed with respect to
their compatibility with recent neutron star mass measurements which indicate a
stiff high density nuclear matter equation of state.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Invited talk at the "Strangeness in Quark Matter"
conference, 18-24 September 2011, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Cracow, Polan
A min-entropy uncertainty relation for finite size cryptography
Apart from their foundational significance, entropic uncertainty relations
play a central role in proving the security of quantum cryptographic protocols.
Of particular interest are thereby relations in terms of the smooth min-entropy
for BB84 and six-state encodings. Previously, strong uncertainty relations were
obtained which are valid in the limit of large block lengths. Here, we prove a
new uncertainty relation in terms of the smooth min-entropy that is only
marginally less strong, but has the crucial property that it can be applied to
rather small block lengths. This paves the way for a practical implementation
of many cryptographic protocols. As part of our proof we show tight uncertainty
relations for a family of Renyi entropies that may be of independent interest.Comment: 5+6 pages, 1 figure, revtex. new version changed author's name from
Huei Ying Nelly Ng to Nelly Huei Ying Ng, for consistency with other
publication
A transform of complementary aspects with applications to entropic uncertainty relations
Even though mutually unbiased bases and entropic uncertainty relations play
an important role in quantum cryptographic protocols they remain ill
understood. Here, we construct special sets of up to 2n+1 mutually unbiased
bases (MUBs) in dimension d=2^n which have particularly beautiful symmetry
properties derived from the Clifford algebra. More precisely, we show that
there exists a unitary transformation that cyclically permutes such bases. This
unitary can be understood as a generalization of the Fourier transform, which
exchanges two MUBs, to multiple complementary aspects. We proceed to prove a
lower bound for min-entropic entropic uncertainty relations for any set of
MUBs, and show that symmetry plays a central role in obtaining tight bounds.
For example, we obtain for the first time a tight bound for four MUBs in
dimension d=4, which is attained by an eigenstate of our complementarity
transform. Finally, we discuss the relation to other symmetries obtained by
transformations in discrete phase space, and note that the extrema of discrete
Wigner functions are directly related to min-entropic uncertainty relations for
MUBs.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, v2: published version, clarified ref [30
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