Quantum Dynamics of the Driven and Dissipative Rabi Model

The Rabi model considers a two-level system (or spin-1/2) coupled to a quantized harmonic oscillator and describes the simplest interaction between matter and light. The recent experimental progress in solid-state circuit quantum electrodynamics has engendered theoretical efforts to quantitatively describe the mathematical and physical aspects of the light-matter interaction beyond the rotating wave approximation. We develop a stochastic Schr\"{o}dinger equation approach which enables us to access the strong-coupling limit of the Rabi model and study the effects of dissipation, and AC drive in an exact manner. We include the effect of ohmic noise on the non-Markovian spin dynamics resulting in Kondo-type correlations, as well as cavity losses. We compute the time evolution of spin variables in various conditions. As a consideration for future work, we discuss the possibility to reach a steady state with one polariton in realistic experimental conditions.Comment: 13 pages, final versio

Optimal projection of observations in a Bayesian setting

Optimal dimensionality reduction methods are proposed for the Bayesian inference of a Gaussian linear model with additive noise in presence of overabundant data. Three different optimal projections of the observations are proposed based on information theory: the projection that minimizes the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the posterior distributions of the original and the projected models, the one that minimizes the expected Kullback-Leibler divergence between the same distributions, and the one that maximizes the mutual information between the parameter of interest and the projected observations. The first two optimization problems are formulated as the determination of an optimal subspace and therefore the solution is computed using Riemannian optimization algorithms on the Grassmann manifold. Regarding the maximization of the mutual information, it is shown that there exists an optimal subspace that minimizes the entropy of the posterior distribution of the reduced model; a basis of the subspace can be computed as the solution to a generalized eigenvalue problem; an a priori error estimate on the mutual information is available for this particular solution; and that the dimensionality of the subspace to exactly conserve the mutual information between the input and the output of the models is less than the number of parameters to be inferred. Numerical applications to linear and nonlinear models are used to assess the efficiency of the proposed approaches, and to highlight their advantages compared to standard approaches based on the principal component analysis of the observations

Existence of nodal solutions for Dirac equations with singular nonlinearities

We prove, by a shooting method, the existence of infinitely many solutions of the form $\psi(x^0,x) = e^{-i\Omega x^0}\chi(x)$ of the nonlinear Dirac equation {equation*} i\underset{\mu=0}{\overset{3}{\sum}} \gamma^\mu \partial_\mu \psi- m\psi - F(\bar{\psi}\psi)\psi = 0 {equation*} where $\Omega>m>0,$ $\chi$ is compactly supported and \[F(x) = \{{array}{ll} p|x|^{p-1} & \text{if} |x|>0 0 & \text{if} x=0 {array}.] with $p\in(0,1),$ under some restrictions on the parameters $p$ and $\Omega.$ We study also the behavior of the solutions as $p$ tends to zero to establish the link between these equations and the M.I.T. bag model ones

Renormalization Group Improved Optimized Perturbation Theory: Revisiting the Mass Gap of the O(2N) Gross-Neveu Model

We introduce an extension of a variationally optimized perturbation method, by combining it with renormalization group properties in a straightforward (perturbative) form. This leads to a very transparent and efficient procedure, with a clear improvement of the non-perturbative results with respect to previous similar variational approaches. This is illustrated here by deriving optimized results for the mass gap of the O(2N) Gross-Neveu model, compared with the exactly know results for arbitrary N. At large N, the exact result is reproduced already at the very first order of the modified perturbation using this procedure. For arbitrary values of N, using the original perturbative information only known at two-loop order, we obtain a controllable percent accuracy or less, for any N value, as compared with the exactly known result for the mass gap from the thermodynamical Bethe Ansatz. The procedure is very general and can be extended straightforwardly to any renormalizable Lagrangian model, being systematically improvable provided that a knowledge of enough perturbative orders of the relevant quantities is available.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, v2: Eq. (4.5) corrected, comments adde

Discovery of the Widest Very Low Mass Binary

We report the discovery of a very low mass binary system (primary mass <0.1 Msol) with a projected separation of ~5100 AU, more than twice that of the widest previously known system. A spectrum covering the 1-2.5 microns wavelength interval at R ~1700 is presented for each component. Analysis of the spectra indicates spectral types of M6.5V and M8V, and the photometric distance of the system is ~62 pc. Given that previous studies have established that no more than 1% of very low mass binary systems have orbits larger than 20 AU, the existence of such a wide system has a bearing on very low mass star formation and evolution models.Comment: accepted ApJL, 4 page

Quadproj: a Python package for projecting onto quadratic hypersurfaces

Quadratic hypersurfaces are a natural generalization of affine subspaces, and projections are elementary blocks of algorithms in optimization and machine learning. It is therefore intriguing that no proper studies and tools have been developed to tackle this nonconvex optimization problem. The quadproj package is a user-friendly and documented software that is dedicated to project a point onto a non-cylindrical central quadratic hypersurface

Nonequilibrium phase transition in a driven Potts model with friction

We consider magnetic friction between two systems of $q$-state Potts spins which are moving along their boundaries with a relative constant velocity $v$. Due to the interaction between the surface spins there is a permanent energy flow and the system is in a steady state which is far from equilibrium. The problem is treated analytically in the limit $v=\infty$ (in one dimension, as well as in two dimensions for large-$q$ values) and for $v$ and $q$ finite by Monte Carlo simulations in two dimensions. Exotic nonequilibrium phase transitions take place, the properties of which depend on the type of phase transition in equilibrium. When this latter transition is of first order, a sequence of second- and first-order nonequilibrium transitions can be observed when the interaction is varied.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, one journal reference adde

Attractive and repulsive cracks in a heterogeneous material

We study experimentally the paths of an assembly of cracks growing in interaction in a heterogeneous two-dimensional elastic brittle material submitted to uniaxial stress. For a given initial crack assembly geometry, we observe two types of crack path. The first one corresponds to a repulsion followed by an attraction on one end of the crack and a tip to tip attraction on the other end. The second one corresponds to a pure attraction. Only one of the crack path type is observed in a given sample. Thus, selection between the two types appears as a statistical collective process.Comment: soumis \`a JSTA