1,026 research outputs found
Coherent Time Evolution and Boundary Conditions of Two-Photon Quantum Walks
Multi-photon quantum walks in integrated optics are an attractive controlled
quantum system, that can mimic less readily accessible quantum systems and
exhibit behavior that cannot in general be accurately replicated by classical
light without an exponential overhead in resources. The ability to observe time
evolution of such systems is important for characterising multi-particle
quantum dynamics---notably this includes the effects of boundary conditions for
walks in spaces of finite size. Here we demonstrate the coherent evolution of
quantum walks of two indistinguishable photons using planar arrays of 21
evanescently coupled waveguides fabricated in silicon oxynitride technology. We
compare three time evolutions, that follow closely a model assuming unitary
evolution, corresponding to three different lengths of the array---in each case
we observe quantum interference features that violate classical predictions.
The longest array includes reflecting boundary conditions.Comment: 7 pages,7 figure
The nonrelativistic limit of the Majorana equation and its simulation in trapped ions
We analyze the Majorana equation in the limit where the particle is at rest.
We show that several counterintuitive features, absent in the rest limit of the
Dirac equation, do appear. Among them, Dirac-like positive energy solutions
that turn into negative energy ones by free evolution, or nonstandard
oscillations and interference between real and imaginary spinor components for
complex solutions. We also study the ultrarelativistic limit, showing that the
Majorana and Dirac equations mutually converge. Furthermore, we propose a
physical implementation in trapped ions.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Proceedings of 18th Central European Workshop on
Quantum Optics (CEWQO 2011), Madrid, Spai
Quantum walks of correlated particles
Quantum walks of correlated particles offer the possibility to study
large-scale quantum interference, simulate biological, chemical and physical
systems, and a route to universal quantum computation. Here we demonstrate
quantum walks of two identical photons in an array of 21 continuously
evanescently-coupled waveguides in a SiOxNy chip. We observe quantum
correlations, violating a classical limit by 76 standard deviations, and find
that they depend critically on the input state of the quantum walk. These
results open the way to a powerful approach to quantum walks using correlated
particles to encode information in an exponentially larger state space
A novel background reduction strategy for high level triggers and processing in gamma-ray Cherenkov detectors
Gamma ray astronomy is now at the leading edge for studies related both to
fundamental physics and astrophysics. The sensitivity of gamma detectors is
limited by the huge amount of background, constituted by hadronic cosmic rays
(typically two to three orders of magnitude more than the signal) and by the
accidental background in the detectors. By using the information on the
temporal evolution of the Cherenkov light, the background can be reduced. We
will present here the results obtained within the MAGIC experiment using a new
technique for the reduction of the background. Particle showers produced by
gamma rays show a different temporal distribution with respect to showers
produced by hadrons; the background due to accidental counts shows no
dependence on time. Such novel strategy can increase the sensitivity of present
instruments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proc. of the 9th Int. Syposium "Frontiers of
Fundamental and Computational Physics" (FFP9), (AIP, Melville, New York,
2008, in press
High-quality polarization entanglement state preparation and manipulation in standard telecommunication channels
We report a novel and simple approach for generating near-perfect quality
polarization entanglement in a fully guided-wave fashion. Both deterministic
pair separation into two adjacent telecommunication channels and the paired
photons' temporal walk-off compensation are achieved using standard fiber
components. Two-photon interference experiments are performed, both for
quantitatively demonstrating the relevance of our approach, and for
manipulating the produced state between bosonic and fermionic symmetries. The
compactness, versatility, and reliability of this configuration makes it a
potential candidate for quantum communication applications.Comment: 6 figure
Quantum walk on distinguishable non-interacting many-particles and indistinguishable two-particle
We present an investigation of many-particle quantum walks in systems of
non-interacting distinguishable particles. Along with a redistribution of the
many-particle density profile we show that the collective evolution of the
many-particle system resembles the single-particle quantum walk evolution when
the number of steps is greater than the number of particles in the system. For
non-uniform initial states we show that the quantum walks can be effectively
used to separate the basis states of the particle in position space and
grouping like state together. We also discuss a two-particle quantum walk on a
two- dimensional lattice and demonstrate an evolution leading to the
localization of both particles at the center of the lattice. Finally we discuss
the outcome of a quantum walk of two indistinguishable particles interacting at
some point during the evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, To appear in special issue: "quantum walks" to be
published in Quantum Information Processin
Integrated Photonic Sensing
Loss is a critical roadblock to achieving photonic quantum-enhanced
technologies. We explore a modular platform for implementing integrated
photonics experiments and consider the effects of loss at different stages of
these experiments, including state preparation, manipulation and measurement.
We frame our discussion mainly in the context of quantum sensing and focus
particularly on the use of loss-tolerant Holland-Burnett states for optical
phase estimation. In particular, we discuss spontaneous four-wave mixing in
standard birefringent fibre as a source of pure, heralded single photons and
present methods of optimising such sources. We also outline a route to
programmable circuits which allow the control of photonic interactions even in
the presence of fabrication imperfections and describe a ratiometric
characterisation method for beam splitters which allows the characterisation of
complex circuits without the need for full process tomography. Finally, we
present a framework for performing state tomography on heralded states using
lossy measurement devices. This is motivated by a calculation of the effects of
fabrication imperfections on precision measurement using Holland-Burnett
states.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
Constraints on the steady and pulsed very high energy gamma-ray emission from observations of PSR B1951+32/CTB 80 with the MAGIC Telescope
We report on very high energy gamma-observations with the MAGIC Telescope of
the pulsar PSR B1951+32 and its associated nebula, CTB 80. Our data constrain
the cutoff energy of the pulsar to be less than 32 GeV, assuming the pulsed
gamma-ray emission to be exponentially cut off. The upper limit on the flux of
pulsed gamma-ray emission above 75 GeV is 4.3*10^-11 photons cm^-2 sec^-1, and
the upper limit on the flux of steady emission above 140 GeV is 1.5*10^-11
photons cm^-2 sec^-1. We discuss our results in the framework of recent model
predictions and other studies.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, replaced with published versio
Medical image colorization for better visualization and segmentation
Medical images contain precious anatomical information for clinical procedures. Improved understanding of medical modality may contribute significantly in arena of medical image analysis. This paper investigates enhancement of monochromatic medical modality into colorized images. Improving the contrast of anatomical structures facilitates precise segmentation. The proposed framework starts with pre-processing to remove noise and improve edge information. Then colour information is embedded to each pixel of a subject image. A resulting image has a potential to portray better anatomical information than a conventional monochromatic image. To evaluate the performance of colorized medical modality, the structural similarity index and the peak signal to noise ratio are computed. Supremacy of proposed colorization is validated by segmentation experiments and compared with greyscale monochromatic images
Systematic search for VHE gamma-ray emission from X-ray bright high-frequency BL Lac objects
All but three (M87, BL Lac and 3C 279) extragalactic sources detected so far
at very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays belong to the class of high-frequency
peaked BL Lac (HBL) objects. This suggested to us a systematic scan of
candidate sources with the MAGIC telescope, based on the compilation of X-ray
blazars by Donato et al. (2001). The observations took place from December 2004
to March 2006 and cover sources on the northern sky visible under small zenith
distances zd < 30 degrees at culmination. The sensitivity of the search was
planned for detecting X-ray bright F(1 keV) > 2 uJy) sources emitting at least
the same energy flux at 200 GeV as at 1 keV. In order to avoid strong gamma-ray
attenuation close to the energy threshold, the redshift of the sources was
constrained to values z<0.3. Of the fourteen sources observed, 1ES 1218+304 and
1ES 2344+514 have been detected in addition to the known bright TeV blazars Mrk
421 and Mrk 501. A marginal excess of 3.5 sigma from the position of 1ES
1011+496 was observed and has been confirmed as a source of VHE gamma-rays by a
second MAGIC observation triggered by a high optical state (Albert et al.
2007). For the remaining sources, we present here the 99% confidence level
upper limits on the integral flux above ~200 GeV. We characterize the sample of
HBLs (including all HBLs detected at VHE so far) by looking for correlations
between their multi-frequency spectral indices determined from simultaneous
optical, archival X-ray, and radio luminosities, finding that the VHE emitting
HBLs do not seem to constitute a unique subclass. The absorption corrected
gamma-ray luminosities at 200 GeV of the HBLs are generally not higher than
their X-ray luminosities at 1 keV.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJ (revised version
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