Isospin particle on S2S^{2} with arbitrary number of supersymmetries

We study the supersymmetric quantum mechanics of an isospin particle in the background of spherically symmetric Yang-Mills gauge field. We show that on $S^{2}$ the number of supersymmetries can be made arbitrarily large for a specific choice of the spherically symmetric SU(2) gauge field. However, the symmetry algebra containing the supercharges becomes nonlinear if the number of fermions is greater than two. We present the exact energy spectra and eigenfunctions, which can be written as the product of monopole harmonics and a certain isospin state. We also find that the supersymmetry is spontaneously broken if the number of supersymmetries is even.Comment: 6 page

Emissions of plant protection products from glasshouses to surface water in The Netherlands

Momenteel wordt een vast percentage van 0.1% gebruikt voor de emissie van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen vanuit kassen naar het oppervlaktewater. Metingsgegevens van waterschappen wijzen erop dat de emissie van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden naar het oppervlaktewater hoger zijn dan aangenomen wordt in de toelatingsprocedure. Dit rapport onderzoekt of nieuwe benaderingen nodig zijn. De onderzoeksresultaten duiden er op dat de werkelijke emissie sterk verschilt tussen verschillende gewassen, teeltsystemen en toedieningswijzen. Dit zou in de evaluatie van de emissie meegenomen moeten worden

High Rayleigh number convection with double diffusive fingers

An electrodeposition cell is used to sustain a destabilizing concentration difference of copper ions in aqueous solution between the top and bottom boundaries of the cell. The resulting convecting motion is analogous to Rayleigh-B\'enard convection at high Prandtl numbers. In addition, a stabilizing temperature gradient is imposed across the cell. Even for thermal buoyancy two orders of magnitude smaller than chemical buoyancy, the presence of the weak stabilizing gradient has a profound effect on the convection pattern. Double diffusive fingers appear in all cases. The size of these fingers and the flow velocities are independent of the height of the cell, but they depend on the ion concentration difference between top and bottom boundaries as well as on the imposed temperature gradient. The scaling of the mass transport is compatible with previous results on double diffusive convection

Distribution of genetic diversity in wild European populations of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola): implications for plant genetic resources management

Genetic variation in Lactuca serriola, the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce, was studied across Europe from the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom, using three molecular marker systems, simple sequence repeat (SSR, microsatellites), AFLP and nucleotide-binding site (NBS) profiling. The ‘functional’ marker system NBS profiling, targeting disease resistance genes of the NBS/LRR family, did not show marked differences in genetic diversity parameters to the other systems. The autogamy of the species resulted in low observed heterozygosity and high population differentiation. Intra-population variation ranged from complete homogeneity to nearly complete heterogeneity. The highest genetic diversity was found in central Europe. The SSR results were compared to SSR variation screened earlier in the lettuce collection of the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN). In the UK, practically only a single SSR genotype was found. This genotype together with a few other common SSR genotypes comprised a large part of the plants sampled on the continent. Among the ten most frequent SSR genotypes observed, eight were already present in the CGN collection. Overall, the CGN collection appears to already have a fair representation of genetic variation from NW Europe. The results are discussed in relation to sampling strategies for improving genebank collections of crop wild relatives

From ternary to binary base and back

We describe a two-state machine which converts a number given in ternary base to this number in binary base—or vice versa

Spatially Resolved Excitation of Rydberg Atoms and Surface Effects on an Atom Chip

We demonstrate spatially resolved, coherent excitation of Rydberg atoms on an atom chip. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is used to investigate the properties of the Rydberg atoms near the gold coated chip surface. We measure distance dependent shifts (~10 MHz) of the Rydberg energy levels caused by a spatially inhomogeneous electric field. The measured field strength and distance dependence is in agreement with a simple model for the electric field produced by a localized patch of Rb adsorbates deposited on the chip surface during experiments. The EIT resonances remain narrow (< 4 MHz) and the observed widths are independent of atom-surface distance down to ~20 \mum, indicating relatively long lifetime of the Rydberg states. Our results open the way to studies of dipolar physics, collective excitations, quantum metrology and quantum information processing involving interacting Rydberg excited atoms on atom chips

Error Filtration and Entanglement Purification for Quantum Communication

The key realisation which lead to the emergence of the new field of quantum information processing is that quantum mechanics, the theory that describes microscopic particles, allows the processing of information in fundamentally new ways. But just as in classical information processing, errors occur in quantum information processing, and these have to be corrected. A fundamental breakthrough was the realisation that quantum error correction is in fact possible. However most work so far has not been concerned with technological feasibility, but rather with proving that quantum error correction is possible in principle. Here we describe a method for filtering out errors and entanglement purification which is particularly suitable for quantum communication. Our method is conceptually new, and, crucially, it is easy to implement in a wide variety of physical systems with present day technology and should therefore be of wide applicability.Comment: 23 pages (latex) and 4 postscript figure