9,918 research outputs found
Experimental demonstration of the stability of Berry's phase for a spin-1/2 particle
The geometric phase has been proposed as a candidate for noise resilient
coherent manipulation of fragile quantum systems. Since it is determined only
by the path of the quantum state, the presence of noise fluctuations affects
the geometric phase in a different way than the dynamical phase. We have
experimentally tested the robustness of Berry's geometric phase for spin-1/2
particles in a cyclically varying magnetic field. Using trapped polarized
ultra-cold neutrons it is demonstrated that the geometric phase contributions
to dephasing due to adiabatic field fluctuations vanish for long evolution
times.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Field emissions of N2O during biomass production may affect the sustainability of agro-biofuels
Field emissions of N2O during cultivation of bioenergy crops may counterbalance a considerable part of the avoided fossil CO2 emissions that are achieved by fossil fuel displacemen
Giant nonlinearity and entanglement of single photons in photonic bandgap structures
Giantly enhanced cross-phase modulation with suppressed spectral broadening
is predicted between optically-induced dark-state polaritons whose propagation
is strongly affected by photonic bandgaps of spatially periodic media with
multilevel dopants. This mechanism is shown to be capable of fully entangling
two single-photon pulses with high fidelity.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Efficient simulation of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems
We present a numerical method to simulate the time evolution, according to a
Hamiltonian made of local interactions, of quantum spin chains and systems
alike. The efficiency of the scheme depends on the amount of the entanglement
involved in the simulated evolution. Numerical analysis indicate that this
method can be used, for instance, to efficiently compute time-dependent
properties of low-energy dynamics of sufficiently regular but otherwise
arbitrary one-dimensional quantum many-body systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Singular value decomposition and matrix reorderings in quantum information theory
We review Schmidt and Kraus decompositions in the form of singular value
decomposition using operations of reshaping, vectorization and reshuffling. We
use the introduced notation to analyse the correspondence between quantum
states and operations with the help of Jamiolkowski isomorphism. The presented
matrix reorderings allow us to obtain simple formulae for the composition of
quantum channels and partial operations used in quantum information theory. To
provide examples of the discussed operations we utilize a package for the
Mathematica computing system implementing basic functions used in the
calculations related to quantum information theory.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, see
http://zksi.iitis.pl/wiki/projects:mathematica-qi for related softwar
Manipulating Light Pulses via Dynamically Controlled Photonic Bandgap
When a resonance associated with electromagnetically induced transparency
(EIT) in an atomic ensemble is modulated by an off-resonant standing light
wave, a band of frequencies can appear for which light propagation is
forbidden. We show that dynamic control of such a bandgap can be used to
coherently convert a propagating light pulse into a stationary excitation with
non-vanishing photonic component. This can be accomplished with high efficiency
and negligble noise even at a level of few-photon quantum fields thereby
facilitating possible applications in quantum nonlinear optics and quantum
information.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Sustainable bioethanol production combining biorefinery principles using combined raw materials from wheat undersown with clover-grass
To obtain the best possible net energy balance of the bioethanol production the biomass raw materials used need to be produced with limited use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Intercropping strategies are known to maximize growth and productivity by including more than one species in the crop stand, very often with legumes as one of the components. In the present study clover-grass is undersown in a traditional wheat crop. Thereby, it is possible to increase input of symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into the cropping systems and reduce the need for fertilizer applications. Furthermore, when using such wheat and clover-grass mixtures as raw material, addition of urea and other fermentation nutrients produced from fossil fuels can be reduced in the whole ethanol manufacturing chain. Using second generation ethanol technology mixtures of relative proportions of wheat straw and clover-grass (15:85, 50:50, and 85:15) were pretreated by wet oxidation. The results showed that supplementing wheat straw with clover-grass had a positive effect on the ethanol yield in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation experiments, and the effect was more pronounced in inhibitory substrates. The highest ethanol yield (80% of theoretical) was obtained in the experiment with high fraction (85%) of clover-grass. In order to improve the sugar recovery of clover-grass, it should be separated into a green juice (containing free sugars, fructan, amino acids, vitamins and soluble minerals) for direct fermentation and a fibre pulp for pretreatment together with wheat straw. Based on the obtained results a decentralized biorefinery concept for production of biofuel is suggested emphasizing sustainability, localness, and recycling principle
A Large Brightness Enhancement of the QSO 0957+561 A Component
We report an increase of more than 0.2 mag in the optical brightness of the
leading image (A) of the gravitational lens Q0957+561, detected during the
09/2000 -- 06/2001 monitoring campaign (2001 observing season). The brightening
is similar to or even greater than the largest change ever detected during the
20 years of monitoring of this system. We discuss two different provisional
explanations to this event: intrinsic source variability or microlensing
(either short timescale microlensing or cessation of the historical
microlensing). An exhaustive photometric monitoring of Q0957+561 is needed
until summer of 2002 and during 2003 to discriminate between these
possibilities.Comment: 13 pages including 3 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in
ApJ Let
Robust entanglement
It is common belief among physicists that entangled states of quantum systems
loose their coherence rather quickly. The reason is that any interaction with
the environment which distinguishes between the entangled sub-systems collapses
the quantum state. Here we investigate entangled states of two trapped Ca
ions and observe robust entanglement lasting for more than 20 seconds
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