9,727 research outputs found
Exact relaxation in a class of non-equilibrium quantum lattice systems
A reasonable physical intuition in the study of interacting quantum systems
says that, independent of the initial state, the system will tend to
equilibrate. In this work we study a setting where relaxation to a steady state
is exact, namely for the Bose-Hubbard model where the system is quenched from a
Mott quantum phase to the strong superfluid regime. We find that the evolving
state locally relaxes to a steady state with maximum entropy constrained by
second moments, maximizing the entanglement, to a state which is different from
the thermal state of the new Hamiltonian. Remarkably, in the infinite system
limit this relaxation is true for all large times, and no time average is
necessary. For large but finite system size we give a time interval for which
the system locally "looks relaxed" up to a prescribed error. Our argument
includes a central limit theorem for harmonic systems and exploits the finite
speed of sound. Additionally, we show that for all periodic initial
configurations, reminiscent of charge density waves, the system relaxes
locally. We sketch experimentally accessible signatures in optical lattices as
well as implications for the foundations of quantum statistical mechanics.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, replaced with final versio
The Measurement of Wood Cell Parameters Using the Distance Transform
In this paper we present a new approach to the quantitative assessment of cell wood boundaries, using image processing techniques based upon the distance transform. It is demonstrated that the method produces the parameters of wall thickness and boundary perimeter using objective measures to estimate these parameters. Further, it is possible, using this technique, to segment the image of a sample of Eucalyptus regnans (mountain ash) into rays, lumens, and cell walls with minimum human intervention
TechMiner: Extracting Technologies from Academic Publications
In recent years we have seen the emergence of a variety of scholarly datasets. Typically these capture âstandardâ scholarly entities and their connections, such as authors, affiliations, venues, publications, citations, and others. However, as the repositories grow and the technology improves, researchers are adding new entities to these repositories to develop a richer model of the scholarly domain. In this paper, we introduce TechMiner, a new approach, which combines NLP, machine learning and semantic technologies, for mining technologies from research publications and generating an OWL ontology describing their relationships with other research entities. The resulting knowledge base can support a number of tasks, such as: richer semantic search, which can exploit the technology dimension to support better retrieval of publications; richer expert search; monitoring the emergence and impact of new technologies, both within and across scientific fields; studying the scholarly dynamics associated with the emergence of new technologies; and others. TechMiner was evaluated on a manually annotated gold standard and the results indicate that it significantly outperforms alternative NLP approaches and that its semantic features improve performance significantly with respect to both recall and precision
Exploring Interacting Quantum Many-Body Systems by Experimentally Creating Continuous Matrix Product States in Superconducting Circuits
Improving the understanding of strongly correlated quantum many body systems
such as gases of interacting atoms or electrons is one of the most important
challenges in modern condensed matter physics, materials research and
chemistry. Enormous progress has been made in the past decades in developing
both classical and quantum approaches to calculate, simulate and experimentally
probe the properties of such systems. In this work we use a combination of
classical and quantum methods to experimentally explore the properties of an
interacting quantum gas by creating experimental realizations of continuous
matrix product states - a class of states which has proven extremely powerful
as a variational ansatz for numerical simulations. By systematically preparing
and probing these states using a circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) system
we experimentally determine a good approximation to the ground-state wave
function of the Lieb-Liniger Hamiltonian, which describes an interacting Bose
gas in one dimension. Since the simulated Hamiltonian is encoded in the
measurement observable rather than the controlled quantum system, this approach
has the potential to apply to exotic models involving multicomponent
interacting fields. Our findings also hint at the possibility of experimentally
exploring general properties of matrix product states and entanglement theory.
The scheme presented here is applicable to a broad range of systems exploiting
strong and tunable light-matter interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Space tug propulsion system failure mode, effects and criticality analysis
For purposes of the study, the propulsion system was considered as consisting of the following: (1) main engine system, (2) auxiliary propulsion system, (3) pneumatic system, (4) hydrogen feed, fill, drain and vent system, (5) oxygen feed, fill, drain and vent system, and (6) helium reentry purge system. Each component was critically examined to identify possible failure modes and the subsequent effect on mission success. Each space tug mission consists of three phases: launch to separation from shuttle, separation to redocking, and redocking to landing. The analysis considered the results of failure of a component during each phase of the mission. After the failure modes of each component were tabulated, those components whose failure would result in possible or certain loss of mission or inability to return the Tug to ground were identified as critical components and a criticality number determined for each. The criticality number of a component denotes the number of mission failures in one million missions due to the loss of that component. A total of 68 components were identified as critical with criticality numbers ranging from 1 to 2990
Causal structure of the entanglement renormalization ansatz
We show that the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) can be
reformulated in terms of a causality constraint on discrete quantum dynamics.
This causal structure is that of de Sitter space with a flat spacelike
boundary, where the volume of a spacetime region corresponds to the number of
variational parameters it contains. This result clarifies the nature of the
ansatz, and suggests a generalization to quantum field theory. It also
constitutes an independent justification of the connection between MERA and
hyperbolic geometry which was proposed as a concrete implementation of the
AdS-CFT correspondence
Early multi-wavelength emission from Gamma-ray Bursts: from Gamma-ray to X-ray
The study of the early high-energy emission from both long and short
Gamma-ray bursts has been revolutionized by the Swift mission. The rapid
response of Swift shows that the non-thermal X-ray emission transitions
smoothly from the prompt phase into a decaying phase whatever the details of
the light curve. The decay is often categorized by a steep-to-shallow
transition suggesting that the prompt emission and the afterglow are two
distinct emission components. In those GRBs with an initially steeply-decaying
X-ray light curve we are probably seeing off-axis emission due to termination
of intense central engine activity. This phase is usually followed, within the
first hour, by a shallow decay, giving the appearance of a late emission hump.
The late emission hump can last for up to a day, and hence, although faint, is
energetically very significant. The energy emitted during the late emission
hump is very likely due to the forward shock being constantly refreshed by
either late central engine activity or less relativistic material emitted
during the prompt phase. In other GRBs the early X-ray emission decays
gradually following the prompt emission with no evidence for early temporal
breaks, and in these bursts the emission may be dominated by classical
afterglow emission from the external shock as the relativistic jet is slowed by
interaction with the surrounding circum-burst medium. At least half of the GRBs
observed by Swift also show erratic X-ray flaring behaviour, usually within the
first few hours. The properties of the X-ray flares suggest that they are due
to central engine activity. Overall, the observed wide variety of early
high-energy phenomena pose a major challenge to GRB models.Comment: Accepted for publication in the New Journal of Physics focus issue on
Gamma Ray Burst
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