504 research outputs found
Scattering of coherent states on a single artificial atom
In this work we theoretically analyze a circuit QED design where propagating
quantum microwaves interact with a single artificial atom, a single Cooper pair
box. In particular, we derive a master equation in the so-called transmon
regime, including coherent drives. Inspired by recent experiments, we then
apply the master equation to describe the dynamics in both a two-level and a
three-level approximation of the atom. In the two-level case, we also discuss
how to measure photon antibunching in the reflected field and how it is
affected by finite temperature and finite detection bandwidth.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Probing the quantum vacuum with an artificial atom in front of a mirror
Quantum fluctuations of the vacuum are both a surprising and fundamental
phenomenon of nature. Understood as virtual photons flitting in and out of
existence, they still have a very real impact, \emph{e.g.}, in the Casimir
effects and the lifetimes of atoms. Engineering vacuum fluctuations is
therefore becoming increasingly important to emerging technologies. Here, we
shape vacuum fluctuations using a "mirror", creating regions in space where
they are suppressed. As we then effectively move an artificial atom in and out
of these regions, measuring the atomic lifetime tells us the strength of the
fluctuations. The weakest fluctuation strength we observe is 0.02 quanta, a
factor of 50 below what would be expected without the mirror, demonstrating
that we can hide the atom from the vacuum
Large collective Lamb shift of two distant superconducting artificial atoms
Virtual photons can mediate interaction between atoms, resulting in an energy
shift known as a collective Lamb shift. Observing the collective Lamb shift is
challenging, since it can be obscured by radiative decay and direct atom-atom
interactions. Here, we place two superconducting qubits in a transmission line
terminated by a mirror, which suppresses decay. We measure a collective Lamb
shift reaching 0.8% of the qubit transition frequency and exceeding the
transition linewidth. We also show that the qubits can interact via the
transmission line even if one of them does not decay into it.Comment: 7+5 pages, 4+2 figure
Modular detergents tailor the purification and structural analysis of membrane proteins including G-protein coupled receptors
Detergents enable the purification of membrane proteins and are indispensable reagents instructural biology. Even though a large variety of detergents have been developed in the lastcentury, the challenge remains to identify guidelines that allowfine-tuning of detergents forindividual applications in membrane protein research. Addressing this challenge, here weintroduce the family of oligoglycerol detergents (OGDs). Native mass spectrometry (MS)reveals that the modular OGD architecture offers the ability to control protein purificationand to preserve interactions with native membrane lipids during purification. In addition to abroad range of bacterial membrane proteins, OGDs also enable the purification and analysisof a functional G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR). Moreover, given the modular design ofthese detergents, we anticipatefine-tuning of their properties for specific applications instructural biology. Seen from a broader perspective, this represents a significant advance forthe investigation of membrane proteins and their interactions with lipids
Implementation of two-party protocols in the noisy-storage model
The noisy-storage model allows the implementation of secure two-party
protocols under the sole assumption that no large-scale reliable quantum
storage is available to the cheating party. No quantum storage is thereby
required for the honest parties. Examples of such protocols include bit
commitment, oblivious transfer and secure identification. Here, we provide a
guideline for the practical implementation of such protocols. In particular, we
analyze security in a practical setting where the honest parties themselves are
unable to perform perfect operations and need to deal with practical problems
such as errors during transmission and detector inefficiencies. We provide
explicit security parameters for two different experimental setups using weak
coherent, and parametric down conversion sources. In addition, we analyze a
modification of the protocols based on decoy states.Comment: 41 pages, 33 figures, this is a companion paper to arXiv:0906.1030
considering practical aspects, v2: published version, title changed in
accordance with PRA guideline
Possibility, Impossibility and Cheat-Sensitivity of Quantum Bit String Commitment
Unconditionally secure non-relativistic bit commitment is known to be
impossible in both the classical and the quantum worlds. But when committing to
a string of n bits at once, how far can we stretch the quantum limits? In this
paper, we introduce a framework for quantum schemes where Alice commits a
string of n bits to Bob in such a way that she can only cheat on a bits and Bob
can learn at most b bits of information before the reveal phase. Our results
are two-fold: we show by an explicit construction that in the traditional
approach, where the reveal and guess probabilities form the security criteria,
no good schemes can exist: a+b is at least n. If, however, we use a more
liberal criterion of security, the accessible information, we construct schemes
where a=4log n+O(1) and b=4, which is impossible classically. We furthermore
present a cheat-sensitive quantum bit string commitment protocol for which we
give an explicit tradeoff between Bob's ability to gain information about the
committed string, and the probability of him being detected cheating.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, 2 figure. v2: title change, cheat-sensitivity adde
Quantum wave mixing and visualisation of coherent and superposed photonic states in a waveguide
Superconducting quantum systems (artificial atoms) have been recently
successfully used to demonstrate on-chip effects of quantum optics with single
atoms in the microwave range. In particular, a well-known effect of four-wave
mixing could reveal a series of features beyond classical physics, when a
non-linear medium is scaled down to a single quantum scatterer. Here we
demonstrate a phenomenon of the quantum wave mixing (QWM) on a single
superconducting artificial atom. In the QWM, the spectrum of elastically
scattered radiation is a direct map of the interacting superposed and coherent
photonic states. Moreover, the artificial atom visualises photon-state
statistics, distinguishing coherent, one- and two-photon superposed states with
the finite (quantized) number of peaks in the quantum regime. Our results may
give a new insight into nonlinear quantum effects in microwave optics with
artificial atoms.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; accepted versio
Determination of the HQET Parameters from the Decay
We combine the resummations for radiative corrections and for the heavy quark
expansion to study the inclusive radiative decay . The
infrared renormalon ambiguity is also taken into account. Including both
theoretical and experimental uncertainties, we determine the allowed domain for
the HQET parameters and centered at GeV and GeV.Comment: IR renormalon ambiguity is include
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