Advances in optimal routing through computer networks

The optimal routing problem is defined. Progress in solving the problem during the previous decade is reviewed, with special emphasis on technical developments made during the last few years. The relationships between the routing, the throughput, and the switching technology used are discussed and their future trends are reviewed. Economic aspects are also briefly considered. Modern technical approaches for handling the routing problems and, more generally, the flow control problems are reviewed

Geometric phases under the presence of a composite environment

We compute the geometric phase for a spin-1/2 particle under the presence of a composite environment, composed of an external bath (modeled by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators) and another spin-1/2 particle. We consider both cases: an initial entanglement between the spin-1/2 particles and an initial product state in order to see if the initial entanglement has an enhancement effect on the geometric phase of one of the spins. We follow the nonunitary evolution of the reduced density matrix and evaluate the geometric phase for a single two-level system. We also show that the initial entanglement enhances the sturdiness of the geometric phase under the presence of an external composite environment.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Proposal for a Precision Measurement of |Vub|

A new method for a precision measurement of the CKM matrix element |Vub| is discussed, which combines good theoretical control with high efficiency and a powerful discrimination against charm background. The resulting combined theoretical uncertainty on |Vub| is estimated to be 10%.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTe