2,224 research outputs found
Perfect imaging: they don't do it with mirrors
Imaging with a spherical mirror in empty space is compared with the case when
the mirror is filled with the medium of Maxwell's fish eye. Exact
time-dependent solutions of Maxwell's equations show that perfect imaging is
not achievable with an electrical ideal mirror on its own, but with Maxwell's
fish eye in the regime when it implements a curved geometry for full
electromagnetic waves
Switching Exciton Pulses Through Conical Intersections
Exciton pulses transport excitation and entanglement adiabatically through
Rydberg aggregates, assemblies of highly excited light atoms, which are set
into directed motion by resonant dipole-dipole interaction. Here, we
demonstrate the coherent splitting of such pulses as well as the spatial
segregation of electronic excitation and atomic motion. Both mechanisms exploit
local nonadiabatic effects at a conical intersection, turning them from a
decoherence source into an asset. The intersection provides a sensitive knob
controlling the propagation direction and coherence properties of exciton
pulses. The fundamental ideas discussed here have general implications for
excitons on a dynamic network.Comment: Letter with 4 pages and 4 figures. Supplemental material with 4 pages
and 4 figure
An omnidirectional retroreflector based on the transmutation of dielectric singularities
In the field of transformation optics, metamaterials mimic the effect of
coordinate transformations on electromagnetic waves, creating the illusion that
the waves are propagating through a virtual space. Transforming space by
appropriately designed materials makes devices possible that have been deemed
impossible. In particular, transformation optics has led to the demonstration
of invisibility cloaking for microwaves, surface plasmons and infrared light.
Here we report the achievement of another "impossible task". We implement, for
microwaves, a device that would normally require a dielectric singularity, an
infinity in the refractive index. We transmute a singularity in virtual space
into a mere topological defect in a real metamaterial. In particular, we
demonstrate an omnidirectional retroreflector, a device for faithfully
reflecting images and for creating high visibility, from all directions. Our
method is robust, potentially broadband and similar techniques could be applied
for visible light
Quantum levitation by left-handed metamaterials
Left-handed metamaterials make perfect lenses that image classical
electromagnetic fields with significantly higher resolution than the
diffraction limit. Here we consider the quantum physics of such devices. We
show that the Casimir force of two conducting plates may turn from attraction
to repulsion if a perfect lens is sandwiched between them. For optical
left-handed metamaterials this repulsive force of the quantum vacuum may
levitate ultra-thin mirrors
Ultrahigh sensitivity of slow-light gyroscope
Slow light generated by Electromagnetically Induced Transparency is extremely
susceptible with respect to Doppler detuning. Consequently, slow-light
gyroscopes should have ultrahigh sensitivity
Quantum homodyne tomography with a priori constraints
I present a novel algorithm for reconstructing the Wigner function from
homodyne statistics. The proposed method, based on maximum-likelihood
estimation, is capable of compensating for detection losses in a numerically
stable way.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, 2 figure
On the AdS Higher Spin / O(N) Vector Model Correspondence: degeneracy of the holographic image
We explore the conjectured duality between the critical O(N) vector model and
minimal bosonic massless higher spin (HS) theory in AdS. In the boundary free
theory, the conformal partial wave expansion (CPWE) of the four-point function
of the scalar singlet bilinear is reorganized to make it explicitly
crossing-symmetric and closed in the singlet sector, dual to the bulk HS gauge
fields. We are able to analytically establish the factorized form of the fusion
coefficients as well as the two-point function coefficient of the HS currents.
We insist in directly computing the free correlators from bulk graphs with the
unconventional branch. The three-point function of the scalar bilinear turns
out to be an "extremal" one at d=3. The four-leg bulk exchange graph can be
precisely related to the CPWs of the boundary dual scalar and its shadow. The
flow in the IR by Legendre transforming at leading 1/N, following the pattern
of double-trace deformations, and the assumption of degeneracy of the hologram
lead to the CPWE of the scalar four-point function at IR. Here we confirm some
previous results, obtained from more involved computations of skeleton graphs,
as well as extend some of them from d=3 to generic dimension 2<d<4.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
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