Impossibility of deleting an unknown quantum state

A photon in an arbitrary polarization state cannot be cloned perfectly. But suppose that at our disposal we have several copies of an unknown photon. Is it possible to delete the information content of one or more of these photons by a physical process? Specifically, if two photons are in the same initial polarization state is there a mechanism that produces one photon in the same initial state and the other in some standard polarization state. If this can be done, then one would create a standard blank state onto which one could copy an unknown state approximately, by deterministic cloning or exactly, by probabilistic cloning. This might be useful in quantum computation, where one could store some new information in an already computed state by deleting the old information. Here we show that the linearity of quantum theory does not allow us to delete a copy of an arbitrary quantum state perfectly. Though in a classical computer information can be deleted against a copy, the same task cannot be accomplished with quantum information.Comment: 4 Pages, (Published version Nature, 404 (2000) 164

Measurement of triple differential photon plus jet cross section by D0

We report on a new measurement of triple differential cross section for the process ppbar -> photon + jet + X in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV by the D0 Collaboration at Fermilab based on a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.1 fb-1.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, To appear in the Proceedings of the 2007 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, Manchester, UK. Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics : Conference Serie

Adsorption assisted translocation of a chain molecule through a pore in a spherical vesicle

We analyze the free energy for translocation of a polymer from the outside of a spherical vesicle to the inside. The process is assumed to be driven by the adsorption of the polymer on the inner surface of the vesicle. We argue that in the case where the polymer is adsorbed on the outer surface too, the entropic barrier for translocation is absent. We analyze the adsorption energy and find the free energy profile for the process. We argue that the motion corresponds to a polymer crossing a region with a change in free energy per segment. Based upon our earlier analsis of the behaviour of kinks in such a problem, we conclude that the translocation can occur with a crossing time $t_{cross}\sim N$

Primordial features due to a step in the inflaton potential

Certain oscillatory features in the primordial scalar power spectrum are known to provide a better fit to the outliers in the cosmic microwave background data near the multipole moments of $\ell=22$ and 40. These features are usually generated by introducing a step in the popular, quadratic potential describing the canonical scalar field. Such a model will be ruled out, if the tensors remain undetected at a level corresponding to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of, say, $r\simeq 0.1$. In this work, in addition to the popular quadratic potential, we investigate the effects of the step in a small field model and a tachyon model. With possible applications to future datasets (such as PLANCK) in mind, we evaluate the tensor power spectrum exactly, and include its contribution in our analysis. We compare the models with the WMAP (five as well as seven-year), the QUaD and the ACBAR data. As expected, a step at a particular location and of a suitable magnitude and width is found to improve the fit to the outliers (near $\ell=22$ and 40) in all these cases. We point out that, if the tensors prove to be small (say, $r\lesssim 0.01$), the quadratic potential and the tachyon model will cease to be viable, and more attention will need to be paid to examples such as the small field models.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Discussion shortened, Version to appear in JCA

Unravelling Strings at the LHC

We construct LHC signature footprints for four semi-realistic string/$M$ theory vacua with an MSSM visible sector. We find that they all give rise to limited regions in LHC signature space, and are qualitatively different from each other for understandable reasons. We also propose a technique in which correlations of LHC signatures can be effectively used to distinguish among these string theory vacua. We expect the technique to be useful for more general string vacua. We argue that further systematic analysis with this approach will allow LHC data to disfavor or exclude major ``corners'' of string/$M$ theory and favor others. The technique can be used with limited integrated luminosity and improved.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figure

Energy Efficiency Analysis of the Discharge Circuit of Caltech Spheromak Experiment

The Caltech spheromak experiment uses a size A ignitron in switching a 59-μF capacitor bank (charged up to 8 kV) across an inductive plasma load. Typical power levels in the discharge circuit are ~200 MW for a duration of ~10 μs. This paper describes the setup of the circuit and the measurements of various impedances in the circuit. The combined impedance of the size A ignitron and the cables was found to be significantly larger than the plasma impedance. This causes the circuit to behave like a current source with low energy transfer efficiency. This behavior is expected to be common with other pulsed plasma experiments of similar size that employ an ignitron switch