Impossibility of distant indirect measurement of the quantum Zeno effect

We critically study the possibility of quantum Zeno effect for indirect measurements. If the detector is prepared to detect the emitted signal from the core system, and the detector does not reflect the signal back to the core system, then we can prove the decay probability of the system is not changed by the continuous measurement of the signal and the quantum Zeno effect never takes place. This argument also applies to the quantum Zeno effect for accelerated two-level systems, unstable particle decay, etc.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Chemical approaches to carbon dioxide utilization for manned Mars missions

Use of resources available in situ is a critical enabling technology for a permanent human presence in space. A permanent presence on Mars, e.g., requires a large infrastructure to sustain life under hostile conditions. As a resource on Mars, atmospheric CO2 is as follows: abundant; available at all points on the surface; of known presence; chemically simple; and can be obtained by simple compression. Many studies focus on obtaining O2 and the various uses for O2 including life support and fuel; discussion of CO, the coproduct from CO2 fixation revolves around its uses as a fuel, being oxidized back to CO2. Several new proposals are studied for CO2 fixation through chemical, photochemical, and photoelectrochemical means. For example, the reduction of CO2 to hydrocarbons such as acetylene (C2H2) can be accomplished with H2. C2H2 has a theoretical vacuum specific impulse of approx. 375 secs. Potential uses were also studied of CO2, as obtained or further reduced to carbon, as a reducing agent in metal oxide processing to form metals or metal carbides for use as structural or power materials; the CO2 can be recycled to generate O2 and CO

Semiclassical limit of the entanglement in closed pure systems

We discuss the semiclassical limit of the entanglement for the class of closed pure systems. By means of analytical and numerical calculations we obtain two main results: (i) the short-time entanglement does not depend on Planck's constant and (ii) the long-time entanglement increases as more semiclassical regimes are attained. On one hand, this result is in contrast with the idea that the entanglement should be destroyed when the macroscopic limit is reached. On the other hand, it emphasizes the role played by decoherence in the process of emergence of the classical world. We also found that, for Gaussian initial states, the entanglement dynamics may be described by an entirely classical entropy in the semiclassical limit.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures (accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

Geometric phases and quantum phase transitions

Quantum phase transition is one of the main interests in the field of condensed matter physics, while geometric phase is a fundamental concept and has attracted considerable interest in the field of quantum mechanics. However, no relevant relation was recognized before recent work. In this paper, we present a review of the connection recently established between these two interesting fields: investigations in the geometric phase of the many-body systems have revealed so-called "criticality of geometric phase", in which geometric phase associated with the many-body ground state exhibits universality, or scaling behavior in the vicinity of the critical point. In addition, we address the recent advances on the connection of some other geometric quantities and quantum phase transitions. The closed relation recently recognized between quantum phase transitions and some of geometric quantities may open attractive avenues and fruitful dialog between different scientific communities.Comment: Invited review article for IJMPB; material covered till June 2007; 10 page

Thermodynamic Limit and Decoherence: Rigorous Results

Time evolution operator in quantum mechanics can be changed into a statistical operator by a Wick rotation. This strict relation between statistical mechanics and quantum evolution can reveal deep results when the thermodynamic limit is considered. These results translate in a set of theorems proving that these effects can be effectively at work producing an emerging classical world without recurring to any external entity that in some cases cannot be properly defined. In a many-body system has been recently shown that Gaussian decay of the coherence is the rule with a duration of recurrence more and more small as the number of particles increases. This effect has been observed experimentally. More generally, a theorem about coherence of bulk matter can be proved. All this takes us to the conclusion that a well definite boundary for the quantum to classical world does exist and that can be drawn by the thermodynamic limit, extending in this way the deep link between statistical mechanics and quantum evolution to a high degree.Comment: 5 pages, no figures. Contribution to proceedings of DICE 2006 (Piombino, Italy, September 11-15, 2006

First-order super-radiant phase transitions in a multi-qubit--cavity system

We predict the existence of novel first-order phase transitions in a general class of multi-qubit-cavity systems. Apart from atomic systems, the associated super-radiant phase transition should be observable in a variety of solid-state experimental systems, including the technologically important case of interacting quantum dots coupled to an optical cavity mode.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Quantum control without access to the controlling interaction

In our model a fixed Hamiltonian acts on the joint Hilbert space of a quantum system and its controller. We show under which conditions measurements, state preparations, and unitary implementations on the system can be performed by quantum operations on the controller only. It turns out that a measurement of the observable A and an implementation of the one-parameter group exp(iAr) can be performed by almost the same sequence of control operations. Furthermore measurement procedures for A+B, for (AB+BA), and for i[A,B] can be constructed from measurements of A and B. This shows that the algebraic structure of the set of observables can be explained by the Lie group structure of the unitary evolutions on the joint Hilbert space of the measuring device and the measured system. A spin chain model with nearest neighborhood coupling shows that the border line between controller and system can be shifted consistently.Comment: 10 pages, Revte

The stochastic limit in the analysis of the open BCS model

In this paper we show how the perturbative procedure known as {\em stochastic limit} may be useful in the analysis of the Open BCS model discussed by Buffet and Martin as a spin system interacting with a fermionic reservoir. In particular we show how the same values of the critical temperature and of the order parameters can be found with a significantly simpler approach

Curie-Weiss model of the quantum measurement process

A hamiltonian model is solved, which satisfies all requirements for a realistic ideal quantum measurement. The system S is a spin-\half, whose $z$-component is measured through coupling with an apparatus A=M+B, consisting of a magnet \RM formed by a set of $N\gg 1$ spins with quartic infinite-range Ising interactions, and a phonon bath \RB at temperature $T$. Initially A is in a metastable paramagnetic phase. The process involves several time-scales. Without being much affected, A first acts on S, whose state collapses in a very brief time. The mechanism differs from the usual decoherence. Soon after its irreversibility is achieved. Finally the field induced by S on M, which may take two opposite values with probabilities given by Born's rule, drives A into its up or down ferromagnetic phase. The overall final state involves the expected correlations between the result registered in M and the state of S. The measurement is thus accounted for by standard quantum statistical mechanics and its specific features arise from the macroscopic size of the apparatus.Comment: 5 pages Revte

Decay of Loschmidt Echo Enhanced by Quantum Criticality

We study the transition of a quantum system $S$ from a pure state to a mixed one, which is induced by the quantum criticality of the surrounding system $E$ coupled to it. To characterize this transition quantitatively, we carefully examine the behavior of the Loschmidt echo (LE) of $E$ modelled as an Ising model in a transverse field, which behaves as a measuring apparatus in quantum measurement. It is found that the quantum critical behavior of $E$ strongly affects its capability of enhancing the decay of LE: near the critical value of the transverse field entailing the happening of quantum phase transition, the off-diagonal elements of the reduced density matrix describing $S$ vanish sharply.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure