Bell correlations at finite temperature

We show that spin systems with infinite-range interactions can violate at thermal equilibrium a multipartite Bell inequality, up to a finite critical temperature $T_c$. Our framework can be applied to a wide class of spin systems and Bell inequalities, to study whether nonlocality occurs naturally in quantum many-body systems close to the ground state. Moreover, we also show that the low-energy spectrum of the Bell operator associated to such systems can be well approximated by the one of a quantum harmonic oscillator, and that spin-squeezed states are optimal in displaying Bell correlations for such Bell inequalities.Comment: 9 pages (7 + Appendix), 2 figures. Version accepted for publication in Quantu

Rethinking the Roles of Universities and Polytechnics in a Regional Innovation Environment

The article discusses the case of Finnish universities and polytechnics in re-defining their roles in regional development and especially in regional innovation environment. The so-called third task of universities, together with the regional relevance of polytechnics, has been a central topic in current regional and educational policies. The Finnish system of higher education and research is highly decentralised, including about 50 non-independent regional university units, most of them founded in order to enhance the regional effectiveness of universities. The article introduces the concept of “third task organisations” to describe these units within universities and polytechnics with regional effectiveness as their primary mission. In the article, the role of these units as both regional and scientific actors is discussed. The analysis identifies certain “non-traditional” forms of regional effectiveness of universities and polytechnics in the context of regional innovation environment. Building on this analysis, a new conceptual model of regional effectiveness is developed. As a case study, three different third task organisations within polytechnics and regional university units are analysed. It is argued that they form a challenge to the way universities, and perhaps polytechnics, too, define their role in regional innovation activities. They also problematise the common understanding of the way universities and polytechnics define their division of labour in regional development.

Social Capital in Building Regional Innovative Capability: A Theoretical and Conceptual Assessment

Innovative capability is widely seen to be the driving force in building regional competitive advantage. The present paradigm emphasises the interactive nature of the innovative processes, which sets demands on building regional innovation environment. There are certain theoretical frameworks and concepts that are considered to help in analysing the creation of regional innovative capability in the present networked development environment: social capital, regional innovation system, innovative milieu, learning economy, network leadership, creative tension, etc. These concepts are partly overlapping, but each of them gives different contribution for regional development strategies. Regional innovative capability is understood as firms? and other organisations? common innovative capability in a region. Therefore, it is formed of innovative capability of individual actors and innovation networks taking part in the regional innovation system. This combined innovative capability is, at its best, a lot more than the sum of individual parts of the system, mainly because of the achieved externalities in the networks. Network skills of the actors and mutual trust among the actors are often emphasised as assets for regional innovative capability, especially because of the often complex nature of multi-actor, interactive innovative processes. The concept of social capital is gaining importance in regional research. The concept has no commonly accepted definition, but usually it is understood as a specific form of capital, that is derived from social relations, norms, values and interaction within a community. Trust is often considered to the most important social mechanism creating social capital. It is widely accepted that social capital plays an important role in creating regional innovative capability. However, it is still far from clear what this role exactly is, and its relation to other relevant concepts has not been deeply examined. The current article is an attempt to clarify the conceptual framework related to the concept of social capital in the context of regional development. Another focus of the article is set on assessing the special contribution of social capital (in comparison with the other related concepts) in increasing regional innovative capability. Therefore, the main objectives of the article are: - to analyse the concept of social capital and its relation to other relevant concepts in the context of regional development, and - to explain the role of social capital in building regional innovative capability. A regional innovation system is essentially an unstable field of actors: their values, interests and purposes may differ significantly. Therefore, social capital cannot be based solely on shared values and purposes. We will argue that social capital is best understood as a formation of resources embedded in the social relations of the network. These resources can have their origin in the structural constitution of the network, trust-based relations between actors, or cognitive and emotional commitments to common goals or beliefs. This conception leads us to understand that social capital may play various different roles in the creation of regional innovative capability.

Measuring Regional Innovative Capability

Regional innovation environment has experienced remarkable changes in the recent decades. Innovativeness at regional level is seen as a consequence of networked co-operation in a regional innovation system, which sets demands for new kinds of regional innovation policy applications. The current article presents network-facilitating innovation policy (NFIP) as a policy tool for promoting regional innovative capability. The new policies are crying out for new means for evaluating changes in regional innovation systems. There have been some interesting efforts to develop adequate measures for regional innovativeness. However, there are several problems with the existing measures. There seems to be a lack of clear distinction between innovation performance and innovative capability, and a corresponding neglect of the latter. Moreover, it is argued that the existing measures undermine the processual nature of innovativeness as well as the importance of non-technological innovations. The present article tries to overcome some of these problems in the context of network-facilitating innovation policy. It outlines the framework of network-based innovative capability (NBIC) measure at a regional level. The article also presents the first experiences of applying NBIC measure in the Lahti region in Finland.

The 250AH/90A active lithium-thionyl chloride cell for Centaur-G application

A high rate active Li/SOCl2 cell was designed for use in a 28 volt, 250 amp-hour space battery system. The lithium battery is being considered as a replacement of its heavier silver-zinc counterpart on board the Centaur-G booster rocket which is used to launch payloads from the Space Shuttle cargo bay into deep-space. Basically a feasibility study, this development effort is demonstrating the ability of the lithium cell to deliver up to 90 amps safely at power densities of approximately 25 watts per pound. Test data on 4 prototype units is showing an energy density of 85 watt-hours per pound and 9.0 watt-hours/cu in. The cells tested typically delivered 280 to 300 amp-hours under ambient temperature test conditions using alternating continuous loads of 90, 55, and 20 amperes throughout life. Data from four cells tested are presented to demonstrate the capability of Li/SOCl2 technology for a C/3 discharge rate in active and hermetic cell units

Entanglement and nonlocality are inequivalent for any number of particles

Understanding the relation between nonlocality and entanglement is one of the fundamental problems in quantum physics. In the bipartite case, it is known that the correlations observed for some entangled quantum states can be explained within the framework of local models, thus proving that these resources are inequivalent in this scenario. However, except for a single example of an entangled three-qubit state that has a local model, almost nothing is known about such relation in multipartite systems. We provide a general construction of genuinely multipartite entangled states that do not display genuinely multipartite nonlocality, thus proving that entanglement and nonlocality are inequivalent for any number of particles.Comment: submitted version, 7 pages (4.25 + appendix), 1 figur