105 research outputs found
Variability of Soft X-ray Spectral Shape in Blazars Observed by ROSAT
In paper 1 (Cheng et al. 2001) we have shown that the soft X-ray spectra of
two types of Seyfert 1 galaxies statistically vary differently with increasing
intensity. In order to understand how the spectrum of blazars changes, the
spectral shape variability of 18 blazars observed by ROSAT/PSPC mode are
studied by presenting the correlation of Hardness Ratio 1 versus Count Rates
(HR1-CTs). According to our criteria, 10 blazars show a positive HR1-CTs
relation, and only 2 blazars display an anti-correlation of HR1 versus CTs. The
rest 6 blazars do not indicate any clear correlation. From these we can see
that most blazars of our sample statistically show a hardening spectrum during
overall flux increase, though some vary randomly. By investigating the photon
index of these objects and different radiation theories, we argue that the
dominance of the synchrotron or inverse Compton emission in the soft X-ray band
may interpret the dichotomy of spectral variability well, and that different
spectral variations might represent a sequence of synchrotron peaked frequency.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, CJA
High-efficiency single-photon source above the loss-tolerant threshold for efficient linear optical quantum computing
Photon loss is the biggest enemy for scalable photonic quantum information
processing. This problem can be tackled by using quantum error correction,
provided that the overall photon loss is below a threshold of 1/3. However, all
reported on-demand and indistinguishable single-photon sources still fall short
of this threshold. Here, by using tailor shaped laser pulse excitation on a
high-quantum efficiency single quantum dot deterministically coupled to a
tunable open microcavity, we demonstrate a high-performance source with a
single-photon purity of 0.9795(6), photon indistinguishability of 0.9856(13),
and an overall system efficiency of 0.712(18), simultaneously. This source for
the first time reaches the efficiency threshold for scalable photonic quantum
computing. With this source, we further demonstrate 1.89(14) dB intensity
squeezing, and consecutive 40-photon events with 1.67 mHz count rate
The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys
We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and
Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational
seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m
telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present
509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along
the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new
quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region
and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526
new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to
3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars
in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in
this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0
respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars
provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and
chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars
are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly
discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant
Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated
substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity
of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric
reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of
substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some
of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte
Quantum Neuronal Sensing of Quantum Many-Body States on a 61-Qubit Programmable Superconducting Processor
Classifying many-body quantum states with distinct properties and phases of
matter is one of the most fundamental tasks in quantum many-body physics.
However, due to the exponential complexity that emerges from the enormous
numbers of interacting particles, classifying large-scale quantum states has
been extremely challenging for classical approaches. Here, we propose a new
approach called quantum neuronal sensing. Utilizing a 61 qubit superconducting
quantum processor, we show that our scheme can efficiently classify two
different types of many-body phenomena: namely the ergodic and localized phases
of matter. Our quantum neuronal sensing process allows us to extract the
necessary information coming from the statistical characteristics of the
eigenspectrum to distinguish these phases of matter by measuring only one
qubit. Our work demonstrates the feasibility and scalability of quantum
neuronal sensing for near-term quantum processors and opens new avenues for
exploring quantum many-body phenomena in larger-scale systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures in the main text, and 13 pages, 13 figures, and 1
table in supplementary material
Experimental quantum computational chemistry with optimised unitary coupled cluster ansatz
Simulation of quantum chemistry is one of the most promising applications of
quantum computing. While recent experimental works have demonstrated the
potential of solving electronic structures with variational quantum eigensolver
(VQE), the implementations are either restricted to nonscalable (hardware
efficient) or classically simulable (Hartree-Fock) ansatz, or limited to a few
qubits with large errors for the more accurate unitary coupled cluster (UCC)
ansatz. Here, integrating experimental and theoretical advancements of improved
operations and dedicated algorithm optimisations, we demonstrate an
implementation of VQE with UCC for H_2, LiH, F_2 from 4 to 12 qubits. Combining
error mitigation, we produce high-precision results of the ground-state energy
with error suppression by around two orders of magnitude. For the first time,
we achieve chemical accuracy for H_2 at all bond distances and LiH at small
bond distances in the experiment. Our work demonstrates a feasible path towards
a scalable solution to electronic structure calculation, validating the key
technological features and identifying future challenges for this goal.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures in the main text, and 29 pages supplementary
materials with 16 figure
Association analyses of East Asian individuals and trans-ancestry analyses with European individuals reveal new loci associated with cholesterol and triglyceride levels
Large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >175 loci associated with fasting cholesterol levels, including total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). With differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure and allele frequencies between ancestry groups, studies in additional large samples may detect new associations. We conducted staged GWAS meta-analyses in up to 69,414 East Asian individuals from 24 studies with participants from Japan, the Philippines, Korea, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. These meta-analyses identified (P < 5 × 10-8) three novel loci associated with HDL-C near CD163-APOBEC1 (P = 7.4 × 10-9), NCOA2 (P = 1.6 × 10-8), and NID2-PTGDR (P = 4.2 × 10-8), and one novel locus associated with TG near WDR11-FGFR2 (P = 2.7 × 10-10). Conditional analyses identified a second signal near CD163-APOBEC1. We then combined results from the East Asian meta-analysis with association results from up to 187,365 European individuals from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium in a trans-ancestry meta-analysis. This analysis identified (log10Bayes Factor ≥6.1) eight additional novel lipid loci. Among the twelve total loci identified, the index variants at eight loci have demonstrated at least nominal significance with other metabolic traits in prior studies, and two loci exhibited coincident eQTLs (P < 1 × 10-5) in subcutaneous adipose tissue for BPTF and PDGFC. Taken together, these analyses identified multiple novel lipid loci, providing new potential therapeutic targets
Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data
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