On the relation between decoherence and spontaneous symmetry breaking

We have recently shown that there is a limit to quantum coherence in many-particle spin qubits due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. These results were derived for the Lieb-Mattis spin model. Here we will show that the underlying mechanism of decoherence in systems with spontaneous symmetry breaking is in fact more general. We present here a generic route to finding the decoherence time associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking in many particle qubits, and subsequently we apply this approach to two model systems, indicating how the continuous symmetries in these models are spontaneously broken and discussing the relation of this symmetry breaking to the thin spectrum. We then present in detail the calculations that lead to the limit to quantum coherence, which is due to energy shifts in the thin spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Hamiltonian and Linear-Space Structure for Damped Oscillators: I. General Theory

The phase space of $N$ damped linear oscillators is endowed with a bilinear map under which the evolution operator is symmetric. This analog of self-adjointness allows properties familiar from conservative systems to be recovered, e.g., eigenvectors are "orthogonal" under the bilinear map and obey sum rules, initial-value problems are readily solved and perturbation theory applies to the_complex_ eigenvalues. These concepts are conveniently represented in a biorthogonal basis.Comment: REVTeX4, 10pp., 1 PS figure. N.B.: `Alec' is my first name, `Maassen van den Brink' my family name. v2: extensive streamlinin

Photoemission spectra of LaMnO3 controlled by orbital excitations

We investigate the spectral function of a hole moving in the orbital-ordered ferromagnetic planes of LaMnO$_3$, and show that it depends critically on the type of orbital ordering. While the hole does not couple to the spin excitations, it interacts strongly with the excitations of $e_g$ orbitals (orbitons), leading to new type of quasiparticles with a dispersion on the orbiton energy scale and with strongly enhanced mass and reduced weight. Therefore we predict a large redistribution of spectral weight with respect to the bands found in local density approximation (LDA) or in LDA+U.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 3 figures embedded, figure 3 correcte

Orbital excitations in LaMnO3_3

We study the recently observed orbital excitations, orbitons, and treat electron-electron correlations and lattice dynamics on equal footing. It is shown that the orbiton energy and dispersion are determined by both correlations and lattice-vibrations. The electron-phonon coupling causes satellite structures in the orbiton spectral function and the elementary excitations of the system are mixed modes with both orbital and phonon character. It is proposed that the satellite structures observed in recent Raman-scattering experiments on LaMnO$_3$ are actually orbiton derived satellites in the phonon spectral function, caused by the phonon-orbiton interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures embedde

Adverse health outcomes in vitamin D supplementation trials for depression:A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is a universal risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Since depression is consistently associated with low vitamin D levels as well as several adverse health outcomes, vitamin D supplementation may be especially relevant for depressed persons. This review examines the potential benefits of vitamin D for (somatic) health outcomes in randomised controlled supplementation trials for depression. METHOD: Systematic literature search to assess whether adverse health outcomes, such as frailty, falls, or cognitive functioning, were included in vitamin D supplementation trials for depression, and whether these outcomes were affected by supplementation. The revised Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials was used. RESULTS: Thirty-one trials were included. Adverse health outcomes were considered in five studies. Two studies reported some beneficial effect on an adverse health outcome. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: While depressed persons are at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency, supplementation trials hardly addressed the common negative health consequences of low vitamin D levels as secondary outcome measures. Well-designed trials of the effects of vitamin D supplementation in late-life depression should explore whether adverse health outcomes can be prevented or stabilised, and whether depression benefits from this improvement

Order Monotonic Solutions for Generalized Characteristic Functions

Generalized characteristic functions extend characteristic functions of 'classical' TU-games by assigning a real number to every ordered coalition being a permutation of any subset of the player set. Such generalized characteristic functions can be applied when the earnings or costs of cooperation among a set of players depends on the order in which the players enter a coalition. In the literature, the two main solutions for generalized characteristic functions are the one of Nowak and Radzik (1994), shortly called NR-value, and the one introduced by Sanchez and Bergantinos (1997), shortly called SB-value. In this paper, we introduce the axiom of order monotonicity with respect to the order of the players in a unanimity coalition, requiring that players who enter earlier should get not more in the corresponding (ordered) unanimity game than players who enter later. We propose several classes of order monotonic solutions for generalized characteristic functions that contain the NR-value and SB-value as special (extreme) cases. We also provide axiomatizations of these classes

A prospective study into change of vitamin D levels, depression and frailty among depressed older persons

Objectives While vitamin D is involved in frailty as well as depression, hardly any study has examined the course of vitamin D levels prospectively. The objective of this study is to examine whether a change of vitamin D in depressed older adults is associated with either depression course, course of frailty, or both. Methods The study population consisted of 232 of 378 older adults (60-93 years) with a DSM-IV defined depressive disorder participating in the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older persons, a prospective clinical cohort study. Baseline and 2-year follow-up data on depressive disorder (DSM-IV diagnosis), symptom severity (inventory of depressive symptoms), frailty phenotype (and its individual components) and vitamin D levels were obtained. Linear mixed models were used to study the association of change in vitamin D levels with depression course, course of frailty, and the combination. Results Vitamin D levels decreased from baseline to follow-up, independent from depression course. An increase in frailty was associated with a significantly sharper decrease of vitamin D levels over time. Post hoc analyses showed that this association with frailty might be driven by an increase of exhaustion over time and counteracted by an increase in walking speed. Conclusions Our findings generate the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation in late-life depression may improve frailty, which may partly explain inconsistent findings of randomised controlled trials evaluating the effect of vitamin D for depression. We advocate to consider frailty (components) as an outcome in future supplementation trials in late-life depression

Generalized Elitzur's Theorem and Dimensional Reduction

We extend Elitzur's theorem to systems with symmetries intermediate between global and local. In general, our theorem formalizes the idea of {\it dimensional reduction}. We apply the results of this generalization to many systems that are of current interest. These include liquid crystalline phases of Quantum Hall systems, orbital systems, geometrically frustrated spin lattices, Bose metals, and models of superconducting arrays.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Unconventional Gravitational Excitation of a Schwarzschild Black Hole

Besides the well-known quasinormal modes, the gravitational spectrum of a Schwarzschild black hole also has a continuum part on the negative imaginary frequency axis. The latter is studied numerically for quadrupole waves. The results show unexpected striking behavior near the algebraically special frequency $\Omega=-4i$. This reveals a pair of unconventional damped modes very near $\Omega$, confirmed analytically.Comment: REVTeX4, 4pp, 6 EPS figure files. N.B.: "Alec" is my first, and "Maassen van den Brink" my family name. v2: better pole placement in Fig. 1. v3: fixed Refs. [9,20]. v4: added context on "area quantum" research; trimmed one Fig.; textual clarification