18 research outputs found
Collisions of self-bound quantum droplets
We report on the study of binary collisions between quantum droplets formed
by an attractive mixture of ultracold atoms. We distinguish two main outcomes
of the collision, i.e. merging and separation, depending on the velocity of the
colliding pair. The critical velocity that discriminates between the two
cases displays a different dependence on the atom number for small and
large droplets. By comparing our experimental results with numerical
simulations, we show that the non-monotonic behavior of is due to the
crossover from a compressible to an incompressible regime, where the
collisional dynamics is governed by different energy scales, i.e. the droplet
binding energy and the surface tension. These results also provide the first
evidence of the liquid-like nature of quantum droplets in the large limit,
where their behavior closely resembles that of classical liquid droplets
Potent Anti-Cancer Properties of Phthalimide-Based Curcumin Derivatives on Prostate Tumor Cells
Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer is commonly treated with chemotherapy, whose effect is less than satisfactory. This raised the need for novel agents for the treatment of prostate cancer. In the present study, five phthalimide-based curcumin derivatives were synthesized and completely characterized to assess improved stability, pharmacodynamics, and radical scavenging ability. To investigate the potential application in anti-cancer therapy, the anti-proliferative activity of the synthesized molecules was determined on aggressive prostate tumor cells. We demonstrated that the K3F21 derivative has increased potency compared to curcumin, in terms of GI50, anti-proliferative and anti-migrating activities. K3F21 inhibits anchorage-dependent and -independent growth of prostate cancer cells by altering the expression of key genes controlling cell proliferation, such as Cylins D1, B1 and B2, and apoptosis, among which Puma, Noxa, and Bcl-2 family members. Finally, the anti-cancer activity of K3F21 was demonstrated by the analysis of cancer-associated PI3K/AKT, ERK, and p38 signaling pathways
Universality of the three-body Efimov parameter at narrow Feshbach resonances
We measure the critical scattering length for the appearance of the first
three-body bound state, or Efimov three-body parameter, at seven different
Feshbach resonances in ultracold 39K atoms. We study both intermediate and
narrow resonances, where the three-body spectrum is expected to be determined
by the non-universal coupling of two scattering channels. We observe instead
approximately the same universal relation of the three-body parameter with the
two-body van der Waals radius already found for broader resonances, which can
be modeled with a single channel. This unexpected observation suggests the
presence of a new regime for three-body scattering at narrow resonances
Enhancing Detection of Topological Order by Local Error Correction
The exploration of topologically-ordered states of matter is a long-standing
goal at the interface of several subfields of the physical sciences. Such
states feature intriguing physical properties such as long-range entanglement,
emergent gauge fields and non-local correlations, and can aid in realization of
scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, these same features also
make creation, detection, and characterization of topologically-ordered states
particularly challenging. Motivated by recent experimental demonstrations, we
introduce a new paradigm for quantifying topological states -- locally
error-corrected decoration (LED) -- by combining methods of error correction
with ideas of renormalization-group flow. Our approach allows for efficient and
robust identification of topological order, and is applicable in the presence
of incoherent noise sources, making it particularly suitable for realistic
experiments. We demonstrate the power of LED using numerical simulations of the
toric code under a variety of perturbations. We subsequently apply it to an
experimental realization, providing new insights into a quantum spin liquid
created on a Rydberg-atom simulator. Finally, we extend LED to generic
topological phases, including those with non-abelian order.Comment: Corrected minor typos. Added new results on generalizations to
non-abelian topological phases, and connections between LED and topological
entanglement negativit
A quantum processor based on coherent transport of entangled atom arrays
The ability to engineer parallel, programmable operations between desired
qubits within a quantum processor is central for building scalable quantum
information systems. In most state-of-the-art approaches, qubits interact
locally, constrained by the connectivity associated with their fixed spatial
layout. Here, we demonstrate a quantum processor with dynamic, nonlocal
connectivity, in which entangled qubits are coherently transported in a highly
parallel manner across two spatial dimensions, in between layers of single- and
two-qubit operations. Our approach makes use of neutral atom arrays trapped and
transported by optical tweezers; hyperfine states are used for robust quantum
information storage, and excitation into Rydberg states is used for
entanglement generation. We use this architecture to realize programmable
generation of entangled graph states such as cluster states and a 7-qubit
Steane code state. Furthermore, we shuttle entangled ancilla arrays to realize
a surface code with 19 qubits and a toric code state on a torus with 24 qubits.
Finally, we use this architecture to realize a hybrid analog-digital evolution
and employ it for measuring entanglement entropy in quantum simulations,
experimentally observing non-monotonic entanglement dynamics associated with
quantum many-body scars. Realizing a long-standing goal, these results pave the
way toward scalable quantum processing and enable new applications ranging from
simulation to metrology.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures; movie attached as ancillary fil
Alternative splicing of NF-YA promotes prostate cancer aggressiveness and represents a new molecular marker for clinical stratification of patients
Approaches based on expression signatures of prostate cancer (PCa) have been proposed to predict patient outcomes and response to treatments. The transcription factor NF-Y participates to the progression from benign epithelium to both localized and metastatic PCa and is associated with aggressive transcriptional profile. The gene encoding for NF-YA, the DNA-binding subunit of NF-Y, produces two alternatively spliced transcripts, NF-YAs and NF-YAl. Bioinformatic analyses pointed at NF-YA splicing as a key transcriptional signature to discriminate between different tumor molecular subtypes. In this study, we aimed to determine the pathophysiological role of NF-YA splice variants in PCa and their association with aggressive subtypes
High-fidelity parallel entangling gates on a neutral atom quantum computer
The ability to perform entangling quantum operations with low error rates in
a scalable fashion is a central element of useful quantum information
processing. Neutral atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising quantum
computing platform, featuring coherent control over hundreds of qubits and
any-to-any gate connectivity in a flexible, dynamically reconfigurable
architecture. The major outstanding challenge has been to reduce errors in
entangling operations mediated through Rydberg interactions. Here we report the
realization of two-qubit entangling gates with 99.5% fidelity on up to 60 atoms
in parallel, surpassing the surface code threshold for error correction. Our
method employs fast single-pulse gates based on optimal control, atomic dark
states to reduce scattering, and improvements to Rydberg excitation and atom
cooling. We benchmark fidelity using several methods based on repeated gate
applications, characterize the physical error sources, and outline future
improvements. Finally, we generalize our method to design entangling gates
involving a higher number of qubits, which we demonstrate by realizing
low-error three-qubit gates. By enabling high-fidelity operation in a scalable,
highly connected system, these advances lay the groundwork for large-scale
implementation of quantum algorithms, error-corrected circuits, and digital
simulations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Methods: 13 pages, 10 figure