413 research outputs found
Gene phylogenies and protein–protein interactions: possible artifacts resulting from shared protein interaction partners
The study of gene families critically depends on the correct reconstruction of gene genealogies, as for instance in the case of transcription factor genes like Hox genes and Dlx gene families. Proteins belonging to the same family are likely to share some of the same protein interaction partners and may thus face a similar selective environment. This common selective environment can induce co-evolutionary pressures and thus can give rise to correlated rates and patterns of evolution among members of a gene family. In this study, we simulate the evolution of a family of sequences which share a set of interaction partners. Depending on the amount of sequence dedicated to protein–protein interaction and the relative rate parameters of sequence evolution three outcomes are possible: if the fraction of the sequence dedicated to interaction with common co-factors is low and the time since divergence is small, the trees based on sequence information tend to be correct. If the time since gene duplication is long two possible outcomes are observed in our simulations. If the rate of evolution of the interaction partner is small compared to the rate of evolution of the focal protein family, the reconstructed trees tend towards star phylogenies. As the rate of evolution of the interaction partner approaches that of the focal protein family the reconstructed phylogenies tend to be incorrectly resolved. We conclude that the genealogies of gene families can be hard to estimate, in particular if the proteins interact with a conserved set of binding partners, as is likely the case for transcription factors
Excitable Scale Free Networks
When a simple excitable system is continuously stimulated by a Poissonian
external source, the response function (mean activity versus stimulus rate)
generally shows a linear saturating shape. This is experimentally verified in
some classes of sensory neurons, which accordingly present a small dynamic
range (defined as the interval of stimulus intensity which can be appropriately
coded by the mean activity of the excitable element), usually about one or two
decades only. The brain, on the other hand, can handle a significantly broader
range of stimulus intensity, and a collective phenomenon involving the
interaction among excitable neurons has been suggested to account for the
enhancement of the dynamic range. Since the role of the pattern of such
interactions is still unclear, here we investigate the performance of a
scale-free (SF) network topology in this dynamic range problem. Specifically,
we study the transfer function of disordered SF networks of excitable
Greenberg-Hastings cellular automata. We observe that the dynamic range is
maximum when the coupling among the elements is critical, corroborating a
general reasoning recently proposed. Although the maximum dynamic range yielded
by general SF networks is slightly worse than that of random networks, for
special SF networks which lack loops the enhancement of the dynamic range can
be dramatic, reaching nearly five decades. In order to understand the role of
loops on the transfer function we propose a simple model in which the density
of loops in the network can be gradually increased, and show that this is
accompanied by a gradual decrease of dynamic range.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Creation of NOON states by double Fock-state/Bose-Einstein condensates
NOON states (states of the form where and
are single particle states) have been used for predicting violations of
hidden-variable theories (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger violations) and are
valuable in metrology for precision measurements of phase at the Heisenberg
limit. We show theoretically how the use of two Fock state/Bose-Einstein
condensates as sources in a modified Mach Zender interferometer can lead to the
creation of the NOON state in which and refer to arms of the
interferometer and is the total number of particles in the two condensates.
The modification of the interferometer involves making conditional ``side''
measurements of a few particles near the sources. These measurements put the
remaining particles in a superposition of two phase states, which are converted
into NOON states by a beam splitter. The result is equivalent to the quantum
experiment in which a large molecule passes through two slits. The NOON states
are combined in a final beam splitter and show interference. Attempts to detect
through which ``slit'' the condensates passed destroys the interference.Comment: 8 pages 5 figure
Novel Collective Effects in Integrated Photonics
Superradiance, the enhanced collective emission of energy from a coherent
ensemble of quantum systems, has been typically studied in atomic ensembles. In
this work we study theoretically the enhanced emission of energy from coherent
ensembles of harmonic oscillators. We show that it should be possible to
observe harmonic oscillator superradiance for the first time in waveguide
arrays in integrated photonics. Furthermore, we describe how pairwise
correlations within the ensemble can be measured with this architecture. These
pairwise correlations are an integral part of the phenomenon of superradiance
and have never been observed in experiments to date.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Schroedinger cat-like states by conditional measurements on a beam-splitter
A scheme for generating Schr\"{o}dinger cat-like states of a single-mode
optical field by means of conditional measurement is proposed. Feeding into a
beam splitter a squeezed vacuum and counting the photons in one of the output
channels, the conditional states in the other output channel exhibit a number
of properties that are very similar to those of superpositions of two coherent
states with opposite phases. We present analytical and numerical results for
the photon-number and quadrature-component distributions of the conditional
states and their Wigner and Husimi functions. Further, we discuss the effect of
realistic photocounting on the states.Comment: 6 figures(divided in subfigures) using a4.st
Removal of a single photon by adaptive absorption
We present a method to remove, using only linear optics, exactly one photon
from a field-mode. This is achieved by putting the system in contact with an
absorbing environment which is under continuous monitoring. A feedback
mechanism then decouples the system from the environment as soon as the first
photon is absorbed. We propose a possible scheme to implement this process and
provide the theoretical tools to describe it
On quantum teleportation with beam-splitter-generated entanglement
Following the lead of Cochrane, Milburn, and Munro [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 62},
062307 (2000)], we investigate theoretically quantum teleportation by means of
the number-sum and phase-difference variables. We study Fock-state entanglement
generated by a beam splitter and show that two-mode Fock-state inputs can be
entangled by a beam splitter into close approximations of maximally entangled
eigenstates of the phase difference and the photon-number sum
(Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen -- EPR -- states). Such states could be experimentally
feasible with on-demand single-photon sources. We show that the teleportation
fidelity can reach near unity when such ``quasi-EPR'' states are used as the
quantum channel.Comment: 7 pages (two-column), 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A. Text
unmodified, postscript error correcte
Mean field effects on the scattered atoms in condensate collisions
We consider the collision of two Bose Einstein condensates at supersonic
velocities and focus on the halo of scattered atoms. This halo is the most
important feature for experiments and is also an excellent testing ground for
various theoretical approaches. In particular we find that the typical reduced
Bogoliubov description, commonly used, is often not accurate in the region of
parameters where experiments are performed. Surprisingly, besides the halo pair
creation terms, one should take into account the evolving mean field of the
remaining condensate and on-condensate pair creation. We present examples where
the difference is clearly seen, and where the reduced description still holds.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Producing the event ready two photon polarization EPR state with linear optics devices
We propose a scheme to produce the maximally two photon polarization
entangled state(EPR state) with single photon sources and the linear optics
devices. In particular, our scheme requires the photon detectors only to
distinguish the vacuum and non-vacuum Fock number states. A sophisticated
photon detector distinguishing one or two photon states is unnecessary.Comment: Published in Phys. Rev. A alread
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