34,990 research outputs found
Weak measurements with orbital angular momentum pointer states
Weak measurements are a unique tool for accessing information about weakly
interacting quantum systems with minimal back action. Joint weak measurements
of single-particle operators with pointer states characterized by a
two-dimensional Gaussian distribution can provide, in turn, key information
about quantum correlations which can be of relevance for quantum information
applications. Here we demonstrate that by employing two-dimensional pointer
states endowed with orbital angular momentum (OAM), it is possible to extract
weak values of the higher order moments of single-particle operators, an
inaccessible quantity with Gaussian pointer states only. We provide a specific
example that illustrates the advantages of our method both, in terms of signal
enhancement, and information retrieval.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
The nuclear contacts and short range correlations in nuclei
Atomic nuclei are complex strongly interacting systems and their exact
theoretical description is a long-standing challenge. An approximate
description of nuclei can be achieved by separating its short and long range
structure. This separation of scales stands at the heart of the nuclear shell
model and effective field theories that describe the long-range structure of
the nucleus using a mean- field approximation. We present here an effective
description of the complementary short-range structure using contact terms and
stylized two-body asymptotic wave functions. The possibility to extract the
nuclear contacts from experimental data is presented. Regions in the two-body
momentum distribution dominated by high-momentum, close-proximity, nucleon
pairs are identified and compared to experimental data. The amount of
short-range correlated (SRC) nucleon pairs is determined and compared to
measurements. Non-combinatorial isospin symmetry for SRC pairs is identified.
The obtained one-body momentum distributions indicate dominance of SRC pairs
above the nuclear Fermi-momentum.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physics Letters. 6 pages, 2 figure
Discrete transformation for matrix 3-waves problem in three dimensional space
Discrete transformation for 3- waves problem is constructed in explicit form.
Generalization of this system on the matrix case in three dimensional space
together with corresponding discrete transformation is presented also.Comment: LaTeX, 16 page
Helico-conical optical beams self-heal
An optical beam is said to be self-healing when, distorted by an obstacle,
the beam corrects itself upon propagation. In this letter, we show through
experiments supported by numerical simulations, that Helico-conical optical
beams (HCOBs) self-heal. We observe the strong resilience of these beams with
different types of obstructions, and relate this to the characteristics of
their transverse energy flow.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Theory of photon coincidence statistics in photon-correlated beams
The statistics of photon coincidence counting in photon-correlated beams is thoroughly investigated considering the effect of the finite coincidence resolving time. The correlated beams are assumed to be generated using parametric downconversion, and the photon streams in the correlated beams are modeled by two partially correlated Poisson point processes. An exact expression for the mean rate of coincidence registration is developed using techniques from renewal theory. It is shown that the use of the traditional approximate rate, in certain situations, leads to the overestimation of the actual rate. The error between the exact and approximate coincidence rates increases as the coincidence-noise parameter, defined as the mean number of uncorrelated photons detected per coincidence resolving time, increases. The use of the exact statistics of the coincidence becomes crucial when the background noise is high or in cases when high precision measurement of coincidence is required. Such cases arise whenever the coincidence-noise parameter is even slightly in excess of zero. It is also shown that the probability distribution function of the time between consecutive coincidence registration can be well approximated by an exponential distribution function. The well-known and experimentally verified Poissonian model of the coincidence registration process is therefore theoretically justified. The theory is applied to an on-off keying communication system proposed by Mandel which has been shown to perform well in extremely noisy conditions. It is shown that the bit-error rate (BER) predicted by the approximate coincidence-rate theory can be significantly lower than the actual BER obtained using the exact theory
Spin frequency distributions of binary millisecond pulsars
Rotation-powered millisecond radio pulsars have been spun up to their present
spin period by a - yr long X-ray-bright phase of accretion of
matter and angular momentum in a low-to-intermediate mass binary system.
Recently, the discovery of transitional pulsars that alternate cyclically
between accretion and rotation-powered states on time scales of a few years or
shorter, has demonstrated this evolutionary scenario. Here, we present a
thorough statistical analysis of the spin distributions of the various classes
of millisecond pulsars to assess the evolution of their spin period between the
different stages. Accreting sources that showed oscillations exclusively during
thermonuclear type I X-ray bursts (nuclear-powered millisecond pulsars) are
found to be significantly faster than rotation-powered sources, while accreting
sources that possess a magnetosphere and show coherent pulsations (accreting
millisecond pulsars) are not. On the other hand, if accreting millisecond
pulsars and eclipsing rotation-powered millisecond pulsars form a common class
of transitional pulsars, these are shown to have a spin distribution
intermediate between the faster nuclear-powered millisecond pulsars and the
slower non-eclipsing rotation-powered millisecond pulsars. We interpret these
findings in terms of a spin-down due to the decreasing mass-accretion rate
during the latest stages of the accretion phase, and in terms of the different
orbital evolutionary channels mapped by the various classes of pulsars. We
summarize possible instrumental selection effects, showing that even if an
unbiased sample of pulsars is still lacking, their influence on the results of
the presented analysis is reduced by recent improvements in instrumentation and
searching techniques.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (6 pages, 4 figures
Comparing supernova remnants around strongly magnetized and canonical pulsars
The origin of the strong magnetic fields measured in magnetars is one of the
main uncertainties in the neutron star field. On the other hand, the recent
discovery of a large number of such strongly magnetized neutron stars, is
calling for more investigation on their formation. The first proposed model for
the formation of such strong magnetic fields in magnetars was through
alpha-dynamo effects on the rapidly rotating core of a massive star. Other
scenarios involve highly magnetic massive progenitors that conserve their
strong magnetic moment into the core after the explosion, or a common envelope
phase of a massive binary system. In this work, we do a complete re-analysis of
the archival X-ray emission of the Supernova Remnants (SNR) surrounding
magnetars, and compare our results with all other bright X-ray emitting SNRs,
which are associated with Compact Central Objects (CCOs; which are proposed to
have magnetar-like B-fields buried in the crust by strong accretion soon after
their formation), high-B pulsars and normal pulsars. We find that emission
lines in SNRs hosting highly magnetic neutron stars do not differ significantly
in elements or ionization state from those observed in other SNRs, neither
averaging on the whole remnants, nor studying different parts of their total
spatial extent. Furthermore, we find no significant evidence that the total
X-ray luminosities of SNRs hosting magnetars, are on average larger than that
of typical young X-ray SNRs. Although biased by a small number of objects, we
found that for a similar age, there is the same percentage of magnetars showing
a detectable SNR than for the normal pulsar population.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
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