Ballistic transport properties across nonuniform strain barriers in graphene

We study the effect of uniaxial strain on the transmission and the conductivity across a strain-induced barrier in graphene. At variance with conventional studies, which consider sharp barriers, we consider a more realistic, smooth barrier, characterized by a nonuniform, continuous strain profile. Our results are instrumental towards a better understanding of the transport properties in corrugated graphene.Comment: High Press. Res., to appea

Characterizing the entanglement of bipartite quantum systems

We derive a separability criterion for bipartite quantum systems which generalizes the already known criteria. It is based on observables having generic commutation relations. We then discuss in detail the relation among these criteria.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Revised versio

Reconstruction of superoperators from incomplete measurements

We present strategies how to reconstruct (estimate) properties of a quantum channel described by the map E based on incomplete measurements. In a particular case of a qubit channel a complete reconstruction of the map E can be performed via complete tomography of four output states E[rho_j ] that originate from a set of four linearly independent test states j (j = 1, 2, 3, 4) at the input of the channel. We study the situation when less than four linearly independent states are transmitted via the channel and measured at the output. We present strategies how to reconstruct the channel when just one, two or three states are transmitted via the channel. In particular, we show that if just one state is transmitted via the channel then the best reconstruction can be achieved when this state is a total mixture described by the density operator rho = I/2. To improve the reconstruction procedure one has to send via the channel more states. The best strategy is to complement the total mixture with pure states that are mutually orthogonal in the sense of the Bloch-sphere representation. We show that unitary transformations (channels) can be uniquely reconstructed (determined) based on the information of how three properly chosen input states are transformed under the action of the channel.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Minimal measurements of the gate fidelity of a qudit map

We obtain a simple formula for the average gate fidelity of a linear map acting on qudits. It is given in terms of minimal sets of pure state preparations alone, which may be interesting from the experimental point of view. These preparations can be seen as the outcomes of certain minimal positive operator valued measures. The connection of our results with these generalized measurements is briefly discussed

Bell-inequality violation with "thermal" radiation

The model of a quantum-optical device for a conditional preparation of entangled states from input mixed states is presented. It is demonstrated that even thermal or pseudo-thermal radiation can be entangled in such a way, that Bell-inequalities are violated

Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections: A Statistically Determined Flare Flux-CME Mass Correlation

In an effort to examine the relationship between flare flux and corresponding CME mass, we temporally and spatially correlate all X-ray flares and CMEs in the LASCO and GOES archives from 1996 to 2006. We cross-reference 6,733 CMEs having well-measured masses against 12,050 X-ray flares having position information as determined from their optical counterparts. For a given flare, we search in time for CMEs which occur 10-80 minutes afterward, and we further require the flare and CME to occur within +/-45 degrees in position angle on the solar disk. There are 826 CME/flare pairs which fit these criteria. Comparing the flare fluxes with CME masses of these paired events, we find CME mass increases with flare flux, following an approximately log-linear, broken relationship: in the limit of lower flare fluxes, log(CME mass)~0.68*log(flare flux), and in the limit of higher flare fluxes, log(CME mass)~0.33*log(flare flux). We show that this broken power-law, and in particular the flatter slope at higher flare fluxes, may be due to an observational bias against CMEs associated with the most energetic flares: halo CMEs. Correcting for this bias yields a single power-law relationship of the form log(CME mass)~0.70*log(flare flux). This function describes the relationship between CME mass and flare flux over at least 3 dex in flare flux, from ~10^-7 to 10^-4 W m^-2.Comment: 28 pages, 16 figures, accepted to Solar Physic

Optimization of entanglement witnesses

An entanglement witness (EW) is an operator that allows to detect entangled states. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for such operators to be optimal, i.e. to detect entangled states in an optimal way. We show how to optimize general EW, and then we particularize our results to the non-decomposable ones; the latter are those that can detect positive partial transpose entangled states (PPTES). We also present a method to systematically construct and optimize this last class of operators based on the existence of ``edge'' PPTES, i.e. states that violate the range separability criterion [Phys. Lett. A{\bf 232}, 333 (1997)] in an extreme manner. This method also permits the systematic construction of non-decomposable positive maps (PM). Our results lead to a novel sufficient condition for entanglement in terms of non-decomposable EW and PM. Finally, we illustrate our results by constructing optimal EW acting on H=\C^2\otimes \C^4. The corresponding PM constitute the first examples of PM with minimal ``qubit'' domain, or - equivalently - minimal hermitian conjugate codomain.Comment: 18 pages, two figures, minor change

Test for entanglement using physically observable witness operators and positive maps

Motivated by the Peres-Horodecki criterion and the realignment criterion we develop a more powerful method to identify entangled states for any bipartite system through a universal construction of the witness operator. The method also gives a new family of positive but non-completely positive maps of arbitrary high dimensions which provide a much better test than the witness operators themselves. Moreover, we find there are two types of positive maps that can detect 2xN and 4xN bound entangled states. Since entanglement witnesses are physical observables and may be measured locally our construction could be of great significance for future experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, revtex4 styl

A device for feasible fidelity, purity, Hilbert-Schmidt distance and entanglement witness measurements

A generic model of measurement device which is able to directly measure commonly used quantum-state characteristics such as fidelity, overlap, purity and Hilbert-Schmidt distance for two general uncorrelated mixed states is proposed. In addition, for two correlated mixed states, the measurement realizes an entanglement witness for Werner's separability criterion. To determine these observables, the estimation only one parameter - the visibility of interference, is needed. The implementations in cavity QED, trapped ion and electromagnetically induced transparency experiments are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

The Lancet Oral Health Series – implications for oral and dental research

No abstract available