637 research outputs found
Evidence for alignment of the rotation and velocity vectors in pulsars. II. Further data and emission heights
We have conducted observations of 22 pulsars at frequencies of 0.7, 1.4 and
3.1 GHz and present their polarization profiles. The observations were carried
out for two main purposes. First we compare the orientation of the spin and
velocity vectors to verify the proposed alignment of these vectors by Johnston
et al. (2005). We find, for the 14 pulsars for which we were able to determine
both vectors, that 7 are plausibly aligned, a fraction which is lower than, but
consistent with, earlier measurements. Secondly, we use profiles obtained
simultaneously at widely spaced frequencies to compute the radio emission
heights. We find, similar to other workers in the field, that radiation from
the centre of the profile originates from lower in the magnetosphere than the
radiation from the outer parts of the profile.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 14 page
Observers can always generate nonlocal correlations without aligning measurements by covering all their bases
Quantum theory allows for correlations between the outcomes of distant
measurements that are inconsistent with any locally causal theory, as
demonstrated by the violation of a Bell inequality. Typical demonstrations of
these correlations require careful alignment between the measurements, which
requires distant parties to share a reference frame. Here, we prove, following
a numerical observation by Shadbolt et al., that if two parties share a Bell
state and each party randomly chooses three orthogonal measurements, then the
parties will always violate a Bell inequality. Furthermore, we prove that this
probability is highly robust against local depolarizing noise, in that small
levels of noise only decrease the probability of violating a Bell inequality by
a small amount. We also show that generalizing to N parties increases the
robustness against noise. These results improve on previous ones that only
allowed a high probability of violating a Bell inequality for large numbers of
parties.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: updated reference. v3: published versio
Nonnegative subtheories and quasiprobability representations of qubits
Negativity in a quasiprobability representation is typically interpreted as
an indication of nonclassical behavior. However, this does not preclude states
that are non-negative from exhibiting phenomena typically associated with
quantum mechanics - the single qubit stabilizer states have non-negative Wigner
functions and yet play a fundamental role in many quantum information tasks. We
seek to determine what other sets of quantum states and measurements for a
qubit can be non-negative in a quasiprobability representation, and to identify
nontrivial unitary groups that permute the states in such a set. These sets of
states and measurements are analogous to the single qubit stabilizer states. We
show that no quasiprobability representation of a qubit can be non-negative for
more than four bases and that the non-negative bases in any quasiprobability
representation must satisfy certain symmetry constraints. We provide an
exhaustive list of the sets of single qubit bases that are non-negative in some
quasiprobability representation and are also permuted by a nontrivial unitary
group. This list includes two families of three bases that both include the
single qubit stabilizer states as a special case and a family of four bases
whose symmetry group is the Pauli group. For higher dimensions, we prove that
there can be no more than 2^{d^2} states in non-negative bases of a
d-dimensional Hilbert space in any quasiprobability representation.
Furthermore, these bases must satisfy certain symmetry constraints,
corresponding to requiring the bases to be sufficiently complementary to each
other.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, comments very welcome; v2 published version.
Note that the statement and proof of Theorem III.2 in the published version
are incorrect (an erratum has been submitted), and this arXiv version (v2)
presents the corrected theorem and proof. The conclusions of the paper are
unaffected by this correctio
Generalized Bell Inequality Experiments and Computation
We consider general settings of Bell inequality experiments with many
parties, where each party chooses from a finite number of measurement settings
each with a finite number of outcomes. We investigate the constraints that Bell
inequalities place upon the correlations possible in a local hidden variable
theories using a geometrical picture of correlations. We show that local hidden
variable theories can be characterized in terms of limited computational
expressiveness, which allows us to characterize families of Bell inequalities.
The limited computational expressiveness for many settings (each with many
outcomes) generalizes previous results about the many-party situation each with
a choice of two possible measurements (each with two outcomes). Using this
computational picture we present generalizations of the Popescu-Rohrlich
non-local box for many parties and non-binary inputs and outputs at each site.
Finally, we comment on the effect of pre-processing on measurement data in our
generalized setting and show that it becomes problematic outside of the binary
setting, in that it allows local hidden variable theories to simulate maximally
non-local correlations such as those of these generalised Popescu-Rohrlich
non-local boxes.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, supplemental material available upon request.
Typos corrected and references adde
Can exercise limits prevent post-exertional malaise in chronic fatigue syndrome? An uncontrolled clinical trial.
<b>Objective</b>: It was hypothesized that the use of exercise limits prevents symptom increases and worsening of their health status following a walking exercise in people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).
<b>Design</b>: An uncontrolled clinical trial (semi-experimental design).
<b>Setting</b>: Outpatient clinic of a university department.
<b>Subjects</b>: 24 patients with CFS.
<b>Interventions</b>: Subjects undertook a walking test with the two concurrent exercise limits. Each subject walked at an <i>intensity</i> where the maximum heart rate was determined by heart rate corresponding to the respiratory exchange ratio =1.0 derived from a previous sub-maximal exercise test and for a duration calculated from how long each patient felt they were able to walk.
<b>Main outcome measures</b>: The Short Form 36 Health Survey or SF-36, the CFS Symptom List, and the CFS-Activities and Participation Questionnaire were filled in prior to, immediately and 24 hours post-exercise.
<b>Results</b>: The fatigue increase observed immediately post-exercise (p=0.006) returned to pre-exercise levels 24 hours post-exercise. The increase in pain observed immediately post-exercise was retained at 24 hours post-exercise (p=0.03). Fourteen of 24 subjects experienced a clinically meaningful change in bodily pain (change of SF-36 bodily pain score ³10). Six of 24 participants indicated that the exercise bout had slightly worsened their health status, and 2 of 24 had a clinically meaningful decrease in vitality (change of SF-36 vitality score ³20). There was no change in activity limitations/participation restrictions.
<b>Conclusion</b>: It was shown that the use of exercise limits (limiting both the intensity and duration of exercise) prevents important health status changes following a walking exercise in people with CFS, but was unable to prevent short-term symptom increases
Generating nonclassical correlations without fully aligning measurements
We investigate the scenario where spatially separated parties perform
measurements in randomly chosen bases on an N-partite
Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. We show that without any alignment of the
measurements, the observers will obtain correlations that violate a Bell
inequality with a probability that rapidly approaches 1 as N increases and that
this probability is robust against noise. We also prove that restricting these
randomly chosen measurements to a plane perpendicular to a common direction
will always generate correlations that violate some Bell inequality.
Specifically, if each observer chooses their two measurements to be locally
orthogonal, then the N observers will violate one of two Bell inequalities by
an amount that increases exponentially with N. These results are also robust
against noise and perturbations of each observer's reference direction from the
common direction.Comment: v2: Essentially published version (with typos fixed, results updated
in Table 2 and Figure 4 replaced); v1: 16 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables,
comments welcom
Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation - The FINE Trial. A randomised controlled trial of nurse led self-help treatment for patients in primary care with chronic fatigue syndrome: study protocol. [ISRCTN74156610]
Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (CFS/ME), is a condition characterised primarily by severe, disabling fatigue, of unknown origin, which has a poor prognosis and serious personal and economic consequences. Evidence for the effectiveness of any treatment for CFS/ME in primary care, where most patients are seen, is sparse. Recently, a brief, pragmatic treatment for CFS/ME, based on a physiological dysregulation model of the condition, was shown to be successful in improving fatigue and physical functioning in patients in secondary care. The treatment involves providing patients with a readily understandable explanation of their symptoms, from which flows the rationale for a graded rehabilitative plan, developed collaboratively with the therapist. The present trial will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pragmatic rehabilitation when delivered by specially trained general nurses in primary care. We selected a client-centred counselling intervention, called supportive listening, as a comparison treatment. Counselling has been shown to be as effective as cognitive behaviour therapy for treating fatigue in primary care, is more readily available, and controls for supportive therapist contact time. Our control condition is treatment as usual by the general practitioner (GP). Methods and design: This study protocol describes the design of an ongoing, single-blind, pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a brief (18 week) self-help treatment, pragmatic rehabilitation, delivered by specially trained nurse-therapists in patients' homes, compared with nurse-therapist delivered supportive listening and treatment as usual by the GP. An economic evaluation, taking a societal viewpoint, is being carried out alongside the clinical trial. Three adult general nurses were trained over a six month period to deliver the two interventions. Patients aged over 18 and fulfilling the Oxford criteria for CFS are assessed at baseline, after the intervention, and again one year later. Primary outcomes are self-reported physical functioning and fatigue at one year, and will be analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. A qualitative study will examine the interventions' mechanisms of change, and also GPs' drivers and barriers towards referral
Complete experimental toolbox for alignment-free quantum communication
Quantum communication employs the counter-intuitive features of quantum
physics to perform tasks that are im- possible in the classical world. It is
crucial for testing the foundations of quantum theory and promises to rev-
olutionize our information and communication technolo- gies. However, for two
or more parties to execute even the simplest quantum transmission, they must
establish, and maintain, a shared reference frame. This introduces a
considerable overhead in communication resources, par- ticularly if the parties
are in motion or rotating relative to each other. We experimentally demonstrate
how to circumvent this problem with the efficient transmission of quantum
information encoded in rotationally invariant states of single photons. By
developing a complete toolbox for the efficient encoding and decoding of
quantum infor- mation in such photonic qubits, we demonstrate the fea- sibility
of alignment-free quantum key-distribution, and perform a proof-of-principle
alignment-free entanglement distribution and violation of a Bell inequality.
Our scheme should find applications in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics
and satellite-based quantum communication.Comment: Main manuscript: 7 pages, 3 figures; Supplementary Information: 7
pages, 3 figure
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