1,087 research outputs found
Detection of a persistent-current qubit by resonant activation
We present the implementation of a new scheme to detect the quantum state of
a persistent-current qubit. It relies on the dependency of the measuring
Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) plasma frequency on the
qubit state, which we detect by resonant activation. With a measurement pulse
of only 5ns, we observed Rabi oscillations with high visibility (65%).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRB Rapid Co
Decoherence of Flux Qubits Coupled to Electronic Circuits
On the way to solid-state quantum computing, overcoming decoherence is the
central issue. In this contribution, we discuss the modeling of decoherence of
a superonducting flux qubit coupled to dissipative electronic circuitry. We
discuss its impact on single qubit decoherence rates and on the performance of
two-qubit gates. These results can be used for designing decoherence-optimal
setups.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Advances in Solid State Physics,
Vol. 43 (2003
The merger of vertically offset quasi-geostrophic vortices
We examine the critical merging distance between two equal-volume, equal-potential-vorticity quasi-geostrophic vortices. We focus on how this distance depends on the vertical offset between the two vortices, each having a unit mean height-to-width aspect ratio. The vertical direction is special in the quasi-geostrophic model (used to capture the leading-order dynamical features of stably stratified and rapidly rotating geophysical flows) since vertical advection is absent. Nevertheless vortex merger may still occur by horizontal advection. In this paper, we first investigate the equilibrium states for the two vortices as a function of their vertical and horizontal separation. We examine their basic properties together with their linear stability. These findings are next compared to numerical simulations of the nonlinear evolution of two spheres of potential vorticity. Three different regimes of interaction are identified, depending on the vertical offset. For a small offset, the interaction differs little from the case when the two vortices are horizontally aligned. On the other hand, when the vertical offset is comparable to the mean vortex radius, strong interaction occurs for greater horizontal gaps than in the horizontally aligned case, and therefore at significantly greater full separation distances. This perhaps surprising result is consistent with the linear stability analysis and appears to be a consequence of the anisotropy of the quasi-geostrophic equations. Finally, for large vertical offsets, vortex merger results in the formation of a metastable tilted dumbbell vortex.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Causal Consistency of Structural Equation Models
Complex systems can be modelled at various levels of detail. Ideally, causal
models of the same system should be consistent with one another in the sense
that they agree in their predictions of the effects of interventions. We
formalise this notion of consistency in the case of Structural Equation Models
(SEMs) by introducing exact transformations between SEMs. This provides a
general language to consider, for instance, the different levels of description
in the following three scenarios: (a) models with large numbers of variables
versus models in which the `irrelevant' or unobservable variables have been
marginalised out; (b) micro-level models versus macro-level models in which the
macro-variables are aggregate features of the micro-variables; (c) dynamical
time series models versus models of their stationary behaviour. Our analysis
stresses the importance of well specified interventions in the causal modelling
process and sheds light on the interpretation of cyclic SEMs.Comment: equal contribution between Rubenstein and Weichwald; accepted
manuscrip
Dephasing of a superconducting qubit induced by photon noise
We have studied the dephasing of a superconducting flux-qubit coupled to a
DC-SQUID based oscillator. By varying the bias conditions of both circuits we
were able to tune their effective coupling strength. This allowed us to measure
the effect of such a controllable and well-characterized environment on the
qubit coherence. We can quantitatively account for our data with a simple model
in which thermal fluctuations of the photon number in the oscillator are the
limiting factor. In particular, we observe a strong reduction of the dephasing
rate whenever the coupling is tuned to zero. At the optimal point we find a
large spin-echo decay time of .Comment: New version of earlier paper arXiv/0507290 after in-depth rewritin
Relaxation and Dephasing in a Flux-qubit
We report detailed measurements of the relaxation and dephasing time in a
flux-qubit measured by a switching DC SQUID. We studied their dependence on the
two important circuit bias parameters: the externally applied magnetic flux and
the bias current through the SQUID in two samples. We demonstrate two
complementary strategies to protect the qubit from these decoherence sources.
One consists in biasing the qubit so that its resonance frequency is stationary
with respect to the control parameters ({\it optimal point}) ; the second
consists in {\it decoupling} the qubit from current noise by chosing a proper
bias current through the SQUID. At the decoupled optimal point, we measured
long spin-echo decay times of up to .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter
Characterizing and Improving Generalized Belief Propagation Algorithms on the 2D Edwards-Anderson Model
We study the performance of different message passing algorithms in the two
dimensional Edwards Anderson model. We show that the standard Belief
Propagation (BP) algorithm converges only at high temperature to a paramagnetic
solution. Then, we test a Generalized Belief Propagation (GBP) algorithm,
derived from a Cluster Variational Method (CVM) at the plaquette level. We
compare its performance with BP and with other algorithms derived under the
same approximation: Double Loop (DL) and a two-ways message passing algorithm
(HAK). The plaquette-CVM approximation improves BP in at least three ways: the
quality of the paramagnetic solution at high temperatures, a better estimate
(lower) for the critical temperature, and the fact that the GBP message passing
algorithm converges also to non paramagnetic solutions. The lack of convergence
of the standard GBP message passing algorithm at low temperatures seems to be
related to the implementation details and not to the appearance of long range
order. In fact, we prove that a gauge invariance of the constrained CVM free
energy can be exploited to derive a new message passing algorithm which
converges at even lower temperatures. In all its region of convergence this new
algorithm is faster than HAK and DL by some orders of magnitude.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure
Impact of time-ordered measurements of the two states in a niobium superconducting qubit structure
Measurements of thermal activation are made in a superconducting, niobium
Persistent-Current (PC) qubit structure, which has two stable classical states
of equal and opposite circulating current. The magnetization signal is read out
by ramping the bias current of a DC SQUID. This ramping causes time-ordered
measurements of the two states, where measurement of one state occurs before
the other. This time-ordering results in an effective measurement time, which
can be used to probe the thermal activation rate between the two states.
Fitting the magnetization signal as a function of temperature and ramp time
allows one to estimate a quality factor of 10^6 for our devices, a value
favorable for the observation of long quantum coherence times at lower
temperatures.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
Charge-Vortex Duality in Double-Layered Josephson Junction Arrays
A system of two parallel Josephson junction arrays coupled by interlayer
capacitances is considered in the situation where one layer is in the
vortex-dominated and the other in the charge-dominated regime. This system
shows a symmetry (duality) of the relevant degrees of freedom, i.e. the
vortices in one layer and the charges in the other. In contrast to single-layer
arrays both contribute to the kinetic energy. The charges feel the magnetic
field created by vortices, and, vice versa, the vortices feel a gauge field
created by charges. For long-range interaction of the charges the system
exhibits two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions, one for vortices and
another one for charges. The interlayer capacitance suppresses both transition
temperatures. The charge-unbinding transition is suppressed already for
relatively weak coupling, while the vortex-unbinding transition is more robust.
The shift of the transition temperature for vortices is calculated in the
quasi-classical approximation for arbitrary relations between the capacitances
(both weak and strong coupling).Comment: 12 pages, Revtex 3.
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