1,228 research outputs found
Classical Robustness of Quantum Unravellings
We introduce three measures which quantify the degree to which quantum
systems possess the robustness exhibited by classical systems when subjected to
continuous observation. Using these we show that for a fixed environmental
interaction the level of robustness depends on the measurement strategy, or
unravelling, and that no single strategy is maximally robust in all ways.Comment: 8 Pages, 2 figures, Version 2. Minor changes to wording for
clarification and some references added. Accepted for publication in
Europhysics Letter
Optimal states and almost optimal adaptive measurements for quantum interferometry
We derive the optimal N-photon two-mode input state for obtaining an estimate
\phi of the phase difference between two arms of an interferometer. For an
optimal measurement [B. C. Sanders and G. J. Milburn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 2944
(1995)], it yields a variance (\Delta \phi)^2 \simeq \pi^2/N^2, compared to
O(N^{-1}) or O(N^{-1/2}) for states considered by previous authors. Such a
measurement cannot be realized by counting photons in the interferometer
outputs. However, we introduce an adaptive measurement scheme that can be thus
realized, and show that it yields a variance in \phi very close to that from an
optimal measurement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, journal versio
In-loop squeezing is real squeezing to an in-loop atom
Electro-optical feedback can produce an in-loop photocurrent with arbitrarily
low noise. This is not regarded as evidence of `real' squeezing because
squeezed light cannot be extracted from the loop using a linear beam splitter.
Here I show that illuminating an atom (which is a nonlinear optical element)
with `in-loop' squeezed light causes line-narrowing of one quadrature of the
atom's fluorescence. This has long been regarded as an effect which can only be
produced by squeezing. Experiments on atoms using in-loop squeezing should be
much easier than those with conventional sources of squeezed light.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Entanglement-free Heisenberg-limited phase estimation
Measurement underpins all quantitative science. A key example is the
measurement of optical phase, used in length metrology and many other
applications. Advances in precision measurement have consistently led to
important scientific discoveries. At the fundamental level, measurement
precision is limited by the number N of quantum resources (such as photons)
that are used. Standard measurement schemes, using each resource independently,
lead to a phase uncertainty that scales as 1/sqrt(N) - known as the standard
quantum limit. However, it has long been conjectured that it should be possible
to achieve a precision limited only by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle,
dramatically improving the scaling to 1/N. It is commonly thought that
achieving this improvement requires the use of exotic quantum entangled states,
such as the NOON state. These states are extremely difficult to generate.
Measurement schemes with counted photons or ions have been performed with N <=
6, but few have surpassed the standard quantum limit and none have shown
Heisenberg-limited scaling. Here we demonstrate experimentally a
Heisenberg-limited phase estimation procedure. We replace entangled input
states with multiple applications of the phase shift on unentangled
single-photon states. We generalize Kitaev's phase estimation algorithm using
adaptive measurement theory to achieve a standard deviation scaling at the
Heisenberg limit. For the largest number of resources used (N = 378), we
estimate an unknown phase with a variance more than 10 dB below the standard
quantum limit; achieving this variance would require more than 4,000 resources
using standard interferometry. Our results represent a drastic reduction in the
complexity of achieving quantum-enhanced measurement precision.Comment: Published in Nature. This is the final versio
Squashed States of Light: Theory and Applications to Quantum Spectroscopy
Using a feedback loop it is possible to reduce the fluctuations in one
quadrature of an in-loop field without increasing the fluctuations in the
other. This effect has been known for a long time, and has recently been called
``squashing'' [B.C. Buchler et al., Optics Letters {\bf 24}, 259 (1999)], as
opposed to the ``squeezing'' of a free field in which the conjugate
fluctuations are increased. In this paper I present a general theory of
squashing, including simultaneous squashing of both quadratures and
simultaneous squeezing and squashing. I show that a two-level atom coupled to
the in-loop light feels the effect of the fluctuations as calculated by the
theory. In the ideal limit of light squeezed in one quadrature and squashed in
the other, the atomic decay can be completely suppressed.Comment: 8 pages plus one figure. Submitted to JEOS-B for Dan Walls Special
Issu
An immunotherapy survivor population: health-related quality of life and toxicity in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors
© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Purpose The immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have resulted in subgroups of patients with metastatic melanoma achievinghigh-quality durable responses. Metastatic melanoma survivors are a new population in the era of cancer survivorship. The aimofthis study was to evaluate metastatic melanoma survivors in terms of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), immune-relatedadverse events (irAEs) and exposure to immunosuppressive agents in a large single centre in the UK.Methods We defined the survivor population as patients with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma who achieved a durableresponse to an ICI and had been followed-up for a minimum of 12 months from initiation of ICI without disease progression.HRQoL was assessed using SF-36. Electronic health records were accessed to collect data on demographics, treatments, irAEsand survival. HRQoL data was compared with two norm-based datasets.Results Eighty-four metastatic melanoma survivors were eligible and 87% (N = 73) completed the SF-36. ICI-related toxicity ofany grade occurred in 92%of patients and 43%had experienced a grade 3 or 4 toxicity. Almost half (49%) of the patients requiredsteroids for the treatment of ICI-related toxicity, whilst 14% required treatment with an immunosuppressive agent beyondsteroids.Melanoma survivors had statistically significant lower HRQoL scores with regard to physical, social and physical rolefunctioning and general health compared with the normative population. There was a trend towards inferior scores in patientswith previous exposure to ipilimumab compared with those never exposed to ipilimumab.Conclusions Our results show that metastatic melanoma survivors have potentially experienced significant ICI-related toxicityand experience significant impairments in specific HRQoL domains. Future service planning is required to meet this population’sunique survivorship needs.Peer reviewe
Confidence and Backaction in the Quantum Filter Equation
We study the confidence and backaction of state reconstruction based on a
continuous weak measurement and the quantum filter equation. As a physical
example we use the traditional model of a double quantum dot being continuously
monitored by a quantum point contact. We examine the confidence of the estimate
of a state constructed from the measurement record, and the effect of
backaction of that measurement on that state. Finally, in the case of general
measurements we show that using the relative entropy as a measure of confidence
allows us to define the lower bound on the confidence as a type of quantum
discord.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Three-Charge Black Holes on a Circle
We study phases of five-dimensional three-charge black holes with a circle in
their transverse space. In particular, when the black hole is localized on the
circle we compute the corrections to the metric and corresponding
thermodynamics in the limit of small mass. When taking the near-extremal limit,
this gives the corrections to the constant entropy of the extremal three-charge
black hole as a function of the energy above extremality. For the partial
extremal limit with two charges sent to infinity and one finite we show that
the first correction to the entropy is in agreement with the microscopic
entropy by taking into account that the number of branes shift as a consequence
of the interactions across the transverse circle. Beyond these analytical
results, we also numerically obtain the entire phase of non- and near-extremal
three- and two-charge black holes localized on a circle. More generally, we
find in this paper a rich phase structure, including a new phase of
three-charge black holes that are non-uniformly distributed on the circle. All
these three-charge black hole phases are found via a map that relates them to
the phases of five-dimensional neutral Kaluza-Klein black holes.Comment: 58 pages, 10 figures; v2: Corrected typos, version appearing in JHE
Matched Asymptotic Expansion for Caged Black Holes - Regularization of the Post-Newtonian Order
The "dialogue of multipoles" matched asymptotic expansion for small black
holes in the presence of compact dimensions is extended to the Post-Newtonian
order for arbitrary dimensions. Divergences are identified and are regularized
through the matching constants, a method valid to all orders and known as
Hadamard's partie finie. It is closely related to "subtraction of
self-interaction" and shows similarities with the regularization of quantum
field theories. The black hole's mass and tension (and the "black hole
Archimedes effect") are obtained explicitly at this order, and a Newtonian
derivation for the leading term in the tension is demonstrated. Implications
for the phase diagram are analyzed, finding agreement with numerical results
and extrapolation shows hints for Sorkin's critical dimension - a dimension
where the transition turns second order.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures. v2:published versio
Quantum Communication with Correlated Nonclassical States
Nonclassical correlations between the quadrature-phase amplitudes of two
spatially separated optical beams are exploited to realize a two-channel
quantum communication experiment with a high degree of immunity to
interception. For this scheme, either channel alone can have an arbitrarily
small signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for transmission of a coherent ``message''.
However, when the transmitted beams are combined properly upon authorized
detection, the encoded message can in principle be recovered with the original
SNR of the source. An experimental demonstration has achieved a 3.2 dB
improvement in SNR over that possible with correlated classical sources.
Extensions of the protocol to improve its security against eavesdropping are
discussed.Comment: 8 pages and 4 figures (Figure 1; Figures 2a, 2b; Figure 2
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