4,978 research outputs found
Mesoscopic interference
We analyze a double-slit experiment when the interfering particle is
"mesoscopic" and one endeavors to obtain Welcher Weg information by shining
light on it. We derive a compact expression for the visibility of the
interference pattern: coherence depends on both the spatial and temporal
features of the wave function during its travel to the screen. We set a bound
on the temperature of the mesoscopic particle in order that its quantum
mechanical coherence be maintained.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure
Wigner function and coherence properties of cold and thermal neutrons
We analyze the coherence properties of a cold or a thermal neutron by
utilizing the Wigner quasidistribution function. We look in particular at a
recent experiment performed by Badurek {\em et al.}, in which a polarized
neutron crosses a magnetic field that is orthogonal to its spin, producing
highly non-classical states. The quantal coherence is extremely sensitive to
the field fluctuation at high neutron momenta. A "decoherence parameter" is
introduced in order to get quantitative estimates of the losses of coherence.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the Sixth Central-European
Workshop on Quantum Optics, Chudobin near Olomouc, Czech Republic, April-May
199
Decoherence vs entropy in neutron interferometry
We analyze the coherence properties of polarized neutrons, after they have
interacted with a magnetic field or a phase shifter undergoing different kinds
of statistical fluctuations. We endeavor to probe the degree of disorder of the
distribution of the phase shifts by means of the loss of quantum mechanical
coherence of the neutron. We find that the notion of entropy of the shifts and
that of decoherence of the neutron do not necessarily agree. In some cases the
neutron wave function is more coherent, even though it has interacted with a
more disordered medium.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Integer Point Sets Minimizing Average Pairwise L1-Distance: What is the Optimal Shape of a Town?
An n-town, for a natural number n, is a group of n buildings, each occupying
a distinct position on a 2-dimensional integer grid. If we measure the distance
between two buildings along the axis-parallel street grid, then an n-town has
optimal shape if the sum of all pairwise Manhattan distances is minimized. This
problem has been studied for cities, i.e., the limiting case of very large n.
For cities, it is known that the optimal shape can be described by a
differential equation, for which no closed-form is known. We show that optimal
n-towns can be computed in O(n^7.5) time. This is also practically useful, as
it allows us to compute optimal solutions up to n=80.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Computational Geometry: Theory and
Application
Game-like 3D visualisation of air quality data
The data produced by sensor networks for urban air quality monitoring is becoming a valuable asset for informed health-aware human activity planning. However, in order to properly explore and exploit these data, citizens need intuitive and effective ways of interacting with it. This paper presents CityOnStats, a visualisation tool developed to provide users, mainly adults and young adults, with a game-like 3D environment populated with air quality sensing data, as an alternative to the traditionally passive visualisation techniques. CityOnStats provides several visual cues of pollution presence with the purpose of meeting each user’s preferences. Usability tests with a sample of 30 participants have shown the value of air quality 3D game-based visualisation and have provided empirical support for which visual cues are most adequate for the task at hand.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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