237 research outputs found
The wave nature of biomolecules and fluorofullerenes
We demonstrate quantum interference for tetraphenylporphyrin, the first
biomolecule exhibiting wave nature, and for the fluorofullerene C60F48 using a
near-field Talbot-Lau interferometer. For the porphyrins, which are
distinguished by their low symmetry and their abundant occurence in organic
systems, we find the theoretically expected maximal interference contrast and
its expected dependence on the de Broglie wavelength. For C60F48 the observed
fringe visibility is below the expected value, but the high contrast still
provides good evidence for the quantum character of the observed fringe
pattern. The fluorofullerenes therefore set the new mark in complexity and mass
(1632 amu) for de Broglie wave experiments, exceeding the previous mass record
by a factor of two.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Physiologic osteoclasts are not sufficient to induce skeletal pain in mice
Background: Increased bone resorption is driven by augmented osteoclast activity in pathological states of the bone, including osteoporosis, fracture and metastatic bone cancer. Pain is a frequent co‐morbidity in bone pathologies and adequate pain management is necessary for symptomatic relief. Bone cancer is associated with severe skeletal pain and dysregulated bone remodelling, while increased osteoclast activity and bone pain are also observed in osteoporosis and during fracture repair. However, the effects of altered osteoclast activity and bone resorption on nociceptive processing of bone afferents remain unclear. /
Methods: This study investigates whether physiologic osteoclasts and resulting changes in bone resorption can induce skeletal pain. We first assessed correlation between changes in bone microarchitecture (through µCT) and skeletal pain using standardized behavioural phenotyping assays in a mouse model of metastatic bone cancer. We then investigated whether increased activity of physiologic osteoclasts, and the associated bone resorption, is sufficient to induce skeletal pain using mouse models of localized and widespread bone resorption following administration of exogenous receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa‐B ligand (RANKL). /
Results: Our data demonstrates that mice with bone cancer exhibit progressive pain behaviours that correlate with increased bone resorption at the tumour site. Systemic RANKL injections enhance osteoclast activity and associated bone resorption, without producing any changes in motor function or pain behaviours at both early and late timepoints. /
Conclusion: These findings suggest that activation of homeostatic osteoclasts alone is not sufficient to induce skeletal pain in mice. /
Significance statement: The role of osteoclasts in peripheral sensitization of sensory neurones is not fully understood. This study reports on the direct link between oestrogen‐independent osteoclast activation and skeletal pain. Administration of exogenous receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa‐B ligand (RANKL) increases bone resorption, but does not produce pro‐nociceptive changes in behavioural pain thresholds. Our data demonstrates that physiologic osteoclasts are not essential for skeletal pain behaviours
No extension of quantum theory can have improved predictive power
According to quantum theory, measurements generate random outcomes, in stark
contrast with classical mechanics. This raises the question of whether there
could exist an extension of the theory which removes this indeterminism, as
suspected by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR). Although this has been shown
to be impossible, existing results do not imply that the current theory is
maximally informative. Here we ask the more general question of whether any
improved predictions can be achieved by any extension of quantum theory. Under
the assumption that measurements can be chosen freely, we answer this question
in the negative: no extension of quantum theory can give more information about
the outcomes of future measurements than quantum theory itself. Our result has
significance for the foundations of quantum mechanics, as well as applications
to tasks that exploit the inherent randomness in quantum theory, such as
quantum cryptography.Comment: 6 pages plus 7 of supplementary material, 3 figures. Title changed.
Added discussion on Bell's notion of locality. FAQ answered at
http://perimeterinstitute.ca/personal/rcolbeck/FAQ.htm
Quantum entanglement and Bell violation of two coupled cavity fields in dissipative environment
We study the quantum entanglement between two coupled cavities, in which one
is initially prepared in a mesoscopic superposition state and the other is in
the vacuum in dissipative environment and show how the entanglement between two
cavities can arise in the dissipative environment. The dynamic behavior of the
nonlocality for the system is also investigated.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Quantum Storage of Photonic Entanglement in a Crystal
Entanglement is the fundamental characteristic of quantum physics. Large
experimental efforts are devoted to harness entanglement between various
physical systems. In particular, entanglement between light and material
systems is interesting due to their prospective roles as "flying" and
stationary qubits in future quantum information technologies, such as quantum
repeaters and quantum networks. Here we report the first demonstration of
entanglement between a photon at telecommunication wavelength and a single
collective atomic excitation stored in a crystal. One photon from an
energy-time entangled pair is mapped onto a crystal and then released into a
well-defined spatial mode after a predetermined storage time. The other photon
is at telecommunication wavelength and is sent directly through a 50 m fiber
link to an analyzer. Successful transfer of entanglement to the crystal and
back is proven by a violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH)
inequality by almost three standard deviations (S=2.64+/-0.23). These results
represent an important step towards quantum communication technologies based on
solid-state devices. In particular, our resources pave the way for building
efficient multiplexed quantum repeaters for long-distance quantum networks.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + supplementary information; fixed typo in ref.
[36
Measuring Controlled-NOT and two-qubit gate operation
Accurate characterisation of two-qubit gates will be critical for any
realisation of quantum computation. We discuss a range of measurements aimed at
characterising a two-qubit gate, specifically the CNOT gate. These measurements
are architecture-independent, and range from simple truth table measurements,
to single figure measures such as the fringe visibility, parity, fidelity, and
entanglement witnesses, through to whole-state and whole-gate measures achieved
respectively via quantum state and process tomography. In doing so, we examine
critical differences between classical and quantum gate operation.Comment: 10 pages (two-column). 1 figur
Violation of multi-particle Bell inequalities for low and high flux parametric amplification using both vacuum and entangled input states
We show how polarisation measurements on the output fields generated by
parametric down conversion will reveal a violation of multi-particle Bell
inequalities, in the regime of both low and high output intensity. In this case
each spatially separated system, upon which a measurement is performed, is
comprised of more than one particle. In view of the formal analogy with spin
systems, the proposal provides an opportunity to test the predictions of
quantum mechanics for spatially separated higher spin states. Here the quantum
behaviour possible even where measurements are performed on systems of large
quantum (particle) number may be demonstrated. Our proposal applies to both
vacuum-state signal and idler inputs, and also to the quantum-injected
parametric amplifier as studied by De Martini et al. The effect of detector
inefficiencies is included.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
A device for feasible fidelity, purity, Hilbert-Schmidt distance and entanglement witness measurements
A generic model of measurement device which is able to directly measure
commonly used quantum-state characteristics such as fidelity, overlap, purity
and Hilbert-Schmidt distance for two general uncorrelated mixed states is
proposed. In addition, for two correlated mixed states, the measurement
realizes an entanglement witness for Werner's separability criterion. To
determine these observables, the estimation only one parameter - the visibility
of interference, is needed. The implementations in cavity QED, trapped ion and
electromagnetically induced transparency experiments are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Quantum networks reveal quantum nonlocality
The results of local measurements on some composite quantum systems cannot be
reproduced classically. This impossibility, known as quantum nonlocality,
represents a milestone in the foundations of quantum theory. Quantum
nonlocality is also a valuable resource for information processing tasks, e.g.
quantum communication, quantum key distribution, quantum state estimation, or
randomness extraction. Still, deciding if a quantum state is nonlocal remains a
challenging problem. Here we introduce a novel approach to this question: we
study the nonlocal properties of quantum states when distributed and measured
in networks. Using our framework, we show how any one-way entanglement
distillable state leads to nonlocal correlations. Then, we prove that
nonlocality is a non-additive resource, which can be activated. There exist
states, local at the single-copy level, that become nonlocal when taking
several copies of it. Our results imply that the nonlocality of quantum states
strongly depends on the measurement context.Comment: 4 + 3 pages, 4 figure
Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger nonlocality for continuous variable systems
As a development of our previous work, this paper is concerned with the
Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) nonlocality for continuous variable cases.
The discussion is based on the introduction of a pseudospin operator, which has
the same algebra as the Pauli operator, for each of the modes of a light
field. Then the Bell-CHSH (Clauser, Horne, Shimony and Holt) inequality is
presented for the modes, each of which has a continuous degree of freedom.
Following Mermin's argument, it is demonstrated that for -mode
parity-entangled GHZ states (in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space) of the
light field, the contradictions between quantum mechanics and local realism
grow exponentially with , similarly to the usual -spin cases.Comment: RevTEX; comments are welcomed; new version with minor change
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