1,407 research outputs found
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
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