Is the Interpretation of Delayed-Choice Experiments Misleading?

The interpretation of an experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice gedanken experiment is discussed and called into question.Comment: 5 pages Te

Einstein et la mecanique quantique - Quelques reperes, quelques surprises

Even if Einstein brought major contributions as a founder of quantum mechanics, he remained deeply unsatisfied with the bases of this structure he knew to be so efficient for physics. His critics are often known through his numerous controversies wih N. Bohr for a few decades. It has long been suggested that his critics were obsolete and came from an aging man and that it was more a question of philosophy anyway. After J. Bell's contribution however it was claimed that the debate could be closed by an experimental proof, a strange experimental intrusion in philosophy or a strange philosophy. Finally, the experiment being performed, in particular in Orsay with the repeatedly successful experiments of A. Aspect, it was claimed that N. Bohr won. Would the debate be closed? Today and fifty years after his death, it seems that Einstein's critics to quantum mechanics are being regarded differently. Why is it so? Is it due to physics coming back to the debate? It will be attempted to accurately report Einstein's writings on the matter and to find elements of answer to the raised questions.Comment: 21 pages, fichier latex, seminaire donne le 8 septembre 2005 dans le cadre de l'Annee de la Physiqu

L'argument Einstein Podolsky Rosen (EPR): paradoxe, alternative et demonstration

En physique quantique, l'absence d'observation d'etats de superposition ne devrait etre une surprise pour personne, que les objets soient microscopiques ou macroscopiques. Cela n'en etait pas une pour Schroedinger. L'experience de pensee "du chat" parmi bien d'autres arguments le montre clairement. On ne doit pas aujourd'hui lui faire dire le contraire. L'article EPR (A.Einstein, B.Podolsky,N.Rosen, ecrit en 1935), qui est a l'origine de l'intervention de Schroedinger et du developpement d'une problematique qui se prolonge jusqu'a aujourd'hui, est analyse. Avec Schroedinger, Bohr, Wigner et jusqu'a aujourd'hui, la reponse a EPR a ete le recours renouvele a l'observateur finalement caracterise par sa conscience. Deux elements nouveaux sont apparus: d'une part un developpement experimental et theorique impressionnant avec l'optique quantique et les manipulations d'atomes, d'autre part la proposition du concept de decoherence susceptible d'expliquer le passage du microscopique au macroscopique et par la d'apporter un element de comprehension de la mesure quantique. On montre que les questions abordees par EPR restent plus que jamais posees mais que les experiences aujourd'hui accessibles permettent d'y travailler concretement, ramenant dans le domaine de la physique ce qui etait evacue vers l'interpretation ou neutralise par l'introduction de termes aussi incontestables qu'inefficaces comme "non-localite" ou "non-separabilite". Einstein ne pourrait que s'en rejouir

Thulium and ytterbium-doped titanium oxide thin films deposited by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis

Thin films of thulium and ytterbium-doped titanium oxide were grown by metal-organic spray pyrolysis deposition from titanium(IV)oxide bis(acetylacetonate), thulium(III) tris(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionate) and ytterbium(III) tris(acetylacetonate). Deposition temperatures have been investigated from 300{\deg}C to 600{\deg}C. Films have been studied regarding their crystallity and doping quality. Structural and composition characterisations of TiO2:Tm,Yb were performed by electron microprobe, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The deposition rate can reach 0.8 \mum/h. The anatase phase of TiO2 was obtained after synthesis at 400{\deg}C or higher. Organic contamination at low deposition temperature is eliminated by annealing treatments.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Virtual Exploration of Underwater Archaeological Sites : Visualization and Interaction in Mixed Reality Environments

This paper describes the ongoing developments in Photogrammetry and Mixed Reality for the Venus European project (Virtual ExploratioN of Underwater Sites, http://www.venus-project.eu). The main goal of the project is to provide archaeologists and the general public with virtual and augmented reality tools for exploring and studying deep underwater archaeological sites out of reach of divers. These sites have to be reconstructed in terms of environment (seabed) and content (artifacts) by performing bathymetric and photogrammetric surveys on the real site and matching points between geolocalized pictures. The base idea behind using Mixed Reality techniques is to offer archaeologists and general public new insights on the reconstructed archaeological sites allowing archaeologists to study directly from within the virtual site and allowing the general public to immersively explore a realistic reconstruction of the sites. Both activities are based on the same VR engine but drastically differ in the way they present information. General public activities emphasize the visually and auditory realistic aspect of the reconstruction while archaeologists activities emphasize functional aspects focused on the cargo study rather than realism which leads to the development of two parallel VR demonstrators. This paper will focus on several key points developed for the reconstruction process as well as both VR demonstrators (archaeological and general public) issues. The ?rst developed key point concerns the densi?cation of seabed points obtained through photogrammetry in order to obtain high quality terrain reproduction. The second point concerns the development of the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) demonstrators for archaeologists designed to exploit the results of the photogrammetric reconstruction. And the third point concerns the development of the VR demonstrator for general public aimed at creating awareness of both the artifacts that were found and of the process with which they were discovered by recreating the dive process from ship to seabed

Real time decoherence of Landau and Levitov quasi-particles in quantum Hall edge channels

Quantum Hall edge channels at integer filling factor provide a unique test-bench to understand decoherence and relaxation of single electronic excitations in a ballistic quantum conductor. In this Letter, we obtain a full visualization of the decoherence scenario of energy (Landau) and time (Levitov) resolved single electron excitations at filling factor $\nu=2$. We show that the Landau excitation exhibits a fast relaxation followed by spin-charge separation whereas the Levitov excitation only experiences spin-charge separation. We finally suggest to use Hong-Ou-Mandel type experiments to probe specific signatures of these different scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

A Cryogenic Test Station for Subcooling Helium Heat Exchangers for LHC

The superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be cooled at 1.9 K by distributed cooling loops where counter-flow heat exchangers will be integrated. To qualify potential suppliers for the 250-units series production, prototypes of various technologies have been selected by CERN and a test station was set up at CEA-Grenoble. This test station, is constituted of a cryostat allowing an easy access to the heat exchanger to be tested as well as very low pressure pumping facilities