Cooling the Collective Motion of Trapped Ions to Initialize a Quantum Register

We report preparation in the ground state of collective modes of motion of two trapped 9Be+ ions. This is a crucial step towards realizing quantum logic gates which can entangle the ions' internal electronic states. We find that heating of the modes of relative ion motion is substantially suppressed relative to that of the center-of-mass modes, suggesting the importance of these modes in future experiments.Comment: 5 pages, including 3 figures. RevTeX. PDF and PostScript available at http://www.bldrdoc.gov/timefreq/ion/qucomp/papers.htm . final (published) version. Eq. 1 and Table 1 slightly different from original submissio

Abelian Sandpile Model on the Husimi Lattice of Square Plaquettes

An Abelian sandpile model is considered on the Husimi lattice of square plaquettes. Exact expressions for the distribution of height probabilities in the Self-Organized Critical state are derived. The two-point correlation function for the sites deep inside the Husimi lattice is calculated exactly.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, source files and some additional information available at http://thsun1.jinr.dubna.su/~shcher

Shallow extra mixing in solar twins inferred from Be abundances

Lithium and beryllium are destroyed at different temperatures in stellar interiors. As such, their relative abundances offer excellent probes of the nature and extent of mixing processes within and below the convection zone. We determine Be abundances for a sample of eight solar twins for which Li abundances have previously been determined. The analyzed solar twins span a very wide range of age, 0.5-8.2 Gyr, which enables us to study secular evolution of Li and Be depletion. We gathered high-quality UVES/VLT spectra and obtained Be abundances by spectral synthesis of the Be II 313 nm doublet. The derived beryllium abundances exhibit no significant variation with age. The more fragile Li, however, exhibits a monotonically decreasing abundance with increasing age. Therefore, relatively shallow extra mixing below the convection zone is necessary to simultaneously account for the observed Li and Be behavior in the Sun and solar twins

Optical interface created by laser-cooled atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding an optical nanofiber

Trapping and optically interfacing laser-cooled neutral atoms is an essential requirement for their use in advanced quantum technologies. Here we simultaneously realize both of these tasks with cesium atoms interacting with a multi-color evanescent field surrounding an optical nanofiber. The atoms are localized in a one-dimensional optical lattice about 200 nm above the nanofiber surface and can be efficiently interrogated with a resonant light field sent through the nanofiber. Our technique opens the route towards the direct integration of laser-cooled atomic ensembles within fiber networks, an important prerequisite for large scale quantum communication schemes. Moreover, it is ideally suited to the realization of hybrid quantum systems that combine atoms with, e.g., solid state quantum devices