Super revivals and sub-Planck scale structures of a slightly relativistic particle in a box

The time evolution of a particle, caught in an infinitely deep square well, displays unexpected features, when one includes tiny relativistic effects. Indeed, even the smallest corrections to the non-relativistic quadratic spectrum manifest themselves in a dramatic way. Our theoretical analysis brings to light a completely new time scale, at which the system exhibits surprisingly perfect revivals. This longer time scale rules the system dynamics and replaces the original revival time of the unperturbed system. The early manifestation of such phenomenon is captured by the sensitivity of sub-Planck structures for different values of the relativistic corrections.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Accepted in Int. J. Quantum Informatio

Quantum non demolition measurement of cyclotron excitations in a Penning trap

The quantum non-demolition measurement of the cyclotron excitations of an electron confined in a Penning trap could be obtained by measuring the resonance frequency of the axial motion, which is coupled to the cyclotron motion through the relativistic shift of the electron mass

Optomechanical Stirling heat engine driven by feedback-controlled light

We propose and analyze a microscopic Stirling heat engine based on an optomechanical system. The working fluid is a single vibrational mode of a mechanical resonator, which interacts by radiation pressure with a feedback-controlled optical cavity. The cavity light is used to engineer the thermal reservoirs and to steer the resonator through a thermodynamic cycle. In particular, the feedback is used to properly modulate the light fluctuations inside the cavity and hence to realize efficient thermodynamic transformations with realistic optomechanical devices.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Trapped electrons in vacuum for a scalable quantum processor

We describe in detail a theoretical scheme to trap and manipulate an arbitrary number of electrons in vacuum for universal quantum computation. The particles are confined in a linear array of Penning traps by means of a combination of static electric and magnetic fields. Two-electron operations are realized by controlling the Coulomb interaction between neighboring particles. The performances of such a device are evaluated in terms of clock speed, fidelity, and decoherence rates

Perfect state transfer in long-range interacting spin chains

We investigate the most general conditions under which a finite ferromagnetic long-range inter- acting spin chain achieves unitary fidelity and the shortest transfer time in transmitting an unknown input qubit. A deeper insight into system dynamics, allows us to identify an ideal system involving sender and receiver only. However, this two-spin ideal chain is unpractical due to the rapid decrease of the coupling strength with the distance. Therefore, we propose an optimization scheme for ap- proaching the ideal behaviour, while keeping the interaction strength still reasonably high. The procedure is scalable with the size of the system and straightforward to implement.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Array of planar Penning traps as a nuclear magnetic resonance molecule for quantum computation

An array of planar Penning traps, holding single electrons, can realize an artificial molecule suitable for NMR-like quantum-information processing. The effective spin-spin coupling is accomplished by applying a magnetic field gradient, combined to the Coulomb interaction acting between the charged particles. The system lends itself to scalability, since the same substrate can easily accommodate an arbitrary number of traps. Moreover, the coupling strength is tunable and under experimental control. Our theoretical predictions take into account a realistic setting, within the reach of current technology

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Several decades of research have contributed to our understanding of students’ reasoning about astronomical phenomena. Some authors have pointed out the difficulty in reading and interpreting images used in school textbooks as factors that may justify the persistence of misconceptions. However, only a few studies have investigated to what extent usual textbook images influence students’ understanding of such phenomena. This study examines this issue exploring 13-14 years old students’ explanations, drawings and conceptions about three familiar phenomena: change of seasons, Moon phases and solar/lunar eclipses. The research questions that guided the study were: RQ1) How are students’ explanations and visual representations about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different imagesupport conditions? RQ2) How are students’ conceptions about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? RQ3) Which features of the used images most affected the students’ visual representations and explanations of familiar astronomical phenomena? To answer our research questions, we designed three instructional contexts under increasing support conditions: textbook images and text; teaching booklets with specially designed images and text; only text. To analyze students’ drawings, we used exploratory factor analysis to deconstruct drawings into their most salient elements. To analyze students’ explanations, we adopted a constant comparison method identifying different levels of increasing knowledge. To investigate students’ conceptions, we used a mixed multiple choice/true false baseline questionnaire. For RQ1, results show that the specially designed images condition was effective in helping students producing informed drawings in comparison to text-only condition for all phenomena, and more effective than textbook images condition when one considers seasonal change drawings. Concerning RQ2, the specially designed images condition was the most effective for all phenomena. Concerning RQ3, prevalent elements of astronomy images that affected students’ explanations and visual representations were: elliptical Earth's orbit, position of the Sun with respect to the Moon orbit, Sun, Moon and Earth alignment. Our findings confirm concerns about textbook astronomy images, whose features may interfere with the identification of the relevant factors underlying the phenomena. Moreover, findings of this study suggest that affordances of the specially designed images may play an essential role in scaffolding meaningful understanding of the targeted phenomena. Implications for teaching through and learning from visual representations in astronomy education are briefly discussed

Effects of instruction on students' overconfidence in introductory quantum mechanics

Students' ability to assess their own knowledge is an important skill in science education. However, students often overestimate their actual performances. In such cases, overconfidence bias arises. Previous studies in physics education have shown that overconfidence bias concerns mainly content areas, such as Newtonian mechanics, where misconceptions are strongly held by students. However, how the received instruction and the levels of understanding of a given topic influence overconfidence bias is yet to be proved. In this paper, we address this issue choosing as content area introductory quantum mechanics (QM). Overall, 408 high school students were involved in the study and randomly assigned to two experimental groups. One group received a textbook-based instruction about introductory QM, whereas the other one received instruction on the same topics through an innovative guided inquiry teaching-learning sequence (TLS), which included also potential pedagogical countermeasures for overconfidence bias. Students of both experimental groups completed a multiple-choice questionnaire and indicated for each item the degree of their confidence in the given answer using a 5-point Likert scale. The overconfidence bias was quantitatively defined and evaluated at person level using a 1D Rasch model. Progress in knowledge about the targeted topics was modeled according to a construct map validated in a previous paper. Results show that, for the whole sample, the overconfidence bias decreased as students progressed along the levels of the construct map. However, findings indicate that students of the TLS group achieved a significantly higher accuracy and a better confidence calibration, while the textbook group exhibited a lower performance and a significantly greater overconfidence bias. Implications for research into overconfidence bias in physics education are briefly discussed

Effects of emergency remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic on university physics students in Italy

We surveyed a convenience sample of 362 Italian university physics students, asking them to retrospectively assess their experience of emergency remote instruction due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We looked at their psychological well being, motivation for physics, academic orientation, attitude towards physics and physicists, and tried to link these factors to their overall perception of the online instruction. Our results show a general appreciation for the organization and effectiveness of online courses. However, online teaching negatively impacted on engagement and interaction between peers and with the instructors. Only 22% of students in our sample complained of the psychological distress due to remote instruction. Nonetheless, we found a significant decrease in motivational dimensions, such as interest and recognition. Emergency remote instruction also challenged the students’ self-regulation, self-efficacy, and engagement. Finally, the uncertainty about the future resulted in a more pessimistic attitude towards physics, academic performance, and job perspectives

Arduino: From Physics to Robotics

AbstractThis paper discusses how a microcontroller, like Arduino, can improve laboratory practice in Italian upper secondary school and change students' attitudes towards STEM subjects. Since 2015, we started a close and fruitful collaboration with several high school teachers in the Marche region to introduce microcontroller programming to the physics lab. Notably, the project also involved teachers of other subjects, such as computer science, and with different backgrounds, for example electronic engineering, thus showing the inherently interdisciplinary character and versatility of Arduino. Students were engaged in hands-on activities, working in small groups of four to five people, supervised by learning assistants and teachers. Arduino was used to interface with sensors, to control the experimental setup, and for data acquisition. Finally, we could also make contact with robotics, by building a simple prototype of a rover