Enhancing Quantum Effects via Periodic Modulations in Optomechanical Systems

Parametrically modulated optomechanical systems have been recently proposed as a simple and efficient setting for the quantum control of a micromechanical oscillator: relevant possibilities include the generation of squeezing in the oscillator position (or momentum) and the enhancement of entanglement between mechanical and radiation modes. In this paper we further investigate this new modulation regime, considering an optomechanical system with one or more parameters being modulated over time. We first apply a sinusoidal modulation of the mechanical frequency and characterize the optimal regime in which the visibility of purely quantum effects is maximal. We then introduce a second modulation on the input laser intensity and analyze the interplay between the two. We find that an interference pattern shows up, so that different choices of the relative phase between the two modulations can either enhance or cancel the desired quantum effects.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Bivariate Probit Models for Analysing how “Knowledge” Affects Innovation and Performance in Small and Medium Sized Firms

This paper examines the determinants of innovation and its effects on small- and medium-sized firms We use the data from the OPIS databank, which provides a survey on a representative sample of firms from a province of the Southern Italy. We want to study whether small and medium sized firms can have a competitive advantage using their innovative capabilities, regardless of their sectoral and size limits. The main factor influencing the likelihood of innovation is knowledge, which is acquired through different ways. The econometric methodology consists of two bivariate models in order to estimate the probability of increased sales conditioned to the probability of innovation. We found that knowledge positively influences the probability of innovation; at the same time, knowledge has also a positive indirect effect on the increase of sales through innovation.innovation; small and medium sized firms; human capital; networks; bivariate probit

Quantum optomechanical piston engines powered by heat

We study two different models of optomechanical systems where a temperature gradient between two radiation baths is exploited for inducing self-sustained coherent oscillations of a mechanical resonator. Viewed from a thermodynamic perspective, such systems represent quantum instances of self-contained thermal machines converting heat into a periodic mechanical motion and thus they can be interpreted as nano-scale analogues of macroscopic piston engines. Our models are potentially suitable for testing fundamental aspects of quantum thermodynamics in the laboratory and for applications in energy efficient nanotechnology.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Building versatile bipartite probes for quantum metrology

We consider bipartite systems as versatile probes for the estimation of transformations acting locally on one of the subsystems. We investigate what resources are required for the probes to offer a guaranteed level of metrological performance, when the latter is averaged over specific sets of local transformations. We quantify such a performance via the average skew information, a convex quantity which we compute in closed form for bipartite states of arbitrary dimensions, and which is shown to be strongly dependent on the degree of local purity of the probes. Our analysis contrasts and complements the recent series of studies focused on the minimum, rather than the average, performance of bipartite probes in local estimation tasks, which was instead determined by quantum correlations other than entanglement. We provide explicit prescriptions to characterize the most reliable states maximizing the average skew information, and elucidate the role of state purity, separability and correlations in the classification of optimal probes. Our results can help in the identification of useful resources for sensing, estimation and discrimination applications when complete knowledge of the interaction mechanism realizing the local transformation is unavailable, and access to pure entangled probes is technologically limited.Comment: 13+5 pages, 2 figures (added new section

Digital quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories in three spatial dimensions

In the present work, we propose a scheme for digital formulation of lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions in 3+1 dimensions. All interactions are obtained as a stroboscopic sequence of two-body interactions with an auxiliary system. This enables quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories where the magnetic four-body interactions arising in two and more spatial dimensions are obtained without the use of perturbation theory, thus resulting in stronger interactions compared with analogue approaches. The simulation scheme is applicable to lattice gauge theories with either compact or finite gauge groups. The required bounds on the digitization errors in lattice gauge theories, due to the sequential nature of the stroboscopic time evolution, are provided. Furthermore, an implementation of a lattice gauge theory with a non-abelian gauge group, the dihedral group $D_{3}$, is proposed employing the aforementioned simulation scheme using ultracold atoms in optical lattices.Comment: 38 pages, 5 figure

Digital lattice gauge theories

We propose a general scheme for a digital construction of lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions. In this method, the four-body interactions arising in models with $2+1$ dimensions and higher, are obtained stroboscopically, through a sequence of two-body interactions with ancillary degrees of freedom. This yields stronger interactions than the ones obtained through pertubative methods, as typically done in previous proposals, and removes an important bottleneck in the road towards experimental realizations. The scheme applies to generic gauge theories with Lie or finite symmetry groups, both Abelian and non-Abelian. As a concrete example, we present the construction of a digital quantum simulator for a $\mathbb{Z}_{3}$ lattice gauge theory with dynamical fermionic matter in $2+1$ dimensions, using ultracold atoms in optical lattices, involving three atomic species, representing the matter, gauge and auxiliary degrees of freedom, that are separated in three different layers. By moving the ancilla atoms with a proper sequence of steps, we show how we can obtain the desired evolution in a clean, controlled way

Caracterización de líneas e híbridos de maíz para biocombustibles

Los granos de maíz empleados en la industria de biocombustibles son obtenidos a partir de híbridos seleccionados por su alta productividad de grano. En este trabajo abordamos características físicas y composicionales del grano que incidirían sobre el rendimiento de etanol, en las cuales existiría variabilidad genética que podría ser explotada para producir híbridos para dicha industria.Área: Ciencias Agrícolas, Produccion y Salud Anima

Heat flux dynamics in dissipative cascaded systems

We study the dynamics of heat flux in the thermalization process of a pair of identical quantum system that interact dissipatively with a reservoir in a {\it cascaded} fashion. Despite the open dynamics of the bipartite system S is globally Lindbladian, one of the subsystems "sees" the reservoir in a state modified by the interaction with the other subsystem and hence it undergoes a non-Markovian dynamics. As a consequence, the heat flow exhibits a non-exponential time behaviour which can greatly deviate from the case where each party is independently coupled to the reservoir. We investigate both thermal and correlated initial states of $S$ and show that the presence of correlations at the beginning can considerably affect the heat flux rate. We carry out our study in two paradigmatic cases -- a pair of harmonic oscillators with a reservoir of bosonic modes and two qubits with a reservoir of fermionic modes -- and compare the corresponding behaviours. In the case of qubits and for initial thermal states, we find that the trace distance discord is at any time interpretable as the correlated contribution to the total heat flux.Comment: Final accepted versio

Gaussian Discriminating Strength

We present a quantifier of non-classical correlations for bipartite, multi-mode Gaussian states. It is derived from the Discriminating Strength measure, introduced for finite dimensional systems in A. Farace et al., New. J. Phys. 16, 073010 (2014). As the latter the new measure exploits the Quantum Chernoff Bound to gauge the susceptibility of the composite system with respect to local perturbations induced by unitary gates extracted from a suitable set of allowed transformations (the latter being identified by posing some general requirements). Closed expressions are provided for the case of two-mode Gaussian states obtained by squeezing or by linearly mixing via a beam-splitter a factorized two-mode thermal state. For these density matrices, we study how non-classical correlations are related with the entanglement present in the system and with its total photon number.Comment: 11+6 pages, 4 figure

Steady-state entanglement activation in optomechanical cavities

Quantum discord, and a number of related indicators, are currently raising a relentless interest as a novel paradigm of non-classical correlations beyond entanglement. Beside merely fundamental aspects, various works have shown that discord is a valuable -- so far largely unexplored -- resource in quantum information processing. Along this line, quite a striking scheme is {entanglement activation}. An initial amount of discord between two disentangled parties of a multipartite system affects the dynamics so as to establish entanglement across a bipartition, which would not arise otherwise. To date, such a process was proven to be achievable only dynamically, i.e., with no guarantee of a stationary entanglement throughput in the presence of noise. Here, we discover a {\it discord-activated mechanism yielding steady-state entanglement} production in a realistic continuous-variable setup. This comprises two coupled optomechanical cavities, where the optical modes (OMs) communicate through a fiber. We first use a simplified model to highlight the creation of steady-state discord between the OMs. We show next that such discord improves the level of stationary optomechanical entanglement attainable in the system, making it more robust against temperature and thermal noise.Comment: 5+4 pages, 5+1 figures (main text + supplementary materials