21,126 research outputs found

    The EET Horizontal Tails Investigation and the EET Lateral Controls Investigation

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    In the energy efficient transport (EET) Horizontal Tails Investigation, aerodynamic data were measured for five different horizontal tails on a full span model with a wide body fuselage. Three of the horizontal tails were low tail configurations and two were T tail configurations. All tails were tested in conjunction with two wings, a current wide body wing and a high aspect ratio supercritical wing. Local downwash angles and dynamic pressures in the vicinity of the tails were measured using a yaw head rake. The results provide a comparison of the aerodynamic characteristics of the two wing configurations at trimmed conditions for Mach numbers between 0.60 and 0.90. In the EET Lateral Controls Investigation, the control effectiveness of a conventional set of lateral controls was measured over a Mach number range from 0.60 to 0.90 on a high aspect ratio supercritical wing semispan model. The conventional controls included a high speed aileron, a low speed aileron, and six spoiler segments. The wing was designed so that the last 25% of the chord is removable to facilitate testing of various control systems. The current status and an indication of the data obtained in these investigations are presented

    Electron-hole spectra created by adsorption on metals from density-functional theory

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    Non-adiabaticity in adsorption on metal surfaces gives rise to a number of measurable effects, such as chemicurrents and exo-electron emission. Here we present a quantitative theory of chemicurrents on the basis of ground-state density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of the effective electronic potential and the Kohn-Sham band structure. Excitation probabilities are calculated both for electron-hole pairs and for electrons and holes separately from first-order time-dependent perturbation theory. This is accomplished by evaluating the matrix elements (between Kohn-Sham states) of the rate of change of the effective electronic potential between subsequent (static) DFT calculations. Our approach is related to the theory of electronic friction, but allows for direct access to the excitation spectra. The method is applied to adsorption of atomic hydrogen isotopes on the Al(111) surface. The results are compatible with the available experimental data (for noble metal surfaces); in particular, the observed isotope effect in H versus D adsorption is described by the present theory. Moreover, the results are in qualitative agreement with computationally elaborate calculations of the full dynamics within time-dependent density-functional theory, with the notable exception of effects due to the spin dynamics. Being a perturbational approach, the method proposed here is simple enough to be applied to a wide class of adsorbates and surfaces, while at the same time allowing us to extract system-specific information.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B, http://prb.aps.org/, v2: some major improvements, plus correction of minor error

    Quality of Variational Trial States

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    Besides perturbation theory (which clearly requires the knowledge of the exact unperturbed solution), variational techniques represent the main tool for any investigation of the eigenvalue problem of some semibounded operator H in quantum theory. For a reasonable choice of the employed trial subspace of the domain of H, the lowest eigenvalues of H usually can be located with acceptable precision whereas the trial-subspace vectors corresponding to these eigenvalues approximate, in general, the exact eigenstates of H with much less accuracy. Accordingly, various measures for the accuracy of the approximate eigenstates derived by variational techniques are scrutinized. In particular, the matrix elements of the commutator of the operator H and (suitably chosen) different operators with respect to degenerate approximate eigenstates of H obtained by variational methods are proposed as new criteria for the accuracy of variational eigenstates. These considerations are applied to precisely that Hamiltonian for which the eigenvalue problem defines the well-known spinless Salpeter equation. This bound-state wave equation may be regarded as (the most straightforward) relativistic generalization of the usual nonrelativistic Schroedinger formalism, and is frequently used to describe, e.g., spin-averaged mass spectra of bound states of quarks.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, version to appear in Physical Review

    Rapid-purification protocols for optical homodyning

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    We present a number of rapid-purification feedback protocols for optical homodyne detection of a single optical qubit. We derive first a protocol that speeds up the rate of increase of the average purity of the system, and find that like the equivalent protocol for a non-disspative measurement, this generates a deterministic evolution for the purity in the limit of strong feedback. We also consider two analogues of the Wiseman-Ralph rapid-purification protocol in this setting, and show that like that protocol they speed up the average time taken to reach a fixed level of purity. We also examine how the performance of these algorithms changes with detection efficiency, being an important practical consideration.Comment: 6 pages, revtex4, 3 eps figure

    Absolute Dynamical Limit to Cooling Weakly-Coupled Quantum Systems

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    Cooling of a quantum system is limited by the size of the control forces that are available (the "speed" of control). We consider the most general cooling process, albeit restricted to the regime in which the thermodynamics of the system is preserved (weak coupling). Within this regime, we further focus on the most useful control regime, in which a large cooling factor, and good ground-state cooling can be achieved. We present a control protocol for cooling, and give clear structural arguments, as well as strong numerical evidence, that this protocol is globally optimal. From this we obtain simple expressions for the limit to cooling that is imposed by the speed of control.Comment: 4 pages, Revetex4-1, 2 png figure

    The Spoor Law: An Anachronism or Constitutional Misfit?

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    The spoor law is a rule of African customary law that determines liability for stock theft. It provides that, if the tracks of lost or stolen livestock can be traced to a homestead or its immediate surrounds, the head of that establishment will be held liable. If the direction of the spoor do not point to a specific homestead, all those in the vicinity become jointly liable. As a convenient deterrent to the theft of livestock, the spoor law was incorporated into the laws of the Cape Province, Natal and the Transkeian Territories at the end of the nineteenth century, making it the only rule of customary law to be applicable without regard to race prior to the new Constitution. This article questions whether the spoor law still is, and should be, part of South African law. It has never been formally repealed, and still survives in the 1983 Transkei Penal Code. Although the law has not been mentioned in a reported case for many years, it might play a valuable role in crime control, since stock theft remains a serious and pervasive crime in South Africa. The article argues, however, that it will probably not survive constitutional review, because it has the effect of imposing a reverse onus of proof

    A Straightforward Introduction to Continuous Quantum Measurement

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    We present a pedagogical treatment of the formalism of continuous quantum measurement. Our aim is to show the reader how the equations describing such measurements are derived and manipulated in a direct manner. We also give elementary background material for those new to measurement theory, and describe further various aspects of continuous measurements that should be helpful to those wanting to use such measurements in applications. Specifically, we use the simple and direct approach of generalized measurements to derive the stochastic master equation describing the continuous measurements of observables, give a tutorial on stochastic calculus, treat multiple observers and inefficient detection, examine a general form of the measurement master equation, and show how the master equation leads to information gain and disturbance. To conclude, we give a detailed treatment of imaging the resonance fluorescence from a single atom as a concrete example of how a continuous position measurement arises in a physical system.Comment: 24 pages, 3 eps figues. To appear in Contemporary Physic

    Conditions for the Quantum to Classical Transition: Trajectories vs. Phase Space Distributions

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    We contrast two sets of conditions that govern the transition in which classical dynamics emerges from the evolution of a quantum system. The first was derived by considering the trajectories seen by an observer (dubbed the ``strong'' transition) [Bhattacharya, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85: 4852 (2000)], and the second by considering phase-space densities (the ``weak'' transition) [Greenbaum, et al., Chaos 15, 033302 (2005)]. On the face of it these conditions appear rather different. We show, however, that in the semiclassical regime, in which the action of the system is large compared to \hbar, and the measurement noise is small, they both offer an essentially equivalent local picture. Within this regime, the weak conditions dominate while in the opposite regime where the action is not much larger than Planck's constant, the strong conditions dominate.Comment: 8 pages, 2 eps figure
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