Electrostatics of Gapped and Finite Surface Electrodes

We present approximate methods for calculating the three-dimensional electric potentials of finite surface electrodes including gaps between electrodes, and estimate the effects of finite electrode thickness and an underlying dielectric substrate. As an example we optimize a radio-frequency surface-electrode ring ion trap, and find that each of these factors reduces the trapping secular frequencies by less than 5% in realistic situations. This small magnitude validates the usual assumption of neglecting the influences of gaps between electrodes and finite electrode extent.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures (minor changes

Quantum annealing of the Traveling Salesman Problem

We propose a path-integral Monte Carlo quantum annealing scheme for the symmetric Traveling Salesman Problem, based on a highly constrained Ising-like representation, and we compare its performance against standard thermal Simulated Annealing. The Monte Carlo moves implemented are standard, and consist in restructuring a tour by exchanging two links (2-opt moves). The quantum annealing scheme, even with a drastically simple form of kinetic energy, appears definitely superior to the classical one, when tested on a 1002 city instance of the standard TSPLIB.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Investigation of the vibration isolation of commercial jet transport pilots during turbulent air penetration

Electrohydraulic pilot seat isolation system of commercial transport pilots during turbulent air penetratio

Energy Density-Flux Correlations in an Unusual Quantum State and in the Vacuum

In this paper we consider the question of the degree to which negative and positive energy are intertwined. We examine in more detail a previously studied quantum state of the massless minimally coupled scalar field, which we call a ``Helfer state''. This is a state in which the energy density can be made arbitrarily negative over an arbitrarily large region of space, but only at one instant in time. In the Helfer state, the negative energy density is accompanied by rapidly time-varying energy fluxes. It is the latter feature which allows the quantum inequalities, bounds which restrict the magnitude and duration of negative energy, to hold for this class of states. An observer who initially passes through the negative energy region will quickly encounter fluxes of positive energy which subsequently enter the region. We examine in detail the correlation between the energy density and flux in the Helfer state in terms of their expectation values. We then study the correlation function between energy density and flux in the Minkowski vacuum state, for a massless minimally coupled scalar field in both two and four dimensions. In this latter analysis we examine correlation functions rather than expectation values. Remarkably, we see qualitatively similar behavior to that in the Helfer state. More specifically, an initial negative energy vacuum fluctuation in some region of space is correlated with a subsequent flux fluctuation of positive energy into the region. We speculate that the mechanism which ensures that the quantum inequalities hold in the Helfer state, as well as in other quantum states associated with negative energy, is, at least in some sense, already ``encoded'' in the fluctuations of the vacuum.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures; published version with typos corrected and one added referenc

Quasiparticle decay rate of Josephson charge qubit oscillations

We analyze the decay of Rabi oscillations in a charge qubit consisting of a Cooper pair box connected to a finite-size superconductor by a Josephson junction. We concentrate on the contribution of quasiparticles in the superconductors to the decay rate. Passing of a quasiparticle through the Josephson junction tunes the qubit away from the charge degeneracy, thus spoiling the Rabi oscillations. We find the temperature dependence of the quasiparticle contribution to the decay rate for open and isolated systems. The former case is realized if a normal-state trap is included in the circuit, or if just one vortex resides in the qubit; the decay rate has an activational temperature dependence with the activation energy equal to the superconducting gap $\Delta$. In a superconducting qubit isolated from the environment, the activation energy equals $2\Delta$ if the number of electrons is even, while for an odd number of electrons the decay rate of an excited qubit state remains finite in the limit of zero temperature. We estimate the decay rate for realistic parameters of a qubit.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, final version as published in PRB, minor change

Vibrational energy transfer in ultracold molecule - molecule collisions

We present a rigorous study of vibrational relaxation in p-H2 + p-H2 collisions at cold and ultracold temperatures and identify an efficient mechanism of ro-vibrational energy transfer. If the colliding molecules are in different rotational and vibrational levels, the internal energy may be transferred between the molecules through an extremely state-selective process involving simultaneous conservation of internal energy and total rotational angular momentum. The same transition in collisions of distinguishable molecules corresponds to the rotational energy transfer from one vibrational state of the colliding molecules to another.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The Infrared Extinction Law at Extreme Depth in a Dark Cloud Core

We combined sensitive near-infrared data obtained with ground-based imagers on the ESO NTT and VLT telescopes with space mid-infrared data acquired with the IRAC imager on the Spitzer Space Telescope to calculate the extinction law A_\lambda/A_K as a function of \lambda between 1.25 and 7.76 micron to an unprecedented depth in Barnard 59, a star forming, dense core located in the Pipe Nebula. The ratios A_\lambda/A_K were calculated from the slopes of the distributions of sources in color-color diagrams \lambda-K vs. H-K. The distributions in the color-color diagrams are fit well with single slopes to extinction levels of A_K ~ 7 (A_V ~ 59 mag). Consequently, there appears to be no significant variation of the extinction law with depth through the B59 line of sight. However, when slopes are translated into the relative extinction coefficients A_\lambda/A_K, we find an extinction law which departs from the simple extrapolation of the near-infrared power law extinction curve, and agrees more closely with a dust extinction model for a cloud with a total to selective absorption R_V=5.5 and a grain size distribution favoring larger grains than those in the diffuse ISM. Thus, the difference we observe could be possibly due to the effect of grain growth in denser regions. Finally, the slopes in our diagrams are somewhat less steep than those from the study of Indebetouw et al. (2005) for clouds with lower column densities, and this indicates that the extinction law between 3 and 8 micron might vary slightly as a function of environment.Comment: 22 pages manuscript, 4 figures (2 multipart), 1 tabl

Factor ordering in standard quantum cosmology

The Wheeler-DeWitt equation of Friedmann models with a massless quantum field is formulated with arbitrary factor ordering of the Hamiltonian constraint operator. A scalar product of wave functions is constructed, giving rise to a probability interpretation and making comparison with the classical solution possible. In general the bahaviour of the wave function of the model depends on a critical energy of the matter field, which, in turn, depends on the chosen factor ordering. By certain choices of the ordering the critical energy can be pushed down to zero.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure