704 research outputs found
Sustainable Biogas Production in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants
This report deals with anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge, an energy- and nutrient-rich by-product of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The objective is to promote sustainable practices and technology, focussing on energy efficiency of biogas production and utilisation. An overview of the AD process in WWTP is given, along with standard energy performances, nutrient recycling and different process options and their impacts. However, it is by no means intended as a detailed technical guideline for project management.
The report is aimed at energy policy and decision makers as well as WWTP operators and was produced by IEA Bioenergy Task 37, an expert working group that addresses challenges related to the economic and environmental sustainability of biogas production and utilisation.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor
Photon-Photon Entanglement with a Single Trapped Atom
An experiment is performed where a single rubidium atom trapped within a
high-finesse optical cavity emits two independently triggered entangled
photons. The entanglement is mediated by the atom and is characterized both by
a Bell inequality violation of S=2.5, as well as full quantum-state tomography,
resulting in a fidelity exceeding F=90%. The combination of cavity-QED and
trapped atom techniques makes our protocol inherently deterministic - an
essential step for the generation of scalable entanglement between the nodes of
a distributed quantum network.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Remote Entanglement between a Single Atom and a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Entanglement between stationary systems at remote locations is a key resource
for quantum networks. We report on the experimental generation of remote
entanglement between a single atom inside an optical cavity and a Bose-Einstein
condensate (BEC). To produce this, a single photon is created in the
atom-cavity system, thereby generating atom-photon entanglement. The photon is
transported to the BEC and converted into a collective excitation in the BEC,
thus establishing matter-matter entanglement. After a variable delay, this
entanglement is converted into photon-photon entanglement. The matter-matter
entanglement lifetime of 100 s exceeds the photon duration by two orders
of magnitude. The total fidelity of all concatenated operations is 95%. This
hybrid system opens up promising perspectives in the field of quantum
information
Shaping the Phase of a Single Photon
While the phase of a coherent light field can be precisely known, the phase
of the individual photons that create this field, considered individually,
cannot. Phase changes within single-photon wave packets, however, have
observable effects. In fact, actively controlling the phase of individual
photons has been identified as a powerful resource for quantum communication
protocols. Here we demonstrate the arbitrary phase control of a single photon.
The phase modulation is applied without affecting the photon's amplitude
profile and is verified via a two-photon quantum interference measurement,
which can result in the fermionic spatial behaviour of photon pairs. Combined
with previously demonstrated control of a single photon's amplitude, frequency,
and polarisation, the fully deterministic phase shaping presented here allows
for the complete control of single-photon wave packets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Cavity-based single atom preparation and high-fidelity hyperfine state readout
We prepare and detect the hyperfine state of a single 87Rb atom coupled to a
fiber-based high finesse cavity on an atom chip. The atom is extracted from a
Bose-Einstein condensate and trapped at the maximum of the cavity field,
resulting in a reproducibly strong atom-cavity coupling. We use the cavity
reflection and transmission signal to infer the atomic hyperfine state with a
fidelity exceeding 99.92% in a read-out time of 100 microseconds. The atom is
still trapped after detection.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Quantitative analysis of shadow X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy
Shadow X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy
(XMCD-PEEM) is a recent technique, in which the photon intensity in the shadow
of an object lying on a surface, may be used to gather information about the
three-dimensional magnetization texture inside the object. Our purpose here is
to lay the basis of a quantitative analysis of this technique. We first discuss
the principle and implementation of a method to simulate the contrast expected
from an arbitrary micromagnetic state. Text book examples and successful
comparison with experiments are then given. Instrumental settings are finally
discussed, having an impact on the contrast and spatial resolution : photon
energy, microscope extraction voltage and plane of focus, microscope background
level, electric-field related distortion of three-dimensional objects, Fresnel
diffraction or photon scattering
Isocyanide insertion into Au-H bonds: first gold iminoformyl complexes
Isocyanides insert into gold(III)-hydrogen bonds to give the first examples of gold iminoformyl complexes. The reaction is initiated by catalytic amounts of radicals; DFT calculations indicate that this is an equilibrium reaction driven forward by isocyanide in sufficient excess to trap the Au(II) intermediate
The derivation of performance expressions for communication protocols from timed Petri net models
Petri Net models have been extended in a variety of ways and have been used to prove the correctness and evaluate the performance of communication protocols. Several extensions have been proposed to model time. This work uses a form of Timed Petri Nets and presents a technique for symbolically deriving expressions which describe system performance. Unlike past work on performance evaluation of Petri Nets which assumes a priori knowledge of specific time delays, the technique presented here applies to a wide range of time delays so long as the delays satisfy a set of timing constraints. The technique is demonstrated using a simple communication protocol
Synthesis and Luminescence Modulation of Pyrazine-Based Gold(III) Pincer Complexes
The first examples of pyrazine-based gold(III) pincer complexes have been synthesized; their intense photoemissions can be modified by interactions with the non-coordinating pyrazine-N atom. Luminescence modulation is possible without the need for altering the ligand framework. Emissions shift from red (77 K) to blue (298 K) due to thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF
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