178 research outputs found
Continuous-variable quantum non-demolishing interaction at a distance
A feasible setup of continuous-variable (CV) quantum non-demolishing (QND)
interaction at a distance is proposed. If two distant experimentalists are able
to locally perform identical QND interactions then the proposed realization
requires only a single quantum channel and classical communication between
them. A possible implementation of the proposed setup in recent quantum optical
laboratories is discussed and an influence of Gaussian noise in the quantum
channel on a quality of the implementation is analyzed. An efficient
realization of the QND interaction at a distance can be a basic step to
possible distributed quantum CV experiments between the distant laboratories.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Pure single photons from a trapped atom source
Single atoms or atom-like emitters are the purest source of on-demand single
photons, they are intrinsically incapable of multi-photon emission. To
demonstrate this degree of purity we have realized a tunable, on-demand source
of single photons using a single ion trapped at the common focus of high
numerical aperture lenses. Our trapped-ion source produces single-photon pulses
at a rate of 200 kHz with g, without any
background subtraction. The corresponding residual background is accounted for
exclusively by detector dark counts. We further characterize the performance of
our source by measuring the violation of a non-Gaussian state witness and show
that its output corresponds to ideal attenuated single photons. Combined with
current efforts to enhance collection efficiency from single emitters, our
results suggest that single trapped ions are not only ideal stationary qubits
for quantum information processing, but promising sources of light for scalable
optical quantum networks.Comment: 7 pages plus one page supplementary materia
Entanglement of coherent states and decoherence
A possibility to produce entangled superpositions of strong coherent states
is discussed. A recent proposal by Howell and Yazell [Phys. Rev. A 62, 012102
(2000)] of a device which entangles two strong coherent coherent states is
critically examined. A serious flaw in their design is found. New modified
scheme is proposed and it is shown that it really can generate non-classical
states that can violate Bell inequality. Moreover, a profound analysis of the
effect of losses and decoherence on the degree of entanglement is accomplished.
It reveals the high sensitivity of the device to any disturbances and the
fragility of generated states
Continuous variable entanglement distillation of Non-Gaussian Mixed States
Many different quantum information communication protocols such as
teleportation, dense coding and entanglement based quantum key distribution are
based on the faithful transmission of entanglement between distant location in
an optical network. The distribution of entanglement in such a network is
however hampered by loss and noise that is inherent in all practical quantum
channels. Thus, to enable faithful transmission one must resort to the protocol
of entanglement distillation. In this paper we present a detailed theoretical
analysis and an experimental realization of continuous variable entanglement
distillation in a channel that is inflicted by different kinds of non-Gaussian
noise. The continuous variable entangled states are generated by exploiting the
third order non-linearity in optical fibers, and the states are sent through a
free-space laboratory channel in which the losses are altered to simulate a
free-space atmospheric channel with varying losses. We use linear optical
components, homodyne measurements and classical communication to distill the
entanglement, and we find that by using this method the entanglement can be
probabilistically increased for some specific non-Gaussian noise channels
Experimental Demonstration of Squeezed State Quantum Averaging
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a universal quantum averaging
process implementing the harmonic mean of quadrature variances. The harmonic
mean protocol can be used to efficiently stabilize a set of fragile squeezed
light sources with statistically fluctuating noise levels. The averaged
variances are prepared probabilistically by means of linear optical
interference and measurement induced conditioning. We verify that the
implemented harmonic mean outperforms the standard arithmetic mean strategy.
The effect of quantum averaging is experimentally tested both for uncorrelated
and partially correlated noise sources with sub-Poissonian shot noise or
super-Poissonian shot noise characteristics.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Real-time Stereo Visual Servoing for Rose Pruning with Robotic Arm
The paper presents a working pipeline which integrates hardware and software in an automated robotic rose cutter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first robot able to prune rose bushes in a natural environment. Unlike similar approaches like tree stem cutting, the proposed method does not require to scan the full plant, have multiple cameras around the bush, or assume that a stem does not move. It relies on a single stereo camera mounted on the end-effector of the robot and real-time visual servoing to navigate to the desired cutting location on the stem. The evaluation of the whole pipeline shows a good performance in a garden with unconstrained conditions, where finding and approaching a specific location on a stem is challenging due to occlusions caused by other stems and dynamic changes caused by the win
Finite time and asymptotic behaviour of the maximal excursion of a random walk
We evaluate the limit distribution of the maximal excursion of a random walk
in any dimension for homogeneous environments and for self-similar supports
under the assumption of spherical symmetry. This distribution is obtained in
closed form and is an approximation of the exact distribution comparable to
that obtained by real space renormalization methods. Then we focus on the early
time behaviour of this quantity. The instantaneous diffusion exponent
exhibits a systematic overshooting of the long time exponent. Exact results are
obtained in one dimension up to third order in . In two dimensions,
on a regular lattice and on the Sierpi\'nski gasket we find numerically that
the analytic scaling holds.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted J. Phys.
Mammalian maxilloturbinal evolution does not reflect thermal biology
The evolution of endothermy in vertebrates is a major research topic in recent decades that has been tackled by a myriad of research disciplines including paleontology, anatomy, physiology, evolutionary and developmental biology. The ability of most mammals to maintain a relatively constant and high body temperature is considered a key adaptation, enabling them to successfully colonize new habitats and harsh environments. It has been proposed that in mammals the anterior nasal cavity, which houses the maxilloturbinal, plays a pivotal role in body temperature maintenance, via a bony system supporting an epithelium involved in heat and moisture conservation. The presence and the relative size of the maxilloturbinal has been proposed to reflect the endothermic conditions and basal metabolic rate in extinct vertebrates. We show that there is no evidence to relate the origin of endothermy and the development of some turbinal bones by using a comprehensive dataset of µCT-derived maxilloturbinals spanning most mammalian orders. Indeed, we demonstrate that neither corrected basal metabolic rate nor body temperature significantly correlate with the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal. Instead, we identify important variations in the relative surface area, morpho-anatomy, and complexity of the maxilloturbinal across the mammalian phylogeny and species ecology
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