264 research outputs found
Femtosecond Time-Bin Entangled Qubits for Quantum Communication
We create pairs of non-degenerate time-bin entangled photons at telecom
wavelengths with ultra-short pump pulses. Entanglement is shown by performing
Bell kind tests of the Franson type with visibilities of up to 91%. As
time-bin entanglement can easily be protected from decoherence as encountered
in optical fibers, this experiment opens the road for complex quantum
communication protocols over long distances. We also investigate the creation
of more than one photon pair in a laser pulse and present a simple tool to
quantify the probability of such events to happen.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Opiophobia in Emergency Department Healthcare Providers: A Survey in Western Switzerland.
Opiophobia contributes to oligoanalgesia in the emergency department (ED), but its definition varies, and its association to healthcare providers' personality traits has been scantly explored. Our purpose was to study the different definitions of opiophobia and their association with two personality traits of doctors and nurses working in EDs, namely the stress from uncertainty and risk-taking. We used three online questionnaires: the 'Attitude Towards Morphine Use' Score (ATMS), the Stress From Uncertainty Scale (SUS) and the Risk-Taking Scale (RTS). Doctors and nurses from nine hospital EDs in francophone Switzerland were invited to participate. The ATMS score was analyzed according to demographic characteristics, SUS, and RTS. The response rate was 56%, with 57% of respondents being nurses and 63% women. Doctors, less experienced and non-indigenous participants had a significantly higher ATMS (all p ≤ 0.01). The main contributors of the ATMS were the fear of side effects and of addiction. In multivariate analysis, being a doctor, less experience and non-indigenous status were predictive of the ATMS; each point of the SUS increased the ATMS by 0.24 point. The fear of side effects and of addiction were the major contributors of opiophobia among ED healthcare providers; opiophobia was also associated with their personality traits
Neutrino signal from gamma-ray loud binaries powered by high energy protons
We present a hadronic model of activity for Galactic gamma-ray-loud binaries,
in which the multi-TeV neutrino flux from the source can be much higher and/or
harder than the detected TeV gamma-ray flux. This is related to the fact that
most neutrinos are produced in pp interactions close to the bright massive
star, in a region optically thick for the TeV gamma-rays. Considering the
specific example of LS I +61o 303, we derive upper bounds for neutrino fluxes
from various proton injection spectra compatible with the observed
multi-wavelength spectrum. At this upper level of neutrino emission, we
demonstrate that ICECUBE will not only detect this source at 5 sigma C.L. after
one year of operation, but, after 3 years of exposure, will also collect a
sample marginally sufficient to constrain the spectral characteristics of the
neutrino signal, directly related to the underlying source acceleration
mechanisms.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
One-Way Entangled-Photon Autocompensating Quantum Cryptography
A new quantum cryptography implementation is presented that combines one-way
operation with an autocompensating feature that has hitherto only been
available in implementations that require the signal to make a round trip
between the users. Using the concept of advanced waves, it is shown that this
new implementation is related to the round-trip implementations in the same way
that Ekert's two-particle scheme is related to the original one-particle scheme
of Bennett and Brassard. The practical advantages and disadvantages of the
proposed implementation are discussed in the context of existing schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; Minor edits--conclusions unchanged; accepted for
publication in Physical Review
Perspectives of Frequent Users of Emergency Departments on a Case Management Intervention: A Qualitative Study.
Effective management of frequent users of emergency departments (FUED) remains challenging. Case management (CM) has shown to improve patient quality of life while reducing ED visits and associated costs. However, little data is available on FUED's perception of CM outside of North America to further improve CM implementation.
Explore the FUED's perspectives about CM in Switzerland.
Semi-structured qualitative interviews eliciting FUED's experiences of CM were conducted among 20 participants (75% female; mean age = 40.6, SD = 12.8) across 6 hospital ED.
Inductive content analysis.
Most participants were satisfied with the CM program. In particular, FUEDs identified the working relationship with the case manager (cm) as key for positive outcomes, and also valued the holistic evaluation of their needs and resources. Overall, patients reported increased motivation and health literacy, as well as facilitated interactions within the healthcare system. Conversely, a small number of participants reported negative views on CM (ie, stigmatization, lack of concrete outcomes). Barriers identified were cm's lack of time, COVID-19's negative impact on CM organization, as well as lack of clarity on the objectives of CM. FUED perceived CM as useful, in particular establishing a working relationship with the cm. Our results suggest that CM can be further improved by (1) professionals remaining non-judgmental toward FUED, (2) making sure the aims and objectives of the CM are understood by the participants, and (3) allowing more time for the cm to carry out their work
High rate, long-distance quantum key distribution over 250km of ultra low loss fibres
We present a fully automated quantum key distribution prototype running at
625 MHz clock rate. Taking advantage of ultra low loss fibres and low-noise
superconducting detectors, we can distribute 6,000 secret bits per second over
100 km and 15 bits per second over 250km
Linking Classical and Quantum Key Agreement: Is There "Bound Information"?
After carrying out a protocol for quantum key agreement over a noisy quantum
channel, the parties Alice and Bob must process the raw key in order to end up
with identical keys about which the adversary has virtually no information. In
principle, both classical and quantum protocols can be used for this
processing. It is a natural question which type of protocols is more powerful.
We prove for general states but under the assumption of incoherent
eavesdropping that Alice and Bob share some so-called intrinsic information in
their classical random variables, resulting from optimal measurements, if and
only if the parties' quantum systems are entangled. In addition, we provide
evidence that the potentials of classical and of quantum protocols are equal in
every situation. Consequently, many techniques and results from quantum
information theory directly apply to problems in classical information theory,
and vice versa. For instance, it was previously believed that two parties can
carry out unconditionally secure key agreement as long as they share some
intrinsic information in the adversary's view. The analysis of this purely
classical problem from the quantum information-theoretic viewpoint shows that
this is true in the binary case, but false in general. More explicitly, bound
entanglement, i.e., entanglement that cannot be purified by any quantum
protocol, has a classical counterpart. This "bound intrinsic information"
cannot be distilled to a secret key by any classical protocol. As another
application we propose a measure for entanglement based on classical
information-theoretic quantities.Comment: Accepted for Crypto 2000. 17 page
From AMANDA to IceCube
The first string of the neoteric high energy neutrino telescope IceCube
successfully began operating in January 2005. It is anticipated that upon
completion the new detector will vastly increase the sensitivity and extend the
reach of AMANDA to higher energies. A discussion of the IceCube's discovery
potential for extra-terrestrial neutrinos, together with the prospects of new
physics derived from the ongoing AMANDA research will be the focus of this
paper. Preliminary results of the first antarctic high energy neutrino
telescope AMANDA searching in the muon neutrino channel for localized and
diffuse excess of extra-terrestrial neutrinos will be reviewed using data
collected between 2000 and 2003. Neutrino flux limits obtained with the
all-flavor dedicated UHE and cascade analyses will be described. A first
neutrino spectrum above one TeV in agreement with atmospheric neutrino flux
expectations and no extra-terrestrial contribution will be presented, followed
by a discussion of a limit for neutralino CDM candidates annihilating in the
center of the Sun.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures Invited talk contribution at 5th International
Conference on Non-accelerator New Physics (NANP 05), Dubna, Russia, 20-25 Jun
200
Ultra high energy neutrino-nucleon cross section from cosmic ray experiments and neutrino telescopes
We deduce the cosmogenic neutrino flux by jointly analysing ultra high energy
cosmic ray data from HiRes-I and II, AGASA and the Pierre Auger Observatory. We
make two determinations of the neutrino flux by using a model-dependent method
and a model-independent method. The former is well-known, and involves the use
of a power-law injection spectrum. The latter is a regularized unfolding
procedure. We then use neutrino flux bounds obtained by the RICE experiment to
constrain the neutrino-nucleon inelastic cross section at energies inaccessible
at colliders. The cross section bounds obtained using the cosmogenic fluxes
derived by unfolding are the most model-independent bounds to date.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
- …