1,201 research outputs found
Reconstruction of superoperators from incomplete measurements
We present strategies how to reconstruct (estimate) properties of a quantum
channel described by the map E based on incomplete measurements. In a
particular case of a qubit channel a complete reconstruction of the map E can
be performed via complete tomography of four output states E[rho_j ] that
originate from a set of four linearly independent test states j (j = 1, 2, 3,
4) at the input of the channel. We study the situation when less than four
linearly independent states are transmitted via the channel and measured at the
output. We present strategies how to reconstruct the channel when just one, two
or three states are transmitted via the channel. In particular, we show that if
just one state is transmitted via the channel then the best reconstruction can
be achieved when this state is a total mixture described by the density
operator rho = I/2. To improve the reconstruction procedure one has to send via
the channel more states. The best strategy is to complement the total mixture
with pure states that are mutually orthogonal in the sense of the Bloch-sphere
representation. We show that unitary transformations (channels) can be uniquely
reconstructed (determined) based on the information of how three properly
chosen input states are transformed under the action of the channel.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Species-specific responses of planktivorous fish to the introduction of a new piscivore: implications for prey fitness
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75539/1/j.1365-2427.2007.01810.x.pd
Measuring Black Hole Spin using X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy
I review the current status of X-ray reflection (a.k.a. broad iron line)
based black hole spin measurements. This is a powerful technique that allows us
to measure robust black hole spins across the mass range, from the stellar-mass
black holes in X-ray binaries to the supermassive black holes in active
galactic nuclei. After describing the basic assumptions of this approach, I lay
out the detailed methodology focusing on "best practices" that have been found
necessary to obtain robust results. Reflecting my own biases, this review is
slanted towards a discussion of supermassive black hole (SMBH) spin in active
galactic nuclei (AGN). Pulling together all of the available XMM-Newton and
Suzaku results from the literature that satisfy objective quality control
criteria, it is clear that a large fraction of SMBHs are rapidly-spinning,
although there are tentative hints of a more slowly spinning population at high
(M>5*10^7Msun) and low (M<2*10^6Msun) mass. I also engage in a brief review of
the spins of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. In general,
reflection-based and continuum-fitting based spin measures are in agreement,
although there remain two objects (GROJ1655-40 and 4U1543-475) for which that
is not true. I end this review by discussing the exciting frontier of
relativistic reverberation, particularly the discovery of broad iron line
reverberation in XMM-Newton data for the Seyfert galaxies NGC4151, NGC7314 and
MCG-5-23-16. As well as confirming the basic paradigm of relativistic disk
reflection, this detection of reverberation demonstrates that future large-area
X-ray observatories such as LOFT will make tremendous progress in studies of
strong gravity using relativistic reverberation in AGN.Comment: 19 pages. To appear in proceedings of the ISSI-Bern workshop on "The
Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (8-12 Oct 2012). Revised version adds
a missing source to Table 1 and Fig.6 (IRAS13224-3809) and corrects the
referencing of the discovery of soft lags in 1H0707-495 (which were in fact
first reported in Fabian et al. 2009
Difficult Scenarios for NMSSM Higgs Discovery at the LHC
We identify scenarios not ruled out by LEP data in which NMSSM Higgs
detection at the LHC will be particularly challenging. We first review the
`no-lose' theorem for Higgs discovery at the LHC that applies if Higgs bosons
do not decay to other Higgs bosons - namely, with L=300 fb^-1, there is always
one or more `standard' Higgs detection channel with at least a 5 sigma signal.
However, we provide examples of no-Higgs-to-Higgs cases for which all the
standard signals are no larger than 7 sigma implying that if the available L is
smaller or the simulations performed by ATLAS and CMS turn out to be overly
optimistic, all standard Higgs signals could fall below 5 sigma even in the
no-Higgs-to-Higgs part of NMSSM parameter space. In the vast bulk of NMSSM
parameter space, there will be Higgs-to-Higgs decays. We show that when such
decays are present it is possible for all the standard detection channels to
have very small significance. In most such cases, the only strongly produced
Higgs boson is one with fairly SM-like couplings that decays to two lighter
Higgs bosons (either a pair of the lightest CP-even Higgs bosons, or, in the
largest part of parameter space, a pair of the lightest CP-odd Higgs bosons). A
number of representative bench-mark scenarios of this type are delineated in
detail and implications for Higgs discovery at various colliders are discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figure
Neutral Higgs sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model with explicit CP violation
The neutral Higgs sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model
(NMSSM) with explicit CP violation is investigated at the 1-loop level, using
the effective potential method; not only the loops involving the third
generation of quarks and scalar quarks, but also the loops involving boson,
charged Higgs boson, and chargino are taken into account. It is found that for
some parameter values of the NMSSM the contributions from the boson,
charged Higgs boson, and chargino loops may modify the masses of the neutral
Higgs bosons and the mixings among them significantly, depending on the CP
phase. In collisions, the prospects for discovering neutral Higgs
bosons are investigated within the context of the NMSSM with explicit CP
violation when the dominant component of the lightest neutral Higgs boson is
the Higgs singlet field of the NMSSM.Comment: Latex, 23 pages, 6 figure
Black Hole Spin via Continuum Fitting and the Role of Spin in Powering Transient Jets
The spins of ten stellar black holes have been measured using the
continuum-fitting method. These black holes are located in two distinct classes
of X-ray binary systems, one that is persistently X-ray bright and another that
is transient. Both the persistent and transient black holes remain for long
periods in a state where their spectra are dominated by a thermal accretion
disk component. The spin of a black hole of known mass and distance can be
measured by fitting this thermal continuum spectrum to the thin-disk model of
Novikov and Thorne; the key fit parameter is the radius of the inner edge of
the black hole's accretion disk. Strong observational and theoretical evidence
links the inner-disk radius to the radius of the innermost stable circular
orbit, which is trivially related to the dimensionless spin parameter a_* of
the black hole (|a_*| < 1). The ten spins that have so far been measured by
this continuum-fitting method range widely from a_* \approx 0 to a_* > 0.95.
The robustness of the method is demonstrated by the dozens or hundreds of
independent and consistent measurements of spin that have been obtained for
several black holes, and through careful consideration of many sources of
systematic error. Among the results discussed is a dichotomy between the
transient and persistent black holes; the latter have higher spins and larger
masses. Also discussed is recently discovered evidence in the transient sources
for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets and black hole spin.Comment: 30 pages. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to
appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of
Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher). Changes to Sections 5.2,
6.1 and 7.4. Section 7.4 responds to Russell et al. 2013 (MNRAS, 431, 405)
who find no evidence for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets
and black hole spi
Establishing anchor-based minimally important differences (MID) with the EORTC quality-of-life measures: a meta-analysis protocol.
INTRODUCTION: As patient assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in cancer clinical trials has increased over the years, so has the need to attach meaningful interpretations to differences in HRQOL scores between groups and changes within groups. Determining what represents a minimally important difference (MID) in HRQOL scores is useful to clinicians, patients and researchers, and can be used as a benchmark for assessing the success of a healthcare intervention. Our objective is to provide an evidence-based protocol to determine MIDs for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment for Cancer Quality of life Questionnaire core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). We will mainly focus on MID estimation for group-level comparisons. Responder thresholds for individual-level change will also be estimated. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Data will be derived from published phase II and III EORTC trials that used the QLQ-C30 instrument, covering several cancer sites. We will use individual patient data to estimate MIDs for different cancer sites separately. Focus is on anchor-based methods. Anchors will be selected per disease site from available data. A disease-oriented and methodological panel will provide independent guidance on anchor selection. We aim to construct multiple clinical anchors per QLQ-C30 scale and also to compare with several anchor-based methods. The effects of covariates, for example, gender, age, disease stage and so on, will also be investigated. We will examine how our estimated MIDs compare with previously published guidelines, hence further contributing to robust MID guidelines for the EORTC QLQ-C30. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: All patient data originate from completed clinical trials with mandatory written informed consent, approved by local ethical committees. Our findings will be presented at scientific conferences, disseminated via peer-reviewed publications and also compiled in a MID 'blue book' which will be made available online on the EORTC Quality of Life Group website as a free guideline document
Indirect search for dark matter: prospects for GLAST
Possible indirect detection of neutralino, through its gamma-ray annihilation
product, by the forthcoming GLAST satellite from our galactic halo, M31, M87
and the dwarf galaxies Draco and Sagittarius is studied. Gamma-ray fluxes are
evaluated for the two representative energy thresholds, 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV, at
which the spatial resolution of GLAST varies considerably. Apart from dwarfs
which are described either by a modified Plummer profile or by a
tidally-truncated King profiles, fluxes are compared for halos with central
cusps and cores. It is demonstrated that substructures, irrespective of their
profiles, enhance the gamma-ray emission only marginally. The expected
gamma-ray intensity above 1 GeV at high galactic latitudes is consistent with
the residual emission derived from EGRET data if the density profile has a
central core and the neutralino mass is less than 50 GeV, whereas for a central
cusp only a substantial enhancement would explain the observations. From M31,
the flux can be detected above 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV by GLAST only if the
neutralino mass is below 300 GeV and if the density profile has a central cusp,
case in which a significant boost in the gamma-ray emission is produced by the
central black hole. For Sagittarius, the flux above 0.1 GeV is detectable by
GLAST provided the neutralino mass is below 50 GeV. From M87 and Draco the
fluxes are always below the sensitivity limit of GLAST.Comment: 14 Pages, 7 Figures, 3 Tables, version to appear on Physical Review
Effects of macroscopic polarization in III-V nitride multi-quantum-wells
Huge built-in electric fields have been predicted to exist in wurtzite III-V
nitrides thin films and multilayers. Such fields originate from heterointerface
discontinuities of the macroscopic bulk polarization of the nitrides. Here we
discuss the background theory, the role of spontaneous polarization in this
context, and the practical implications of built-in polarization fields in
nitride nanostructures. To support our arguments, we present detailed
self-consistent tight-binding simulations of typical nitride QW structures in
which polarization effects are dominant.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, uses revtex/epsf. submitted to PR
Some recent developments in quantization of fractal measures
We give an overview on the quantization problem for fractal measures,
including some related results and methods which have been developed in the
last decades. Based on the work of Graf and Luschgy, we propose a three-step
procedure to estimate the quantization errors. We survey some recent progress,
which makes use of this procedure, including the quantization for self-affine
measures, Markov-type measures on graph-directed fractals, and product measures
on multiscale Moran sets. Several open problems are mentioned.Comment: 13 page
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