189 research outputs found
Coherence lifetimes of excitations in an atomic condensate due to the thin spectrum
We study the quantum coherence properties of a finite sized atomic condensate
using a toy-model and the thin spectrum model formalism. The decoherence time
for a condensate in the ground state, nominally taken as a variational symmetry
breaking state, is investigated for both zero and finite temperatures. We also
consider the lifetimes for Bogoliubov quasi-particle excitations, and contrast
them to the observability window determined by the ground state coherence time.
The lifetimes are shown to exhibit a general characteristic dependence on the
temperature, determined by the thin spectrum accompanying the spontaneous
symmetry breaking ground state
SU(1,1) symmetry of multimode squeezed states
We show that a class of multimode optical transformations that employ linear
optics plus two-mode squeezing can be expressed as SU(1,1) operators. These
operations are relevant to state-of-the-art continuous variable quantum
information experiments including quantum state sharing, quantum teleportation,
and multipartite entangled states. Using this SU(1,1) description of these
transformations, we obtain a new basis for such transformations that lies in a
useful representation of this group and lies outside the often-used restriction
to Gaussian states. We analyze this basis, show its application to a class of
transformations, and discuss its extension to more general quantum optical
networks
Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at Degree Angular Scales Near the Stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis
We present results from two four-frequency observations centered near the
stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis during the fourth flight of the
Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observations were made of 6 x
0.6-degree strips of the sky with 1.4-degree peak to peak sinusoidal chop in
all bands. The FWHM beam sizes were 0.55+/-0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and a
0.75+/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9, and 14 cm-1. Significant correlated structures
were observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1. The spectra of these signals are
inconsistent with thermal emission from known interstellar dust populations.
The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too small
to account for the amplitude of the observed structures. If the observed
structures are attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation
function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values are
DT/TCMB = (3.1 +1.7-1.3) x 10^-5 for the Sigma Hercules scan, and DT/TCMB =
(3.3 +/- 1.1) x 10^-5 for the Iota Draconis scan (95% confidence upper and
lower limits). Finally a comparison of all six MAX scans is presented.Comment: 13 pages, postscript file, 2 figure
Characterization of the K2-18 multi-planetary system with HARPS: A habitable zone super-Earth and discovery of a second, warm super-Earth on a non-coplanar orbit
The bright M dwarf K2-18 at 34 pc is known to host a transiting
super-Earth-sized planet orbiting within the star's habitable zone; K2-18b.
Given the superlative nature of this system for studying an exoplanetary
atmosphere receiving similar levels of insolation as the Earth, we aim to
characterize the planet's mass which is required to interpret atmospheric
properties and infer the planet's bulk composition. We obtain precision radial
velocity measurements with the HARPS spectrograph and couple those measurements
with the K2 photometry to jointly model the observed radial velocity variation
with planetary signals and a radial velocity jitter model based on Gaussian
process regression. We measure the mass of K2-18b to be
M with a bulk density of g/cm which may correspond
to a predominantly rocky planet with a significant gaseous envelope or an ocean
planet with a water mass fraction %. We also find strong evidence
for a second, warm super-Earth K2-18c at days with a semi-major axis
2.4 times smaller than the transiting K2-18b. After re-analyzing the available
light curves of K2-18 we conclude that K2-18c is not detected in transit and
therefore likely has an orbit that is non-coplanar with K2-18b. A suite of
dynamical integrations with varying simulated orbital eccentricities of the two
planets are used to further constrain each planet's eccentricity posterior from
which we measure and at 99% confidence. The discovery
of the inner planet K2-18c further emphasizes the prevalence of multi-planet
systems around M dwarfs. The characterization of the density of K2-18b reveals
that the planet likely has a thick gaseous envelope which along with its
proximity to the Solar system makes the K2-18 planetary system an interesting
target for the atmospheric study of an exoplanet receiving Earth-like
insolation.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures including 4 interactive figures best viewed in
Adobe Acrobat. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics. Comments welcom
Husimi Transform of an Operator Product
It is shown that the series derived by Mizrahi, giving the Husimi transform
(or covariant symbol) of an operator product, is absolutely convergent for a
large class of operators. In particular, the generalized Liouville equation,
describing the time evolution of the Husimi function, is absolutely convergent
for a large class of Hamiltonians. By contrast, the series derived by
Groenewold, giving the Weyl transform of an operator product, is often only
asymptotic, or even undefined. The result is used to derive an alternative way
of expressing expectation values in terms of the Husimi function. The advantage
of this formula is that it applies in many of the cases where the anti-Husimi
transform (or contravariant symbol) is so highly singular that it fails to
exist as a tempered distribution.Comment: AMS-Latex, 13 page
A super-Earth orbiting the nearby M-dwarf GJ 536
We report the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting the star GJ 536 based on
the analysis of the radial-velocity time series from the HARPS and HARPS-N
spectrographs. GJ 536 b is a planet with a minimum mass M sin of 5.36 +-
0.69 Me with an orbital period of 8.7076 +- 0.0025 days at a distance of
0.066610(13) AU, and an orbit that is consistent with circular. The host star
is the moderately quiet M1 V star GJ 536, located at 10 pc from the Sun. We
find the presence of a second signal at 43 days that we relate to stellar
rotation after analysing the time series of Ca II H&K and H alpha spectroscopic
indicators and photometric data from the ASAS archive. We find no evidence
linking the short period signal to any activity proxy. We also tentatively
derived a stellar magnetic cycle of less than 3 years.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, 5 tables, Accepted in A&
Generalized thermo vacuum state derived by the partial trace method
By virtue of the technique of integration within an ordered product (IWOP) of
operators we present a new approach for deriving generalized thermo vacuum
state which is simpler in form that the result by using the Umezawa-Takahashi
approach, in this way the thermo field dynamics can be developed. Applications
of the new state are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, no figure, revtex
Sampling functions for multimode homodyne tomography with a single local oscillator
We derive various sampling functions for multimode homodyne tomography with a
single local oscillator. These functions allow us to sample multimode
s-parametrized quasidistributions, density matrix elements in Fock basis, and
s-ordered moments of arbitrary order directly from the measured quadrature
statistics. The inevitable experimental losses can be compensated by proper
modification of the sampling functions. Results of Monte Carlo simulations for
squeezed three-mode state are reported and the feasibility of reconstruction of
the three-mode Q-function and s-ordered moments from 10^7 sampled data is
demonstrated.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, REVTeX, submitted Phys. Rev.
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