Nonlinear screening and ballistic transport in a graphene p-n junction

We study the charge density distribution, the electric field profile, and the resistance of an electrostatically created lateral p-n junction in graphene. We show that the electric field at the interface of the electron and hole regions is strongly enhanced due to limited screening capacity of Dirac quasiparticles. Accordingly, the junction resistance is lower than estimated in previous literature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. (v1) Original version (v2) Introduction largely rewritten, minor typos fixed throughou

Cooling of Nanomechanical Resonator Based on Periodical Coupling to Cooper Pair Box

We propose and study an active cooling mechanism for the nanomechanical resonator (NAMR) based on periodical coupling to a Cooper pair box (CPB), which is implemented by a designed series of magnetic flux pluses threading through the CPB. When the initial phonon number of the NAMR is not too large, this cooling protocol is efficient in decreasing the phonon number by two to three orders of magnitude. Our proposal is theoretically universal in cooling various boson systems of single mode. It can be specifically generalized to prepare the nonclassical state of the NAMR.Comment: 5pages,3figure

On the Evolution of Thermonuclear Flames on Large Scales

The thermonuclear explosion of a massive white dwarf in a Type Ia supernova explosion is characterized by vastly disparate spatial and temporal scales. The extreme dynamic range inherent to the problem prevents the use of direct numerical simulation and forces modelers to resort to subgrid models to describe physical processes taking place on unresolved scales. We consider the evolution of a model thermonuclear flame in a constant gravitational field on a periodic domain. The gravitational acceleration is aligned with the overall direction of the flame propagation, making the flame surface subject to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The flame evolution is followed through an extended initial transient phase well into the steady-state regime. The properties of the evolution of flame surface are examined. We confirm the form of the governing equation of the evolution suggested by Khokhlov (1995). The mechanism of vorticity production and the interaction between vortices and the flame surface are discussed. The results of our investigation provide the bases for revising and extending previous subgrid-scale model.Comment: 15 pages, 22 postscript figures. Accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal. High resolution figures can be found at http://flash.uchicago.edu/~zhang/research_paper.htm

A boundary integral equation method in the frequency domain for cracks under transient loading

Acknowledgments The financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Advanced Research Collaboration (ARC) Programme (funded by the British Council and DAAD) is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Alternative scheme for two-qubit conditional phase gate by adiabatic passage under dissipation

We check a recent proposal [H. Goto and K. Ichimura Phys. Rev. A 70, 012305 (2004)] for controlled phase gate through adiabatic passage under the influence of spontaneous emission and the cavity decay. We show a modification of above proposal could be used to generate the necessary conditional phase gates in the two-qubit Grover search. Conditioned on no photon leakage either from the atomic excited state or from the cavity mode during the gating period, we numerically analyze the success probability and the fidelity of the two-qubit conditional phase gate by adiabatic passage. The comparison made between our proposed gating scheme and a previous one shows that Goto and Ichimura's scheme is an alternative and feasible way in the optical cavity regime for two-qubit gates and could be generalised in principle to multi-qubit gates.Comment: to appear in J. Phys.

Quantum-Classical Transition of Photon-Carnot Engine Induced by Quantum Decoherence

We study the physical implementation of the Photon Carnot engine (PCE) based on the cavity QED system [M. Scully et al, Science, \textbf{299}, 862 (2003)]. Here, we analyze two decoherence mechanisms for the more practical systems of PCE, the dissipation of photon field and the pure dephasing of the input atoms. As a result we find that (I) the PCE can work well to some extent even in the existence of the cavity loss (photon dissipation); and (II) the short-time atomic dephasing, which can destroy the PCE, is a fatal problem to be overcome.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Atom optical elements for Bose condensates

A simple model for atom optical elements for Bose condensate of trapped, dilute alkali atomns is proposed and numerical simulations are presented to illustrate its characteristics. We demonstrate ways of focusing and splitting the condensate by modifying experimentally adjustable parameters. We show that there are at least two ways of implementing atom optical elements: one may modulate the interatomic scattering length in space, or alternatively, use a sinusoidal, externally applied potential.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure