1,245 research outputs found
An Optimal Design for Universal Multiport Interferometers
Universal multiport interferometers, which can be programmed to implement any
linear transformation between multiple channels, are emerging as a powerful
tool for both classical and quantum photonics. These interferometers are
typically composed of a regular mesh of beam splitters and phase shifters,
allowing for straightforward fabrication using integrated photonic
architectures and ready scalability. The current, standard design for universal
multiport interferometers is based on work by Reck et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 73,
58, 1994). We demonstrate a new design for universal multiport interferometers
based on an alternative arrangement of beam splitters and phase shifters, which
outperforms that by Reck et al. Our design occupies half the physical footprint
of the Reck design and is significantly more robust to optical losses.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Gaussian Optical Ising Machines
It has recently been shown that optical parametric oscillator (OPO) Ising
machines, consisting of coupled optical pulses circulating in a cavity with
parametric gain, can be used to probabilistically find low-energy states of
Ising spin systems. In this work, we study optical Ising machines that operate
under simplified Gaussian dynamics. We show that these dynamics are sufficient
for reaching probabilities of success comparable to previous work. Based on
this result, we propose modified optical Ising machines with simpler designs
that do not use parametric gain yet achieve similar performance, thus
suggesting a route to building much larger systems.Comment: 6 page
Quantum phase estimation with lossy interferometers
We give a detailed discussion of optimal quantum states for optical two-mode
interferometry in the presence of photon losses. We derive analytical formulae
for the precision of phase estimation obtainable using quantum states of light
with a definite photon number and prove that maximization of the precision is a
convex optimization problem. The corresponding optimal precision, i.e. the
lowest possible uncertainty, is shown to beat the standard quantum limit thus
outperforming classical interferometry. Furthermore, we discuss more general
inputs: states with indefinite photon number and states with photons
distributed between distinguishable time bins. We prove that neither of these
is helpful in improving phase estimation precision.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
The Nature of the Molecular Environment within 5 pc of the Galactic Center
We present a detailed study of molecular gas in the central 10pc of the
Galaxy through spectral line observations of four rotation inversion
transitions of NH3 made with the VLA. Updated line widths and NH3(1,1)
opacities are presented, and temperatures, column densities, and masses are
derived. We examine the impact of Sgr A East on molecular material at the
Galactic center and find that there is no evidence that the expansion of this
shell has moved a significant amount of the 50 km/s GMC. The western streamer,
however, shows strong indications that it is composed of material swept-up by
the expansion of Sgr A East. Using the mass and kinematics of the western
streamer, we calculate an energy of E=(2-9)x10^{51} ergs for the progenitor
explosion and conclude that Sgr A East was most likely produced by a single
supernova. The temperature structure of molecular gas in the central ~20pc is
also analyzed in detail. We find that molecular gas has a ``two-temperature''
structure similar to that measured by Huttemeister et al. (2003a) on larger
scales. The largest observed line ratios, however, cannot be understood in
terms of a two-temperature model, and most likely result from absorption of
NH3(3,3) emission by cool surface layers of clouds. By comparing the observed
NH3 (6,6)-to-(3,3) line ratios, we disentangle three distinct molecular
features within a projected distance of 2pc from Sgr A*. Gas associated with
the highest line ratios shows kinematic signatures of both rotation and
expansion. The southern streamer shows no significant velocity gradients and
does not appear to be directly associated with either the circumnuclear disk or
the nucleus. The paper concludes with a discussion of the line-of-sight
arrangement of the main features in the central 10pc.Comment: 51 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. Due to size
limitations, some of the images have been cut from this version. A complete,
color PS or PDF version can be downloaded from
http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~herrnstein/NH3/paper
Dissipation of Quantum Turbulence in the Zero Temperature Limit
Turbulence, produced by an impulsive spin-down from angular velocity Omega to
rest of a cube-shaped container, is investigated in superfluid 4He at
temperatures 0.08 K - 1.6 K. The density of quantized vortex lines L is
measured by scattering negative ions. Homogeneous turbulence develops after
time t of approximately 20 \Omega and decays as L proportional to t^(-3/2). The
corresponding energy flux epsilon = nu' (kappa L)^2, which is proportional to
t^(-3), is characteristic of quasi-classical turbulence at high Re with a
saturated energy-containing length. The effective kinematic viscosity in the
T=0 limit is nu' = 0.003 kappa, where kappa=10^(-3) cm^2 / s is the circulation
quantum.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Updated following referees comment
Encoding a qubit into multilevel subspaces
We present a formalism for encoding the logical basis of a qubit into
subspaces of multiple physical levels. The need for this multilevel encoding
arises naturally in situations where the speed of quantum operations exceeds
the limits imposed by the addressability of individual energy levels of the
qubit physical system. A basic feature of the multilevel encoding formalism is
the logical equivalence of different physical states and correspondingly, of
different physical transformations. This logical equivalence is a source of a
significant flexibility in designing logical operations, while the multilevel
structure inherently accommodates fast and intense broadband controls thereby
facilitating faster quantum operations. Another important practical advantage
of multilevel encoding is the ability to maintain full quantum-computational
fidelity in the presence of mixing and decoherence within encoding subspaces.
The formalism is developed in detail for single-qubit operations and
generalized for multiple qubits. As an illustrative example, we perform a
simulation of closed-loop optimal control of single-qubit operations for a
model multilevel system, and subsequently apply these operations at finite
temperatures to investigate the effect of decoherence on operational fidelity.Comment: IOPart LaTeX, 2 figures, 31 pages; addition of a numerical simulatio
First detection of ammonia in M82
We report the detection of the (J,K) = (1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) inversion
lines of ammonia (NH3) towards the south--western molecular lobe in M82. The
relative intensities of the ammonia lines are characterized by a rotational
temperature of T_rot=29+/-5 K which implies an average kinetic temperature of
T_kin~60 K. A Gaussian decomposition of the observed spectra indicates
increasing kinetic temperatures towards the nucleus of M82, consistent with
recent findings based on CO observations. The observations imply a very low NH3
abundance relative to H2, X(NH3)~5x10^(-10). We present evidence for a
decreasing NH3 abundance towards the central active regions in M82 and
interpret this abundance gradient in terms of photodissociation of NH3 in PDRs.
The low temperature derived here from NH3 also explains the apparent
underabundance of complex molecules like CH_3OH and HNCO, which has previously
been reported.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ
Ultrahigh and persistent optical depths of caesium in Kagom\'e-type hollow-core photonic crystal fibres
Alkali-filled hollow-core fibres are a promising medium for investigating
light-matter interactions, especially at the single-photon level, due to the
tight confinement of light and high optical depths achievable by light-induced
atomic desorption. However, until now these large optical depths could only be
generated for seconds at most once per day, severely limiting the practicality
of the technology. Here we report the generation of highest observed transient
( for up to a minute) and highest observed persistent ( for
hours) optical depths of alkali vapours in a light-guiding geometry to date,
using a caesium-filled Kagom\'e-type hollow-core photonic crystal fibre. Our
results pave the way to light-matter interaction experiments in confined
geometries requiring long operation times and large atomic number densities,
such as generation of single-photon-level nonlinearities and development of
single photon quantum memories.Comment: Author Accepted versio
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