Short-Time Decoherence and Deviation from Pure Quantum States

In systems considered for quantum computing, i.e., for control of quantum dynamics with the goal of processing information coherently, decoherence and deviation from pure quantum states, are the main obstacles to fault-tolerant error correction. At low temperatures, usually assumed in quantum computing designs, some of the accepted approaches to evaluation of relaxation mechanisms break down. We develop a new general formalism for estimation of decoherence at short times, appropriate for evaluation of quantum computing architectures.Comment: 9 pages in plain Te

Feasibility study of thin film tunnel cathodes

Thin film tunnel cathodes evaluated for use in ultrahigh vacuum gauge

Surface brightness measurements for APM galaxies

This paper considers some simple surface brightness (SB) estimates for galaxies in the Automated Plate Measuring Machine (APM) catalogue in order to derive homogeneous SB data for a very large sample of faint galaxies. The isophotal magnitude and area are used to estimate the central surface brightness and total magnitude based on the assumption of an exponential SB profile. The surface brightness measurements are corrected for field effects on each UK Schmidt plate and the zero-point of each plate is adjusted to give a uniform sample of SB and total magnitude estimates over the whole survey. Results are obtained for 2.4 million galaxies with blue photographic magnitudes brighter than b_J = 20.5 covering 4300 deg^2 in the region of the south galactic cap. Almost all galaxies in our sample have central surface brightness in the range 20 to 24 b_J mag per arcsec^2. The SB measurements we obtain are compared to previous SB measurements and we find an acceptable level of error of +/- 0.2 b_J mag per arcsec^2. The distribution of SB profiles is considered for different galaxy morphologies for the bright APM galaxies. We find that early-type galaxies have more centrally concentrated profiles.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

MIMO System Setup and Parameter Estimation

There is a rat race in wireless communication to achieve higher spectral efficiency. One technique to achieve this is the use of multiple antenna systems i.e. MIMO systems. In this paper we describe a wireless 4x4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) testbed in the 2.2 GHz band including results from live experiments. MIMO systems have several advantages compared to SISO (Single Input Single Output) systems. The most important ones are higher reliability and/or higher throughput per Herz. In this testbed we used the 802.11a OFDM Wireless LAN standard as a basis for the MIMO system. The experiments have been conducted at 2.2 GHz carrier using 5 MHz bandwidth. These can be divided into several subjects: antenna spacing experiments, effects for increasing antennas, AD accuracy and performance for different antenna topologies. Moreover, the performance of the Zero Forcing (ZF), Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) and Vertical Bell labs LAyered Space Time (VBLAST) have been evaluated

Diffraction microstrain in nanocrystalline solids under load - heterogeneous medium approach

This is an account of the computation of X-ray microstrain in a polycrystal with anisotropic elasticity under uniaxial external load. The results have been published in the article "Microstrain in nanocrystalline solids under load by virtual diffraction", at Europhysics Letters 89, 66002 (2010). The present information was submitted to Europhysics Letters as part of the manuscript package, and was available to the reviewers who recommended the paper for publication.Comment: Supporting online material for J. Markmann, D. Bachurin, L.-H. Shao, P. Gumbsch, J. Weissm\"uller, Microstrain in nanocrystalline solids under load by virtual diffraction, Europhys. Lett. 89, 66002 (2010

Bringing closure to microlensing mass measurement

Interferometers offer multiple methods for studying microlensing events and determining the properties of the lenses. We investigate the study of microlensing events with optical interferometers, focusing on narrow-angle astrometry, visibility, and closure phase. After introducing the basics of microlensing and interferometry, we derive expressions for the signals in each of these three channels. For various forecasts of the instrumental performance, we discuss which method provides the best means of measuring the lens angular Einstein radius theta_E, a prerequisite for determining the lens mass. If the upcoming generation of large-aperture, AO-corrected long baseline interferometers (e.g. VLTI, Keck, OHANA) perform as well as expected, theta_E may be determined with signal-to-noise greater than 10 for all bright events. We estimate that roughly a dozen events per year will be sufficiciently bright and have long enough durations to allow the measurement of the lens mass and distance from the ground. We also consider the prospects for a VLTI survey of all bright lensing events using a Fisher matrix analysis, and find that even without individual masses, interesting constraints may be placed on the bulge mass function, although large numbers of events would be required.Comment: 23 pages, aastex, submitted to Ap

Gisin's Theorem for Arbitrary Dimensional Multipartite States

We present a set of Bell inequalities which are sufficient and necessary for separability of general pure multipartite quantum states in arbitrary dimensions. The relations between Bell inequalities and distillability are also studied. We show that any quantum states that violate one of these Bell inequalities are distillable.Comment: 5 page

Decay of scalar variance in isotropic turbulence in a bounded domain

The decay of scalar variance in isotropic turbulence in a bounded domain is investigated. Extending the study of Touil, Bertoglio and Shao (2002; Journal of Turbulence, 03, 49) to the case of a passive scalar, the effect of the finite size of the domain on the lengthscales of turbulent eddies and scalar structures is studied by truncating the infrared range of the wavenumber spectra. Analytical arguments based on a simple model for the spectral distributions show that the decay exponent for the variance of scalar fluctuations is proportional to the ratio of the Kolmogorov constant to the Corrsin-Obukhov constant. This result is verified by closure calculations in which the Corrsin-Obukhov constant is artificially varied. Large-eddy simulations provide support to the results and give an estimation of the value of the decay exponent and of the scalar to velocity time scale ratio