4,488 research outputs found
A Multi-path Interferometer with Ultracold Atoms Trapped in an Optical Lattice
We study an ultra-cold gas of bosons trapped in a one dimensional
-site optical lattice perturbed by a spatially dependent potential , where the unknown coupling strength is to be estimated. We find that
the measurement uncertainty is bounded by .
For a typical case of a linear potential, the sensitivity improves as ,
which is a result of multiple interferences between the sites -- an advantage
of multi-path interferometers over the two-mode setups. Next, we calculate the
estimation sensitivity for a specific measurement where, after the action of
the potential, the particles are released from the lattice and form an
interference pattern. If the parameter is estimated by a least-square fit of
the average density to the interference pattern, the sensitivity still scales
like for linear potentials and can be further improved by preparing a
properly correlated initial state in the lattice.Comment: 11 pages, 3 fugire
Discrete Breathers in a Realistic Coarse-Grained Model of Proteins
We report the results of molecular dynamics simulations of an off-lattice
protein model featuring a physical force-field and amino-acid sequence. We show
that localized modes of nonlinear origin (discrete breathers) emerge naturally
as continuations of a subset of high-frequency normal modes residing at
specific sites dictated by the native fold. In the case of the small
-barrel structure that we consider, localization occurs on the turns
connecting the strands. At high energies, discrete breathers stabilize the
structure by concentrating energy on few sites, while their collapse marks the
onset of large-amplitude fluctuations of the protein. Furthermore, we show how
breathers develop as energy-accumulating centres following perturbations even
at distant locations, thus mediating efficient and irreversible energy
transfers. Remarkably, due to the presence of angular potentials, the breather
induces a local static distortion of the native fold. Altogether, the
combination of this two nonlinear effects may provide a ready means for
remotely controlling local conformational changes in proteins.Comment: Submitted to Physical Biolog
Energy transfer in nonlinear network models of proteins
We investigate how nonlinearity and topological disorder affect the energy
relaxation of local kicks in coarse-grained network models of proteins. We find
that nonlinearity promotes long-range, coherent transfer of substantial energy
to specific, functional sites, while depressing transfer to generic locations.
Remarkably, transfer can be mediated by the self-localization of discrete
breathers at distant locations from the kick, acting as efficient
energy-accumulating centers.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The IR-Completion of Gravity: What happens at Hubble Scales?
We have recently proposed an "Ultra-Strong" version of the Equivalence
Principle (EP) that is not satisfied by standard semiclassical gravity. In the
theory that we are conjecturing, the vacuum expectation value of the (bare)
energy momentum tensor is exactly the same as in flat space: quartically
divergent with the cut-off and with no spacetime dependent (subleading) ter ms.
The presence of such terms seems in fact related to some known difficulties,
such as the black hole information loss and the cosmological constant problem.
Since the terms that we want to get rid of are subleading in the high-momentum
expansion, we attempt to explore the conjectured theory by "IR-completing" GR.
We consider a scalar field in a flat FRW Universe and isolate the first
IR-correction to its Fourier modes operators that kills the quadratic (next to
leading) time dependent divergence of the stress energy tensor VEV. Analogously
to other modifications of field operators that have been proposed in the
literature (typically in the UV), the present approach seems to suggest a
breakdown (here, in the IR, at large distances) of the metric manifold
description. We show that corrections to GR are in fact very tiny, become
effective at distances comparable to the inverse curvature and do not contain
any adjustable parameter. Finally, we derive some cosmological implications. By
studying the consistency of the canonical commutation relations, we infer a
correction to the distance between two comoving observers, which grows as the
scale factor only when small compared to the Hubble length, but gets relevant
corrections otherwise. The corrections to cosmological distance measures are
also calculable and, for a spatially flat matter dominated Universe, go in the
direction of an effective positive acceleration.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures. Final version, references adde
New insight into cataract formation -- enhanced stability through mutual attraction
Small-angle neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations
combined with an application of concepts from soft matter physics to complex
protein mixtures provide new insight into the stability of eye lens protein
mixtures. Exploring this colloid-protein analogy we demonstrate that weak
attractions between unlike proteins help to maintain lens transparency in an
extremely sensitive and non-monotonic manner. These results not only represent
an important step towards a better understanding of protein condensation
diseases such as cataract formation, but provide general guidelines for tuning
the stability of colloid mixtures, a topic relevant for soft matter physics and
industrial applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. Let
Dynamics of a tunable superfluid junction
We study the population dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a
double-well potential throughout the crossover from Josephson dynamics to
hydrodynamics. At barriers higher than the chemical potential, we observe slow
oscillations well described by a Josephson model. In the limit of low barriers,
the fundamental frequency agrees with a simple hydrodynamic model, but we also
observe a second, higher frequency. A full numerical simulation of the
Gross-Pitaevskii equation giving the frequencies and amplitudes of the observed
modes between these two limits is compared to the data and is used to
understand the origin of the higher mode. Implications for trapped matter-wave
interferometers are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; v3: Journal reference added, minor changes to
tex
Phase Estimation from Atom Position Measurements
We study the measurement of the position of atoms as a means to estimate the
relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates. First, we consider
atoms released from a double-well trap, forming an interference pattern, and
show that a simple least-squares fit to the density gives a shot-noise limited
sensitivity. The shot-noise limit can instead be overcome by using correlation
functions of order or larger. The measurement of the
-order correlation function allows to estimate the relative phase
at the Heisenberg limit. Phase estimation through the measurement of the
center-of-mass of the interference pattern can also provide sub-shot-noise
sensitivity. Finally, we study the effect of the overlap between the two clouds
on the phase estimation, when Mach-Zehnder interferometry is performed in a
double-well.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
Collisional strong-field QED kinetic equations from first principles
Starting from nonequilibrium quantum field theory on a closed time path, we derive kinetic equations for the strong-field regime of quantum electrodynamics (QED) using a systematic expansion in the gauge coupling . The strong field regime is characterized by a large photon field of order , which is relevant for the description of, e.g., intense laser fields, the initial stages of off-central heavy ion collisions, and condensed matter systems with net fermion number. The strong field enters the dynamical equations via both quantum Vlasov and collision terms, which we derive to order . The kinetic equations feature generalized scattering amplitudes that have their own equation of motion in terms of the fermion spectral function. The description includes single photon emission, electron-positron pair photoproduction, vacuum (Schwinger) pair production, their inverse processes, medium effects and contributions from the field, which are not restricted to the so-called locally-constant crossed field approximation. This extends known kinetic equations commonly used in strong-field QED of intense laser fields. In particular, we derive an expression for the asymptotic fermion pair number that includes leading-order collisions and remains valid for strongly inhomogeneous fields. For the purpose of analytically highlighting limiting cases, we also consider plane-wave fields for which it is shown how to recover Furry-picture scattering amplitudes by further assuming negligible occupations. Known on-shell descriptions are recovered in the case of simply peaked ultrarelativistic fermion occupations. Collisional strong-field equations are necessary to describe the dynamics to thermal equilibrium starting from strong-field initial conditions
Nonlinear double Compton scattering in the full quantum regime
A detailed analysis of the process of two photon emission by an electron
scattered from a high-intensity laser pulse is presented. The calculations are
performed in the framework of strong-field QED and include exactly the presence
of the laser field, described as a plane wave. We investigate the full quantum
regime of interaction, where photon recoil plays an essential role in the
emission process, and substantially alters the emitted photon spectra as
compared to those in previously-studied regimes. We provide a semiclassical
explanation for such differences, based on the possibility of assigning a
trajectory to the electron in the laser field before and after each quantum
photon emission. Our numerical results indicate the feasibility of
investigating experimentally the full quantum regime of nonlinear double
Compton scattering with already available plasma-based electron accelerator and
laser technology.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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