3,257 research outputs found
Long-Time Coherence in Echo Spectroscopy with ---- Pulse Sequence
Motivated by atom optics experiments, we investigate a new class of fidelity
functions describing the reconstruction of quantum states by time-reversal
operations as . We show that the decay of
is quartic in time at short times, and that it freezes well
above the ergodic value at long times, when is not too large. The
long-time saturation value of contains easily extractable
information on the strength of decoherence in these systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Transient simulations of the carbon and nitrogen dynamics in northern peatlands: from the Last Glacial Maximum to the 21st century
The development of northern high-latitude peatlands played an important role in the carbon (C) balance of the land biosphere since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). At present, carbon storage in northern peatlands is substantial and estimated to be 500 ± 100 Pg C (1 Pg C = 1015 g C). Here, we develop and apply a peatland module embedded in a dynamic global vegetation and land surface process model (LPX-Bern 1.0). The peatland module features a dynamic nitrogen cycle, a dynamic C transfer between peatland acrotelm (upper oxic layer) and catotelm (deep anoxic layer), hydrology- and temperature-dependent respiration rates, and peatland specific plant functional types. Nitrogen limitation down-regulates average modern net primary productivity over peatlands by about half. Decadal acrotelm-to-catotelm C fluxes vary between −20 and +50 g C m−2 yr−1 over the Holocene. Key model parameters are calibrated with reconstructed peat accumulation rates from peat-core data. The model reproduces the major features of the peat core data and of the observation-based modern circumpolar soil carbon distribution. Results from a set of simulations for possible evolutions of northern peat development and areal extent show that soil C stocks in modern peatlands increased by 365–550 Pg C since the LGM, of which 175–272 Pg C accumulated between 11 and 5 kyr BP. Furthermore, our simulations suggest a persistent C sequestration rate of 35–50 Pg C per 1000 yr in present-day peatlands under current climate conditions, and that this C sink could either sustain or turn towards a source by 2100 AD depending on climate trajectories as projected for different representative greenhouse gas concentration pathways
Disc formation in turbulent cloud cores: Circumventing the magnetic braking catastrophe
We present collapse simulations of strongly magnetised, 100 M_sun, turbulent
cloud cores. Around the protostars formed during the collapse Keplerian discs
with typical sizes of up to 100 AU build up in contrast to previous simulations
neglecting turbulence. Analysing the condensations in which the discs form, we
show that the magnetic flux loss is not sufficient to explain the build-up of
Keplerian discs. The average magnetic field is strongly inclined to the disc
which might reduce the magnetic braking efficiency. However, the main reason
for the reduced magnetic braking efficiency is the highly disordered magnetic
field in the surroundings of the discs. Furthermore, due to the lack of a
coherently rotating structure in the turbulent environment of the disc no
toroidal magnetic field necessary for angular momentum extraction can build up.
Simultaneously the angular momentum inflow remains high due to local shear
flows created by the turbulent motions. We suggest that the "magnetic braking
catastrophe" is an artefact of the idealised non-turbulent initial conditions
and that turbulence provides a natural mechanism to circumvent this problem.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of 'The Labyrinth of
Star Formation' (18-22 June 2012, Chania, Greece), published by Springe
Collapse, outflows and fragmentation of massive, turbulent and magnetized prestellar barotropic cores
Stars and more particularly massive stars, have a drastic impact on galaxy
evolution. Yet the conditions in which they form and collapse are still not
fully understood. In particular, the influence of the magnetic field on the
collapse of massive clumps is relatively unexplored, it is thus of great
relevance in the context of the formation of massive stars to investigate its
impact. We perform high resolution, MHD simulations of the collapse of hundred
solar masses, turbulent and magnetized clouds, using the adaptive mesh
refinement code RAMSES. We compute various quantities such as mass
distribution, magnetic field and angular momentum within the collapsing core
and study the episodic outflows and the fragmentation that occurs during the
collapse. The magnetic field has a drastic impact on the cloud evolution. We
find that magnetic braking is able to substantially reduce the angular momentum
in the inner part of the collapsing cloud. Fast and episodic outflows are being
launched with typical velocities of the order of 3-5 km s although the
highest velocities can be as high as 30-40 km s. The fragmentation in
several objects, is reduced in substantially magnetized clouds with respect to
hydrodynamical ones by a factor of the order of 1.5-2. We conclude that
magnetic fields have a significant impact on the evolution of massive clumps.
In combination with radiation, magnetic fields largely determine the outcome of
massive core collapse. We stress that numerical convergence of MHD collapse is
a challenging issue. In particular, numerical diffusion appears to be important
at high density therefore possibly leading to an over-estimation of the number
of fragments.Comment: accepted for publication in A&
Decoherence of coupled electron spins via nuclear spin dynamics in quantum dots
In double quantum dots, the exchange interaction between two electron spins
renormalizes the excitation energy of pair-flips in the nuclear spin bath,
which in turn modifies the non-Markovian bath dynamics. As the energy
renormalization varies with the Overhauser field mismatch between the quantum
dots, the electron singlet-triplet decoherence resulting from the bath dynamics
depends on sampling of nuclear spin states from an ensemble, leading to the
transition from exponential decoherence in single-sample dynamics to power-law
decay under ensemble averaging. In contrast, the decoherence of a single
electron spin in one dot is essentially the same for different choices of the
nuclear spin configuration.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure
Self-induced decoherence approach: Strong limitations on its validity in a simple spin bath model and on its general physical relevance
The "self-induced decoherence" (SID) approach suggests that (1) the
expectation value of any observable becomes diagonal in the eigenstates of the
total Hamiltonian for systems endowed with a continuous energy spectrum, and
(2), that this process can be interpreted as decoherence. We evaluate the first
claim in the context of a simple spin bath model. We find that even for large
environments, corresponding to an approximately continuous energy spectrum,
diagonalization of the expectation value of random observables does in general
not occur. We explain this result and conjecture that SID is likely to fail
also in other systems composed of discrete subsystems. Regarding the second
claim, we emphasize that SID does not describe a physically meaningful
decoherence process for individual measurements, but only involves destructive
interference that occurs collectively within an ensemble of presupposed
"values" of measurements. This leads us to question the relevance of SID for
treating observed decoherence effects.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Final published versio
Change of decoherence scenario and appearance of localization due to reservoir anharmonicity
Although coupling to a super-Ohmic bosonic reservoir leads only to partial
dephasing on short time scales, exponential decay of coherence appears in the
Markovian limit (for long times) if anharmonicity of the reservoir is taken
into account. This effect not only qualitatively changes the decoherence
scenario but also leads to localization processes in which superpositions of
spatially separated states dephase with a rate that depends on the distance
between the localized states. As an example of the latter process, we study the
decay of coherence of an electron state delocalized over two semiconductor
quantum dots due to anharmonicity of phonon modes.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; moderate changes; auxiliary material added; to
appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Universality of Uhrig dynamical decoupling for suppressing qubit pure dephasing and relaxation
The optimal -pulse dynamical decoupling discovered by Uhrig for a
spin-boson mmodel [Phys. Rev. Lett, {\bf 98}, 100504 (2007)] is proved to be
universal in suppressing to the pure dephasing or the longitudinal
relaxation of a qubit (or spin-1/2) coupled to a generic bath in a short-time
evolution of duration . It is also found that for the purpose of suppressing
the longitudinal relaxation, an ideal Uhrig -pulse sequence can be
generalized to a sequence consisting of the ideal one superimposed with
finite-duration pulses satisfying certain symmetry requirements.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure
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