1,277 research outputs found
Illusory Decoherence
If a quantum experiment includes random processes, then the results of
repeated measurements can appear consistent with irreversible decoherence even
if the system's evolution prior to measurement was reversible and unitary. Two
thought experiments are constructed as examples.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Reconstruction of motional states of neutral atoms via MaxEnt principle
We present a scheme for a reconstruction of states of quantum systems from
incomplete tomographic-like data. The proposed scheme is based on the Jaynes
principle of Maximum Entropy. We apply our algorithm for a reconstruction of
motional quantum states of neutral atoms. As an example we analyze the
experimental data obtained by the group of C. Salomon at the ENS in Paris and
we reconstruct Wigner functions of motional quantum states of Cs atoms trapped
in an optical lattice
Bayesian Updating Rules in Continuous Opinion Dynamics Models
In this article, I investigate the use of Bayesian updating rules applied to
modeling social agents in the case of continuos opinions models. Given another
agent statement about the continuous value of a variable , we will see that
interesting dynamics emerge when an agent assigns a likelihood to that value
that is a mixture of a Gaussian and a Uniform distribution. This represents the
idea the other agent might have no idea about what he is talking about. The
effect of updating only the first moments of the distribution will be studied.
and we will see that this generates results similar to those of the Bounded
Confidence models. By also updating the second moment, several different
opinions always survive in the long run. However, depending on the probability
of error and initial uncertainty, those opinions might be clustered around a
central value.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, presented at SigmaPhi200
James van Allen and his namesake NASA mission
Abstract
In many ways, James A. Van Allen defined and âinventedâ modern space research. His example showed the way for government-university partners to pursue basic research that also served important national and international goals. He was a tireless advocate for space exploration and for the role of space science in the spectrum of national priorities
Detailed balance has a counterpart in non-equilibrium steady states
When modelling driven steady states of matter, it is common practice either
to choose transition rates arbitrarily, or to assume that the principle of
detailed balance remains valid away from equilibrium. Neither of those
practices is theoretically well founded. Hypothesising ergodicity constrains
the transition rates in driven steady states to respect relations analogous to,
but different from the equilibrium principle of detailed balance. The
constraints arise from demanding that the design of any model system contains
no information extraneous to the microscopic laws of motion and the macroscopic
observables. This prevents over-description of the non-equilibrium reservoir,
and implies that not all stochastic equations of motion are equally valid. The
resulting recipe for transition rates has many features in common with
equilibrium statistical mechanics.Comment: Replaced with minor revisions to introduction and conclusions.
Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics
Accumulation of entanglement in a continuous variable memory
We study the accumulation of entanglement in a memory device built out of two
continuous variable (CV) systems. We address the case of a qubit mediating an
indirect joint interaction between the CV systems. We show that, in striking
contrast with respect to registers built out of bidimensional Hilbert spaces,
entanglement superior to a single ebit can be efficiently accumulated in the
memory, even though no entangled resource is used. We study the protocol in an
immediately implementable setup, assessing the effects of the main
imperfections.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX
Computer simulation of Wheeler's delayed choice experiment with photons
We present a computer simulation model of Wheeler's delayed choice experiment
that is a one-to-one copy of an experiment reported recently (V. Jacques {\sl
et al.}, Science 315, 966 (2007)). The model is solely based on experimental
facts, satisfies Einstein's criterion of local causality and does not rely on
any concept of quantum theory. Nevertheless, the simulation model reproduces
the averages as obtained from the quantum theoretical description of Wheeler's
delayed choice experiment. Our results prove that it is possible to give a
particle-only description of Wheeler's delayed choice experiment which
reproduces the averages calculated from quantum theory and which does not defy
common sense.Comment: Europhysics Letters (in press
Entanglement purification of unknown quantum states
A concern has been expressed that ``the Jaynes principle can produce fake
entanglement'' [R. Horodecki et al., Phys. Rev. A {\bf 59}, 1799 (1999)]. In
this paper we discuss the general problem of distilling maximally entangled
states from copies of a bipartite quantum system about which only partial
information is known, for instance in the form of a given expectation value. We
point out that there is indeed a problem with applying the Jaynes principle of
maximum entropy to more than one copy of a system, but the nature of this
problem is classical and was discussed extensively by Jaynes. Under the
additional assumption that the state of the copies of the
quantum system is exchangeable, one can write down a simple general expression
for . We show how to modify two standard entanglement purification
protocols, one-way hashing and recurrence, so that they can be applied to
exchangeable states. We thus give an explicit algorithm for distilling
entanglement from an unknown or partially known quantum state.Comment: 20 pages RevTeX 3.0 + 1 figure (encapsulated Postscript) Submitted to
Physical Review
Quantum estimation via minimum Kullback entropy principle
We address quantum estimation in situations where one has at disposal data
from the measurement of an incomplete set of observables and some a priori
information on the state itself. By expressing the a priori information in
terms of a bias toward a given state the problem may be faced by minimizing the
quantum relative entropy (Kullback entropy) with the constraint of reproducing
the data. We exploit the resulting minimum Kullback entropy principle for the
estimation of a quantum state from the measurement of a single observable,
either from the sole mean value or from the complete probability distribution,
and apply it as a tool for the estimation of weak Hamiltonian processes. Qubit
and harmonic oscillator systems are analyzed in some details.Comment: 7 pages, slightly revised version, no figure
Remarks on Shannon's Statistical Inference and the Second Law in Quantum Statistical Mechanics
We comment on a formulation of quantum statistical mechanics, which
incorporates the statistical inference of Shannon.
Our basic idea is to distinguish the dynamical entropy of von Neumann, , in terms of the density matrix ,
and the statistical amount of uncertainty of Shannon, , with in the representation where the total
energy and particle numbers are diagonal. These quantities satisfy the
inequality . We propose to interprete Shannon's statistical inference
as specifying the {\em initial conditions} of the system in terms of . A
definition of macroscopic observables which are characterized by intrinsic time
scales is given, and a quantum mechanical condition on the system, which
ensures equilibrium, is discussed on the basis of time averaging.
An interesting analogy of the change of entroy with the running coupling in
renormalization group is noted. A salient feature of our approach is that the
distinction between statistical aspects and dynamical aspects of quantum
statistical mechanics is very transparent.Comment: 16 pages. Minor refinement in the statements in the previous version.
This version has been published in Journal of Phys. Soc. Jpn. 71 (2002) 6
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