Volcanic impact on stratospheric aerosol chemistry

Samples collected by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) using the multiple-filter sampler on the U-2 were analyzed. The sampler is capable of exposing a number of 110 mm filters in sequence to ram air flow. Two types of filters, IPC cellulose and polystrene, were used, both of which have high blank levels for the trace elements determined. The levels of most trace elements in the stratosphere are so low under normal circumstances that none can be seen. Results from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, a mystery cloud (probably volcanic in origin) in 1982, and the El Chichonal eruption in 1983 are discussed. To improve the collection of particles for chemical analysis, a new sampling system was developed for use on the U-2. The sampler consisted of an electrostatic collection of particles between 1 and 0.001 micron diameter dierectly onto electron microscopic grids, followed by a thermal precipitation for the smaller particles. The system was built and tested in the laboratory, but never flown on the U-2

Quantum feedback cooling of a single trapped ion in front of a mirror

We develop a theory of quantum feedback cooling of a single ion trapped in front of a mirror. By monitoring the motional sidebands of the light emitted into the mirror mode we infer the position of the ion, and act back with an appropriate force to cool the ion. We derive a feedback master equation along the lines of the quantum feedback theory developed by Wiseman and Milburn, which provides us with cooling times and final temperatures as a function of feedback gain and various system parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 11 Figure

Quantum communication and the creation of maximally entangled pairs of atoms over a noisy channel

We show how to create maximally entangled EPR pairs between spatially distant atoms, each of them inside a high-Q optical cavity, by sending photons through a general, noisy channel, such as a standard optical fiber. An error correction scheme that uses few auxiliary atoms in each cavity effectively eliminates photoabsorption and other transmission errors. This realizes the `absorption free channel.' A concatenation protocol using the absorption free channel allows for quantum communication with single qubits over distances much larger than the coherence length of the channel.Comment: 12 pages, latex, rspublic.sty, 4 figures, uses epsf macro. For the Royal Society meeting on quantum computatio

Reservoir engineering and dynamical phase transitions in optomechanical arrays

We study the driven-dissipative dynamics of photons interacting with an array of micromechanical membranes in an optical cavity. Periodic membrane driving and phonon creation result in an effective photon-number conserving non-unitary dynamics, which features a steady state with long-range photonic coherence. If the leakage of photons out of the cavity is counteracted by incoherent driving of the photonic modes, we show that the system undergoes a dynamical phase transition to the state with long-range coherence. A minimal system, composed of two micromechanical membranes in a cavity, is studied in detail, and it is shown to be a realistic setup where the key processes of the driven-dissipative dynamics can be seen.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Spectroscopy of Superfluid Pairing in Atomic Fermi Gases

We study the dynamic structure factor for density and spin within the crossover from BCS superfluidity of atomic fermions to the Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules. Both structure factors are experimentally accessible via Bragg spectroscopy, and allow for the identification of the pairing mechanism: the spin structure factor allows for the determination of the two particle gap, while the collective sound mode in the density structure reveals the superfluid state.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Generalized Schrieffer-Wolff Formalism for Dissipative Systems

We present a formalized perturbation theory for Markovian open systems in the language of a generalized Schrieffer-Wolff (SW) transformation. A non-unitary rotation decouples the unper- turbed steady states from all fast degrees of freedom, in order to obtain an effective Liouvillian, that reproduces the exact low excitation spectrum of the system. The transformation is derived in a constructive way, yielding a perturbative expansion of the effective Liouville operator. The presented formalism realizes an adiabatic elimination of fast degrees of freedom to arbitrary orders in the perturbation. We exemplarily employ the SW formalism to two generic open systems and discuss general properties of the different orders of the perturbation.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Quantum Spin Lenses in Atomic Arrays

We propose and discuss `quantum spin lenses', where quantum states of delocalized spin excitations in an atomic medium are `focused' in space in a coherent quantum process down to (essentially) single atoms. These can be employed to create controlled interactions in a quantum light-matter interface, where photonic qubits stored in an atomic ensemble are mapped to a quantum register represented by single atoms. We propose Hamiltonians for quantum spin lenses as inhomogeneous spin models on lattices, which can be realized with Rydberg atoms in 1D, 2D and 3D, and with strings of trapped ions. We discuss both linear and non-linear quantum spin lenses: in a non-linear lens, repulsive spin-spin interactions lead to focusing dynamics conditional to the number of spin excitations. This allows the mapping of quantum superpositions of delocalized spin excitations to superpositions of spatial spin patterns, which can be addressed by light fields and manipulated. Finally, we propose multifocal quantum spin lenses as a way to generate and distribute entanglement between distant atoms in an atomic lattice array.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure