2,427 research outputs found
Discrimination of low-frequency tones employs temporal fine structure
An auditory neuron can preserve the temporal fine structure of a
low-frequency tone by phase-locking its response to the stimulus. Apart from
sound localization, however, little is known about the role of this temporal
information for signal processing in the brain. Through psychoacoustic studies
we provide direct evidence that humans employ temporal fine structure to
discriminate between frequencies. To this end we construct tones that are based
on a single frequency but in which, through the concatenation of wavelets, the
phase changes randomly every few cycles. We then test the frequency
discrimination of these phase-changing tones, of control tones without phase
changes, and of short tones that consist of a single wavelets. For carrier
frequencies below a few kilohertz we find that phase changes systematically
worsen frequency discrimination. No such effect appears for higher carrier
frequencies at which temporal information is not available in the central
auditory system.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Exclusion Processes with Internal States
We introduce driven exclusion processes with internal states that serve as
generic transport models in various contexts, ranging from molecular or
vehicular traffic on parallel lanes to spintronics. The ensuing non-equilibrium
steady states are controllable by boundary as well as bulk rates. A striking
polarization phenomenon accompanied by domain wall motion and delocalization is
discovered within a mesoscopic scaling. We quantify this observation within an
analytic description providing exact phase diagrams. Our results are confirmed
by stochastic simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Version as published in Phys. Rev. Let
Note on clock synchronization and Edwards transformations
Edwards transformations relating inertial frames with arbitrary clock
synchronization are reminded and put in more general setting. Their group
theoretical context is described.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; final version, to appear in Foundations of
Physics Letter
p-Wave Optical Feshbach Resonances in Yb-171
We study the use of an optical Feshbach resonance to modify the p-wave
interaction between ultracold polarized Yb-171 spin-1/2 fermions. A laser
exciting two colliding atoms to the 1S_0 + 3P_1 channel can be detuned near a
purely-long-range excited molecular bound state. Such an exotic molecule has an
inner turning point far from the chemical binding region and thus
three-body-recombination in the Feshbach resonance will be highly suppressed in
contrast to that typically seen in a ground state p-wave magnetic Feshbach
resonance. We calculate the excited molecular bound-state spectrum using a
multichannel integration of the Schr\"{o}dinger equation, including an external
perturbation by a magnetic field. From the multichannel wave functions, we
calculate the Feshbach resonance properties, including the modification of the
elastic p-wave scattering volume and inelastic spontaneous scattering rate. The
use of magnetic fields and selection rules for polarized light yields a highly
controllable system. We apply this control to propose a toy model for
three-color superfluidity in an optical lattice for spin-polarized Yb-171,
where the three colors correspond to the three spatial orbitals of the first
excited p-band. We calculate the conditions under which tunneling and on-site
interactions are comparable, at which point quantum critical behavior is
possible.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Dual contribution to amplification in the mammalian inner ear
The inner ear achieves a wide dynamic range of responsiveness by mechanically
amplifying weak sounds. The enormous mechanical gain reported for the mammalian
cochlea, which exceeds a factor of 4,000, poses a challenge for theory. Here we
show how such a large gain can result from an interaction between amplification
by low-gain hair bundles and a pressure wave: hair bundles can amplify both
their displacement per locally applied pressure and the pressure wave itself. A
recently proposed ratchet mechanism, in which hair-bundle forces do not feed
back on the pressure wave, delineates the two effects. Our analytical
calculations with a WKB approximation agree with numerical solutions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Sideband cooling while preserving coherences in the nuclear spin state in group-II-like atoms
We propose a method for laser cooling group-II-like atoms without changing
the quantum state of their nuclear spins, thus preserving coherences that are
usually destroyed by optical pumping. As group-II-like atoms have a
closed-shell ground state, nuclear spin and electronic degrees of freedom are
decoupled, allowing for independent manipulation. The hyperfine interaction
that couples these degrees of freedom in excited states can be suppressed
through the application of external magnetic fields. Our protocol employs
resolved-sideband cooling on the forbidden clock transition, , with quenching via coupling to the rapidly decaying state,
deep in the Paschen-Back regime. This makes it possible to laser cool neutral
atomic qubits without destroying the quantum information stored in their
nuclear spins, as shown in two examples, Yb and Sr.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures v4: minor changes in text, changes in the
references, published versio
Noncommutative Common Cause Principles in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory
States in algebraic quantum field theory "typically" establish correlation
between spacelike separated events. Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle,
generalized to the quantum field theoretical setting, offers an apt tool to
causally account for these superluminal correlations. In the paper we motivate
first why commutativity between the common cause and the correlating events
should be abandoned in the definition of the common cause. Then we show that
the Noncommutative Weak Common Cause Principle holds in algebraic quantum field
theory with locally finite degrees of freedom. Namely, for any pair of
projections A, B supported in spacelike separated regions V_A and V_B,
respectively, there is a local projection C not necessarily commuting with A
and B such that C is supported within the union of the backward light cones of
V_A and V_B and the set {C, non-C} screens off the correlation between A and B
Transcranial alternating current stimulation with the theta-band portion of the temporally-aligned speech envelope improves speech-in-noise comprehension
Transcranial alternating current stimulation with the speech envelope can modulate the comprehension of speech in noise. The modulation stems from the theta- but not the delta-band portion of the speech envelope, and likely reflects the entrainment of neural activity in the theta frequency band, which may aid the parsing of the speech stream. The influence of the current stimulation on speech comprehension can vary with the time delay between the current waveform and the audio signal. While this effect has been investigated for current stimulation based on the entire speech envelope, it has not yet been measured when the current waveform follows the theta-band portion of the speech envelope. Here, we show that transcranial current stimulation with the speech envelope filtered in the theta frequency band improves speech comprehension as compared to a sham stimulus. The improvement occurs when there is no time delay between the current and the speech stimulus, as well as when the temporal delay is comparatively short, 90 ms. In contrast, longer delays, as well as negative delays, do not impact speech-in-noise comprehension. Moreover, we find that the improvement of speech comprehension at no or small delays of the current stimulation is consistent across participants. Our findings suggest that cortical entrainment to speech is most influenced through current stimulation that follows the speech envelope with at most a small delay. They also open a path to enhancing the perception of speech in noise, an issue that is particularly important for people with hearing impairment
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