1,498 research outputs found
Thermal behavior induced by vacuum polarization on causal horizons in comparison with the standard heat bath formalism
Modular theory of operator algebras and the associated KMS property are used
to obtain a unified description for the thermal aspects of the standard heat
bath situation and those caused by quantum vacuum fluctuations from
localization. An algebraic variant of lightfront holography reveals that the
vacuum polarization on wedge horizons is compressed into the lightray
direction. Their absence in the transverse direction is the prerequisite to an
area (generalized Bekenstein-) behavior of entropy-like measures which reveal
the loss of purity of the vacuum due to restrictions to wedges and their
horizons. Besides the well-known fact that localization-induced (generalized
Hawking-) temperature is fixed by the geometric aspects, this area behavior
(versus the standard volume dependence) constitutes the main difference between
localization-caused and standard thermal behavior.Comment: 15 page Latex, dedicated to A. A. Belavin on the occasion of his 60th
birthda
A microscopic model for Josephson currents
A microscopic model of a Josephson junction between two superconducting
plates is proposed and analysed. For this model, the nonequilibrium steady
state of the total system is explicitly constructed and its properties are
analysed. In particular, the Josephson current is rigorously computed as a
function of the phase difference of the two plates and the typical properties
of the Josephson current are recovered
Deriving Bisimulation Congruences: 2-categories vs precategories
G-relative pushouts (GRPOs) have recently been proposed by the authors as a new foundation for Leifer and Milner’s approach to deriving labelled bisimulation congruences from reduction systems. This paper develops the theory of GRPOs further, arguing that they provide a simple and powerful basis towards a comprehensive solution. As an example, we construct GRPOs in a category of ‘bunches and wirings.’ We then examine the approach based on Milner’s precategories and Leifer’s functorial reactive systems, and show that it can be recast in a much simpler way into the 2-categorical theory of GRPOs
The Quest for Understanding in Relativistic Quantum Physics
We discuss the status and some perspectives of relativistic quantum physics.Comment: Invited contribution to the Special Issue 2000 of the Journal of
Mathematical Physics, 38 pages, typos corrected and references added, as to
appear in JM
Fluctuation-dissipation theorem and the Unruh effect of scalar and Dirac fields
We present a simple and systematic method to calculate the Rindler noise,
which is relevant to the analysis of the Unruh effect, by using the
fluctuation-dissipative theorem. To do this, we calculate the dissipative
coefficient explicitly from the equations of motion of the detector and the
field. This method gives not only the correct answer but also a hint as to the
origin of the apparent statistics inversion effect. Moreover, this method is
generalized to the Dirac field, by using the fermionic fluctuation-dissipation
theorem. We can thus confirm that the fermionic fluctuation-dissipation theorem
is working properly.Comment: 26 page
Quantifying Self-Organization with Optimal Predictors
Despite broad interest in self-organizing systems, there are few
quantitative, experimentally-applicable criteria for self-organization. The
existing criteria all give counter-intuitive results for important cases. In
this Letter, we propose a new criterion, namely an internally-generated
increase in the statistical complexity, the amount of information required for
optimal prediction of the system's dynamics. We precisely define this
complexity for spatially-extended dynamical systems, using the probabilistic
ideas of mutual information and minimal sufficient statistics. This leads to a
general method for predicting such systems, and a simple algorithm for
estimating statistical complexity. The results of applying this algorithm to a
class of models of excitable media (cyclic cellular automata) strongly support
our proposal.Comment: Four pages, two color figure
Diamonds's Temperature: Unruh effect for bounded trajectories and thermal time hypothesis
We study the Unruh effect for an observer with a finite lifetime, using the
thermal time hypothesis. The thermal time hypothesis maintains that: (i) time
is the physical quantity determined by the flow defined by a state over an
observable algebra, and (ii) when this flow is proportional to a geometric flow
in spacetime, temperature is the ratio between flow parameter and proper time.
An eternal accelerated Unruh observer has access to the local algebra
associated to a Rindler wedge. The flow defined by the Minkowski vacuum of a
field theory over this algebra is proportional to a flow in spacetime and the
associated temperature is the Unruh temperature. An observer with a finite
lifetime has access to the local observable algebra associated to a finite
spacetime region called a "diamond". The flow defined by the Minkowski vacuum
of a (four dimensional, conformally invariant) quantum field theory over this
algebra is also proportional to a flow in spacetime. The associated temperature
generalizes the Unruh temperature to finite lifetime observers.
Furthermore, this temperature does not vanish even in the limit in which the
acceleration is zero. The temperature associated to an inertial observer with
lifetime T, which we denote as "diamond's temperature", is 2hbar/(pi k_b
T).This temperature is related to the fact that a finite lifetime observer does
not have access to all the degrees of freedom of the quantum field theory.Comment: One reference correcte
The Pivotal Role of Causality in Local Quantum Physics
In this article an attempt is made to present very recent conceptual and
computational developments in QFT as new manifestations of old and well
establihed physical principles. The vehicle for converting the
quantum-algebraic aspects of local quantum physics into more classical
geometric structures is the modular theory of Tomita. As the above named
laureate to whom I have dedicated has shown together with his collaborator for
the first time in sufficient generality, its use in physics goes through
Einstein causality. This line of research recently gained momentum when it was
realized that it is not only of structural and conceptual innovative power (see
section 4), but also promises to be a new computational road into
nonperturbative QFT (section 5) which, picturesquely speaking, enters the
subject on the extreme opposite (noncommutative) side.Comment: This is a updated version which has been submitted to Journal of
Physics A, tcilatex 62 pages. Adress: Institut fuer Theoretische Physik
FU-Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin presently CBPF, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud
150, 22290-180 Rio de Janeiro, Brazi
Interaction-based quantum metrology showing scaling beyond the Heisenberg limit
Quantum metrology studies the use of entanglement and other quantum resources
to improve precision measurement. An interferometer using N independent
particles to measure a parameter X can achieve at best the "standard quantum
limit" (SQL) of sensitivity {\delta}X \propto N^{-1/2}. The same interferometer
using N entangled particles can achieve in principle the "Heisenberg limit"
{\delta}X \propto N^{-1}, using exotic states. Recent theoretical work argues
that interactions among particles may be a valuable resource for quantum
metrology, allowing scaling beyond the Heisenberg limit. Specifically, a
k-particle interaction will produce sensitivity {\delta}X \propto N^{-k} with
appropriate entangled states and {\delta}X \propto N^{-(k-1/2)} even without
entanglement. Here we demonstrate this "super-Heisenberg" scaling in a
nonlinear, non-destructive measurement of the magnetisation of an atomic
ensemble. We use fast optical nonlinearities to generate a pairwise
photon-photon interaction (k = 2) while preserving quantum-noise-limited
performance, to produce {\delta}X \propto N^{-3/2}. We observe super-Heisenberg
scaling over two orders of magnitude in N, limited at large N by higher-order
nonlinear effects, in good agreement with theory. For a measurement of limited
duration, super-Heisenberg scaling allows the nonlinear measurement to overtake
in sensitivity a comparable linear measurement with the same number of photons.
In other scenarios, however, higher-order nonlinearities prevent this crossover
from occurring, reflecting the subtle relationship of scaling to sensitivity in
nonlinear systems. This work shows that inter-particle interactions can improve
sensitivity in a quantum-limited measurement, and introduces a fundamentally
new resource for quantum metrology
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