3,835 research outputs found
Schwinger pair production with ultracold atoms
We consider a system of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice as a quantum
simulator for electron-positron pair production in quantum electrodynamics
(QED). For a setup in one spatial dimension, we investigate the nonequilibrium
phenomenon of pair production including the backreaction leading to plasma
oscillations. Unlike previous investigations on quantum link models, we focus
on the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of QED and show that it may be well
approximated by experiments employing Bose-Einstein condensates interacting
with fermionic atoms. The calculations based on functional integral techniques
give a unique access to the physical parameters required to realize the QED
phenomena in a cold atom experiment. In particular, we use our approach to
consider quantum link models in a yet unexplored parameter regime and give
bounds for their ability to capture essential features of the physics. The
results suggest a paradigmatic change towards realizations using coherent
many-body states rather than single atoms for quantum simulations of
high-energy particle physics phenomena.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, PLB versio
Alas, the dark matter structures were not that trivial
The radial density profile of dark matter structures has been observed to
have an almost universal behaviour in numerical simulations, however, the
physical reason for this behaviour remains unclear. It has previously been
shown that if the pseudo phase-space density, rho/sigma_d^epsilon, is a
beautifully simple power-law in radius, with the "golden values" epsilon=3 and
d=r (i.e., the phase-space density is only dependent on the radial component of
the velocity dispersion), then one can analytically derive the radial variation
of the mass profile, dispersion profile etc. That would imply, if correct, that
we just have to explain why rho/sigma^3_r ~r^{-alpha}, and then we would
understand everything about equilibrated DM structures. Here we use a set of
simulated galaxies and clusters of galaxies to demonstrate that there are no
such golden values, but that each structure instead has its own set of values.
Considering the same structure at different redshifts shows no evolution of the
phase-space parameters towards fixed points. There is also no clear connection
between the halo virialized mass and these parameters. This implies that we
still do not understand the origin of the profiles of dark matter structures.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Implementing quantum electrodynamics with ultracold atomic systems
We discuss the experimental engineering of model systems for the description
of QED in one spatial dimension via a mixture of bosonic Na and
fermionic Li atoms. The local gauge symmetry is realized in an optical
superlattice, using heteronuclear boson-fermion spin-changing interactions
which preserve the total spin in every local collision. We consider a large
number of bosons residing in the coherent state of a Bose-Einstein condensate
on each link between the fermion lattice sites, such that the behavior of
lattice QED in the continuum limit can be recovered. The discussion about the
range of possible experimental parameters builds, in particular, upon
experiences with related setups of fermions interacting with coherent samples
of bosonic atoms. We determine the atomic system's parameters required for the
description of fundamental QED processes, such as Schwinger pair production and
string breaking. This is achieved by benchmark calculations of the atomic
system and of QED itself using functional integral techniques. Our results
demonstrate that the dynamics of one-dimensional QED may be realized with
ultracold atoms using state-of-the-art experimental resources. The experimental
setup proposed may provide a unique access to longstanding open questions for
which classical computational methods are no longer applicable
Privacy as a Social Good
Privacy is typically conceived, in both scholarly and popular circles, as an individual good. This weakens the potential for understanding the social implications of changes in privacy and may contribute to the topic s marginal position within sociology. While not explicitly known for their conclusions about privacy, some of the discipline s classic figures have addressed, in a variety of ways, the relevance of privacy for social life. I highlight their work, neglected in privacy discourse and not well known within sociology, to demonstrate the sociological relevance of privacy for individual development, group solidarity, stratification, and social control
Counting absolute number of molecules using unique molecular identifiers
Advances in molecular biology have made it easy to identify different DNA or RNA species and to copy them. Identification of nucleic acid species can be accomplished by reading the DNA sequence; currently millions of molecules can be sequenced in a single day using massively parallel sequencing. Efficient copying of DNA-molecules of arbitrary sequence was made possible by molecular cloning, and the polymerase chain reaction. Differences in the relative abundance of a large number of different sequences between two or more samples can in turn be measured using microarray hybridization and/or tag sequencing. However, determining the relative abundance of two different species and/or the absolute number of molecules present in a single sample has proven much more challenging. This is because it is hard to detect individual molecules without copying them, and even harder to make defined number of copies of molecules. We show here that this limitation can be overcome by using unique molecular identifiers (umis), which make each molecule in the sample distinct
Shock waves in a one-dimensional Bose gas: from a Bose-Einstein condensate to a Tonks gas
We derive and analyze shock-wave solutions of hydrodynamic equations
describing repulsively interacting one dimensional Bose gas. We also use the
number-conserving Bogolubov approach to verify accuracy of the Gross-Pitaevskii
equation in shock wave problems. We show that quantum corrections to dynamics
of shocks (dark-shock-originated solitons) in a Bose-Einstein condensate are
negligible (important) for a realistic set of system parameters. We point out
possible signatures of a Bose-Einstein condensate -- Tonks crossover in shock
dynamics. Our findings can be directly verified in different experimental
setups.Comment: 10 pages, small corrections with respect to the last submission,
version accepted in Phys. Rev.
The search for planetary mass companions to field brown dwarfs with HST/NICMOS
We present the results of a high-resolution spectral differential imaging
survey of 12 nearby, relatively young field L dwarfs (<1 Gyr) carried out with
HST/NICMOS to search for planetary mass companions at small physical
separations from their host. The survey resolved two brown dwarf binaries: the
L dwarf system Kelu-1AB and the newly discovered L/T transition system 2MASS
J031059+164815AB. For both systems common proper motion has already been
confirmed in follow-up observations which have been published elsewhere. The
derived separations of the binaries are smaller than 6 AU and consistent with
previous brown dwarf binary statistics. Their mass ratios of q > 0.8 confirm
the preference for equal mass systems similar to a large number of other
surveys. Furthermore, we found tentative evidence for a companion to the L4
dwarf 2MASS W033703-175807, straddling the brown dwarf/planetary mass boundary
and revealing an uncommonly low mass ratio system (q ~ 0.2) compared to the
vast majority of previously found brown dwarf binaries. With a derived minimum
mass of 10 - 15 Mjup, a planetary nature of the secondary cannot be ruled out
yet. However, it seems more likely to be a very low mass brown dwarf secondary
at the border of the spectral T/Y transition regime, primarily due to its
similarities to recently found very cool T dwarfs. This would make it one of
the closest resolved brown dwarf binaries (0.087" 0.015", corresponding
to 2.52 0.44 AU at a distance of 29 pc) with the coolest (Teff ~ 600-630
K) and least massive companion to any L or T dwarf.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication by Ap
Gravitational Flux Tubes
By studying multidimensional Kaluza-Klein theories, or gravity plus U(1) or
SU(2) gauge fields it is shown that these theories possess similar flux tube
solutions. The gauge field which fills the tube geometry of these solutions
leads to a comparision with the flux tube structures in QCD. These solutions
also carry a ``magnetic'' charge, Q, which for the SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills
(EYM) system exhibits a dual relationship with the Yang-Mills gauge coupling,
g, (). As or , or
respectively. Thus within this classical EYM field theory we find solutions
which have features - flux tubes, magnetic charges, large value of the gauge
coupling - that are similar to the key ingredients of confinement in QCD.Comment: REVTEX, 12 p
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