Parker B. Wagnild Portrait in Schmucker Hall

A painting of Parker B. Wagnild hangs outside of the College Choir rehearsal room in Schmucker hall. Only a plaque bearing his name is underneath the painting, even the artist remains unknown. The painting is quite small in comparison to what the man in the painting has done for Gettysburg College. Though perhaps the placement of the painting means more than its size, for it located at a central spot in the music department building, and it is right outside of the College Choir rehearsal room. This places Wagnild at the heart of both the department and the choir, both of which he founded and devoted his career to throughout his years at Gettysburg College. Thus the placement of the painting is quite fitting. It’s a shame that many might pass by this painting and not know the story of the person depicted, for his influence is still a part of the choir and music department today. Wagnild built the foundation of Gettysburg College’s musical reputation. [excerpt] Course Information: Course Title: HIST 300: Historical Method Academic Term: Spring 2006 Course Instructor: Dr. Michael J. Birkner \u2772 Hidden in Plain Sight is a collection of student papers on objects that are hidden in plain sight around the Gettysburg College campus. Topics range from the Glatfelter Hall gargoyles to the statue of Eisenhower and from historical markers to athletic accomplishments. You can download the paper in pdf format and click View Photo to see the image in greater detail.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/hiddenpapers/1004/thumbnail.jp

Dynamical and Steady State Properties of a Bose-Hubbard Chain with Bond-Dissipation: A Study based on Matrix Product Operators

We study a dissipative Bose-Hubbard chain subject to an engineered bath using a superoperator approach based on matrix product operators. The dissipation is engineered to stabilize a BEC condensate wave function in its steady state. We then characterize the steady state emerging from the interplay between incompatible Hamiltonian and dissipative dynamics. While it is expected that interactions lead to this competition, even the kinetic energy in an open boundary condition setup competes with the dissipation, leading to a non-trivial steady state. We also present results for the transient dynamics and probe the relaxation time revealing the closing of the dissipative gap in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

"Light-cone" dynamics after quantum quenches in spin chains

Signal propagation in the non equilibirum evolution after quantum quenches has recently attracted much experimental and theoretical interest. A key question arising in this context is what principles, and which of the properties of the quench, determine the characteristic propagation velocity. Here we investigate such issues for a class of quench protocols in one of the central paradigms of interacting many-particle quantum systems, the spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXZ chain. We consider quenches from a variety of initial thermal density matrices to the same final Hamiltonian using matrix product state methods. The spreading velocities are observed to vary substantially with the initial density matrix. However, we achieve a striking data collapse when the spreading velocity is considered to be a function of the excess energy. Using the fact that the XXZ chain is integrable, we present an explanation of the observed velocities in terms of "excitations" in an appropriately defined generalized Gibbs ensemble.Comment: 4+pages, 5 figures, supplementary materia

Thermal vs. Entanglement Entropy: A Measurement Protocol for Fermionic Atoms with a Quantum Gas Microscope

We show how to measure the order-two Renyi entropy of many-body states of spinful fermionic atoms in an optical lattice in equilibrium and non-equilibrium situations. The proposed scheme relies on the possibility to produce and couple two copies of the state under investigation, and to measure the occupation number in a site- and spin-resolved manner, e.g. with a quantum gas microscope. Such a protocol opens the possibility to measure entanglement and test a number of theoretical predictions, such as area laws and their corrections. As an illustration we discuss the interplay between thermal and entanglement entropy for a one dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model at finite temperature, and its possible measurement in an experiment using the present scheme

A Peak Load Pricing Policy for North Carolina Utilities

In the early 1970s North Carolina electric utility companies planned to embark on construction projects for new plants costing billions of dollars. But, for the first time in the history of the state, power firm policies fell upon turbulent waters. Soaring electric rates had resulted in a tide of consumer outrage. Legislative efforts delayed the companies from sailing their original courses. Questions were being raised about utility pricing policies. In 1975, the North Carolina legislature adopted a measure by Senator McNeill Smith to require the state Utilities Commission to hold public hearings on peak load pricing and the future needs for electricity in the state. After the December, 1975 hearings, the Commission ordered the utilities to submit plans to implement this form of pricing. With peak load pricing, a consumer is charged a rate based upon the time of day he uses the electricity. This system charges a lower rate for off-peak use to encourage electricity consumption at off-peak "With peak load pricing, a consumer is charged a rate based upon the time of day he uses electricity." periods. Advocates of peak load pricing, sometimes called time of day or marginal cost pricing, claim there could be an immediate reduction in average monthly bills and that construction programs for new generating capacity to meet peak demand would be delayed for a significant period in the future