Enhanced di-Higgs Production through Light Colored Scalars

We demonstrate enhanced di-Higgs production at the LHC in the presence of modifications of the effective couplings of Higgs to gluons from new, light, colored scalars. While our results apply to an arbitrary set of colored scalars, we illustrate the effects with a real color octet scalar -- a simple, experimentally viable model involving a light (~125-300 GeV) colored scalar. Given the recent LHC results, we consider two distinct scenarios: First, if the Higgs is indeed near 125 GeV, we show that the di-Higgs cross section could be up to nearly one thousand times the Standard Model rate for particular octet couplings and masses. This is potentially observable in \emph{single} Higgs production modes, such as $pp \to h h \to \gamma\gamma b\bar{b}$ as well as $pp \to h h \to \tau^+\tau^- b\bar{b}$ where a small fraction of the $\gamma\gamma$ or $\tau^+\tau^-$ events near the putative Higgs invariant mass peak contain also a $b\bar{b}$ resonance consistent with the Higgs mass. Second, if the Higgs is not at 125 GeV (and what the LHC has observed is an impostor), we show that the same parameter region where singly-produced Higgs production can be suppressed below current LHC limits, for a heavier Higgs mass, also simultaneously predicts substantially enhanced di-Higgs production. We point out several characteristic signals of di-Higgs production with a heavier Higgs boson, such as $pp \to hh \to W^+W^-W^+W^-$, which could use same-sign dileptons or trileptons plus missing energy to uncover evidence.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Quantum Error Correction of Observables

A formalism for quantum error correction based on operator algebras was introduced in [1] via consideration of the Heisenberg picture for quantum dynamics. The resulting theory allows for the correction of hybrid quantum-classical information and does not require an encoded state to be entirely in one of the corresponding subspaces or subsystems. Here, we provide detailed proofs for the results of [1], derive a number of new results, and we elucidate key points with expanded discussions. We also present several examples and indicate how the theory can be extended to operator spaces and general positive operator-valued measures.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, preprint versio

Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter and the Positron Excess

The excess of cosmic positrons observed by the HEAT experiment may be the result of Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilating in the galactic halo. Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilates dominantly into charged leptons that yield a large number and hard spectrum of positrons per annihilation. Given a Kaluza-Klein dark matter particle with a mass in the range of 300-400 GeV, no exceptional substructure or clumping is needed in the local distribution of dark matter to generate a positron flux that explains the HEAT observations. This is in contrast to supersymmetric dark matter that requires unnaturally large amounts of dark substructure to produce the observed positron excess. Future astrophysical and collider tests are outlined that will confirm or rule out this explanation of the HEAT data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX

Quantum Information Encoding, Protection, and Correction from Trace-Norm Isometries

We introduce the notion of trace-norm isometric encoding and explore its implications for passive and active methods to protect quantum information against errors. Beside providing an operational foundations to the "subsystems principle" [E. Knill, Phys. Rev. A 74, 042301 (2006)] for faithfully realizing quantum information in physical systems, our approach allows additional explicit connections between noiseless, protectable, and correctable quantum codes to be identified. Robustness properties of isometric encodings against imperfect initialization and/or deviations from the intended error models are also analyzed.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Algebraic and information-theoretic conditions for operator quantum error-correction

Operator quantum error-correction is a technique for robustly storing quantum information in the presence of noise. It generalizes the standard theory of quantum error-correction, and provides a unified framework for topics such as quantum error-correction, decoherence-free subspaces, and noiseless subsystems. This paper develops (a) easily applied algebraic and information-theoretic conditions which characterize when operator quantum error-correction is feasible; (b) a representation theorem for a class of noise processes which can be corrected using operator quantum error-correction; and (c) generalizations of the coherent information and quantum data processing inequality to the setting of operator quantum error-correction.Comment: 4 page

Optical implementation of a unitarily correctable code

Noise poses a challenge for any real-world implementation in quantum information science. The theory of quantum error correction deals with this problem via methods to encode and recover quantum information in a way that is resilient against that noise. Unitarily correctable codes are an error correction technique wherein a single unitary recovery operation is applied without the need for an ancilla Hilbert space. Here, we present the first optical implementation of a non-trivial unitarily correctable code for a noisy quantum channel with no decoherence-free subspaces or noiseless subsystems. We show that recovery of our initial states is achieved with high fidelity (>=0.97), quantitatively proving the efficacy of this unitarily correctable code.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Decoherence suppression via environment preparation

To protect a quantum system from decoherence due to interaction with its environment, we investigate the existence of initial states of the environment allowing for decoherence-free evolution of the system. For models in which a two-state system interacts with a dynamical environment, we prove that such states exist if and only if the interaction and self-evolution Hamiltonians share an eigenstate. If decoherence by state preparation is not possible, we show that initial states minimizing decoherence result from a delicate compromise between the environment and interaction dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure