New Detectors to Explore the Lifetime Frontier

Long-lived particles (LLPs) are a common feature in many beyond the Standard Model theories, including supersymmetry, and are generically produced in exotic Higgs decays. Unfortunately, no existing or proposed search strategy will be able to observe the decay of non-hadronic electrically neutral LLPs with masses above $\sim$ GeV and lifetimes near the limit set by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), $c \tau \lesssim 10^7 - 10^8$~m. We propose the MATHUSLA surface detector concept (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra Stable neutraL pArticles), which can be implemented with existing technology and in time for the high luminosity LHC upgrade to find such ultra-long-lived particles (ULLPs), whether produced in exotic Higgs decays or more general production modes. We also advocate for a dedicated LLP detector at a future 100 TeV collider, where a modestly sized underground design can discover ULLPs with lifetimes at the BBN limit produced in sub-percent level exotic Higgs decays.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Added more detail to discussion of backgrounds. Various minor clarifications. Results and conclusions unchange

Heralded Entanglement between Atomic Ensembles: Preparation, Decoherence, and Scaling

Heralded entanglement between collective excitations in two atomic ensembles is probabilistically generated, stored, and converted to single photon fields. By way of the concurrence, quantitative characterizations are reported for the scaling behavior of entanglement with excitation probability and for the temporal dynamics of various correlations resulting in the decay of entanglement. A lower bound of the concurrence for the collective atomic state of 0.9\pm 0.3 is inferred. The decay of entanglement as a function of storage time is also observed, and related to the local dynamics.Comment: 4 page

Research study on materials processing in space experiment number M512: Nickel - 12 wt percent tin alloy evaluation

Nickel-tin (12 wt percent tin) samples were processed in the sphere forming experiment on Skylab 2. The results were characterized for sphericity, density, microhardness, porosity, surface morphology, segregation, chemical composition, Curie point, and crystallography. These results are discussed along with conclusions and recommendations

The Dependence of Dynamo α\alpha-Effect on Reynolds Numbers, Magnetic Prandtl Number, and the Statistics of MHD Turbulence

We generalize the derivation of dynamo coefficient $\alpha$ of Field et al (1999) to include the following two aspects: first, the de-correlation times of velocity field and magnetic field are different; second, the magnetic Prandtl number can be arbitrary. We find that the contributions of velocity field and magnetic field to the $\alpha$ effect are not equal, but affected by their different statistical properties. In the limit of large kinetic Reynolds number and large magnetic Reynolds number, $\alpha$-coefficient may not be small if the de-correlation times of velocity field and magnetic field are shorter than the eddy turn-over time of the MHD turbulence. We also show that under certain circumstances, for example if the kinetic helicity and current helicity are comparable, $\alpha$ depends insensitively on magnetic Prandtl number, while if either the kinetic helicity or the current helicity is dominated by the other one, a different magnetic Prandtl number will significantly change the dynamo $\alpha$ effect.Comment: 44 pages, 4 figures, to appear in ApJ (vol. 552

The effects of ground hydrology on climate sensitivity to solar constant variations

The effects of two different evaporation parameterizations on the climate sensitivity to solar constant variations are investigated by using a zonally averaged climate model. The model is based on a two-level quasi-geostrophic zonally averaged annual mean model. One of the evaporation parameterizations tested is a nonlinear formulation with the Bowen ratio determined by the predicted vertical temperature and humidity gradients near the earth's surface. The other is the linear formulation with the Bowen ratio essentially determined by the prescribed linear coefficient

Functional Quantum Nodes for Entanglement Distribution over Scalable Quantum Networks

We demonstrate entanglement distribution between two remote quantum nodes located 3 meters apart. This distribution involves the asynchronous preparation of two pairs of atomic memories and the coherent mapping of stored atomic states into light fields in an effective state of near maximum polarization entanglement. Entanglement is verified by way of the measured violation of a Bell inequality, and can be used for communication protocols such as quantum cryptography. The demonstrated quantum nodes and channels can be used as segments of a quantum repeater, providing an essential tool for robust long-distance quantum communication.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Text revised, additional information included in Appendix. Published online in Science Express, 5 April, 200

Temporal Dynamics of Photon Pairs Generated by an Atomic Ensemble

The time dependence of nonclassical correlations is investigated for two fields (1,2) generated by an ensemble of cold Cesium atoms via the protocol of Duan et al. [Nature Vol. 414, p. 413 (2001)]. The correlation function R(t1,t2) for the ratio of cross to auto-correlations for the (1,2) fields at times (t1,t2) is found to have a maximum value Rmax=292(+-)57, which significantly violates the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality R<=1 for classical fields. Decoherence of quantum correlations is observed over 175 ns, and is described by our model, as is a new scheme to mitigate this effect.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Single-Photon Generation from Stored Excitation in an Atomic Ensemble

Single photons are generated from an ensemble of cold Cs atoms via the protocol of Duan et al. [Nature \textbf{414}, 413 (2001)]. Conditioned upon an initial detection from field 1 at 852 nm, a photon in field 2 at 894 nm is produced in a controlled fashion from excitation stored within the atomic ensemble. The single-quantum character of the field 2 is demonstrated by the violation of a Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, namely $w(1_{2},1_{2}|1_{1})=0.24\pm 0.05\ngeq 1$, where $w(1_{2},1_{2}|1_{1})$ describes detection of two events $(1_{2},1_{2})$ conditioned upon an initial detection $1_{1}$, with $w\to 0$ for single photons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Towards experimental entanglement connection with atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime

We present a protocol for performing entanglement connection between pairs of atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime. Two pairs are prepared in an asynchronous fashion and then connected via a Bell measurement. The resulting state of the two remaining ensembles is mapped to photonic modes and a reduced density matrix is then reconstructed. Our observations confirm for the first time the creation of coherence between atomic systems that never interacted, a first step towards entanglement connection, a critical requirement for quantum networking and long distance quantum communications

Direct measurement of decoherence for entanglement between a photon and stored atomic excitation

Violations of a Bell inequality are reported for an experiment where one of two entangled qubits is stored in a collective atomic memory for a user-defined time delay. The atomic qubit is found to preserve the violation of a Bell inequality for storage times up to 21 microseconds, 700 times longer than the duration of the excitation pulse that creates the entanglement. To address the question of the security of entanglement-based cryptography implemented with this system, an investigation of the Bell violation as a function of the cross-correlation between the generated nonclassical fields is reported, with saturation of the violation close to the maximum value allowed by quantum mechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes. Published versio