A Dirichlet-to-Neumann approach for the exact computation of guided modes in photonic crystal waveguides

This works deals with one dimensional infinite perturbation - namely line defects - in periodic media. In optics, such defects are created to construct an (open) waveguide that concentrates light. The existence and the computation of the eigenmodes is a crucial issue. This is related to a self-adjoint eigenvalue problem associated to a PDE in an unbounded domain (in the directions orthogonal to the line defect), which makes both the analysis and the computations more complex. Using a Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) approach, we show that this problem is equivalent to one set on a small neighborhood of the defect. On contrary to existing methods, this one is exact but there is a price to be paid : the reduction of the problem leads to a nonlinear eigenvalue problem of a fixed point nature

Development of a patient-reported palliative care-specific health classification system: the POS-E

BackgroundGeneric preference-based measures are commonly used to estimate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) to inform resource-allocation decisions. However, concerns have been raised that generic measures may be inappropriate in palliative care.ObjectiveOur objective was to derive a health-state classification system that is amenable to valuation from the ten-item Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS), a widely used patient-reported outcome measure in palliative care.MethodsThe dimensional structure of the original POS was assessed using factor analysis. Item performance was assessed, using Rasch analysis and psychometric criteria, to enable the selection of items that represent the dimensions covered by the POS. Data from six studies of patients receiving palliative care were combined (N = 1011) and randomly split into two halves for development and validation. Analysis was undertaken on the development data, and results were validated by repeating the analysis with the validation dataset.ResultsFollowing Rasch and factor analyses, a classification system of seven items was derived. Each item had two to three levels. Rasch threshold map helped identify a set of 14 plausible health states that can be used for the valuation of the instrument to derive a preference-based index.ConclusionCombining factor analysis and Rasch analysis with psychometric criteria provides a valid method of constructing a classification system for a palliative care-specific preference-based measure. The next stage is to obtain preference weights so the measure can be used in economic evaluations in palliative care

“Things That Were, and Things That Are, and Things That Yet May Be”: The J.R.R. Tolkien Manuscript Collection at Marquette University

A talk on the Tolkien Archive at Marquette University’s Rayner Memorial Library in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—its origins, usefulness, and current reorganization project

Multi-Boundary Entanglement in Chern-Simons Theory and Link Invariants

We consider Chern-Simons theory for gauge group $G$ at level $k$ on 3-manifolds $M_n$ with boundary consisting of $n$ topologically linked tori. The Euclidean path integral on $M_n$ defines a quantum state on the boundary, in the $n$-fold tensor product of the torus Hilbert space. We focus on the case where $M_n$ is the link-complement of some $n$-component link inside the three-sphere $S^3$. The entanglement entropies of the resulting states define framing-independent link invariants which are sensitive to the topology of the chosen link. For the Abelian theory at level $k$ ($G= U(1)_k$) we give a general formula for the entanglement entropy associated to an arbitrary $(m|n-m)$ partition of a generic $n$-component link into sub-links. The formula involves the number of solutions to certain Diophantine equations with coefficients related to the Gauss linking numbers (mod $k$) between the two sublinks. This formula connects simple concepts in quantum information theory, knot theory, and number theory, and shows that entanglement entropy between sublinks vanishes if and only if they have zero Gauss linking (mod $k$). For $G = SU(2)_k$, we study various two and three component links. We show that the 2-component Hopf link is maximally entangled, and hence analogous to a Bell pair, and that the Whitehead link, which has zero Gauss linking, nevertheless has entanglement entropy. Finally, we show that the Borromean rings have a "W-like" entanglement structure (i.e., tracing out one torus does not lead to a separable state), and give examples of other 3-component links which have "GHZ-like" entanglement (i.e., tracing out one torus does lead to a separable state).Comment: 37 pages, 19 figure

Riesz bases and Jordan form of the translation operator in semi-infinite periodic waveguides

We study the propagation of time-harmonic acoustic or transverse magnetic (TM) polarized electromagnetic waves in a periodic waveguide lying in the semi-strip $(0,\infty)\times(0,L)$. It is shown that there exists a Riesz basis of the space of solutions to the time-harmonic wave equation such that the translation operator shifting a function by one periodicity length to the left is represented by an infinite Jordan matrix which contains at most a finite number of Jordan blocks of size $> 1$. Moreover, the Dirichlet-, Neumann- and mixed traces of this Riesz basis on the left boundary also form a Riesz basis. Both the cases of frequencies in a band gap and frequencies in the spectrum and a variety of boundary conditions on the top and bottom are considered

Interface Contributions to Topological Entanglement in Abelian Chern-Simons Theory

We study the entanglement entropy between (possibly distinct) topological phases across an interface using an Abelian Chern-Simons description with topological boundary conditions (TBCs) at the interface. From a microscopic point of view, these TBCs correspond to turning on particular gapping interactions between the edge modes across the interface. However, in studying entanglement in the continuum Chern-Simons description, we must confront the problem of non-factorization of the Hilbert space, which is a standard property of gauge theories. We carefully define the entanglement entropy by using an extended Hilbert space construction directly in the continuum theory. We show how a given TBC isolates a corresponding gauge invariant state in the extended Hilbert space, and hence compute the resulting entanglement entropy. We find that the sub-leading correction to the area law remains universal, but depends on the choice of topological boundary conditions. This agrees with the microscopic calculation of \cite{Cano:2014pya}. Additionally, we provide a replica path integral calculation for the entropy. In the case when the topological phases across the interface are taken to be identical, our construction gives a novel explanation of the equivalence between the left-right entanglement of (1+1)d Ishibashi states and the spatial entanglement of (2+1)d topological phases.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, two appendice