Coherence stabilization of a two-qubit gate by AC fields

We consider a CNOT gate operation under the influence of quantum bit-flip noise and demonstrate that ac fields can change bit-flip noise into phase noise and thereby improve coherence up to several orders of magnitude while the gate operation time remains unchanged. Within a high-frequency approximation, both purity and fidelity of the gate operation are studied analytically. The numerical treatment with a Bloch-Redfield master equation confirms the analytical results.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Five-Dimensional Unification of the Cosmological Constant and the Photon Mass

Using a non-Riemannian geometry that is adapted to the 4+1 decomposition of space-time in Kaluza-Klein theory, the translational part of the connection form is related to the electromagnetic vector potential and a Stueckelberg scalar. The consideration of a five-dimensional gravitational action functional that shares the symmetries of the chosen geometry leads to a unification of the four-dimensional cosmological term and a mass term for the vector potential.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe

Supersymmetric Extensions of Calogero--Moser--Sutherland like Models: Construction and Some Solutions

We introduce a new class of models for interacting particles. Our construction is based on Jacobians for the radial coordinates on certain superspaces. The resulting models contain two parameters determining the strengths of the interactions. This extends and generalizes the models of the Calogero--Moser--Sutherland type for interacting particles in ordinary spaces. The latter ones are included in our models as special cases. Using results which we obtained previously for spherical functions in superspaces, we obtain various properties and some explicit forms for the solutions. We present physical interpretations. Our models involve two kinds of interacting particles. One of the models can be viewed as describing interacting electrons in a lower and upper band of a one--dimensional semiconductor. Another model is quasi--two--dimensional. Two kinds of particles are confined to two different spatial directions, the interaction contains dipole--dipole or tensor forces.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Sexual and marital trajectories and HIV infection among ever-married women in rural Malawi.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how sexual and marital trajectories are associated with HIV infection among ever-married women in rural Malawi. METHODS: Retrospective survey data and HIV biomarker data for 926 ever-married women interviewed in the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project were used. The associations between HIV infection and four key life course transitions considered individually (age at sexual debut, premarital sexual activity, entry into marriage and marital disruption by divorce or death) were examined. These transitions were then sequenced to construct trajectories that represent the variety of patterns in the data. The association between different trajectories and HIV prevalence was examined, controlling for potentially confounding factors such as age and region. RESULTS: Although each life course transition taken in isolation may be associated with HIV infection, their combined effect appeared to be conditional on the sequence in which they occurred. Although early sexual debut, not marrying one's first sexual partner and having a disrupted marriage each increased the likelihood of HIV infection, their risk was not additive. Women who both delayed sexual debut and did not marry their first partner are, once married, more likely to experience marital disruption and to be HIV-positive. Women who marry their first partner but who have sex at a young age, however, are also at considerable risk. CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify the potential of a life course perspective for understanding why some women become infected with HIV and others do not, as well as the differentials in HIV prevalence that originate from the sequence of sexual and marital transitions in one's life. The analysis suggests, however, the need for further data collection to permit a better examination of the mechanisms that account for variations in life course trajectories and thus in lifetime probabilities of HIV infection

Vibrational coherence in electron spin resonance in nanoscale oscillators

We study a scheme for electrical detection, using electron spin resonance, of coherent vibrations in a molecular single electron level trapped near a conduction channel. Both equilibrium spin-currents and non-equilibrium spin- and charge currents are investigated. Inelastic side-band anti-resonances corresponding to the vibrational modes appear in the electron spin resonance spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures: Published versio

Limitation of entanglement due to spatial qubit separation

We consider spatially separated qubits coupled to a thermal bosonic field that causes pure dephasing. Our focus is on the entanglement of two Bell states which for vanishing separation are known as robust and fragile entangled states. The reduced two-qubit dynamics is solved exactly and explicitly. Our results allow us to gain information about the robustness of two-qubit decoherence-free subspaces with respect to physical parameters such as temperature, qubit-bath coupling strength and spatial separation of the qubits. Moreover, we clarify the relation between single-qubit coherence and two-qubit entanglement and identify parameter regimes in which the terms robust and fragile are no longer appropriate.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; revised version, accepted for publication in Europhys. Let

Evaluation de la virulence d'une souche néo-calédonienne de Beauveria bassiana vis à vis du Scolyte de la graine du caféier Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari, Coleoptera Scolytidae

Des lots de 50 à 100 drupes de caféier ont été plongés, avec autant de femelles infestantes du Scolyte de la graine du caféier (#Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari), dans des solutions aqueuses de concentrations croissantes de conidiospores d'une souche néo-calédonienne de #Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill. récoltée dans la nature (souche "Sarraméa"). La baisse de fécondité, la mortalité et le comportement du scolyte atteint par le champignon ont été observés. (Résumé d'auteur

QED vacuum fluctuations and induced electric dipole moment of the neutron

Quantum fluctuations in the QED vacuum generate non-linear effects, such as peculiar induced electromagnetic fields. In particular, we show here that an electrically neutral particle, possessing a magnetic dipole moment, develops an induced electric dipole-type moment with unusual angular dependence, when immersed in a quasistatic, constant external electric field. The calculation of this effect is done in the framework of the Euler-Heisenberg effective QED Lagrangian, corresponding to the weak field asymptotic expansion of the effective action to one-loop order. It is argued that the neutron might be a good candidate to probe this signal of non-linearity in QED.Comment: A misprint has been corrected, and three new references have been adde

Gauging a quantum heat bath with dissipative Landau-Zener transitions

We calculate the exact Landau-Zener transitions probabilities for a qubit with arbitrary linear coupling to a bath at zero temperature. The final quantum state exhibits a peculiar entanglement between the qubit and the bath. In the special case of a diagonal coupling, the bath does not influence the transition probability, whatever the speed of the Landau-Zener sweep. It is proposed to use Landau-Zener transitions to determine both the reorganization energy and the integrated spectral density of the bath. Possible applications include circuit QED and molecular nanomagnets.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Damping of dHvA oscillations and vortex-lattice disorder in the peak-effect region of strong type-II superconductors

The phenomenon of magnetic quantum oscillations in the superconducting state poses several questions that still defy satisfactory answers. A key controversial issue concerns the additional damping observed in the vortex state. Here, we show results of \mu SR, dHvA, and SQUID magnetization measurements on borocarbide superconductors, indicating that a sharp drop observed in the dHvA amplitude just below H_{c2} is correlated with enhanced disorder of the vortex lattice in the peak-effect region, which significantly enhances quasiparticle scattering by the pair potential.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure