Operation of Quantum Cellular Automaton cells with more than two electrons

We present evidence that operation of QCA (Quantum Cellular Automaton) cells with four dots is possible with an occupancy of 4N+2 electrons per cell (N being an integer). We show that interaction between cells can be described in terms of a revised formula for cell polarization, which is based only on the difference between diagonal occupancies. We validate our conjectures with full quantum simulations of QCA cells for a number of electrons varying from 2 to 6, using the Configuration-Interaction method.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures included, submitted to AP

Anomalous Spin Response and Virtual-Carrier-Mediated Magnetism in a Topological Insulator

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the static spin response in HgTe quantum wells, revealing distinctive behavior for the topologically nontrivial inverted structure. Most strikingly, the q=0 (long-wave-length) spin susceptibility of the undoped topological-insulator system is constant and equal to the value found for the gapless Dirac-like structure, whereas the same quantity shows the typical decrease with increasing band gap in the normal-insulator regime. We discuss ramifications for the ordering of localized magnetic moments present in the quantum well, both in the insulating and electron-doped situations. The spin response of edge states is also considered, and we extract effective Lande g-factors for the bulk and edge electrons. The variety of counter-intuitive spin-response properties revealed in our study arises from the system's versatility in accessing situations where the charge-carrier dynamics can be governed by ordinary Schrodinger-type physics, mimics the behavior of chiral Dirac fermions, or reflects the material's symmetry-protected topological order.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, RevTex4.1; v2: extended and expanded results and presentatio

Ex-ante measure of patent quality reveals intrinsic fitness for citation-network growth

We have constructed a fitness parameter, characterizing the intrinsic attractiveness for patents to be cited, from attributes of the associated inventions known at the time a patent is granted. This exogenously obtained fitness is shown to determine the temporal growth of the citation network in conjunction with mechanisms of preferential attachment and obsolescence-induced ageing that operate without reference to characteristics of individual patents. Our study opens a window on understanding quantitatively the interplay of the rich-gets-richer and fit-gets-richer paradigms that have been suggested to govern the growth dynamics of real-world complex networks.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, RevTex4.1, v2: minor changes, version to appear as a Rapid Communication in Phys. Rev.

Modeling and manufacturability assessment of bistable quantum-dot cells

We have investigated the behavior of bistable cells made up of four quantum dots and occupied by two electrons, in the presence of realistic confinement potentials produced by depletion gates on top of a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. Such a cell represents the basic building block for logic architectures based on the concept of Quantum Cellular Automata (QCA) and of ground state computation, which have been proposed as an alternative to traditional transistor-based logic circuits. We have focused on the robustness of the operation of such cells with respect to asymmetries deriving from fabrication tolerances. We have developed a 2-D model for the calculation of the electron density in a driven cell in response to the polarization state of a driver cell. Our method is based on the one-shot Configuration-Interaction technique, adapted from molecular chemistry. From the results of our simulations, we conclude that an implementation of QCA logic based on simple ``hole-arrays'' is not feasible, because of the extreme sensitivity to fabrication tolerances. As an alternative, we propose cells defined by multiple gates, where geometrical asymmetries can be compensated for by adjusting the bias voltages. Even though not immediately applicable to the implementation of logic gates and not suitable for large scale integration, the proposed cell layout should allow an experimental demonstration of a chain of QCA cells.Comment: 26 pages, Revtex, 13 figures, title and some figures changed and minor revision