209 research outputs found
Bright filter-free source of indistinguishable photon pairs
We demonstrate a high-brightness source of pairs of indistinguishable photons
based on a type-II phase-matched doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator
operated far below threshold. The cavity-enhanced down-conversion output of a
PPKTP crystal is coupled into two single-mode fibers with a mode coupling
efficiency of 58%. The high degree of indistinguishability between the photons
of a pair is demonstrated by a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility of higher
than 90% without any filtering at an instantaneous coincidence rate of 450 000
pairs/s per mW of pump power per nm of down-conversion bandwidth. For the
degenerate spectral mode with a linewidth of 7 MHz at 795 nm a rate of 70
pairs/(s mW MHz) is estimated, increasing the spectral brightness for
indistinguishable photons by two orders of magnitude compared to similar
previous sources.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Preparation of distilled and purified continuous variable entangled states
The distribution of entangled states of light over long distances is a major
challenge in the field of quantum information. Optical losses, phase diffusion
and mixing with thermal states lead to decoherence and destroy the
non-classical states after some finite transmission-line length. Quantum
repeater protocols, which combine quantum memory, entanglement distillation and
entanglement swapping, were proposed to overcome this problem. Here we report
on the experimental demonstration of entanglement distillation in the
continuous-variable regime. Entangled states were first disturbed by random
phase fluctuations and then distilled and purified using interference on beam
splitters and homodyne detection. Measurements of covariance matrices clearly
indicate a regained strength of entanglement and purity of the distilled
states. In contrast to previous demonstrations of entanglement distillation in
the complementary discrete-variable regime, our scheme achieved the actual
preparation of the distilled states, which might therefore be used to improve
the quality of downstream applications such as quantum teleportation
Methods in Mammary Gland Development and Cancer: the second ENDBC meeting - intravital imaging, genomics, modeling and metastasis
The second meeting of the European Network for Breast Development and Cancer (ENBDC) on 'Methods in Mammary Gland Development and Cancer' was held in April 2010 in Weggis, Switzerland. The focus was on genomics and bioinformatics, extracellular matrix and stroma-epithelial cell interactions, intravital imaging, the search for metastasis founder cells and mouse models of breast cancer
Quantum teleportation between light and matter
Quantum teleportation is an important ingredient in distributed quantum
networks, and can also serve as an elementary operation in quantum computers.
Teleportation was first demonstrated as a transfer of a quantum state of light
onto another light beam; later developments used optical relays and
demonstrated entanglement swapping for continuous variables. The teleportation
of a quantum state between two single material particles (trapped ions) has now
also been achieved. Here we demonstrate teleportation between objects of a
different nature - light and matter, which respectively represent 'flying' and
'stationary' media. A quantum state encoded in a light pulse is teleported onto
a macroscopic object (an atomic ensemble containing 10^12 caesium atoms).
Deterministic teleportation is achieved for sets of coherent states with mean
photon number (n) up to a few hundred. The fidelities are 0.58+-0.02 for n=20
and 0.60+-0.02 for n=5 - higher than any classical state transfer can possibly
achieve. Besides being of fundamental interest, teleportation using a
macroscopic atomic ensemble is relevant for the practical implementation of a
quantum repeater. An important factor for the implementation of quantum
networks is the teleportation distance between transmitter and receiver; this
is 0.5 metres in the present experiment. As our experiment uses propagating
light to achieve the entanglement of light and atoms required for
teleportation, the present approach should be scalable to longer distances.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, incl. supplementary informatio
Nonequilibrium wetting
When a nonequilibrium growing interface in the presence of a wall is
considered a nonequilibrium wetting transition may take place. This transition
can be studied trough Langevin equations or discrete growth models. In the
first case, the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, which defines a very robust
universality class for nonequilibrium moving interfaces, with a soft-wall
potential is considered. While in the second, microscopic models, in the
corresponding universality class, with evaporation and deposition of particles
in the presence of hard-wall are studied. Equilibrium wetting is related to a
particular case of the problem, it corresponds to the Edwards-Wilkinson
equation with a potential in the continuum approach or to the fulfillment of
detailed balance in the microscopic models. In this review we present the
analytical and numerical methods used to investigate the problem and the very
rich behavior that is observed with them.Comment: Review, 36 pages, 16 figure
Measuring measurement
Measurement connects the world of quantum phenomena to the world of classical
events. It plays both a passive role, observing quantum systems, and an active
one, preparing quantum states and controlling them. Surprisingly - in the light
of the central status of measurement in quantum mechanics - there is no general
recipe for designing a detector that measures a given observable. Compounding
this, the characterization of existing detectors is typically based on partial
calibrations or elaborate models. Thus, experimental specification (i.e.
tomography) of a detector is of fundamental and practical importance. Here, we
present the realization of quantum detector tomography: we identify the optimal
positive-operator-valued measure describing the detector, with no ancillary
assumptions. This result completes the triad, state, process, and detector
tomography, required to fully specify an experiment. We characterize an
avalanche photodiode and a photon number resolving detector capable of
detecting up to eight photons. This creates a new set of tools for accurately
detecting and preparing non-classical light.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures,see video abstract at
http://www.quantiki.org/video_abstracts/0807244
Breakdown of the Mott insulator: Exact solution of an asymmetric Hubbard model
The breakdown of the Mott insulator is studied when the dissipative tunneling
into the environment is introduced to the system. By exactly solving the
one-dimensional asymmetric Hubbard model, we show how such a breakdown of the
Mott insulator occurs. As the effect of the tunneling is increased, the Hubbard
gap is monotonically decreased and finally disappears, resulting in the
insulator-metal transition. We discuss the origin of this quantum phase
transition in comparison with other non-Hermitian systems recently studied.Comment: 7 pages, revte
Free energy of bubbles and droplets in the quark-hadron phase transition
Using the MIT bag model, we calculate the free energy of droplets of
quark-gluon plasma in a bulk hadronic medium, and of hadronic bubbles in a bulk
quark-gluon plasma, under the assumption of vanishing chemical potentials. We
investigate the validity of the multiple reflection expansion approximation,
and we advise a novel procedure for calculating finite-size corrections to the
free energy of hadronic bubbles in a bulk quark-gluon plasma. While our results
agree largely with earlier calculations, we show that the usual multiple
reflection expansion should be used with caution, and we propose a modification
of the multiple reflection expansion, which makes this approximation agree
nicely with direct numerical calculations. The results should be of relevance
in connection with the cosmological quark-hadron transition as well as for
ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions.Comment: Published version, 25 pages including 16 figure
Soliton approach to the noisy Burgers equation: Steepest descent method
The noisy Burgers equation in one spatial dimension is analyzed by means of
the Martin-Siggia-Rose technique in functional form. In a canonical formulation
the morphology and scaling behavior are accessed by mean of a principle of
least action in the asymptotic non-perturbative weak noise limit. The ensuing
coupled saddle point field equations for the local slope and noise fields,
replacing the noisy Burgers equation, are solved yielding nonlinear localized
soliton solutions and extended linear diffusive mode solutions, describing the
morphology of a growing interface. The canonical formalism and the principle of
least action also associate momentum, energy, and action with a
soliton-diffusive mode configuration and thus provides a selection criterion
for the noise-induced fluctuations. In a ``quantum mechanical'' representation
of the path integral the noise fluctuations, corresponding to different paths
in the path integral, are interpreted as ``quantum fluctuations'' and the
growth morphology represented by a Landau-type quasi-particle gas of ``quantum
solitons'' with gapless dispersion and ``quantum diffusive modes'' with a gap
in the spectrum. Finally, the scaling properties are dicussed from a heuristic
point of view in terms of a``quantum spectral representation'' for the slope
correlations. The dynamic eponent z=3/2 is given by the gapless soliton
dispersion law, whereas the roughness exponent zeta =1/2 follows from a
regularity property of the form factor in the spectral representation. A
heuristic expression for the scaling function is given by spectral
representation and has a form similar to the probability distribution for Levy
flights with index .Comment: 30 pages, Revtex file, 14 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Why do women invest in pre-pregnancy health and care? A qualitative investigation with women attending maternity services
Background Despite the importance attributed to good pre-pregnancy care and its potential to improve pregnancy and child health outcomes, relatively little is known about why women invest in pre-pregnancy health and care. We sought to gain insight into why women invested in pre-pregnancy health and care. Methods We carried out 20 qualitative in-depth interviews with pregnant or recently pregnant women who were drawn from a survey of antenatal clinic attendees in London, UK. Interviewees were purposively sampled to include high and low investors in pre-pregnancy health and care, with variation in age, partnership status, ethnicity and pre-existing medical conditions. Data analysis was conducted using the Framework method. Results We identified three groups in relation to pre-pregnancy health and care: 1) The “prepared” group, who had high levels of pregnancy planning and mostly positive attitudes to micronutrient supplementation outside of pregnancy, carried out pre-pregnancy activities such as taking folic acid and making changes to diet and lifestyle. 2) The “poor knowledge” group, who also had high levels of pregnancy planning, did not carry out pre-pregnancy activities and described themselves as having poor knowledge. Elsewhere in their interviews they expressed a strong dislike of micronutrient supplementation. 3) The “absent pre-pregnancy period” group, had the lowest levels of pregnancy planning and also expressed anti-supplement views. Even discussing the pre-pregnancy period with this group was difficult as responses to questions quickly shifted to focus on pregnancy itself. Knowledge of folic acid was poor in all groups. Conclusion Different pre-pregnancy care approaches are likely to be needed for each of the groups. Among the “prepared” group, who were proactive and receptive to health messages, greater availability of information and better response from health professionals could improve the range of pre-pregnancy activities carried out. Among the “poor knowledge” group, better response from health professionals might yield greater uptake of pre-pregnancy information. A different, general health strategy might be more appropriate for the “absent pre-pregnancy period” group. The fact that general attitudes to micronutrient supplementation were closely related to whether or not women invested in pre-pregnancy health and care was an unanticipated finding and warrants further investigation.This report is independent research commissioned and funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme Pre-Pregnancy Health and Care in England: Exploring Implementation and Public Health Impact, 006/0068
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