Noise suppression of on-chip mechanical resonators by chaotic coherent feedback

We propose a method to decouple the nanomechanical resonator in optomechanical systems from the environmental noise by introducing a chaotic coherent feedback loop. We find that the chaotic controller in the feedback loop can modulate the dynamics of the controlled optomechanical system and induce a broadband response of the mechanical mode. This broadband response of the mechanical mode will cut off the coupling between the mechanical mode and the environment and thus suppress the environmental noise of the mechanical modes. As an application, we use the protected optomechanical system to act as a quantum memory. It's shown that the noise-decoupled optomechanical quantum memory is efficient for storing information transferred from coherent or squeezed light

A novel measurement of Bs0B^0_s and Ds−D^-_s lifetimes using semileptonic decays at LHCb

I report new, world-leading LHCb results on heavy meson lifetimes. We use a novel approach that suppresses the shortcomings typically associated with reconstruction of semileptonic decays, allowing for precise measurements of lifetimes and other properties in collider experiments. We achieve a 15% and a $2\times$ improvement over current best determinations of the flavor-specific $B^0_s$ lifetime and $D^-_s$ lifetime, respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Talk presented at the APS Division of Particles and Fields Meeting (DPF 2017), July 31-August 4, 2017, Fermilab. C17073

Suppressing nano-scale stick-slip motion by feedback

When a micro cantilever with a nano-scale tip is manipulated on a substrate with atomic-scale roughness, the periodic lateral frictional force and stochastic fluctuations may induce stick-slip motion of the cantilever tip, which greatly decreases the precision of the nano manipulation. This unwanted motion cannot be reduced by open-loop control especially when there exist parameter uncertainties in the system model, and thus needs to introduce feedback control. However, real-time feedback cannot be realized by the existing virtual reality virtual feedback techniques based on the position sensing capacity of the atomic force microscopy (AFM). To solve this problem, we propose a new method to design real-time feedback control based on the force sensing approach to compensate for the disturbances and thus reduce the stick-slip motion of the cantilever tip. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that the controlled motion of the cantilever tip tracks the desired trajectory with much higher precision. Further investigation shows that our proposal is robust under various parameter uncertainties. Our study opens up new perspectives of real-time nano manipulation.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Dielectric nonlinearity of relaxor ferroelectric ceramics at low ac drives

Dielectric nonlinear response of (PbMg$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$O$_3$)$_{0.9}$(PbTiO$_3$)$_{0.1}$ (0.9PMN-0.1PT) relaxor ceramics was investigated under different ac drive voltages. It was observed that: (i) the dielectric permittivity is independent on ac field amplitude at high temperatures; (ii) with increasing ac drive, the permittivity maximum increases, and the temperature of the maximum shifts to lower temperature; (iii) the nonlinear effect is weakened when the measurement frequency increases. The influences of increasing ac drive were found to be similar to that of decreasing frequency. It is believed that the dielectric nonlinearities of relaxors at low drives can be explained by the phase transition theory of ergodic space shrinking in succession. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed on the flips of micro polarizations at low ac drives to verify the theory.Comment: Submitted to J. Phys.: Cond. Matte

Infant attraction: why social bridging matters for female leadership in Tibetan macaques

Leadership is a key issue in the study of collective behavior in social animals. Affiliation–leadership models predict that dyadic partner preferences based on grooming relationships or alliance formation positively affect an individual’s decision to follow or support a conspecific. In the case of many primate species, females without young infants are attracted to mother–infant dyads. However, the effects of mother–infant–female associations on affiliation–leadership models remain less clear. In free-ranging Tibetan macaques Macaca thibetana, we used social network analysis to examine the importance of “mother-infant-adult female” social bridging events as a predictor of who leads and who follows during group movement. Social bridging is a common behavior in Tibetan macaques and occurs when 2 adults, generally females, engage in coordinated infant handling. Using eigenvector centrality coefficients of social bridging as a measure of social affiliation, we found that among lactating females, initiating bridging behavior with another female played a significant role in leadership success, with the assisting female following the mother during group movement. Among nonlactating females, this was not the case. Our results indicate that infant attraction can be a strong trigger in collective action and directing group movement in Tibetan macaques and provides benefits to mothers who require helpers and social support in order to ensure the safety of their infants. Our study provides new insights into the importance of the third-party effect in rethinking affiliation–leadership models in group-living animals