229 research outputs found
Parallel quantized charge pumping
Two quantized charge pumps are operated in parallel. The total current
generated is shown to be far more accurate than the current produced with just
one pump operating at a higher frequency. With the application of a
perpendicular magnetic field the accuracy of quantization is shown to be 20
ppm for a current of pA. The scheme for parallel pumping presented in
this work has applications in quantum information processing, the generation of
single photons in pairs and bunches, neural networking and the development of a
quantum standard for electrical current. All these applications will benefit
greatly from the increase in output current without the characteristic decrease
in accuracy as a result of high-frequency operation
The New White Flight
White charter school enclaves—defined as charter schools located in school districts that are thirty percent or less white, but that enroll a student body that is fifty percent or greater white— are emerging across the country. The emergence of white charter school enclaves is the result of a sobering and ugly truth: when given a choice, white parents as a collective tend to choose racially segregated, predominately white schools. Empirical research supports this claim. Empirical research also demonstrates that white parents as a collective will make that choice even when presented with the option of a more racially diverse school that is of good academic quality.
Despite the connection between collective white parental choice and school segregation, greater choice continues to be injected into the school assignment process. School choice assignment policies, particularly charter schools, are proliferating at a substantial rate. As a result, parental choice rather than systemic design is creating new patterns of racial segregation and inequality in public schools. Yet the Supreme Court’s school desegregation jurisprudence insulates racial segregation in schools ostensibly caused by parental choice rather than systemic design from regulation. Consequently, the new patterns of racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice largely escapes regulation by courts.
This article argues that the time has come to reconsider the legal and normative viability of regulating racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice. The article makes two important contributions to the legal literature on school desegregation. First, using white charter school enclaves as an example, it documents the ways in which school choice policies are being used to allow whites as a collective to satisfy their preference for segregated predominately white schools. Second, the article sets forth both constitutional and normative arguments for regulating the private choices that result in stark racial segregation patterns in public schools
Towards single-electron metrology
We review the status of the understanding of single-electron transport (SET)
devices with respect to their applicability in metrology. Their envisioned role
as the basis of a high-precision electrical standard is outlined and is
discussed in the context of other standards. The operation principles of single
electron transistors, turnstiles and pumps are explained and the fundamental
limits of these devices are discussed in detail. We describe the various
physical mechanisms that influence the device uncertainty and review the
analytical and numerical methods needed to calculate the intrinsic uncertainty
and to optimise the fabrication and operation parameters. Recent experimental
results are evaluated and compared with theoretical predictions. Although there
are discrepancies between theory and experiments, the intrinsic uncertainty is
already small enough to start preparing for the first SET-based metrological
applications.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. Review paper to be published in International
Journal of Modern Physics
Laser Cooling of Optically Trapped Molecules
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules are loaded into an optical dipole trap
(ODT) and subsequently laser cooled within the trap. Starting with
magneto-optical trapping, we sub-Doppler cool CaF and then load CaF
molecules into an ODT. Enhanced loading by a factor of five is obtained when
sub-Doppler cooling light and trapping light are on simultaneously. For trapped
molecules, we directly observe efficient sub-Doppler cooling to a temperature
of . The trapped molecular density of
cm is an order of magnitude greater than in the initial sub-Doppler
cooled sample. The trap lifetime of 750(40) ms is dominated by background gas
collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Characteristics of Cosmic Time
The nature of cosmic time is illuminated using Hamilton-Jacobi theory for
general relativity. For problems of interest to cosmology, one may solve for
the phase of the wavefunctional by using a line integral in superspace. Each
contour of integration corresponds to a particular choice of time hypersurface,
and each yields the same answer. In this way, one can construct a covariant
formalism where all time hypersurfaces are treated on an equal footing. Using
the method of characteristics, explicit solutions for an inflationary epoch
with several scalar fields are given. The theoretical predictions of double
inflation are compared with recent galaxy data and large angle microwave
background anisotropies.Comment: 20 pages, RevTex using Latex 2.09, Submitted to Physical Review D Two
figures included in fil
Lectures on inflation and cosmological perturbations
The purpose of these lectures is to give a pedagogical introduction to
inflation and the production of primordial perturbations, as well as a review
of some of the latest developments in this domain. After a short introduction,
we review the main principles of the Hot Big Bang model, as well as its
limitations. This motivates the study of cosmological inflation induced by a
slow-rolling scalar field. We then turn to the analysis of cosmological
perturbations, and explain how the vacuum quantum fluctuations are amplified
during an inflationary phase. The next step consists in relating the
perturbations generated during inflation to the perturbations of the
cosmological fluid in the radiation dominated phase. The final part of these
lectures gives a review of more general models of inflation, involving multiple
fields or non standard kinetic terms. Although more complicated, these models
are usually motivated by high energy physics and they can lead to specific
signatures that are not expected in the simplest models of inflation. After
introducing a very general formalism to describe perturbations in multi-field
models with arbitrary kinetic terms, several interesting cases are presented.
We also stress the role of entropy perturbations in the context of multi-field
models. Finally, we discuss in detail the non-Gaussianities of the primordial
perturbations and some models that could produce a detectable level of
non-Gaussianities.Comment: 56 pages, 5 figures; Lectures given at the Second TRR33 Winter School
on cosmology, Passo del Tonale (Italy), December 200
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