296 research outputs found
Scouting Enzyme Behavior
Experimental exploration of enzymatic response in a multi-dimensional context faces the challenge of an explosive number of possible milieu conditions. We address this problem with an evolutionary search strategy that scouts the physiochemical milieu space for unanticipated enzyme behavior and rewards the discovery of experimental conditions that yield surprises
Semibiotic Persistence
From observation, we find four different strategies to successfully enable structures to persist over extended periods of time. If functionally relevant features are very large compared to the changes that can be effectuated by entropy, the functional structure itself has a high enough probability to erode only slowly over time. If the functionally relevant features are protected from environmental influence by sacrificial layers that absorb the impinging of the environment,deterioration can be avoided or slowed. Loss of functionality can be delayed, even for complex systems, by keeping alternate options for all required components available. Biological systems also apply information processing to actively counter the impact of entropy. The latter strategy increases the overall persistence of living systems and enables them to maintain a highly complex functional organisation during their lifetime and over generations. In contrast to the other strategies, information processing has only low material overhead. While at present engineered technology is far from achieving the self-repair of evolved systems, the semibiotic combination of biological components with conventionally engineered systems may open a path to long-term persistence of functional devices in harsh environments. We review nature’s strategies for persistence, and consider early steps taken in the laboratory to import such capabilities into engineered architectures.<br/
Sparse robot swarms: Moving swarms to real-world applications
Robot swarms are groups of robots that each act autonomously based on only local perception and coordination with neighbouring robots. While current swarm implementations can be large in size (e.g. 1000 robots), they are typically constrained to working in highly controlled indoor environments. Moreover, a common property of swarms is the underlying assumption that the robots act in close proximity of each other (e.g. 10 body lengths apart), and typically employ uninterrupted, situated, close-range communication for coordination. Many real-world applications, including environmental monitoring and precision agriculture, however, require scalable groups of robots to act jointly over large distances (e.g. 1000 body lengths), rendering the use of dense swarms impractical. Using a dense swarm for such applications would be invasive to the environment and unrealistic in terms of mission deployment, maintenance and post-mission recovery. To address this problem, we propose the sparse swarm concept, and illustrate its use in the context of four application scenarios. For one scenario, which requires a group of rovers to traverse, and monitor, a forest environment, we identify the challenges involved at all levels in developing a sparse swarm—from the hardware platform to communication-constrained coordination algorithms—and discuss potential solutions. We outline open questions of theoretical and practical nature, which we hope will bring the concept of sparse swarms to fruition
On quaternary complex Hadamard matrices of small orders
One of the main goals of design theory is to classify, characterize and count
various combinatorial objects with some prescribed properties. In most cases,
however, one quickly encounters a combinatorial explosion and even if the
complete enumeration of the objects is possible, there is no apparent way how
to study them in details, store them efficiently, or generate a particular one
rapidly. In this paper we propose a novel method to deal with these
difficulties, and illustrate it by presenting the classification of quaternary
complex Hadamard matrices up to order 8. The obtained matrices are members of
only a handful of parametric families, and each inequivalent matrix, up to
transposition, can be identified through its fingerprint.Comment: 7 page
Multicomplementary operators via finite Fourier transform
A complete set of d+1 mutually unbiased bases exists in a Hilbert spaces of
dimension d, whenever d is a power of a prime. We discuss a simple construction
of d+1 disjoint classes (each one having d-1 commuting operators) such that the
corresponding eigenstates form sets of unbiased bases. Such a construction
works properly for prime dimension. We investigate an alternative construction
in which the real numbers that label the classes are replaced by a finite field
having d elements. One of these classes is diagonal, and can be mapped to
cyclic operators by means of the finite Fourier transform, which allows one to
understand complementarity in a similar way as for the position-momentum pair
in standard quantum mechanics. The relevant examples of two and three qubits
and two qutrits are discussed in detail.Comment: 15 pages, no figure
From SICs and MUBs to Eddington
This is a survey of some very old knowledge about Mutually Unbiased Bases
(MUB) and Symmetric Informationally Complete POVMs (SIC). In prime dimensions
the former are closely tied to an elliptic normal curve symmetric under the
Heisenberg group, while the latter are believed to be orbits under the
Heisenberg group in all dimensions. In dimensions 3 and 4 the SICs are
understandable in terms of elliptic curves, but a general statement escapes us.
The geometry of the SICs in 3 and 4 dimensions is discussed in some detail.Comment: 12 pages; from the Festschrift for Tony Sudber
Affine Constellations Without Mutually Unbiased Counterparts
It has been conjectured that a complete set of mutually unbiased bases in a
space of dimension d exists if and only if there is an affine plane of order d.
We introduce affine constellations and compare their existence properties with
those of mutually unbiased constellations, mostly in dimension six. The
observed discrepancies make a deeper relation between the two existence
problems unlikely.Comment: 8 page
Quasi-probability representations of quantum theory with applications to quantum information science
This article comprises a review of both the quasi-probability representations
of infinite-dimensional quantum theory (including the Wigner function) and the
more recently defined quasi-probability representations of finite-dimensional
quantum theory. We focus on both the characteristics and applications of these
representations with an emphasis toward quantum information theory. We discuss
the recently proposed unification of the set of possible quasi-probability
representations via frame theory and then discuss the practical relevance of
negativity in such representations as a criteria for quantumness.Comment: v3: typos fixed, references adde
Tight informationally complete quantum measurements
We introduce a class of informationally complete positive-operator-valued
measures which are, in analogy with a tight frame, "as close as possible" to
orthonormal bases for the space of quantum states. These measures are
distinguished by an exceptionally simple state-reconstruction formula which
allows "painless" quantum state tomography. Complete sets of mutually unbiased
bases and symmetric informationally complete positive-operator-valued measures
are both members of this class, the latter being the unique minimal rank-one
members. Recast as ensembles of pure quantum states, the rank-one members are
in fact equivalent to weighted 2-designs in complex projective space. These
measures are shown to be optimal for quantum cloning and linear quantum state
tomography.Comment: 20 pages. Final versio
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