37,345 research outputs found
The lifetime cost of a magnetic refrigerator
The total cost of a 25 W average load magnetic refrigerator using commercial
grade Gd is calculated using a numerical model. The price of magnetocaloric
material, magnet material and cost of operation are considered, and all
influence the total cost. The lowest combined total cost with a device lifetime
of 15 years is found to be in the range \^{+++}$ refrigeration unit. In a
rough life time cost comparison between the magnetic refrigeration device and
such a unit we find similar costs, the former being slightly cheaper, assuming
the cost of the magnet can be recuperated at end of life.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure
Pea-barley intercrop N dynamics in farmers fields
Knowledge about crop performances in farmers’ fields provides a link between on-farm practice and re-search. Thereby scientists may improve their ability to understand and suggest solutions for the problems facing those who have the responsibility of making sound agricultural decisions.
Nitrogen (N) availability is known to be highly heterogeneous in terrestrial plant communities (Stevenson and van Kessel, 1997), a heterogeneity that in natural systems is often associated with variation in the distri-bution of plant species. In intercropping systems the relative proportion of component crops is influenced by the distribution of growth factors such as N in both time and space (Jensen, 1996). In pea-barley intercrops, an increase in the N supply promotes the growth of barley thereby decreasing the N accumulation of pea and giving rise to changes in the relative proportions of the intercropped components (Jensen, 1996). The pres-sure of weeds may, however, significantly change the dynamics in intercrops (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al., 2001). Data from farmers’ fields may provide direct, spatially explicit information for evaluating the poten-tials of improving the utilisation of field variability by intercrops
Beating the PNS attack in practical quantum cryptography
In practical quantum key distribution, weak coherent state is often used and
the channel transmittance can be very small therefore the protocol could be
totally insecure under the photon-number-splitting attack. We propose an
efficient method to verify the upper bound of the fraction of counts caused by
multi-photon pluses transmitted from Alice to Bob, given whatever type of Eve's
action. The protocol simply uses two coherent states for the signal pulses and
vacuum for decoy pulse. Our verified upper bound is sufficiently tight for QKD
with very lossy channel, in both asymptotic case and non-asymptotic case. The
coherent states with mean photon number from 0.2 to 0.5 can be used in
practical quantum cryptography. We show that so far our protocol is the
decoy-state protocol that really works for currently existing set-ups.Comment: So far this is the unique decoy-state protocol which really works
efficiently in practice. Prior art results are commented in both main context
and the Appendi
Entanglement of 2xK quantum systems
We derive an analytical expression for the lower bound of the concurrence of
mixed quantum states of composite 2xK systems. In contrast to other, implicitly
defined entanglement measures, the numerical evaluation of our bound is
straightforward. We explicitly evaluate its tightness for general mixed states
of 2x3 systems, and identify a large class of states where our expression gives
the exact value of the concurrence.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Europhysics Lette
Entanglement Purification through Zeno-like Measurements
We present a novel method to purify quantum states, i.e. purification through
Zeno-like measurements, and show an application to entanglement purification.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; Contribution to the Proceedings of "Mysteries,
Puzzles and Paradoxes in Quantum Mechanics", Gargnano, Italy, 2003 (to be
published in J. Mod. Opt.
Precision measurement with an optical Josephson junction
We study a new type of Josephson device, the so-called "optical Josephson
junction" as proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 170402 (2005). Two
condensates are optically coupled through a waveguide by a pair of Bragg beams.
This optical Josephson junction is analogous to the usual Josephson junction of
two condensates weakly coupled via tunneling. We discuss the use of this
optical Josephson junction, for making precision measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
FruitGrowth - Gasburning in orchards - Environment friendly weed control
Gas burning makes treatment of weed organic. The new ENVO-DAN burner saves 40% gas and treats 1/2 meter in width.It can be mounted on a standard lawn tractor, orchard tractor or a mobile robot. The modular burner system for burning weeds in orchards can be configurated to your needs
Quantum circuit for security proof of quantum key distribution without encryption of error syndrome and noisy processing
One of the simplest security proofs of quantum key distribution is based on
the so-called complementarity scenario, which involves the complementarity
control of an actual protocol and a virtual protocol [M. Koashi, e-print
arXiv:0704.3661 (2007)]. The existing virtual protocol has a limitation in
classical postprocessing, i.e., the syndrome for the error-correction step has
to be encrypted. In this paper, we remove this limitation by constructing a
quantum circuit for the virtual protocol. Moreover, our circuit with a shield
system gives an intuitive proof of why adding noise to the sifted key increases
the bit error rate threshold in the general case in which one of the parties
does not possess a qubit. Thus, our circuit bridges the simple proof and the
use of wider classes of classical postprocessing.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Typo correcte
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