Pitfalls in the analysis of low-temperature thermal conductivity of high-Tc cuprates

Recently, it was proposed that phonons are specularly reflected below about 0.5 K in ordinary single-crystal samples of high-T_c cuprates, and that the low-temperature thermal conductivity should be analyzed by fitting the data up to 0.5 K using an arbitrary power law. Such an analysis yields a result different from that obtained from the conventional analysis, in which the fitting is usually restricted to a region below 0.15 K. Here we show that the proposed new analysis is most likely flawed, because the specular phonon reflection means that the phonon mean free path \ell gets LONGER than the mean sample width, while the estimated \ell is actually much SHORTER than the mean sample width above 0.15 K.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; manuscript for the Proceedings of LEHTSC2007 to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The laboratory rat is emerging as an attractive preclinical animal model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), allowing investigators to explore genetic, environmental and pharmacological manipulations in a species exhibiting complex, reciprocal social behavior. The present study was carried out to compare two commonly used strains of laboratory rats, Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Long-Evans (LE), between the ages of postnatal day (PND) 26-56 using high-throughput behavioral phenotyping tools commonly used in mouse models of ASD that we have adapted for use in rats. We detected few differences between young SD and LE strains on standard assays of exploration, sensorimotor gating, anxiety, repetitive behaviors, and learning. Both SD and LE strains also demonstrated sociability in the 3-chamber social approach test as indexed by spending more time in the social chamber with a constrained age/strain/sex matched novel partner than in an identical chamber without a partner. Pronounced differences between the two strains were, however, detected when the rats were allowed to freely interact with a novel partner in the social dyad paradigm. The SD rats in this particular testing paradigm engaged in play more frequently and for longer durations than the LE rats at both juvenile and young adult developmental time points. Results from this study that are particularly relevant for developing preclinical ASD models in rats are threefold: (i) commonly utilized strains exhibit unique patterns of social interactions, including strain-specific play behaviors, (ii) the testing environment may profoundly influence the expression of strain-specific social behavior and (iii) simple, automated measures of sociability may not capture the complexities of rat social interactions

Avoiding Quantum Chaos in Quantum Computation

We study a one-dimensional chain of nuclear $1/2-$spins in an external time-dependent magnetic field. This model is considered as a possible candidate for experimental realization of quantum computation. According to the general theory of interacting particles, one of the most dangerous effects is quantum chaos which can destroy the stability of quantum operations. According to the standard viewpoint, the threshold for the onset of quantum chaos due to an interaction between spins (qubits) strongly decreases with an increase of the number of qubits. Contrary to this opinion, we show that the presence of a magnetic field gradient helps to avoid quantum chaos which turns out to disappear with an increase of the number of qubits. We give analytical estimates which explain this effect, together with numerical data supportingComment: RevTex, 5 pages including 3 eps-figure

Dynamical Stability and Quantum Chaos of Ions in a Linear Trap

The realization of a paradigm chaotic system, namely the harmonically driven oscillator, in the quantum domain using cold trapped ions driven by lasers is theoretically investigated. The simplest characteristics of regular and chaotic dynamics are calculated. The possibilities of experimental realization are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev

Simulations of Quantum Logic Operations in Quantum Computer with Large Number of Qubits

We report the first simulations of the dynamics of quantum logic operations with a large number of qubits (up to 1000). A nuclear spin chain in which selective excitations of spins is provided by the gradient of the external magnetic field is considered. The spins interact with their nearest neighbors. We simulate the quantum control-not (CN) gate implementation for remote qubits which provides the long-distance entanglement. Our approach can be applied to any implementation of quantum logic gates involving a large number of qubits.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Fluctuation superconductivity limited noise in a transition-edge sensor

In order to investigate the origin of the until now unaccounted excess noise and to minimize the uncontrollable phenomena at the transition in X-ray microcalorimeters we have developed superconducting transition-edge sensors into an edgeless geometry, the so-called Corbino disk (CorTES), with superconducting contacts in the centre and at the outer perimeter. The measured rms current noise and its spectral density can be modeled as resistance noise resulting from fluctuations near the equilibrium superconductor-normal metal boundaryComment: 9 pages, 4 figures.; Corrections to text and equations; replaced the affected figures. Added reference [12

Total Molecular Gas Masses of Planck - Herschel Selected Strongly Lensed Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxies

We report the detection of CO(1 - 0) line emission from seven Planck and Herschel selected hyper luminous (LIR(8-1000um) > 10^13Lsun) infrared galaxies with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). CO(1 - 0) measurements are a vital tool to trace the bulk molecular gas mass across all redshifts. Our results place tight constraints on the total gas content of these most apparently luminous high-z star-forming galaxies (apparent IR luminosities of LIR > 10^(13-14) Lsun), while we confirm their predetermined redshifts measured using the Large Millimeter Telescope, LMT (zCO = 1.33 - 3.26). The CO(1 - 0) lines show similar profiles as compared to Jup = 2 -4 transitions previously observed with the LMT. We report enhanced infrared to CO line luminosity ratios of = 110 (pm 22) Lsun(K km s^-1 pc^-2)^-1 compared to normal star-forming galaxies, yet similar to those of well-studied IR-luminous galaxies at high-z. We find average brightness temperature ratios of = 0.93 (2 sources), = 0.34 (5 sources), and = 0.18 (1 source). The r31 and r41 values are roughly half the average values for SMGs. We estimate the total gas mass content as uMH2 = (0.9 - 27.2) x 10^11(alphaCO/0.8)Msun, where u is the magnification factor and alphaCO is the CO line luminosity to molecular hydrogen gas mass conversion factor. The rapid gas depletion times are, on average, tau = 80 Myr, which reveal vigorous starburst activity, and contrast the Gyr depletion timescales observed in local, normal star-forming galaxies.Comment: published in MNRAS, 9pages, 5fig

Single-Spin Measurement and Decoherence in Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

We consider a simple version of a cyclic adiabatic inversion (CAI) technique in magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM). We study the problem: What component of the spin is measured in the CAI MRFM? We show that the non-destructive detection of the cantilever vibrations provides a measurement of the spin component along the effective magnetic field. This result is based on numerical simulations of the Hamiltonian dynamics (the Schrodinger equation) and the numerical solution of the master equation.Comment: 5 pages + 5 figures (PNG format

Quantum Measurement of a Single Spin using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

Single-spin detection is one of the important challenges facing the development of several new technologies, e.g. single-spin transistors and solid-state quantum computation. Magnetic resonance force microscopy with a cyclic adiabatic inversion, which utilizes a cantilever oscillations driven by a single spin, is a promising technique to solve this problem. We have studied the quantum dynamics of a single spin interacting with a quasiclassical cantilever. It was found that in a similar fashion to the Stern-Gerlach interferometer the quantum dynamics generates a quantum superposition of two quasiclassical trajectories of the cantilever which are related to the two spin projections on the direction of the effective magnetic field in the rotating reference frame. Our results show that quantum jumps will not prevent a single-spin measurement if the coupling between the cantilever vibrations and the spin is small in comparison with the amplitude of the radio-frequency external field.Comment: 16 pages RevTeX including 4 figure

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem: 50 years of progress

A brief review of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) paradox is given, together with its suggested resolutions and its relation to other physical problems. We focus on the ideas and concepts that have become the core of modern nonlinear mechanics, in their historical perspective. Starting from the first numerical results of FPU, both theoretical and numerical findings are discussed in close connection with the problems of ergodicity, integrability, chaos and stability of motion. New directions related to the Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum systems of interacting Bose-particles are also considered.Comment: 48 pages, no figures, corrected and accepted for publicatio