965 research outputs found
Development of superconducting YBa2Cu3O(x) wires with low resistance electrical contacts
Materials exhibiting superconductivity above liquid nitrogen temperatures (77 K) will enable new applications of this phenomena. One of the first commercial applications of this technology will be superconducting magnets for medical imaging. However, a large number of aerospace applications of the high temperature superconducting materials have also been identified. These include magnetic suspension and balance of models in wind tunnels and resistanceless leads to anemometers. The development of superconducting wires fabricated from the ceramic materials is critical for these applications. The progress in application of a patented fiber process developed by Clemson University for the fabrication of superconducting wires is reviewed. The effect of particle size and heat treatment on the quality of materials is discussed. Recent advances made at Christopher Newport College in the development of micro-ohm resistance electrical contacts which are capable of carrying the highest reported direct current to this material is presented
Quantum Dissension: Generalizing Quantum Discord for Three-Qubit States
We introduce the notion of quantum dissension for a three-qubit system as a
measure of quantum correlations. We use three equivalent expressions of
three-variable mutual information. Their differences can be zero classically
but not so in quantum domain. It generalizes the notion of quantum discord to a
multipartite system. There can be multiple definitions of the dissension
depending on the nature of projective measurements done on the subsystems. As
an illustration, we explore the consequences of these multiple definitions and
compare them for three-qubit pure and mixed GHZ and W states. We find that
unlike discord, dissension can be negative. This is because measurement on a
subsystem may enhance the correlations in the rest of the system. This approach
can pave a way to generalize the notion of quantum correlations in the
multiparticle setting.Comment: 9 pages 6 figures typo fixed and some arguments adde
RoboPol: First season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars
We present first results on polarization swings in optical emission of
blazars obtained by RoboPol, a monitoring program of an unbiased sample of
gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such
events. A possible connection of polarization swing events with periods of high
activity in gamma rays is investigated using the dataset obtained during the
first season of operation. It was found that the brightest gamma-ray flares
tend to be located closer in time to rotation events, which may be an
indication of two separate mechanisms responsible for the rotations. Blazars
with detected rotations have significantly larger amplitude and faster
variations of polarization angle in optical than blazars without rotations. Our
simulations show that the full set of observed rotations is not a likely
outcome (probability ) of a random walk of the
polarization vector simulated by a multicell model. Furthermore, it is highly
unlikely () that none of our rotations is physically
connected with an increase in gamma-ray activity.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Precession of a Freely Rotating Rigid Body. Inelastic Relaxation in the Vicinity of Poles
When a solid body is freely rotating at an angular velocity ,
the ellipsoid of constant angular momentum, in the space , has poles corresponding to spinning about the minimal-inertia and
maximal-inertia axes. The first pole may be considered stable if we neglect the
inner dissipation, but becomes unstable if the dissipation is taken into
account. This happens because the bodies dissipate energy when they rotate
about any axis different from principal. In the case of an oblate symmetrical
body, the angular velocity describes a circular cone about the vector of
(conserved) angular momentum. In the course of relaxation, the angle of this
cone decreases, so that both the angular velocity and the maximal-inertia axis
of the body align along the angular momentum. The generic case of an asymmetric
body is far more involved. Even the symmetrical prolate body exhibits a
sophisticated behaviour, because an infinitesimally small deviation of the
body's shape from a rotational symmetry (i.e., a small difference between the
largest and second largest moments of inertia) yields libration: the precession
trajectory is not a circle but an ellipse. In this article we show that often
the most effective internal dissipation takes place at twice the frequency of
the body's precession. Applications to precessing asteroids, cosmic-dust
alignment, and rotating satellites are discussed.Comment: 47 pages, 1 figur
The classical-quantum boundary for correlations: discord and related measures
One of the best signatures of nonclassicality in a quantum system is the
existence of correlations that have no classical counterpart. Different methods
for quantifying the quantum and classical parts of correlations are amongst the
more actively-studied topics of quantum information theory over the past
decade. Entanglement is the most prominent of these correlations, but in many
cases unentangled states exhibit nonclassical behavior too. Thus distinguishing
quantum correlations other than entanglement provides a better division between
the quantum and classical worlds, especially when considering mixed states.
Here we review different notions of classical and quantum correlations
quantified by quantum discord and other related measures. In the first half, we
review the mathematical properties of the measures of quantum correlations,
relate them to each other, and discuss the classical-quantum division that is
common among them. In the second half, we show that the measures identify and
quantify the deviation from classicality in various
quantum-information-processing tasks, quantum thermodynamics, open-system
dynamics, and many-body physics. We show that in many cases quantum
correlations indicate an advantage of quantum methods over classical ones.Comment: Close to the published versio
Pre-surgical Features of Intrinsic Brain Networks Predict Single and Joint Epilepsy Surgery Outcomes
Despite the effectiveness of surgical interventions for the treatment of intractable focal temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the substrates that support good outcomes are poorly understood. While algorithms have been developed for the prediction of either seizure or cognitive/psychiatric outcomes alone, no study has reported on the functional and structural architecture that supports joint outcomes. We measured key aspects of pre-surgical whole brain functional/structural network architecture and evaluated their ability to predict post-operative seizure control in combination with cognitive/psychiatric outcomes. Pre-surgically, we identified the intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) unique to each person through independent component analysis (ICA), and computed: (1) the spatial-temporal match between each person\u27s ICA components and established, canonical ICNs, (2) the connectivity strength within each identified person-specific ICN, (3) the gray matter (GM) volume underlying the person-specific ICNs, and (4) the amount of variance not explained by the canonical ICNs for each person. Post-surgical seizure control and reliable change indices of change (for language [naming, phonemic fluency], verbal episodic memory, and depression) served as binary outcome responses in random forest (RF) models. The above functional and structural measures served as input predictors. Our empirically derived ICN-based measures customized to the individual showed that good joint seizure and cognitive/psychiatric outcomes depended upon higher levels of brain reserve (GM volume) in specific networks. In contrast, singular outcomes relied on systematic, idiosyncratic variance in the case of seizure control, and the weakened pre-surgical presence of functional ICNs that encompassed the ictal temporal lobe in the case of cognitive/psychiatric outcomes. Our data made clear that the ICNs differed in their propensity to provide reserve for adaptive outcomes, with some providing structural (brain), and others functional (cognitive) reserve. Our customized methodology demonstrated that when substantial unique, patient-specific ICNs are present prior to surgery there is a reliable association with poor post-surgical seizure control. These ICNs are idiosyncratic in that they did not match the canonical, normative ICNs and, therefore, could not be defined functionally, with their location likely varying by patient. This important finding suggested the level of highly individualized ICN\u27s in the epileptic brain may signal th
Quantum correlations and synchronization measures
The phenomenon of spontaneous synchronization is universal and only recently
advances have been made in the quantum domain. Being synchronization a kind of
temporal correlation among systems, it is interesting to understand its
connection with other measures of quantum correlations. We review here what is
known in the field, putting emphasis on measures and indicators of
synchronization which have been proposed in the literature, and comparing their
validity for different dynamical systems, highlighting when they give similar
insights and when they seem to fail.Comment: book chapter, 18 pages, 7 figures, Fanchini F., Soares Pinto D.,
Adesso G. (eds) Lectures on General Quantum Correlations and their
Applications. Quantum Science and Technology. Springer (2017
Multiagent cooperation for solving global optimization problems: an extendible framework with example cooperation strategies
This paper proposes the use of multiagent cooperation for solving global optimization problems through the introduction of a new multiagent environment, MANGO. The strength of the environment lays in itsflexible structure based on communicating software agents that attempt to solve a problem cooperatively. This structure allows the execution of a wide range of global optimization algorithms described as a set of interacting operations. At one extreme, MANGO welcomes an individual non-cooperating agent, which is basically the traditional way of solving a global optimization problem. At the other extreme, autonomous agents existing in the environment cooperate as they see fit during run time. We explain the development and communication tools provided in the environment as well as examples of agent realizations and cooperation scenarios. We also show how the multiagent structure is more effective than having a single nonlinear optimization algorithm with randomly selected initial points
Quantum discord evolution of three-qubit states under noisy channels
We investigated the dissipative dynamics of quantum discord for correlated
qubits under Markovian environments.
The basic idea in the present scheme is that quantum discord is more general,
and possibly more robust and fundamental, than entanglement. We provide three
initially correlated qubits in pure Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) or W
state and analyse the time evolution of the quantum discord under various
dissipative channels such as:
Pauli channels , , and , as well as
depolarising channels. Surprisingly, we find that under the action of Pauli
channel , the quantum discord of GHZ state is not affected by
decoherence. For the remaining dissipative channels, the W state is more robust
than the GHZ state against decoherence. Moreover, we compare the dynamics of
entanglement with that of the quantum discord under the conditions in which
disentanglement occurs and show that quantum discord is more robust than
entanglement except for phase flip coupling of the three qubits system to the
environment.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ
Propylisopropylacetic acid (PIA), a constitutional isomer of valproic acid, uncompetitively inhibits arachidonic acid acylation by rat acyl-CoA synthetase 4: A potential drug for bipolar disorder
Mood stabilizers used for treating bipolar disorder (BD) selectively downregulate arachidonic acid (AA) turnover (deacylation-reacylation) in brain phospholipids, when given chronically to rats. In vitro studies suggest that one of these, valproic acid (VPA), which is teratogenic, reduces AA turnover by inhibiting the brain acyl-CoA synthetase (Acsl)-4 mediated acylation of AA to AA-CoA. We tested whether non-teratogenic VPA analogues might also inhibit Acsl-4 catalyzed acylation, and thus have potential anti-BD action
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