Entanglement and its Role in Shor's Algorithm

Entanglement has been termed a critical resource for quantum information processing and is thought to be the reason that certain quantum algorithms, such as Shor's factoring algorithm, can achieve exponentially better performance than their classical counterparts. The nature of this resource is still not fully understood: here we use numerical simulation to investigate how entanglement between register qubits varies as Shor's algorithm is run on a quantum computer. The shifting patterns in the entanglement are found to relate to the choice of basis for the quantum Fourier transform.Comment: 15 pages, 4 eps figures, v1-3 were for conference proceedings (not included in the end); v4 is improved following referee comments, expanded explanations and added reference

General practitioners' reasons for removing patients from their lists: postal survey in England and Wales

The removal of patients from doctors' lists causes con­ siderable public and political concern, with speculation that patients are removed for inappropriate, including financial, reasons. In 1999 the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration noted that little evidence was available on either the frequency of, or the reasons for, removal of patients. National statistics do not distinguish between patients removed after moving out of a practice area and those removed for other reasons. Two postal surveys have reported why general practitioners might, in general, remove patients, and one small study has described the reasons doctors give for particular removals. We therefore determined the current scale of, and doctors' reasons for, removal of patients from their lists in Eng­ land and Wales

Signatures of the collapse and revival of a spin Schr\"{o}dinger cat state in a continuously monitored field mode

We study the effects of continuous measurement of the field mode during the collapse and revival of spin Schr\"{o}dinger cat states in the Tavis-Cummings model of N qubits (two-level quantum systems) coupled to a field mode. We show that a compromise between relatively weak and relatively strong continuous measurement will not completely destroy the collapse and revival dynamics while still providing enough signal-to-noise resolution to identify the signatures of the process in the measurement record. This type of measurement would in principle allow the verification of the occurrence of the collapse and revival of a spin Schr\"{o}dinger cat state.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Entangling photons using a charged quantum dot in a microcavity

We present two novel schemes to generate photon polarization entanglement via single electron spins confined in charged quantum dots inside microcavities. One scheme is via entangled remote electron spins followed by negatively-charged exciton emissions, and another scheme is via a single electron spin followed by the spin state measurement. Both schemes are based on giant circular birefringence and giant Faraday rotation induced by a single electron spin in a microcavity. Our schemes are deterministic and can generate an arbitrary amount of multi-photon entanglement. Following similar procedures, a scheme for a photon-spin quantum interface is proposed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Electromagnetic Actuated Stiring in Microbioreactor Enabling Easier Multiplexing and Flexible Device Design

The development of a novel electromagnetically (EM) actuated stirring method, for use in microbioreactors, is reported. Mixing in microbioreactors is critical to ensure even distribution of nutrients to microorganisms and cells. Magnetically driven stirrer bars or peristaltic mixing are the most commonly utilised mixing methods employed in completely liquid-filled microbioreactors. However the circular reactor shape required for mixing with a stirrer bar and frequently used for peristaltically mixed microbioreactors presents difficulties for bubble-free priming in a microfluidic bioreactor. Moreover the circular shape and the hardware required for both types of mixing reduces the potential packing density of multiplexed reactors. We present a new method of mixing, displaying design flexibility by demonstrating mixing in circular and diamond-shaped reactors and a duplex diamond reactor and fermentation of the gram-positive bacteria S. carnosus in a diamond-shaped microbioreactor system. The results of the optimisation of this mixing method for performing fermentations alongside both batch and continuous culture fermentations are presentedPeer reviewe