1,830 research outputs found
Soft-pulse dynamical decoupling in a cavity
Dynamical decoupling is a coherent control technique where the intrinsic and
extrinsic couplings of a quantum system are effectively averaged out by
application of specially designed driving fields (refocusing pulse sequences).
This entails pumping energy into the system, which can be especially dangerous
when it has sharp spectral features like a cavity mode close to resonance. In
this work we show that such an effect can be avoided with properly constructed
refocusing sequences. To this end we construct the average Hamiltonian
expansion for the system evolution operator associated with a single ``soft''
pi-pulse. To second order in the pulse duration, we characterize a symmetric
pulse shape by three parameters, two of which can be turned to zero by shaping.
We express the effective Hamiltonians for several pulse sequences in terms of
these parameters, and use the results to analyze the structure of error
operators for controlled Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. When errors are cancelled
to second order, numerical simulations show excellent qubit fidelity with
strongly-suppressed oscillator heating.Comment: 9pages, 5eps figure
Fidelity decay in interacting two-level boson systems: Freezing and revivals
We study the fidelity decay in the -body embedded ensembles of random
matrices for bosons distributed in two single-particle states, considering the
reference or unperturbed Hamiltonian as the one-body terms and the diagonal
part of the -body embedded ensemble of random matrices, and the perturbation
as the residual off-diagonal part of the interaction. We calculate the
ensemble-averaged fidelity with respect to an initial random state within
linear response theory to second order on the perturbation strength, and
demonstrate that it displays the freeze of the fidelity. During the freeze, the
average fidelity exhibits periodic revivals at integer values of the Heisenberg
time . By selecting specific -body terms of the residual interaction,
we find that the periodicity of the revivals during the freeze of fidelity is
an integer fraction of , thus relating the period of the revivals with the
range of the interaction of the perturbing terms. Numerical calculations
confirm the analytical results
Chromatic numbers of exact distance graphs
For any graph G = (V;E) and positive integer p, the exact distance-p graph G[\p] is the graph with vertex set V , which has an edge between vertices x and y if and only if x and y have distance p in G. For odd p, Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez proved that for any fixed graph class with bounded expansion, the chromatic number of G[\p] is bounded by an absolute constant. Using the notion of generalised colouring numbers, we give a much simpler proof for the result of Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez, which at the same time gives significantly better bounds. In particular, we show that for any graph G and odd positive integer p, the chromatic number of G[\p] is bounded by the weak (2
Neutron Transfer reactions induced by 8Li on 9Be
Angular distributions for the elastic scattering of 8Li on 9Be and the
neutron transfer reactions 9Be(8Li,7Li)10Be and 9Be(8Li,9Li)8Be have been
measured with a 27 MeV 8Li radioactive nuclear beam. Spectroscopic factors for
8Li|n=9Li and 7Li|n=8Li bound systems were obtained from the comparison between
the experimental differential cross section and finite-range DWBA calculations
with the code FRESCO. The spectroscopic factors obtained are compared to shell
model calculations and to other experimental values from (d,p) reactions. Using
the present values for the spectroscopic factor, cross sections for the direct
neutron-capture reactions 7Li(n,g)8Li and 8Li(n,g)9Li were calculated in the
framework of a potential model.Comment: 24 pages, 8 Figures, submitted as regular article to PR
Localized Orbital Excitation Drives Bond Formation in Plasmonic Catalysis
Localized surface plasmons generated on metallic nanostructures can be used to accelerate molecular transformations; however, the efficiency is limited by the challenge to control the energy/charge transfer at the interfaces. Here, we combine density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiments to reveal the mechanism of nitrophenol reduction on Au nanoparticles under visible-light irradiation and propose a strategy to further enhance the reaction rates. DFT calculations show a reduced activation barrier under electronic excitation on Au(111), thus explaining the measured higher rates under visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, we propose a heterostructure with Au nanoparticles covered by a thin film of hexagonal boron nitride; the latter is used to decouple the molecular orbitals from the metal to enable charge localization in the molecule. DFT calculations show that by this electronic decoupling, the activation barrier can be lowered by a factor of five. This work thus provides a valuable strategy for optimizing catalytic efficiency in plasmonic photocatalysis.Peer reviewe
The computational influence of neurogenesis in the processing of spatial information in the dentate gyrus
This study was designed to analyze the effect of hippocampal neurogenesis on the spatial maps of granule cells. Accordingly, we developed and improved an artificial neural network that was originally proposed by Aimone. Many biological processes were included in this revised model to improve the biological relevance of the results. We proposed a novel learning-testing protocol to analyze the activation of encoding place cells across contexts and over time in the dentate gyrus. We observed that, regardless of the presence of neurogenesis, the quantity and morphology of the place fields were represented in the same manner by granule cells. Additionally, we observed that neurogenesis was an effective mechanism for reducing the degree of rate remapping that occurred in the place fields of the granule cells.Fil: Cuneo, Javier I.. Hospital Italiano. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Quiroz, Nicolas H.. Hospital Italiano. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Weisz, Victoria I.. Hospital Italiano. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Argibay, Pablo. Hospital Italiano. Instituto Universitario. Escuela de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentin
Lineage A betacoronavirus NS2 proteins and the homologous torovirus Berne pp1a carboxy-terminal domain are phosphodiesterases that antagonize activation of RNase L
Viruses in the family Coronaviridae, within the order Nidovirales, are etiologic agents of a range of human and animal diseases, including both mild and severe respiratory diseases in humans. These viruses encode conserved replicase and structural proteins as well as more diverse accessory proteins, encoded in the 3′ ends of their genomes, that often act as host cell antagonists. We previously showed that 2′,5′-phosphodiesterases (2′,5′-PDEs) encoded by the prototypical Betacoronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), and by Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus antagonize the oligoadenylate-RNase L (OAS-RNase L) pathway. Here we report that additional coronavirus superfamily members, including lineage A betacoronaviruses and toroviruses infecting both humans and animals, encode 2′,5′-PDEs capable of antagonizing RNase L. We used a chimeric MHV system (MHV(Mut)) in which exogenous PDEs were expressed from an MHV backbone lacking the gene for a functional NS2 protein, the endogenous RNase L antagonist. With this system, we found that 2′,5′-PDEs encoded by the human coronavirus HCoV-OC43 (OC43; an agent of the common cold), human enteric coronavirus (HECoV), equine coronavirus (ECoV), and equine torovirus Berne (BEV) are enzymatically active, rescue replication of MHV(Mut) in bone marrow-derived macrophages, and inhibit RNase L-mediated rRNA degradation in these cells. Additionally, PDEs encoded by OC43 and BEV rescue MHV(Mut) replication and restore pathogenesis in wild-type (WT) B6 mice. This finding expands the range of viruses known to encode antagonists of the potent OAS-RNase L antiviral pathway, highlighting its importance in a range of species as well as the selective pressures exerted on viruses to antagonize it. IMPORTANCE Viruses in the family Coronaviridae include important human and animal pathogens, including the recently emerged viruses severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (MERS-CoV). We showed previously that two viruses within the genus Betacoronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and MERS-CoV, encode 2′,5′-phosphodiesterases (2′,5′-PDEs) that antagonize the OAS-RNase L pathway, and we report here that these proteins are furthermore conserved among additional coronavirus superfamily members, including lineage A betacoronaviruses and toroviruses, suggesting that they may play critical roles in pathogenesis. As there are no licensed vaccines or effective antivirals against human coronaviruses and few against those infecting animals, identifying viral proteins contributing to virulence can inform therapeutic development. Thus, this work demonstrates that a potent antagonist of host antiviral defenses is encoded by multiple and diverse viruses within the family Coronaviridae, presenting a possible broad-spectrum therapeutic target
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